The Basin of Mexico Hydrogeological Database: Implementation, Queries and Interaction with Open Source Software

Integrated Water Management at the Basin level concept was introduced in the 1990s, and is a goal in every national and local water management plan. Unfortunately this goal has not been achieved mainly due to a lack of both tools and data management, as data must be gathered from different sources, and converted from diverse formats into a consistent database. Compounding this problem is the fact that in some regions different water agencies are in charge of water supply as is the case in the Basin of Mexico, in which Mexico City and its Metropolitan Zone are located. The inhabitants of the Basin of Mexico, which comprises five different political entities and in which different agencies are in charge of water supply rely on the Basins aquifer system as its main water supply source. No regional hydrogeological database in this area however exists therefore a Relational Database Management System was developed, and its use with a Geographic Information System is proposed in order to improve regional data management in the study area. Data stored in this new database (called the Basin of Mexico Hydrogeological Database) comprises data on climatological, borehole and runoff variables, readily providing information for the development of hydrogeological models. A simple example is used to show how geostatistical analysis can be done using the data directly from this database. The structure of the database supports easy maintenance and updating, representing a valuable tool for the development of regional studies

Mexico City's Water Management: In Search of Sustainability

Mexico City is facing water supply problems as its population increases and aquifer overexploitation needs to be stopped. Because of its geographic location the City has continuously faced water related problems such as floods and lack of the resource. Currently the closest water sources have been already tapped and more water will be needed in the near future in order to satisfy the ever increasing demand as the aquifer systems located under the City provide nearly 75% of the total water supply. Water from the aquifers is extracted at a higher rate than they are replenished, causing a mean decline in the ground water table of one meter per year. A high percentage of water used is exported to the Panuco basin without being reused; thus, authorities are trying to implement a program to artificially recharge the aquifer using reclaimed waste water and wells in order to reduce aquifer overdraft and as an alternative to meet the ever increasing water demand. Although the main focus of the present paper is to analyze the artificial recharge program, other water policies such as efficient water use and leak detection in the water supply network will be analyzed as well along with a comparison between importing water from other river basins and use of reclaimed waste water is realized and a new approach is proposed in order to improve water management in the Basin

Development of a shape specification based on the waviness parameter of tapered roller bearing

Tapered roller bearings can accommodate high radial loads as well as high axial loads. The manufacturing process consists of rings machining processes and components assembly, followed by an intense quality control. In this contribution, a study of the parameters of influence in the inspection procedure has been carried out. The main objective of this work is to develop a shape specification using real parts and to optimize the process of specification development. This requires to study the influence of several parameters in the inspection and to determine how they affect the waviness specification

Reducing the Cut-Off Value of the Fecal Immunochemical Test for Symptomatic Patients Does Not Improve Diagnostic Performance

Introduction: The fecal immunochemical test (FIT) has been established as a cost-effective test in colon cancer screening programmes. This test could also be helpful in symptomatic patients prior to colonoscopy, but data about diagnostic performance, and accurate cut-off values for these patients are still scarce. Materials and Methods: Prospective study that included consecutive unselected patients with gastrointestinal symptoms referred for colonoscopy between November 2016 and June 2018. We performed a FIT (FOB Gold® test, cut-off 20 micrograms of Hb/gram of feces) prior to colonoscopy and determined the accuracy of FIT in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value for clinically significant pathology, advanced neoplasia, and colorectal cancer in symptomatic patients, using two different cut-off values. Results: A total of 727 patients (44.3% men, aged 58.5 ± 14.9 years) was included in the study. The main symptom was history of previous (non-active) rectal bleeding (34.7%), followed by diarrhea (15.0%). Over one quarter of the patients (25.9%) had a positive FIT result. The caecal intubation rate was 95.5%. Clinically significant pathology was identified in 142 colonoscopies (19.5%), advanced neoplasia in 115 (15.8%) and colorectal cancer in 36 colonoscopies (5.0%). FIT performed very well for clinically significant pathology, advanced neoplasia and cancer, with a high negative predictive value (NPV). Reducing the cut-off value to 10 μg/g yielded similar NPV results, with a decrease in specificity. Using a combination of symptoms with a positive FIT result did not improve FIT performance. Only specificity was slightly higher compared to FIT alone, but this was paralleled by a decrease in sensitivity and NPV for cancer and clinically significant pathology. The odds of presenting clinically significant pathology, advanced neoplasia, or cancer increased with FIT concentration. Conclusions: The specificity and NPV of FIT for clinically significant pathology, advanced neoplasia, and cancer are high in symptomatic patients. FIT is a helpful test for determining the need to perform further studies. It may not be necessary to reduce the cut-off value for symptomatic patients, since FIT performance with the current standard cut-off value used in colorectal cancer screening was accurate. FIT can be used to avoid or prioritize colonoscopy procedures

Evaluación de las necesidades hídricas de tres variedades de fresas y de su respuesta frente a un recorte hídrico moderado

Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones RTA2012-00001-00-00FEDER CC10-009-C02-0

A systematic cross-search for radio/infrared counterparts of XMM-Newton sources

We present a catalog of cross-correlated radio, infrared and X-ray sources using a very restrictive selection criteria with an IDL-based code developed by us. The significance of the observed coincidences was evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations of synthetic sources following a well-tested protocol. We found 3320 coincident radio/X-ray sources with a high statistical significance characterized by the sum of error-weighted coordinate differences. For 997 of them, 2MASS counterparts were found. The percentage of chance coincidences is less than 1%. X-ray hardness ratios of well-known populations of objects were used to provide a crude representation of their X-ray spectrum and to make a preliminary diagnosis of the possible nature of unidentified X-ray sources. The results support the fact that the X-ray sky is largely dominated by Active Galactic Nuclei at high galactic latitudes (|b| >= 10^\circ). At low galactic latitudes (|b| <= 10^\circ) most of unidentified X-ray sources (~94%) lie at |b| <= 2^\circ. This result suggests that most of the unidentified sources found toward the Milky Way plane are galactic objects. Well-known and unidentified sources were classified in different tables with their corresponding radio/infrared and X-ray properties. These tables are intended as a useful tool for researchers interested in particular identifications.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap&SS. 47 pages, 10 figures. On-line material: figures and table

A Pilot Point Guided Pattern Matching Approach to Integrate Dynamic Data into Geological Modeling

Methods based on multiple-point statistics (MPS) have been routinely used to characterize complex geological formations in the last decade. These methods use the available static data (for example, measured conductivities) for conditioning. Integrating dynamic data (for example, measured transient piezometric head data) into the same framework is challenging because of the complex non-linear relationship between the dynamic response and geology. The Ensemble PATtern (EnPAT) search method was recently developed as a promising technique to handle this problem. In this approach, a pattern is postulated to be composed of both parameter and state variables, and then, parameter values are sequentially (point-wise) simulated by directly sampling the matched pattern from an ensemble of training images of both geologic parameters and state variables. As a consequence, the updated ensemble of realizations of the geological parameters preserve curvilinear structures (i.e., non-multiGaussanity) as well as the complex relationship between static and dynamic data. Moreover, the uncertainty of flow and transport predictions can be assessed using the updated ensemble of geological models. In this work, we further modify the EnPAT method by introducing the pilot-point concept into the algorithm. More specifically, the parameter values at a set of randomly selected pilot point locations are simulated by the pattern searching procedure, and then a faster MPS method is used to complete the simulation by conditioning to the previously simulated pilot point values. This pilot point guided MPS implementation results in lower computational cost and more accurate inference of the parameter field. In addition, in some situations where there is sparsity of measured geologic static data, the EnPAT algorithm is extended to work only with the dynamic data. We employed a synthetic example to demonstrate the effectiveness of pilot points in the implementation of EnPAT, and also the capability of dynamic data to identify complex geologic structures when measured conductivity data are not available.The first three authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by DOE through project DE-FE0004962. The fourth author acknowledges the financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through project CGL2011-23295. The authors also wish to thank Wolfgang Nowak as well as two anonymous reviewers for their comments, which helped improving the final version of the manuscript.Li, L.; Srinivasan, S.; Zhou, H.; Gómez-Hernández, JJ. (2013). A Pilot Point Guided Pattern Matching Approach to Integrate Dynamic Data into Geological Modeling. Advances in Water Resources. 62(Part A):125-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2013.10.008S12513862Part

Bortezomib plus melphalan and prednisone in elderly untreated patients with multiple myeloma: updated time-to-events results and prognostic factors for time to progression

New treatment options offering enhanced activity in elderly, newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma are required. One strategy is to combine melphalan and prednisone with novel agents. We previously reported an 89% response rate, including 32% complete responses and 11% near complete responses, in our phase 1/2 study of bortezomib plus melphalan and prednisone (VMP) in 60 newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients with a median age of 75 years. Here, we report updated time-to-events data and the impact of poor prognosis factors on outcome

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters