Use of VELOS platform for modelling and accessing crew assistance and passenger grouping in ship-evacuation analysis

VELOS, which stands for “Virtual Environment for Life On Ships”, is a multi-user VR system that aims to support designers, early in the design process, to assess passenger and crew activities on ship and improve ship design accordingly. VELOS functionalities provide design aids required for both normal and hectic operational conditions. This has been accomplished by integrating a broad range of software components in VELOS platform which includes tools targeting geometric and VR modelling, crowd microscopic modelling based on steering behaviours technology, as well as communication interfaces with external computational software packages. In the present work, we focus on the evacuation-specific functionality of VELOS by enhancing it with passenger-grouping and crew-assistance behaviour. This is mainly achieved by combining and extending steering behaviours, already used within VELOS, for crowd modelling, as, e.g., Leader-Follow and Cohere behaviour. This enhancement allows simulating the evacuation process more realistically and comparing results acquired for the scenarios prescribed by the IMO, with and without the consideration of grouping and crew-assistance behaviour

An Investigation of Social Entrepreneurial Intentions Formation among South-East European Postgraduate Students

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the formation of social entrepreneurial intentions (SEIs) in postgraduate students in the South-East European region. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach (self-administered online questionnaire) is used to gather data. The total number of the questionnaires that were collected and analyzed through SPSS statistical suite was 115 from which 111 were valid. Findings: From the proposed five hypotheses set in the literature, only the personality trait theory was totally rejected because it failed to predict social and commercial entrepreneurial intentions (EIs). The remaining hypotheses were found to be valid. The study’s key finding is that the chosen theory (Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB)), is able to predict both kinds of intentions. An alarming key finding is that tensions in mission focus seem to be present in the early shaped intentions of potential social entrepreneurs. Research limitations/implications: Research findings impose that major educational and policy efforts are needed to promote the theme of social entrepreneurship (SE). The results indicate that most of the postgraduates have not yet fully understood the mindset of SE as they were confused about the synergy of the goals (inherent in their social vs profit intentions). Originality/value: This research contributes in three major ways to the literature. First, it shows that SEIs seem to be shaped similarly to EIs; determined mostly by two of the motivational factors of the TPB (personal attitude and perceived behavioral control). Second, it shows which factors seem to affect both constructs and third, it adds to the literature by showing that tensions in mission focus are evident early on in the intentions’ formation process, underlying the necessity of immediate educational and legislative precautions

Establishing effective learning management systems through simplicity

Designing a Learning Management System (LMS) is a combination of pedagogical design, usability and information architecture. E-Learning systems should have intuitive interfaces and clear information design, allowing learners to concentrate on learning and course developers on learning strategies, thus making e-learning more efficient. Hence, effective LMSs should include sophisticated and advanced functions, yet their interface should hide their complexity. In this paper we present the key features of an experimental LMS which follows recent usability techniques in order to accomplish simplicity. The usage of computer file management as a metaphor for management and navigation between Learning Objects (LOs) along with a clear and unambiguous user interface allow users to focus on their learning activities without excessive hassle

MASADA USER GUIDE

This user guide accompanies the MASADA tool which is a public tool for the detection of built-up areas from remote sensing data. MASADA stands for Massive Spatial Automatic Data Analytics. It has been developed in the frame of the “Global Human Settlement Layer” (GHSL) project of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, with the overall objective to support the production of settlement layers at regional scale, by processing high and very high resolution satellite imagery. The tool builds on the Symbolic Machine Learning (SML) classifier; a supervised classification method of remotely sensed data which allows extracting built-up information using a coarse resolution settlement map or a land cover information for learning the classifier. The image classification workflow incorporates radiometric, textural and morphological features as inputs for information extraction. Though being originally developed for built-up areas extraction, the SML classifier is a multi-purpose classifier that can be used for general land cover mapping provided there is an appropriate training data set. The tool supports several types of multispectral optical imagery. It includes ready-to-use workflows for specific sensors, but at the same time, it allows the parametrization and customization of the workflow by the user. Currently it includes predefined workflows for SPOT-5, SPOT-6/7, RapidEye and CBERS-4, but it was also tested with various high and very high resolution1 sensors like GeoEye-1, WorldView-2/3, Pléiades and Quickbird.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

MASADA Sentinel 1 & 2 User Guide

MASADA stands for Massive Spatial Automatic Data Analytics. It has been developed in the frame of the “Global Human Settlement Layer” (GHSL) project of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, with the overall objective to support the production of settlement layers, by automatic classification of high and very high resolution satellite imagery. The tool builds on the Symbolic Machine Learning (SML) classifier; a supervised classification method of remotely sensed data which allows extracting built-up information using a coarse resolution settlement map or a land cover information for learning the classifier. The first version of MASADA (v1.3) supports Very High Resolution satellite data and includes pre-defined workflows for a variety of sensors (e.g. SPOT-5, SPOT-6/7, RapidEye, CBERS-4). The second version of MASADA (v2.0) is tailored to the processing of Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. Two workflows building on the SML but adapted to the characteristics of each of the two sensors have been implemented in a stand-alone software. The tool is designed for the processing of single scenes, for batch processing of a series of scenes and for parallel processing of large datasets thanks to a dedicated command-line interface. This user guide is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of using the MASADA tool. It includes instructions for the installation of the software, the use of the tool and the manipulation of the data. It presents briefly the basic principles and background information on the two main modules integrated in this new version: S1 module and S2 module. Some guidelines on the parametrization of the modules are also provided together with test datasets.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Epithelial calreticulin up-regulation promotes profibrotic responses and tubulointerstitial fibrosis development

Renal fibrosis is the common anatomical feature underlying the progression of chronic kidney disease, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In a previous study, we demonstrated that during development of renal fibrosis in a rat model of unilateral ureteric obstruction, calreticulin (CRT) is up-regulated in tubular epithelial cells (TECs). In the present study, we used in vitro and in vivo approaches to examine the role of CRT in TECs and its contribution to the progression of fibrosis. In cultured renal TECs, CRT overexpression induced acquisition of an altered, profibrotic cellular phenotype. Consistently, the opposite effects were observed for CRT knockdown. Subsequently, we confirmed that critical changes observed in vitro were also apparent in tubular cells in vivo in the animal model of unilateral ureteric obstruction. In agreement with these results, we demonstrate that substantial (50%) reduction in the expression of CRT reduced the development of tubulointerstitial fibrosis at a comparable level through regulation of inflammation, transcriptional activation, transforming growth factor b1eassociated effects, and apoptosis. In summary, our findings establish that CRT is critically involved in the molecular mechanisms that drive renal fibrosis progression and indicate that inhibition of CRT expression might be a therapeutic target for reduction of fibrosis and chronic kidney disease development

Left Ventricle to Right Atrium Shunt Secondary to Blunt Chest Trauma. A Case Report

Intracardiac shunts are rarely encountered as sequelae of non-penetrating heart trauma and their clinical manifestations may often be unrecognized in the multi-injured patient. However, they are serious complications and their diagnostic approach is not always feasible.

GHSL-S2 plugin User Guide

The GHSL-S2 Tool (version 1.0) is a visualization and download tool (QGIS plugin) developed in the frame of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) project . It facilitates the access to the GHSL S2 products using a free and open-source cross-platform Geographic Information System software (QGIS v.3.8 or higher). It provides a handy way to explore the GHSL datasets, to classify the probabilistic built-up layer derived from Sentinel-2 image composite and to export user-defined subsets, while avoiding the download of large files. The GHS-S2 tool is developed in Python programming language as a QGIS plugin. It bridges the QGIS software to the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud-based platform , making use of the GEE plugin , which integrates GEE and QGIS using the EE Python API . It requires an active GEE account and an internet connection. This document contains the description of the GHS-S2 tool usage, the main features and functionalities. The GHSL-S2 plugin is part of the GHSL tools suite and issued with an end-user licence agreement, included in the download package.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Effect of yoghurt serum powder dietary supplementation on growth performance and antioxidant status in fattening lambs

Large quantities of serum are produced during the strained yoghurt manufacturing process, which is the predominant type of yoghurt in Greece. However, the exploitation of this by-product as an alternative source of energy, protein and mineral elements in animal diets has not yet been examined. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to determine the effects of dietary yoghurt serum supplementation on growth performance and antioxidant status in sheep.Fourty eight male 2 months old lambs of Chios breed were randomly assigned to three experimental groups; control group was fed with a commercial basal diet, whereas the other two groups consumed the same diet, with the only difference that concentrated feed was uniformly supplemented with two levels of yoghurt serum powder (YS1: 25 g/kg feed or YS2: 50 g/kg feed). Lambs were weighed in a weekly basis from the beginning until the end of the experiment and blood samples were collected to measure antioxidant status. No significant effect of yoghurt serum powder on growth performance of fattening lambs was demonstrated, even after 28 days of dietary supplementation (P>0.05). At the same time, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in blood plasma were not significantly different among the experimental groups (P>0.05) and no incidents of lambs with diarrhea were recorded. It can be concluded that yoghurt serum powder appears as a promising alternative of the cereals in the diets of fattening lambs, since no negative effects on growth performance and health status were observed