Analysis of navigation pattern in the sport of rowing

The effect of weather and environmental conditions on sports has been extensively studied over the last few years (Pezzoli et al., 2010). Based upon the studies of Lobozewicz (1981) and of Kay and Vamplew (2002), Pezzoli and Cristofori (2008) have studied the impact of some specific environmental parameters over different sports using a particular impact index divided into five classes. This analysis clearly shows that most of the outdoor sport activities are strongly influenced by the variation of meteorological parameters. However the impact of meteorological conditions on outdoor sport activities has not yet been extensively studied. The aim of this research is to show that an accurate assessment of wind and wave parameters enables decisive improvements in both training and race strategy planning. Furthermore this analysis provide a very innovative working method for the applied sport research. The work has been based on in-situ measurements of both environmental and performance parameters (wind direction, wind velocity, boat speed and stroke rate) made over different classes and in different race conditions during the 2009 FISA World Championship (Poznan, Poland). In particular a detailed environmental analysis was performed by measuring the wind direction, the wind speed and by evaluating the significant wave height and the wave peak period for each class during the semi-final phase and the final phase. It should be noted that, since wind is a key parameter affecting not only the boat speed but also the race strategy, the assessment of the wind velocity and of the wind direction has been made in connection with the boat movement. The comparison between coupled wind-wave data, boat speed and stroke rate evidently demonstrates that only crews that managed the adaption to changing in the environmental conditions from semi-final to final phase of the race, were able to get better results. References Kay, J., & Vamplew, W. (2002) Weather beaten: sport in the British climate. London: Ed. Mainstream Publishing. Lobozewicz, T. (1981) Meteorology in sport. Frankfurt: Ed. Sportverlag. Pezzoli, A,, Moncalero, M., Boscolo, A., Cristofori, E., Giacometto, F., Gastaldi, S., & Vercelli, G. (2010) The meteo-hydrological analysis and the sport performance: which are the connections? The case of the XXI Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver 2010, Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 50: 19-20. Pezzoli, A., & Cristofori, E. (2008) Analisi, previsioni e misure meteorologiche applicate agli sport equestri, in: 10th Congress "New findings in equine practices, Druento: Centro Internazionale del Cavallo Ed., p.38-4

Enabling onshore CO2 storage in Europe: fostering international cooperation around pilot and test sites

To meet the ambitious EC target of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) needs to move rapidly towards full scale implementation with geological storage solutions both on and offshore. Onshore storage offers increased flexibility and reduced infrastructure and monitoring costs. Enabling onshore storage will support management of decarbonisation strategies at territory level while enhancing security of energy supply and local economic activities, and securing jobs across Europe. However, successful onshore storage also requires overcoming some unique technical and societal challenges. ENOS will provide crucial advances to help foster onshore CO2 storage across Europe through: 1. Developing, testing and demonstrating in the field, under "real-life conditions", key technologies specifically adapted to onshore storage. 2. Contributing to the creation of a favourable environment for onshore storage across Europe. The ENOS site portfolio will provide a great opportunity for demonstration of technologies for safe and environmentally sound storage at relevant scale. Best practices will be developed using experience gained from the field experiments with the participation of local stakeholders and the lay public. This will produce improved integrated research outcomes and increase stakeholder understanding and confidence in CO2 storage. In this improved framework, ENOS will catalyse new onshore pilot and demonstration projects in new locations and geological settings across Europe, taking into account the site-specific and local socio-economic context. By developing technologies from TRL4/5 to TRL6 across the storage lifecycle, feeding the resultant knowledge and experience into training and education and cooperating at the pan-European and global level, ENOS will have a decisive impact on innovation and build the confidence needed for enabling onshore CO2 storage in Europe. ENOS is initiating strong international collaboration between European researchers and their counterparts from the USA, Canada, South Korea, Australia and South Africa for sharing experience worldwide based on real-life onshore pilots and field experiments. Fostering experience-sharing and research alignment between existing sites is key to maximise the investment made at individual sites and to support the efficient large scale deployment of CCS. ENOS is striving to promote collaboration between sites in the world through a programme of site twinning, focus groups centered around operative issues and the creation of a leakage simulation alliance

Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Spinal Cord Injury: Current Options, Limitations, and Future of Cell Therapy

Spinal cord injury (SCI) constitutes an inestimable public health issue. The most crucial phase in the pathophysiological process of SCI concerns the well-known secondary injury, which is the uncontrolled and destructive cascade occurring later with aberrant molecular signaling, inflammation, vascular changes, and secondary cellular dysfunctions. The use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represents one of the most important and promising tested strategies. Their appeal, among the other sources and types of stem cells, increased because of their ease of isolation/preservation and their properties. Nevertheless, encouraging promise from preclinical studies was followed by weak and conflicting results in clinical trials. In this review, the therapeutic role of MSCs is discussed, together with their properties, application, limitations, and future perspectives

Analysis of influenza vaccination coverage among the elderly in Genoa (Italy) based on a deprivation index, 2009-2013

Introduction. The elderly suffer the most influenza-related complications, and 90%of deaths due to influenza occur in older subjects. Consequently, the elderly are among the main targets of influenza vaccination campaigns. The use of deprivation indexes can help to identify subgroups with lower vaccination uptake. This study analyzed influenza vaccination coverage in elderly persons living in Genoa (Italy) in relation to a local Index of Socio-Economic and Health Deprivation (SEHDI) in order to identify population subgroups needing specific intervention to improve vaccination coverage. Methods. The study targeted subjects aged 65 65 years living in Genoa in the period 2009-2013. Information on vaccination coverage was provided by general practitioners and Local Health Units. A combination of linear regression, factor analysis and cluster analysis was used to construct the SEHDI at Census Tract (CT) level, on the basis of data from the 2011 Italian census. Results. In 2011, people aged 65 65 years accounted for the 27.7%of the population of Genoa. Most elderly subjects were assigned to either the medium (45.3%) or medium-high (32%) deprivation groups, while the percentages in the extreme tails were low (3.6%high deprivation; 1.3%low deprivation). Significant, nonlinear (p < 0.05 NL) relationships were observed in both sexes with regard to mortality due to all respiratory diseases (RD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with the highest Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) values in women in the high deprivation group of women (1.81, p < 0.05 RD; 1.79, p < 0.05 COPD). The SMRs for influenza and pneumonia showed a positive linear trend in women (p < 0.05) with the highest value in the high deprivation group (1.97, p < 0.05), while in men the trend was NL (p < 0.05). A positive linear trend (p < 0.05) was found with regard to vaccination coverage, which grew weakly as deprivation increased, up to the medium-high deprived group (from 34.6%to 44.4%). However, the high deprivation group showed the lowest value (33.3%). Conclusions. The results revealed a relationship between deprivation and influenza vaccination coverage in the elderly. This finding should be taken into account in the organization of vaccination campaigns and should prompt differentiated intervention in each local area

