Indicadores para avaliação dos impactos ambientais e sociais das nano-cápsulas e nanopartículas na agricultura.

Resumo: A Nanotecnologia oferece a perspectiva de grandes avanços que permitirão melhorar a qualidade de vida e preservar o meio ambiente e os nano-produtos agrícolas ganham espaço com as descobertas de novas aplicações, muitas das quais já disponíveis no mercado. Este projeto visa desenvolver indicadores para avaliação dos impactos ambientais e sociais das nano-cápsulas e nano-partículas utilizadas na agricultura. Estes serão futuramente validados através de consultas a especialistas de áreas correlatas à Nanotecnologia na Agricultura e utilizados no software Impactos NanoAgri

Emprego da técnica Delphi para validação de indicadores de impacto de nanotecnologias agrícolas.

Para estudar os impactos das nanotecnologias agrícolas é essencial avaliar quais fatores definem o sistema estudado com base na literatura especializada, embasando estes indicadores com dados científicos relevantes e de consenso na comunidade científica. Após o levantamento, os indicadores devem passar por um processo de validação para que tenha relevância técnica e credibilidade científica. Existem várias modalidades de validação, a escolhida pela equipe consistiu em submeter os indicadores em formato de questionários a um painel de convidados, empregando a Técnica Delphi. Através da análise das respostas foi possível elaborar um perfil dos especialistas envolvidos com pesquisas na área de Nanotecnologia no Brasil, além de informações que podem contribuir para melhorar a eficiência de futuras consultas

COVID-19 Impact on Global Maritime Mobility

To prevent the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), many countries around the world went into lockdown and imposed unprecedented containment measures. These restrictions progressively produced changes to social behavior and global mobility patterns, evidently disrupting social and economic activities. Here, using maritime traffic data collected via a global network of AIS receivers, we analyze the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures had on the shipping industry, which accounts alone for more than 80% of the world trade. We rely on multiple data-driven maritime mobility indexes to quantitatively assess ship mobility in a given unit of time. The mobility analysis here presented has a worldwide extent and is based on the computation of: CNM of all ships reporting their position and navigational status via AIS, number of active and idle ships, and fleet average speed. To highlight significant changes in shipping routes and operational patterns, we also compute and compare global and local density maps. We compare 2020 mobility levels to those of previous years assuming that an unchanged growth rate would have been achieved, if not for COVID-19. Following the outbreak, we find an unprecedented drop in maritime mobility, across all categories of commercial shipping. With few exceptions, a generally reduced activity is observable from March to June, when the most severe restrictions were in force. We quantify a variation of mobility between -5.62% and -13.77% for container ships, between +2.28% and -3.32% for dry bulk, between -0.22% and -9.27% for wet bulk, and between -19.57% and -42.77% for passenger traffic. This study is unprecedented for the uniqueness and completeness of the employed dataset, which comprises a trillion AIS messages broadcast worldwide by 50000 ships, a figure that closely parallels the documented size of the world merchant fleet

Impact assessment for the improved four boundary conditions (at bed, free-surface, land-boundary and offshore-boundary) on coastal hydrodynamics and particulate transport

The FIELD_AC project aims at providing an improved operational service for coastal areas and at generating added value for shelf and regional scale predictions. Coastal-zone oceanographic predictions seldom appraise the land discharge as a boundary condition. River fluxes are sometimes considered, but neglecting their 3D character, while the "distributed" continental run-off is not taken into consideration. Moreover, many coastal scale processes, particularly those relevant in geographically restricted domains (coast with harbors or river mouth areas), are not well parametrized in present simulations.Work package 3 dedicated to Boundary Fluxes aims to establish and use the best possible boundary conditions for coastal water quality modelling. On this scale, all boundaries become important. For the land boundary side the needed products are distributed and point wise run-off both quantitatively and qualitatively. For the offshore boundary condition, 3D current, water quality field, and wave spectra will be used. For the atmospheric boundary, products from local scale meteorological models (wind, atmospheric pressure and rainfall) are needed. For the seabed, boundary information on sediment composition, bedforms and bathymetry and bio-geo-chemical parameters is essential.This report addresses the impact assessment for improvements in the four boundary conditions (boundary fluxes from land, free-surface boundary condition, seabed boundary condition and open boundary fluxes) on coastal hydrodynamics and particulate transport. The description of the improved four boundary conditions is followed by examples of concrete impact assessment of the theory into the Catalan coast, Liverpool Bay, German Bight and Gulf of Venice

