Towards a better understanding of the evolution of the flood risk in Mediterranean urban areas: the case of Barcelona

This contribution explores the evolution of the flood risk in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB; Northeast Spain) from 1981 to 2015, and how it has been affected by changes in land use, population and precipitation. To complete this study, we analysed PRESSGAMA and INUNGAMA databases to look for all the information related to the floods and flash floods that have affected the chosen region. The ''Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros'', a state insurance company for extraordinary risks, provided data on economic damage. The extreme precipitation trend was analysed by the Fabra Observatory and El Prat-Airport Observatory, and daily precipitation data were provided by the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET) and the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC). Population data were obtained from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT). Changes in land use were estimated from the land use maps for Catalonia corresponding to 1956, 1993, 2000, 2005 and 2009. Prevention measures like rainwater tanks and improvements to the drainage system were also been considered. The specific case of Barcelona is presented, a city recognised by United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction as a model city for urban resilience to floods. The evolution of flood events in the MAB does not show any significant trend for this period. We argue that the evolution in floods can be explained, at least in part, by the lack of trend in extreme precipitation indices, and also by the improvements in flood prevention measures

The O3N2 and N2 abundance indicators revisited: improved calibrations based on CALIFA and T e-based literature data

Astronomy and Astrophysics 559 (2013): A114 reproduced with permission from Astronomy and AstrophysicsThe use of integral field spectroscopy is since recently allowing to measure the emission line fluxes of an increasingly large number of star-forming galaxies, both locally and at high redshift. Many studies have used these fluxes to derive the gas-phase metallicity of the galaxies by applying the so-called strong-line methods. However, the metallicity indicators that these datasets use were empirically calibrated using few direct abundance data points (Te-based measurements). Furthermore, a precise determination of the prediction intervals of these indicators is commonly lacking in these calibrations. Such limitations might lead to systematic errors in determining the gas-phase metallicity, especially at high redshift, which might have a strong impact on our understanding of the chemical evolution of the Universe. The main goal of this study is to review the most widely used empirical oxygen calibrations, O3N2 and N2, by using newdirect abundance measurements. We pay special attention to (1) the expected uncertainty of these calibrations as a function of the index value or abundance derived and (2) the presence of possible systematic offsets. This is possible thanks to the analysis of the most ambitious compilation of Te-based H ii regions to date. This new dataset compiles the Te-based abundances of 603 H ii regions extracted from the literature but also includes new measurements from the CALIFA survey. Besides providing new and improved empirical calibrations for the gas abundance, we also present a comparison between our revisited calibrations with a total of 3423 additional CALIFA H ii complexes with abundances derived using the ONS calibration from the literature. The combined analysis of T e-based and ONS abundances allows us to derive their most accurate calibration to date for both the O3N2 and N2 single-ratio indicators, in terms of all statistical significance, quality, and coverage of the parameters space. In particular, we infer that these indicators show shallower abundance dependencies and statistically significant offsets compared to others'. The O3N2 and N2 indicators can be empirically applied to derive oxygen abundances calibrations from either direct abundance determinations with random errors of 0.18 and 0.16, respectively, or from indirect ones (but based on a large amount of data), reaching an average precision of 0.08 and 0.09 dex (random) and 0.02 and 0.08 dex (systematic; compared to the direct estimations), respectivelyR.A. Marino is funded by the Spanish program of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI). D. Mast thank the Plan Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo funding programs, AYA2012-31935 of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, for the support given to this project. S.F.S thanks the the Ramón y Cajal project RyC-2011-07590 of the spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, for the support giving to this project. F.F.R.O. acknowledges the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) for financial support under the program Estancias Postdoctorales y Sabáticas al Extranjero para la Consolidación de Grupos de Investigación, 2010-2012. We acknowledge financial support for the ESTALLIDOS collaboration by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under grant AYA2010- 21887-C04-03. BG-L also acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) under grant AYA2012- 39408-C02-02. J.F.-B. acknowledges financial support from the Ramón y Cajal Program and grant AYA2010-21322-C03-02 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), as well as to the DAGAL network from the People’s Program (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007-2013/ under REA grant agreement number PITN-GA-2011-289313. CK has been funded by project AYA2010-21887 from the Spanish PNAYA. P.P. acknowledges support by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029170 (Reference FCT PTDC/FIS-AST/3214/2012), funded by FCT-MEC (PIDDAC) and FEDER (COMPETE). R.M.G.D. and R.G.B. also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) under grant AyA2010-15081. V.S., L.G., and A.M.M. acknowledge financial support from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under program Ciência 2008 and the research grant PTDC/CTE-AST/112582/200

Spatially Resolved Star Formation Main Sequence of Galaxies in the Califa Survey

The "main sequence of galaxies" - defined in terms of the total star formation rate ψ versus the total stellar mass M ∗ - is a well-studied tight relation that has been observed at several wavelengths and at different redshifts. All earlier studies have derived this relation from integrated properties of galaxies. We recover the same relation from an analysis of spatially resolved properties, with integral field spectroscopic (IFS) observations of 306 galaxies from the CALIFA survey. We consider the SFR surface density in units of log(M o yr-1 Kpc-2) and the stellar mass surface density in units of log(M o Kpc-2) in individual spaxels that probe spatial scales of 0.5-1.5 Kpc. This local relation exhibits a high degree of correlation with small scatter (σ = 0.23 dex), irrespective of the dominant ionization source of the host galaxy or its integrated stellar mass. We highlight (i) the integrated star formation main sequence formed by galaxies whose dominant ionization process is related to star formation, for which we find a slope of 0.81 ± 0.02; (ii) for the spatially resolved relation obtained with the spaxel analysis, we find a slope of 0.72 ± 0.04; and (iii) for the integrated main sequence, we also identified a sequence formed by galaxies that are dominated by an old stellar population, which we have called the retired galaxies sequence.Fil: Cano Díaz, M.. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Astronomia; MéxicoFil: Sánchez, S. F.. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Astronomia; MéxicoFil: Zibetti, S.. Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri; Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica; ItaliaFil: Ascasibar, Y.. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Bland Hawthorn, J.. University of Sydney; AustraliaFil: Ziegler, B.. Universidad de Viena; AustriaFil: González Delgado, R. M.. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Walcher, C.J.. Gobierno de la República Federal de Alemania. Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik; AlemaniaFil: García Benito, Rubén. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Mast, Damian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Mendoza Pérez, M. A.. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Falcón Barroso, J.. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias; España. Universidad de La Laguna; EspañaFil: Galbany, Lluís. Millennium Institute of Astrophysics; Chile. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Husemann, Bernd. European Southern Observator; AlemaniaFil: Kehrig, C.. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Marino, R. A.. Universidad Complutense de Madrid; España. ETH Zurich’s Institute for Astronomy; AlemaniaFil: Sánchez Blázquez, P.. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; España. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; ChileFil: López Cobá, C.. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Instituto de Astronomia; MéxicoFil: López Sánchez, Á. R.. Australian Astronomical Observatory; Australia. Macquarie University; AustraliaFil: Vílchez, J. M.. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía; España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Españ

Time to Switch to Second-line Antiretroviral Therapy in Children With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Europe and Thailand.

Background: Data on durability of first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are limited. We assessed time to switch to second-line therapy in 16 European countries and Thailand. Methods: Children aged <18 years initiating combination ART (≥2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors [NRTIs] plus nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor [NNRTI] or boosted protease inhibitor [PI]) were included. Switch to second-line was defined as (i) change across drug class (PI to NNRTI or vice versa) or within PI class plus change of ≥1 NRTI; (ii) change from single to dual PI; or (iii) addition of a new drug class. Cumulative incidence of switch was calculated with death and loss to follow-up as competing risks. Results: Of 3668 children included, median age at ART initiation was 6.1 (interquartile range (IQR), 1.7-10.5) years. Initial regimens were 32% PI based, 34% nevirapine (NVP) based, and 33% efavirenz based. Median duration of follow-up was 5.4 (IQR, 2.9-8.3) years. Cumulative incidence of switch at 5 years was 21% (95% confidence interval, 20%-23%), with significant regional variations. Median time to switch was 30 (IQR, 16-58) months; two-thirds of switches were related to treatment failure. In multivariable analysis, older age, severe immunosuppression and higher viral load (VL) at ART start, and NVP-based initial regimens were associated with increased risk of switch. Conclusions: One in 5 children switched to a second-line regimen by 5 years of ART, with two-thirds failure related. Advanced HIV, older age, and NVP-based regimens were associated with increased risk of switch

Anàlisi dinàmica de la competitivitat dels sectors productius i de les branques d'activitat per a Catalunya i Balears: una visió retrospectiva.

En este trabajo se presenta un sistema de indicadores de competitividad, basados en el análisis dinámico del excedente bruto de explotación y de sus variables explicativas. La metodología utilizada supone que los fundamentos de la competitividad se encuentran en la capacidad de las empresas para generar los recursos propios necesarios para financiar y sostener a lo largo del tiempo la innovación y la constante renovación de los procesos productivos. A su vez, permite obtener una jerarquía con dieciséis modalidades de comportamiento competitivo de los sectores productivos y de las ramas de actividad de una economía, a partir del establecimiento de unos criterios de priorización y de la identificación de las variaciones de sus niveles de competitividad, desglosadas en los efectos sector (especialización sectorial en un territorio) y territorio (ventaja competitiva sectorial de un territorio respecto a otro). Se establece el concepto de competitividad dinámica sostenible (CDS), entendido como el mejor comportamiento competitivo posible de un sector productivo o rama de actividad, a partir de la evolución positiva de los efectos sector y territorio de dicho sector o rama en dos periodos consecutivos. El estudio se ha aplicado a las economías de Cataluña y de las Islas Baleares, a partir de la evolución de sus índices de competitividad relativos en relación a la economía española, obteniendo para los periodos 1977-1985 y 1987-1995, en el caso de Cataluña, que el criterio CDS se concentra en cuatro ramas manufactureras y que, en el caso de Baleares, el criterio CDS sólo se da para la rama de hostelería y restaurantes

Towards a better understanding of the evolution of the flood risk in Mediterranean urban areas: the case of Barcelona

This contribution explores the evolution of the flood risk in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB; Northeast Spain) from 1981 to 2015, and how it has been affected by changes in land use, population and precipitation. To complete this study, we analysed PRESSGAMA and INUNGAMA databases to look for all the information related to the floods and flash floods that have affected the chosen region. The ''Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros'', a state insurance company for extraordinary risks, provided data on economic damage. The extreme precipitation trend was analysed by the Fabra Observatory and El Prat-Airport Observatory, and daily precipitation data were provided by the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET) and the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC). Population data were obtained from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT). Changes in land use were estimated from the land use maps for Catalonia corresponding to 1956, 1993, 2000, 2005 and 2009. Prevention measures like rainwater tanks and improvements to the drainage system were also been considered. The specific case of Barcelona is presented, a city recognised by United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction as a model city for urban resilience to floods. The evolution of flood events in the MAB does not show any significant trend for this period. We argue that the evolution in floods can be explained, at least in part, by the lack of trend in extreme precipitation indices, and also by the improvements in flood prevention measures

Children living with HIV in Europe: do migrants have worse treatment outcomes?

International audienceTo assess the effect of migrant status on treatment outcomes among children living with HIV in Europe