Decision Support Tool for energy-efficient, sustainable and integrated urban stormwater management

[EN] The use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) to manage urban runoff and contribute to environmental and landscape improvement is now widely known, but its application is still limited in many regions, like in Mediterranean countries. In addition, there is a lack of Decision Support Tools that consider all their benefits in the decision making process in a clear and integrated holistic way. In this paper, the (ESTORMED)-S-2 Decision Support Tool is presented. This tool analyses the impact of stormwater management in the urban environment and introduces energetic and environmental criteria in the decision making process. Therefore, it aims to fill in the existing "gap" between SuDS manuals and guidelines and regional and local decision makers, since it quantifies SuDS benefits and includes them in the comparison of different stormwater scenarios. Finally, the results of applying this tool to compare drainage infrastructures in a real urban development are described. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The E2STORMED project (Reference: 1C-MED12-14), within which the Decision Support Tool described in this paper has been developed, was funded by the MED Programme of the European Union. Authors would also like to express their gratitude to the E2STORMED project partners for their assistance and collaboration in this work.Morales Torres, A.; Escuder Bueno, I.; Andrés Doménech, I.; Perales Momparler, S. (2016). Decision Support Tool for energy-efficient, sustainable and integrated urban stormwater management. Environmental Modelling & Software. 84:518-528. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.07.019S5185288

Recent development of allele frequencies and exclusion probabilities of microsatellites used for parentage control in the German Holstein Friesian cattle population

BACKGROUND: Methods for parentage control in cattle have changed since their initial implementation in the late 1950’s from blood group typing to more current single nucleotide polymorphism determination. In the early 1990’s, 12 microsatellites were selected by the International Society for Animal Genetics based on their informativeness and robustness in a variety of different cattle breeds. Since then this panel is used as standard in cattle herd book breeding and its application is accompanied by recurrent international comparison tests ensuring permanent validity for the most common commercial dairy and beef cattle breeds for example Holstein Friesian, Simmental, Angus, and Hereford. Although, nearly every parentage can be resolved using these microsatellites, cases with very close relatives became an emerging resolution problem during recent years. This is mainly due to an increase of monomorphism and a trend to the fixation of alleles, although no direct selection against their variability was applied. Thus other effects must be presumed resulting in a loss of polymorphism information content, heterozygosity, and exclusion probabilities. RESULTS: To determine changes of allele frequencies and exclusion probabilities, we analyzed the development of these parameters for the 12 microsatellites from 2004 to 2014. One hundred sixty eight thousand recorded Holstein Friesian cattle genotypes were evaluated. During this period certain alleles of nine microsatellites increased significantly (t-values >5). When calculating the exclusion probabilities for 11 microsatellites, reduction was determined for the three situations, i.e. one parent is wrongly identified (p = 0.01), both parents are wrongly identified (p = 0.005), and the genotype of one parent is missing (p = 0.048). With the addition of BM1818 to the marker set in 2009, this development was corrected leading to significant increases in exclusion probabilities. Although, the exclusion probabilities for the three family situations using the 12 microsatellites are >99 %, the clarification of 142 relationships in 40,000 situations where one parent is missing will still be impossible. Twenty-five sires were identified that are responsible for the most significant microsatellite allele increases in the population. The corresponding alleles are mainly associated with milk protein and fat yield, body weight at birth and weaning, as well as somatic cell score, milk fat percentage, and longissimus muscle area. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that most of the microsatellites used for parentage control in cattle show directional changes in allele frequencies consistent with the history of artificial selection in the German Holstein population

