Preliminary Water Assessment Reports of The Test Basins of The Watch Project

This report presents the initial plans of the case studies how they link to rest of the Watch project and on which water resources they will focus. This report will function as the basis for further discussions on how to improve the integration of the case studies within the project and to develop a more general protocol for each of the case studies. Currently 5 catchments are used within the Watch project, they differ in climatic and hydro-geological features and expected climate changes: the Glomma River basin (Eastern Norway), the upper Guadiana basin (Central Spanish Plateau), the Nitra River basin (central Slovakia), the Upper-Elbe basin (part of the Elbe River) and the island of Crete. Also the water resources issues vary over these cases. Agricultural (and domestic) water use is under pressure in the Mediterranean catchments probably aggravating with the expected increase in drought frequency under future climate. The Norwegian catchment provides hydropower services under threat of precipitation increase rather than decrease. The central European catchments are threatened mainly by increased variability, i.e. increased frequencies of extremes in a densely populated environment, and river flow may need additional buffers (reservoirs) to reduce floodrisk and store water for dry period

Observations on the vibration of axially-tensioned elastomeric pipes conveying fluids

A study of the effect of axial tension on the vibration of a single-span elastomeric pipe clamped at both ends conveying fluid has been carried out both experimentally and theoretically. A new mathematical model using a penalty function technique and the method of kinematic correction and fictitious loads has been developed. The influence of flowing fluid and axial tension on natural frequencies and mode shapes of the system has been described using this model and compared with experimental observations. Linear and non-linear dynamic response of the harmonically excited pipe has also been investigated for varying flow velocities and initial axial tensions

Analysis of the temperature influence on Langmuir probe measurements on the basis of gyrofluid simulations

The influence of the temperature and its fluctuations on the ion saturation current and the floating potential, which are typical quantities measured by Langmuir probes in the turbulent edge region of fusion plasmas, is analysed by global nonlinear gyrofluid simulations for two exemplary parameter regimes. The numerical simulation facilitates a direct access to densities, temperatures and the plasma potential at different radial positions around the separatrix. This allows a comparison between raw data and the calculated ion saturation current and floating potential within the simulation. Calculations of the fluctuation-induced radial particle flux and its statistical properties reveal significant differences to the actual values at all radial positions of the simulation domain, if the floating potential and the temperature averaged density inferred from the ion saturation current is used.Comment: Submitted to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusio

Edge colorings of graphs on surfaces and star edge colorings of sparse graphs

In my dissertation, I present results on two types of edge coloring problems for graphs. For each surface Σ, we define ∆(Σ) = max{∆(G)| G is a class two graph with maximum degree ∆(G) that can be embedded in Σ}. Hence Vizing’s Planar Graph Conjecture can be restated as ∆(Σ) = 5 if Σ is a sphere. For a surface Σ with characteristic χ(Σ) ≤ 0, it is known ∆(Σ) ≥ H(χ(Σ))−1, where H(χ(Σ)) is the Heawood number of the surface, and if the Euler char- acteristic χ(Σ) ∈ {−7, −6, . . . , −1, 0}, ∆(Σ) is already known. I study critical graphs on general surfaces and show that (1) if G is a critical graph embeddable on a surface Σ with Euler character- istic χ(Σ) ∈ {−6, −7}, then ∆(Σ) = 10, and (2) if G is a critical graph embeddable on a surface Σ with Euler characteristic χ(Σ) ≤ −8, then ∆(G) ≤ H(χ(Σ)) (or H(χ(Σ))+1) for some special families of graphs, namely if the minimum degree is at most 11 or if ∆ is very large et al. As applications, we show that ∆(Σ) ≤ H (χ(Σ)) if χ(Σ) ∈ {−22, −21, −20, −18, −17, −15, . . . , −8}and ∆(Σ) ≤ H (χ(Σ)) + 1 if χ(Σ) ∈ {−53, . . . , 23, −19, −16}. Combining this with [19], it follows that if χ(Σ) = −12 and Σ is orientable, then ∆(Σ) = H(χ(Σ)). A star k-edge-coloring is a proper k-edge-coloring such that every connected bicolored sub- graph is a path of length at most 3. The star chromatic index χ′st(G) of a graph G is the smallest integer k such that G has a star k-edge-coloring. The list star chromatic index ch′st(G) is defined analogously. Bezegova et al. and Deng et al. independently proved that χ′ (T) ≤ 3∆ for anyst 2 tree T with maximum degree ∆. Here, we study the list star edge coloring and give tree-like bounds for (list) star chromatic index of sparse graphs. We show that if mad(G) \u3c 2.4, then χ′ (G)≤3∆+2andifmad(G)\u3c15,thench′ (G)≤3∆+1.Wealsoshowthatforeveryε\u3e0st 2 7 st 2 there exists a constant c(ε) such that if mad(G) \u3c 8 − ε, then ch′ (G) ≤ 3∆ + c(ε). We also3 st 2 find guaranteed substructures of graph with mad(G) \u3c 3∆ − ε which may be of interest in other2 problems for sparse graphs

New insights regarding the incidence, presentation and treatment options of aorto-oesophageal fistulation after thoracic endovascular aortic repair: the European Registry of Endovascular Aortic Repair Complications

OBJECTIVES: To review the incidence, clinical presentation, definite management and 1-year outcome in patients with aorto-oesophageal fistulation (AOF) following thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). METHODS: International multicentre registry (European Registry of Endovascular Aortic Repair Complications) between 2001 and 2011 with a total caseload of 2387 TEVAR procedures (17 centres). RESULTS: Thirty-six patients with a median age of 69 years (IQR 56-75), 25% females and 9 patients (19%) following previous aortic surgery were identified. The incidence of AOF in the entire cohort after TEVAR in the study period was 1.5%. The primary underlying aortic pathology for TEVAR was atherosclerotic aneurysm formation in 53% of patients and the median time to development of AOF was 90 days (IQR 30-150). Leading clinical symptoms were fever of unknown origin in 29 (81%), haematemesis in 19 (53%) and shock in 8 (22%) patients. Diagnosis could be confirmed via computed tomography in 92% of the cases with the leading sign of a new mediastinal mass in 28 (78%) patients. A conservative approach resulted in a 100% 1-year mortality, and 1-year survival for an oesophageal stenting-only approach was 17%. Survival after isolated oesophagectomy was 43%. The highest 1-year survival rate (46%) could be achieved via an aggressive treatment including radical oesophagectomy and aortic replacement [relative risk increase 1.73 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-2.92]. The survival advantage of this aggressive treatment modality could be confirmed in bootstrap analysis (95% CI 1.11-3.33). CONCLUSIONS: The development of AOF is a rare but lethal complication after TEVAR, being associated with the need for emergency TEVAR as well as mediastinal haematoma formation. The only durable and successful approach to cure the disease is radical oesophagectomy and extensive aortic reconstruction. These findings may serve as a decision-making tool for physicians treating these complex patients