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Explosive development of winter storm Xynthia over the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean
In winter of 2009–2010 south-western Europe was hit by several destructive windstorms. The most important was Xynthia (26–28 February 2010), which caused 64 reported casualties and was classified as the 2nd most expensive natural hazard event for 2010 in terms of economic losses. In this work we assess the synoptic evolution, dynamical characteristics and the main impacts of storm Xynthia, whose genesis, development and path were very uncommon. Wind speed gusts observed at more than 500 stations across Europe are evaluated as well as the wind gust field obtained with a regional climate model simulation for the entire North Atlantic and European area. Storm Xynthia was first identified on 25 February around 30° N, 50° W over the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. Its genesis occurred on a region characterized by warm and moist air under the influence of a strong upper level wave embedded in the westerlies. Xynthia followed an unusual SW–NE path towards Iberia, France and central Europe. The role of moist air masses on the explosive development of Xynthia is analysed by considering the evaporative sources. A lagrangian model is used to identify the moisture sources, sinks and moisture transport associated with the cyclone during its development phase. The main supply of moisture is located over an elongated region of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean with anomalously high SST, confirming that the explosive development of storm Xynthia had a significant contribution from the subtropics
Octreotide - Additional Conservative Therapy for Postoperative Chylothorax in Congenital Heart Disease
INTRODUCTION: Chylothorax is a rare but serious postoperative condition in children with congenital heart disease. Conventional medical treatment consists of specific long-term dietary modification, and surgical reintervention, such as lymphatic duct ligation, may be indicated in refractory cases. In recent years, an additional conservative treatment, octreotide, a synthetic analog of somatostatin, has been used in management of congenital and postoperative chylothorax.
METHODS: The objective of this work was to analyze the efficacy and safety of this treatment for chylothorax after congenital heart surgery. We reviewed the records of sixteen patients with chylothorax after surgery for congenital heart disease between January 1999 and December 2007, and collected the following data: demographic information; type of surgical procedure; onset, duration and management of chylothorax and treatment; and duration of hospital stay. To analyze efficacy we compared these parameters in children receiving conventional treatment only with those receiving octreotide. To analyze safety we compared the adverse effects of both treatments. Octreotide was administered at a dose of 4 to 10 microg/kg/hour, with monitoring of side effects.
RESULTS: The incidence of chylothorax in our population was 1.6%. It occurred more often after Glenn and Fontan procedures (8 patients). Octreotide was begun three days after diagnosis of chylothorax and continued for a median of seventeen days (ranging from 4 to 26 days), until complete resolution. Side effects were frequent (in 3 of the 8 patients) but of no clinical relevance. All patients responded to the therapy and there was no indication for further surgical intervention.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Octreotide is safe and effective in the treatment of postoperative chylothorax in children with congenital heart disease. It is a useful adjunctive therapy to the conventional treatment of this complication
The 2011 October Draconids Outburst. II. Meteoroid Chemical Abundances from Fireball Spectroscopy
On October 8, 2011 the Earth crossed dust trails ejected from comet
21P/Giacobini-Zinner in the late 19th and early 20th Century. This gave rise to
an outburst in the activity of the October Draconid meteor shower, and an
international team was organized to analyze this event. The SPanish Meteor
Network (SPMN) joined this initiative and recorded the October Draconids by
means of low light level CCD cameras. In addition, spectroscopic observations
were carried out. Tens of multi-station meteor trails were recorded, including
an extraordinarily bright October Draconid fireball (absolute mag. -10.5) that
was simultaneously imaged from three SPMN meteor ob-serving stations located in
Andalusia. Its spectrum was obtained, showing a clear evolution in the relative
intensity of emission lines as the fireball penetrated deeper into the
atmosphere. Here we focus on the analysis of this remarkable spectrum, but also
discuss the atmospheric trajectory, atmospheric penetration, and orbital data
computed for this bolide which was probably released during
21P/Giacobini-Zinner return to perihelion in 1907. The spectrum is discussed
together with the tensile strength for the October Draconid meteoroids. The
chemical profile evolution of the main rocky elements for this extremely bright
bolide is compared with the elemental abundances obtained for 5 October
Draconid fireballs also recorded during our spectroscopic campaign but observed
only at a single station. Significant chemical heterogeneity between the small
meteoroids is found as we should expect for cometary aggregates being formed by
diverse dust components.Comment: Manuscript in press in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on April 28th, 2013 Manuscript
Pages: 28 Tables: 5 Figures: 12. Manuscript associated: "The 2011 October
Draconids outburst. I. Orbital elements, meteoroid fluxes and
21P/Giacobini-Zinner delivered mass to Earth" by Trigo-Rodriguez et al. is
also in press in the same journa
Cardiac Injury and Vasoplegia in Critically ill Children due to Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Associated with COVID-19
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Kalman filter physical retrieval of surface emissivity and temperature from geostationary infrared radiances
The high temporal resolution of data acquisition
by geostationary satellites and their capability to resolve the diurnal cycle allows for the retrieval of a valuable source of information about geophysical parameters.
In this paper, we implement a Kalman filter approach to applying tempo-ral constraints on the retrieval of surface emissivity and temperature from radiance measurements made from geostationary platforms. Although we consider a case study in which we apply a strictly temporal constraint alone, the methodology will be presented in its general four-dimensional, i.e., space-time, setting.
The case study we consider is the retrieval of emissivity and surface temperature from SEVIRI
(Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager) observations over a target area encompassing the Iberian Peninsula and northwestern Africa.
The retrievals are then compared with in situ data and other similar satellite products. Our findings show that the Kalman filter strategy can simultaneously retrieve surface emissivity and temperature with an accuracy of ± 0.005 and ±0.2 K, respectively
Observation of Surface-Avoiding Waves: A New Class of Extended States in Periodic Media
Coherent time-domain optical experiments on GaAs-AlAs superlattices reveal
the exis-tence of an unusually long-lived acoustic mode at ~ 0.6 THz, which
couples weakly to the environment by evading the sample boundaries. Classical
as well as quantum states that steer clear of surfaces are generally shown to
occur in the spectrum of periodic struc-tures, for most boundary conditions.
These surface-avoiding waves are associated with frequencies outside forbidden
gaps and wavevectors in the vicinity of the center and edge of the Brillouin
zone. Possible consequences for surface science and resonant cavity
ap-plications are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure
Short small-polaron lifetime in the mixed-valence perovskite CsAuI from high-pressure pump-probe experiments
We study the ultrafast phonon response of mixed-valence perovskite
CsAuI using pump-probe spectroscopy under high-pressure in a
diamond anvil cell. We observed a remarkable softening and broadening of the Au
- I stretching phonon mode with both applied pressure and photoexcitation.
Using a double-pump scheme we measured a lifetime of the charge transfer
excitation into single valence Au of less than 4 ps, which is an
indication of the local character of the Au excitation. Furthermore, the
strong similarity between the pressure and fluence dependence of the phonon
softening shows that the inter-valence charge transfer plays an important role
in the structural transition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Lyme Borreliosis as a Cause of Myocarditis in Pediatric Age
Lyme borreliosis with myocarditis is rare in pediatrics and diagnosis requires a high index of suspicion. We
present an adolescent with myocarditis, depressed left ventricular function, and evidence of Lyme borreliosis
infection. Early recognition and treatment of Lyme disease can help to avoid serious complications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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