Multiple antimicrobial resistance in plague: An emerging public health risk

Antimicrobial resistance in Yersinia pestis is rare, yet constitutes a significant international public health and biodefense threat. In 1995, the first multidrug resistant (MDR) isolate of Y. pestis (strain IP275) was identified, and was shown to contain a self-transmissible plasmid (pIP1202) that conferred resistance to many of the antimicrobials recommended for plague treatment and prophylaxis. Comparative analysis of the DNA sequence of Y. pestis plasmid pIP1202 revealed a near identical IncA/C plasmid backbone that is shared by MDR plasmids isolated from Salmonella enterica serotype Newport SL254 and the fish pathogen Yersinia ruckeri YR71. The high degree of sequence identity and gene synteny between the plasmid backbones suggests recent acquisition of these plasmids from a common ancestor. In addition, the Y. pestis pIP1202-like plasmid backbone was detected in numerous MDR enterobacterial pathogens isolated from retail meat samples collected between 2002 and 2005 in the United States. Plasmid-positive strains were isolated from beef, chicken, turkey and pork, and were found in samples from the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Oregon. Our studies reveal that this common plasmid backbone is broadly disseminated among MDR zoonotic pathogens associated with agriculture. This reservoir of mobile resistance determinants has the potential to disseminate to Y. pestis and other human and zoonotic bacterial pathogens and therefore represents a significant public health concern

Nation Branding, Cultural Relations and Cultural Diplomacy at Eurovision: Between Australia and Europe

This chapter explores Australia’s Eurovision history – and its ‘Asiavision’ future – as an articulation of the nation’s complex and ongoing relations with Europe. It considers the ideological dimensions of Eurovision’s own history and the impact this might have on the contest’s future in Asia. While Australia’s participation in Eurovision was tolerated as part of the sixtieth anniversary in 2015, its return performance in 2016 was greeted with some ambiguity, and even outright hostility. The announcement that an Australian broadcasting service (SBS), together with the European Broadcasting Union, would be collaborating on the establishment of a song contest for the Asia-Pacific region brought some commercial sense to the engagement, but also foregrounds a particular conceptualisation of Australia as a bridge between Europe and Asia

Northern Adriatic response to a wintertime bora wind event

The unprecedented suite of research activities that focused on the Adriatic in winter 2003 provided a multi-faceted view of bora events and the resulting oceanic response

EDDY PROCESSES OF THE WESTERN ADRIATIC CURRENT NEAR CAPE GARGANO

Abstract Eddy processes of the Western Adriatic Current near Cape Gargano are highly modulated by the wind, growing during calm periods following strong wind events. Both single anticyclones and trains of multiple eddies with a regular spacing are observed. Suppression of a single anticyclone in the lee of the Cape was observed by profiling SEPTR moorings to occur when the horizontal gradient of the thermocline depth was increased by the wind. Eddies also form cyclonic filaments extending offshore. Such a filament was observed through the new technique of seismic oceanography to have downslope tilting isotherms and a long, thin, offshore extension in the bottom boundary layer. Recent measurements from two international collaborative research programs reveal new details of eddy activity and instability of the Western Adriatic Current (WAC) as it rounds Cape Gargano in the central Adriatic Sea. The "Dynamics of the Adriatic in Real-Time" (DART) program was focused on understanding the predictability of this system with observation and modelling from October 2005 through September 2006. These included, among other things, measurements from long-term current moorings, profiling SEPTR moorings, tow-yo CTD profiles, remote sensing, and high-resolution modelling using the U.S. Navy Coastal Ocean Model. Remote sensing and modelling, supported by in situ observations, revealed two distinct cases of WAC eddy activity Although Adriatic wind regimes and Cape topography provide the background setting for eddy formation, frontal instabilities and mixing processes determine many details of eddy structure and evolution. Acknowledgments: We thank the Italian CNR for providing R/V Urania ship time and CNR-ISMAR for coordinating the AdriaSeismic09 cruise