Gaming with eutrophication: Contribution to integrating water quantity and quality management at catchment level

The Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo (MRSP) hosts 18 million inhabitants. A complex system of 23 interconnected reservoirs was built to ensure its water supply. Half of the potable water produced for MRSP's population (35 m3/s) is imported from a neighbour catchment, the other half is produced within the Alto Tietê catchment, where 99% of the population lives. Perimeters of land use restriction were defined to contain uncontrolled urbanization, as domestic effluents were causing increasing eutrophication of some of these reservoirs. In the 90's catchment committees and sub committees were created to promote discussion between stakeholders and develop catchment plans. The committees are very well structured "on paper". However, they are not very well organised and face a lack of experience. The objective of this work was to design tools that would strengthen their discussion capacities. The specific objective of the AguAloca process was to integrate the quality issue and its relation to catchment management as a whole in these discussions. The work was developed in the Alto Tietê Cabeceiras sub-catchment, one of the 5 sub catchments of the Alto-Tietê. It contains 5 interconnected dams, and presents competitive uses such as water supply, industry, effluent dilution and irrigated agriculture. A RPG was designed following a companion modelling approach (Etienne et al., 2003). It contains a friendly game-board, a set of individual and collective rules and a computerized biophysical model. The biophysical model is used to simulate water allocation and quality processes at catchment level. It articulates 3 modules. A simplified nutrient discharge model permits the estimation of land use nutrient exportation. An arc-node model simulates water flows and associated nutrient charges from one point of the hydrographical network to another. The Vollenweider model is used for simulating specific reservoir dynamics. The RPG allows players to make individual and collective decisions related to water allocation and the management of its quality. Impacts of these decisions are then simulated using the biophysical model. Specific indicators of the game are then updated and may influence player's behaviour (actions) in following rounds. To introduce discussions on the management of water quality at a catchment level, an issue that is rarely explicitly dealt with, four game sessions were implemented involving representatives of basin committees and water and sanitation engineers. During the game session, the participants took advantage of the water quality output of the biophysical model to test management alternatives such as rural sewage collection or effluent dilution. The biophysical model accelerated calculations of flows and eutrophication rates that were then returned to the game board with explicit indicators of quantity and quality. Players could easily test decisions impacting on qualitative water processes and visualize the simulation results directly on the game board that was representing a friendly, virtual and simplified catchment. The Agualoca game proved its ability to turn complex water processes understandable for a non totally initiated public. This experience contributed to a better understanding of multiple-use water management and also of joint management of water quality and quantity. (Résumé d'auteur

A conceptual approach to enhance the well-being of elderly people

The number of elderly people living alone is increasing. Consequently, a lot of research works have been addressing this issue in order to propose solutions that can enhance the quality of life of elderly people. Most of them have been concerned in dealing with objective issues such as forgetfulness or detecting falls. In this paper, we propose a conceptual approach of a system that intends to enhance the daily sense of user’s well-being. For that, our proposal consists in a system that works as a social network and a smartwatch application that works unobtrusively and collects the user’s physiological data. In addition, we debate how important features such as to detect user’s affective states and to potentiate user’s memory could be implemented. Our study shows that there are still some important limitations which affect the success of applications built in the context of elderly care and which are mostly related with accuracy and usability of this kind of system. However, we believe that with our approach we will be able to address some of those limitations and define a system that can enhance the well-being of elderly people and improve their cognitive capabilities.The work presented in this paper has been developed under the EUREKA - ITEA3 Project PHE (PHE-16040), and by National Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) under the projects UID/EEA/00760/2019 and UID/CEC/00319/2019 and by NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-033275 (AIRDOC - “Aplicação móvel Inteligente para suporte individualizado e monitorização da função e sons Respiratórios de Doentes Obstrutivos Crónicos ”) by NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte)

Lidarmessungen des Wasserdampfes am MOL im Rahmen von GVAP und CM-SAF

Im Zusammenhang mit dem Ausbau des Meteorologischen Observatoriums Lindenberg (MOL) zu einer Referenzstation fšur das globale Wasserdampf-Forschungsprojekt(WCRP-GVaP) ist am MOL der quasi-operationelle Einsatz eines Wasserdampf-Lidar beabsichtigt. Als ein erster Schritt zur Realisierung dieser Messungen wurde zwischen April und September 2003 am MOL eine umfangreiche Meßkampagne mit dem mobilen Raman-Lidar MARL des Alfred-Wegener-Institutes für Polar- und Meeresforschung durchgeführt. Neben einer ersten Möglichkeit zur Datengewinnung für das GVaP und zur Bereitstellung von Validierungsdaten für das Satellitenprojekt CMSAF, wurde diese Meßkampagne seitens des MOL genutzt, erste Erfahrungen für ein eigenes Raman-Lidar sowie bei der Datenaufbereitung zu gewinnen. Der Beitrag wird den allgemeinen Rahmen zur Anwendung von Lidar am MOL sowie die Qualität der Wasserdampfprofil-Messungen mit dem System MARL aufzeigen. Eine Beurteilung der Datenqualität wird über Vergleiche mit Radiosondierungen und einem Mikrowellenprofiler ermöglicht. Einen Schwerpunkt werden dabei die Mšoglichkeiten und Problemebei der Kalibrierung der Wasserdampfmessungen mit dem Raman-Lidar bilden

Effect of Gusuibu (Rhizoma Drynariae) Extract on Bone Formation

In recent years, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology has been successfully utilized in a number of aerospace NDE applications. It is currently being investigated as an cure monitoring technique for advanced composites fabrication processes. Because of the sensitivity of NMR to hydrogen motion, it is very sensitive to changes in resin viscosity due to elevated temperatures. However, NMR magnets have traditionally been large and heavy in order to achieve the magnetic field strength and homogeneity necessary for acceptable signal-to-noise ratio

Light-controlled tuning of the optical properties of nanoporous glass

Materials having tunable optical properties are of great interest for photonic applications. Promising candidates in that context are transparent nanoporous media whose optical properties change after infiltration of a liquid into the pores. Herein we present an all-optical method to tune the light scattering properties of a nanoporous glass based on the light-induced phase change of the fluid filling the pores. The thermodynamic state of the gas inside the nanopores determines the light scattering, thereby the light transmission. The extent of capillary condensation inside the nanoscale pores is controlled by heat generated from light absorption inside the medium. The material can be configured in such a way that a laser beam of sufficient intensity either opens up or shuts down its own light path on a time scale of a few seconds. The scattering events inside the medium change the beam profile from Gaussian to super-Gaussian with a more homogeneous intensity distribution close to the beam axis. Our results demonstrate a new way of tuning the light transmission properties of nanoporous materials that could find various applications in integrated optical systems and optofluidic devices. © 2014 Optical Society of Americ