Can indicators for sustainable tourism improve tourism planning in the coastal destinations? Empirical evidence from Catalonia, Istrian Region and Tuscany Region

Due to the continuous increase of the tourism industry, tourism destinations need to be managed under a sustainable framework, with the main aim of minimizing the adverse effects caused by tourism flows. In recent years, several attempts have been made to measure those effects and value the level of sustainability of every destination. A clear example of this is the European Tourism Indicator System (ETIS). In the paper, the results are presented of a project which aimed to test indicators of sustainable tourism in coastal destinations of Catalonia, Istrian Region, and Tuscany Region. The results of 33 collected indicators are available on the online platform of the project INTERREG MED MITOMED+. During the first year, in every category of indicators (economic, social-cultural and environmental) only some indicators were collected, which was expected because different regions apply different methodologies. The collected data is the starting point that shows destinations how the indicator can be obtained and what its purpose is. Furthermore, collected data can help local and regional tourism stakeholders to prevent factors of risk, to take decisions and to improve the implementation of policies for sustainable maritime and coastal tourism development in the Mediterranean area

Analysis of the behavior of the business tourist in Barcelona

Este artículo analiza el comportamiento de los turistas de negocios de la ciudad de Barcelona. Se estudia el efecto de la duración de la estancia en las relaciones de la motivación, la satisfacción, la imagen, la repetitividad y la recomendación. El modelo teórico propuesto se basa en la literatura, plantea 9 hipótesis de trabajo y aporta conocimiento sobre los efectos de la duración de la estancia sobre el destino. La metodología utilizada son los modelos de ecuaciones estructurales, y el uso del análisis multigrupo. La muestra usada son 2976 turistas de negocio que pernoctan en Barcelona. Los resultados sugieren que los turistas profesionales de corta y larga estancia se comportan de manera diferente, así como que la mayoría de hipótesis son aceptadas con diferente grado de intensidad. También permiten proponer implicaciones y sugerencias en el ámbito de las políticas turísticas, estrategias de gestión y futuras líneas de investigación.This article analyses the behaviour of the business tourist in the city of Barcelona. The effect of the length of stay in the relationship of motivation, satisfaction, image, repeatability and recommendation is studied. The proposed theoretical model is based on the literature, it raises nine working hypotheses and provides knowledge about the effects of the length of stay on the destination. The methodology used is the structural equation modelling, and the use of multi group analysis. The sample used are 2976 business tourists who stay in Barcelona. The results suggest that professional tourists, short and long stay, behave differently, and most hypotheses are supported with varying degrees of support. They also allow to propose implications and suggestions in the field of tourism policies, management strategies and future research

High prevalence of liver fibrosis among european adults with unknown liver disease: a population-based study

[Background & Aims] Liver fibrosis is the main determinant of long-term outcome in chronic liver diseases. Little is known about the prevalence of liver fibrosis in the general population. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of liver fibrosis in the general adult population with unknown liver disease.[Methods] This was a population-based, cross-sectional study performed in the Barcelona metropolitan area. Subjects aged 18 to 75 years old were identified randomly from citizens included in the primary health care registry. Of 4866 subjects invited, 3076 participated (63.2%). Liver fibrosis was estimated by measuring liver stiffness (LS) with transient elastography (TE). Liver histology was assessed in 92 subjects with increased LS.[Results] Prevalence estimates of increased LS (≥6.8, ≥8.0, and ≥9.0 kPa) were 9.0%, 5.8%, and 3.6%, respectively. The etiology of liver disease was mainly nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), followed by alcohol risk consumption (consumption of ≥21 standard drinking units/wk in men and ≥14 standard drinking units/wk in women). Factors independently associated with increased LS were male sex, abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes, serum glucose, high-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels. Subjects without risk factors for NAFLD or without alcohol risk consumption had a very low prevalence of increased LS. The best cut-off value of LS for significant liver fibrosis (F2–F4) was 9.2 kPa, with high sensitivity and specificity. TE was more accurate than alanine aminotransferase, NAFLD fibrosis score, or Fibrosis 4. An algorithm for screening for liver fibrosis using TE in the community setting is proposed.[Conclusions] These findings show a high prevalence of silent liver disease with advanced fibrosis mainly related to NAFLD in adult European subjects without known liver disease. An LS value less than 9.2 kPa predicts the absence of significant liver fibrosis with high accuracy and could be used for screening purposes.The project received a research grant from the Carlos III Institute of Health, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain), awarded on the 2011 call under the Health Strategy Action 2013–2016, within the National Research Program oriented to Societal Challenges, within the Technical, Scientific and Innovation Research National Plan 2013–2016, with reference PI11/0267, co-funded by European Union European Regional Development Fund funds. Also supported by grants from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Subdirección General de Evaluación and the European Regional Development Fund Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (PI16/ 00043), the Agencia de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitarisi de Recerca, and the European Horizon 20/20 program, H20/20-SC1-2016-RTD, and an Institució Catalana de Recerca I Estudis Avançats Academy Award (P.G.).Peer reviewe

Famílies botàniques de plantes medicinals

Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona. Ensenyament: Grau de Farmàcia, Assignatura: Botànica Farmacèutica, Curs: 2013-2014, Coordinadors: Joan Simon, Cèsar Blanché i Maria Bosch.Els materials que aquí es presenten són els recull de 175 treballs d’una família botànica d’interès medicinal realitzats de manera individual. Els treballs han estat realitzat per la totalitat dels estudiants dels grups M-2 i M-3 de l’assignatura Botànica Farmacèutica durant els mesos d’abril i maig del curs 2013-14. Tots els treballs s’han dut a terme a través de la plataforma de GoogleDocs i han estat tutoritzats pel professor de l’assignatura i revisats i finalment co-avaluats entre els propis estudiants. L’objectiu principal de l’activitat ha estat fomentar l’aprenentatge autònom i col·laboratiu en Botànica farmacèutica

Automatic generation of workload profiles using unsupervised learning pipelines

The complexity of resource usage and power consumption on cloud-based applications makes the understanding of application behavior through expert examination difficult. The difficulty increases when applications are seen as “black boxes”, where only external monitoring can be retrieved. Furthermore, given the different amount of scenarios and applications, automation is required. Here we examine and model application behavior by finding behavior phases. We use Conditional Restricted Boltzmann Machines (CRBM) to model time-series containing resources traces measurements like CPU, Memory and IO. CRBMs can be used to map a given given historic window of trace behaviour into a single vector. This low dimensional and time-aware vector can be passed through clustering methods, from simplistic ones like k-means to more complex ones like those based on Hidden Markov Models (HMM). We use these methods to find phases of similar behaviour in the workloads. Our experimental evaluation shows that the proposed method is able to identify different phases of resource consumption across different workloads. We show that the distinct phases contain specific resource patterns that distinguish them.Peer Reviewe

A metal-line strength indicator for damped Lyman alpha (DLA) systems at low signal-to-noise

The bias factor of damped Ly α (DLAs) systems, derived from the cross-correlation with the Ly α forest in absorption spectra of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III, has been used to infer the characteristic mass of DLA host haloes. So far, no dependence of this bias factor with hydrogen column density NH I or other parameters has been detected. With the aim of measuring the dependence of the bias factor on the strength of metal lines, we define the metal strength parameter S, based on optimally combining equivalent widths of 17 metal lines to obtain the highest possible signal-to-noise ratio of S for individual candidate DLAs (defined as having NH I ≥ 1020 cm−2). We present the distribution of metal strength for these DLAs and the dependence of its mean value on NH I and redshift. We search for systematic effects and variations in the catalogue purity by examining the dependence of the S distribution on the spectral signal-to-noise and the estimated error on S. A catalogue of DLAs with measured equivalent widths for the selected 17 metal lines and the value of S are made publicly available, which are used in a separate paper to measure the dependence of the DLA bias factor on the S parameter. The relation of the metal strength on the gas metal abundances and velocity dispersion is complicated by the saturation of metal lines, and remains to be determined in future work

Nebulized Heparin Attenuates Pulmonary Coagulopathy and Inflammation through Alveolar Macrophages in a Rat Model of Acute Lung Injury

Objective Alveolar macrophages play a key role in the development and resolution of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), modulating the inflammatory response and the coagulation cascade in lungs. Anti-coagulants may be helpful in the treatment of ARDS. This study investigated the effects of nebulized heparin on the role of alveolar macrophages in limiting lung coagulation and inflammatory response in an animal model of acute lung injury (ALI). Methods Rats were randomized to four experimental groups. In three groups, ALI was induced by intratracheal instillation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and heparin was nebulized at constant oxygen flow: the LPS/Hep group received nebulized heparin 4 and 8 hours after injury; the Hep/LPS/Hep group received nebulized heparin 30 minutes before and 4 and 8 hours after LPS-induced injury; the LPS/Sal group received nebulized saline 4 and 8 hours after injury. The control group received only saline. Animals were exsanguinated 24 hours after LPS instillation. Lung tissue, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and alveolar macrophages isolated from BALF were analysed. Results LPS increased protein concentration, oedema and neutrophils in BALF as well as procoagulant and proinflammatory mediators in lung tissue and alveolar macrophages. In lung tissue, nebulized heparin attenuated ALI through decreasing procoagulant (tissue factor, thrombin-anti-thrombin complexes, fibrin degradation products) and proinflammatory (interleukin 6, tumour necrosis factor alpha) pathways. In alveolar macrophages, nebulized heparin reduced expression of procoagulant genes and the effectors of transforming growth factor beta (Smad 2, Smad 3) and nuclear factor kappa B (p-selectin, CCL-2). Pre-treatment resulted in more pronounced attenuation. Conclusion Nebulized heparin reduced pulmonary coagulopathy and inflammation without producing systemic bleeding, partly by modulating alveolar macrophages