A Multi-Criteria Approach for Irrigation Water Management

The major implications that the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD) may have in irrigated agriculture were analysed using alternative water policy measures. The consequences of policy change were evaluated in a case study (Baixo Alentejo, Portugal), using a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model that simulates farmers’ preferred behaviour. The study compares the effects of water pricing (volumetric and flat tariffs) and consumption quotas, in farmer’s income, water agency revenues, agricultural employment and water demand for irrigation. Model results indicate that the adjustments in farmer’s responses are dependent on the policy strategy enforced and on the policy level.Water Framework Directive, Flat Pricing, Volumetric Pricing, Multi- Objective Programming, Water Management, Portugal,

Implications of water environment policy for irrigated agriculture in Portugal

This research develops a bio-economic modelling framework for the assessment of agricultural and water policy change implications for irrigated agriculture. It aims to contribute towards the implementation of the Water Framework Directive within the European Union, particularly in regard to the principles of cost recovery of water services and water demand management for irrigation. The bio-economic framework combines local agro-ecological with socio-economic elements, allowing for the introduction of biophysical relationships of irrigated agricultural production into the appraisal of policy instruments. This framework is used to investigate the comparative performance of water management policy instruments for irrigation, including volumetric pricing, flat pricing, a two-part tariff and water allotments. Implications of these water policy instruments are assessed in combination with agricultural market and policy scenarios, which are used to define the economic background in which water policies will operate. This operational framework is designed within a microeconomic context at the farm level that takes into account crop yield-water relationships, the revealed economic behaviour of farmers, as well as structural productive patterns of representative agricultural systems in two case study areas in the south of Portugal. This integrated approach provides a comprehensive understanding of the implications of agricultural and water policies on irrigated agriculture within the European Union, unravels conflicts and identifies synergies between these policies. Simulation of water policy instruments produced substantial differences in performance across farming systems, enforcement levels, and agricultural policy and market settings. Results suggest that water pricing, on its own, is not necessarily the most effective means for achieving the WFD water demand management and cost recovery objectives, and proposes that a policy mix combining economic with regulatory elements may be best designed to pursue these objectives with fewer detrimental consequences. This study highlights that conflicts between CAP and the WFD may result in losses of efficiency, policy efficacy and losses of welfare, that could be minimised by integrating both policy measures and objectives, in a coherent and combined approach, exploring synergies and coordinating efforts to overcome sources of conflict

Data analysis and visualization techniques for project tracking: Experiences with the ITLingo-Cloud Platform

Considering the market's competitiveness and the complexity of organizations and projects, analyzing data is crucial to decision support on software development and project management processes. These practices are essential to increase performance, reduce costs and risks of failure, and guarantee the quality of results, keeping the work organized and controlled. ITLingo-Cloud is a multi-organization and multi-workspace collaborative platform to manage and analyze data that can support translating project performance knowledge into improved decision-making. This platform allows users to quickly set up their environment, manage workspaces and technical documentation, and analyze and observe statistics to aid both technical and business decisions. ITLingo-Cloud supports multiple technologies and languages, promotes data synchronization with templates and reusable libraries, as well as automation tasks, namely automatic data extraction, automatic validation, or document automation. The usability of ITLingo-Cloud was recently evaluated with two experiments and discussed with other related approaches.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in pppp collisions at s=7\sqrt{s}=7 TeV in dilepton final states with ATLAS

A measurement of the production cross section of top quark pairs (ttbar) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is reported. Candidate events are selected in the dilepton topology with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35 pb^-1, a ttbar production cross section of 171 +/- 20(stat.) +/- 14(syst.) +8-6(lum.) pb is measured for an assumed top quark mass of 172.5 GeV. A second measurement requiring at least one jet identified as coming from a b quark yields a comparable result, demonstrating that the dilepton final states are consistent with being accompanied by b-quark jets. These measurements are in good agreement with Standard Model predictions.Peer Reviewe

Performance of Missing Transverse Momentum Reconstruction in Proton-Proton Collisions at 7 TeV with ATLAS

The measurement of missing transverse momentum in the ATLAS detector, described in this paper, makes use of the full event reconstruction and a calibration based on reconstructed physics objects. The performance of the missing transverse momentum reconstruction is evaluated using data collected in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV in 2010. Minimum bias events and events with jets of hadrons are used from data samples corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 0.3 inverse nb and 600 inverse nb, together with events containing a Z boson decaying to two leptons (electrons or muons) or a W boson decaying to a lepton (electron or muon) and a neutrino, from a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 36 inverse pb. An estimate of the systematic uncertainty on the missing transverse momentum scale is presented.Peer Reviewe

Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation

A Multi-Criteria Approach for Irrigation Water Management

The major implications that the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD) may have in irrigated agriculture were analysed using alternative water policy measures. The consequences of policy change were evaluated in a case study (Baixo Alentejo, Portugal), using a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model that simulates farmers’ preferred behaviour. The study compares the effects of water pricing (volumetric and flat tariffs) and consumption quotas, in farmer’s income, water agency revenues, agricultural employment and water demand for irrigation. Model results indicate that the adjustments in farmer’s responses are dependent on the policy strategy enforced and on the policy level

Standing Posture in Motor and Cognitive Dual-Tasks during Smartphone Use: Linear and Nonlinear Analysis of Postural Control

Analysis of the center of pressure (CoP) during cognitive or motor dual-tasking is widely used to characterize postural control. Most studies use traditional measures of CoP to quantify postural control, but given its complexity, nonlinear analysis of CoP is of growing interest in the area. This study aims to analyze CoP behavior in healthy young adults during standing posture performance while simultaneously performing motor or cognitive tasks on a smartphone, using linear and nonlinear analysis of CoP. Thirty-six healthy participants (23.08 ± 3.92 years) were found eligible for this study. They performed a single task (ST), cognitive dual-task (cog-DT), and motor dual-task (mot-DT). The total excursion of CoP, displacement of CoP in the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions, mean total velocity of CoP, and mean anterior-posterior and medial-lateral velocities of CoP were measured with a force plate. Approximate entropy (ApEn) of the anterior-posterior (ApEn-AP) and medial-lateral (ApEn-ML) displacement of CoP were also calculated. The results showed that dual-task costs for the total excursion, displacement in the anterior-posterior direction, mean total velocity, and mean anterior-posterior velocity of CoP were greater during the cog-DT than the mot-DT (p 0.05) between the cog-DT and mot-DT for ApEn values of the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral time series of the CoP. Both linear and nonlinear analyses showed differences between the cog-DT and ST (p < 0.05), revealing a decline in postural control during the cog-DT compared with the ST. In conclusion, performing a cog-DT causes sway impairments and lower postural control efficacy compared with motor single and dual-tasks. Furthermore, both linear and nonlinear analyses were able to distinguish between conditions

New results on light nuclei, hyperons and hypernuclei from HADES (HADES collaboration)

International audienceIn March 2019 the HADES experiment recorded 14 billion Ag+Ag collisions at √sNN = 2.55 GeV as a part of the FAIR phase-0 physics program. In this contribution, we present and investigate our capabilities to reconstruct and analyze weakly decaying strange hadrons and hypernuclei emerging from these collisions. The focus is put on measuring the mean lifetimes of these particles