Assessment of Ground Water Exchange in Two Stream Channels and Associated Riparian Zones, Jocko Valley, Western Montana

Fiaschetti, Aaron, M.S., December 2006 Geology Assessment of Ground Exchange in Two Steam Channels and Associated Riparian Zones, Jocko Valley, Western Montana Chairperson: William W. Woessner Degraded riparian habitat is a concern throughout the United States. Repairing anthropogenic damage to river channels and wetlands is becoming increasingly popular,though including design features to re-establish ground water and surface water exchange rates and timing are rarely implemented. The goal of this project is to characterize the surface water/ ground water exchange rates of two stream and riparian systems that have been altered by agriculture use. Hydrogeological and hydrological field experiments were performed to better understand the location and magnitude of ground water and surface water exchange throughout each site. These data were compiled into a water balance for the Sque-que study site. Vertical hydraulic gradients, temperature monitoring and ground water chemistry were key components used to identify areas of surface water/ground water exchange.I concluded that surface water/ground water interactions are occurring on sub-reach scales throughout the Sque-que study site. The riparian water table position changed little throughout the year and remained within two meters of the land surface. At the Jocko River site a net gain of ground water along the 1 km reach was not detectable. Modeling suggests the position of current water table will rise if drainage ditches are filled at the study sites and that recovery of wetlands is possible

Legacy and shockwaves: A spatial analysis of strengthening resilience of the power grid in Connecticut

Grid resilience and reliability are pivotal in the transition to low and zero carbon energy systems. Tree-trimming operations (TTOs) have become a pivotal tool for increasing the resilience power grids, especially in highly forested regions. Building on recent literature, we aim at assessing the temporal and spatial extents of the benefits that TTOs produce on the grid from three perspectives: the frequency, extent, and duration of outages. We use a unique dataset provided by Eversource Energy, New England's largest utility company, with outage events from 2009 to 2015. We employ spatial econometrics to investigate both the legacy and spatial extent of TTOs. Our results show TTOs benefits occur for all three metrics for at least 4 years, and benefits spillover to up to 2 km throughout the treated areas, with significant spatial spillovers across the state greater than direct effects. Implications lead to supporting TTOs as part of the hardening policies for utility companies, especially as home-based activities increase in importance in a post-COVID19 world

Attack-Surface Metrics, OSSTMM and Common Criteria Based Approach to “Composable Security” in Complex Systems

In recent studies on Complex Systems and Systems-of-Systems theory, a huge effort has been put to cope with behavioral problems, i.e. the possibility of controlling a desired overall or end-to-end behavior by acting on the individual elements that constitute the system itself. This problem is particularly important in the “SMART” environments, where the huge number of devices, their significant computational capabilities as well as their tight interconnection produce a complex architecture for which it is difficult to predict (and control) a desired behavior; furthermore, if the scenario is allowed to dynamically evolve through the modification of both topology and subsystems composition, then the control problem becomes a real challenge. In this perspective, the purpose of this paper is to cope with a specific class of control problems in complex systems, the “composability of security functionalities”, recently introduced by the European Funded research through the pSHIELD and nSHIELD projects (ARTEMIS-JU programme). In a nutshell, the objective of this research is to define a control framework that, given a target security level for a specific application scenario, is able to i) discover the system elements, ii) quantify the security level of each element as well as its contribution to the security of the overall system, and iii) compute the control action to be applied on such elements to reach the security target. The main innovations proposed by the authors are: i) the definition of a comprehensive methodology to quantify the security of a generic system independently from the technology and the environment and ii) the integration of the derived metrics into a closed-loop scheme that allows real-time control of the system. The solution described in this work moves from the proof-of-concepts performed in the early phase of the pSHIELD research and enrich es it through an innovative metric with a sound foundation, able to potentially cope with any kind of pplication scenarios (railways, automotive, manufacturing, ...)

