The EU H2020 programme NEOROCKS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Dotto ◽  
Marek Banaszkiewicz ◽  
Sara Banchi ◽  
Maria A. Barucci ◽  
Fabrizio Bernardi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Scale Up ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Physical Characterization ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Potential Hazard ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Horizon 2020

<p>The research about Near Earth Objects (NEOs) is a major topic in planetary science. One reason is the potential hazard some of them pose to human beings and, more in general, to life on our planet. Moreover, the physical characterization of NEOs allows us to put constraints on the material accreted in the protoplanetary nebula at different solar distances and can give us insights into the early processes  that  governed  the  formation and the evolution of planets - including the delivery of water and organics to Earth -, and into further evolutionary processes that acted on asteroid since their formation - such as collisions and non-gravitational effects.</p> <p>The “NEOROCKS - The NEO Rapid Observation, Characterization and Key Simulations” Collaborative Research Project has been recently approved to address the topic c) “Improvement of our knowledge of the physical characteristics of the NEO population” of the call SU-SPACE-23-SEC-2019 from the Horizon 2020 - Work Programme 2018-2020 Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies – Space.</p> <p>The aims of NEOROCKS are:</p> <ul> <li>to develop and validate advanced mathematical methods and innovative algorithms for NEO orbit determination and impact monitoring;</li> <li>to organize follow-up astronomical observations of NEOs efficiently, in order to obtain high-quality data needed to derive their physical properties, giving priority to timely addressing potentially hazardous objects;</li> <li>to improve dramatically statistical analysis, modelling and computer simulations aimed to understand the physical nature of NEOs, focussing on small size objects, which are of uttermost importance for designing effective impact mitigation measures in space and on the ground;</li> <li>to ensure maximum visibility and dissemination of the data beyond the timeline of the project, by hosting it in an existing astronomical data center facility;</li> <li>to foster European and international cooperation on NEO physical characterization, providing scenarios and roadmaps with the potential to scale-up at a global level the experience gained during the project;</li> <li>to apply and guarantee continuity of educational and public outreach activities needed to improve significantly public understanding and perception of the asteroid hazard, counteracting the spreading of “fake news” and unjustified alarms.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Acknowledgement</strong>: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870403 (project NEOROCKS).</p>

Planets in a Room: an educational tool for Europlanet

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia Giacomini ◽  
Francesco Aloisi ◽  
Ilaria De Angelis ◽  
Stefano Capretti
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Science Museum ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
3D Printed

<p>Planets in a room (PIAR) is a DIY kit to build a small, lowcost spherical planet simulator and planetarium projector. Teachers, science communicators that run a small museum or planetarium, planetary scientists, amateur astronomers and other individuals can easily build it and use it on their own, to show and teach the Earth and other planets and to develop and share material with a growing online community. Having started in 2017 with a first version made using 3d-printed technology, PIAR has lately gone green, with a new wooden, plastic-free version of the kit. (http://www.planetsinaroom.net/)</p> <p>The project has been developed by the italian non-profit association Speak Science, with the collaboration of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the Roma Tre University, Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica.</p> <p>It was funded by the Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme in 2017 and was presented to the scientific community at EPSC and other scientific Congresses in the following years. Today, it is being distributed to an increasing number of schools, science museum and research institutions. PIAR is also one of the projects selected by the Europlanet Society for education and public outreach of planetary science: in 2020, it is being distributed to the 12 Europlanet Regional Hubs all around Europe, to be used in a number of educational projects.</p> <p>In this talk we will review the state of the art of the project presenting a selection of educational material and projects that have been developed for PIAR by scientists, teachers and communicators and that are focused on planetary science and on planetary habitability.</p> <p> </p> <p>Acknowledgements</p> <p>We acknowledge for this project the vast community of amateur and professionals that is actively working on innovative educational systems for astronomy such as planetarium and virtual reality projects (both hardware and software). Planets in a room is based on the work of this vast community of people and their experiences and results. We also acknowledge Europlanet for funding this work: the project Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.”</p> <p> </p> <p>References</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., “Planets in a room”, EPSC Abstracts Vol. 11, EPSC2017-280, 2017</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S., “Planets in a Room: a DIY, low-cost educational kit”, EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-254, 2018</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S., “Planets on (low-cost) balloons”, EPSC AbstractsVol. 13, EPSC-DPS2019-1243-1, 2019</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S, “(Green) Planets in a Room”, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22153, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22153, 2020</p>

