Anthropic Action on Historical Shoreline Changes and Future Estimates Using GIS: Guadarmar Del Segura (Spain)

A good understanding of historical change rates is a key requirement for effective coastal zone management and reliable predictions of shoreline evolution. Historical shoreline erosion for the coast of Guardamar del Segura (Alicante, Spain) is analyzed based on aerial photographs dating from 1930 to 2022 using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). This area is of special interest because the construction of a breakwater in the 1990s, which channels the mouth of the Segura River, has caused a change in coastal behavior. The prediction of future shorelines is conducted up to the year 2040 using two models based on data analysis techniques: the extrapolation of historical data (including the uncertainty of the historical measurements) and the Bruun-type model (considering the effect of sea level rises). The extrapolation of the natural erosion of the area up to 1989 is also compared with the reality, already affected by anthropic actions, in the years 2005 and 2022. The construction of the breakwater has accelerated the erosion along the coast downstream of this infrastructure by about 260%, endangering several houses that are located on the beach itself. The estimation models predict transects with erosions ranging from centimeters (±70 cm) to tens of meters (±30 m). However, both models are often overlapping, which gives a band where the shoreline may be thought to be in the future. The extrapolation of erosion up to 1989, and its subsequent comparison, shows that in most of the study areas, anthropic actions have increased erosion, reaching values of more than 35 m of shoreline loss. The effect of anthropic actions on the coast is also analyzed on the housing on the beach of Babilonia, which has lost around 17% of its built-up area in 40 years. This work demonstrates the importance of historical analysis and predictions before making any significant changes in coastal areas to develop sustainable plans for coastal area management

Reinforced Concrete Building with IED Detonation: Test and Simulation

There is growing concern about the possibility of a suicide bomber being immolated when the army forces or the law enforcement agencies discover the place where they prepare their material or simply find themselves inside a building. To study the possible effects that these improvised explosive devices (IEDs) would have on the structures, eight tests were carried out with various configurations of IEDs with vest bombs inside a reinforced concrete (including walls and roof) building constructed ad hoc for these tests. These vests were made with different explosives (black powder, ANFO, AN/AL, PG2). For the characterization of these tests, a high-speed camera and pressure and acceleration sensors were used. The structure behaved surprisingly well, as it withstood all the first seven detonations without apparent structural damage. In the last detonation, located on the ground and with a significant explosive charge, the structural integrity of the roof and some of the walls was compromised. The simulation of the building was carried out with the LS-DYNA software with a Lagrangian formulation for the walls, using the LBE (based on CONWEP) module for the application of the charge. Despite the difficulty of this simulation, the results obtained, in terms of applied pressures and measured accelerations, are acceptable with differences of about 20%

Numerical Prediction of the Performance of Integrated Planar Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells, with Comparisons of Results from Several Codes

A numerical study of the thermal and electrochemical performance of a single-tube Integrated Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (IP-SOFC) has been performed. Results obtained from two finite-volume computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes FLUENT and SOHAB and from a two-dimensional inhouse developed finite-volume GENOA model are presented and compared. Each tool uses physical and geometric models of differing complexity and comparisons are made to assess their relative merits. Several single-tube simulations were run using each code over a range of operating conditions. The results include polarization curves, distributions of local current density, composition and temperature. Comparisons of these results are discussed, along with their relationship to the respective imbedded phenomenological models for activation losses, fluid flow and mass transport in porous media. In general, agreement between the codes was within 15% for overall parameters such as operating voltage and maximum temperature. The CFD results clearly show the effects of internal structure on the distributions of gas flows and related quantities within the electrochemical cells

Research and development of hydrogen carrier based solutions for hydrogen compression and storage

publishedVersio

Mejora del proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje en laboratorios de ingeniería masificados

Este trabajo describe una metodología de enseñanza de laboratorio para estudiantes universitarios que utiliza tecnologías digitales y aplicaciones de software (Matlab). Los estudiantes tienen acceso en Moodle a un guion de cada práctica, así como a un video explicativo y preguntas insertadas en el mismo con H5P. Luego asisten a una sesión de laboratorio presencial en grupos reducidos, registrando los datos correspondientes. Posteriormente y mediante una aplicación de Matlab desarrollada “ad-hoc” el alumno genera su informe de prácticas y lo entrega vía Moodle. Los resultados son bastante buenos pues los alumnos mejoran sistemáticamente sus notas del laboratorio. Además, sus apreciaciones en base a encuestas son excelentes con notas en torno al 4,5 sobre 5. La metodología busca reducir el trabajo repetitivo y enfocar en el razonamiento y comprensión completa del problema

Global prospective case series of ERCPs using a single-use duodenoscope

Background The first commercialized single-use duodenoscope was cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2019. Data regarding endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) using a single-use duodenoscope are needed on a broader range of cases conducted by endoscopists with varying levels of experience in a wide range of geographic areas. Methods 61 endoscopists at 22 academic centers in 11 countries performed ERCP procedures in adult patients aged ? 18. Outcomes included ERCP completion for the intended indication, rate of crossover to a reusable endoscope, device performance ratings, and serious adverse events (SAEs). Results Among 551 patients, 236 (42.8 %) were aged &gt;65, 281 (51.0 %) were men, and 256 (46.5 %) had their procedure as an inpatient. ERCPs included 196 (35.6 %) with American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy complexity of grades 3 4. A total of 529 ERCPs (96.0 %) were completed: 503 (91.3 %) using only the single-use duodenoscope, and 26 (4.7 %) with crossover to a reusable endoscope. There were 22 ERCPs (4.0 %) that were not completed, of which 11 (2.0 %) included a crossover and 11 (2.0 %) were aborted cases (no crossover). Median ERCP completion time was 24.0 minutes. Median overall satisfaction with the single-use duodenoscope was 8.0 (scale of 1 to 10 [best]). SAEs were reported in 43 patients (7.8 %), including 17 (3.1 %) who developed post-ERCP pancreatitis. Conclusions In academic medical centers over a wide geographic distribution, endoscopists with varying levels of experience using the first marketed single-use duodenoscope had good ERCP procedural success and reported high performance ratings for this device.</p

Crop pests and predators exhibit inconsistent responses to surrounding landscape composition

The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on pests are inconclusive. The observed heterogeneity in species responses to noncrop habitat may be biological in origin or could result from variation in how habitat and biocontrol are measured. Here, we use a pest-control database encompassing 132 studies and 6,759 sites worldwide to model natural enemy and pest abundances, predation rates, and crop damage as a function of landscape composition. Our results showed that although landscape composition explained significant variation within studies, pest and enemy abundances, predation rates, crop damage, and yields each exhibited different responses across studies, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing in landscapes with more noncrop habitat but overall showing no consistent trend. Thus, models that used landscape-composition variables to predict pest-control dynamics demonstrated little potential to explain variation across studies, though prediction did improve when comparing studies with similar crop and landscape features. Overall, our work shows that surrounding noncrop habitat does not consistently improve pest management, meaning habitat conservation may bolster production in some systems and depress yields in others. Future efforts to develop tools that inform farmers when habitat conservation truly represents a win–win would benefit from increased understanding of how landscape effects are modulated by local farm management and the biology of pests and their enemies