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Στα πλαίσια αυτής της εργασίας πραγματοποιήθηκε έρευνα και ανάλυση των συνθηκών που έχει δημιουργήσει η εκμετάλλευση του λιγνίτη στην περιοχή του Λεκανοπεδίου Πτολεμαΐδας – Αμυνταίου, μελέτη και αξιολόγηση των μεθόδων αποκατάστασης του τοπίου και της βλάστησης, που λαμβάνουν χώρα υπό τον πλήρη έλεγχο της ΔΕΗ και τέλος, διατυπώνονται προτάσεις οι οποίες θα επιτρέψουν την κατά τον καλύτερο τρόπο αξιοποίηση και αποκατάσταση του τοπίου που έχει προκύψει, έτσι ώστε, να επιτευχθεί ορθολογική συνέχιση της εκμετάλλευσης του λιγνίτη με ελαχιστοποίηση των επιπτώσεων στο περιβάλλον. / The aim of this investigation is the exploration and analysis of the environmental conditions which have been arisen during the exploitation of the lignite quarries in the Ptolemaida – Amyntaio basin. Also, of great value is the study and estimation of the current environmental restoration methods which have been applied from the national electricity company, which utilize the lignite mining areas. Last but not least, our intention is to propose alternative restorative applications for the vegetation and landscape of the mining areas, in order to accomplish the continuation of lignite exploitation with minimization of the consequences to the environment.

Η εκπόνηση της Διατριβής Διπλώματος Ειδίκευσης με τίτλο «Η Μονή Στροφάδων : Αποτύπωση – Παθολογία – Προδιαγραφές Αποκατάστασης» είχε ως στόχο τη συνοπτική προσέγγιση και παρουσίαση του προβλήματος του μοναστηριακού συγκροτήματος Στροφάδων. Η εργασία αυτή δεν αποσκοπεί στο να δώσει πρακτική λύση στο πρόβλημα αποκατάστασης του μοναστηριού καθώς κάτι τέτοιο δε θα ήταν εύκολο να πραγματοποιηθεί στο πλαίσια μιας μεταπτυχιακής εργασίας. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο της εργασίας γίνεται μια συνοπτική αναδρομή της ιστορίας της μονής με αναφορά στα σημαντικότερα γεγονότα από την ίδρυσή της έως σήμερα. Επίσης, γίνεται αναφορά στην πνευματική, πολιτισμική και αμυντική αξία της μονής. Το δεύτερο κεφάλαιο της εργασίας αποτελεί την αρχιτεκτονική τεκμηρίωση. Καταρχήν αναφέρεται σε συντομία η υστεροβυζαντινή αρχιτεκτονική των μοναστηριών, οι τύποι ναών και τα υλικά δόμησης. Στη συνέχεια γίνεται η περιγραφή του μοναστηριακού συγκροτήματος, του πύργου και των κτισμάτων όλων των πτερύγων. Η περιγραφή αυτή γίνεται καλύτερα κατανοητή μέσα από τα σχέδια κατόψεων και τομών που παρουσιάζονται στο τέλος του κεφαλαίου. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο περιγράφονται οι φάσεις κατασκευής του μνημείου : υστεροβυζαντινή, η φάση Ενετοκρατίας και η νεότερη, με τα κτίσματα που περιλαμβάνει η καθεμιά, καθώς και τα χρησιμοποιούμενα υλικά και τρόποι δόμησης. Στο τέταρτο κεφάλαιο δίνεται μια εικόνα της παθολογίας του μοναστηριακού συγκροτήματος με αναφορά στις φθορές εξωτερικών τοίχων και εσωτερικού. Ακόμα, καταγράφεται η παθολογία των υλικών κατασκευής λίθων, πλίνθων, κονιαμάτων, καθώς και τα αίτια φθοράς των κτισμάτων της μονής. Στο πέμπτο κεφάλαιο της εργασίας παρουσιάζονται οι βασικές προδιαγραφές για την αποκατάσταση της μονής : Προδιαγραφές αρχιτεκτονικής και δομοστατικής μελέτης, προδιαγραφές μελέτης παθολογίας υλικών, αξιολόγηση της υφιστάμενης κατάστασης, προτάσεις συντήρησης, προσδιορισμός χρήσεων για το μνημείο και προτάσεις προσαρμογής των χρήσεων στο μνημείο. Τέλος αναφέρονται τα συμπεράσματα που προέκυψαν κατά την εκπόνηση της Διατριβής Διπλώματος Ειδίκευσης. Το κύριο συμπέρασμα η είναι η άμεση αποκατάσταση των κτισμάτων της μονής Στροφάδων. Η αποκατάσταση αυτή θα πρέπει να αποτελεί έργο υπεύθυνης και συντονισμένης προσπάθειας μιας ομάδας αναστηλωτών που θα σέβονται την ιστορική και αρχιτεκτονική αξία του μνημείου. Επίσης, οι επεμβάσεις θα πρέπει να σχεδιαστούν έτσι, ώστε να διατηρείται η αρχιτεκτονική και κατασκευαστική ταυτότητα του μνημείου. / The elaboration of the thesis entitled “ Monastery of Strofades : Survey – Pathology – Outline of Restoration “ aims at the brief approach and presentation of the problem of the monastery of Strofades. This thesis does not aim at giving a practical solution to the problem of restoration of the monastery since the latter is difficult to be achieved in terms of postgraduate studies. In the first chapter, a brief retrospection of the history of the monastery takes place with reference to the most significant events from its establishment till today. Moreover, this thesis refers to cultural and defensive value of the monastery. The second chapter constitutes the architectural presumption. Firstly, it is made a brief reference to the metabyzantine architecture of monasteries, the types of temples and the constructing materials. Then, a description of the monastery, the tower and the other parts of the construction takes place. This description can be better understood through the designs of the ground plans presented at the end of the chapter. In the third chapter, are different phases of the construction of the monument, the metabyzantine phase, the Venetian phase and the modern one together with the constructions placed at each phase as well as the materials used and the ways of construction. In the fourth chapter of this thesis, it is given a picture of the pathology of the monastery with reference to the damages of both the exterior walls and the interior. Moreover, the pathology of the constructing materials, stones, bricks and mortars, and the causes of damages of the construction of the monastery as well as listed. In the fifth chapter, are presented the basic prescriptions for the restoration of the monastery. Prescriptions of the architectural study, of the pathology of the materials, evaluation of the existing situation, proposals of maintenance, determination of usages for the monument as well as proposals of adaptation of those usages to the latter. To sum up, the conclusions drawn from this thesis are mentioned in the end. The main conclusion is that it is needed the immediate restoration of the construction of the monastery of Strofades. This restoration should constitute a work of responsible and coordinated effort of a group of restorers who will respect the historical and architectural value of the monument. Last but not least, the interventions must be designed in such way so as to preserve the architectural and structural identity of the monument.

A goal of efforts to restore altered ecosystems is to reestablish natural disturbance processes, such as fire, that govern ecosystem structure and function. In ecosystems where structure has changed in response to human activities, however, ecosystem drivers may function differently and their reestablishment could yield unexpected or undesired consequences. Lehmann lovegrass, Eragrostis lehmanniana, a perennial bunchgrass from Africa, was introduced to grasslands in the southwestern United States in the 1930s and has since increased in distribution and dominance. Reintroducing fire has been proposed as a mechanism by which to restore semi-desert grasslands by reducing the dominance of nonnative plants, despite the altered plant community.To assess the effect of nonnative grass on animals, between 2000 and 2004 we sampled 54 plots across a gradient of invasion by nonnative grass and quantified variation in presence, abundance, and richness of insects and small mammals. For small mammals, we used a framework we developed to estimate abundance when data are sparse. The number of insect orders, families, and morphospecies, as well as overall abundance decreased as nonnative grass increased. Many insect families that decreased in abundance as nonnative grass increased were comprised of herbivorous species, suggesting that increases in nonnative grass may have reduced abundance and quality of plant foods. Abundance of several species of murid rodents increased and several species of heteromyid rodents decreased as nonnative grass increased, indicating clear changes in habitat for these species of small mammals.To assess the interactive effects of prescribed fire on small mammals in these altered ecosystems, we performed a randomized experiment where we applied prescribed fire on 36 of 54 plots. The effects of fire on many small mammal populations and the composition of the small mammal community varied along the invasion gradient, suggesting that fire functions differently inareas dominated by nonnative plants relative to those dominated by native plants. Invasion by this nonnative grass has clearly shifted the composition of faunal communities in semi-desert grasslands and has altered ecosystem processes, therefore reestablishing fire is not likely to be an omnibus solution for restoration.

It is an unresolved paradox that non-native species are successful in novel environments whereas native species, presumably adapted to that environment, decline. This knowledge gap has persisted because third party processes in invasion ecology have been overlooked. Ungulate densities are increasing due to the eradication of predators and landscape change and I asked how herbivory and invasion might interact to cause declines of native species. In Garry oak meadows, Canada’s most endangered ecosystem, native forbs have declined relative to non-native grasses and I tested the facilitatory role of herbivory in that degradation. My investigations, novel to the field, were conducted on islands spanning the Canada-US border. Islands served as natural experimental units in a mensurative study of abundance patterns in seven plant groups and 15 focal species along gradients of herbivory, biogeography, soil depth, and human activities. Increasing ungulate densities were related to declines in abundances of native forbs, and increasing abundances of non-native annual grasses. These regional patterns were upheld by two plot-based, 2x2 factorial experiments that contrasted the fitness of native species under manipulations of herbivory and competition for light. Specifically, I showed that ungulates limited the establishment, growth, survival and reproduction of seedlings and transplanted native forbs and shrubs and that competition from non-native species had little effect. I also calculated forage selectivity indices and tested the efficacy of fencing and cutting to reduce competition, for the restoration of native community biomass. Non-native annual grasses were rarely browsed and increased with increasing ungulate density. Non-native perennial grasses declined with herbivory, however, their regional abundances were unaffected by ungulate density despite being preferentially foraged. That non-native annual and perennial grasses differed in their responses to herbivory has consequences for restoration and illustrates the challenge of developing a comprehensive theory of invasion. Reducing ungulates, necessary for the recovery of native forbs, also benefits non-native perennial grasses and therefore their removal speed recovery of Garry oak meadows. Despite advances in invasion ecology, scientists and managers are disconnected and research is rarely implemented. I conclude by proposing seven solutions to facilitate the integration of science into management.

Monitoring ecological restoration at the community scale provides insight into how the population dynamics and community interactions are progressing through time in comparison to a restoration’s goals and reference conditions. This study monitored the early post-restoration dynamics of a sand plain located in the Carolinian Canada ecozone called Lake Erie Farms. The restoration consisted of restoring three habitats via sculptured seeding: a mesic forest, oak woodland, and sand barren. The hypothesis of this study is that the restoration efforts have established population dynamics and community interactions consistent with successional patterns expected from comparative literature. Community ecology, directed succession, and alternative stable states are the underlying theories that provided a conceptual and theoretical lens from which to study the objectives and hypothesis. To gain insight into the community dynamics at Lake Erie Farms the vegetation abundance, seed abundance and viability of the seedbank, seed viability of the 6 most dominant species (3 most dominant native species & 3 most dominant weedy species), and soil moisture & pH were monitored. The analysis was conducted using a RMANOVA of a nested design (P > 0.001, 0.01 and 0.05) to compare the variables in relation to the site (i.e. the sum of all the quadrats), the restoration treatment nested within the site, the field nested within the site, the transect nested within the restoration treatment and the quadrat nested within the restoration treatment. The significant findings of this study include: i) the restoration treatments are producing similar results as those expected from the literature, though there is evidence of the sculptured seeding treatment accelerating the successional stage at Lake Erie Farms compared to abandoned agricultural fields in similar ecosystems because of the presence of later-successional species; ii) the control areas are less diverse than each of the restoration units (P>0.05); and iii) the soil moisture among the treatments is beginning to diverge into the desired restoration units.

Optical networks based on Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology show many clear benefits in terms of high capacity, flexibility and low power consumption. All these benefits make WDM networks the preferred choice for today’s and future transports solutions which are strongly driven by a plethora of emerging online services. In such a scenario, capability to provide high capacity during the service provisioning phase is of course very important, but it is not the only requirement that plays a central role. Traffic dynamicity is another essential aspect to consider because in many scenarios, e.g., in the case of real time multimedia services, the connections are expected to be provisioned and torn down quickly and relatively frequently. High traffic dynamicity may put a strain on the network control and management operations (i.e., the overhead due to control message exchange can grow rapidly) that coordinate any provisioning mechanisms. Furthermore, survivability, in the presence of new failure scenarios that goes beyond the single failure assumption, is still of the utmost importance to minimize the network disruptions and data losses. In other words, protection against any possible future failure scenario where multiple faults may struck simultaneously, asks for highly reliable provisioning solutions. The above consideration have a general validity i.e., can be equally applied to any network segment and not just limited to the core part. So, we also address the problem of service provisioning in the access paradigm. Long reach Passive Optical Networks (PONs) are gaining popularity due to their cost, reach, and bandwidth advantages in the access region. In PON, the design of an efficient bandwidth sharing mechanism between multiple subscribers in the upstream direction is crucial. In addition, Long Reach PONs (LR-PONs) introduces additional challenges in terms of packet delay and network throughput, due to their extended reach. It becomes apparent that effective solutions to the connection provisioning problem in both the core and access optical networks with respect to the considerations made above can ensure a truly optimal end-to-end connectivity while making an efficient usage of resources. The first part of this thesis focuses on a control and management framework specifically designed for concurrent resource optimization in WDM-based optical networks in a highly dynamic traffic scenario. The framework and the proposed provisioning strategies are specifically designed with the objective of: (i) allowing for a reduction of the blocking probability and the control overhead in a Path Computation Element (PCE)-based network architecture, (ii)  optimizing resource utilization for a traffic scenario that require services with diverse survivability requirements which are achieved by means of  dedicated and shared path-protection, and (iii) designing provisioning mechanism that guarantees high connection availability levels in Double Link Failures (DLF) scenarios. The presented results show that the proposed dynamic provisioning approach can significantly improve the network blocking performance while making an efficient use of primary/backup resources whenever protection is required by the provisioned services. Furthermore, the proposed DLF schemes show good performance in terms of minimizing disruption periods, and allowing for enhanced network robustness when specific services require high connection availability levels. In the second part of this thesis, we propose efficient resource provisioning strategies for LR-PON. The objective is to optimize the bandwidth allocation in LR-PONs, in particular to: (i) identify the performance limitations associated with traditional (short reach) TDM-PON based Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) algorithms when employed in long reach scenarios, and (ii) devise efficient DBA algorithms that can mitigate the performance limitations imposed by an extended reach. Our proposed schemes show noticeable performance gains when compared with conventional DBA algorithms for short-reach PON as well as specifically devised approaches for long reach. / <p>QC 20130520</p>

To reverse the emergency environmental degradation of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, the localgovernment enforced a new developing project – Eco-migration, which aims at bothenvironmental restoration and poverty alleviation. Within ten years’ time, more than 400,000 ruralresidents were relocated. Through professional training and labor transportation, the financialcondition was largely improved. The annual income of these eco-migrants was highly raised from0.2 USD a day in 2000 to 3.51 USD a day in 2010. From the environmental perspective, morethan 70 percent of the sandy wasteland was restored. The vegetable coverage jumped up to 75percent, comparing to 30 percent in 2000. Through field study, the feedbacks from theseeco-migrants were collected. Eco-migrants were highly satisfied with the economic andenvironmental improvement. However, there are lots of improvements can be done. In one word,that’s the way the government trying to achieve the goal of sustainable development, whichproviding valuable experience for future.

Šiame darbe nagrinėjama trajektorijos atkūrimo bei deformacijų fiksavimo remiantis pagreičiais problema. Uždavinys sprendžiamas analizuojant dviejų taškų judėjimo trajektorijas plokštumoje. Analizuojami ir palyginami skaitinio integravimo metodai: integravimas naudojant kubinį interpoliacinį spliną, trečios eilės B splinų tiesinius darinius, Niutono ir Koteso formules. Pagrindžiamas Niutono ir Koteso formulių integravimui pasirinkimas. Duomenys analizei yra modeliuojami, kadangi realių dviejų taškų sistemos pagreičių verčių, išmatuotų pasirinktu akselerometru, be finansinių investicijų gauti neįmanoma. Darbe tiriamos paklaidų priklausomybės nuo pasirinktų integravimo metodo parametrų, pasirinkto akselerometro darbinių parametrų, nagrinėjama paklaidų augimo dinamika pasirinktoms judesio trajektorijoms, sudaromas kriterijus deformacijų fiksavimui. Šis darbas yra pristatytas trijose konferencijose (VI studentų konferencija, 2006; Matematika ir matematinis modeliavimas, 2006; Lietuvos matematikų draugijos XLVII konferencija, 2006). Taip pat išleisti trys straipsniai šios temos pagrindu [6], [7], [8] ir pateiktas vienas naujas Lietuvos matematikų draugijos XLVIII konferencijai. / This work is targeted towards pathway restoration and deformation sensing using acceleration data. This problem is solved analyzing two point system movements in a plane. Integration methods are compared, choice of Newton - Kotess formulas for integration is motivated. Data for analysis is provided by simulation, because real data acquisition requires financial investments. Error dependencies on integration parameters, accelerometer operation parameters are analyzed. The dynamics of error development while observing different pathways is being tracked; a criterion for sensing deformation is defined. This work has been reported at the three conferences (6th Student‘s Conference, 2006; Mathematics and Mathematical Modeling, 2006; 47th Conference of Lithuanian Mathematician Association, 2006). In additions, three articles have been published based on this topic [6], [7], [8] and one more article is going to be presented at the 48th Conference of Lithuanian Mathematician Association.