Search results for "seasonal"
showing 10 items of 484 documents
Combining a data-driven approach with seasonal forecast data to predict reservoir water volume in the Mediterranean area
2023
Prolonged droughts and water scarcity have become more frequent in recent years, exacerbating the problem of the artificial reservoirs management in the Mediterranean area. This study proposes a methodology which combines a Nonlinear AutoRegressive network with eXogenous input (NARX) data-driven model with Seasonal Forecasts (SFs) data, with the aim to predict the water volume stored in reservoirs at a mid-term scale, as requested by the local authority. The methodology is applied to four Sicilian reservoirs that experienced water scarcity in the recent past. SFs produced at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting are used to force the NARX models. Also, the reservoirs are …
High-resolution records of growth temperature and life history of two Nacella limpet species, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
2020
Stable isotope ratios in patelloid limpets of the genus Patella have been established as proxies for coastal environmental change at sub-monthly resolution along the eastern North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Nacella deaurata (Gmelin, 1791) and N. magellanica (Gmelin, 1791) are common intertidal species of patelloid limpets inhabiting the coast of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina/Chile and are commonly found in Holocene archaeological deposits. Here, we examine oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ18Oshell and δ13Cshell, respectively) of modern specimens of N. deaurata and N. magellanica to test the hypotheses that: 1) they form their shells in isotopic equilibrium with ambient water; and 2) pr…
Relationship between rhinitis duration and worsening of nasal function
2008
BackgroundWhile it is well known that asthma is characterized by airway remodeling, few studies instead have investigated this issue in patients with allergic rhinitis (AR).ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to evaluate nasal function, ie, nasal airflow, in a cohort of patients with persistent AR (PER).MethodsOne hundred patients, 50 with short-term and 50 with long-term PER, were prospectively and consecutively evaluated, clinically evaluated by visit, skin prick test, and rhinomanometry.ResultsNasal airflow values were significantly lower (median flow: 348 mL/sec) in patients with long-term rhinitis (median duration nine years) as compared to patients with short-term (median duration one y…
Testis asymmetry in birds: the influences of sexual and natural selection
2014
Gonad size and shape asymmetries are particularly common in birds. Although some obvious size and shape differences between the left and right testes in birds were first documented more than a century ago, little is known about what influences the variation across species in either the degree or the direction of these asymmetries. Here we show that a left bias in size is the most likely ancestral state in most orders and families, and that there is a weak but significant negative relation between the degree of size and shape asymmetries. In extant species, testis size and shape symmetries increase with the degree of sperm competition (relative testes mass), but those relations are significa…
Is season of birth associated with multiple sclerosis?
2000
Objective - To compare the monthly distribution of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients' births with that of the Sicilian population. Background - Studies on the association between season of birth and risk of MS are scanty and controversial. Design and methods - Archives of the Institute of Neuropsychiatry of the Universities of Palermo and Catania were searched up to 1995 for definite MS patients (McDonald and Halliday criteria). The monthly distribution of MS patients' births (N = 965) was compared with that of the Sicilian population (N = 5,608,307). Results - The distribution of births among MS patients compared with the general population was not different when tested by the χ2 statistic …
Seasonal dependence in the solar neutrino flux
1999
MSW solutions of the solar neutrino problem predict a seasonal dependence of the zenith angle distribution of the event rates, due to the non-zero latitude at the Super-Kamiokande site. We calculate this seasonal dependence and compare it with the expectations in the no-oscillation case as well as just-so scenario, in the light of the latest Super-Kamiokande 708-day data. The seasonal dependence can be sizeable in the large mixing angle MSW solution and would be correlated with the day-night effect. This may be used to discriminate between MSW and just-so scenarios and should be taken into account in refined fits of the data.
Age-related effects of chronic hantavirus infection on female host fecundity.
2015
1. Pathogens often cause detrimental effects to their hosts and, consequently, may influence host population dynamics that may, in turn, feed back to pathogen transmission dynamics. Understanding fitness effects of pathogens upon animal host populations can help to predict the risks that zoonotic pathogens pose to humans. 2. Here we determine whether chronic infection by Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) affects important fitness-related traits, namely the probability of breeding, reproductive effort and mother and offspring condition, in the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). Using 9 years empirical data in a PUUV endemic area in Central Finland, we found differences between reproductive characteristic…
Climatic gradients along the windward slopes of Mount Kenya and their implication for crop risks. Part 2 : crop sensitivity.
2016
16 pages; International audience; Mount Kenya is an equatorial mountain whose climatic setting is fairly simple (two rainy seasons in March–May, the Long Rains, and October–December, the Short Rains) though concealing significant spatial variations related to elevation and aspect (part I, Camberlin et al., 2014). This part II is dedicated to the sensitivity of sorghum yields to climate variability in space and time, with a focus on the intra-seasonal characteristics of the rainy seasons. To that aim we use the crop model SARRA-H calibrated for the region and fed with rainfall, temperature, wind speed, humidity and solar radiation data over the period 1973–2001 at three stations located on t…
Seasonal Human Coronavirus Respiratory Tract Infection in Recipients of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
2021
Abstract Background Little is known about characteristics of seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoVs) (NL63, 229E, OC43, and HKU1) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Methods This was a collaborative Spanish and European bone marrow transplantation retrospective multicenter study, which included allo-HSCT recipients (adults and children) with upper respiratory tract disease (URTD) and/or lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) caused by seasonal HCoV diagnosed through multiplex polymerase chain reaction assays from January 2012 to January 2019. Results We included 402 allo-HSCT recipients who developed 449 HCoV URTD/LRTD episodes. Median age of recipients was 46 years (range,…
Tropical marine climate during the late Paleozoic ice age using trace element analyses of brachiopods
2009
Abstract The late Paleozoic ice age can be considered an important analogue to the modern ice age, but comparisons between the two time intervals have been hampered by the difficulty of resolving climatic changes that occur over short (e.g., seasonal) time scales in the Paleozoic record. As a first step toward overcoming these limitations, this study employed Mg/Ca trace element ratios sampled across the growth bands of six specimens of the brachiopod Composita to assess differences in tropical marine mean temperature and seasonality in Visean and Moscovian time. These time intervals bracket the onset of the late Paleozoic ice age, which occurred in mid-Serpukhovian time, and thus provide a…