Evaluation and comparison of regional climate models over the Iberian Peninsula

Póster presentado en el 4th HyMeX workshop celebrado del 8-10 de junio de 2010 en Bolonia, Italia.Different relations between parameters involved in both water and energy land surface budgets are computed from daily ERA-Interim data for the months of July and November(representative of the dry and wet season) in the period 1989-2008 over an area within the Iberian Península covering most of Tajo and Guadiana basins (from 40.5N to 37.5N, and from 7.0W to 2.0W). The main objective of this work is to use the obtained relations for the evaluation and comparison of regional climate models (RCMs) participating in the ENSEMBLES project. This approach was first proposed by Betts (2004) for comparing and evaluating global climate models. He proposed the assessment of model surface components as a system with widely connected components. In this way, models are compared among themselves and evaluated against observational data. The work is mainly focused on the goodness of the representation of physical surface processes and their feedbacks. The obtained relationships among different parameters are therefore considered as imposed restrictions by physical processes which can be used to evaluate RCMs

Incorporation and normative treatment of Special Educational Needs concept in Spain: some contradictions, incoherencies and confusions

El artículo trata de hacer un recorrido por el tratamiento normativo del concepto de «necesidades educativas especiales» desde su aparición inicial, en el marco normativo de la LOGSE, hasta la actualidad. En el transcurso de este tiempo, el concepto e interpretación de este concepto ha ido evolucionando y cambiando. A lo largo de este recorrido, eminentemente descriptivo, centrado exclusivamente en los principales hitos legislativos que, en el ámbito educativo, se han ido sucediendo, se intentan señalar y valorar algunas insuficiencias, contradicciones e incoherencias que merecen ser señaladas y recordadas. Esta visión retrospectiva creemos que puede ser especialmente interesante en tiempos de cambio y reforma, que son los que actualmente se imponen.This paper tries to make a journey through the normative treatment of special educational needs from their initial appearance within the legal frame of the LOGSE up to the actual moment. Through all this time the interpretation of this concept and the concept itself have been developed and continuously changing. In this descriptive journey centred on the main legal milestones that have appeared along the educational area, we try to point out and valuate some lacks, gaps, contradictions and incoherences that in our opinion deserve to be reminded. We believe that this flashback could be especially interesting in this age of change and reform

Trend changes of African airmass intrusions in the marine boundary layer over the subtropical Eastern North Atlantic region in winter

African dust intrusions in the marine mixing layer of the Eastern North Atlantic subtropical region (23.5°N to 35°N) are favoured in winter when the eastern edge of the Azores High covers Southwestern Europe and North Africa. In situ ground pressure observations and reanalysis from National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) indicate that the Azores High has strengthened and shifted eastward in winter over the last three decades. This is evidenced by the increase over time of the Madrid–Tenerife Index which is defined as the geopotential height anomaly difference at 1000 mb between Tenerife (28.5°N; 16.3°W) and Madrid (40.5°N; 3.5°W) in winter and of the African Index which is defined as the residence time over Africa of air mass trajectories entering the subtropical Eastern North Atlantic Ocean. Barcelona Supercomputing Center/Dust Regional Atmospheric Model (BSC-DREAM) dust regional model simulations from 1958 to 2006 were performed, assuming that the soil characteristics of dust sources remained unchanged over time. Simulated winter dust concentration levels are well correlated (0.67) with the available background observations for the 1998–2004 period. The model results show a two-fold increase in winter dust concentrations over the 1980–2006 period with respect to the 1958–1979 period, corresponding to the strengthening and eastward shift of the Azores High

Physically based evaluation of climate models over the Iberian Peninsula

A novel approach is proposed for evaluating regional climate models based on the comparison of empirical relationships among model outcome variables. The approach is actually a quantitative adaptation of the method for evaluating global climate models proposed by Betts (Bull Am Meteorol Soc 85:1673–1688, 2004). Three selected relationships among different magnitudes involved in water and energy land surface budgets are firstly established using daily re-analysis data. The selected relationships are obtained for an area encompassing two river basins in the southern Iberian Peninsula corresponding to 2 months, representative of dry and wet seasons. The same corresponding relations are also computed for each of the thirteen regional simulations of the ENSEMBLES project over the same area. The usage of a metric based on the Hellinger coefficient allows a quantitative estimation of how well models are performing in simulating the relations among surface magnitudes. Finally, a series of six rankings of the thirteen regional climate models participating in the ENSEMBLES project is obtained based on their ability to simulate such surface processes.The ENSEMBLES data used in this work was funded by the EU FP6 Integrated Project ENSEMBLES (Contract number 505539) whose support is gratefully acknowledged by the authors of the paper, without these data it would have been imposible to write this article

