Nuevas herramientas gráficas para el análisis espacial y el diseño de hospitales

La aplicación de conceptos matemáticos al diseño arquitectónico suele ser un proceso intuitivo. La topología en particular ha resultado ser especialmente útil en las fases iniciales del proyecto, cuando se determina la ubicación de los usos y los recorridos.La topología también ofrece múltiples posibilidades en los casos en que no es necesaria una definición dimensional, sino satisfacer ciertas propiedades como la adyacencia, la inclusión, etc. En consecuencia, resulta una herramienta útil y versátil cuando se trata de estudiar y comparar relaciones espaciales en varias soluciones de proyecto. Conceptos como contigüidad, conectividad o intersección se pueden aplicar directamente a los esquemas de planta para efectuar su dimensionamiento posteriormente. El manejo de estos conceptos mediante programas informáticos se venía realizando con los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG) a una escala esencialmente territorial, pero actualmente se han integrado en los procesos de la proyectación arquitectónica a través de los modelos de información de los edificios (BIM).Actualmente el diseño de hospitales y de otras instalaciones asistenciales se beneficia de la aplicación de la topología desde las primeras fases de proyecto. Esto se debe, por una parte, a su elevada complejidad como corresponde a sus exigencias técnicas, funcionales y de equipamiento, que requieren un alto grado de especialización. Pero la topología también resulta útil en el difícil diseño de los recorridos interiores y exteriores tanto para los usuarios como para la logística, pues pone de manifiesto los puntos conflictivos y los riesgos asociados.Mathematical concepts applied to architectural design, arise frequently from intuition. Among them, topology has proved to be particularly useful in the previous stages of the architectural projects, when location of uses and itineraries is defined. On the other hand, topology brings lots of possibilities in these phases where no dimensional definition is needed, but just to satisfy some topological properties. It becomes then a powerful easy tool to show and analyse different solutions through their spatial relationships. Concepts as continuity, connectedness, intersection, or inclusion, can be directly applied to layout schemes, setting the basis to further dimensioning. These concepts were traditionally managed and carried out in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and now can be applied to the architectural design processes by means of the Building Information Modelling (BIM). As a particular application, the architectural design of hospitals and other healthcare facilities benefits directly from topology. This is due, firstly, to their high complexity derived from their particular technical, functional, and instrumental constraints. Secondly, topology becomes helpful to design the inner and outer itineraries of both people and logistics, paying attention to the specific problems derived from transfer points, pollution risks, and intersections.Ministerio de Economía y Competitivida

Validation of integrated water vapor from OMI satellite instrument against reference GPS data at the Iberian Peninsula

This paper shows the validation of integrated water vapor (IWV) measurements retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), using as reference nine ground-based GPS stations in the Iberian Peninsula. The study period covers from 2007 to 2009. The influence of two factors, - solar zenith angle (SZA) and IWV -, on OMI-GPS differences was studied in detail, as well as the seasonal dependence. The pseudomedian of the relative differences is −1 ± 1% and the inter-quartile range (IQR) is 41%. Linear regressions calculated over each station show an acceptable agreement (R2 up to 0.77). The OMI-GPS differences display a clear dependence on IWV values. Hence, OMI substantially overestimates the lower IWV data recorded by GPS (∼40%), while underestimates the higher IWV reference values (∼20%). In connection to this IWV dependence, the relative differences also show an evident SZA dependence when the whole range of IWV values are analyzed (OMI overestimates for high SZA values while underestimates for low values). Finally, the seasonal variation of the OMI-GPS differences is also associated with the strong IWV dependence found in this validation exercise.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project CGL2014-56255-C2. Manuel Antón thanks Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Fondo Social Europeo (RYC-2011-08345) for the award of a postdoctoral grant (Ramón y Cajal). Support from the Junta de Extremadura (Research Group Grants GR15137) is gratefully acknowledged. Work at Universidad de Valladolid is supported by project CMT2015-66742-R. Work at Universidad de Granada was supported by the Andalusia Regional Government (project P12-RNM-2409) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds under the projects CGL2013-45410-R and “Juan de la Cierva-Formación” program. Work at SAO is supported by NASA’s Atmospheric Composition: Aura Science Team program (sponsor contract number NNX14AF56G). Work at Universidade de Évora is co-funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, included in the COMPETE 2020 (Operational Program Competitiveness and Internationalization) through the ICT project (UID/GEO/04683/2013) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007690

Anthropogenic emissions of highly reactive volatile organic compounds in eastern Texas inferred from oversampling of satellite (OMI) measurements of HCHO columns

Satellite observations of formaldehyde (HCHO) columns provide top-down constraints on emissions of highly reactive volatile organic compounds (HRVOCs). This approach has been used previously in the US to estimate isoprene emissions from vegetation, but application to anthropogenic emissions has been stymied by lack of a discernable HCHO signal. Here we show that temporal oversampling of HCHO data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for 2005–2008 enables detection of urban and industrial plumes in eastern Texas including Houston, Port Arthur, and Dallas/Fort Worth. By spatially integrating the HCHO enhancement in the Houston plume observed by OMI we estimate an anthropogenic HCHO source of 250 ± 140 kmol h−1. This implies that anthropogenic HRVOC emissions in Houston are 4.8 ± 2.7 times higher than reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency inventory, and is consistent with field studies identifying large ethene and propene emissions from petrochemical industrial sources.Engineering and Applied Science

Global retrieval of stratospheric and tropospheric BrO columns from the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Nadir Mapper (OMPS-NM) on board the Suomi-NPP satellite

Quantifying the global bromine monoxide (BrO) budget is essential to understand ozone chemistry better. In particular, the tropospheric BrO budget has not been well characterized. Here, we retrieve nearly a decade (February 2012–July 2021) of stratospheric and tropospheric BrO vertical columns from the Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite Nadir Mapper (OMPS-NM) on board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi-NPP) satellite. In quantifying tropospheric BrO enhancements from total slant columns, the key aspects involve segregating them from stratospheric enhancements and applying appropriate air mass factors. To address this concern and improve upon the existing methods, our study proposes an approach that applies distinct BrO vertical profiles based on the presence or absence of tropospheric BrO enhancement at each pixel, identifying it dynamically using a satellite-derived stratospheric-ozone–BrO relationship. We demonstrate good agreement for both stratosphere (r = 0.81–0.83) and troposphere (r = 0.50–0.70) by comparing monthly mean BrO vertical columns from OMPS-NM with ground-based observations from three stations (Lauder, Utqiaġvik, and Harestua). Although algorithm performance is primarily assessed at high latitudes, the OMPS-NM BrO retrievals successfully capture tropospheric enhancements not only in polar regions but also in extrapolar areas, such as the Rann of Kutch and the Great Salt Lake. We also estimate random uncertainties in the retrievals pixel by pixel, which can assist in quantitative applications of the OMPS-NM BrO dataset. Our BrO retrieval algorithm is designed for cross-sensor applications and can be adapted to other space-borne ultraviolet spectrometers, contributing to the creation of continuous long-term satellite BrO observation records.</p

Mapping hydroxyl variability throughout the global remote troposphere via synthesis of airborne and satellite formaldehyde observations

The hydroxyl radical (OH) fuels tropospheric ozone production and governs the lifetime of methane and many other gases. Existing methods to quantify global OH are limited to annual and global-to-hemispheric averages. Finer resolution is essential for isolating model deficiencies and building process-level understanding. In situ observations from the Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission demonstrate that remote tropospheric OH is tightly coupled to the production and loss of formaldehyde (HCHO), a major hydrocarbon oxidation product. Synthesis of this relationship with satellite-based HCHO retrievals and model-derived HCHO loss frequencies yields a map of total-column OH abundance throughout the remote troposphere (up to 70% of tropospheric mass) over the first two ATom missions (August 2016 and February 2017). This dataset offers unique insights on near-global oxidizing capacity. OH exhibits significant seasonality within individual hemispheres, but the domain mean concentration is nearly identical for both seasons (1.03 ± 0.25 × 10^6 cm^(−3)), and the biseasonal average North/South Hemisphere ratio is 0.89 ± 0.06, consistent with a balance of OH sources and sinks across the remote troposphere. Regional phenomena are also highlighted, such as a 10-fold OH depression in the Tropical West Pacific and enhancements in the East Pacific and South Atlantic. This method is complementary to budget-based global OH constraints and can help elucidate the spatial and temporal variability of OH production and methane loss

Integrated water vapor obtained by satellite-borne instruments: evaluation with GPS measurements in the Iberian Peninsula

Ponencia presentada en: XVIII Congreso de la Asociación Española de Teledetección celebrado en Valladolid del 24 al 27 septiembre 2019.[ES]Este trabajo se centra en comparar los productos de vapor de agua integrado (IWV) de varios satélites respecto a un conjunto de datos en tierra obtenidos de GPS en nueve estaciones de la Península Ibérica. Los instrumentos satelitales son: Global Ozone Monitoring Instrument (GOME-2), Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Spining Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI), Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), y Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY). Los productos de estos satélites muestran una buena correlación con respecto al producto de GPS (R2 ~ 0.7). Todos los satélites muestran cierta tendencia a sobrestimar los valores bajos de vapor de agua y a subestimar los altos. Además, la precisión, medida mediante el rango intercuartílico (IQR) también disminuye rápidamente al aumentar el IWV. Por otro lado, otro factor importante es el ángulo solar zenital (SZA) que influye en el rendimiento de los instrumentos satelitales, especialmente aquellos que dependen de la radiación solar. Al aumentar el SZA acercándose a 90°, los instrumentos pierden rendimiento aumentando la sobrestimación y el IQR. Sin embargo, a valores de SZA mayores de 90° (esto es, la noche) los índices calculados no tienen grandes dependencias con el SZA.[EN]This work focuses in the comparison of several integrated water vapor (IWV) from several satellites with respect to a dataset from ground-based GPS IWV, in nine stations at the Iberian Peninsula. The satellite instruments are Global Ozone Monitoring Instrument (GOME-2), Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI), Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), and Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY). The products of this instruments show a fair correlation with respect to GPS product (R2 ~ 0.7). All satellites show a certain tendency to overestimation of low IWV values, while underestimating large IWV values. Moreover, the precision is studied using the inter-quartile range (IQR), which also decreases quickly when IWV increases. Another important factor is the solar zenith angle (SZA), which affects the performance of satellite instruments, especially those that are dependent on solar radiation. When SZA increases, going closer to 90°, the instruments had worse performance, increasing overestimation and IQR. Nevertheless, for SZA larger than 90° (that is to say, the night), the indexes do not show large dependencies on SZA

COVID-19 : Age, Interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and lymphocytes as key clues from a multicentre retrospective study

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 infection has widely spread to become the greatest public health challenge to date, the COVID-19 pandemic. Different fatality rates among countries are probably due to non-standardized records being carried out by local health authorities. The Spanish case-fatality rate is 11.22%, far higher than those reported in Asia or by other European countries. A multicentre retrospective study of demographic, clinical, laboratory and immunological features of 584 Spanish COVID-19 hospitalized patients and their outcomes was performed. The use of renin-angiotensin system blockers was also analysed as a risk factor. Results: In this study, 27.4% of cases presented a mild course, 42.1% a moderate one and for 30.5% of cases, the course was severe. Ages ranged from 18 to 98 (average 63). Almost 60 % (59.8%) of patients were male. Interleukin 6 was higher as severity increased. On the other hand, CD8 lymphocyte count was significantly lower as severity grew and subpopulations CD4, CD8, CD19, and NK showed concordant lowering trends. Severity-related natural killer percent descents were evidenced just within aged cases. A significant severity-related decrease of CD4 lymphocytes was found in males. The use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors was associated with a better prognosis. The angiotensin II receptor blocker use was associated with a more severe course. Conclusions: Age and age-related comorbidities, such as dyslipidaemia, hypertension or diabetes, determined more frequent severe forms of the disease in this study than in previous literature cohorts. Our cases are older than those so far reported and the clinical course of the disease is found to be impaired by age. Immunosenescence might be therefore a suitable explanation for the hampering of immune system effectors. The adaptive immunity would become exhausted and a strong but ineffective and almost deleterious innate response would account for COVID-19 severity. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors used by hypertensive patients have a protective effect in regards to COVID-19 severity in our series. Conversely, patients on angiotensin II receptor blockers showed a severer disease