Involving communities in environmental protection by Community Information Systems: the case study of “La Cuicadora”

The involvement of the communities is a key-strategy to enable fast responses both case of emergency and environmental protection. On this goal geospatial system could allow to collect information directly from the citizens. More specifically they can act on “feedback-loops” between “communities”, “decision-makers” and “environment” catalysing participation and the perception of local knowledge. The work will present the case study of “la Cuicadora” project, a Ushaidi based crowdmapping system provides an information sharing network to assist Peruvian indigenous communities in better protecting themselves from contaminated water sources. The analysis offers the chance to understand the concept of Community Information Systems (CIS) and its role in the involvement of communities in environmental protection

Characteristic exponents of complex networks

We present a novel way to characterize the structure of complex networks by studying the statistical properties of the trajectories of random walks over them. We consider time series corresponding to different properties of the nodes visited by the walkers. We show that the analysis of the fluctuations of these time series allows to define a set of characteristic exponents which capture the local and global organization of a network. This approach provides a way of solving two classical problems in network science, namely the systematic classification of networks, and the identification of the salient properties of growing networks. The results contribute to the construction of a unifying framework for the investigation of the structure and dynamics of complex systems.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Elevated C-reactive protein in asymptomatic Crohn's disease patients. listen to the sound of silence

Bhattacharya et al1 confirmed and extended their previous finding2 indicating that “silent” Crohn’s disease (CD) patients (i.e., asymptomatic patients with elevated C-reactive protein [CRP] level) are a subgroup of patients at the higher risk of hospitalization and of more disabling disease

Modeling the emergence of contact languages

Contact languages are born out of the non-trivial interaction of two (or more) parent languages. Nowadays, the enhanced possibility of mobility and communication allows for a strong mixing of languages and cultures, thus raising the issue of whether there are any pure languages or cultures that are unaffected by contact with others. As with bacteria or viruses in biological evolution, the evolution of languages is marked by horizontal transmission; but to date no reliable quantitative tools to investigate these phenomena have been available. An interesting and well documented example of contact language is the emergence of creole languages, which originated in the contacts of European colonists and slaves during the 17th and 18th centuries in exogenous plantation colonies of especially the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Here, we focus on the emergence of creole languages to demonstrate a dynamical process that mimics the process of creole formation in American and Caribbean plantation ecologies. Inspired by the Naming Game (NG), our modeling scheme incorporates demographic information about the colonial population in the framework of a non-trivial interaction network including three populations: Europeans, Mulattos/Creoles, and Bozal slaves. We show how this sole information makes it possible to discriminate territories that produced modern creoles from those that did not, with a surprising accuracy. The generality of our approach provides valuable insights for further studies on the emergence of languages in contact ecologies as well as to test specific hypotheses about the peopling and the population structures of the relevant territories. We submit that these tools could be relevant to addressing problems related to contact phenomena in many cultural domains: e.g., emergence of dialects, language competition and hybridization, globalization phenomena

Commentary: Management of mesenteric malperfusion syndrome in patients with type A aortic dissection:An unsettled issue

The modern treatment for type A aortic dissection requires careful planning, a wide range of expertise, and a multidisciplinary approach. Specialized aortic centers might be the solution

Efficacy of Prucalopride in bowel cleansing before colonoscopy. Results of a pilot study

Colonoscopy is a crucial diagnostic instrument for colorectal cancer screening and an adequate bowel preparation is definitely decisive for the success of the procedure. Especially in elderly patients, bowel cleansing is considered a big issue, because it is often poorly tolerated for many reasons (like inability to swallow large volume of liquids or unlikable taste); this can cause a suboptimal preparation that may lead to miss a neoplastic lesion. There is relatively little data about how to improve preparation tolerability. The purpose of our pilot study was to analyze the effect of prucalopride (Resolor®), a highly selective serotonin 5HT4 receptor agonist used for chronic constipation for its ability to stimulate gastrointestinal peristalsis, undertaken the day before colonoscopy, followed by half volume of polyethylene glycol solution. We found that this can be a good and safe method to achieve an adequate and better-tolerated colon cleansing

The Grassmann Space of a Planar Space

AbstractIn this paper we give a characterization of the Grassmann space of a planar space