Kidney transplantation and withdrawal rates among wait-listed first-generation immigrants in Italy

Background: Multiple barriers diminish access to kidney transplantation (KT) in immigrant compared to non-immigrant populations. It is unknown whether immigration status reduces the likelihood of KT after wait-listing despite universal healthcare coverage with uniform access to transplantation. Methods: We retrospectively collected data of all adult waiting list (WL) registrants in Italy (2010-20) followed for 5 years until death, KT in a foreign center, deceased-donor kidney transplant (DDKT), living-donor kidney transplant (LDKT) or permanent withdrawal from the WL. We calculated adjusted relative probability of DDKT, LDKT and permanent WL withdrawal in different immigrant categories using competing-risks multiple regression models. Results: Patients were European Union (EU)-born (n = 21 624), Eastern European-born (n = 606) and non-European-born (n = 1944). After controlling for age, sex, blood type, dialysis vintage, case-mix and sensitization status, non-European-born patients had lower LDKT rates compared to other immigrant categories: LDKT adjusted relative probability of non-European-born vs. Eastern European-born 0.51 (95% CI: 0.33-0.79; P = 0.002); of non-European-born vs. EU-Born: 0.65 (95% CI: 0.47-0.82; P = 0.001). Immigration status did not affect the rate of DDKT or permanent WL withdrawal. Conclusions: Among EU WL registrants, non-European immigration background is associated with reduced likelihood of LDKT but similar likelihood of DDKT and permanent WL withdrawal. Wherever not available, new national policies should enable coverage of travel and medical fees for living-donor surgery and follow-up for non-resident donors to improve uptake of LDKT in immigrant patients, and provide KT education that is culturally competent, individually tailored and easily understandable for patients and their potential living donors

Digital tomosynthesis spot view in architectural distortions: outcomes in management and radiation dose

Purpose To evaluate if digital breast tomosynthesis spot compression view (DBT-SCV) could be an additional projection to confirm or deny architectural distortions (ADs) detected by digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) while assessing the average glandular radiation dose. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study enrolling 8864 DBT exams, of which only cases detecting primary AD and with BI-RADS 2-5 score were considered. Seventy-one AD cases examined with DBT-SCV, US and MRI were evaluated for correlation in terms of BI-RADS score; variables among exams were assessed for inter-relationships. Results Of all ADs identified at DBT, biopsy yielded malignancy in only 38%. PPV in identifying malignancy of ADs was higher for DBT-SCV than DBT (p < 0.05); the NPV of DBT-SCV was 94%. The difference between DBT and DBT-SCV in the detection of benign ADs was statistically significant (p < 0.05). AD without US or MRI confirmation was less likely to represent malignancy (p < 0.05). In detecting malignant cases of ADs, both DBT and DBT-SCV were strongly correlated with US and RM (Kappa > 0.90). In identifying benign cases of ADs, DBT-SCV was poorly/moderately correlated with US and RM (Kappa 0.25 and 0.66); DBT was negatively correlated with US and MRI. Conclusion DBT-SCV could be useful to better characterize AD firstly identified by DBT, keeping dose levels within the reference limits. If AD is detected by DBT without an US or MRI correlate, that is not confirmed by DBT-SCV, a "wait and see " approach can be applied to reduce unnecessary biopsy

Static and dynamic evaluation of pelvic floor disorders with an open low-field tilting magnet.

AIM: To assess the feasibility of magnetic resonance defaecography (MRD) in pelvic floor disorders using an open tilting magnet with a 0.25 T static field and to compare the results obtained from the same patient both in supine and orthostatic positions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From May 2010 to November 2011, 49 symptomatic female subjects (mean age 43.5 years) were enrolled. All the patients underwent MRD in the supine and orthostatic positions using three-dimensional (3D) hybrid contrast-enhanced (HYCE) sequences and dynamic gradient echo (GE) T1-weighted sequences. All the patients underwent conventional defaecography (CD) to correlate both results. Two radiologists evaluated the examinations; inter and intra-observer concordance was measured. The results obtained in the two positions were compared between them and with CD. RESULTS: The comparison between CD and MRD found statistically significant differences in the evaluation of anterior and posterior rectocoele during defaecation in both positions and of rectal prolapse under the pubo-coccygeal line (PCL) during evacuation, only in the supine position (versus MRD orthostatic: rectal prolapse p < 0.0001; anterior rectocoele p < 0.001; posterior rectocoele p = 0.008; versus CD: rectal prolapse p < 0.0001; anterior rectocoele p < 0.001; posterior rectocoele p = 0.01). The value of intra-observer intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) ranged from good to excellent; the interobserver ICC from moderate to excellent. CONCLUSION: MRD is feasible with an open low-field tilting magnet, and it is more accurate in the orthostatic position than in the supine position to evaluate pelvic floor disorders

