Astroinformatics of galaxies and quasars: a new general method for photometric redshifts estimation

With the availability of the huge amounts of data produced by current and future large multi-band photometric surveys, photometric redshifts have become a crucial tool for extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. In this paper we present a novel method, called Weak Gated Experts (WGE), which allows to derive photometric redshifts through a combination of data mining techniques. \noindent The WGE, like many other machine learning techniques, is based on the exploitation of a spectroscopic knowledge base composed by sources for which a spectroscopic value of the redshift is available. This method achieves a variance \sigma^2(\Delta z)=2.3x10^{-4} (\sigma^2(\Delta z) =0.08), where \Delta z = z_{phot} - z_{spec}) for the reconstruction of the photometric redshifts for the optical galaxies from the SDSS and for the optical quasars respectively, while the Root Mean Square (RMS) of the \Delta z variable distributions for the two experiments is respectively equal to 0.021 and 0.35. The WGE provides also a mechanism for the estimation of the accuracy of each photometric redshift. We also present and discuss the catalogs obtained for the optical SDSS galaxies, for the optical candidate quasars extracted from the DR7 SDSS photometric dataset {The sample of SDSS sources on which the accuracy of the reconstruction has been assessed is composed of bright sources, for a subset of which spectroscopic redshifts have been measured.}, and for optical SDSS candidate quasars observed by GALEX in the UV range. The WGE method exploits the new technological paradigm provided by the Virtual Observatory and the emerging field of Astroinformatics.Comment: 36 pages, 22 figures and 8 table

some remarks about a community open source lagrangian pollutant transport and dispersion model

Nowadays fishes and mussels farming is very important, from an economical point of view, for the local social background of the Bay of Naples. Hence, the accurate forecast of marine pollution becomes crucial to have reliable evaluation of its adverse effects on coastal inhabitants' health. The use of connected smart devices for monitoring the sea water pollution is getting harder because of the saline environment, the network availability and the maintain and calibration costs2. To this purpose, we designed and implemented WaComM (Water Community Model), a community open source model for sea pollutants transport and dispersion. WaComM is a model component of a scientific workflow which allows to perform, on a dedicated computational infrastructure, numerical simulations providing spatial and temporal high-resolution predictions of weather and marine conditions of the Bay of Naples leveraging on the cloud based31FACE-IT workflow engine27. In this paper we present some remarks about the development of WaComM, using hierarchical parallelism which implies distributed memory, shared memory and GPGPUs. Some numerical details are also discussed. Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Program Chairs

Clinical Characteristics and Course of Patients Entering Cardiac Rehabilitation with Chronic Kidney Disease: Data from the Italian Survey on Cardiac Rehabilitation

This survey shows the clinical risk profile, resource utilization, pharmacologic treatment, and course of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Data from 165 CR units in Italy were collected online from January 28 to February 10, 2008. The study cohort consisted of 2281 patients: 200 CKD patients and 2081 non-CKD patients. CKD patients were older and showed more comorbidity and complications during CR, a more complex clinical course and interventions with less functional evaluation, and a different pattern of drug therapy at hospital discharge. CKD patients had higher mortality during CR programs due to heart failure, respiratory insufficiency, and cognitive impairment. These findings suggest that patients with CKD should not be denied access to CR, provided careful attention to clinical status, possible complications, optimization of drug therapy, and close followup

Clinical Characteristics and Course of Patients Entering Cardiac Rehabilitation with Chronic Kidney Disease: Data from the Italian Survey on Cardiac Rehabilitation

This survey shows the clinical risk profile, resource utilization, pharmacologic treatment, and course of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Data from 165 CR units in Italy were collected online from January 28 to February 10, 2008. The study cohort consisted of 2281 patients: 200 CKD patients and 2081 non-CKD patients. CKD patients were older and showed more comorbidity and complications during CR, a more complex clinical course and interventions with less functional evaluation, and a different pattern of drug therapy at hospital discharge. CKD patients had higher mortality during CR programs due to heart failure, respiratory insufficiency, and cognitive impairment. These findings suggest that patients with CKD should not be denied access to CR, provided careful attention to clinical status, possible complications, optimization of drug therapy, and close followup

Synthesis, structural aspects and cytotoxicity of the natural cyclopeptides yunnanins A, C and phakellistatins 1, 10

Yunnanins A and C, two cyclic heptapeptides occurring in the roots of Stellaria yunnanensis, and phakellistatins 1 and 10, a hepta- and an octacyclopeptide first isolated from marine sponges of the genus Phakellia, were efficiently synthesized using a combination of solid and solution-phase techniques. Structural analysis on the synthetic members of the yunnanin series showed that the synthetic sample of yunnanin A exhibited a configurational pattern at the Pro peptide linkages identical to the natural product (trans-Pro3, trans-Pro5), while yunnanin C was obtained as a complex mixture of geometric/conformational isomers; the major isomer (trans-Pro3) was indistinguishable from the natural cyclopeptide and co-occurred along with lower amounts of a mixture (1:1 ratio) of two different rotamers, both displaying cis geometry at the Pro3 linkage. In the phakellistatin series, the synthetic phakellistatin 1 (determined as cis-Pro1, cis-Pro3, cis-Pro5) was identical to the natural one, while two different isomeric products of phakellistatin 10 could be obtained: a major one (trans-Pro1, trans-Pro4, trans-Pro6) showing spectral properties superimposable with the natural metabolite, and a minor geometric isomer of the natural cyclopeptide. Interestingly, the synthetic cyclopeptides, although found to be chemically identical with their natural counterparts, did not display the same biological properties (in vitro cytotoxicity against a panel of cancer cell lines), leaving presently open the question whether or not the potent bioactivity reported in the literature should really be attributed to these natural cyclic peptides. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Plakilactones G and H from a marine sponge. Stereochemical determination of highly flexible systems by quantitative NMR-derived interproton distances combined with quantum mechanical calculations of C-13 chemical shifts

In this paper the stereostructural investigation of two new oxygenated polyketides, plakilactones G and H, isolated from the marine sponge Plakinastrella mamillaris collected at Fiji Islands, is reported. The stereostructural studies began on plakilactone H by applying an integrated approach of the NOE-based protocol and quantum mechanical calculations of (13)C chemical shifts. In particular, plakilactone H was used as a template to extend the application of NMR-derived interproton distances to a highly flexible molecular system with simultaneous assignment of four non-contiguous stereocenters. Chemical derivatization and quantum mechanical calculations of (13)C on plakilactone G along with a plausible biogenetic interconversion between plakilactone G and plakilactone H allowed us to determine the absolute configuration in this two new oxygenated polyketides

The Italian Survey on Cardiac Rehabilitation - 2008 (ISYDE-2008). Part 3. National availability and organization of cardiac rehabilitation facilities. Official report of the Italian Association for Cardiovascular Prevention, Rehabilitation and Epidemiolog

From January 28th to February 10th 2008, the Italian Association for Cardiovascular Prevention, Rehabilitation and Epidemiology (IACPR-GICR) conducted the ISYDE- 2008 study, the primary aim of which was to take a detailed snapshot of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) provision in Italy – in terms of number and distribution of facilities, staffing levels, organization and setting – and compare the actual CR provision with the recommendations of national guidelines for CR and secondary prevention. The secondary aim was to describe the patient population currently being referred to CR and the components of the programs offered. Out of 190 cardiac rehabilitation centers existing in Italy in 2008, 165 (87%) took part in the study. On a national basis, there is one CR unit every 299,977 inhabitants: in northern Italy there is one CR unit every 263,578 inhabitants, while in central and southern Italy there is one every 384,034 and 434,170 inhabitants, respectively. The majority of CR units are located in public hospitals (59%), the remainder in privately owned health care organizations (41%). Fifty-nine percent are located in hospitals providing both acute and rehabilitation care, 32% are in specifically dedicated rehabilitation structures, while 8% operate in the context of residential long term care for chronic conditions. Almost three-quarters of CR units currently operating are linked to dedicated cardiology divisions (74%), 5% are linked to physical medicine and rehabilitation divisions, 2% to internal medicine, and 19% to cardiac surgery and other divisions. Inhospital care is provided by 62.4% of the centers; outpatient care is provided on a day-hospital basis by 10.9% of facilities and on an ambulatory basis by 20%. The CR units are led in 86% of cases by a cardiologist and in only 14% of cases by specialists in internal medicine, geriatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, pneumology or other disciplines. In terms of staffing, each cardiac rehabilitation unit has 4.0±2.7 dedicated physicians (range 1-16, mode 2), 10.1±8.0 nurses, 3.3±2.5 physiotherapists (range 0 – 20; 16% of services have no physiotherapist in the rehabilitation team), 1.5±0.8 psychologists, and a dietitian (present in 62% of CR units). Phase II CR programs are available in 67.9% of cases in residential (inpatient) and in 30.9% of cases in outpatient (day-hospital and ambulatory) settings. Phase III programs are offered by 56.4% of the centers in ambulatory outpatient regime, and on an at home basis by 4.8% with telecare supervision, 7.3% without. Long term secondary prevention follow up programs are provided by 42.4% of CR services

Greenhouse gas emissions from urban area of Naples

Urban areas are among the main causes of greenhouse gases emissions on the planet, despite covering relatively small areas of the land. Recently, a number of projects aim at monitoring the dynamics of city emissions using micro meteorological measurements by applying the technique of eddy correlation for measuring the fluxes of carbon dioxide, water, methane and energy. In this perspective, a super-site for the measurement of atmospheric pollutants from urban sources has been established in Naples (Campania, Southern Italy), where the complex layout of the coast and surrounding mountains favours the development of combined sea breeze upslope winds and the evolution of return flows with several layers of pollutants and subsidence. At the super-site, an eddy covariance tower has been installed on the rooftop of the Meteorological Observatory of Largo San Marcellino, situated in the historical city centre: a fast response ultrasonic anemometer (Gill WindMaster) has been mounted on a 10-m mast, alongside three insulated inlet lines through which the air is sampled for gaseous pollutants and particulate matter. The height of the terrace is on average 35 m above the irregular street level, resulting in an overall measuring height of 45 m. Mixing ratios of CO2, CH4 and H2O are measured by an infrared spectrometer (10 Hz, Los Gatos Research). The results shown that the mean urban levels of CO2 are between 420-520 ppm; the mean levels of CH4 span between 1.85-2.48 ppm. These fluxes are representative of varying footprint source areas, covering the historical centre of Naples, the harbour, and some main traffic arteries of the city. The analysis of these measurements on long-term will allow to establish relationships between the fluxes of greenhouse gases and the other pollutant species measured

Coastal marine data crowdsourcing using the Internet of Floating Things: Improving the results of a water quality model

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Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation “3.0”: From acute to chronic phase. Position Paper of the ltalian Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (GICR-IACPR)

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is the subspecialty of clinical cardiology dedicated to the treatment of cardiac patients, early and in the long term after an acute event. The aim of CR is to improve both quality of life and prognosis through prognostic stratification, clinical stabilization and optimization of therapy (pharmacological and non), management of comorbidities, treatment of disability, as well as through the provision and reinforcement of secondary prevention interventions and maintenaince of adherence to treatment. The mission of CR has changed over time. Once centered on the acute phase, aimed primarily at short-term survival, the healthcare of cardiac patients now increasingly involves the chronic phase where the challenge is to guarantee continuity and quality of care in the medium and long-term. The aim of the present position paper is to provide the state-of-the-art of CR in Italy, discussing its trengths and weaknesses as well as future perspectives