Validation of a global satellite rainfall product for real time monitoring of meteorological extremes

The real time monitoring of storms is important for the management and prevention of flood risks. However, in the southeast of Spain, it seems that the density of the rain gauge network may not be sufficient to adequately characterize the rainfall spatial distribution or the high rainfall intensities that are reached during storms. Satellite precipitation products such as PERSIANN-CCS (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks - Cloud Classification System) could be used to complement the automatic rain gauge networks and so help solve this problem. However, the PERSIANN-CCS product has only recently become available, so its operational validity for areas such as south-eastern Spain is not yet known. In this work, a methodology for the hourly validation of PERSIANN-CCS is presented. We used the rain gauge stations of the SIAM (Sistema de Información Agraria de Murcia) network to study three storms with a very high return period. These storms hit the east and southeast of the Iberian Peninsula and resulted in the loss of human life, major damage to agricultural crops and a strong impact on many different types of infrastructure. The study area is the province of Murcia (Region of Murcia), located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, covering an area of more than 11,000 km2 and with a population of almost 1.5 million. In order to validate the PERSIANN-CCS product for these three storms, contrasts were made with the hyetographs registered by the automatic rain gauges, analyzing statistics such as bias, mean square difference and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Although in some cases the temporal distribution of rainfall was well captured by PERSIANN-CCS, in several rain gauges high intensities were not properly represented. The differences were strongly correlated with the rain gauge precipitation, but not with satellite-obtained rainfall. The main conclusion concerns the need for specific local calibration for the study area if PERSIANN-CCS is to be used as an operational tool for the monitoring of extreme meteorological phenomena.This work is the result of a postdoctoral contract funded by Saavedra Fajardo programme (Ref. 20023/SF/16) of the Consejería de Educación y Universidades of CARM (Autonomous Community of Murcia Region), by the Fundación Séneca-Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia. The support and availability of information from the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing of University of California-Irvine (USA), and from Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario (IMIDA) of CARM are also acknowledged

Lectura crítica de libros

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La narrativa de Francisco Ayala: teoría y práctica.

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RENART, Juan Guillermo: El Cristo de Velázquez de Unamuno: Estructura, estilo, sentido.

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Streptococcus pneumoniae: a Plethora of Temperate Bacteriophages With a Role in Host Genome Rearrangement

Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect bacteria. They are the most abundant biological entity on Earth (current estimates suggest there to be perhaps 1031 particles) and are found nearly everywhere. Temperate phages can integrate into the chromosome of their host, and prophages have been found in abundance in sequenced bacterial genomes. Prophages may modulate the virulence of their host in different ways, e.g., by the secretion of phage-encoded toxins or by mediating bacterial infectivity. Some 70% of Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus)-a frequent cause of otitis media, pneumonia, bacteremia and meningitis-isolates harbor one or more prophages. In the present study, over 4000 S. pneumoniae genomes were examined for the presence of prophages, and nearly 90% were found to contain at least one prophage, either defective (47%) or present in full (43%). More than 7000 complete putative integrases, either of the tyrosine (6243) or serine (957) families, and 1210 full-sized endolysins (among them 1180 enzymes corresponding to 318 amino acid-long N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidases [LytAPPH]) were found. Based on their integration site, 26 different pneumococcal prophage groups were documented. Prophages coding for tRNAs, putative virulence factors and different methyltransferases were also detected. The members of one group of diverse prophages (PPH090) were found to integrate into the 3' end of the host lytASpn gene encoding the major S. pneumoniae autolysin without disrupting it. The great similarity of the lytASpn and lytA PPH genes (85-92% identity) allowed them to recombine, via an apparent integrase-independent mechanism, to produce different DNA rearrangements within the pneumococcal chromosome. This study provides a complete dataset that can be used to further analyze pneumococcal prophages, their evolutionary relationships, and their role in the pathogenesis of pneumococcal disease.This research was supported by grants MPY 509/19 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and SAF2017-88664-R from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MEICOM). The Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES) is an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). AM-G is the recipient of a Miguel Servet contract by the ISCIII.S

La aplicación de las IDEs en la enseñanza en ingeniería

Las Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales (IDEs) cada vez más cobran relevancia como recurso docente en la enseñanza en carreras técnicas. Las IDEs permiten a los estudiantes acceder vía Web a información geográfica que les es de utilidad en el desarrollo de supuestos prácticos, así como refuerza sus habilidades. Tras la publicación de la Directiva Europea INSPIRE es obligatoria su instalación. Ello ha supuesto un desafío en la formación de personal especializado en temática. Dada las características de la información a la que se refiere, el desarrollo de recursos didácticos para introducir esta formación en carreras técnicas se considera crucial. En el presente trabajo, se desarrolla una experiencia piloto que expone las fortalezas y debilidades de su utilización como recurso docente

The Versatility of Opportunistic Infections Caused by Gemella Isolates Is Supported by the Carriage of Virulence Factors From Multiple Origins

The molecular basis of the pathogenesis of the opportunistic invasive infections caused by isolates of the Gemella genus remains largely unknown. Moreover, inconsistencies in the current species assignation were detected after genome-level comparison of 16 public Gemella isolates. A literature search detected that, between the two most pathogenic species, Gemella morbillorum causes about twice the number of cases compared to Gemella haemolysans. These two species shared their mean diseases - sepsis and endocarditis - but differed in causing other syndromes. A number of well-known virulence factors were harbored by all species, such as a manganese transport/adhesin sharing 83% identity from oral endocarditis-causing streptococci. Likewise, all Gemellae carried the genes required for incorporating phosphorylcholine into their cell walls and encoded some choline-binding proteins. In contrast, other proteins were species-specific, which may justify the known epidemiological differences. G. haemolysans, but not G. morbillorum, harbor a gene cluster potentially encoding a polysaccharidic capsule. Species-specific surface determinants also included Rib and MucBP repeats, hemoglobin-binding NEAT domains, peptidases of C5a complement factor and domains that recognize extracellular matrix molecules exposed in damaged heart valves, such as collagen and fibronectin. Surface virulence determinants were associated with several taxonomically dispersed opportunistic genera of the oral microbiota, such as Granulicatella, Parvimonas, and Streptococcus, suggesting the existence of a horizontally transferrable gene reservoir in the oral environment, likely facilitated by close proximity in biofilms and ultimately linked to endocarditis. The identification of the Gemella virulence pool should be implemented in whole genome-based protocols to rationally predict the pathogenic potential in ongoing clinical infections caused by these poorly known bacterial pathogens.This research was supported by grants MPY 509/19 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and SAF2017-88664-R from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MEICOM). The Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES) is an initiative of the ISCIII. AM-G is the recipient of a Miguel Servet contract by the ISCIII.S

Configuration and specifications of an unmanned aerial vehicle for precision viticulture

[SPA] Los vehículos aéreos no tripulados (UAV) con sensores multiespectrales son cada vez más atractivos en ciencias de la tierra para la captura de datos y actualización de mapas con alta resolución espacial y temporal. Estos sistemas de vuelo autónomo pueden equiparse con diferentes tipos de sensores, tales como cámaras multiespectrales y sensores miniaturizados, para facilitar la navegación, el posicionamiento y la elaboración de mapas de alta resolución. Estos sistemas ya se están utilizando para la recolección de datos en la viticultura de precisión. En este estudio, se pretende evaluar la eficiencia de los estos vehículos para la recolección de datos, procesamiento y actualización de mapas en áreas pequeñas, así como su comparación con otros índices derivados de los satélites (Sentinel IIA y Landsat 8). Los resultados indican que los UAV son interesantes para la caracterización de las parcelas de viña con alta variabilidad espacial, a pesar de la baja cobertura vegetal de estos cultivos. [ENG] Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with multispectral sensors are increasingly attractive in geosciences for data capture and map updating at high spatial and temporal resolutions. These autonomously-flying systems can be equipped with different sensors, such as a multispectral camera and miniaturized sensor systems, for navigation, positioning, and mapping purposes. These systems can be used for data collection in precision viticulture. In this study, the efficiency of a light UAV system for data collection, processing, and map updating in small areas is evaluated by the generation of correlations between classification maps derived from remote sensing and production maps, based on the comparison of the indices derived from UAVs incorporating infrared sensors with those obtained by satellites (Sentinel IIA and Landsat 8). The results indicate that UAVs are a promising option for the characterization of vineyard plots with high spatial variability, despite the low vegetative coverage of these crops

Assessing regional climate models (RCMs) ensemble-driven reference evapotranspiration over Spain

The present work applies a novel methodology of combining multiple Regional Climate Models (RCMs) (or ensemble) that are based on the seasonal and annual variability of temperatures over Spain, which allows for the quantification and reduction of uncertainty in the projections of temperature based-potential evapotranspiration. Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is one of the most important variables in water budgets. Therefore, the uncertainties in the identification of reliable trends of reference evapotranspiration should be taken into account for water planning and hydrological modeling under climate change scenarios. From the results over Spain, the RCMs ensemble reproduces well the yearly and seasonal temperature observed dataset for the time reference period 1961–1990. An increase in the ensemble-driven ETo for time period 2021–2050 over Spain is expected, which is motivated by an increase in maximum and minimum temperature, with the consequent negative impacts on water availability.The authors acknowledge the financial support of Fundación Séneca grant number 19527/PI/14, Agency of Science and Technology of Murcia Region in the framework of PCTIRM 2011–2014, Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia (Spain)

Estudio y cuantificación de la demanda energética en una vivienda aislada

El presente trabajo aborda de manera práctica el estudio de los parámetros fundamentales en el comportamiento térmico de un edificio, su incidencia tanto en la demanda real del edificio como en su certificación oficial, así como la relación entre coste y beneficio existente entre todos los factores que influyen en la eficiencia energética de la vivienda.García Galiano, P. (2011). Estudio y cuantificación de la demanda energética en una vivienda aislada. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/15137.Archivo delegad