The Europlanet Evaluation Toolkit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Heward ◽  
Jen DeWitt
Keyword(s):  
Worked Examples ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Word Clouds ◽  
Interactive Workshop ◽  
The Impact

<div> <p>In this presentation, we will give an overview of the Europlanet Evaluation Toolkit, a resource that aims to empower outreach providers and educators in measuring and appraising the impact of their activities. The toolkit is intended to provide advice and resources that can be simply and easily integrated into normal outreach and education activities. It is available as an interactive online resource (http://www.europlanet-eu.org/europlanet-evaluation-toolkit/), as a downloadable PDF and as a hard copy (including a book and set of activity cards).</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit has been developed over a number of years with content provided by professional outreach evaluators Karen Bultitude and Jennifer DeWitt (UCL, UK). Initially, a series of focus groups and scoping discussions were held with active outreach providers from the planetary science community in order to determine what they wanted from such a toolkit, and what sort of tools would be of most interest. A shortlist of tools was developed based on these discussions, with volunteers testing out the tool instructions once they were drafted.</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit begins with a brief introduction to evaluation and steps to choosing the right tools. This advice takes the form of a series of questions to help design an evaluation approach and make the most efficient and effective use possible of limited time and resources.</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit offers a choice of 14 data collection tools that can be selected according to the audience (e.g. primary, secondary, interested adult, general public), the type of environment and activity (e.g. drop-in, interactive workshop, ongoing series, lecture/presentation or online) or according to when they might best be used (during, beginning/end, or after an event). The online version of the toolkit includes a set of interactive tables to help with the selection of which tool is most appropriate for any given situation.</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit includes descriptions and worked examples of how to use two techniques (word-clouds and thematic coding) to analyse the data, as well as some top tips for evaluation and recommended resources.</p> </div><div> <p>For some of the tools, case study examples include information about how the tools have been used in the context of an event, how data was actually collected and analysed and what conclusions were reached, based on the data gathered.</p> </div><div> <p>The Europlanet Evaluation Toolkit has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149 (Europlanet 2024 RI) and 654208 (Europlanet 2020 RI).</p> </div>

Induced earthquakes at the carbon sequestration site Carbfix2, Hellisheiði, Iceland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vala Hjörleifsdóttir ◽  
Gunnar Gunnarsson ◽  
Sigríður Kristjánsdóttir ◽  
Bergur Sigfússon ◽  
Halldór Geirsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Local Network ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Induced Earthquakes ◽  
Injection Wells ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Plant Operations

<p>The 303 MW Hellisheiði, Iceland geothermal power plant was commissioned in 2006 and in early September 2011, reinjection of geothermal fluid was initiated in the second reinjection site of the plant; Húsmúli.  The site has 5 injection wells in operation, with depths of over 2000 m and a total of up to 500 l/s of fluid being reinjected into the site.  Seismicity had previously been observed in the region, including both natural seismicity before power plant operations started (e.g. Foulger et al., 1988) and induced seismicity during drilling of the injection wells (Ágústsson et al., 2015).  The reinjection caused severely increased level of seismicity within days, with two earthquakes of M 4.0 and M3.9 respectively, occurring a little over a month after the start of reinjection (Icelandic Meteorological Office catalog). The injection was also accompanied by uplift of approximately 2 cm (Juncu et al., 2018).  Due to the increased level of seismicity, a committee was formed and several measures on how to control it were suggested – including starting reinjection gradually after it has been stopped (Bessason et al., 2012).</p><p>In 2014, as a part of the Carbfix2 project, the reinjection fluid in Húsmúli was combined with gas, and CO<sub>2</sub> and H<sub>2</sub>S, previously being released into the atmosphere, is now captured and reinjected into the basaltic formation (Matter et al., 2016, Gunnarsson et al., 2018).  It is estimated that the CO<sub>2</sub> and H<sub>2</sub>S are crystalized into calcite and pyrite in under 2 years (Gunnarsson et al., 2018). This project has been very successful and is currently capturing and permanently storing an estimated 33% of the CO<sub>2</sub> and 75% of the H<sub>2</sub>S extracted.</p><p>In this study we analyze seismicity data as reported by the Icelandic Meteorological Office Regional network, (1991-present) and the ON Power/ISOR local network (2016-present) and compare with operational parameters.  We show 1) how the seismicity responds to changes in flow, pressure and temperature of the injected fluid, 2) how individual wells seem to respond differently, 3) how the mitigation measures taken by the operator have worked and 4) look for changes in seismicity due to the CO<sub>2 </sub>sequestration.</p><p>This work has been funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation Program projects Carbfix2 (grant agreement number 764760) and S4CE (grant agreement number 764810).</p>

A NEO Physical Properties database within the NEOROCKS EU project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Giunta ◽  
Marco Giardino ◽  
Ettore Perozzi ◽  
Gianluca Polenta ◽  
Angelo Zinzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Physical Characterization ◽  
Data Repository ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Data Products ◽  
Eu Project

<p>The advent of new wide field, ground-based and multiwavelength space based sky surveys will lead to a large amount of data that needs to be efficiently processed, archived and disseminated. In addition, differently from astrometric observations which have a centralized data repository acting under IAU mandate (the MPC), the outcome of ground-based NEO observations devoted to NEO physical characterization are sparsely distributed. It appears then desirable to have data on NEO physical characterization available through a centralized access able to guarantee their long-term archiving, as well as to ensure the maintenance and the evolution of the corresponding data products.  </p> <p> </p> <p>Within the NEOROCKS EU project (“The NEO Rapid Observation, Characterization and Key Simulations” - SU-SPACE-23-SEC-2019 from the Horizon 2020), as part of WP5 (Data Management) activities, we propose the implementation of a unique NEO Physical Properties database hosting all different data products resulting from NEO observations devoted to physical characterization, in order to ensure an efficient data products dissemination and their short/long-term storage and availability. The NEOROCKS database, will be designed by means of an EPNCore derived data model (see [1]) ready for the EPN-TAP service implementation, and thus able to store, maintain and regularly update all different levels of processing, from raw data to final products (e.g. size, rotation, spectral type) beyond the duration of the project as an reliable source of services and data on NEO physical properties hosted at ASI SSDC.</p> <p> </p> <p>The NEOROCKS database will import NEO orbital elements from the Near-Earth Object Dynamics Site (NEODyS), while NEO physical parameters will be partly provided by NEOROCKS users, partly imported from external data source. In particular, the NEO physical properties database available at the ESA NEO Coordination Center, hosting since 2013 the legacy of the European Asteroid Research Node (EARN) and which will host Solar System Objects (SSO) NEO physical properties in the Gaia DR3 expected for the second half of 2021, will be imported and integrated into the NEOROCKS Physical Properties Database. Thus, a single query interface will allow to display both dynamical and physical properties of any given NEO, or to search for samples within the NEO population satisfying certain requirements (e.g. targets for astronomical observations and mission analysis).</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Acknowledgements</strong>: The LICIACube team acknowledges financial support from Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI, contract No. 2019-31-HH.0 CUP F84I190012600).</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>[1] Erard S., Cecconi B., Le Sidaner P., Berthier J., Henry F., Molinaro M., Giardino M., Bourrel N., Andre N., Gangloff M., Jacquey C., Topf F. 2014. The EPN-TAP protocol for the Planetary Science Virtual Observatory (2014). Astronomy And Computing, vol. 7-8, p. 52-61, ISSN: 2213-1337, doi: 10.1016/j.ascom.2014.07.008</p>

scholarly journals ECOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN BEING IN THE CLASSICAL CHINESE THOUGHT

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-163
Author(s):  
Antoanet NIKOLOVA
Keyword(s):  
Human Society ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Chinese Thought ◽  
Ontological Question ◽  
Ecological Implications ◽  
Classical Chinese ◽  
The Universe

e paper aims at discussing the ecological implications of the understanding of the human being in the Classical Chinese thought. The study consists of three main parts. In the first one, the peculiarities of the Chinese thought as a philosophy of dynamism are discussed. I argue that in contrast to the Western thought, where the main ontological question is connected with the issue of essence and the epistemological approach is based on the opposition of subject and object, the Chinese thought reveals reality in terms of dynamism, where the most important concepts are these of processes, relations and transformations. In the second part, I analyse the place of human beings in this dynamic universe in terms of three different perspectives: (i) their relations; (ii) their actions/interactions; and (iii) their value. I point out that it is the harmony that could be defined as the most privileged position in the Chinese universe. In the third part, I discuss two main kinds of ecologically wise behaviour of human beings that are in accordance with the dynamic nature of the universe: (i) the Confucian idea of the outer harmonisation of the human society with the patterns of transformation in the Universe and (ii) the Daoist idea of the inner achievement of the pivot of transformation within oneself. In the conclusion, I outline the idea that the combination of inner and outer activity of harmonisation with reality could be used as an example of wise ecological behaviour and attitude to nature. The work on the paper is part of an individual project “Perception of Eastern Teachings in Europe” funded by the European Union through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action, Horizon 2020, grant No. 753561.

Nature-based sealing of leaky streams - Testing a bio-degradable bentonite mat for preventing infiltration losses in alpine stream

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Zieher ◽  
Jan Pfeiffer ◽  
Annemarie Polderman ◽  
Kent von Maubeuge ◽  
Helmut Hochreiter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Catchment Area ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Laser Scanner ◽  
Repeated Measurements ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Synthetic Materials

<p>Deep-seated landslides can pose a serious threat to settlement areas and their assets in mountain regions across the world. An important step of a holistic landslide management is the implementation of suitable mitigation measures. However, technical mitigation measures against the impacts of natural hazards often rely on synthetic materials. Progress in materials science and development often makes it possible to replace synthetic components with renewable, bio-degradable materials that provide the same functionality. These alternative, nature-based solutions can simultaneously offer co-benefits such as environmental sustainability, less maintenance efforts and a greater societal acceptance. In this context, an experimental setup was installed in the upslope catchment area of an active deep-seated landslide in Vögelsberg (community of Wattens, Tyrol, Austria). At the chosen location the infiltration losses along the unconsolidated streambed potentially contribute to groundwater recharge, which is considered a main hydrological driver of the landslide. The goal of the experiment was to efficiently seal a 25 m long section of a stream without relying on synthetic materials. To reach this goal, a prototype of a bio-degradable bentonite mat was implemented as an impermeable layer in the subsurface of the leaky stream section. The efficacy of the mat is continuously monitored by several soil moisture probes installed below and above the layer and repeated measurements of subsurface characteristics with the help of electrical resistivity tomography. Furthermore, topographic changes due to erosion or sagging of the embankments are periodically monitored using a terrestrial laser scanner. Currently, the implemented solution must be considered a concept case to help raise awareness for this nature-based alternative to conventional engineering measures based on synthetic materials. If the experiment proves successful, it could be upscaled in the upstream catchment area of the landslide to prevent infiltration along leaky streams in the same way and reduce the hydrological forcing of the landslide.</p><p>The present study has been carried out in the OPERANDUM project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 776848.</p>

Intergrating morpho-stratigraphic and spectral units on Mercury and the Moon: Updates from the PLANMAP project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Carli ◽  
Francesca Zambon ◽  
Francesca Altieri ◽  
Carlos Brandt ◽  
Angelo Pio Rossi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Imaging System ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Hyperspectral Data ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Geophysical Research ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Geological Maps ◽  
Planetary Bodies

<p>The numerous past and present space missions dedicated to the Solar System planetary bodies exploration, provided a huge amount of data so far. In particular, data acquired by cameras and spectrometers allowed for producing morpho-stratigraphic and mineralogical maps for many planets, satellites and minor bodies. Despite the considerable progresses, the integration of these products is still poorly addressed. To date, no geological maps of planetary bodies other than the Earth, containing both the information, are available yet. In this context, one of the main goals the “European Union's Horizon 2020 - PLANetary MAPping (PLANMAP)” project [1] is to provide, for the first time, highly informative geological maps of specific regions of interest on the Moon, Mercury and Mars, taking into account datasets publicly available in the Planetary Data System (PDS) database [2].</p><p>Here, we show the results achieved during the first two years of the project by the PLANMAP “Compositional unit definition Work Package”. In particular, we focused on specific areas, such as Hokusai quadrangle (22°-60° N, 0°-90°W) and Beethoven (13.24°S- 28.39° S; 116.1°- 132.32°W, 630 km diameter) and Rembrandt (24.58°S- 41.19°S, 261.72°- 282.73°W, 716 km diameter) basins on Mercury, and the Apollo basin (10 ° –60 ° S, 125 ° –175 ° W, 492 km diameter) within the northeastern edge of the ~ 2500 km South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the Moon [3]. For this work, we considered the multi-color images acquired by the Mercury Dual Imaging System - Wide Angle Camera (MDIS-WAC) [3] onboard the MESSENGER mission and hyperspectral data provided by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) [4] onboard the Chandrayaan-1 mission. After data calibration and the instrumental artifacts removal, we have photometrically corrected the data to derive multi- and hyper-spectral reflectance maps, afterwards we defined appropriate spectral indices to eventually obtain the spectral unit maps of these regions of interest. In next step, we will integrate the spectral unit maps obtained with the morpho-stratigraphic ones provided by other PLANMAP work packages [5, 6, 7] to merge the information and finally retrieve geological units.</p><p> </p><p>This work is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research grant agreement No 776276- PLANMAP and by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) within the SIMBIO-SYS project (ASI-INAF agreement 2017-47-H).</p><p> </p><p><strong>References </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>[1] https://planmap.eu/</p><p>[2] https://pds.nasa.gov/</p><p>[3] S. Edward Hawkins III et al., 2007, Space Science Reviews, 131, 247–338.</p><p>[4] Pieters, C. E. et al., 2009, CURRENT SCIENCE, 96 (4).</p><p>[5] Brandt, C. et al., 2020 EGU General Assembly 2020.</p><p>[6] Ivanov, M.A., et al., 2018, Journal of Geophysical Research, 123 (10), 2585-2612.</p><p>[7] Wright, J., et al., 2019, 50<sup>th</sup> Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.</p>

The PVOL database in Europlanet 2024 RI

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Hueso ◽  
Agustin Sánchez-Lavega ◽  
Jon Legarreta ◽  
Iñaki Ordonez-Etxeberria ◽  
Jose Félix Rojas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Access ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Space Science ◽  
Virtual Observatory ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Data Services ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Future Plans

<p>PVOL is an online database of amateur observations of solar system planets hosted by the University of the Basque Country at http://pvol2.ehu.es/ [1]. PVOL stands for Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory and is one of the data services integrated in VESPA: a large collection of data services integrated in the Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access services using the same data access protocol (EPN-TAP) [2]. VESPA is an integral part of the Europlanet 2020 and 2024 Research Infrastructures and PVOL is one of its most used services. PVOL accumulates images provided by more than 300 amateur observers distributed through the globe and currently contains more than 47,000 image files. Most of the data correspond to image observations of Jupiter (67%) and Saturn (22%), but PVOL contains also useful data from Venus, Mars, Uranus and Neptune and some smaller collections of objects with no atmosphere (the Moon and Galilean satellites). In this contribution we document future plans for the service which will be carried out through 2021-2023 and we show the scientific potential of the data available in PVOL.</p> <p>Future plans for PVOL include frequent observation alerts, integration in the database of navigation files of the images from the popular WinJupos software (ims files), addition of amateur spectra of the giant planets, and a search engine and new data service of Jupiter maps obtained from the JunoCam instrument on the Juno mission that will also be integrated in PVOL/VESPA. This will allow to perform combined searches of data obtained close in time from amateurs (PVOL), HST (queries of HST images are also integrated in VESPA) and JunoCam (new service).</p> <p>The science potential of amateur data comes from the availability of long-term data (PVOL contains Jupiter data since 2000 and Mars and Venus data since 2016), frequent observations (several daily observations of each planet close to their oppositions capable to cover complete longitudes of each planet) and high-resolution images provided by key contributors, with some of them capable to resolve highly-contrasted features of 0.05-0.10 arcsec. We review recent trends in analysis of this data from an analysis of scientific publications partially or highly based on data obtained from PVOL. We show that amateur observations remain as a valuable resource for high-impact science on modern research on different planets (3-5).</p> <p><strong>Acknowledgements</strong></p> <p>Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149. We are very grateful to the ensemble of amateur astronomers sending their data to PVOL. We are in debt by the quality of many of these observations and the regular observations provided by many of them requiring long sleepless nights and even longer days of detailed image processing.</p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p>(1) Hueso et al., The Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory (PVOL) and its integration into the Virtual European Solar and Planetary Access (VESPA). Planet. Space Science, 150, 22-35 (2018).</p> <p>(2) Erard et al., VESPA: A community-driven Virtual Observatory in Planetary Science. Planet. Space Science, 150, 65-85 (2018).</p> <p>(3) Sánchez-Lavega et al., The impact of a large object on Jupiter in 2009 July, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 715, L155 (2010).</p> <p>(4) Sánchez-Lavega et al., An extremely high altitude plume seen at Mars morning terminator. Nature, 518, 525-528 (2015).</p> <p>(5) Sánchez-Lavega et al., A complex storm system in Saturn’s north polar atmosphere in 2018, Nature Astronomy, 4, 180-187 (2020).</p>

Solidarity and Social Justice in the European Union Seventy Years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The Role of European Judges

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 138-148
Author(s):  
Francesco Zammartino
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
International Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Binding Force

Seventy Years after its proclamation, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, despite not having a binding force for the states, still provides at international level the fundamental text from which the principles and the values for the preservation of liberty and right of people are taken. In this article, the author particularly underlines the importance of Declaration’s article 1, which states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. With these words the Declaration presses states to undertake economic policies aimed at achieving economic and social progress for all individuals. Unfortunately, we also have to underline the lack of effective social policies in government programs of the E.U. Member States. The author inquires whether it is left to European judges to affirm the importance of social welfare.

scholarly journals Dynamics of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ireland under mitigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Cazelles ◽  
Benjamin Nguyen-Van-Yen ◽  
Clara Champagne ◽  
Catherine Comiskey
Keyword(s):  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
Reporting Rate ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Hospital Data ◽  
Prevalence Survey ◽  
Epidemic Curve

Abstract Background In Ireland and across the European Union the COVID-19 epidemic waves, driven mainly by the emergence of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 have continued their course, despite various interventions from governments. Public health interventions continue in their attempts to control the spread as they wait for the planned significant effect of vaccination. Methods To tackle this challenge and the observed non-stationary aspect of the epidemic we used a modified SEIR stochastic model with time-varying parameters, following Brownian process. This enabled us to reconstruct the temporal evolution of the transmission rate of COVID-19 with the non-specific hypothesis that it follows a basic stochastic process constrained by the available data. This model is coupled with Bayesian inference (particle Markov Chain Monte Carlo method) for parameter estimation and utilized mainly well-documented Irish hospital data. Results In Ireland, mitigation measures provided a 78–86% reduction in transmission during the first wave between March and May 2020. For the second wave in October 2020, our reduction estimation was around 20% while it was 70% for the third wave in January 2021. This third wave was partly due to the UK variant appearing in Ireland. In June 2020 we estimated that sero-prevalence was 2.0% (95% CI: 1.2–3.5%) in complete accordance with a sero-prevalence survey. By the end of April 2021, the sero-prevalence was greater than 17% due in part to the vaccination campaign. Finally we demonstrate that the available observed confirmed cases are not reliable for analysis owing to the fact that their reporting rate has as expected greatly evolved. Conclusion We provide the first estimations of the dynamics of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ireland and its key parameters. We also quantify the effects of mitigation measures on the virus transmission during and after mitigation for the three waves. Our results demonstrate that Ireland has significantly reduced transmission by employing mitigation measures, physical distancing and lockdown. This has to date avoided the saturation of healthcare infrastructures, flattened the epidemic curve and likely reduced mortality. However, as we await for a full roll out of a vaccination programme and as new variants potentially more transmissible and/or more infectious could continue to emerge and mitigation measures change silent transmission, challenges remain.

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