Technical Note: High-resolution mineralogical database of dust-productive soils for atmospheric dust modeling

Dust storms and associated mineral aerosol transport are driven primarily by meso- and synoptic-scale atmospheric processes. It is therefore essential that the dust aerosol process and background atmospheric conditions that drive dust emissions and atmospheric transport are represented with sufficiently well-resolved spatial and temporal features. The effects of airborne dust interactions with the environment determine the mineral composition of dust particles. The fractions of various minerals in aerosol are determined by the mineral composition of arid soils; therefore, a high-resolution specification of the mineral and physical properties of dust sources is needed. <br></br> Several current dust atmospheric models simulate and predict the evolution of dust concentrations; however, in most cases, these models do not consider the fractions of minerals in the dust. The accumulated knowledge about the impacts of the mineral composition in dust on weather and climate processes emphasizes the importance of including minerals in modeling systems. Accordingly, in this study, we developed a global dataset consisting of the mineral composition of the current potentially dust-producing soils. In our study, we (a) mapped mineral data to a high-resolution 30 s grid, (b) included several mineral-carrying soil types in dust-productive regions that were not considered in previous studies, and (c) included phosphorus

Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) in Attica Region, Greece using climate models upon the climate scenarios A1B and A2. ORIENTGATE Technical Report

The study was commissioned within the preparation of the River Basin Management Plan of Attica Water District (Ministry of Environment 2013). Its main purpose was to: a) quantify the effects of drought and water shortage in the water district of Attica, b) to examine possible methodologies for predicting future incidents and c) to propose remedies for various levels of risk. This essay aims to strengthen the effectiveness of the above "Drought and Water shortage Management Plan" of the Attica Water District, by enhancing the forecasting process of future drought incidents

Εκτίμηση τρωτότητας υγροτόπων της Αττικής στην κλιματική Αλλαγή & Σχέδιο Δράσης

Στο παρόν συντίθενται και παρουσιάζονται ολοκληρωμένα τα αποτελέσματα υλοποίησης του έργου ORIENTGATE "Ένα Δομημένο Δίκτυο για την Ενσωμάτωση της Γνώσης για το Κλίμα, στην Πολιτική και στο Χωρικό Σχεδιασμό" στην Ελλάδα. Η μεθοδολογική προσέγγιση και τα αποτελέσματα της πιλοτικής εφαρμογής για 10 επιλεγμένους υγροτόπους της Αττικής παρουσιάζονται στο ΜΕΡΟΣ Α της παρούσας. Στο ΜΕΡΟΣ Β παρουσιάζεται το Σχέδιο Δράσης για τους υγροτόπους της Αττικής

SINTA - SImulations of climate chaNge in the mediTerranean Area - Final scientific report

This SINTA Project establish a scientific cooperation between the Italian Scientific Institution INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and the Serbian Scientific Institutions such as the Republic HydroMeteorological Service (RHMSS) and the University of Belgrade (UB). INGV contributes the global models, University of Belgrade and RHMSS contribute their expertise on regional models, parameterization ofphysical processes and numerical schemes. In particular, the main objectives of this Project are: 1) Perform a set of global simulations with a Global Climate Model (GCM) available at INGV; 2) Perform a set of regional simulations with the UB Regional Climate Model (RCM) forced by boundary conditions from the GCM simulations; 3) Test the convection parameterization developed at UB in the INGV global model; 4) Training and visit exchanges of Serbian scientists in Italy

Future changes in extreme temperature indices in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

At present, research in climatology is mainly focusing on climate change and especially on global warming. Since climate change is already affecting large areas worldwide, it is important to study in details these changes at regional and local scale and to reduce its negative impact. The aim of this study is to analyze changes on extreme temperature indices over the periods 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 in Cluj-Napoca city using a set of 21 indices recommended by Expert Team for Climate Change Detection Monitoring and Indices. Extreme temperature indices for observed and modeled data were calculated by employing ClimPACT2 software. Modeled data for daily minimum and maximum temperature was extracted from EURO-CORDEX Project database. RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios of three regional climate models (RACMO22E, RCA4, and WRF331F) were considered. Next we compared the average values of the historical period (1981-2010) with the 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 periods for each scenario (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) in order to obtain the future changes. The result of this study shows major changes for all the analyzed indices. The period 2071-2100 presents the highest changes under both analyzed scenarios

A Multi-Year Study of Radioactivity in Surface Air and Its Relation to Climate Variables in Belgrade, Serbia

Activities of Be-7 and Pb-210 were monitored in surface air in Belgrade, Serbia, from 2004 to 2012. The measurements were taken from two locations, in an open field of a city suburb and in the central city area. The activities were determined on HPGe detectors by standard gamma spectrometry. The Be-7 activity shows a pronounced seasonal pattern, with the maximum in spring-summer and minimum in winter, while the Pb-210 activity exhibits two maxima, in autumn and late winter. The mean monthly concentrations measured at both sites are below 9 mBq/m(3) and 1.3 mBq/m(3) for Be-7 and Pb-210, respectively. The obtained correlation of the Be-7 activity with the number of sun-spots is not statistically significant. Relations of the radionuclides activities with climate variables (precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, sunshine hours, and atmospheric pressure) are also investigated, but the only significant correlations are found for the Be-7 activity with temperature and sunshine hours, and the Pb-210 activity with atmospheric pressure. The maximum Be-7 and Pb-210 activities corresponding to binned total monthly precipitation data imply different modes of the radionuclide scavenging from the atmosphere. During dry periods, accumulation of the radionuclides in the atmosphere leads to their increased activities, but no correlation was found between the activities and the number of consecutive dry days

Comparison of newtonian and fourier thermal analysis techniques for calculation of latent heat and solid fraction of aluminum alloys

The cooling curve analysis (CCA) has been used extensively in the metal casting industry, usually to predict alloy compositio n and microstructure constituents. The use of CCA can be expanded to other areas of solidification if the zero curves can be properly calculated. In this paper the Newtonian and Fourier techniques of zero curve determination are described. These techniques were developed to calculate latent heat and to determine the correlations between solid fraction and temperature/time for Al-7 wt%Si alloy. The importance of the changes in heat capacity and density of solid and liquid phases during solidification on the latent heat calculations was examined. The latent heat calculated by Computer-Aided Cooling Curve Analysis (CA-CCA) method is compared with those reported in the literature. The effect of experimental procedure and type of sampling cup on the latent heat calculations were studied for both techniques

Cardiopoietic cell therapy for advanced ischemic heart failure: results at 39 weeks of the prospective, randomized, double blind, sham-controlled CHART-1 clinical trial

Cardiopoietic cells, produced through cardiogenic conditioning of patients' mesenchymal stem cells, have shown preliminary efficacy. The Congestive Heart Failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative Therapy (CHART-1) trial aimed to validate cardiopoiesis-based biotherapy in a larger heart failure cohort