Flood risk – Prevention and Impact on Agricultural Lands

Recent extreme weather events have resulted in an ongoing discussion on the issues of land use and compensation payments within Austrian agriculture. Building on a functional evaluation system for agricultural lands as developed within the Interreg IIIB project “ILUP”, the national project “Agriculture and Flooding” has as its goal to classify the flood-protection contribution and flood sensitivity of agricultural lands. This, in turn, enables the recommendation of targeted measures for potentially improving flood situations, as well as an estimate of their implementation costs. In addition to the digital soil map, other fundamental sources used for the project are the digital flood risk map, IACS land-use data and works by the Institute for Land and Water Management Research. Reference values and marginal returns sourced from the Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics also flow into the cost estimates for the recommended combination. The results will contribute to an understanding of the multifunctionality of agricultural lands and to the setting of priorities on a regional scale regarding packaged flood-prevention and damage-minimization. However, the results at hand can only serve as one step toward regional flood protection projects, whose development will require the cooperation of all interest groups.Agriculture, Multifunctionality, Sustainability, Flood Risk, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q24, Q25, Q54, Q56,

Laparoscopic partial adrenalectomy for bilateral pheochromocytomas in a boy with von Hippel-Lindau disease

Objectives: In adults, increasing numbers of adrenalectomies for pheochromocytomas are performed laparoscopically. We report for the first time laparoscopic bilateral subtotal adrenalectomy for pheochromocytomas in an 8-year-old boy with von Hippel-Lindau disease. Methods, In July 1998, an 8-year-old boy with von Hippel-Lindau disease underwent laparoscopic adrenal-sparing surgery for bilateral pheochromocytomas. The boy presented with severe hypertension and two pheochromocytomas on both sides. Results: The child could be solely treated with laparoscopic adrenal-sparing surgery. The procedure was completed as planned. There were absolutely no intraoperative or postoperative complications. Postoperatively, catecholamine levels and hypertension went back to normal. At follow-up no residual tumor could be detected and no steroid replacement therapy was necessary. Conclusions: In experienced hands, laparoscopic adrenal-sparing surgery for pheochromocytomas is feasible and safe. Moreover, this minimal invasive approach represents an exceptional improvement in life quality, especially in children with von Hippel-Lindau disease since surgery will probably be necessary again and again in their future life. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel

Lieber felsenspringer der mittelmeerländer (Thysanura, machilidae)

Mes julio-diciembreDie vorliegende Abhandlung erstand aus der Bearbeitung eimer relativ reichen Aufsammlung von Thysanuren, die von Prof. Dr. Ing. H. Franz, Wien, in den Jahren 1 951 und 1952 in Spanien zustandegebra.cht werden konnte, sowie einiger Aufsammlungen von Prof. Dr. W. Kühnelt, Wien, ebenfalls aus Spanien aus dem Jahre 1952 und einiger sehr interessanter Funde desselben Sammlers aus der Gegend von Triest im Jahre 1 951, Die Bearbeitung der in diesen Aufsammlungen enthaltenen Lepismatiden ist für einen späteren Zeitpunkt vorgesehen. Das untersuchte Material befindet sich in meiner Sammlung. Weiters werden noch einige andere Funde, besonders solche, welche Aufsammlungen entstammen, die P. Zangheri, Forli, in Mittelitalien im Jahre 1 946 vornahm, bekanntgemacht. Ich möchte auch an dieser Stelle den Genannten für die Möglichkeit, ihr interessantes Material zu studieren, bestens danken. Für die Zeichnung der Verbreitungskarten bin ich Dr. K. Schmälzer, Innsbruck, zu Dank verpflichtet.Peer reviewe

Numerische Taxonomie? - Mit Bemerkungen zur Methode synbiologischer Systematik.

Die Ablehnung der numerischen Taxonomie und analoger numerischer Methoden in der Biozönotik sowie der „phylogenetischen Systematik" sensu Hennig wird kurz begründet und auf relativ objektive Theorien der Systematik, insbesondere auf die „Quantentheorie der Taxonomie" von Gisin, verwiesen.The rejection of the numerical taxonomy and of analogous numerical methods in biocoenotics as well as the „phylogenetic systematics" sensu Hennig is briefly explained. Reference is made to relatively objective theories of systematics, especially to the "quantum theory of taxonomy" by Gisin

A workflow runtime environment for manycore parallel architectures

We introduce a new Manycore Workflow Runtime Environment (MWRE) to efficiently enact traditional scientific workflows on modern manycore computing architectures. MWRE is compiler-based and translates workflows specified in the XML-based Interoperable Workflow Intermediate Representation (IWIR) into an equivalent C++-based program. This program efficiently enacts the workflow as a stand-alone executable by means of a new callback mechanism that resolves dependencies, transfers data, and handles composite activities. Furthermore, a core feature of MWRE is explicit support for full-ahead scheduling and enactment. Experimental results on a number of real-world workflows demonstrate that MWRE clearly outperforms existing Java-based workflow engines designed for distributed (Grid or Cloud) computing infrastructures in terms of enactment time, is generally better than an existing script-based engine for manycore architectures (Swift), and sometimes gets even close to an artificial baseline implementation of the workflows in the standard OpenMP language for shared memory systems. Experimental results also show that full-ahead scheduling with MWRE using a state-of-the-art heuristic can improve the workflow performance up to 40%.(VLID)2196062Accepted versio

Bringing scientific workflows to Amazon SWF

In response to the ever-increasing needs of scientific applications for resources, Cloud computing emerged as an alternative on-demand and cost-effective resource provisioning approach. In this context, Cloud providers have recognised the importance of workflow applications to science and provide their own native solutions, such as the Amazon Simple Workflow Service (SWF). Nevertheless, an important downside of SWF is its incompatibility with existing workflow systems, and lack of means for reusing scientific legacy code. Similarly, existing workflow middlewares and applications require non-trivial extensions to take advantage of Cloud resources. We present in this paper a software engineering solution that allows the scientific workflow community access the Amazon Cloud through one single front-end converter, and propose a legacy wrapper service for executing legacy code using SWF. Empirical results using a real-world scientific workflow demonstrate that our automatically generated SWF application performs almost as fast as a native manually-optimised version, and outperforms other workflow middleware systems using the Amazon Cloud.(VLID)2199150Accepted versio

ICG-targeted template lymph node dissection in prostate cancer patients

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is successfully used in the treatment of diseases such as breast cancer, penile cancer, and melanoma. For prostate cancer, it is difficult to identify clear single sentinel nodes, but they can be a part of lymph node groups which can be visualized using ICG/NIR technology. The objective of our work is to refine the technique of intraprostatic ICG injection, laparoscopic identification of ICG-positive lymph nodes, and their removal during radical prostatectomy. To achieve ICG/NIR technology, we used Verdye (25mg) Indocyanine green, Diagnostic Green, IMAGE1 S™ 4K Rubina™ KARL STORZ equipment. After the induction of general anesthesia ICG solution, 2.5mg/mL is injected into the area of the MRI-identified tumor and sextant biopsy areas of the prostate (2.5mL per lobe). The positioning of the patient and trocar set-up are standard for a transperitoneal laparoscopic prostatectomy. Using the 25 to 30-degree Trendelenburg position, intestinal loops are moved cranially to expose the field of the common iliac vessels where lymph node luminescence is determined. An incision of the peritoneum along the iliac vessels is performed. Careful ‘en bloc’ excision of fluorescent lymph nodes should be performed. To prevent the further spread of ICG in the lymphatic system, the surgery is started at the cranial boarder of the dissection field and continued caudally. Multiple collateral lymphatic vessels around the node are sealed, using bipolar coagulation or an ultrasonic scalpel. Dissection is then completed, avoiding direct capture of node tissue, as well as its damage. This technique prevents the spread of ICG and chaotic luminescence of the surrounding tissue due to ICG leakage. Conclusion: ICG/NIR laparoscopic visualization is a feasible and effective method to detect lymph node groups draining the prostate, and more specifically prostate cancer. The sentinel nodes are included in the caudal part of these lymph node packages

Hypertensive emergency and type 2 myocardial infarction resulting from pheochromocytoma and concurrent capnocytophaga canimorsus infection

A diagnosis of myocardial infarction is made using a combination of clinical presentation, electrocardiogram and cardiac biomarkers. However, myocardial infarction can be caused by factors other than coronary artery plaque rupture and thrombosis. We describe an interesting case presenting with hypertensive emergency and type 2 myocardial infarction resulting from Pheochromocytoma associated with Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection from a dog bite. We also review current literature on the management of hypertensive emergency and Pheochromocytoma