Optimization tool to improve the management of the leakages and recovered energy in irrigation water systems

[EN] The use of pumps working as turbines is a new solution, which has been recently analysed to improve the water management in the different water systems. The improvement of sustainability involved with this use should be considered in these networks, and it focuses on the reduction of the consumption energy as well as the reduction of leakages. Both variables have a great influence on the rest of economical, technical and environmental indicators of network behavior, becoming key in their improvement. In this line, the research develops a methodology, which includes the estimation of the leakages in the different junctions and pipes as a function of the injected and registered volume data in the water. The present methodology proposes different operation scenarios according to leakages and it develops a double optimization procedure to locate and select the best recovery machines considering different objective functions. The methodology is applied to a real case study, which has serial data of water registered volume since 2001. The research shows the leakages influence in the operation points as well as the recovered energy. Different sustainable indicators are analysed for the different scenarios according to optimized procedures: The IRLGP index was defined as the ratio between reduction of the leakage volume for each installed power and it reached the annual value of 11,280.8 m3/kW; The optimized procedure establishes the significance to consider the leakages when the hydraulic machines are selected. Their best efficiency points increase to 195% and 205% compared to the ideal scenario without leakages.Funding for open access charge: CRUE-Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. This work was supported by the project SISIFO (Development of analytical tools to characterIze the Sustainability of hydraulic systems Indicators that deFine sustainable development Objectives) PID2020-114781RA-I00 from Spanish State Research Plan Scientific and Technical and Innovation 2017-2020.Macías Ávila, CA.; Sánchez-Romero, F.; López Jiménez, PA.; Pérez-Sánchez, M. (2021). Optimization tool to improve the management of the leakages and recovered energy in irrigation water systems. Agricultural Water Management. 258:1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107223S11325

Definition of the Operational Curves by Modification of the Affinity Laws to Improve the Simulation of PATs

[EN] New technologies for water pressurized systems try to implement the introduction of strategies for the improvement of the sustainable indicators. One of these technologies is the implementation of pumps working as turbines. The use of these recovery machines was proposed some years ago, and the interest in this technology has increased over the last years. The simulation of these machines is necessary when analyzing pressurized water systems, or when optimization procedures are proposed for their management, great care must be taken. In these cases, the knowledge of the operation curves is crucial to reach accurate results. This study proposes different regression expressions to define three operational curves when the machines operate under variable rotational speed. These curves are the best efficiency head, the best power-head and the best power flow. The here proposed methods were compared with other five published methods. The comparison shows the proposed method was the best when it is compared with the rest of the published procedures, reducing the error values between 8 and 20%.Macías Ávila, CA.; Sánchez-Romero, F.; López Jiménez, PA.; Pérez-Sánchez, M. (2021). Definition of the Operational Curves by Modification of the Affinity Laws to Improve the Simulation of PATs. Water. 13(14):1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13141880S118131

Leakage Management and Pipe System Efficiency. Its Influence in the Improvement of the Efficiency Indexes

[EN] Water is one of the most valuable resources for humans. Worldwide, leakage levels in water distribution systems oscillate between 10% and 55%. This causes the need for constant repairs, economic losses, and risk to the health of users due to possible pathogenic intrusion. There are different methods for estimating the level of leakage in a network, depending on parameters such as service pressure, orifice size, age and pipe material. Sixty-two water distribution networks were analyzed to determine the leakage method used, the calibration method, and the percentage of existing leaks. Different efficiency indicators were proposed and evaluated using this database. Several cases of installation of pumps working as turbines (PATs) in water distribution networks were analyzed in which the use of these recovery systems caused a pressure drop, reducing the level of leaks and recovering energy.Macías Ávila, CA.; Sánchez-Romero, F.; López Jiménez, PA.; Pérez-Sánchez, M. (2021). Leakage Management and Pipe System Efficiency. Its Influence in the Improvement of the Efficiency Indexes. Water. 13(14):1-25. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13141909S125131

Evaluation and comparison of regional climate models over the Iberian Peninsula

Póster presentado en el 4th HyMeX workshop celebrado del 8-10 de junio de 2010 en Bolonia, Italia.Different relations between parameters involved in both water and energy land surface budgets are computed from daily ERA-Interim data for the months of July and November(representative of the dry and wet season) in the period 1989-2008 over an area within the Iberian Península covering most of Tajo and Guadiana basins (from 40.5N to 37.5N, and from 7.0W to 2.0W). The main objective of this work is to use the obtained relations for the evaluation and comparison of regional climate models (RCMs) participating in the ENSEMBLES project. This approach was first proposed by Betts (2004) for comparing and evaluating global climate models. He proposed the assessment of model surface components as a system with widely connected components. In this way, models are compared among themselves and evaluated against observational data. The work is mainly focused on the goodness of the representation of physical surface processes and their feedbacks. The obtained relationships among different parameters are therefore considered as imposed restrictions by physical processes which can be used to evaluate RCMs

Comparison of ground based global radiation measurements from AEMET radiation network with SIS (Surface Incoming Shortwave Radiation) from Climate Monitoring-SAF

Ponencia presentada en: 2010 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference celebrada del 20-24 de septiembre de 2010 en Córdoba.A comparison of monthly mean values for 2006 of daily global radiation from 31 radiometric stations, which form part of the AEMET (Spanish State Meteorological Agency) Radiation Network, with SIS (Surface Incoming Shortwave Radiation) from Climate Monitoring-Satellite Application Facility (CMSAF) has been performed. The shortwave solar radiation is the flux reaching a horizontal unit earth surface in the 0.2 – 4µm wavelength band expressed in W/m2 . SIS product is computed using SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager) and AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) data. The surface irradiance SIS is calculated from the incoming solar flux at the top of the atmosphere E0, and the atmospheric transmittance T which is estimated with a radiative transfer model in relationship to the Top Of the atmosphere Albedo (TOA) for different atmospheric and surface states. The results show very similar data and sometimes near-coincident measurements between both sources of information with discrepancies around ±5%. In this study, a good agreement between monthly SIS data and monthly global radiation from ground based stations is showed for most of the year 2006. The study reveals very encouraging results for the use of SIS data to elaborate a solar radiation Atlas for Iberian Peninsula region

Tres plantas de interés corológico en Andalucía oriental

Three plants of chorological interest in Eastern AndalusiaPalabras clave. Vegetación halófila, Fitogeograffa, provincia Betica, distrito Guadiciano- Bastetano, España.Key words. Halophilous vegetation, Phytogeography, Baetic province, Guadiciano-Bastetano district, Spain

Exploring the pathology of an epidermal disease affecting a circum-Antarctic sea star

Over the past decade, unusual mortality outbreaks have decimated echinoderm populations over broad geographic regions, raising awareness globally of the importance of investigating such events. Echinoderms are key components of marine benthos for top-down and bottom-up regulations of plants and animals; population declines of these individuals can have significant ecosystem-wide effects. Here we describe the first case study of an outbreak affecting Antarctic echinoderms and consisting of an ulcerative epidermal disease affecting ~10% of the population of the keystone asteroid predator Odontaster validus at Deception Island, Antarctica. This event was first detected in the Austral summer 2012-2013, coinciding with unprecedented high seawater temperatures and increased seismicity. Histological analyses revealed epidermal ulceration, inflammation, and necrosis in diseased animals. Bacterial and fungal alpha diversity was consistently lower and of different composition in lesioned versus unaffected tissues (32.87% and 16.94% shared bacterial and fungal operational taxonomic units OTUs respectively). The microbiome of healthy stars was more consistent across individuals than in diseased specimens suggesting microbial dysbiosis, especially in the lesion fronts. Because these microbes were not associated with tissue damage at the microscopic level, their contribution to the development of epidermal lesions remains unclear. Our study reveals that disease events are reaching echinoderms as far as the polar regions thereby highlighting the need to develop a greater understanding of the microbiology and physiology of marine diseases and ecosystems health, especially in the era of global warming

Physically based evaluation of climate models over the Iberian Peninsula

A novel approach is proposed for evaluating regional climate models based on the comparison of empirical relationships among model outcome variables. The approach is actually a quantitative adaptation of the method for evaluating global climate models proposed by Betts (Bull Am Meteorol Soc 85:1673–1688, 2004). Three selected relationships among different magnitudes involved in water and energy land surface budgets are firstly established using daily re-analysis data. The selected relationships are obtained for an area encompassing two river basins in the southern Iberian Peninsula corresponding to 2 months, representative of dry and wet seasons. The same corresponding relations are also computed for each of the thirteen regional simulations of the ENSEMBLES project over the same area. The usage of a metric based on the Hellinger coefficient allows a quantitative estimation of how well models are performing in simulating the relations among surface magnitudes. Finally, a series of six rankings of the thirteen regional climate models participating in the ENSEMBLES project is obtained based on their ability to simulate such surface processes.The ENSEMBLES data used in this work was funded by the EU FP6 Integrated Project ENSEMBLES (Contract number 505539) whose support is gratefully acknowledged by the authors of the paper, without these data it would have been imposible to write this article

What and how to evaluate clinical–surgical competence. The resident and staff surgeon perspective

AbstractBackgroundEvaluation is a means for significant and rigorous improvement of the educational process. Therefore, competence evaluation should allow assessing the complex activity of medical care, as well as improving the training process. This is the case in the evaluation process of clinical–surgical competences.Materials and methodsA cross-sectional study was designed to measure knowledge about the evaluation of clinical–surgical competences for the General Surgery residency programme at the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (UACH). A 55-item questionnaire divided into six sections was used (perception, planning, practice, function, instruments and strategies, and overall evaluation), with a six level Likert scale, performing a descriptive, correlation and comparative analysis, with a significance level of 0.001.ResultsIn both groups perception of evaluation was considered as a further qualification. As regards tools, the best known was the written examination. As regards function, evaluation was considered as a further administrative requirement. In the correlation analysis, evaluation was perceived as qualification and was significantly associated with measurement, assessment and accreditation. In the comparative analysis between residents and staff surgeons, a significant difference was found as regards the perception of the evaluation as a measurement of knowledge (Student's t test: p=0.04).ConclusionThe results provide information about the concept we have about the evaluation of clinical–surgical competences, considering it as a measure of learning achievement for a socially required certification. There is confusion as regards the perception of evaluation, its function, goals and scopes as benefit for those evaluated

El Control Interno en la Comisión Estatal de Vivienda, Suelo e Infraestructura del Estado de Chihuahua y la Importancia de la Auditoria Interna

El Sistema de Control Interno es esencial en toda organización, brinda seguridad razonable en la ejecución de procesos y en el cumplimiento de los objetivos y metas. La Auditoría Interna mejora la efectividad de las actividades agregando valor a las operaciones mediante recomendaciones resultado de la evaluación al control interno. El objetivo del presente estudio fue analizar el sistema de Control Interno en la Comisión Estatal de Vivienda, Suelo e Infraestructura del Estado de Chihuahua y la importancia de la creación de un Área de Auditoría Interna. La metodología utilizada fue de naturaleza mixta, de tipo aplicada, el diseño no experimental, transeccional-descriptivo realizado en el periodo de enero a abril 2022, de modo empírico, con apoyo bibliográfico, la unidad de análisis fueron los jefes de departamento adscritos al organismo. Los resultados obtenidos fueron que la Comisión Estatal de Vivienda, Suelo e Infraestructura del Estado de Chihuahua si cuenta con control interno sin embargo el grado de cumplimiento es nivel bajo debido a que no existe un área de auditoría interna que realice actividades de revisión y evaluación.   The Internal Control System is essential in any organization, it provides reasonable security in the execution of processes and in the fulfillment of objectives and goals. Internal Audit improves the effectiveness of activities by adding value to operations through recommendations resulting from the evaluation of internal control. The aim of this study was to analyze the Internal Control system in the Comisión Estatal de Vivienda, Suelo e Infraestructura del Estado de Chihuahua and the importance of creating an Internal Audit Area. The methodology used was of a mixed nature, of an applied type, the non-experimental, transactional-descriptive design carried out in the period from January to April 2022, in a field mode with bibliographic support, the unit of analysis was all the department heads assigned to the agency. The results obtained were that the State Housing, Land and Infrastructure Commission of the State of Chihuahua does have internal control, however the degree of compliance is low because there is no internal audit area that carries out review and evaluation activities