Connectivity of Natura 2000 forest sites in Europe

Background/Purpose: In the context of the European Biodiversity policy, the Green Infrastructure Strategy is one supporting tool to mitigate fragmentation, inter-alia to increase the spatial and functional connectivity between protected and unprotected areas. The Joint Research Centre has developed an integrated model to provide a macro-scale set of indices to evaluate the connectivity of the Natura 2000 network, which forms the backbone of a Green Infrastructure for Europe. The model allows a wide assessment and comparison to be performed across countries in terms of structural (spatially connected or isolated sites) and functional connectivity (least-cost distances between sites influenced by distribution, distance and land cover). Main conclusion: The Natura 2000 network in Europe shows differences among countries in terms of the sizes and numbers of sites, their distribution as well as distances between sites. Connectivity has been assessed on the basis of a 500 m average inter-site distance, roads and intensive land use as barrier effects as well as the presence of "green" corridors. In all countries the Natura 2000 network is mostly made of sites which are not physically connected. Highest functional connectivity values are found for Spain, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. The more natural landscape in Sweden and Finland does not result in high inter-site network connectivity due to large inter-site distances. The distribution of subnets with respect to roads explains the higher share of isolated subnets in Portugal than in Belgium.Comment: 9 pages, from a poster published in F1000Posters 2014, 5: 48

Architecture of Environmental Risk Modelling: for a faster and more robust response to natural disasters

Demands on the disaster response capacity of the European Union are likely to increase, as the impacts of disasters continue to grow both in size and frequency. This has resulted in intensive research on issues concerning spatially-explicit information and modelling and their multiple sources of uncertainty. Geospatial support is one of the forms of assistance frequently required by emergency response centres along with hazard forecast and event management assessment. Robust modelling of natural hazards requires dynamic simulations under an array of multiple inputs from different sources. Uncertainty is associated with meteorological forecast and calibration of the model parameters. Software uncertainty also derives from the data transformation models (D-TM) needed for predicting hazard behaviour and its consequences. On the other hand, social contributions have recently been recognized as valuable in raw-data collection and mapping efforts traditionally dominated by professional organizations. Here an architecture overview is proposed for adaptive and robust modelling of natural hazards, following the Semantic Array Programming paradigm to also include the distributed array of social contributors called Citizen Sensor in a semantically-enhanced strategy for D-TM modelling. The modelling architecture proposes a multicriteria approach for assessing the array of potential impacts with qualitative rapid assessment methods based on a Partial Open Loop Feedback Control (POLFC) schema and complementing more traditional and accurate a-posteriori assessment. We discuss the computational aspect of environmental risk modelling using array-based parallel paradigms on High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms, in order for the implications of urgency to be introduced into the systems (Urgent-HPC).Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, 1 text box, presented at the 3rd Conference of Computational Interdisciplinary Sciences (CCIS 2014), Asuncion, Paragua

Semantic Array Programming for Environmental Modelling: Application of the Mastrave Library

Environmental datasets grow in size and specialization while models designed for local scale are often unsuitable at regional/continental scale. At regional scale, data are usually available as georeferenced collections of spatially distributed despite semantically atomic information. Complex data intrinsically impose modellers to manipulate nontrivial information structures. For example, multi-dimensional arrays of time series may be composed by slices of raster spatial matrices for each time step, whilst heterogeneous collections of uneven arrays are common when dealing with data analogous to precipitation events, and these structures may ask for integration at several spatial scales, projections and temporal extents. Interestingly, it might be far more difficult to practically implement such a complexity rather than conceptually describe it: a subset of modelling generalizations may deal more with abstraction rather than with the explosion of lines of code. Many environmental modelling algorithms are composed by chains of data-transformations or trees of domain specific sub-algorithms. Concisely expressing them without the need for paying attention on the enormous set of spatio-temporal details, is a highly recommendable practice in both mathematical formulation and implementation. The use of semantic array programming paradigm is here exemplified as a powerful conceptual and practical (with the free software library Mastrave) tool for easing scalability and semantic integration in environmental modelling. Array programming, AP, is widely used for its computational effectiveness but often underexploited in reducing the gap between mathematical notation and algorithm implementations, i.e. by promoting arrays (vectors, matrices, tensors) as atomic quantities with extremely compact manipulating operators. Coherent array-based mathematical description of models can simplify complex algorithm prototyping while moving mathematical reasoning directly into the source code – because of its substantial size reduction – where the mathematical description is actually expressed in a completely formalized and reproducible way. The proposed paradigm suggests to complement the characteristic AP weak typing with semantics, both by composing generalized modular sub-models and via array oriented – thus concise – constraints. The Mastrave library use is exemplified with a regional scale benchmark application to local-average invariant (LAI) downscaling of climate raster data. Unnecessary errors frequently introduced by non-LAI upsampling are shown to be easily detected and removed when the scientific modelling practice is terse enough to let mathematical reasoning and model coding merge together.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

Architecture of a pan-European framework for Integrated Soil Water Erosion Assessment

Soil erosion implications on future food security are gaining global attention because in many areas worldwide there is an imbalance between soil loss and its subsequent deposition. Soil erosion is a complex phenomenon affected by many factors such as climate, topography and land cover (in particular forest resources, natural vegetation and agriculture) while directly influencing water sediment transport, the quality of water resources and water storage loss. A modeling architecture, based on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, is proposed and applied to evaluate and validate at regional scale potential and actual soil water erosion, enabling it to be linked to other involved natural resources. The methodology benefits from the array programming paradigm with semantic constraints (lightweight array behavioural contracts provided by the Mastrave library) to concisely implement models as composition of interoperable modules and to process heterogeneous data.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

Projeto compaixão: vivências de solidariedade

Anais do 35º Seminário de Extensão Universitária da Região Sul - Área temática: TrabalhoDiante dos atuais cenários conflituosos, injustos e antiéticos com os quais nos deparamos diariamente, é inegável o preço socialmente pago por isso. Porém, será que ainda podemos fazer algo para mudar esse contexto? Em defesa de uma sociedade mais justa, que preze pela moralidade, humanidade, solidariedade e bem- estar social, apresentamos o Projeto COMpaixão, desenvolvido no Campus Bento Gonçalves do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul. Este busca sensibilizar e envolver os estudantes e servidores em ações sociais e voluntárias, em prol da prática reflexiva sobre os valores humanos. Hoje o projeto conta com duas estudantes bolsistas e aproximadamente vinte voluntários, que planejam, organizam e desenvolvem ações mensais nas entidades do município vinculadas à ONG Parceiros Voluntários. Dentre essas entidades, podemos citar o Lar dos Idosos, Associação dos Deficientes Visuais, Associação dos Surdos, Associação dos Downs, Escola de Ensino Fundamental, Hospital Tacchini etc. Nessas ações voluntárias, busca-se a interação do grupo e do público atendido, por meio de atividades diversas, voltadas para a questão da ética, da ludicidade, do fazer estético, da responsabilidade social, da cidadania, inclusão, cooperação e empatia. Além disso, tem-se promovido campanhas para arrecadação de livros, material escolar, alimentos não perecíveis, produtos de limpeza e higiene, procurando atender algumas necessidades mais emergenciais dessas entidades. Portanto, busca-se, através desse projeto, vivenciar e refletir a ética, a cidadania e responsabilidade social. Nesse sentido, entende-se que o Projeto COMpaixão, ao fomentar o trabalho voluntário, também contribui para a reflexão crítica e a prática social, tão necessárias para a formação humana e profissional dos sujeito

INFLUENCE OF THE PASTEURIZATION CONDITIONS ON SUGARCANE JUICE PACKAGED IN GLASS PACKAGING

Sugarcane is a widely consumed product, giving rise to different products, including sugar, sugarcane juice, and alcohol. The sugarcane juice consists of 81 % water, 15 % sucrose and 1.05 % reducing sugars, being highly perishable, mainly due to its high sugar concentration, high water activity, and low acidity. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of experimental design (central composite design-CCD) using various pasteurization time-temperature conditions of sugarcane juice packaged in glass bottles, throughout 45 days of storage at 20 ºC. A significant (p ≤ 0.05) effect was observed for the interaction time and temperature concerning the variables pH, total reducing sugars, and total soluble sugars, with calculated F higher than tabulated F, thus allowing constructing a response surface model, which showed that higher temperature and shorter time led to an increase in soluble solids contents. For all treatments, no molds and yeasts, and mesophilic bacteria growth were observed up to 15 days of storage at 20 ºC. However, at 30 and 45 days of storage, the growth of molds and yeasts and mesophilic bacteria was observed, with a significant difference between the treatments (p ≤ 0.05) at 45 days of storage, while the pasteurization condition at the central point (80 ºC and 15 minutes) exhibited lower microbial count

El treball penitenciari : l'inici de la reinserció sociolaboral

Hi ha una gran quantitat de recerques en l'àmbit criminològic que destaquen la im-portància que té el treball en el desistiment de la delinqüència i en la reinserció social de les persones privades de llibertat, una vegada han pagat el seu deute amb la societat. Entre tots els factors sobre els quals podem influir per tal de contribuir al procés de reinserció dels interns, és el treball, d'aquí neix el nostre interès d'in-vestigar aquesta qüestió.El context d'estudi d'aquest projecte són els centres penitenciaris, ja que és on s'ini-cia aquest procés. Així, l'objectiu principal d'aquesta recerca és dur a terme un anàlisi de l'organització i gestió dels tallers penitenciaris de les presons catalanes, per tal de detectar els punts forts i febles d'aquest sistema i així poder fonamentar una proposta de millora, per tal de poder contribuir a la bona reinserció dels interns. La conclusió d'aquesta recerca es centra en que, a través de l'assimilació de les recomanacions que estableix el Llibre Blanc del Treball Penitenciari en les presons europees, la tasca de reinserció sociolaboral dels interns es pot aconseguir amb ma-jor efectivitat i eficiència, cosa que en un futur es traduiria en una reducció de la taxa de reincidència, i en conseqüència, de la població penitenciària.There is a great deal of researches in the field of criminology that emphasizes the importance of work relative to the desistance of crime and the social reintegration of people deprived of their freedom. Among all the factors that we can manage to contribute to the process of reintegration of inmates, there is only one we can influ-ence, that is work, and here born our interest to investigate that question.The context of study of this project are penitentiary centers, considering that here is where the reintegration process begins. Thus, the main objective of this research is to carry out an analysis of the organization and management of the penitentiary workshops of the Catalan prisons, to detect the strengths and weaknesses of this system and by this way be able to base a proposal of improvement, in order to con-tribute to the best reintegration of the inmates. Our conclusion is that, through the assimilation of the recommendations established by the White Paper on Peniten-tiary Work in the European prisons, the task of social-labor reintegration of inmates can be achieved with greater effectiveness and efficiency, and in the future, it would result in a reduction in the rate of recidivism, and consequently, of the penitentiary population