Near future climate change projections with implications for the agricultural sector of three major Mediterranean islands

AbstractThe paper presents the analysis of a sub-set of high-resolution bias-adjusted simulations from the EURO-CORDEX initiative, in order to examine the changes in the mean climate and the extremes in three Mediterranean islands, namely, Sicily, Crete and Cyprus, in the near future (2031–2060) compared to the present climate (1971–2000), under two future scenarios, i.e. RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The analysis entails commonly used climatic indices of interest related to the islands' agricultural sector. The results indicate robust increases for both the mean maximum and minimum temperatures on a seasonal basis, as well as for the temperature related extremes under both climate scenarios. On the contrary, the changes in precipitation are less pronounced as the changes in the seasonal precipitation are not found statistically significant for the three islands under both scenarios. The projected warming combined with the projected unchanged precipitation pattern in the future, especially in spring and summer, might expose the crops to conditions with a negative impact on the plants' phenology, leading to implications on crop production and quality. The results presented here might be the basis for the development of an adaptation strategy specifically targeted on the three islands but also replicable to other Mediterranean islands

A PMT-Block test bench

The front-end electronics of the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter (Tile Cal) is housed in a unit, called {\it PMT-Block}. The PMT-Block is a compact instrument comprising a light mixer, a PMT together with its divider and a {\it 3-in-1} card, which provides shaping, amplification and integration for the signals. This instrument needs to be qualified before being assembled on the detector. A PMT-Block test bench has been developed for this purpose. This test bench is a system which allows fast, albeit accurate enough, measurements of the main properties of a complete PMT-Block. The system, both hardware and software, and the protocol used for the PMT-Blocks characterisation are described in detail in this report. The results obtained in the test of about 10000 PMT-Blocks needed for the instrumentation of the ATLAS (LHC-CERN) hadronic Tile Calorimeter are also reported.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Assessing climate change impacts on crops by adopting a set of crop performance indicators

AbstractThe impact of climate change on the agricultural systems of three major islands in the Mediterranean basin, namely Sicily, Crete and Cyprus, was evaluated using a suite of specifically calibrated crop models and the outputs of a regional circulation model for Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 downscaled to 12 km of resolution and tested for its effectiveness in reproducing the local meteorological data. The most important annual (wheat, barley, tomato and potato) and perennial (grapevine and olive tree) crops were selected to represent the agricultural systems of the islands. The same modelling framework was used to test the effectiveness of autonomous adaptation options, such as shifting sowing date and the use of varieties with different growing season length. The results highlighted that, on average, warmer temperatures advanced both anthesis and maturity of the selected crops, but at different magnitudes depending on the crop and the island. Winter crops (barley, wheat and potato) experienced the lowest impact in terms of yield loss with respect to the baseline, with even some positive effects, especially in Sicily where both wheat and barley showed a general increase of 9% as compared to the baseline, while potato increased up to + 17%. Amongst perennial crops, olive tree showed low variation under RCP 4.5, but on average increased by 7% under RCP 8.5 on the three islands. Climate change had a detrimental effect specifically on tomato (− 2% on average in RCP 8.5 and 4.5 on the three islands) and grapevine (− 7%). The use of different sowing dates, or different varieties, revealed that for winter crops early autumn sowing is still the best option for producing wheat and barley in future periods on the three islands under both future scenarios. For tomato and potato, advancing sowing date to early winter is a winning strategy that may even increase final yield (+ 9% for tomato and + 17% for potato, on average). For grapevine, the use of late varieties, while suffering the most from increasing temperatures and reduced rainfall (− 15%, on average), is still a valuable option to keep high yield levels with respect to earlier varieties, which even if showing some increases with respect to the baseline have a generally much lower production level. The same may be applied to olive tree although the production differences between late and early varieties are less evident and climate change exerts a favourable influence (+ 4 and + 3% for early and late varieties, respectively)

Genetic prediction of ICU hospitalization and mortality in COVID-19 patients using artificial neural networks

There is an unmet need of models for early prediction of morbidity and mortality of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). We aimed to a) identify complement-related genetic variants associated with the clinical outcomes of ICU hospitalization and death, b) develop an artificial neural network (ANN) predicting these outcomes and c) validate whether complement-related variants are associated with an impaired complement phenotype. We prospectively recruited consecutive adult patients of Caucasian origin, hospitalized due to COVID-19. Through targeted next-generation sequencing, we identified variants in complement factor H/CFH, CFB, CFH-related, CFD, CD55, C3, C5, CFI, CD46, thrombomodulin/THBD, and A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase with Thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS13). Among 381 variants in 133 patients, we identified 5 critical variants associated with severe COVID-19: rs2547438 (C3), rs2250656 (C3), rs1042580 (THBD), rs800292 (CFH) and rs414628 (CFHR1). Using age, gender and presence or absence of each variant, we developed an ANN predicting morbidity and mortality in 89.47% of the examined population. Furthermore, THBD and C3a levels were significantly increased in severe COVID-19 patients and those harbouring relevant variants. Thus, we reveal for the first time an ANN accurately predicting ICU hospitalization and death in COVID-19 patients, based on genetic variants in complement genes, age and gender. Importantly, we confirm that genetic dysregulation is associated with impaired complement phenotype

Downscaling Climate Change Impacts, Socio-Economic Implications and Alternative Adaptation Pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the future scenarios of climate change and management concerns associated with climate change impacts on the blue economy of European islands and outermost regions. The publication collects major findings of the SOCLIMPACT project’s research outcomes, aiming to raise social awareness among policy-makers and industry about climate change consequences at local level, and provide knowledge-based information to support policy design, from local to national level. This comprehensive book will also assist students, scholars and practitioners to understand, conceptualize and effectively and responsibly manage climate change information and applied research. This book provides invaluable material for Blue Growth Management, theory and application, at all levels. This first edition includes up-to-date data, statistics, references, case material and figures of the 12 islands case studies. ¨Downscaling climate change impacts, socio-economic implications and alternative adaptation pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions¨ is a must-read book, given the accessible style and breadth and depth with which the topic is dealt. The book is an up-to-date synthesis of key knowledge on this area, written by a multidisciplinary group of experts on climate and economic modelling, and policy design