The Impact of MIS Software on IT Energy Consumption

The energy consumption of IT has a great impact on operational costs, in addition to being important for social responsibility and system scalability issues. Research on IT energy efficiency has always focused on hardware, whereas within the software domain it has mainly focused on embedded systems. In this paper we present the preliminary results of some experiments that we conducted to evaluate MIS applications from an energy efficiency point of view. We analyze in details some selected case studies, including 2 ERPs, 2 CRMs and 4 DBMS. Our evidence suggests i) that not only the infrastructural layers, but also the MIS applications layer does impact on the energy consumption; ii) that different MIS applications satisfying the same functional requirements consume significantly different amounts of energy; and iii) that in some scenarios energy efficiency cannot be increased simply by improving time performance

systemic contact dermatitis from herbal and homeopathic preparations used for herpes virus treatment

Systemic contact dermatitis may occur in contactsensitized individuals when they are exposed to haptens orally, transcutaneously, intravenously or by inhalation. We report the case of a woman developing a diffuse skin eruption after the topical use of Rhus toxicodendron alcoholic extract and the oral introduction of a homeopathic preparation of the same substance for herpes treatment. An open test, performed with the Rhus toxicodendron tincture, showed an erythematooedematous response at 48 h and vesicular reaction at 96 h that was still present after 7 days. Patch test with 65% ethyl alcohol gave negative results. The open test performed, as control, in eight healthy informed subjects revealed negative responses to Rhus tincture application. The result is interesting because in Italy, allergic contact dermatitis to Rhus is uncommon and this case increases the understanding of the pathogenetic mechanism leading to systemic contact dermatitis development. Key words: homeopathy; plant extracts; mother tincture; Rhus toxicodendron; herpes virus infection

The italian quaternary volcanism

The peninsular and insular Italy are punctuated by Quaternary volcanoes and their rocks constitute an important aliquot of the Italian Quaternary sedimentary successions. Also away from volcanoes themselves, volcanic ash layers are a common and frequent feature of the Quaternary records, which provide us with potential relevant stratigraphic and chronological markers at service of a wide array of the Quaternary science issues. In this paper, a broad representation of the Italian volcano logical community has joined to provide an updated comprehensive state of art of the Italian Quaternary volcanism. The eruptive history, style and dynamics and, in some cases, the hazard assessment of about thirty Quaternary volcanoes, from the north ernmost Mt. Amiata, in Tuscany, to the southernmost Pantelleria and Linosa, in Sicily Channel, are here reviewed in the light of the substantial improving of the methodological approaches and the overall knowledge achieved in the last decades in the vol canological field study. We hope that the present review can represent a useful and agile document summarising the knowledege on the Italian volcanism at the service of the Quaternary community operating in central Mediterranean area

Reconstruction of the eruptive activity on the NE sector of Stromboli volcano: timing of flank eruptions since 15 ka

A multidisciplinary geological and compositional investigation allowed us to reconstruct the occurrence of flank eruptions on the lower NE flank of Stromboli volcano since 15 ka. The oldest flank eruption recognised is Roisa, which occurred at ~15 ka during the Vancori period, and has transitional compositional characteristics between the Vancori and Neostromboli phases. Roisa was followed by the San Vincenzo eruption that took place at ~12 ka during the early stage of Neostromboli period. The eruptive fissure of San Vincenzo gave rise to a large scoria cone located below the village of Stromboli, and generated a lava flow, most of which lies below sea level. Most of the flank eruptions outside the barren Sciara del Fuoco occurred in a short time, between ~9 and 7 ka during the Neostromboli period, when six eruptive events produced scoria cones, spatter ramparts and lava flows. The Neostromboli products belong to a potassic series (KS), and cluster in two differently evolved groups. After an eruptive pause of ~5,000 years, the most recent flank eruption involving the NE sector of the island occurred during the Recent Stromboli period with the formation of the large, highly K calc-alkaline lava flow field, named San Bartolo. The trend of eruptive fissures since 15 ka ranges from N30°E to N55°E, and corresponds to the magma intrusions radiating from the main feeding system of the volcano

Volumetric Blood Flow Assessment through Multigate Spectral Doppler

Volumetric blood flow measurements require the assessment of both the velocity distribution and the cross-sectional area of the vessel. Unfortunately several difficulties hamper such a measurement in standard approaches. A new dual beam method has been recently introduced in which the Doppler spectral symmetry is exploited to finely orientating the first beam at 90° with respect to the flow, so that the remaining beam can perform a velocity measurement with known Doppler angle. In this paper it is shown how this special beam configuration proves particularly suitable for volume flow measurements. While the transverse beam performs a diameter measurement with optimal orientation, the velocity distribution along the second beam is measured through multigate spectral analysis. The method has been coded on a research system. In-vitro experiments produced a bias less then 7% with a coefficient of variability (CV) less then 5%. In preliminary tests on 3 volunteers CVs within 10% were obtained