APPLICATION OF ADJOINT CMAQ CHEMICAL TRANSPORT MODEL IN THE ATHENS GREATER AREA: SENSITIVITIES STUDY ON OZONE CONCENTRATIONS

An operational meteorology and air quality forecasting system is currently under development by the Environmental Research Laboratory of NCSR “Demokritos”. The system is based on the meteorological model MM5, the in-house EMISLAB emissions processing system and the chemical transport model CMAQ. It is configured to apply on the Greater Athens Area with a 4-domains nested configuration focusing on a high spatial resolution (1x1 km2) inner domain. The system produces meteorological and air quality predictions for a 72-hours time horizon with 1 hour time step. This paper uses the output of the operational system to apply the CMAQ adjoint for ozone sensitivity calculations, focusing for the two days of 18 and 19 July 2005. In the current study, the calculated ground level ozone concentrations at certain defined locations and times are considered as the “response functional”. Sensitivities of the response functional with respect to the state variables (species concentrations on the grid points and species emissions, e.g., NOX, CO, VOCs) are calculated by running the adjoint model backwards in time (reverse mode). The distribution of the sensitivities in the computational domain, obtained for different times, provides essential information for the analysis: isosurfaces of sensitivities delineate influence regions, i.e., areas where perturbations in some concentrations will result in significant changes in the ozone concentrations in the area of interest at the final time

Secondary breast lymphoma diagnosed by vacuum-assisted breast biopsy: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Breast lymphoma, either as a manifestation of primary extranodal disease or as secondary involvement, is a rare malignancy, and its diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment have not been clearly defined. On the other hand, Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VABB) is a minimally invasive technique with ever-growing use for the diagnosis of mammographically detected, non-palpable breast lesions.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A symptom-free, 56-year-old woman presented with a non-palpable BI-RADS 4B lesion without microcalcifications. She had a positive family history for breast cancer and a history of atypical ductal hyperplasia in the ipsilateral breast four years ago. She reported having been treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma 12 years ago. With the suspicion of breast cancer, mammographically guided VABB with 11-gauge probe (on the stereotactic Fisher's table) was performed. VABB made the diagnosis of a non-Hodgkin, grade II, B-cell germinal-center lymphoma. VABB yielded enough tissue for immunohistochemistry/WHO classification.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first case in the literature demonstrating the successful diagnosis of breast lymphoma by VABB, irrespectively of the level of clinical suspicion. It should be stressed that VABB was able to yield enough tissue for WHO classification. In general, lymphoma should never be omitted in the differential diagnosis, since no pathognomonic radiologic findings exist for its diagnosis.</p

What does marketing orientation mean in practice? some empirical evidence

This paper provides some empirical evidence as to what marketing orientation means in practic

Market share and customer satisfaction : are they always related?

This paper looks at market share and customer satisfaction and ask if they always related

Creation of an Integrated System Model for Governance in Urban MTEs (Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems) and for Adapting Cities to Climate Change – Preliminary Results

Urban trees grow under adverse conditions, governed by the combinatorial effect of multiple natural and anthropogenic factors. Global climate change adds new challenges regarding urban green management that should be taken into account when designing future green urban policies. The development of a smart Information and Communications Technology (ICT) system and the establishment of a continuously up to date information system regarding urban trees is a key issue for future management which aims at : –– climate change adaptation, by providing an instrument for measuring the cities CO 2 emission offsets by CO 2 sequestration of the tree biomasses ; –– efficient utilization of resources that are spent for urban tree management in order to decrease the cities’ environmental footprint ; –– enhancement of the cities’ social fabric by promoting citizen participation during the decision making process regarding urban trees. The project was selected for funding after a competitive process by the General Secretary of Research and Development. The Municipality of Thessaloniki was selected as the key study area. The core of the project is the development of a software suite named GreenTree. Through the GreenTree client Android application, 105 different sets of data are collected for each urban tree. The urban tree inventory includes 37,328 tree sites on the pavements, from which we found 1,239 dead trees, 2,787 empty sites and 937 trees which had to be removed because they had been planted in inappropriate location and they disturbed the circulation of cars or pedestrians. The numbers above clearly show the significant need for the establishment of a reliable and smart monitoring system for urban tree management. This system could also help manage the decision making process. Finally, the numbers show that urban environment can be easily improved by applying fast and cheap measures of tree replanting and replacement.Les arbres urbains se développent dans des conditions difficiles, régies par l’effet combiné de multiples facteurs naturels et anthropiques. Le changement climatique mondial ajoute de nouveaux défis en matière de gestion urbaine “ verte” qui devrait être prise en compte lors de l’élaboration des futures politiques urbaines écologiques. Le développement d’un système intelligent en Technologie de l’Information et de la Communications (TIC) et la mise en place d’un système d’information, mis à jour en continu, concernant les arbres urbains est un enjeu clé pour la gestion future qui vise à : –– l’adaptation au changement climatique, en fournissant un instrument pour mesurer les émissions de CO 2 que les villes compensent par la séquestration du CO 2 dans la biomasse des arbres ; –– l’utilisation efficace des ressources qui sont dépensées pour la gestion des arbres en milieu urbain afin de réduire l’empreinte environnementale des villes ; –– le renforcement des liens sociaux dans les villes en favorisant la participation des citoyens pendant le processus de prise de décisions concernant les arbres urbains. Le projet a été sélectionné pour financement après un processus compétitif organisé par le Secrétaire Général de la Recherche et du Développement. La municipalité de Thessalonique a été choisie comme zone d’étude principale. Le coeur du projet est le développement d’une suite de logiciels nommée GreenTree. Via l’application android GreenTree, 105 ensembles distincts de données ont été collectés pour chaque arbre urbain. L’inventaire des arbres en milieu urbain comprend 37 328 sites de plantation d’arbres sur les trottoirs, parmi lesquels ont été trouvés 1 239 arbres morts, 2 787 absents de leur site (trous vides sur les trottoirs) et 937 arbres devant être retirés. Les chiffres ci-dessus montrent clairement la nécessité de la mise en place d’un système de suivi fiable et intelligent pour la gestion des arbres urbains. Ce système pourrait aussi faciliter la gestion du processus de prise de décisions. Enfin, les chiffres montrent que l’environnement urbain peut être facilement amélioré par l’application de mesures rapides et bon marché pour la replantation et le remplacement des arbres.Tsitsoni Thekla, Gounaris Nikolaos, Kontogianni Aimilia B., Xanthopoulou-Tsitsoni Valia. Creation of an Integrated System Model for Governance in Urban MTEs (Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems) and for Adapting Cities to Climate Change – Preliminary Results. In: Ecologia mediterranea, tome 41 n°2, 2015. pp. 33-44

Quantifying the Occurrence of Multi-Hazards Due to Climate Change

This paper introduces a climatic multi-hazard risk assessment for Greece, as the first-ever attempt to enhance scientific knowledge for the identification and definition of hazards, a critical element of risk-informed decision making. Building on an extensively validated climate database with a very high spatial resolution (5 &times; 5 km2), a detailed assessment of key climatic hazards is performed that allows for: (a) the analysis of hazard dynamics and their evolution due to climate change and (b) direct comparisons and spatial prioritization across Greece. The high geographical complexity of Greece requires that a large number of diverse hazards (heatwaves&mdash;TX, cold spells&mdash;TN, torrential rainfall&mdash;RR, snowstorms, and windstorms), need to be considered in order to correctly capture the country&rsquo;s susceptibility to climate extremes. The current key findings include the dominance of cold-temperature extremes in mountainous regions and warm extremes over the coasts and plains. Extreme rainfall has been observed in the eastern mainland coasts and windstorms over Crete and the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Projections of the near future reveal more warm extremes in northern areas becoming more dominant all over the country by the end of the century

Successful control of an echovirus 6 meningitis outbreak in a neonatal intensive care unit in central Greece

We report an outbreak of echovirus 6 meningitis in a neonatal intensive care unit in central Greece from July to August 2011. The most probable source of the outbreak was a mother; during hospitalization, her neonate was initially infected, followed by 7 more. Stricter infection control measures were implemented, and no other cases have been observed. Copyright (C) 2013 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved