EYDAP (Greece)

Abstract Introduction: Amantadine improves motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) as monotherapy or adjuvant therapy. However data on specific cognitive functions are lacking.Objective: To investigate the effect of amantadine on PD cognition using a wide battery of different domain-specific cognitive abilities.Method: Mild cognitive impaired 35 PD patients (mean HY: 2),with amantadine 400 mg/day twice a day orally as monotherapy (Group A) and 35 PD patients without amantadine (levodopa + rivastigminetreatment Group B)were randomly enrolled in the study. The data collected for each patient included: (1) MMSE, (2) Addenbrook, (3) verbal learning and memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised immediate total recall across trials and delayed recall trial), (4) auditory working memory (Letter-Number Sequencing subtest from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – III), (5) processing speed (Digit Symbol subtest from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised), (6) visuospatial working memory/switching (Trail Making Test, Part B), (7) semantic verbal fluency (animals), (8) phonemic verbal fluency (letters F-A-S or C-F-L), (9) visuospatial functioning (Brief Visuospatial Memory Test—Revised), 10)Depression (15 item Geriatric Depression scale).Results: The cognitive function improved progressively in 6 and 12-month treatment interval as shown by significant improvement on verbal short term (p < 0.001) and auditory working memory (p < 0.001) and visual working memory (p < 0.001) in Group A compared to Group B. Even after controlling for age, education, depression, disease duration, there are persistent differences in the above cognitive tests between the two groups over the timeConclusions: Amantadine alone significantly improves the verbal, auditory memory and visualspatial processing in PD patients.this study is a part as a secondary analysis of a previously prospectively registered clinical trial (the primary trial registration information is ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT number NCT04448340) https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04448340 )

Climate change and its effects on water availability call for innovative and sustainable solutions for tackling water scarcity and drought in arid and semi-arid regions. Arid regions, grappling with the complex interplay of climate change, population growth, and heightened demand for water resources, demand a paradigm shift in the way we approach water management.The island of Syros and the Cyclades region, in general, are historically affected by drought and water scarcity. To tackle these phenomena, the local communities have been dependent on alternative water resources, mainly rainwater harvesting and seawater desalination. Over the past years, managed aquifer recharge from reclaimed wastewater is also tested and implemented to increase the water safety of the island. The performance of a rainwater harvesting (RWH) system depends on various factors such as the amount of rainfall, the size and design of the system, the quality of the water collected, and the demand for water. Although RWH is embedded to the local architecture (flat roofs and built-in water reservoirs), not all buildings have the capacity to collect the maximum water for precipitation. These buildings represent all public buildings and buildings with limited storing capacity. Adding these buildings to the equation, the local community is closer to the RWH potential of 50 m3/capita per annum. Such communal rainwater application will reduce the demand on desalinated water production, especially outside the touristic period, resulting on decreasing energy needs and consequently CO2 emissions. This work explores a visionary approach to addressing the water crisis in arid islands, advocating for the design of a communal rainwater harvesting administration and implementation framework tailored to the unique needs of arid and semi-arid islands. Such application will increase the water safety of these areas, while decreasing the environmental impact of energy demanding alternative water resources.

The detection of complex formations, initially suspected to be oil spills, is investigated using atmospherically corrected multispectral satellite images and deep learning techniques. Several formations have been detected in an inland lake in Northern Greece. Four atmospheric corrections (ACOLITE, iCOR, Polymer, and C2RCC) that are specifically designed for water applications are examined and implemented on Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite images to eliminate the influence of the atmosphere. Out of the four algorithms, iCOR and ACOLITE are able to depict the formations sufficiently; however, the latter is chosen for further processing due to fewer uncertainties in the depiction of these formations as anomalies across the multispectral range. Furthermore, a number of formations are annotated at the pixel level for the 10 m bands (red, green, blue, and NIR), and a deep neural network (DNN) is trained and validated. Our results show that the four-band configuration provides the best model for the detection of these complex formations. Despite not being necessarily related to oil spills, studying these formations is crucial for environmental monitoring, pollution detection, and the advancement of remote sensing techniques.

ABSTRACT Many water utilities are at least occasionally affected by unpleasant taste and odour (T&O) in drinking water. For decades, aesthetic water quality has been of secondary concern to water producers, with water safety being the primary focus. However, there has been a recent shift towards prioritising consumer satisfaction, encompassing not only services, but also water quality, including T&O issues, which can negatively impact the supplier's reputation. Starting to address a T&O problem until consumers' complaints become massive is too late and puts water producers under great stress to take effective action in a timely manner. Rather, a preventive approach is necessary. The most effective approach is to include T&O as a hazard to assess and manage in the context of developing a water safety plan (WSP) for the supply system. The development of a WSP provides an excellent platform for including the stakeholders needed to control the source of T&O events, as this often requires multistakeholder cooperation. Our review provides a comprehensive guide to addressing T&O occurrences and shows how this can be included in the framework of WSP development. It identifies supporting tools and illustrates the information given with a number of examples from water suppliers' practice.

AWWA Water Science is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes original, refereed (peer-reviewed) research on the science, engineering, and social aspects of water. AWS publishes research exploring theoretical, experimental, and practical approaches that advance fundamental understanding and application of all aspects of water works and any source water that could conceivably become a potable water supply.

Water utilities often use extended open surface water reservoirs to produce drinking water. Biotic and abiotic factors influence the water level, leading to alterations in the concentration of the dissolved substances (in cases of flood or drought), entry of new pollutants (in case of flooding) or reduction in the availability and inflow speed of water to the treatment plant (in case of drought). Spaceborne image analysis is considered a significant surrogate for establishing a dense network of sensors to monitor changes. In this study, renowned inundation mapping techniques are examined for their adaptability to the inland water reservoirs’ conditions. The results, from the Polyphytos open surface water reservoir in northern Greece, showcase the transferability of the workflows with overall accuracies exceeding—in cases—98%. Hydroperiod maps generated for the area of interest, along with variations in the water surface extent over a four-year period, provide valuable insights into the reservoir’s hydrological patterns. Comparison among different inundation mapping techniques for the surface water extent and water level reveal challenges and limitations, which are related to the spatial resolution, the data take frequency and the influence of the landscape synthesis beyond the water reservoir boundaries.

Water is a natural resource as well as a key issue for all European economies, strongly related to climate change. This paper presents the different technologies which can ensure energy upgrade and reduction of CO2 emissions in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) focusing mainly in energy efficiency upgrade which is prerequisite for the reduction of CO2. Also, within the goals of this paper, a rating methodology is described based on water treatment energy index (WTEI) and parameters such as effluent flow, nutrient removal, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids, orthophosphate (PO43-), ammonia (NH4+) and nitrate (NH4-) are estimated and determined at various stages of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Finally, a quantitative evaluation of WTEI in Thessaloniki Water Supply and Treatment Company, Greece, is presented as a case study, benchmarking energy and water treatment indicators to evaluate the energy efficiency and the effect of water to the nexus complex.