Sensitivity and evaluation of current fire risk and future projections due to climate change: the case study of Greece

Current trends in the Mediterranean climate, and more specifically in Greece, indicate longer and more intense summer droughts that even extend out of season. In connection to this, the frequency of forest fire occurrence and intensity is on the rise. In the present study, the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is used in order to investigate the relationship between fire risk and meteorological conditions in Greece. FWI is a meteorologically based index designed in Canada and used worldwide, including the Mediterranean Basin, to estimate fire danger in a generalised fuel type based solely on weather observations. Here, an evaluation of the index is initially performed for the Greek territory using fire observations that cover a 15 yr period. Three critical fire risk threshold values are established for the area of Greece based on daily mean meteorological data: FWI = 15, FWI = 30 and FWI = 45, increasing from the northwest to the southeast. Subsequently, a regional climate model is employed providing input for the FWI system to investigate the impacts of climate change on fire risk for two future time periods, 2021–2050 and 2071–2100, under the A1B emissions scenario. Days with critical fire risk are expected to increase by as many as 50 days per year by the end of the century

Spatio-temporal patterns of recent and future climate extremes in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region

Recent and future changes in temperature and precipitation climate extremes are estimated using the Hadley Centre PRECIS ("Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies") climate model for the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region. The area of interest is considered vulnerable to extreme climate events as there is evidence for a temperature rise while precipitation tends to decline, suggesting likely effects on vital socioeconomic sectors in the region. Observations have been obtained for the recent period (1961–1990) and used to evaluate the model output. The spatial distribution of recent temporal trends in temperature indicates strong increasing in minimum temperature over the eastern Balkan Peninsula, Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula. The rate of warming reaches 0.4–0.5 °C decade⁻¹ in a large part of the domain, while warming is expected to be strongest in summer (0.6–0.7 °C decade⁻¹) in the eastern Balkans and western Turkey. The trends in annual and summer maximum temperature are estimated at approximately 0.5 and 0.6 °C decade⁻¹ respectively. Recent estimates do not indicate statistically significant trends in precipitation except for individual sub-regions. Results indicate a future warming trend for the study area over the last 30 years of the 21st century. Trends are estimated to be positive and statistically significant in nearly the entire region. The annual trend patterns for both minimum and maximum temperature show warming rates of approximately 0.4–0.6 °C decade⁻¹, with pronounced warming over the Middle Eastern countries. Summer temperatures reveal a gradual warming (0.5–0.9 °C decade⁻¹) over much of the region. The model projects drying trends by 5–30% in annual precipitation towards the end of the 21st century, with the number of wet days decreasing at the rate of 10–30 days year⁻¹, while heavy precipitation is likely to decrease in the high-elevation areas by 15 days year⁻¹

A PMT-Block test bench

The front-end electronics of the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter (Tile Cal) is housed in a unit, called {\it PMT-Block}. The PMT-Block is a compact instrument comprising a light mixer, a PMT together with its divider and a {\it 3-in-1} card, which provides shaping, amplification and integration for the signals. This instrument needs to be qualified before being assembled on the detector. A PMT-Block test bench has been developed for this purpose. This test bench is a system which allows fast, albeit accurate enough, measurements of the main properties of a complete PMT-Block. The system, both hardware and software, and the protocol used for the PMT-Blocks characterisation are described in detail in this report. The results obtained in the test of about 10000 PMT-Blocks needed for the instrumentation of the ATLAS (LHC-CERN) hadronic Tile Calorimeter are also reported.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

{\phi}^4 Solitary Waves in a Parabolic Potential: Existence, Stability, and Collisional Dynamics

We explore a {\phi}^4 model with an added external parabolic potential term. This term dramatically alters the spectral properties of the system. We identify single and multiple kink solutions and examine their stability features; importantly, all of the stationary structures turn out to be unstable. We complement these with a dynamical study of the evolution of a single kink in the trap, as well as of the scattering of kink and anti-kink solutions of the model. We see that some of the key characteristics of kink-antikink collisions, such as the critical velocity and the multi-bounce windows, are sensitively dependent on the trap strength parameter, as well as the initial displacement of the kink and antikink

MiR-211 is essential for adult cone photoreceptor maintenance and visual function.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that play an important role in the control of fundamental biological processes in both physiological and pathological conditions. Their function in retinal cells is just beginning to be elucidated, and a few have been found to play a role in photoreceptor maintenance and function. MiR-211 is one of the most abundant miRNAs in the developing and adult eye. However, its role in controlling vertebrate visual system development, maintenance and function so far remain incompletely unexplored. Here, by targeted inactivation in a mouse model, we identify a critical role of miR-211 in cone photoreceptor function and survival. MiR-211 knockout (-/-) mice exhibited a progressive cone dystrophy accompanied by significant alterations in visual function. Transcriptome analysis of the retina from miR-211-/- mice during cone degeneration revealed significant alteration of pathways related to cell metabolism. Collectively, this study highlights for the first time the impact of miR-211 function in the retina and significantly contributes to unravelling the role of specific miRNAs in cone photoreceptor function and survival

Motion of a droplet for the Stochastic mass conserving Allen-Cahn equation

We study the stochastic mass-conserving Allen-Cahn equation posed on a smoothly bounded domain of R2 with additive, spatially smooth, space-time noise. This equation describes the stochastic motion of a small almost semicircular droplet attached to domain's boundary and moving towards a point of locally maximum curvature. We apply It^o calculus to derive the stochastic dynamics of the center of the droplet by utilizing the approximately invariant manifold introduced by Alikakos, Chen and Fusco [2] for the deterministic problem. In the stochastic case depending on the scaling, the motion is driven by the change in the curvature of the boundary and the stochastic forcing. Moreover, under the assumption of a su ciently small noise strength, we establish stochastic stability of a neighborhood of the manifold of boundary droplet states in the L2- and H1-norms, which means that with overwhelming probability the solution stays close to the manifold for very long time-scales

Circulating microRNAs Reveal Time Course of Organ Injury in a Porcine Model of Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Liver Failure

Acute liver failure is a rare but catastrophic condition which can progress rapidly to multi-organ failure. Studies investigating the onset of individual organ injury such as the liver, kidneys and brain during the evolution of acute liver failure, are lacking. MicroRNAs are short, non-coding strands of RNA that are released into the circulation following tissue injury. In this study, we have characterised the release of both global microRNA and specific microRNA species into the plasma using a porcine model of acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure. Pigs were induced to acute liver failure with oral acetaminophen over 19h±2h and death occurred 13h±3h thereafter. Global microRNA concentrations increased 4h prior to acute liver failure in plasma (P<0.0001) but not in isolated exosomes, and were associated with increasing plasma levels of the damage-associated molecular pattern molecule, genomic DNA (P<0.0001). MiR122 increased around the time of onset of acute liver failure (P<0.0001) and was associated with increasing international normalised ratio (P<0.0001). MiR192 increased 8h after acute liver failure (P<0.0001) and was associated with increasing creatinine (P<0.0001). The increase in miR124-1 occurred concurrent with the pre-terminal increase in intracranial pressure (P<0.0001) and was associated with decreasing cerebral perfusion pressure (P<0.002)