Reference architecture for robot teleoperation: development details and practical use

The need to avoid redundant efforts in software development has been recognized for a long time. Currently, work is focused on the generation of products that are designed to be reused. A reference architecture for robot teleoperation systems has been developed using the domain-engineering process and certain architectural patterns. The architecture has been applied successfully to the development of different teleoperation platforms used in the maintenance activities of nuclear power plants. In particular, this paper presents how the reference architecture has been implemented in different systems, such as the Remotely Operated Service Arm (ROSA), the Teleoperated and Robotized System for Maintenance Operation in Nuclear Power Plants Vessels (TRON) and the Inspection Retrieving Vehicle (IRV).This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Government Programmes for Research in Electrical Power (project PIE-041049), and for Technological Actuation in Industry (PAUTA projects 753/ 95 y 53/96). TRON is supported inside EUREKA– MAINE program (EU1565)

Influence of obesity on bone turnover markers and fracture risk in postmenopausal women

Producción CientíficaBackground and aims: The relationship between obesity and bone metabolism is controversial. In recent decades, the protective role of obesity in the development of osteoporosis is questioned. The aims of this study are the following: to evaluate the differences in bone turnover markers between postmenopausal women with and without obesity and to compare the risk of fracture at five years between these groups. Methods: An observational longitudinal prospective cohort study of postmenopausal women with obesity (O) (body mass index (BMI) > 30 kg/m2) and non-obesity (NoO) (BMI < 30 kg/m2) is designed. 250 postmenopausal women are included in the study (NoO: 124 (49.6%) and O: 126 (50.4%)). It measures epidemiological variables, dietary variables (calcium intake, vitamin D intake, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity), biochemicals (β-crosslap, type I procollagen amino-terminal peptide (P1NP), 25OH-vitamin D, and parathyroid hormone (PTH)), anthropometric variables, and fracture data five years after the start of the study. The mean age is 56.17 (3.91) years. Women with obesity showed lower levels of vitamin D (O: 17.27 (7.85) ng/mL, NoO: 24.51 (9.60) ng/mL; p < 0.01), and higher levels of PTH (O: 53.24 (38.44–65.96) pg/mL, NoO: 35.24 (25.36–42.40) pg/mL; p < 0.01). Regarding the bone formation marker (P1NP), it was found to be high in women without obesity, O: 45.46 (34.39–55.16) ng/mL, NoO: 56.74 (45.34–70.74) ng/mL; p < 0.01; the bone resorption marker (β-crosslap) was found to be high in women with obesity, being significant in those older than 59 years (O: 0.39 (0.14) ng/mL, NoO 0.24 (0.09) ng/mL; p < 0.05). No differences are observed in the risk of fracture at 5 years based on BMI (OR = 0.90 (95%CI 0.30–2.72); p = 0.85). Conclusions: Postmenopausal women with obesity showed lower levels of bone formation markers; older women with obesity showed higher markers of bone resorption

Short-term changes in the northwest african upwelling system induced by saharan dust deposition events

During the last 7-year period (2000-2006) atmosphere circulation changes show strong influences on the dust storm deposition dynamics and, as a result, on the primary production dynamics of the northwest African Upwelling System. From 2000 to 2006, the annual mean sea level pressure became higher ranging from 1014 to 1015 mb. Mean annual zonal wind intensity became higher (from 1.1 to 1.8 m s-1), while the mean annual meridional was reduced from 6.2 to 5.3 m s-1 at the north of the Canary Islands. Mean annual satellite-derived AVHRR/NOAA SST recorded in the northwest African Upwelling became warmer in both locations, from 18.3ºC to 18.8ºC in Cape Ghir and from 19.5ºC to 20.3ºC north Canary Islands waters. CHL records from the SeaWiFS/OV-2 showed a different pattern trend. Mean annual CHL levels increased at Cape Ghir from 0.65 mg m-3 to 0.9 mg m-3 and significantly reduced from 0.59 mg m-3 to 0.31 mg m-3 at the north of the Canary Islands. Changes observed in the role of CHL during the last 7-years period could be associated to intensive dust deposition and exceptional weather warming observed in this area since 2000. However, this study focused on a 7-year period and conclusions on possible links between dust deposition and marine biochemistry activity cannot be generalized

Solar Radiation Atlas for Spain based on Surface Irradiance Data from EUMETSAT Climate Monitoring-SAF

Conferencia presentada en: 2012 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference celebrado del 3-7 de septiembre en Sopot, PolandA Solar Radiation Atlas for Spain has been performed using monthly mean data provided by the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF) for the period 1983-2005 and 0.03ºx0.03º spatial resolution. The main goal of this work was to obtain a high spacial resolution climatological characterization for incident surface irradiance in Spain. Surface incoming solar radiation (SIS) and direct irradiance (SID) variables from CM-SAF data sets have been used in order to discern direct and diffuse components from global irradiance. These data are derived from the information provided by MVIRI instrument onboard the Meteosat First Generation (MFG) satellites and using the MAGICSOL algorithm. There are shown maps, graphics and tables of monthly, seasonal and annual means for global, direct and diffuse irradiance on horizontal plane. In addition, in order to geographically characterize SIS and SID uncertainties, derived satellite data have been validated against 29 ground-based stations belonging to AEMET (Spanish Meteorological Agency) National Radiometric Network. The estimated relative Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) is less than 7% indicating a good performance of the algorithm used and a remarkable high quality of SIS and SID datasets

MAL regulates clathrin-mediated endocytosis at the apical surface of Madin–Darby canine kidney cells

MAL is an integral protein component of the machinery for apical transport in epithelial Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. To maintain its distribution, MAL cycles continuously between the plasma membrane and the Golgi complex. The clathrin-mediated route for apical internalization is known to differ from that at the basolateral surface. Herein, we report that MAL depends on the clathrin pathway for apical internalization. Apically internalized polymeric Ig receptor (pIgR), which uses clathrin for endocytosis, colocalized with internalized MAL in the same apical vesicles. Time-lapse confocal microscopic analysis revealed cotransport of pIgR and MAL in the same endocytic structures. Immunoelectron microscopic analysis evidenced colabeling of MAL with apically labeled pIgR in pits and clathrin-coated vesicles. Apical internalization of pIgR was abrogated in cells with reduced levels of MAL, whereas this did not occur either with its basolateral entry or the apical internalization of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, which does not involve clathrin. Therefore, MAL is critical for efficient clathrin-mediated endocytosis at the apical surface in MDCK cells

Solid sampling determination of ZnO nanoparticles in eyeshadows by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

The application of nanoparticles (NPs) in science and technology is a fast growing field. Therefore, reliable and straightforward analytical methods are required for their fast determination in different types of samples. In this work, a method that enables the determination of the average size of ZnO NPs, besides their concentration, discriminating them from ionic zinc, has been optimized. The method is based on solid sampling high-resolution continuum source electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (SS-HR-CS-GFAAS), and has been applied to determination and characterization of ZnO NPs in cosmetic samples. Recently, graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry has been introduced as a new tool to determine the size of nanoparticles by evaluation of the following parameters: atomization delay (tad) and atomization rate (kat). In this work both parameters (besides peak area) have been obtained from absorbance signals for a line of Zn with low sensitivity. Two multiple response surface designs have been used in order to optimize the adequate furnace program to achieve our aims. All the optimization experiments were performed using baby´s skin irritation protective cream. The optimized furnace program is shown in Table 1. Table 1. Optimized furnace program The size calibrations were performed against solid (powered) ZnO standards, from 50-nm to 500-nm sized nanoparticles. The correlation coefficients (R value) of the linear calibration were not worse than 0.9982. The optimized method was tested in other types of cosmetic samples such as eyeshadow samples with good results. The determination of the MNPs’ size was validated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the Zn concentration in the solid samples was validated by atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (AFS). Acknowledgements (optional) [Garamond font, 10 points] The authors would like to thank Plan propio “Proyecto Puente” de la Universidad de Málaga for financial support of this work.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec