Developing an open data portal for the ESA climate change initiative

We introduce the rationale for, and architecture of, the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Open Data Portal (http://cci.esa.int/data/). The Open Data Portal hosts a set of richly diverse datasets – 13 “Essential Climate Variables” – from the CCI programme in a consistent and harmonised form and to provides a single point of access for the (>100 TB) data for broad dissemination to an international user community. These data have been produced by a range of different institutions and vary across both scientific and spatio-temporal characteristics. This heterogeneity of the data together with the range of services to be supported presented significant technical challenges. An iterative development methodology was key to tackling these challenges: the system developed exploits a workflow which takes data that conforms to the CCI data specification, ingests it into a managed archive and uses both manual and automatically generated metadata to support data discovery, browse, and delivery services. It utilises both Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) data nodes and the Open Geospatial Consortium Catalogue Service for the Web (OGC-CSW) interface, serving data into both the ESGF and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). A key part of the system is a new vocabulary server, populated with CCI specific terms and relationships which integrates OGC-CSW and ESGF search services together, developed as part of a dialogue between domain scientists and linked data specialists. These services have enabled the development of a unified user interface for graphical search and visualisation – the CCI Open Data Portal Web Presence

Síndrome metabólica e disfunção eréctil - avaliação de parâmetros clínicos e hemodinâmicos

Objetivos Calcular a prevalência de fatores de risco cardiovascular, incluindo a síndrome metabólica (SM), numa série de doentes portugueses com disfunção erétil (DE) e quantificar o impacto individual e agregado dos mesmos, nos parâmetros hemodinâmicos e no grau de severidade reportada. Material e métodos Estudo de uma série de 408 doentes com DE seguidos em consulta de Urologia, no período 2008-2010. A SM foi definida pelos critérios propostos pela National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III), tendo sido quantificadas as variáveis hipertensão arterial (HTA), intolerância a glicose (IG), hipertrigliceridemia (HTG), diminuição de HDL e obesidade central, sob a forma dicotómica. O estudo hemodinâmico foi efetuado por eco-doppler peniano dinâmico (D-PCDU) e a avaliação da severidade da DE recorrendo ao questionário International Index of Erectile Function 5-questions (IIEF-5). Resultados Verificou-se uma prevalência elevada de HTA (46,3%), IG (36,0%), HTG (24,8%), diminuição de HDL (22,3%) e obesidade central (41,2%). A prevalência de SM foi de 26,5%. O IIEF-5 e o pico de velocidade sistólica (PSV) apresentaram medianas de 12,0 e 34,0 cm/s, respetivamente. As análises multivariadas revelaram a HTA e a IG como fatores independentes influenciando negativamente o valor do PSV (p = 0,002) e o score do IEEF-5 (p = 0,010), respetivamente. Conclusão Enfatiza-se a elevada prevalência de fatores de risco cardiovascular numa população de doentes com DE, assim como a forte associação independente da HTA ao agravamento dos parâmetros hemodinâmicos da função erétil.Objectives To estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, including metabolic syndrome (MS), in a series of Portuguese patients with erectile dysfunction (ED) and to quantify their individual and aggregate role regarding penile hemodynamics and degree of ED severity. Material and methods A cross-sectional study of 408 patients seen in the Urology Department of Hospital Sao João (Portugal) within the period 2008-2010 was performed. MS was defined in accordance with the National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) criteria. For this purpose, we used the dichotomized variables: hypertension (HTA), glucose intolerance (GI), hypertriglyceridemia (HTG), decreased HDL cholesterol and central obesity. Penile hemodynamics were measured using the dynamic penile color Doppler ultrasound (D-PCDU) and ED severity was assessed with the International Index of Erectile Function-5 questions (IIEF-5). Results There was high prevalence of HTA (46.3%), GI (36.0%), HTG (24.8%), decreased HDL (22.3%) and central obesity (41.2%). Prevalence of MS was 26.5%. The median of IIEF-5 and peak systolic velocity (PSV) was 12.0 and 34.0 cms, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed HTA and GI as independent factors decreasing the value of PSV (p = .002) and the score IEEF-5 (p = .010), respectively. Conclusion We emphasize the high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a population of patients with ED as well as the strong independent association between AHT and hemodynamic worsening of erectile function