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39 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, This paper presents major gaps and challenges for implementing the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) in the Mediterranean region. The authors make recommendations on the scientific knowledge needs and co-design actions identified during two consultations, part of the Decade preparatory-phase, framing them in the Mediterranean Sea’s unique environmental and socio-economic perspectives. According to the ‘Mediterranean State of the Environment and Development Report 2020’ by the United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan and despite notable progress, the Mediterranean region is not on track to achieve and fully implement the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. Key factors are the cumulative effect of multiple human-induced pressures that threaten the ecosystem resources and services in the global change scenario. The basin, identified as a climate change vulnerability hotspot, is exposed to pollution and rising impacts of climate change. This affects mainly the coastal zones, at increasing risk of extreme events and their negative effects of unsustainable management of key economic assets. Transitioning to a sustainable blue economy is the key for the marine environment’s health and the nourishment of future generations. This challenging context, offering the opportunity of enhancing the knowledge to define science-based measures as well as narrowing the gaps between the Northen and Southern shores, calls for a joint (re)action. The paper reviews the state of the art of Mediterranean Sea science knowledge, sets of trends, capacity development needs, specific challenges, and recommendations for each Decade’s societal outcome. In the conclusions, the proposal for a Mediterranean regional programme in the framework of the Ocean Decade is addressed. The core objective relies on integrating and improving the existing ocean-knowledge, Ocean Literacy, and ocean observing capacities building on international cooperation to reach the “Mediterranean Sea that we want”, With the institutional support of the ‘Severo OchoaCentre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

PurposeRecent regulatory changes in Europe have promoted non-financial reporting practices (e.g., Directive, 2014/95/EU) and gender diversity in decision-making positions. Special attention is devoted to promoting the gender balance on corporate boards as a key mechanism to enhance corporate governance effectiveness and better address multiple stakeholders' needs. With this in mind, this study intends to examine the impact of boardroom gender diversity on Environmental Social Governance (ESG) disclosure practices in the European listed firms' context.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies different panel data models on an extended sample of 1,392 firms from 21 European Union (EU) countries for six years (2014–2019).FindingsFindings allow to spotlight the positive role exerted by the presence of women directors on the boards in enhancing ESG disclosure, both at the overall and specific (individual ESG scores) level.Research limitations/implicationsPolicymakers and regulators might consider the study's evidence as a stimulus to continue in promoting strategic actions and reforms that foster gender equality and balance in corporate decision-making positions.Practical implicationsCreating a heterogeneous and diversified board of directors may support implementing a “sustainable corporate governance” recently claimed by the EC.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by disentangling the links between gender diversity and ESG disclosure over a period that covers a long season of European regulations and measures that affected both non-financial reporting practices and the board of directors' composition. Accordingly, it can contribute to enhancing the practical and theoretical understanding of the pivotal role that gender diversity may exert in strengthening corporate governance and, in turn, corporate transparency and accountability behaviours about non-financial issues.

Universities are increasingly called to demonstrate to stakeholders their active commitment to responding to social and environmental issues through comprehensive reporting practices. Such expectations were further enhanced by the recent pandemic outbreak unleashed by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has bolstered social pressures on universities to demonstrate their active engagement in supporting health systems in fighting against the virus as well as in ensuring adequate e-learning paths for students. Therefore, this study aims to investigate to what extent Italian public universities disclose sustainability information on their websites. The study is based on a well-established framework adapted from the literature. The category “Sustainability and COVID-19” has been added to also examine the extent to which universities disclose information regarding policies and strategies adopted to cope with the ongoing pandemic crisis. Results evidence that most of the sampled universities devote a specific section of their websites to disclose information on sustainability issues. Results also highlight a strong commitment to the disclosure of social issues. Particular attention is devoted to disclosing information about “Social Performance”, “Sustainability and COVID-19” and “Society Issues”. The results may be beneficial to both policymakers and university governors in gaining awareness about the potential of websites in engendering insights into the social issues that involve a university and a wider range of stakeholders.

Neuromotor training can improve motor performance in athletes and patients. However, few data are available about their effect on reaction time (RT). We investigated the influence of video observation/motor imagery (VO/MI) on simple RT to visual and auditory stimuli. The experimental group comprised 21 cadets who performed VO/MI training over 4 weeks. Nineteen cadets completed a sham intervention as control. The main outcome measure was RT to auditory and visual stimuli for the upper and lower limbs. The RT to auditory stimuli improved significantly post-intervention in both groups (control vs. experimental mean change for upper limbs: &minus, 40 ms vs. &minus, 40 ms, p = 0.0008, for lower limbs: &minus, 50 ms vs. &minus, 30 ms, p = 0.0174). A trend towards reduced RT to visual stimuli was observed (for upper limbs: &minus, 30 ms vs. &minus, 20 ms, p = 0.0876, 20 ms, p = 0.0675). The interaction term was not significant. Only the specific VO/MI training produced a linear correlation between the improvement in the RT to auditory and visual stimuli for the upper (r = 0.703) and lower limbs (r = 0.473). In conclusion, VO/MI training does not improve RT when compared to control, but it may be useful in individuals who need to simultaneously develop a fast response to different types of stimuli.

Purpose The present research aims to analyse the extent to which Italian public universities disclose intellectual capital (IC) information through the Integrated Plan and the main features of IC disclosure (ICD) in terms of form and location in the document. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative methodology, a content analysis is conducted to examine the level, form and location of ICD provided by a sample of 60 Italian public universities through the 2018-2020 integrated plans. Findings The results show a medium level of ICD in the Integrated Plan, with human capital being the category most disclosed. Information is principally provided in a quantitative form and is mainly found in the first two sections of the document (i.e. relating to the strategic framework and organisational performance). Research limitations/implications The analysis is necessarily limited to a single period (2018-2020), because of the recent introduction of the guidelines of the Integrated Plan. However, the results may be beneficial to policymakers in determining the usefulness of this new tool in detecting information about intangible resources and can help universities’ governors and managers in defining adequate IC strategies to create value for the whole ecosystem. Originality/value The study makes an innovative contribution to the international debate about IC in universities in light of the fourth stage of IC research, exploring an emerging tool to detect whether it is able to convey IC information to the wide range of university stakeholders and to communicate the value universities contribute to society.

The tides in the Mediterranean Sea are generally weaker than in other regions of the world ocean, but are locally intensified in passages with complex bathymetry, such as the Gibraltar Strait and the Sicily Channel. To date, a detailed understanding of their effects on the circulation, on the short time scales relevant to forecasting, is still missing, due to the lack of specific observations, and of basin-scale, numerical models explicitly accounting for the tidal forcing. The present investigation attempts to bridge this gap, using a newly developed forecasting model of the circulation of the Mediterranean Sea-Black Sea system that includes the effects of the main diurnal and semidiurnal astronomical tides. After validating the model barotropic tidal dynamics through comparison with the results of a tidal inversion software and historical data, a fully baroclinic run is analyzed, with focus on the Mediterranean Sea dynamics. The run covers the period 19 March–30 April 2018 and is initialized and forced with realistic fields produced by state-of-the-art operational models. After verifying that the modelled circulation and hydrology agree with available remote and in situ observations, attention is focused on short-time effects of the tidal forcing on the local circulation. Tides are found to significantly modulate transports not only across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Sicily Channel, as expected, but also across the Corsica Channel and the Otranto Strait. Tidal effects also modify relevant features of the circulation inside the basin, inducing local modulations of some of the main currents and exciting topographic waves that eventually get trapped over shallow bathymetric features, producing diurnal rotations of the flow patterns. Examples of the latter dynamics are found over the Adventure Bank and the Malta Plateau, in the Sicily Channel, and in the eastern portions of the Corsica Channel and the Otranto Strait. Furthermore, in several locations (Sicily Channel, Corsica Channel, Messina Strait, North Adriatic Sea), spectral analysis of the mean kinetic energy reveals the presence of spectral peaks corresponding to periods of about 8 and 6h, which can only be interpreted as harmonics (overtides and compound tides) of the diurnal and semidiurnal tidal components, generated through non-linear interactions. This shows that, contrary to a widespread assumption, tidal effects in the Mediterranean cannot be linearly superimposed on the basin circulation.

We introduce a new version of the Earth System Regional Climate model RegCM‐ES and evaluate its performances for the first time over the Mediterranean region. The novel aspect of this coupled system is the possibility to simulate the dynamics of the marine ecosystem through a biogeochemical model, BFM (Biogeochemical Flux Model), coupled online with the ocean circulation model MITgcm (MIT general circulation model). The validation of atmosphere and ocean components has shown that the model is able to capture interannual and intermonthly variabilities of the atmospheric heat fluxes and spatial patterns of land surface temperature, precipitation, evaporation, and sea surface temperature with a general improvement compared to previous versions. At the same time, we diagnosed some prominent deficiencies as a warm and dry bias associated in summer with the resolution of the atmospheric module and the tuning of the boundary layer and convective precipitation scheme. On the biogeochemical side, RegCM‐ES shows good skills in reproducing mean values and spatial patterns of net primary production, phosphate, and horizontal/vertical patterns of chlorophyll‐a. Limitations in this case include deficiencies mainly in the simulation of mean values of nitrate and dissolved oxygen in the basin which have been associated with too large vertical mixing throughout the water column, deficiencies in the boundary conditions, and solubility computations. Overall, RegCM‐ES has the potential to become a suitable tool for the analysis of the impacts of climate change on the ocean and marine biogeochemistry in the Mediterranean region and many other domains.

The aim of the study was to evaluate implant treatment for partial edentulism in a population of controlled type I diabetic patients. The research hypothesis was that implant survival rate, prevalence of peri-implant tissue infection and marginal bone loss at 2 years follow-up would not differ from a non diabetic population. A total of 106 patients (47=women, 59=men, mean age 38.36 years) presented with partially edentulous jaws. All patients underwent a two stage implant surgery (105 maxillary, 100 mandibular). Diabetic type I patients (53) were scheduled in Group A, while 53 healthy patients formed the Control Group. Clinical and radiological controls were performed from baseline up to 24 months and implants survival rate, presence of peri-implant tissue infections and marginal bone loss were assessed in all ptients. Group A and Control Group were compared by analyzing data at implant level, through either an independent sample t-test, with respect to bone loss, or Fisher Exact tests, with respect to (a) peri-implant mucositis, (b) peri-implantitis, and (c) post-operative wound infection. At the 24-month follow-up, 5 and 3 implants failed in diabetic and non-diabetic patients, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found in implant survival rate between the two groups (Group A: 95.19%; Control Group: 97.03%). Moreover, no statistical significant differences were found in infections occurrence, nor in marginal bone loss. The preliminary results of this prospective study showed how implant treatment for partial edentulism may a be safe and predictable procedure for diabetic type I patients, provided controlled glycemic levels and regular professional oral hygiene sessions.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate and discover the demographic characteristics of corporate leaders (CEOs) in Fintech sector firms representing the implementation of the sustainable business model. Particularly, the purpose is to identify a benchmark profile of CEOs and to understand which are the main features (e.g. age, tenure, education specification, education level, gender, nationality, years of entrepreneurship, years in financial functions, years in IT functions), giving more opportunity to develop and maintain sustainable business models using innovative platforms.Design/methodology/approachThe research questions are answered through a quali-quantitative methodology using descriptive and statistical approaches. The researchers collected a sample of 100 Fintech firms from the main Fintech firms in 2018 identified by the annual KPMG Report (2019). Thus, the research observed and tested the average level of the major CEO demographic features. Additionally, the paper explored whether these variables have a major probability to affect Fintech leading.FindingsAssuming a relevant part of Fintech firms, the main results of this paper show the relevance of several CEO demographic characteristics. Additionally, the age, the tenure and the presence of an MBA are significant elements in affectingLeadingcompanies.Originality/valueThe paper is novel because it contributes to the literature examining the internal governance and sustainable business model, still not explored. Moreover, this study contributes to identifying the CEO demographic characteristics that foster financial institutions' transition towards sustainable business models.

This paper aims at analyzing the connection among the corporate social responsibility (CSR), stakeholder engagement and universities, proposing the analysis of universities' financial reporting to draft their third mission and social impact. Particularly, our analysis is based on the sensitivity demonstrated by the Italian public universities in terms of transparency on issues of social responsibility with reference to the heritage assets' reporting and disclosure. We used a qualitative methodology, adopting the content analysis to collect data from the financial reporting of all Italian public universities. Our findings show as heritage assets represent the strategic area for the assessment of the third mission and social impact by the Italian universities even if the level of their disclosure seems low. Evidence of our paper is directed to support the academic community, practitioners, and policymakers proposing a new theoretical and practical advance of the CSR and stakeholders engagement' studies.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the female board participation and the readability of annual report. Design/methodology/approach Using hand-collected data from a “network-oriented market”, as exists in Italy, which includes 435 annual reports, this study uses a regression analysis to test whether female board participation affects the annual report readability. Findings Female board participation is found to have a positive impact on disclosure readability in firms with small boardroom connections but the opposite effect in firms with large boardroom connections. Research limitations/implications This paper responds to recent calls in the corporate governance literature by investigating whether the female board participation affects the transparency of the disclosure practices. Practical implications This study has policy implications, as it helps to improve evaluations of how, and under which circumstances, female board participation may lead to higher disclosure quality and thus benefit investors. Originality/value This paper shows that female board participation has different effects on the disclosure readability at different levels of board positions in inter-firm networks.

Sediment dynamics is the primary driver of the evolution of the coastal geomorphology and of the underwater shelf clinoforms. In this paper, we focus on mesoscale and sub-mesoscale processes, such as coastal currents and river plumes, and how they shape the sediment dynamics at regional or basin spatial scales. A new methodology is developed that combines observational data with numerical modelling: the aim is to pair satellite measurements of suspended sediment with velocity fields from numerical oceanographic models, to obtain an estimation of the sediment flux. A numerical divergence of this flux is then computed. The divergence field thus obtained shows how the aforementioned mesoscale processes distribute the sediments. The approach was applied and discussed on the Adriatic Sea, for the winter of 2012, using data provided by the ESA Coastcolour project and the output of a run of the MIT General Circulation Model.

In this study, underwater noise from a full-scale wave energy converter system (ISWEC), installed on the coast of Pantelleria Island (central Mediterranean Sea), was characterized. The noise was measured using an autonomous acoustic recorder anchored to the sea bottom 40 m from the ISWEC hull. Acoustic monitoring continued for 15 months, starting 7 months before (PRE), 2 months during (INST) and 6 months after the ISWEC installation (POST). The levels of noise, assessed with power spectrum density and octave and third-octave band sound pressure levels (BSPLs), were higher during the POST period than during the PRE period at lower frequencies up to 4 kHz and increased with wave height. During the ISWEC activation for energy production (POST_ON) in the wave height range 1–2.9 m, the BSPLs increased much more at lower frequencies up to 4 kHz (the median BSPLs at 63 Hz for the PRE, POST, and POST_ON conditions were 73, 106, and 126 dB re 1μPa, respectively). Considering the biophonies that make up the soundscape of the area, we examined the possible masking of fish choruses due to ISWEC noise and highlighted that at a distance of 1000 m, the 800 Hz peak frequency was 10 dB above the ISWEC signal. Within this distance from ISWEC, a possible masking effect is supposed.

International audience; Extreme ocean warming events, known as marine heatwaves (MHWs), have been observed to perturb significantly marine ecosystems and fisheries around the world. Here, we propose a detection method for long-lasting and large-scale summer MHWs, using a local, climatological 99th percentile threshold, based on present-climate (1976-2005) daily SST. To assess their future evolution in the Mediterranean Sea we use, for the first time, a dedicated ensemble of fully-coupled Regional Climate System Models from the Med-CORDEX initiative and a multi-scenario approach. The models appear to simulate well MHW properties during historical period, despite biases in mean and extreme SST. In response to increasing greenhouse gas forcing, the events become stronger and more intense under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 than RCP2.6. By 2100 and under RCP8.5, simulations project at least one long-lasting MHW every year, up to three months longer, about 4 times more intense and 42 times more severe than present-day events. They are expected to occur from June-October and to affect at peak the entire basin. Their evolution is found to occur mainly due to an increase in the mean SST, but increased daily SST variability also plays a noticeable role. Until the mid-21st century, MHW characteristics rise independently of the choice of the emission scenario, the influence of which becomes more evident by the end of the period. Further analysis reveals different climate change responses in certain configurations, more likely linked to their driving global climate model rather than to the individual model biases.

Aims The aim of our study was to assess the clinical significance of the exercise stress testing endpoints, namely 85% of maximal theoretical heart rate (MTHR), metabolic equivalent of task, and rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and their relation to electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in a healthy adult population. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 408 males and 52 females (mean age 39.4 ± 8.6 years) who performed the maximal cycle ergometer exercise stress test until volitional exhaustion, reporting the RPE score at 85% of MTHR and at peak exercise. Metabolic equivalents of task were indirectly calculated from the maximum workload and compared with the predicted values. Sitting torso-lead ECG and blood pressure were recorded at rest, during exercise and during recovery. Results Of 460 participants, 73% exceeded 85% of MTHR. The RPE score represented the overall most significant endpoint of exercise stress testing, with the median value of 17 at peak exercise. ECG events were detected in 23/124 (18.5%) who reached ≤ 85% of MTHR and in 61/336 (18.2%) who achieved >85% of MTHR ( p = 0.92). In the latter group, 54% of ECG changes occurred at 85% of MTHR ( p = 0.51). If the exercise stress testing had been interrupted at ≤ 85% of MTHR, almost half of the ECG events would have remained undetected and 35% of the cardiovascular abnormalities observed at the diagnostic follow-up would have remained undiagnosed. Conclusion Terminating exercise stress testing before volitional exhaustion and an RPE score of 17 limits the test accuracy and reduces the possibility to detect cardiovascular abnormalities in apparently healthy adult populations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of intellectual capital (IC) efficiency on the financial performance of Italian banks within and after the non-performing loans (NPLs) crisis. The VAIC approach is employed to measure IC efficiency. Several fixed-effects regression models have been estimated to examine the relationship between IC, its components and Italian banks financial performance for a seven-year span (2012-2018), including the period within (2012-2015) and after (2016-2018) the NPLs financial crisis. The paper reveals that IC efficiency positively influences Italian banks financial performance irrespective of NPLs crisis. In particular, it seems that the value creation ability of Italian banks is widely attributed to an appropriate combination and management of both human capital and capital employed efficiency. This is the first study that empirically assesses the impact of IC on the financial performance of Italian banks both within and after the NPLs crisis.

Il capitolo si inserisce quale introduzione storiografica al tema oggetto di una monografia open source patrocinata dalla Sidrea (Società Italiana di Ragioneria ed Economia Aziendale). Detta monografia è il frutto di una ricerca collettanea sulla riforma del bilancio civilistico ex DPR 139/2015. I singoli contributi della stessa riguardano infatti le singole aree del bilancio. Rispetto a questa complessiva ricerca della società accademica di settore, il saggio/capitolo in oggetto, a natura esplicitamente introduttiva, intende mostrare come la disciplina giuridica sia sempre stata influenzata da un dibattito dottrinale a monte di tipo economico-aziendale, questo in Italia particolarmente ricco. Esso, quindi, ripercorre questa storia del pensiero, con particolare riferimento ai temi delle valutazioni di bilancio, a partire dai pioneristici contributi del XVI/XVII secolo, a seguire con le Scuole Classiche ottocentesche di Ragioneria, a sviluppare i contributi dei più grandi Maestri del Novecento, fino ad approdare alle più recenti tendenze di dottrina e di ricerca in materia di valutazioni nel nostro Paese. In parallelo alla suddetta evoluzione dottrinaria è presentata criticamente l’evoluzione della normativa civile/commerciale, di cui il DPR 139/2015 rappresenta solo l’ultima pagina di storia: da qualche cenno alle regolamentazioni pre-unitarie, al codice di commercio del 1865, a quello del 1882, al codice civile del 1942, alla L.216/1974, al D. L.vo 127/1991 e via via agli altri interventi sino all’ultima novella oggetto dell’intera monografia.

Nowadays, the incidence of voice disorders is increasing rapidly, with about a third of the population suffering from dysphonia at some point in their lives. Dysphonia is a disorder that alters vocal quality and can impair and reduce the quality of life. The structural or functional alteration of the phonatory apparatus, unhealthy lifestyles or an excessive use of the vocal cords for work activities (e.g. teaching) can cause voice disorders. Unfortunately, people who suffer from dysphonia often underestimate its symptoms and therefore delay consulting a speech therapist for accurate voice assessment and treatment. Voice disorder evaluation involves a series of tests, including an acoustic analysis. This quantifies the measurements of voice quality through the evaluation of certain characteristic parameters, for example the fundamental frequency (F-0). In this paper, a personalized methodology for the estimation of the F-0 is presented. The personalization is accomplished by taking into account two of the main factors that influence the F-0, the gender and age of the subject. The estimation of the F-0 is crucial for the classification of the voice signal, because the discrimination of a healthy voice from a pathological one is achieved by evaluating the inclusion of the F-0 value within the healthy range. To evaluate the presented methodology, we have carried out a set of tests by using some voice signals selected from an available database in order to compare the classification ability of the proposed methodology with other algorithms existing in the literature. The numerical results obtained show that the proposed methodology provides a good accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, respectively of over 77%, 72% and 81%, values better than those achieved by the most frequently other used and cited fundamental frequency estimation algorithms. Additionally, a statistical analysis to evaluate whether or not a statistically significant difference exists between the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity has been carried out. The outcome of the ANOVA tests and of the t-tests confirms that there is a significant difference between the proposed methodology and the other algorithms. Finally, the presented methodology could be embedded in a portable and simple m-health application that could be useful for the monitoring of the state of vocal health and the prevention of voice disorders. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Il patrimonio netto aziendale è una misurazione della ricchezza aziendale il cui ammontare sotto il profilo quantitativo discende dai criteri di valutazione adottati per le attività e le passività del bilancio. Si tratta, come noto, di un valore residuale pari alla differenza tra le attività di Stato patrimoniale e le passività. In altre parole, si può definire come l’importo che residua delle attività, dopo aver sottratto tutte le passività (IAS 1). Conseguentemente, le modifiche ai criteri di valutazione prodotte dal D.Lgs. n. 139/2015 si riflettono sull’ammontare del patrimonio netto aziendale. La dimensione quantitativa del patrimonio netto dipende però non soltanto dai criteri di valutazione adottati, ma anche dalle modalità di rappresentazione in bilancio delle operazioni aziendali.

Nowadays the upsurge in the prevalence of chronic diseases represents an increasing burden on individuals and society. Chronic diseases can require repeated and frequent hospital treatment to control vital parameters of interest. The use of automatic instruments for a real-time monitoring of biological parameters constitutes a valid instrument to improve the patient’s quality of life. The integration of mobile communications with wearable devices has facilitated the shift of healthcare assistance from clinic-centric to patient-centric monitoring. In this paper, a real-time monitoring system is proposed. The system is conceptualized to provide an instrument for patients, by means of which they can easily monitor, analyse and save their own vital signs using wearable sensors and an Android device such as a smartphone or tablet, offering an efficient solution in terms of a decrease in time, human error and cost.

We describe a new, state‐of‐the‐art, Earth System Regional Climate Model (RegCM‐ES), which includes the coupling between the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface, as well as a hydrological and ocean biogeochemistry model, with the capability of using a variety of physical parameterizations. The regional coupled model has been implemented and tested over some of the COordinated Regional climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) domains and more regional settings featuring climatically important coupled phenomena. Regional coupled ocean‐atmosphere models can be especially useful tools to provide information on the mechanisms of air‐sea interactions and feedbacks occurring at fine spatial and temporal scales. RegCM‐ES shows a good representation of precipitation and SST fields over the domains tested, as well as realistic simulations of coupled air‐sea processes and interactions. The RegCM‐ES model, which can be easily implemented over any regional domain of interest, is open source, making it suitable for usage by the broad scientific community.

We depict the relative sea-level rise scenarios for the year 2100 from four areas of the Italian peninsula. Our estimates are based on the Rahmstorf (2007) and IPCC-AR5 reports 2013 for the RCP-8.5 scenarios ( www.ipcc.ch ) of climate change, adjusted for the rates of vertical land movements (isostasy and tectonics). These latter are inferred from the elevation of MIS 5.5 deposits and from late Holocene sea-level indicators, matched against sea-level predictions for the same periods using the glacio-hydro-isostatic model of Lambeck et al. (2011). We focus on a variety of tectonic settings: the subsiding North Adriatic coast (including the Venice lagoon), two tectonically stable Sardinia coastal plains (Oristano and Cagliari), and the slightly uplifting Taranto coastal plain, in Apulia. Maps of flooding scenarios are shown on high-resolution Digital Terrain Models mostly based on Lidar data. The expected relative sea-level rise by 2100 will change dramatically the present-day morphology, potentially flooding up to about 5500 km2 of coastal plains at elevations close to present-day sea level. The subsequent loss of land will impact the environment and local infrastructures, suggesting land planners and decision makers to take into account these scenarios for a cognizant coastal management. Our method developed for the Italian coast can be applied worldwide in other coastal areas expected to be affected by marine ingression due to global climate change.

The effects of tidal forcing on the exchange flow through the Strait of Gibraltar and the circulation in the near-field region are revisited with a regional numerical model. Also a basin-scale model run is conducted in a first attempt to assess the impact of these local processes on the Western Mediterranean thermohaline circulation. In the Strait of Gibraltar, tides are found to (1) increase the exchange flow volume transport, (2) modify the hydrological properties of Atlantic inflowing waters through the enhancement of mixing, and (3) facilitate the drainage of Mediterranean deep water. In the far-field, the model reveals that these local processes can favor deep convection in the Gulf of Lion. Some thoughts are provided offering possible explanations.

We take the chance offered by the comment of Evelpidou and Pirazzoli (2015a) to our paper (Antonioli et al., 2015) to clarify some aspects of our work. We reinforce our statement that a present-day tidal notch is almost continuously developed along much of the central Mediterranean coast.

Mobile devices are rapidly becoming a part of everyday life as both communication and information tools. The use of m-health systems may be helpful for the collection of a set of data and information that can enable the individual to be proactive in the management of his/her own health, focusing on wellness and preventive behaviors, and so improving quality of life. We have realized an app, called Vox4Health, able to perform a fast, portable and simple voice screening test, due to the rapid increase in the incidence of voice disorders. The voice screening test is especially useful for teachers, singers, actors and other professional voice users who use their voice in their own activities, this vocal abuse possibly increasing the risk of suffering from dysphonia. Vox4Health analyzes vocal signals in real time, allowing users to self monitor the state of their own vocal health, thanks to an appropriate methodology. In this paper we present a pilot study conducted in two regions of Italy. The aim of the study is to evaluate the accuracy, in terms of classification capability, the usability and the degree of satisfaction with the developed app. The preliminary results show an average score of 81.3 for usability and average values ranging from 1.48 for dependability to 2.12 for perspicuity calculated in accordance with the User Experience Questionnaire.

In this work we consider a numerical study of hydrodynamics in the coastal zone using two different models, SHYFEM (shallow water hydrodynamic finite element model) and MITgcm (Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model), to assess their capability to capture the main processes. We focus on the north Adriatic Sea during a strong dense water event that occurred at the beginning of 2012. This serves as an interesting test case to examine both the models strengths and weaknesses, while giving an opportunity to understand how these events affect coastal processes, like upwelling and downwelling, and how they interact with estuarine dynamics. Using the models we examine the impact of setup, surface and lateral boundary treatment, resolution and mixing schemes, as well as assessing the importance of nonhydrostatic dynamics in coastal processes. Both models are able to capture the dense water event, though each displays biases in different regions. The models show large differences in the reproduction of surface patterns, identifying the choice of suitable bulk formulas as a central point for the correct simulation of the thermohaline structure of the coastal zone. Moreover, the different approaches in treating lateral freshwater sources affect the vertical coastal stratification. The results indicate the importance of having high horizontal resolution in the coastal zone, specifically in close proximity to river inputs, in order to reproduce the effect of the complex coastal morphology on the hydrodynamics. A lower resolution offshore is acceptable for the reproduction of the dense water event, even if specific vortical structures are missed. Finally, it is found that nonhydrostatic processes are of little importance for the reproduction of dense water formation in the shelf of the north Adriatic Sea.

In many healthcare applications, artifacts mask or corrupt important features of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. In this paper we describe a revised scheme for ECG signal denoising based on a recursive filtering methodology. We suggest a suitable class of kernel functions in order to remove artifacts in the ECG signal, starting from noise frequencies in the Fourier domain. Our approach does not require high computational requirements and this feature offers the possibility of an implementation of the scheme directly on mobile computing devices. The proposed scheme allows local denoising and hence a real time visualization of the signal by means of a strategy based on boundary conditions. Experiments on real datasets have been carried out in order to test, in terms of computation and accuracy, the proposed algorithm. Finally, comparative results with other well-known denoising methods are shown. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Mediterranean is expected to be one of the most prominent and vulnerable climate change >hotspots> of the twenty-first century, and the physical mechanisms underlying this finding are still not clear. Furthermore, complex interactions and feedbacks involving ocean-atmosphere-land-biogeochemical processes play a prominent role in modulating the climate and environment of the Mediterranean region on a range of spatial and temporal scales. Therefore, it is critical to provide robust climate change information for use in vulnerability-impact-adaptation assessment studies considering the Mediterranean as a fully coupled environmental system. The Mediterranean Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (Med-CORDEX) initiative aims at coordinating the Mediterranean climate modeling community toward the development of fully coupled regional climate simulations, improving all relevant components of the system from atmosphere and ocean dynamics to land surface, hydrology, and biogeochemical processes. The primary goals of Med-CORDEX are to improve understanding of past climate variability and trends and to provide more accurate and reliable future projections, assessing in a quantitative and robust way the added value of using high-resolution and coupled regional climate models. The coordination activities and the scientific outcomes of Med-CORDEX can produce an important framework to foster the development of regional Earth system models in several key regions worldwide., This work is a contribution to the HyMeX program supported by grants MISTRALS and ANR-12-SENV-001 REMEMBER and to the CLIMRUN project (www.climrun.eu) funded under the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

Crise, A. ... et. al.-- 12 pages, 1 figure, 5 tables, PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES. © 2015 The Authors, This work has been partially funded by the EC FP7 PERSEUS Project (Grant. Agr. 287600)

In recent years, the prevalence of voice disorders has been increasing dramatically, mainly due to unhealthy lifestyles and voice abuse. An impairment in the ability to produce the sound of the voice is indicated by the medical term Dysphonia. This disorder impacts on the quality of life of the population in general, but especially of professional voice users, like teachers or singers, for whom dysphonia is more common. In this paper we present an accurate and robust methodology for the estimation of the Fundamental Frequency (F 0 ) developed in a mobile application and able to perform a simple and fast voice screening. The mobile app acquires and analyzes vocal signals requiring of the user only a vocalization of the vowel /a/. Automatically, the app indicates to the user his/her own voice status evaluating the value of F 0 , and discriminating a pathological voice from healthy one. To estimate the classification accuracy of the implemented methodology, we have performed several experimental tests on an available database and we have compared the results with other algorithms in the literature.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare bone temperature changes during implant drilling with two drill designs employed in three different drilling sequences. Materials and Methods: Two implant drill designs and three drilling sequences were evaluated in vitro using artificial bone cylinders. The evaluated drills were different only in the cutting-surface length (control, 16 mm; test, 4 mm). Three drilling sequences (control A, test B1, and test B2) were evaluated with and without irrigation. Temperatures were measured with thermocouple technology. The temperature changes generated by the final drill of each sequence were recorded as the experimental results and were subjected to the Student t test. Results: There were statistically significant differences in temperature changes when comparing the control group A with the test groups B1 (P = .001) and B2 (P = .01) during drilling without coolant. The mean temperature changes were 12.4°C, 6.5°C, and 13.7°C for groups A, B1, and B2, respectively. The Student t test showed statistically significant differences between temperature changes of the control group A and the test groups B1 (P < .01) and B2 (P < .05) during drilling with coolant. The mean temperature changes were 0.9°C, 0.7°C, and 1.9°C for groups A, B1, and B2, respectively. Conclusion: Reduction in length of the cutting surface of the drill may limit frictional heat. Drills with the same length of cutting surface may induce lower bone temperature changes, when considering a preliminary drilling step with a pilot drill.

Dysphonia is a qualitative and quantitative alteration of the voice due to a structural or functional modification of one or more organs involved in voice production. Voice disorders are prevalent in certain working categories, particularly those of teachers, singers and actors. It is possible to evaluate the state of health of a voice through the acoustic analysis of the speech signal. This provides information about the presence of dysphonia by calculating specific parameters, such as the Fundamental Frequency (F 0 ). In this paper we present a methodology to estimate F 0 embedded in an m-health application, able to perform a simple and fast voice screening. The app acquires a user's vocal signal, and then elaborates and analyses it, distinguishing between a pathological and a healthy voice. Unfortunately, during the signal acquisition a noise can alter the F 0 's estimation, introducing possible errors in the acoustic analysis and therefore increasing the potential number of false-positive diagnoses of voice disorders. For this reason, the methodology presented is also able to reduce the incidence of any additional noise accidentally added during the user's vocal signal acquisition.

Recent works (Evelpidou et al., 2012) suggest that the modern tidal notch is disappearing worldwide due sea level rise over the last century. In order to assess this hypothesis, we measured modern tidal notches in several of sites along the Mediterranean coasts. We report observations on tidal notches cut along carbonate coasts from 73 sites from Italy, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Malta and Spain, plus additional observations carried outside the Mediterranean. At each site, we measured notch width and depth, and we described the characteristics of the biological rim at the base of the notch. We correlated these parameters with wave energy, tide gauge datasets and rock lithology.Our results suggest that, considering 'the development of tidal notches the consequence of midlittoral bioerosion' (as done in Evelpidou et al., 2012) is a simplification that can lead to misleading results, such as stating that notches are disappearing. Important roles in notch formation can be also played by wave action, rate of karst dissolution, salt weathering and wetting and drying cycles. Of course notch formation can be augmented and favoured also by bioerosion which can, in particular cases, be the main process of notch formation and development.Our dataset shows that notches are carved by an ensemble rather than by a single process, both today and in the past, and that it is difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle them and establish which one is prevailing. We therefore show that tidal notches are still forming, challenging the hypothesis that sea level rise has drowned them. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Wearable sensors are widely adopted for the provision of healthcare services. Unfortunately the noise always degrades the quality of the acquired signals. In this paper, we propose a framework for mobile ECG denoising, based on a novel numerical scheme with low computational requirements. The proposed system is able to store a signal from a wearable sensor and process it in a remote way or directly on the device.

The four dominant constituents of the semi-diurnal and diurnal tides have been implemented in a regional eddy-resolving Mediterranean version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model to assess the role played by tides on the simulated Mediterranean thermohaline circulation. To this aim we have compared two 10-year hindcast simulations differing only for the inclusion/omission of tidal forcing. Following the recent recommendations suggested by Sannino et al. (2014) both simulations use the same model having a substantial increment of the horizontal resolution in the region of the Strait of Gibraltar. The results suggest that application of explicit tidal forcing in a Mediterranean model has non negligible effects on the simulated circulation in addition to the expected intensification of local mixing processes. The western basin exhibits an immediate response to the different characteristics of the inflowing AW observable in the modified deep water convection processes in the Gulf of Lion. The inclusion of tidal forcing also induces changes in the intermediate circulation of the Tyrrhenian Sea bringing to a better representation of local structures and a reinforcement of the global thermohaline cell. LIW dispersal paths in the eastern basin are also affected by tides. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

The objective of this paper is to provide a synthetic tool for determining expeditiously the wave climate conditions in several areas of the Mediterranean Sea. In the open literature, several authors have already conducted this specific analysis also for the area under examination in this paper. However, the need of discussing aspects strictly related to the design of wave energy harvesters is still relevant. Therefore, considering the variety of devices and the amount of information needed for conducting both an energy-wise optimization and a structural reliability assessment, a holistic view on the topic is provided. Specifically, the paper elucidates the theoretical aspects involved in the estimation of wave energy statistics and in the calculation of relevant return values. Next, it provides synthetic data representing the mean wave power and the return value of extreme events in several coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea. In this regard, the paper complements information available in the open literature by discussing the influence of the directional pattern of the sea states in the determination of sea state statistics as well as in the design of a wave energy harvester. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Background: Standing from a bed or chair may cause a significant lowering of blood pressure (Delta BP), which may have severe consequences such as, for example, falls in older subjects. The goal of this study was to develop a mathematical model to predict the Delta BP due to standing in healthy subjects, based on their Heart Rate Variability, recorded in the 5 minutes before standing. Methods: Heart Rate Variability was extracted from an electrocardiogram, recorded from 10 healthy subjects during the 5 minutes before standing. The blood pressure value was measured before and after rising. A mathematical model aiming to predict Delta BP based on Heart Rate Variability measurements was developed using a robust multi-linear regression and was validated with the leave-one-subject-out cross-validation technique. Results: The model predicted correctly the Delta BP in 80% of experiments, with an error below the measurement error of sphygmomanometer digital devices (+/- 4.5 mmHg), a false negative rate of 7.5% and a false positive rate of 10%. The magnitude of the Delta BP was associated with a depressed and less chaotic Heart Rate Variability pattern. Conclusions: The present study showes that blood pressure lowering due to standing can be predicted by monitoring the Heart Rate Variability in the 5 minutes before standing.

High quality Electrocardiogram (ECG) data is very important because this signal is generally used for the analysis of heart diseases. Wearable sensors are widely adopted for physical activity monitoring and for the provision of healthcare services, but noise always degrades the quality of these signals. This paper describes a new algorithm for ECG signal denoising, applicable in the contest of the real-time health monitoring using mobile devices, where the signal processing efficiency is a strict requirement. The proposed algorithm is computationally cheap because it belongs to the class of Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) noise reduction algorithms. The main contribution of the proposed scheme is that removes the noise's frequencies without the implementation of the Fast Fourier Transform that would require the use of special optimized libraries. It is composed by only few code lines and hence offers the possibility of implementation on mobile computing devices in an easy way. Moreover, the scheme allows the local denoising and hence a real time visualization of the denoised signal. Experiments on real datasets have been carried out in order to test the algorithm from accuracy and computational point of view. © The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The Mediterranean Sea is a semi-enclosed basin displaying an active thermohaline circulation that is sustained by the atmospheric forcing and controlled by the narrow and shallow Strait of Gibraltar (SoG). The main goal of this chapter is the investigation of the effects produced by certain specific factors on the simulated hydraulic behavior of the SoG by the nonhydrostatic assumption, the resolution adopted, and the parameterization used for mixing on the simulated hydraulic regime. The chapter is organized as follows. After an introductory section, two models (Princeton Ocean Model (POM) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm)) are described and validated in the second and third sections. The comparison of the models in terms of the simulated internal wave field, three-layer properties, and hydraulics is shown in the fourth section. Conclusions are discussed in the last section. © 2014 American Geophysical Union.

In this paper we present the assessment of tidal energy resource for the Strait of Messina. After considering both the constraints (geometric, site specific and operational) and the current potential of the area, the energy resource has been evaluated through the application of the method of energy flow and the method of farm. Four different converter devices have been considered: GEM, Kobold, MCT SeaGen and Verdant Power. Their performances have been compared assuming a theoretical common maximum power and considering the total amount of tidal energy produced in a number of potential selected locations. The GEM, Kobold and MCT SeaGen turbines reveal to be very competitive and effective. This analysis is particularly significant as at present, an extensive and accurate current assessment for the Italian seas is not yet available. © 2013 IEEE.

In the last decades, the research has directed its efforts and resources paper is to investigate towards the possibility to incorporate wave energy converters, into the traditional maritime breakwaters to combine classical use with new opportunities and developments (for example, the Green Ports). Since the nineties, the OWC (Oscillating Water Column) plants were developed at full scale to produce electrical power from ocean waves. For instance, a new plant was built in Mutriku (Spain) recently. A new kind of OWC caisson, named U-OWC or REWEC3, which has the advantage to obtain an impressive natural resonance without any device for phase control, has been patented by Boccotti [1]. This new U-OWC device gives performances better than those of a conventional OWC either with small wind waves or with high waves [2,3,4]. The properties of the REWEC3 have been verified with two small-scale field experiments carried out in the natural ocean engineering laboratory NOEL of Reggio Calabria off the eastern coast of the Sicily Channel [5–7]. The aim of the present two sites along Italian coasts for possible installations of REWEC3 devices: i) the port of Civitavecchia (Rome, Italy)in the Tyrrhenian sea; ii) the port of Pantelleria, in the Sicily Channel.

A wave energy atlas for the west coast of Sardinia is presented. Energy has been computed from a 10 year simulation performed using a third generation wave model at the spatial resolution of 1/120°. A detailed analysis of energy results has been performed in three points at different distances from the coast. © 2013 IEEE.

A non-hydrostatic numerical model forced by tides has been adapted to the Strait of Gibraltar area to investigate the dynamics of the interface layer in the eastern part of the strait, namely the area that extends from the main sill of Camarinal to the eastern exit of the strait. The model reproduces the tidal oscillations of the interface thickness and the mean depth, showing that the westward barotropic tide raises the interface and reduces its thickness, thus being the physical mechanism that re-stratifies the water column. Several processes are involved in the thickening and sinking tidal phase of the interface: (1) the eastward horizontal advection from Tangier basin, located west of Camarinal sill, where the huge dissipation associated with hydraulic transitions generates a remarkable mixing layer, (2) entrainment as the interface waters progress towards the Mediterranean Sea and (3) internal friction associated with the large amplitude internal waves radiated into the Mediterranean. Some biologically-related implications of the interface dynamics are also examined. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this paper we present a high resolution assessment of the wave energy resources in the Mediterranean. The energy resources are evaluated through of a numerical simulation performed on the entire Mediterranean basin for the period 2001-2010 using a third generation ocean wave model. The model results are extensively validated against most of the available wave buoy and satellite altimeter data. Starting from the model results a detailed analysis of wave energy availability in the Mediterranean Sea is carried out. The western Sardinia coast and the Sicily Channel are found to be among the most productive areas in the whole Mediterranean. Simulation results show the presence of significant spatial variations of wave power availability even on relatively small spatial scales along these two coastlines. For a number of selected locations in these two areas we present an in-depth investigation of the distribution of wave energy among wave heights, periods and directions. Seasonal and inter-annual variability of wave energy potential are also analyzed and discussed. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.