Community-based environmental management for malaria control: evidence from a small-scale intervention in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Historically, environmental management has brought important achievements in malaria control and overall improvements of health conditions. Currently, however, implementation is often considered not to be cost-effective. A community-based environmental management for malaria control was conducted in Dar es Salaam between 2005 and 2007. After community sensitization, two drains were cleaned followed by maintenance. This paper assessed the impact of the intervention on community awareness, prevalence of malaria infection, and Anopheles larval presence in drains. A survey was conducted in neighbourhoods adjacent to cleaned drains; for comparison, neighbourhoods adjacent to two drains treated with larvicides and two drains under no intervention were also surveyed. Data routinely collected by the Urban Malaria Control Programme were also used. Diverse impacts were evaluated through comparison of means, odds ratios (OR), logistic regression, and time trends calculated by moving averages. Individual awareness of health risks and intervention goals were significantly higher among sensitized neighbourhoods. A reduction in the odds of malaria infection during the post-cleaning period in intervention neighbourhoods was observed when compared to the pre-cleaning period (OR = 0.12, 95% CI 0.05-0.3, p < 0.001). During the post-cleaning period, a higher risk of infection (OR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.1-2.4, p = 0.0069) was observed in neighbourhoods under no intervention compared to intervention ones. Eighteen months after the initial cleaning, one of the drains was still clean due to continued maintenance efforts (it contained no waste materials and the water was flowing at normal velocity). A three-month moving average of the percentage of water habitats in that drain containing pupae and/or Anopheles larvae indicated a decline in larval density. In the other drain, lack of proper resources and local commitment limited success. Although environmental management was historically coordinated by authoritarian/colonial regimes or by industries/corporations, its successful implementation as part of an integrated vector management framework for malaria control under democratic governments can be possible if four conditions are observed: political will and commitment, community sensitization and participation, provision of financial resources for initial cleaning and structural repairs, and inter-sectoral collaboration. Such effort not only is expected to reduce malaria transmission, but has the potential to empower communities, improve health and environmental conditions, and ultimately contribute to poverty alleviation and sustainable development

Wound healing after radiation therapy: Review of the literature

Radiation therapy is an established modality in the treatment of head and neck cancer patients. Compromised wound healing in irradiated tissues is a common and challenging clinical problem. The pathophysiology and underlying cellular mechanisms including the complex interaction of cytokines and growth factors are still not understood completely. In this review, the current state of research regarding the pathomechanisms of compromised wound healing in irradiated tissues is presented. Current and possible future treatment strategies are critically reviewed

Vyhodnocení ekonomických dopadů existence CHKO a NP ve vztahu k prosperitě dotčených regionů

Zpráva obsahuje následující výstupy: 1. Úvod, 2. Analýza právních nástrojů, 3. Socioekonomická analýza, 4. Analýza konfliktů, 5. Hloubková analýza, 6. Syntéza/shrnutí klíčových faktů, 7. Návrhová část - doporučení technicko-administrativního charakteru a legislativní návrhy

Informační podpora pro navrhování strategií řízení kvality ovzduší v aglomeracích včetně modelování účasti zdrojů znečištění‚ podpora přípravy ČR v oblasti ochrany kvality ovzduší na členství v Evropské agentuře ŽP a zajišťování zpráv pro mezinárodní organizace:Analýza stavu legislativy ČR v oblasti ochrany ovzduší a hodnocení přijatých ekologických opatření ve vztahu k předpokládanému vývoji ekonomiky v ČR ve výhledu do roku 2010

Zpráva je rozdělena do částí: Aktualizace analýzy platných a připravovaných právních předpisů ČR a ES v oblasti ochrany ovzduší, Aktualizace analýzy dosavadních nákladů v oblasti ochrany ovzduší a analýzy odhadů budoucích nákladů k ochraně ovzduší, Formulace závěrů – predikce vývoje právních předpisů ES, právních předpisů ČR a dalších relevantních dokumentů v horizontu roku 2010 a Formulace závěrů – ekonomické hodnocení opatření vyplývajících z existující i připravované legislativy v kontextu očekávaného vývoje ekonomiky

Návrh Plánu odpadového hospodářství České republiky (POH ČR)

Pracovní verze Plánu odpadového hospodářství ČR č. 2.2/D/2/519, která je předkládána k posouzení vlivu na životní prostředí podle zákona č. 244/1992., o posuzování vlivů rozvojových koncepcí a programů na životní prostředí (SEA.

Die maternale Gesundheit von Frauen mit Fluchterfahrung

Kasper A. Die maternale Gesundheit von Frauen mit Fluchterfahrung. Presented at the 15. Deutscher Hebammenkongress, Bremen