Bayesian models of thermal and pluviometric time series in the Fucino plateau

This work was developed within the Project Metodologie e sistemi integrati per la qualificazione di produzioni orticole del Fucino (Methodologies and integrated systems for the classification of horticultural products in the Fucino plateau), sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, Strategic Projects, Law 448/97. Agro-system managing, especially if necessary to achieve high quality in speciality crops, requires knowledge of main features and intrinsic variability of climate. Statistical models may properly summarize the structure existing behind the observed variability, furthermore they may support the agronomic manager by providing the probability that meteorological events happen in a time window of interest. More than 30 years of daily values collected in four sites located on the Fucino plateau, Abruzzo region, Italy, were studied by fitting Bayesian generalized linear models to air temperature maximum /minimum and rainfall time series. Bayesian predictive distributions of climate variables supporting decision-making processes were calculated at different timescales, 5-days for temperatures and 10-days for rainfall, both to reduce computational efforts and to simplify statistical model assumptions. Technicians and field operators, even with limited statistical training, may exploit the model output by inspecting graphs and climatic profiles of the cultivated areas during decision-making processes. Realizations taken from predictive distributions may also be used as input for agro-ecological models (e.g. models of crop growth, water balance). Fitted models may be exploited to monitor climatic changes and to revise climatic profiles of interest areas, periodically updating the probability distributions of target climatic variables. For the sake of brevity, the description of results is limited to just one of the four sites, and results for all other sites are available as supplementary information

Trees and water: smallholder agroforestry on irrigated lands in Northern India

Trees / Populus deltoids / Agroforestry / Afforestation / Reforestation / Models / Water use / Water balance / Evapotranspiration / Precipitation / Remote sensing / Irrigation requirements / India

Understanding the Private Worlds of Physicians, Nurses, and Parents: A Study of Life-Sustaining Treatment Decisions in Italian Paediatric Critical Care

This study's aim was to describe: (a) How life-sustaining treatment (LST) decisions are made for critically ill children in Italy; and (b) How these decisional processes are experienced by physicians, nurses and parents. Focus groups with 16 physicians and 26 nurses, and individual interviews with 9 parents were conducted. Findings uncovered the 'private worlds' of paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) physicians, nurses and parents; they all suffer tremendously and privately. Physicians struggle with the weight of responsibility and solitude in making LST decisions. Nurses struggle with feelings of exclusion from decisions regarding patients and families that they care for. Physicians and nurses are distressed by legal barriers to LST withdrawal. Parents struggle with their dependence on physicians and nurses to provide care for their child and strive to understand what is happening to their child. Features of helpful and unhelpful communication with parents are highlighted, which should be considered in educational and practice changes

Small leucine rich proteoglycans are differently distributed in normal and pathological endometrium

BACKGROUND: During the woman's fertile period, the non-pregnant uterus is subject to constant cyclic changes. The complex mechanisms that control the balance among proliferation, differentiation, cell death and the structural remodeling of the extracellular matrix can contribute to the benign or malignant endometrial pathological state. The small leucine-rich proteoglycans (SLRPs) are important components of cell surface and extracellular matrices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using immunohistochemistry, we showed that the distribution patterns of SLRPs were completely modified in the pathological compared to normal endometrium. RESULTS: The expression of SLRPs was low/absent in all endometrial pathologies examined compared to normal endometrium. We observed an increase of lumican from proliferative to secretory phase of the endometrium and a decrease of fibromodulin, biglycan and decorin. In menopause endometrial tissue, the level of expression of fibromodulin, biglycan, decorin and lumican dramatically decreased. CONCLUSION: The results revealed the prominence and importance of proteoglycans in the tissue architecture and extracellular matrix organization

Pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma: A pre and intraoperative diagnostic challenge. report of two cases and review of the literature

Pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma is a rare benign pulmonary tumor of primitive epithelial origin. Because of the unspecific radiological features mimicking malignancies and its histological heterogeneity, the differential diagnosis with adenocarcinoma and carcinoid tumors is still challenging. We report our experience of two cases of sclerosing pneumocytoma, as well as a review of the literature. Immunohistochemical findings showed intense staining of the cuboidal epithelial cells for cytokeratin-pool and TTF-1, with focal positivity for progesterone receptors. Round and spindle cells expressed positivity for vimentin, TTF-1 and focally for the progesterone receptor. Cytologic diagnosis of pulmonary pneumocytoma requires the identification of its dual cell population, made up of abundant stromal cells and fewer surface cells. Since the pre-and intraoperative diagnosis should guide surgical decision making, obtaining a sufficient specimen size to find representative material in the cell block is of paramount importance

Multi-stakeholder development of a serious game to explore the water-energy-food-land-climate nexus: The SIM4NEXUS approach

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Water, energy, food, land and climate form a tightly-connected nexus in which actions on one sector impact other sectors, creating feedbacks and unanticipated consequences. This is especially because at present, much scientific research and many policies are constrained to single discipline/sector silos that are often not interacting (e.g., water-related research/policy). However, experimenting with the interaction and determining how a change in one sector could impact another may require unreasonable time frames, be very difficult in practice and may be potentially dangerous, triggering any one of a number of unanticipated side-effects. Current modelling often neglects knowledge from practice. Therefore, a safe environment is required to test the potential cross-sectoral implications of policy decisions in one sector on other sectors. Serious games offer such an environment by creating realistic 'simulations', where long-term impacts of policies may be tested and rated. This paper describes how the ongoing (2016-2020) Horizon2020 project SIM4NEXUS will develop serious games investigating potential plausible cross-nexus implications and synergies due to policy interventions for 12 multi-scale case studies ranging from regional to global. What sets these games apart is that stakeholders and partners are involved in all aspects of the modelling definition and process, from case study conceptualisation, quantitative model development including the implementation and validation of each serious game. Learning from playing a serious game is justified by adopting a proof-of-concept for a specific regional case study in Sardinia (Italy). The value of multi-stakeholder involvement is demonstrated, and critical lessons learned for serious game development in general are presented.The work described in this paper has been conducted within the project SIM4NEXUS. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 689150 SIM4NEXUS