•A quantitative and synthetic index of ecological complexity (OCI) was developed.•OCI was applied to a marine coastal tract including a Marine Protected Area.•OCI components (structural, functional, ...extensive, intensive) were identified.•The habitats included in the area were characterised according to their complexity.•Suggestions for the management of the area were proposed according to results.
The novel Overall Complexity Index (OCI) is proposed to measure ecological complexity, incorporating four complexity indices: (1) exergy and (2) throughput as extensive metrics, (3) specific exergy and (4) information as intensive metrics. Exergy and specific exergy estimate structural complexity while throughput and information functional complexity. OCI was applied to benthic habitats in a coastal marine tract encompassing a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in north-western Italy. The four individual indices did not always show homogeneous results in assigning complexity to different habitats. On the contrary, the additive measure provided by OCI showed that seagrass meadows and coralligenous reefs are in all the most complex habitats. Applying OCI provided results consistent with traditional approaches based on expert judgement, which usually attach more interest to seagrass meadows and hard bottoms with respect to soft bottoms, but expressed a synthetic, objective and quantitative approach. OCI can be mapped for management purposes, resolving the discordances evidenced by the individual indices. Ecological complexity in the study area is concentrated in some hot spots, as mapped by OCI, while the greatest part of the seafloor is occupied by low complexity habitats. Only some of these complexity hotspots are included within the Marine Protected Area, while this study suggests that high complexity areas, adjacent to the existing MPA, should be considered for protection possibly reshaping MPA's limits.
Emergy analysis was applied to three municipalities (Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure and Rapallo) of the Liguria Region coast, where tourism and cruise tourism are thriving. The results were ...compared with traditional economic indices. The territorial assessment of the municipalities was analysed by comparing the environmental costs with the economic benefits, focusing on tourism and cruise tourism. Similarities and differences among the case studies emerged. The three economies resulted as being driven by the tertiary sector, but consequences from the different development strategies came to light. Portofino has developed an elite type of tourism with greater attention devoted to the environment. This is mirrored by a sort of safeguarding of tourism and natural resources and by the detriment of the productive sector's success, on the contrary, in Rapallo. Santa Margherita lies in a boundary condition. The cruise tourism sector was analysed in these contexts. The ecological and economic impacts of the cruise sector were revealed to be significant only in Portofino, being less than 1% in Rapallo and Santa Margherita Ligure. The load imposed on the local environment by cruise ship tourism was calculated, and Portofino showed a limited condition, while Santa Margherita Ligure and Rapallo exceeded the local carrying capacity. This is due to the different management approaches pursued: only in Portofino is the territory more able to absorb the impact, although the limit is currently reached. As a consequence it appears to be evident that such phenomena as cruise tourism, albeit economically promising in the short term, should be managed with a long-term perspective, integrating them into the local context and setting up strategies for impact reduction or mitigation.
•Cruise ships tourism was analyzed and evaluated in the context of local territory.•Environmental costs and economic benefits of tourism and cruise sectors of three coastal municipalities were compared.•Emergy analysis was applied aiming to a system approach able to translate results in monetary units.•A carrying capacity index was calculated in order to evaluate if nature is able to absorb emissions from cruise tourism.
Oral diseases and conditions affect more than 3.5 billion people worldwide. They are the 3rd most expensive diseases to treat in the EU and disproportionally affect vulnerable groups. In deviation ...from the UN and WHO goal of Universal Health Coverage, many EU citizens do not have access to quality oral care without financial hardship. To this end, the DELIVER (DELiberative ImproVEment of oRal care quality) project aims to enhance the quality of oral care through deliberative dialogue and action involving citizens, patients, providers, payers and policymakers. DELIVER will create a synergistic problem-solving ecosystem to convert deliberative dialogues into meaningful improvement of oral care quality. Using a mixed-methods research approach, DELIVER will co-develop and co-produce new quality improvement approaches in three phases. The 1st phase involves situational analysis, consenting of core quality indicators, and development of a EU-wide monitoring framework. The 2nd phase involves in-depth analysis of select quality improvement approaches: (i) PROMs/PREMs-based quality improvement in dental practices; (ii) community-based quality improvement for vulnerable groups; (iii) quality-oriented commissioning of oral health services. The regulatory determinants of oral care quality improvement will be scrutinized. In the 3rd and final phase, the knowledge gained in the 1st and 2nd phases will be merged into the DELIVER Quality Toolkit with manuals and digital tools for concretely actionable and context-adaptive approaches for oral care quality improvement. This presentation will give an overview of the DELIVER project and discuss how it can contribute to improving oral health systems.
Oral diseases and conditions affect more than 3.5 billion people worldwide. They are the 3rd most expensive diseases to treat in the EU and disproportionally affect vulnerable groups. In deviation ...from the UN and WHO goal of Universal Health Coverage, many EU citizens do not have access to quality oral care without financial hardship. To this end, the DELIVER (DELiberative ImproVEment of oRal care quality) project aims to enhance the quality of oral care through deliberative dialogue and action involving citizens, patients, providers, payers and policymakers. DELIVER will create a synergistic problem-solving ecosystem to convert deliberative dialogues into meaningful improvement of oral care quality. Using a mixed-methods research approach, DELIVER will co-develop and co-produce new quality improvement approaches in three phases. The 1st phase involves situational analysis, consenting of core quality indicators, and development of a EU-wide monitoring framework. The 2nd phase involves in-depth analysis of select quality improvement approaches: (i) PROMs/PREMs-based quality improvement in dental practices; (ii) community-based quality improvement for vulnerable groups; (iii) quality-oriented commissioning of oral health services. The regulatory determinants of oral care quality improvement will be scrutinized. In the 3rd and final phase, the knowledge gained in the 1st and 2nd phases will be merged into the DELIVER Quality Toolkit with manuals and digital tools for concretely actionable and context-adaptive approaches for oral care quality improvement. This presentation will give an overview of the DELIVER project and discuss how it can contribute to improving oral health systems.
Habitat modeling is an important tool to investigate the quality of the habitat for a species within a certain area, to predict species distribution and to understand the ecological processes behind ...it. Many species have been investigated by means of habitat modeling techniques mainly to address effective management and protection policies and cetaceans play an important role in this context. The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) has been investigated with habitat modeling techniques since 1997. The objectives of this work were to predict the distribution of bottlenose dolphin in a coastal area through the use of static morphological features and to compare the prediction performances of three different modeling techniques: Generalized Linear Model (GLM), Generalized Additive Model (GAM) and Random Forest (RF). Four static variables were tested: depth, bottom slope, distance from 100 m bathymetric contour and distance from coast. RF revealed itself both the most accurate and the most precise modeling technique with very high distribution probabilities predicted in presence cells (90.4% of mean predicted probabilities) and with 66.7% of presence cells with a predicted probability comprised between 90% and 100%. The bottlenose distribution obtained with RF allowed the identification of specific areas with particularly high presence probability along the coastal zone; the recognition of these core areas may be the starting point to develop effective management practices to improve T. truncatus protection.
•We tested three modeling techniques for the Tursiops truncatus distribution prediction.•Main variables affecting T. truncatus distribution were identified.•Model based on random forest revealed the highest accuracy and precision.•Spot areas of very high predicted distribution values have been identified.
Traits that predict whether an employee will generate promising new ideas do not necessarily predict that they will also implement those ideas. This is especially relevant within the public sector, ...which is typically more risk averse than the private sector, and where barriers to innovation include staff resistance, rigid organizational structures, and a lack of shared innovation goals. To shed light on why some public sector employees are better intrapreneurs than others, we examine the role of risk-taking, emotional empathy, and cognitive empathy on the likelihood of innovation implementation. Using a sample of public sector employees who attended a prominent design thinking bootcamp run by the Bangladeshi Prime Ministers Office, results indicate that individuals are more likely to implement their innovative ideas if they have higher cognitive empathy and risk-taking propensity, but lower emotional empathy. We find evidence for the ‘empathy divergence thesis’ within a public sector setting, extending growing evidence from neuroscience and psychology that cognitive and emotional empathy are distinct processes with divergent effects on behavior. In sum, we provide a nuanced understanding of the overall effect of three important individual level traits on the likelihood of innovation implementation among public sector employees.
•Risk-taking propensity is positively related to innovation implementation likelihood.•Emotional empathy is negatively related to innovation implementation likelihood.•Cognitive empathy is positively related to innovation implementation likelihood.•We find evidence for the ‘empathy divergence thesis’ within a public sector innovation setting.•Cognitive empathy and emotional empathy are distinct processes with divergent effects on behavior and innovation outcomes.
The bast scale (Matsucoccus feytaudi) is responsible for the destruction of most of the Pinus pinaster forests in the Mediterranean area, causing resination, defoliation and subsequent death of the ...trees. This study was carried out in Cinque Terre National Park (Italy), in which pinewood are partially affected by the bast scale M. feytaudi. A whole system evaluation is here proposed aiming at the assessment of the impacts, both on the environmental and economic side, arising from the P. pinaster losses in a certain territory. To this aim we compared a pinewood without visible damages from bast scale with a clearly damaged pinewood by means of emergy analysis. Bast scale reduced the arboreal composition of the stand favouring understorey species sprouting, which benefitted of increasing sunlight level caused by affected tree crowns reduction or trees fall. As a consequence of the changed forest's condition the system suffered an ecosystem services provision loss equal to 2250 Em€ ha−1 year−1 that, if extended to the entire surface of the Cinque Terre National Park lead to a total loss of a million of Euro per year.
► Geospatial model of human pressures/ecosystems status relationship was developed. ► Approach applied on a MPA coexisting with a commercial harbor. ► Ecosystems status due to variation in the ...cumulative human pressure was predicted. ► MPA conservation effort is expected to balance harbor influence. ► Model implemented into GIS is a decision-support tool for ecosystem management.
Human use of ecosystem resources and services is increasing worldwide, generating pressures that alter ecosystem structure, functioning and provision of services. Unexpected ecosystem change is becoming frequent, and the complex ways through which multiple human pressures may interact leave conservation practitioners and natural resource managers faced with high uncertainty. We developed a geospatial approach for modeling the complex relationships between multiple human pressures and coastal ecosystems status. This framework was then used to produce maps of the expected status of marine coastal ecosystems resulting from variation in the cumulative human pressure. The geospatial modeling approach we developed was tested on an emblematic study case requiring marine spatial planning, i.e. a recently established marine protected area (MPA) that will have to coexist with the expansion of a close commercial harbor. In the study case presented, our modeling approach was used to predict the status of coastal ecosystems resulting from different management alternatives. Results showed that should Port Authority support MPA in reducing human pressures in the area, coastal ecosystems would not be expected to further deteriorate as a consequence of harbor expansion. Our approach proved effective in modeling complex interaction among multiple pressures (e.g. synergisms) and predicting potential future scenarios. The implementation of this approach into geographical information systems (GIS) allows managers to represent the expected outcomes of their planned conservation efforts, thereby representing an important decision-support tool for finding efficient management solutions in the face of complex interactions and high uncertainty.
The current challenge concerning renewable energy sources resides in making them efficient and competitive in comparison with traditional ones without neglecting the appraisal of environmental ...performances. In particular, envisaging a sustainability perspective, this task must be accomplished from a wider, and then holistic, viewpoint. For this purpose, authors identified emergy analysis as a valid approach. Actually, during the implementation of a previous work, authors found incomplete (for the attainment of their aims) the information concerning emergy evaluation of energy production by sunlight. This study represents an attempt to fill this gap, aiming at supplying a starting basis to evaluate these technologies. Emergy parameters were then calculated for two suggested plants (a thermal and a photovoltaic one) and results were compared with traditional energy production systems. This comparison revealed that solar technologies imply a remarkable emergy saving (5.72E+15
sej/year for thermal and 4.77E+15
sej/year for photovoltaic). These evaluations make solar power technologies advisable in order to save non-renewable resources. Moreover, the analysis demonstrated recent and remarkable improvements in photovoltaic electricity production efficiency. This condition sets a positive scenario considering the expected and outstanding further improvements in solar technologies.
The detection and typing of Vibrio cholerae in natural aquatic environments encounter major methodological challenges related to the fact that the bacterium is often present in environmental matrices ...at very low abundance in nonculturable state. This study applied, for the first time to our knowledge, a whole-genome enrichment (WGE) and next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach for direct genotyping and metagenomic analysis of low abundant V. cholerae DNA (< 50 genome unit/L) from natural water collected in the Morogoro river (Tanzania). The protocol is based on the use of biotinylated RNA baits for target enrichment of V. cholerae metagenomic DNA via hybridization. An enriched V. cholerae metagenome library was generated and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Up to 1.8 × 10⁷ bp (4.5 × mean read depth) were found to map against V. cholerae reference genome sequences representing an increase of about 2500 times in target DNA coverage compared to theoretical calculations of performance for shotgun metagenomics. Analysis of metagenomic data revealed the presence of several V. cholerae virulence and virulence associated genes in river water including major virulence regions (e g. CTX prophage and Vibrio pathogenicity island-1) and genetic markers of epidemic strains (e.g. O1-antigen biosynthesis gene cluster) that were not detectable by standard culture and molecular techniques. Overall, besides providing a powerful tool for direct genotyping of V. cholerae in complex environmental matrices, this study provides a ‘proof of concept’ on the methodological gap that might currently preclude a more comprehensive understanding of toxigenic V. cholerae emergence from natural aquatic environments.
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