The Mediterranean and Black Sea STECF Stock Assessment Database

Since 2007, the Scientific Technical Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), for which Joint Research Centre (JRC) runs the Secretariat and all the data collection process, started collecting and organizing information on Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries, and since 2009 performing standardized stock assessments on these fisheries during STECF expert working groups (EWGs). The stock assessment results have been documented in more than 30 reports STECF EWGs (https://stecf.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports/medbs). Stock assessments performed during the STECF EWGs employ different approaches and tools, however, models implemented in the Fisheries Libraries in R (FLR, http://www.flr-project.org) were the most used. After almost 10 years of stock assessments in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, JRC extracted available stock assessment data from digital repositories of EWGs and compiled a STECF reference database. From each assessment contained in the STECF reports yearly time series of stock variables such as:Total Catch (total weight of all fish in the stock), Recruitment (total number of individuals entering yearly in the population), Spawning Stock Biomass (total weight of all sexually mature fish in the stock) and Fishing Mortality were extracted. The assessments data are made available through an online interactive dashboard under the STECF Data dissemination web page (https://stecf.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dd/medbs/ram) that allow readers to compare and contrast several stock assessments variables. Each stock assessment is linked via an URL to the original source of the stock assessment. According to EU CFP - Common Fisheries Policy (Reg. EU 1380/2013 and Reg. EU812/2015) all EU commercial fish stocks should be fished at a maximum sustainable yield (Fmsy). Biological reference points, Fref (Fmsy or a proxy as F 0.1 ) and were subsequently used to assess if the level of exploitation (F/Fmsy) is in line with the CFP objectives (F/Fmsy≤1) or not (F/Fmsy >1). The STECF database is the reference database for the computation of the Common Fisheries Policy monitoring indicators for the Mediterranean and Black Sea (https://stecf.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/43805/2092142/STECF+18-01+adhoc+-+CFP+Monitoring+2018.pdf) To ensure traceability and foster reproducible scientific research, all the data, code and references part of the compilation process are hosted on GitHub, a well-known version control software platform. The target audience of the dashboard ranges from governments, fisheries institutes, stakeholders, NGO’s and common citizens that want to check the status of marine fisheries resources evaluated. A copy of the Mediterranean and Black Sea STECF stock assessment results will be included, for the first time, in the next release of the RAM legacy database: a voluntary contributed worldwide stock assessments database, RAM legacy, (http://ramlegacy.org/). The RAM Legacy database includes fish stock assessments from all around the world’s oceans, and provides a unique source of information to make comparisons between fisheries and to perform global analysis of stock status.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Epidemiology of Clostridium Difficile Infection in a Large Hospital in Northern Italy: Questioning the Ward-Based Transmission

Background: Clostridium Difficile infection (CDI) is considered a ward-based nosocomial infection, due to contagion among patients. Molecular studies recently questioned ward-based contact for disease spread. Objective: To investigate whether it is plausible that CDI spread in San Martino Hospital of Genoa was due to a ward-based contact and patientto- patient diffusion. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of CDI cases from April 2010 to March 2015. We referred to Hospital data set and Admission Service. Multilevel modelling approach and ecological analysis were used to assess C. difficile infection risk according to wards and time of occurrence. Six representative CD strains were ribotyped to assess a possible equivalence. Results: The assessment of 514 CDI cases showed that the risk of disease and rate of incidence in wards were independent, while frequency of cases and number of wards involved exhibited a positive relationship, excluding the typical epidemic pattern of contagious diffusion, i.e., many cases in few wards. The extra-binomial variability due to ward clustering was not significant, indicating homogeneity in the probability of CDI occurrence across all wards. Three hundred sixty-eight patients changed ward, without showing connection between the frequency of cases in new wards and incidence among new subjects. Trigonometric components described a significant contribution of seasonality, with excess of CDI cases during the winter months. Molecular analysis showed different ribotypes of CD strains from the same ward. Conclusion: From our results it seems unlikely that in our institution CDI occurrence is due to ward-based contact and inter-human contagion of the organism

Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) - 2016 Mediterranean assessments part 1 (STECF-16-22)

Osio, Giacomo ... et al.-- This report was reviewed by the STECF during its 53 rd plenary meeting held from 24 to 28 October 2016 in Brussels.-- 500 pagesCommission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4-10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines. The Expert Working Group meeting of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries EWG 16-13 was held from 26- 30 Sept. 2016 in Barza, Italy to assess the status of demersal and small pelagic stocks in the Mediterranean Sea against the proposed FMSY reference points. The report was reviewed by the STECF plenary in October 2016Peer Reviewe

Reversed Brayton cycle for food freezing at very low temperatures: Energy performance and optimisation

Freezing is a valuable method to increase food shelf life and to ensure high quality standards during long-term storage. Additional benefits to frozen food quality can be achieved by freezing at very low temperatures (< −50 °C): small ice crystal formation during fast freezing reduces food cell wall rupture, preventing water and texture loss during thawing. This paper presents the design of an innovative food freezing system operating at very low temperatures, based on a modified reversed Brayton cycle (rB cycle). The plant is composed of two interconnected sub-systems: a primary thermodynamic closed loop, operated by an rB cycle, and a secondary airflow loop which is devoted to food freezing by batch process. Relevant features of the designed rB cycle rely on the adopted environmentally safe working fluid, the optimised thermodynamics working conditions and the innovative cycle layout. A modelling framework for the system was developed to identify and design efficient operative settings for the plant components (turbo-machineries, heat exchangers, etc.) and to assess, via sensitivity analysis, the influence of the main design parameters on the global energy performance. The proposed system configuration, designed to maximise the coefficient of performance (CoP) value of the plant, was determined by means of nonlinear multivariable optimisation. In addition, the energy performance of the system can be increased by recovering waste heat available from the rB cycle

Imaging biomarkers of sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: a review

: In recent years, imaging has emerged as a promising source of several intriguing biomarkers in epilepsy, due to the impressive growth of imaging technology, supported by methodological advances and integrations of post-processing techniques. Bearing in mind the mutually influencing connection between sleep and epilepsy, we focused on sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy (SHE) and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), aiming to make order and clarify possible clinical utility of emerging multimodal imaging biomarkers of these two epilepsy-related entities commonly occurring during sleep. Regarding SHE, advanced structural techniques might soon emerge as a promising source of diagnostic and predictive biomarkers, tailoring a targeted therapeutic (surgical) approach for MRI-negative subjects. Functional and metabolic imaging may instead unveil SHE's extensive and night-related altered brain networks, providing insights into distinctions and similarities with non-epileptic sleep phenomena, such as parasomnias. SUDEP is considered a storm that strikes without warning signals, but objective subtle structural and functional alterations in autonomic, cardiorespiratory, and arousal centers are present in patients eventually experiencing SUDEP. These alterations could be seen both as susceptibility and diagnostic biomarkers of the underlying pathological ongoing loop ultimately ending in death. Finally, given that SHE and SUDEP are rare phenomena, most evidence on the topic is derived from small single-center experiences with scarcely comparable results, hampering the possibility of performing any meta-analytic approach. Multicenter, longitudinal, well-designed studies are strongly encouraged

Sampling Frame for Mediterranean and Black Sea CFP Monitoring indicators

The Mediterranean and Black Sea list of stocks to be used for computing the indicators was based on a ranking system approach for which the species having a rank in the first ten positions either in total live weight or total economic values were chosen. Landings and economic values for the Mediterranean and Black Sea (FAO area 37) provided by “2016_STECF 16-11 - EU Fleet Economic and Transversal data tables” were used. The reference years were 2012 and 2014 (the last three years available for all the GSAs) and, as geographic strata, the Geographical Sub Areas (GSAs) belonging to EU countries and for which data were available were considered. In the top ranking 10 stocks based on both in terms of live weight and economic value by GSA applied to AER Landings, many combined/nei groups categories were selected. Based on local expert knowledge it was possible split some mixed categories at species level while, it was decided to drop from the list both the misreporting species and the mixed categories for which it wasn't possible defined clearly the species composition. Eventually 230 stocks were selected.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource