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Lake Narlay (Jura Mountains) a paleolimnological reconstruction over the last 1200 years based on algal pigment and fossil diatoms
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Ambiguity and Tacit Knowledge in Requirements Elicitation Interviews
No full textInterviews are the most common and effective means to perform requirements elicitation and support knowledge transfer between a customer and a requirements analyst. Ambiguity in communication is often perceived as a major obstacle for knowledge transfer, which could lead to unclear and incomplete requirements documents. In this paper, we analyze the role of ambiguity in requirements elicitation interviews, when requirements are still tacit ideas to be surfaced. To study the phenomenon, we per- formed a set of 34 customer-analyst interviews. This experience was used as a baseline to define a framework to categorize ambiguity. The framework presents the notion of ambiguity as a class of four main sub-phenomena, namely unclarity, multiple understanding, incorrect dis- ambiguation and correct disambiguation. We present examples of ambiguities from our interviews to illustrate the different categories, and we highlight the pragmatic components that determine the occurrence of ambiguity. Along the study, we discovered a peculiar relation between ambiguity and tacit knowledge in interviews. Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that a customer has but does not pass to the analyst for any reason. From our experience, we have discovered that, rather than an obstacle, the occurrence of an ambiguity is often a resource for discovering tacit knowledge. Again, examples are presented from our interviews to support this vision
Fluctuations of Lake Orta water levels: preliminary analyses
Get PDFWhile the effects of past industrial pollution on the chemistry and biology of Lake Orta have been well documented, annual and seasonal fluctuations of lake levels have not yet been studied. Considering their potential impacts on both the ecosystem and on human safety, fluctuations in lake levels are an important aspect of limnological research. In the enormous catchment of Lake Maggiore, there are many rivers and lakes, and the amount of annual precipitation is both high and concentrated in spring and autumn. This has produced major flood events, most recently in November 2014. Flood events are also frequent on Lake Orta, occurring roughly triennially since 1917. The 1926, 1951, 1976 and 2014 floods were severe, with lake levels raised from 2.30 m to 3.46 m above the hydrometric zero. The most important event occurred in 1976, with a maximum level equal to 292.31 m asl and a return period of 147 years. In 2014 the lake level reached 291.89 m asl and its return period was 54 years. In this study, we defined trends and temporal fluctuations in Lake Orta water levels from 1917 to 2014, focusing on extremes. We report both annual maximum and seasonal variations of the lake water levels over this period. Both Mann-Kendall trend tests and simple linear regression were utilized to detect monotonic trends in annual and seasonal extremes, and logistic regression was used to detect trends in the number of flood events. Lake level decreased during winter and summer seasons, and a small but statistically non-significant positive trend was found in the number of flood events over the period. We provide estimations of return period for lake levels, a metric which could be used in planning lake flood protection measures
What have we learned about ecological recovery from liming interventions of acid lakes in Canada and Italy?
Get PDFThe idea of launching another special issue of the Journal of limnology on Lake Orta was born in 2014, on the 25th anniversary of its liming intervention, during an International symposium on Lake Orta organized and hosted by the Pallanza Institute (http://www.ise.cnr.it/vb). The conference did not simply celebrate the past. While the liming of Lake Orta was undoubtedly a great national and international success, the speakers at the conference, instead sought to enlarge and deepen knowledge of patterns and mechanisms of lake ecosystem responses to the water quality improvements, or chemical recovery, that accompanied Lake Orta\u27s liming
Period of public commentary begins on the revised proposal of species-group level names, and on the proposal of genus-group level names of the Candidate Part of List of Available Names (LAN) in the phylum Rotifera
Get PDFFollowing ICZN (1999) Article 79 Chapter 17, we, with the full support of the international community of rotifer researchers as expressed during subsequent international Rotifera symposia, developed a Candidate Part of the List of Available Names for species and genera of Rotifera from the start of zoological nomenclature to the year 2000
Metabolic spatial connectivity in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis as revealed by independent component analysis
Get PDFObjectives. Positron emission tomography (PET) and volume of interest (VOI) analysis have recently shown in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) an accuracy of 93% in differentiating patients from controls. The aim of this study was to disclose by spatial independent component analysis (ICA) the brain networks involved in ALS pathological processes and evaluate their discriminative value in separating patients from controls. Experimental design. Two hundred fifty-nine ALS patients and 40 age- and sex-matched control subjects underwent brain 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose PET (FDG-PET). Spatial ICA of the preprocessed FDG-PET images was performed. Intensity values were converted to z-scores and binary masks were used as data-driven VOIs. The accuracy of this classifier was tested versus a validated system processing intensity signals in 27 brain meta-VOIs. A support vector machine was independently applied to both datasets and the \u27leave-one-out\u27 technique verified the general validity of results. Principal observations: The 8 components selected as pathophysiologically meaningful discriminated patients from controls with 99.0% accuracy, the discriminating value of bilateral cerebellum/midbrain alone representing 96.3%. Among the meta-VOIs, right temporal lobe alone reached an accuracy of 93.7%. Conclusions: Spatial ICA identified in a very large cohort of ALS patients distinct spatial networks showing a high discriminatory value, improving substantially on the previously obtained accuracy. The cerebellar/midbrain component accounted for the highest accuracy in separating ALS patients from controls. Spatial ICA and multivariate analysis perform better than univariate semi-quantification methods in identifying the neurodegenerative features of ALS and pave the way for inclusion of PET in clinical trials and early diagnosis
Towing Tank Function Diagram
No full textDesign of a new tool for the conscious and optimal use of the "Ondogeno" device at the CNR_INSEAN Institute of Rome (Vasca Navale).In particular, it will be immediate to evaluate a priori the feasibility or otherwise of regular waves, requests in the study of the vibratory response of naval means.Concezione di un nuovo strumento per l\u27utilizzo consapevole e ottimale del dispositivo "Ondogeno" presso l\u27istituto CNR_INSEAN di Roma (Vasca Navale). In particolare, con esso sar? immediato valutare a priori la fattibilit? o meno di onde regolari, richieste nello studio della risposta vibratoria di mezzi navali
Lake Orta: a new lease on life
No full textThe idea of launching another special issue of the Journal of limnology on Lake Orta was born in 2014, on the 25th anniversary of its liming intervention, during an International symposium on Lake Orta organized and hosted by the Pallanza Institute (http://www.ise.cnr.it/vb). The conference did not simply celebrate the past. While the liming of Lake Orta was undoubtedly a great national and international success, the speakers at the conference, instead sought to enlarge and deepen knowledge of patterns and mechanisms of lake ecosystem responses to the water quality improvements, or chemical recovery, that accompanied Lake Orta\u27s liming
Main social media analysis outcome of the CASSANDRA project
No full textThis report presents the outcome of a series of analysis on different social media, where users discuss on drugs and their effects. The aim of such an analysis is twofold. First, we automatically detect drugs and their effects. Secondly, we explore the structure, the topic discussions, the evolution over time of widespread drugs\u27 forums and online drugs\u27 shops. The studies have been conducted within the European project Cassandra