Search results for "extreme"

Influence of temperature on extreme rainfall intensity in Sicily (Italy)

2018

Some climate model experiments suggest an intensification of short-duration extreme precipitation in many parts of the world associated with a warming climate. This behavior could have a physical motivation due to the fact that warmer air has the potential to hold more atmospheric moisture and, then, to provide more water to rainfall events. The theoretical basis of the relationship that links air temperature and atmospheric humidity is provided by the Clausius-Clapeyron relation, according to which, if the relative humidity remains constant, then atmospheric humidity will increase with temperature at a rate (often referred to as CC-rate) in the order of 6-7% °C-1, following the saturation …

Investigating the Reliability of Stationary Design Rainfall in a Mediterranean Region under a Changing Climate

2023

Extreme rainfall events have been more frequent in recent decades, potentially as a climate change effect. This has been leading to a higher risk of the failure of existing hydraulic infrastructures, and to a higher awareness regarding the unreliability of design rainfall calculated with reference to historical data recorded in the last century. With this in mind, the present study questions the stationary assumption of the rainfall Depth–Duration–Frequency curves commonly used in Sicily, the biggest island of the Mediterranean Sea. Quantiles derived from the most up-to-date regional method, regarding Sicily, based on observations in the period 1928–2010, have been compared with those extra…

Comparing deep‐end confinement in England & Wales and Norway

2022

Extreme forms of custody represent the boundary points of state power. The configuration of the most restrictive corners of prison systems, and what goes on within them, is highly instructive in exposing the objectives, limits, and implications of state coercion at its most severe. Based on data collected in England & Wales and Norway, this article has two main aims. The first is to explore the degree to which “deep-end” confinement differs between jurisdictions with different penal philosophies. The second is to understand how the most extreme form of confinement in each jurisdiction differs from the more typical carceral experiences within each system and its overall penal ethos. Empirica…

Live or die : extreme-athletes' personality structure and functioning, motives, and flow-experience

1999

Menores inmigrantes no acompañados, las orillas de la vulnerabilidad, estatus de irregulares y su tratamiento al llegar a España

2018

Different migration processes have been carried out in history, which usually travel in conditions of vulnerability and undermine the dignity of people. Therefore, currently, the migration of unaccompanied minors shakes the receiving society; it is a defenseless population group that is exposed to situations of vulnerability. Unaccompanied immigrant minors and in an irregular situation, whether adolescents, girls or boys, are faced with a dream to improve their lives and those of their families that they left in their country; this is a very dangerous journey where, during the crossing, they are condemned to risk situations and adventures, without the support and safety of their families. T…

Considerations regarding the alleged association between Herbalife products and cases of hepatotoxicity: a rebuttal.

2014

We thank Dr. K Appelhans et al. for their comments [1] on our paper [2], published online first in April 2012. In our review, we aimed to draw the attention of physicians to the uncontrolled and increasingly alarming use of herbal products and dietary supplements in the general population. In fact, in Italy this phenomenon, though still limited, has rapidly increased over the last few years. Here, use of herbal medicine products has increased to 3.7 %, while in other countries consumption is higher, reaching 20 % in the UK, and 40 % in the USA. Young non-smoking women with a high level of education appear to be the most common consumers [3]. It seems that women use these products more than …

Extreme rainfall changes induced by future climate in Mediterranean area

2016

Extreme rainfall events have large impacts on society and are likely to continue to do so under predicted future climate change. Indeed, extreme precipitations show intensification in many regions of the world and this is of key importance to society as a result of the large impact of flooding. Thus, for planning and management decisions of the hydraulic infrastructures, accurate estimates of precipitation magnitudes at different durations are needed. Moreover, extreme precipitation events represent an increasing threat to society under global warming and are among the most serious challenges. In fact, future climate change is likely to lead to the change of extremes events that will become…

Uncertainty Analysis in the Evaluation of the DDF Curves Parameters in Climate Change Scenarios

2016

Abstract On the global scale, there is a robust observational evidence that, over the last decades, the frequency and intensity of extreme events significantly changed, even if regional and local studies have highlighted complex and non-uniform spatial patterns. Climate change can cause increased rainfall intensities which leads to an additional impact on drainage systems, due to the alteration of magnitude and frequency of peak flows over their service life. For this reason, the design criteria of urban drainage infrastructures need to be revised and updated, in order to take into account the possible variations of extreme rainfall. In particular, the Depth-Duration-Frequency (DDF) curves,…

Individual- and group-level sex ratios under local mate competition : consequences of infanticide and reproductive dominance

2023

Extremely female-biased sex ratios of parasitoid wasps in multiple-foundress groups challenges evolutionary theory which predicts diminishing bias as foundress numbers increase. Recent theory based on foundress cooperation has achieved qualitative rather than quantitative success in explaining bias among parasitoids in the genus Sclerodermus. Here, we develop an explanation, expanding the theory of local mate competition, based on the observation that male production seems dominated by some foundresses within groups. Two sex ratio effects arise from such reproductive dominance: an immediate effect via suppression of male production, and a long-term evolutionary response to reproductive skew…

Towards the urbanisation of the Med sea: MSP challenges and opportunities for floating cities between utopia and reality

2023

Anthropogenic climate change effects push us to reimagine human life on the planet confronting extreme living conditions. Droughts, risk of submersion and flooding, saline intrusion, and land scarcity lead to more inhospitable life conditions on land. These demanding risks have led governments to envisage the displacement from the coasts of some cities at significant risk or to think of new settlements for human life, such as floating cities. Floating offshore settlements, reminiscent of the XXth-century architectural utopias, are gaining more and more popularity in contemporary debate and are, in fact, emerging realities in other parts of the globe due to advanced technology. Floating sett…