Improved predictive modelling of coralligenous formations in the Greek Seas incorporating large-scale, presence–absence, hydroacoustic data and oceanographic variables

Our understanding of the distribution of coralligenous formations, throughout but mostly on the Eastern Mediterranean seafloor, is still poor and mostly relies on presence-only opportunistic trawling and fishermen reports. Previous efforts to gather this information created relevant geodatabases that led to a first draft predictive spatial distribution of coralligenous formations in the Mediterranean Sea using habitat suitability modelling techniques. In the last few decades, the use of hydroacoustics to map the seafloor for various geotechnical and habitat mapping projects accumulated high amounts of detailed spatial information about these formations, which remains majorly unexploited. Repurposing these datasets towards mapping key habitats is a valuable stepping stone to implementing the EU Habitat Directive. In Greece, a unique volume of seafloor mapping data has been gathered by the Laboratory of Marine Geology and Physical Oceanography, Geology Department, University of Patras. It accounts for more than 33 marine geophysical expeditions during the last three decades, having collected hydroacoustic data for a total seafloor area of 3,197.68 km2. In the present work, this information has been curated, re-evaluated, and archived to create the most complete, until now, atlas of coralligenous formations in the Greek Seas and the only integrating presence–absence data. This atlas has been used to train and validate a predictive distribution model, incorporating environmental variables derived from open data repositories, whose importance has been assessed and discussed. The final output is an improved probability map of coralligenous formation occurrence in the Greek Seas, which shall be the basis for effective spatial planning, gap detection, and design of future mapping and monitoring activities on this priority habitat

A Sustainable Approach for the Management and Valorization of Underwater Cultural Heritage: New Perspectives from the TECTONIC Project

Documentation and conservation of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) are crucial to preserving humankind’s history and traditions, safeguarding tangible testimonies of past human life while ensuring its accessibility to future generations. The TECTONIC (Technological Consortium TO develop sustainability of underwater Cultural Heritage) project is promoting an intersectoral collaboration between academic and non-academic professionals (i.e., archaeologists, conservators, geologists, engineers, etc.) working on different topics related to UCHs, to find solutions to the issues still existing in the field. The overall aim is the exchange of skills for the improvement and assessment of innovative materials and techniques to develop solutions and marketable products for the conservation and management of the UCH, sustainably. To achieve its overall aim, TECTONIC is undertaking activities driven by the following objectives: (a) the study, documentation, and mapping of selected UCHs; (b) the creation of decision-support tools for UCH risk assessment in a changing environment; (c) the initiation of conservation studies and protocols for conservation activities; (d) the development of open and low-cost robotic solutions for the inspection of UCH; and (e) the raising of public awareness and knowledge about UCH. All the objectives are devoted to stimulating new sustainable ideas that would bring the growth of cultural tourism and the development of new marketable products by capitalizing on the research results.Fil: Ricca, Michela. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Alexandrakis, George. Foundation For Research And Technology ? Hellas.; GreciaFil: Bonazza, Alessandra. Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche. Istituto Di Scienze Dell Atmosfera E del Clima.; ItaliaFil: Bruno, Fabio. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Petriaggi, Barbara Davidde. Instituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro; ItaliaFil: Elkin, Dolores Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación. Dirección Nacional de Cultura y Museos. Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano; ArgentinaFil: Lagudi, Antonio. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Nicolas, Stephane. Centre d'Activité des Playes ZE Jean Monnet; FranciaFil: Novák, Michal. Synpo; República ChecaFil: Papatheodorou, George. University Of Patras; GreciaFil: Prieto, Javier. Universidad de Salamanca; EspañaFil: Ricci, Marco. Università della Calabria; ItaliaFil: Vasilijevic, Antonio. H2O Robotics; CroaciaFil: La Russa, Mauro Francesco. Università della Calabria; Italia. Foundation For Research And Technology ? Hellas.; Greci

Multi-frequency, multi-sonar mapping of shallow habitats – Efficacy and management implications in the National Marine Park of Zakynthos, Greece

In this work, multibeam echosounder (MBES) and dual frequency sidescan sonar (SSS) data are combined to map the shallow (5⁻100 m) benthic habitats of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos (NMPZ), Greece, a Marine Protected Area (MPA). NMPZ hosts extensive prairies of the protected Mediterranean phanerogams Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa, as well as reefs and sandbanks. Seafloor characterization is achieved using the multi-frequency acoustic backscatter of: (a) the two simultaneous frequencies of the SSS (100 and 400 kHz) and (b) the MBES (180 kHz), as well as the MBES bathymetry. Overall, these high-resolution datasets cover an area of 84 km2 with ground coverage varying from 50% to 100%. Image texture, terrain and backscatter angular response analyses are applied to the above, to extract a range of statistical features. Those have different spatial densities and so they are combined through an object-based approach based on the full-coverage 100-kHz SSS mosaic. Supervised classification is applied to data models composed of operationally meaningful combinations between the above features, reflecting single-sonar or multi-sonar mapping scenarios. Classification results are validated against a detailed expert interpretation habitat map making use of extensive ground-truth data. The relative gain of one system or one feature extraction method or another are thoroughly examined. The frequency-dependent separation of benthic habitats showcases the potentials of multi-frequency backscatter and bathymetry from different sonars, improving evidence-based interpretations of shallow benthic habitats

How strong is the linkage between tourism and economic growth in Europe?

In this study, we examine the dynamic relationship between tourism growth and economic growth, using a newly introduced spillover index approach. Based on monthly data for 10 European countries over the period 1995{2012, our analysis reveals the following empirical regularities. First, the tourism-economic growth relationship is not stable over time in terms of both magnitude and direction, indicating that the tourism{led economic growth (TLEG) and the economic{driven tourism growth (EDTG) hypotheses are time{dependent. Second, the aforementioned relationship is also highly economic event{dependent, as it is influenced by the Great Recession of 2007 and the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis that began in 2010. Finally, the impact of these economic events is more pronounced in Cyprus,Greece, Portugal and Spain, which are the European countries that have witnessed the greatest economic downturn since 2009. Plausible explanations of these results are provided and policy implications are drawn

Maternal chronic stress correlates with serum levels of cortisol, glucose and C-peptide in the fetus, and maternal non chronic stress with fetal growth

Introduction: During pregnancy, maternal stressors cause changes in both maternal and fetal HPA axes. We therefore investigated the impact of maternal non chronic and chronic stress on fetal glucose metabolism and growth, and serum levels of cortisol in the fetus. Materials and methods: Normal weight pregnant women (n = 192; mean ± SD 27.9 ± 4.2 years old, and; 26.9 ± 2.4 kg/m²) were assessed during the 2nd and 3rd trimester with anthropometry, fetal ultrasound, blood samples for serum CRH, cortisol and IL6, and STAI trait and state stress questionnaires. We measured serum cortisol, insulin and c-peptide, and plasma glucose from cord blood. Neonates underwent anthropometry at the 3rd post-delivery day. Results: In both 2nd and 3rd trimesters, women with STAI trait scores ≥40 had significantly greater levels of fasting serum CRH and cortisol than those with STAI trait scores<40. 2nd trimester: STAI trait scores correlated positively with cord blood glucose and c-peptide. Maternal serum CRH correlated negatively with U/S fetal biparietal head diameter, while serum cortisol correlated positively with abdominal circumference. Maternal serum IL6, CRH and cortisol all correlated positively with birth waist circumference. 3rd trimester: Women with STAI state scores ≥40 had fetuses with larger U/S abdominal and smaller head circumferences compared to those of women with STAI scores <40. Women with STAI trait scores ≥40 had greater levels of cord blood cortisol, glucose, and c-peptide compared to women with STAI scores <40. STAI state scores ≥40 correlated positively with maternal CRH and U/S fetal abdominal circumference, and negatively with fetal head circumference and biparietal diameter. STAI trait scores correlated positively with cord blood c-peptide, glucose, insulin and cortisol. Maternal serum levels of CRH correlated positively with U/S fetal abdominal circumference and cord blood cortisol, and negatively with fetal head circumference and biparietal head diameter. Maternal serum levels of both CRH and cortisol correlated positively with cord blood c-peptide, glucose, and insulin. STAI trait was the best positive predictor of cord blood cortisol, glucose and c-peptide, whilst STAI state was the best positive and negative predictor, respectively of fetal abdominal circumference and fetal head circumference or biparietal diameter. Conclusions: Increased maternal chronic stress (reflected by the STAI trait score) associates with increased fetal cortisol, glucose, c-peptide secretion and thus, insulin resistance. Maternal non chronic stress (STAI state) in the 3rd trimester associates with changes in fetal growth pattern, including increased and decreased measurements of fetal abdominal and head growth respectively

Integrated view and comparative analysis of baseline protein expression in mouse and rat tissues

The increasingly large amount of proteomics data in the public domain enables, among other applications, the combined analyses of datasets to create comparative protein expression maps covering different organisms and different biological conditions. Here we have reanalysed public proteomics datasets from mouse and rat tissues (14 and 9 datasets, respectively), to assess baseline protein abundance. Overall, the aggregated dataset contained 23 individual datasets, including a total of 211 samples coming from 34 different tissues across 14 organs, comprising 9 mouse and 3 rat strains, respectively. In all cases, we studied the distribution of canonical proteins between the different organs. The number of canonical proteins per dataset ranged from 273 (tendon) and 9,715 (liver) in mouse, and from 101 (tendon) and 6,130 (kidney) in rat. Then, we studied how protein abundances compared across different datasets and organs for both species. As a key point we carried out a comparative analysis of protein expression between mouse, rat and human tissues. We observed a high level of correlation of protein expression among orthologs between all three species in brain, kidney, heart and liver samples, whereas the correlation of protein expression was generally slightly lower between organs within the same species. Protein expression results have been integrated into the resource Expression Atlas for widespread dissemination

Expression Atlas update: gene and protein expression in multiple species.

The EMBL-EBI Expression Atlas is an added value knowledge base that enables researchers to answer the question of where (tissue, organism part, developmental stage, cell type) and under which conditions (disease, treatment, gender, etc) a gene or protein of interest is expressed. Expression Atlas brings together data from >4500 expression studies from >65 different species, across different conditions and tissues. It makes these data freely available in an easy to visualise form, after expert curation to accurately represent the intended experimental design, re-analysed via standardised pipelines that rely on open-source community developed tools. Each study's metadata are annotated using ontologies. The data are re-analyzed with the aim of reproducing the original conclusions of the underlying experiments. Expression Atlas is currently divided into Bulk Expression Atlas and Single Cell Expression Atlas. Expression Atlas contains data from differential studies (microarray and bulk RNA-Seq) and baseline studies (bulk RNA-Seq and proteomics), whereas Single Cell Expression Atlas is currently dedicated to Single Cell RNA-Sequencing (scRNA-Seq) studies. The resource has been in continuous development since 2009 and it is available at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa