MANAGEMENT OF TRANSBOUNDARY CATCHMENTS AND THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE: REALIZING HYDRODIPLOMACY PRINCIPLES

Η διαχείριση των κοινών υδατικών πόρων σε διασυνοριακές περιοχές και η διεκδίκηση των κοινών υδατικών αποθεμάτων, συχνά αποτελούν αιτία τριβών, εντάσεων και συγκρούσεων, απειλώντας την ειρηνική συνύπαρξη των λαών σε επίπεδο τόσο περιφερειακό, όσο και διεθνές. Γι' αυτό το λόγο, τα τελευταία χρόνια, η διαχείριση του νερού, έχει ανοιχτεί σε νέες περιοχές, αξιοποιώντας αρχές και μεθόδους και από την επιστήμη των Διεθνών Σχέσεων και της Διπλωματίας, δημιουργώντας μια νέα επιστημονική περιοχή, αυτή της Υδροδιπλωματίας. Η Ευρωπαϊκή Οδηγία 2000/60 για το νερό δημιουργεί νέες βάσεις για την κοινή προσέγγιση, τους κοινούς στόχους, τις κοινές αρχές, τους ορισμούς και τα μέτρα για τη διαχείριση των υδάτων της Ευρώπης.Management of transboundary catchments and the demand of common water resources, often comprise the cause of conflicts and tension threatening the peaceful coexistence of nations. For this reason, in the last years water management has covered new areas using methods and tools from the science of Public Relations and Diplomacy, creating thus a new scientific area called Hydrodiplomacy. The Water Framework Directive 2000/60 creates a new base for water management contributing to common approaches, common goals, common principles as well as providing new definitions and measures for the management of Europe’s water resources

Evaluating demand management aspects of urban water policy. The city of Volos case, Greece

This paper examines the perspectives of the implementation of a demand-oriented policy concerning residential water use, which covers almost 70% of urban water. Water demand, water pricing policy, as well as building capacity are examined and evaluated in order to investigate the current situation in urban water management in the city of Volos with reference to residential water use. The application of IWR-MAIN model in order to estimate future water needs and form different scenarios for sustainable water resources management together with a field survey in various water issues conducted in 966 citizens of the city of Volos justify the urgent need for the adoption of a demand driven policy. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers

Agricultural and water resources development in Thessaly, Greece in the framework of new European union policies

The main challenges that inter-relate sustainable development with water resources management are to secure water for all humanity and for food production as well, to protect the ecosystems, to manage risk, to create public awareness, to urge political will and to ensure cooperation and coordination of action in an integrated way for both national and international water issues. The response of Europe comes through the new Water Framework Directive (WFD) for the sustainable management of all European waters. Moreover EU provides the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the sustainable development of rural areas which all member states should comply with. This paper evaluates the perspectives of water resources management and economic development in the greater Thessaly area - an agricultural, rural area in Greece that faces a dramatic water resources problem, in the framework of the WFD 2000/60 and the new CAP. © 2009 IAHR, INBO & IAHS

Integrated Water Management Plans for the Restoration of Lake Koronia, Greece

Lake Koronia is a very important ecosystem of Greece which is almost vanishing because of non sustainable water management practice in the region. The ongoing unsystematic economic growth of the area has resulted to water depletion and environmental degradation with serious social and economic impacts. This paper presents an integrated water resources management plan for the reversal of the situation. First, a groundwater simulation model of the complex shallow - deeper aquifer system is developed to simulate the lake-aquifer interaction. Second, this model is then used as a management tool for the development of alternative exploitation plans of the deeper aquifer. The impacts of these scenarios to the groundwater levels and balance are also considered and evaluated. For sustainability purposes, not only the rehabilitation of the lake water resources, but also the restoration of the disturbed groundwater balance considered. The finally suggested plan is a combination of an engineering project recharg the lake with groundwater from the deeper aquifer, and water saving measures the agricultural sector, through the implementation of a crop change program and the exist irrigation methods

Management of covid-19 patients in the emergency department

COVID-19 is an emerging disease of global public health concern. As the pandemic overwhelmed emergency departments (EDs), a restructuring of emergency care delivery became necessary in many hospitals. Furthermore, with more than 2000 papers being published each week, keeping up with ever-changing information has proven to be difficult for emergency physicians. The aim of the present review is to provide emergency physician with a summary of the current literature regarding the management of COVID-19 patients in the emergency department. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Claudin-3 and claudin-4: Distinct prognostic significance in triple-negative and luminal breast cancer

INTRODUCTION: To investigate the immunohistochemical expression of claudin-1, claudin-3, and claudin-4 in triple-negative breast carcinomas and compare it with several clinicopathologic parameters as well as their expression in luminal cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 128 cases of breast carcinoma were included in the study. For all these cases, immunohistochemistry for estrogen and progesterone receptors, Ki-67, and Her2 had already been performed, whereas Her2 2+ cases had been further characterized as positive or negative for Her2 amplification with the chromogenic in situ hybridization technique. Seventy-six tumors were triple negative. The remaining 52 were luminal cancers. All tumors were evaluated for the expression of claudin-1, claudin-3, and claudin-4. RESULTS: In the triple-negative group, the positive expression of claudin-3 and claudin-4 was related to unfavorable and favorable prognostic factors, respectively. Claudin-1 was not related to any parameter under evaluation. In the luminal cancer group, claudin-4 positivity was related to a shorter disease-free survival, whereas the inverse was observed for claudin-3. Moreover, all 3 claudins increased with increase of the grade and Ki-67 value in the luminal cancers. CONCLUSION: A distinct prognostic significance in the expression of claudin-3 and mostly of claudin-4 between triple-negative and luminal breast carcinomas was identified. Specifically, in triple-negative carcinomas, claudin-4 positivity could probably be considered as a biomarker of favorable prognosis, whereas in luminal cancers with claudin-4-positive expression, the administration of targeted therapy should eventually be part of the patients' management in the near future. Copyright © 2013 by Lippincott Williams &Wilkins

Ability of RCM/GCM couples to represent the relationship of large scale circulation to climate extremes over the Mediterranean region

The objective of this study was to explore the ability of 3 regional climate models (RCMs), CNRM-Aladin, C4I-RCA3 and KNMI-RACMO along with their parental global climate models (GCMs), ARPEGE and ECHAM5, to represent the relationship between large-scale atmospheric circulation and climate extremes in the Mediterranean region. Subsequently, an evaluation and inter-comparison of these 3 RCM/GCM couples for the present climate was performed. For this purpose, the Regularised Canonical Correlation Analysis (RCCA) was employed and 4 extreme climate indices of temperature and precipitation were used to define extreme events over the study region. The evaluation of these relationships was carried out against gridded observational and reanalysis datasets. It was found that the observed upper air large scale patterns related to climate extremes in the Mediterranean are not very well reproduced by the RCM/GCM couples in all seasons. In addition, in many cases, the coupled models display patterns of extreme climate indices which are not consistent with the accompanied upper level circulation. Furthermore, all coupled models display substantial deficiencies in simulating precipitation extremes. In the case of summer data, the ability of all 3 models is limited, possibly because the strength of the large-scale atmospheric flow decreases, the control exerted by the lateral boundary conditions is weaker, and the nested models are mainly governed by local processes. © Inter-Research 2011

Acute effects of different types of aerobic exercise on endothelial function and arterial stiffness

Background Chronic aerobic exercise training is associated with improved endothelial function and arterial stiffness and favourable long-term cardiovascular effects. Design We investigated the acute effects of continuous moderate intensity aerobic exercise (CAE) and high intensity interval aerobic exercise (hIAE) on endothelial function and arterial stiffness in healthy participants. Methods Twenty healthy men were recruited to this cross-over study. They participated in two exercise sessions: (a) CAE, volume at 50% of maximum aerobic work for 30 minutes; and (b) hIAE, interval maximum aerobic work for 30 minutes. Endothelial function was evaluated by flow-mediated dilation in the brachial artery. The carotid femoral pulse wave velocity and the femoral dorsalis pedis pulse wave velocity were measured as indices of central aortic and peripheral arterial stiffness. Measurements were carried out before and immediately after each exercise session. Results There was no statistically significant difference in the baseline measurements before CAE and hIAE with respect to flow-mediated dilation, the carotid femoral pulse wave velocity and the femoral dorsalis pedis pulse wave velocity (p = NS). Both CAE and hIAE significantly improved the flow-mediated dilation compared with baseline (p < 0.001). Similarly, the femoral dorsalis pedis pulse wave velocity was improved after CAE and hIAE (p < 0.005), whereas the carotid femoral pulse wave velocity was not significantly affected (p = NS). Conclusion Both CAE and hIAE can favourably affect endothelial function, suggesting another cardioprotective effect of acute exercise. These types of aerobic exercise have a different impact on the central and peripheral arterial stiffness. © 2016 European Society of Cardiology