The determinants of Western Australia’s foreign investment in China

The growing economic importance of China with its major economic power in the East Asia region has become a popular host destination for receiving foreign investment from Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan. With China’s growth and development, this nation has over time become one of Australia’s main trading partners. As new investment opportunities have emerged, Australian companies, especially from Western Australia have shown interest in the Chinese marketplace. Despite the popular consensus that Australian companies are increasingly investing in China, to date relevant literature examining this notion is limited. Specifically, studies of elements that motivate or deter owners / managers of Australian companies, especially from Western Australia to invest in China are restricted. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to investigate the likely relationships between four independent constructs (1. market size, 2. labour cost, 3. infrastructure, and 4. business ethics) in China and the intensity of foreign investment from Western Australia, and to evaluate if and how these relationships are mediated by personality attributes (i.e., gender), organisational properties (i.e., size), and networking.To empirically investigate the determining factor for undertaking investment in China, this study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The use of the quantitative method positivist approach is deemed as a suitable, partial approach, which assists in determining the statistical relationships between the investigated variables. Moreover, a qualitative approach was used in a complementing context to understand the quantitative results. Given the dynamic business environment in China, the use of a qualitative approach has potential for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of quantitative findings as well as providing rich information for further interpretations.This study was conducted with 43 respondents of Western Australian companies. A salient feature of the study companies is that they either have capabilities to invest or are already investing in mainland China (People’s Republic of China, in this study identified as China). The targeted companies are involved in manufacturing and services industries, such as mining, education, banking, and telecommunication. Although collecting primary data appeared to be a challenge, the data were robust for statistical analysis. In addition, the data were from decision makers of the study companies, which further indicate the richness of the sample.The findings of this study revealed that China’s large market size plays a positive role in attracting investments from WA to China. Similarly, the adequate level of infrastructure and the level of familiarity of business ethics in China tend to somewhat encourage WA investors to conduct business in China. In contrast, China’s cheap labour cost was not the primary driver that motivates WA companies to invest in China. In relation to the mediating effects of personality attributes (e.g., gender), organisational properties (i.e., size), and networking the study findings revealed that networking plays a significant mediating role in the investment decision. However, due to the relatively small sample size, personality attributes and organisational properties were established to provide insufficient analytical rigor in the decision to invest in China by WA companies.The implications for this study may offer insightful information to enrich the understanding of the determinants of Australian foreign investment in general, and in the Chinese marketplace in particular. In addition, by empirically investigating the perceptions of the decision makers of WA companies in relation to their investment decisions in China, the findings of this research may assist foreign companies to undertake better planning of their investment decisions. More specifically, this study may offer additional insight to those companies that are operating or planning to invest in the Chinese marketplace. For example, this study may be particularly useful for international managers or owners, as it may provide some fruitful information to assist a better understanding of the issues that relate to business ethics with Chinese operations. In addition, the phenomenon of guanxi in China has been considered as a major determinant for facilitating business engagement in the Chinese marketplace. It may, therefore, be argued that the phenomenon of guanxi in assisting business operations in China has become increasingly important, and international managers or owners may need to gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon

Meta-analytic clustering of the insular cortex: Characterizing the meta-analytic connectivity of the insula when involved in active tasks

The human insula has been parcellated on the basis of resting state functional connectivity and diffusion tensor imaging. Little is known about the organization of the insula when involved in active tasks. We explored this issue using a novel meta-analytic clustering approach. We queried the BrainMap database asking for papers involving normal subjects that recorded activations in the insular cortex, retrieving 1305 papers, involving 22,872 subjects and a total of 2957 foci. Data were analyzed with several different methodologies, some of which expressly designed for this work. We used meta-analytic connectivity modeling and meta-analytic clustering of data obtained from the BrainMap database. We performed cluster analysis to subdivide the insula in areas with homogeneous connectivity, and density analysis of the activated foci using Voronoi tessellation. Our results confirm and extend previous findings obtained investigating the resting state connectivity of the anterior–posterior and left–right insulae. They indicate, for the first time, that some blocks of the anterior insula play the role of hubs between the anterior and the posterior insulae, as confirmed by their activation in several different paradigms. This finding supports the view that the network to which the anterior insula belongs is related to saliency detection. The insulae of both sides can be parcellated in two clusters, the anterior and the posterior: the anterior is characterized by an attentional pattern of connectivity with frontal, cingulate, parietal, cerebellar and anterior insular highly connected areas, whereas the posterior is characterized by a more local connectivity pattern with connections to sensorimotor, temporal and posterior cingulate areas. This antero–posterior subdivision, better characterized on the right side, results sharper with the connectivity based clusterization than with the behavioral based clusterization. The circuits belonging to the anterior insula are very homogeneous and their blocks in multidimensional scaling of MACM-based profiles are in central position, whereas those belonging to the posterior insula, especially on the left, are located at the periphery and sparse, thus suggesting that the posterior circuits bear a more heterogeneous connectivity. The anterior cluster is mostly activated by cognition, whereas the posterior is mostly activated by interoception, perception and emotion

Analysis of navigation pattern in the sport of rowing

The effect of weather and environmental conditions on sports has been extensively studied over the last few years (Pezzoli et al., 2010). Based upon the studies of Lobozewicz (1981) and of Kay and Vamplew (2002), Pezzoli and Cristofori (2008) have studied the impact of some specific environmental parameters over different sports using a particular impact index divided into five classes. This analysis clearly shows that most of the outdoor sport activities are strongly influenced by the variation of meteorological parameters. However the impact of meteorological conditions on outdoor sport activities has not yet been extensively studied. The aim of this research is to show that an accurate assessment of wind and wave parameters enables decisive improvements in both training and race strategy planning. Furthermore this analysis provide a very innovative working method for the applied sport research. The work has been based on in-situ measurements of both environmental and performance parameters (wind direction, wind velocity, boat speed and stroke rate) made over different classes and in different race conditions during the 2009 FISA World Championship (Poznan, Poland). In particular a detailed environmental analysis was performed by measuring the wind direction, the wind speed and by evaluating the significant wave height and the wave peak period for each class during the semi-final phase and the final phase. It should be noted that, since wind is a key parameter affecting not only the boat speed but also the race strategy, the assessment of the wind velocity and of the wind direction has been made in connection with the boat movement. The comparison between coupled wind-wave data, boat speed and stroke rate evidently demonstrates that only crews that managed the adaption to changing in the environmental conditions from semi-final to final phase of the race, were able to get better results. References Kay, J., & Vamplew, W. (2002) Weather beaten: sport in the British climate. London: Ed. Mainstream Publishing. Lobozewicz, T. (1981) Meteorology in sport. Frankfurt: Ed. Sportverlag. Pezzoli, A,, Moncalero, M., Boscolo, A., Cristofori, E., Giacometto, F., Gastaldi, S., & Vercelli, G. (2010) The meteo-hydrological analysis and the sport performance: which are the connections? The case of the XXI Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver 2010, Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 50: 19-20. Pezzoli, A., & Cristofori, E. (2008) Analisi, previsioni e misure meteorologiche applicate agli sport equestri, in: 10th Congress “New findings in equine practices, Druento: Centro Internazionale del Cavallo Ed., p.38-43

Risk of Recurrence of Chronic Subdural Hematomas After Surgery: A Multicenter Observational Cohort Study

Background: Chronic Subdural Hematoma (CSDH) is a common condition in the elderly population. Recurrence rates after surgical evacuation range from 5 to 30%. Factors predicting recurrence remain debated and unclear. Objective: To identify factors associated with increased risk of recurrence. Methods: Cases of CSDHs that underwent surgical treatment between 2005 and 2018 in the Neurosurgery Units of two major Italian hospitals were reviewed. Data extracted from a prospectively maintained database included demographics, laterality, antithrombotic therapy, history of trauma, corticosteroid therapy, preoperative and postoperative symptoms, type of surgical intervention, use of surgical drain, and clinical outcomes. Results: A total of 1313 patients was analyzed. The overall recurrence rate was 10.1%. The risk of recurrence was not significantly different between patients with unilateral or bilateral CSDH (10.4 vs. 8.8%, p = 0.39). The risk of recurrence was higher in patients that underwent surgical procedure without postoperative drainage (16.1 vs. 5.4%, p < 0.01). No relationship was found between recurrence rates and therapy with antithrombotic drugs (p = 0.97). The risk of recurrence was increasingly higher considering craniostomy, craniectomy, and craniotomy (9.3, 11.3, and 18.9%, respectively, p = 0.013). Lower recurrence rates following Dexamethasone therapy were recorded (p = 0.013). Conclusion: No association was found between the risk of recurrence of CSDH after surgical evacuation and age, use of antithrombotic medication, or laterality. Burr-hole craniostomy was found to be associated with lower recurrence rates, when compared to other surgical procedures. Placement of surgical drain and Dexamethasone therapy were significantly associated with reduced risk of recurrence of CSDHs