The Hippocratic View on Humors and Human Temperament

A quintessential element in Hippocratic medicine is the theory of humors: The human body contains four basic substances, called humors. Their relative proportions in the human body regulate the human temperament and its behavioral manifestations, and their correct balance defines ‘health’. Hippocrates, a founding father of ancient-world medicine, systematically observed human temperaments and behaviors, and concluded that besides physiology, they are greatly influenced by environmental factors and geography, thus setting the stage for holistic approaches

Remediation by Design: New Linguistic Domains for Changing Organizational Practices

The paper examines the impact of novel linguistic vocabularies on the remediation of practices using computer-reliant media. As linguistic vocabularies we consider social Web services (with certain material agency) allowing recurrent engagement of users in designated communication acts. On the other hand, remediation is conceived as an evolving state of affairs where new practices (as defined by computer-mediated linguistic conventions) are improvised on the basis of old practices that work differently in new technological settings. In this vein, remediation of organizational routines takes place when established human activities are retooled using digital materials to convey new possibilities for action. The paper advances a proposition and a scaffold for remediating by design which is then ‘tested’ by reflecting upon an empirical case

Land use planning decisions using multi-criteria analysis: The case of the master plan for the western part of the coastal zone of Thessaloniki, Greece

Land use planning decisions involve tackling complex problems and confronting multiple interests. A variety of factors and criteria need to be considered when planning for intricate and multifaceted environments, such as physical, social, economic, environmental, institutional etc. These factors which interact with each other, either in a complementary or conflicting way, cannot always be easily integrated into the decision-making process. Quantitative approaches such as Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques combined with GIS have been developed to conduct land suitability analysis and to support decision-making.Drawing on a completed project within the IPA Cross-Border Programme ‘Greece – the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 2007-2013’ titled “Soil degradation assessment and rehabilitation strategies for sustainable land use planning“ (acronym TERRAMED), the paper presents the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), developed by Thomas L. Saaty in the 1970s, to produce decision maps in order to define the suitability of future land uses in the western part of the coastal zone of Thessaloniki in Greece. The analyses and scenarios produced constituted the basis for the formulation of specific strategies and actions, within the broader process of developing a master plan for this particular area.The paper stresses the importance of MCDM methods in providing a rational framework for making consistent land use planning decisions, being able to improve the transparency of the planning processes and to contribute to consensus building on policies and actions

First validation of GOME-2/MetOp Absorbing Aerosol Height using EARLINET lidar observations

he aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) instruments, aboard the Meteorological Operational (MetOp)-A, MetOp-B and MetOp-C satellite programme platforms, to deliver accurate geometrical features of lofted aerosol layers. For this purpose, we use archived ground-based lidar data from stations available from the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) database. The data are post-processed using the wavelet covariance transform (WCT) method in order to extract geometrical features such as the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height and the cloud boundaries. To obtain a significant number of collocated and coincident GOME-2 - EARLINET cases for the period between January 2007 and September 2019, 13 lidar stations, distributed over different European latitudes, contributed to this validation. For the 172 carefully screened collocations, the mean bias was found to be -0.18 ± 1.68 km, with a near-Gaussian distribution. On a station basis, and with a couple of exceptions where very few collocations were found, their mean biases fall in the ± 1 km range with an associated standard deviation between 0.5 and 1.5 km. Considering the differences, mainly due to the temporal collocation and the difference, between the satellite pixel size and the point view of the ground-based observations, these results can be quite promising and demonstrate that stable and extended aerosol layers as captured by the satellite sensors are verified by the ground-based data. We further present an in-depth analysis of a strong and long-lasting Saharan dust intrusion over the Iberian Peninsula. We show that, for this well-developed and spatially well-spread aerosol layer, most GOME-2 retrievals fall within 1 km of the exact temporally collocated lidar observation for the entire range of 0 to 150 km radii. This finding further testifies for the capabilities of the MetOp-borne instruments to sense the atmospheric aerosol layer heights.Horizon 2020 Framework Programme 654109, 87111

Sarcomatoid Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder: A Clinicopathological Study of 4 Cases and a Review of the Literature

Sarcomatoid carcinoma (SC) of urinary bladder is a rare tumor exhibiting aggressive behavior. Here we are reviewing the pathologic and clinical characteristics of 4 consecutive cases of this rare tumor. Three out of 4 patients were males and one female. The median age was 72.8 years (range, 60-79 years). Patients underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor and the diagnosis of bladder SC was established on the pathologic examination of the resected bladder tissue. Despite treatment all patients died within 22 months of the diagnosis of SC. SC of the bladder are true biphasic malignant neoplasm exhibiting morphologic and immunohistochemical evidence of epithelial and mesenchymal differentiation with the presence or absence of heterologous elements. The aggressive of the tumor precludes radical therapy whenever possible, since adjuvant therapy seems to have little effect

Whole genome scanning of a Mediterranean basin hotspot collection provide new insights into olive tree biodiversity and biology

Olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is one of the most important species of the Mediterranean region and one of the most ancient species domesticated. The availability of whole genome assemblies and annotations of olive tree cultivars and oleaster (O. europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris) has contributed to a better understanding of genetic and genomic differences between olive tree cultivars. However, compared to other plant species there is still a lack of genomic resources for olive tree popula-tions that span the entire Mediterranean region. In the present study we developed the most complete genomic variation map and the most comprehensive catalog/resource of molecular variation to date for 89 olive tree genotypes originating from the entire Mediterranean basin, revealing the genetic diversity of this commercially significant crop tree and explaining the divergence/similarity among different variants. Addi-tionally, the monumental ancient tree ‘Throuba Naxos’ was studied to characterize the potential origin or routes of olive tree domestication. Several candidate genes known to be associated with key agronomic traits, including olive oil quality and fruit yield, were uncovered by a selective sweep scan to be under selection pressure on all olive tree chromosomes. To further exploit the genomic and phenotypic resources obtained from the current work, genome-wide association analyses were performed for 23 morphological and two agronomic traits. Significant associations were detected for eight traits that provide valuable candidates for fruit tree breeding and for deeper understanding of olive tree biology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Volcanic SO2 layer height by TROPOMI/S5P: evaluation against IASI/MetOp and CALIOP/CALIPSO observations

Volcanic eruptions eject large amounts of ash and trace gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere. A significant difficulty in mitigating the impact of volcanic SO2 clouds on air traffic safety is that these gas emissions can be rapidly transported over long distances. The use of space-borne instruments enables the global monitoring of volcanic SO2 emissions in an economical and risk-free manner. Within the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-5p+ Innovation project, the S5P SO2 layer height (S5P+I: SO2LH) activities led to the improvements of the retrieval algorithm and generation of the corresponding near real-time S5P SO2 LH products. These are currently operationally provided, in near real-time, by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) within the framework of the Innovative Products for Analyses of Atmospheric Composition (INPULS) project. The main aim of this paper is to present its extensive verification, accomplished within the S5P+I: SO2LH project, over major recent volcanic eruptions, against collocated space-borne measurements from the IASI/Metop and CALIOP/CALIPSO instruments as well as assess its impact on the forecasts provided by the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS). The mean difference between S5P and IASI observations for the Raikoke 2019, the Nishinoshima 2020 and the La Soufrière-St Vincent 2021 eruptive periods is ∼ 0.5 ± 3 km, while for the Taal 2020 eruption, a larger difference was found, between 3 ± 3 km and 4 ± 3 km. The comparison of the daily mean SO2 LH further demonstrates the capabilities of this near real-time product, with slopes between 0.8 and 1 and correlation coefficients ranging between 0.6 and 0.8. Comparisons between the S5P SO2 LH and the CALIOP/CALIPSO ash plumes revealed an expected bias at -2.5 ± 2 km, considering that the injected SO2 and ash plume locations do not always coincide over an eruption. Furthermore, the CAMS assimilation of the S5P SO2 LH product led to much improved model output against the non-assimilated IASI LH, with a mean difference of 1.5 ± 2 km, compared to the original CAMS analysis, and improved the geographical spread of the Raikoke volcanic plume following the eruptive days

Validation of the TROPOMI/S5P aerosol layer height using EARLINET lidars

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of the Sentinel-5P TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) to derive accurate geometrical features of lofted aerosol layers, selecting the Mediterranean Basin as the study area. Comparisons with ground-based correlative measurements constitute a key component in the validation of passive and active satellite aerosol products. For this purpose, we use ground-based observations from quality-controlled lidar stations reporting to the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET). An optimal methodology for validation purposes has been developed and applied using the EARLINET optical profiles and TROPOMI aerosol products, aiming at the in-depth evaluation of the TROPOMI aerosol layer height (ALH) product for the period 2018 to 2022 over the Mediterranean Basin. Seven EARLINET stations were chosen, taking into consideration their proximity to the sea, which provided 63 coincident aerosol cases for the satellite retrievals. In the following, we present the first validation results for the TROPOMI/S5P ALH using the optimized EARLINET lidar products employing the automated validation chain designed for this purpose. The quantitative validation at pixels over the selected EARLINET stations illustrates that the TROPOMI ALH product is consistent with the EARLINET lidar products, with a high correlation coefficient R=0.82 (R=0.51) and a mean bias of -0.51±0.77 km and -2.27±1.17 km over ocean and land, respectively. Overall, it appears that aerosol layer altitudes retrieved from TROPOMI are systematically lower than altitudes from the lidar retrievals. High-albedo scenes, as well as low-aerosol-load scenes, are the most challenging for the TROPOMI retrieval algorithm, and these results testify to the need to further investigate the underlying cause. This work provides a clear indication that the TROPOMI ALH product can under certain conditions achieve the required threshold accuracy and precision requirements of 1 km, especially when only ocean pixels are included in the comparison analysis. Furthermore, we describe and analyse three case studies in detail, one dust and two smoke episodes, in order to illustrate the strengths and limitations of the TROPOMI ALH product and demonstrate the presented validation methodology. The present analysis provides important additions to the existing validation studies that have been performed so far for the TROPOMI S5P ALH product, which were based only on satellite-to-satellite comparisons.</p