New Approach on Organizing the Monitoring of Macrophytobenthos in the Russian Arctic

The minimum number of samples was estimated based on the studies of the distribution of macrophytobenthos. The existing norms of three replicates per sampling station do not always allow to obtain reliable average values. The collection of a large number of samples, especially seasonally, will lead to significant changes in the studied community. It is recommended to put into practice the use of the method of photographing the areas of particular size along transects for further analysis using special software. It is proposed also to amend the existing regulatory documents on sampling of macrophytobenthos in the Barents Sea and other seas of the Russian Arctic. In particular, it is worth making the most of landscape surveys and mapping. The development of a monitoring system for species diversity and macrophytobenthos distribution in the seas of the Russian Arctic is justified in regard to the monitoring of the community state, including that considering the climate change

Narrowband delay tolerant protocols for WSN applications. Characterization and selection guide

This article focuses on delay tolerant protocols for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications, considering both established and new protocols. We obtained a comparison of their characteristics by implementing all of them on an original platform for network simulation, and by testing their behavior on a common test-bench. Thereafter, matching the requirements linked to each application with the performances achieved in the test-bench, allowed us to define an application oriented protocol selection guide

SME Instrument: An Empirical Analysis on the Impact of the Second Phase of the Instrument on the Performance of Italian Enterprises

This article is part of the strand of research on evaluating the effectiveness of public funds in stimulating the growth of research and development activities in the private sector. The research focus is on the SME Instrument, in its original version born within Horizon 2020, and in particular Phase 2 of the instrument is being attended to. The research question, therefore, is "Has the second phase of the SME Instrument had a positive impact on the Italian SMEs that have joined it? If yes, to what extent?" The approach to this topic will be quantitative and microeconomic in dimension: in fact, the evaluation will be based on quantitative data inherent in the innovation (and non-innovation) performance of individual firms. At the conclusion of the analysis and estimation process, it can be concluded that the second phase of the SME Instrument did not produce significant additional effects on the performance of firms, approximated by the ratio of total sales to total assets. The only exception is those enterprises aged between 6 and 15 years, for which there is a partially significant increase in the sales/assets ratio after receiving funding. Given the research results and given that public and private management share a common interest in making their investments effective and efficient by seeing a return on them, the implications for policy makers are twofold: personalization of policy and promotion of an integrated innovation model, both of which imply a rethinking of the instrument. However, like any research, the results obtained are never an end point, but the starting point for new reflections from which to develop further research.   &nbsp

Delay-Tolerant, Low-Power Protocols for Large Security-Critical Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper reports the analysis, implementation, and experimental testing of a delay-tolerant and energy-aware protocol for a wireless sensor node, oriented to security applications. The solution proposed takes advantages from different domains considering as a guideline the low power consumption and facing the problems of seamless and lossy connectivity offered by the wireless medium along with very limited resources offered by a wireless network node. The paper is organized as follows: first we give an overview on delay-tolerant wireless sensor networking (DTN); then we perform a simulation-based comparative analysis of state-of-the-art DTN approaches and illustrate the improvement offered by the proposed protocol; finally we present experimental data gathered from the implementation of the proposed protocol on a proprietary hardware node

Residential Location, Mobility, and Travel Time: A Pilot Study in a Small-Size Italian Metropolitan Area

This research concerns the topic of Land Use and Transport Interaction (LUTI) models. In particular, the patterns between residential households' location and mobility choices are analyzed and simulated. The attributes that influence household residential location choices belong to four categories: socioeconomic and mobility attributes of households and/or of their components; land use; real-estate market; transport system. The paper presents the results of a pilot study on households' location and mobility patterns in the metropolitan area of Reggio Calabria (Southern Italy). The pilot study is divided into two stages. In the first stage, a survey allowed to collect information and identify existing patterns about residential and mobility choices of a sample of households. In the second stage, a residential location model is proposed and some preliminary calibrations are presented in a prototypal way. The pilot study could be extended and improved in terms of spatial extension and sample dimension in order to allow a complete specification-calibration-validation process of the model. The model development can support the land use-transport planning process in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria

Georgia School District Leaders Perspectives on Parent Engagement and Transitions

Of the four million American children who start school each year, as many as one-third are unprepared to learn. Many never catch up. The reasons are complex, but clearly the multitude of systems that should be supporting young children too often fail in that mission – from family to schools to government.In reaction, W.K. Kellogg Foundation launched Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK), an initiative designed to unite communities so that all children can be successful before and after they enter school. SPARK fosters partnerships of selected communities, schools, state agencies and families to ensure that they work together effectively for the early learning of children. With the initiative serving as a catalyst or "spark," the goal is to ensure that vulnerable children are ready for school and that schools are ready for children

Intestinal bacterial flora of Mediterranean gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata Linnaeus) as a novel source of natural surface active compounds

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INFLUENCE OF NITRATE NITROGEN ON THE MORPHOLOGICALAND PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF FUCUS DISTICHUS (L.)

Nitrogen is the biogenic element of algae, including Fucus dictichus. Mineral nitrogen is one of the components of wastewater. Today, virtually no information about the minimum concentration of this kind of pollution and reaction of macrophytes on the impact of pollution on physiological parameters