Una arquitectura de software para el desarrollo de un sistema de gestión de redes de distribución de energía eléctrica

Los centros de control en distribución de energía necesitan un cambio de paradigma en su diseño arquitectónico para poder afrontar los nuevos desafíos del sector. En este contexto, los DMS (Distribution Management System) son una pieza fundamental para el manejo inteligente de las redes eléctricas, permitiendo la integración de los sistemas de adquisición de información (normalmente SCADA) con aplicaciones orientadas a la operación de redes eléctricas. En este trabajo se presenta el desarrollo de una arquitectura novedosa que permite modelar, diseñar e implementar sistemas de gestión de redes de energía de distribución, que provee altos niveles de usabilidad, seguridad, extensibilidad, flexibilidad e interoperabilidad, en contraposición con las arquitecturas monolíticas utilizadas para este tipo de sistemas. En este caso, la arquitectura se desarrolló considerando funcionalidades de operación, tales como procesamiento de información, análisis de datos, flujo de carga, entre otros. Para ello se consideraron estándares abiertos como el modelo CIM (Common Information Model).Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Incorporación del estándar CIM en sistemas de gestión de energía

Los sistemas de gestión de energía y más específicamente los sistemas de distribución, cuentan con numerosos módulos que requieren compartir información de un modelo de datos común. En general, estos módulos son desarrollados por separado y la información utilizada puede requerir de una adaptación. En este contexto, EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) estableció un modelo de datos estándar para estos sistemas denominado CIM (Common Information Model). CIM está descrito mediante diagramas de clases y paquetes, cuya composición arquitectónica ha sido ampliamente documentada. No obstante, no hay descripción clara de cómo instanciar el modelo. En este trabajo se propone el desarrollo de un módulo que administre un modelo CIM. Se describen diferentes alternativas de implementación y tecnologías a utilizar, detallando ventajas y desventajas. Finalmente, se propone una descomposición funcional en dos modelos: estático y dinámico, que permitan administrar por separado características físicas y lógicas de la red de energía.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Incorporación del estándar CIM en sistemas de gestión de energía

Los sistemas de gestión de energía y más específicamente los sistemas de distribución, cuentan con numerosos módulos que requieren compartir información de un modelo de datos común. En general, estos módulos son desarrollados por separado y la información utilizada puede requerir de una adaptación. En este contexto, EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) estableció un modelo de datos estándar para estos sistemas denominado CIM (Common Information Model). CIM está descrito mediante diagramas de clases y paquetes, cuya composición arquitectónica ha sido ampliamente documentada. No obstante, no hay descripción clara de cómo instanciar el modelo. En este trabajo se propone el desarrollo de un módulo que administre un modelo CIM. Se describen diferentes alternativas de implementación y tecnologías a utilizar, detallando ventajas y desventajas. Finalmente, se propone una descomposición funcional en dos modelos: estático y dinámico, que permitan administrar por separado características físicas y lógicas de la red de energía.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Una arquitectura de software para el desarrollo de un sistema de gestión de redes de distribución de energía eléctrica

Los centros de control en distribución de energía necesitan un cambio de paradigma en su diseño arquitectónico para poder afrontar los nuevos desafíos del sector. En este contexto, los DMS (Distribution Management System) son una pieza fundamental para el manejo inteligente de las redes eléctricas, permitiendo la integración de los sistemas de adquisición de información (normalmente SCADA) con aplicaciones orientadas a la operación de redes eléctricas. En este trabajo se presenta el desarrollo de una arquitectura novedosa que permite modelar, diseñar e implementar sistemas de gestión de redes de energía de distribución, que provee altos niveles de usabilidad, seguridad, extensibilidad, flexibilidad e interoperabilidad, en contraposición con las arquitecturas monolíticas utilizadas para este tipo de sistemas. En este caso, la arquitectura se desarrolló considerando funcionalidades de operación, tales como procesamiento de información, análisis de datos, flujo de carga, entre otros. Para ello se consideraron estándares abiertos como el modelo CIM (Common Information Model).Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO