3,494 research outputs found
Heat-Wave Events in Spain: Air Mass Analysis and Impacts on 7
The present paper describes and characterizes the air mass circulation during the heat-wave events registered during the period 2005-2014 over Spain, paying special attention on the role of the Saharan circulations. With this purpose, backward trajectories at 500, 1500 and 3000 m in Seville (south), Madrid (centre) and Bilbao (north) during the thirteen heat-wave events identified during this period are analysed. Finally, the impact of the heat-wave events and of each advection pattern on 7Be activity concentrations is also analysed.
The air mass results indicate that the heat-wave events are characterized roughly by western, southern and nearby advections, with a higher frequency of the first two types. The analysis shows a general and large impact at lower levels of westerly flows and an increase of African air masses with height. The Saharan air masses present a different spatial impact over Spain, with a decreasing occurrence and a decrease in the simultaneous occurrence percentage from south to north. The 7Be activity concentrations during these events show an increase of concentrations in central and southern areas and a small decrease in northern Spain. This increase is not associated with Saharan air masses, but instead to the arrival of distant westerly air masses.JRC.G.II.7-Nuclear securit
La modelación matemática- M: una nueva alternativa pedagógica didáctica, para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las matemáticas
Esta ponencia, es el resultado del trabajo desarrollado en el Discurso Matemático Escolar (DME) para el tema de Sistemas de Ecuaciones Lineales (SEL), en la asignatura de álgebra lineal para la carrera de Ingeniería Industrial, en los Institutos Tecnológicos de Pinotepa, Oax. y Tlalnepantla, Edo. de Mex. Casi siempre, la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las matemáticas, genera muchos problemas de corte matemático, pedagógico y didáctico; razón por la cual, existe un abundante trabajo de investigación educativa en esta dirección, sin embargo, parece que nada de todas estas aportaciones han funcionado de manera general, pues el problema pedagógico y didáctico persiste; pues los altos índices de reprobación en esta área, cada vez son más grandes. El propósito es determinar si con el uso de la Teoría de la Modelación Matemática (MM), el que aprende alcanza un aprendizaje significativo en lo refiere a la conceptualización matemática de prerrequisito y de los nuevos temas de la asignatura que nos ocupe. Mientras que el objetivo, está focalizado para que todos los aprendedores se apropien con un nivel de aceptación del cien por ciento, la teoría del Cálculo vectorial y Varias variables
Airflow and teleconnection patterns driving the spatial and temporal variability of high 7Be air concentrations in Europe
The long-term monitoring of the cosmogenic 7Be activity concentrations has been used to better understand the influence of large-scale atmospheric circulation dynamics in the troposphere. With an aim, this study analyzes weekly 7Be data from 15 sampling stations in Europe over 2005–2014. We first define peak (or extremely high) events in each station as those activity concentrations above the 90th percentile, and then investigate their temporal and spatial variability. These events are most frequent in the spring and summer seasons, with a notable latitudinal variability in their number. Next, we use back-trajectory cluster analysis to identify the main advection pathways associated with these high concentrations. To achieve this, persistent periods, i.e., sampling periods over which at least 60% of the calculated backward trajectories arriving at a given site correspond to the same airflow pattern, are taken as reference. This method reveals large differences in the association between the airflow patterns observed at different stations in connection with the 7Be peaks. A comparison between stations shows no clear spatial pattern, which suggests a further influence of mesoscale/local physical processes on the surface 7Be activity concentrations. Finally, the main airflow pattern at each sampling site and the associated 7Be peaks, are related to the main teleconnection patterns of large scale and regional climate variability in Europe: North Atlantic Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation, East Atlantic, East Atlantic/Western Russia, Scandinavian pattern and Western Mediterranean Oscillation. The results point out the connection between the negative phases of NAO and We-MO, and the positive phase of EA with the spatial and temporal variability and occurrence of the 7Be peak activity concentrations. These results show a latitudinal division between northern and southern sites, with similar influence of teleconnection patterns, while those located in the central part of Europe present larger variability in the impact of teleconnection patterns
Radiological risk from thoron, a case study: The particularly radon-prone area of Bolsena, and the lesson learned
Abstract The contribution of 220 Rn is usually negligible compared to that of 222 Rn: its very short half-life makes escape from its source site within the rock very unlikely and it never has time enough to filtrate through the ground and through cracks in the floors or cellar walls to reach living quarters. This however becomes untrue if walls built with 232 Th-rich materials are present: then sizeable amounts of thoron may be detected in the closed areas bounded by those walls. This is the case for many dwellings in central Italy, and the town of Bolsena (northern Latium) is presented as a case study. A typical building of the area, entirely constructed with tuff blocks, is investigated and the annual dose rates calculated for varying distances from the wall. Thoron concentration was found to decrease with a relaxation length of 13 cm. Thoron was found to pose a significant risk. The rate of air exchange was found to produce little effect. Wall plastering acts as a filter: thoron diffuses through it but a HVL of less than 1 cm was found to prevail
30 years of European Commission Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring data bank (REMdb) – an open door to boost environmental radioactivity research
The
Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring data bank (REMdb) was created in the
aftermath of the Chernobyl accident (1986) by the European Commission (EC) –
Directorate-General Joint Research Centre (DG JRC), sited in Ispra (Italy).
Since then it has been maintained there with the aim to keep a historical
record of the Chernobyl accident and to store the radioactivity monitoring
data gathered through the national environmental monitoring programs of the
member states (MSs). The legal basis is the Euratom
Treaty, Chapter III Health and
Safety, Articles 35 and 36, which clarify that MSs shall periodically
communicate to the EC information on environmental radioactivity levels. By
collecting and validating this information in REMdb, JRC supports the DG for
Energy in its responsibilities in returning qualified information to the MSs
(competent authorities and general public) on the levels of radioactive
contamination of the various compartments of the environment (air, water,
soil) on the European Union scale. REMdb accepts data on radionuclide
concentrations from EU MSs in both environmental samples and foodstuffs from
1984 onwards. To date, the total number of data records stored in REMdb
exceeds 5 million, in this way providing the scientific community with a
valuable archive of environmental radioactivity topics in Europe. Records
stored in REMdb are publicly accessible until 2011 through an unrestricted
repository “REM data bank – Years 1984–2006”
https://doi.org/10.2905/jrc-10117-10024 (De Cort et al., 2007) and “REM data bank –
Years 2007–2011” https://doi.org/10.2905/de42f259-fafe-4329-9798-9d8fabb98de5 (De
Cort et al., 2012). Access to data from 2012 onwards is granted only after
explicit request, until the corresponding monitoring report is published.
Each data record contains information describing the sampling circumstances
(sampling type, begin and end time), measurement conditions (value, nuclide,
apparatus, etc.), location and date of sampling, and original data reference.
In this paper the scope, features and extension of REMdb are described in
detail.</p
Dignity and psychosocial related variables in elderly advanced cancer patients
Abstract Introduction: Most cancers occur in older individuals, who are more vulnerable due to functional impairment, multiple comorbidities, cognitive impairment, and lack of socio‑familial support. These can undermine patients' sense of dignity. This study seeks to compare dignity scores in older patients with advanced cancer on sociodemographic and clinical variables and analyze the predictive value of anxiety, depression, functional limitations, and social support on dignity scores. Methods: A prospective, multicenter, observational study conducted with participation of 15 hospitals in Spain from February 2020 to October 2021. Patients with newly‑diagnosed, advanced cancer completed the dignity (PPDS), anxiety and depression (BSI), Social Support (Duke-UNC‑11), and functional limitations (EORTC‑C30) scales. Lineal regression analyses explored the effects of anxiety, depression, functional status, and social support on dignity, adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical variables. Results: A total of 180 subjects participated in this study. The results of the correlation analysis revealed that dignity correlated negatively with anxiety, depression, and sex, and positively with social support, functional status, and longer estimated survival. Thus, women, and more anxious and depressed individuals scored lower on the dignity scale, whereas patients with more social support, fewer functional limitations, and longer estimated survival scored higher. Conclusion: In conclusion, being female, having a lower educational level, lower estimated survival, depression, anxiety, less social support, and limited functionality are correlated with less dignity in the elderly with advanced cancer. It is a priority to manage both physical and psychological symptoms in patients with unresectable advanced cancer to mitigate psychological distress and increase their sense of dignit
Histiocytoid Sweet Syndrome associated with anorectal lymphogranuloma venereum in a patient with HIV infection
Sweet Syndrome belongs to a group of diseases known as neutrophilic dermatoses. An uncommon variant named Histiocytoid Sweet Syndrome (HSS) can be associated with a variety of conditions, including cancer, infections, drug toxicity and others. Here we present an instance of HSS in an HIV-positive patient in an infectious disease settin
Improvement in the Accuracy of Back Trajectories Using WRF to Identify Pollen Sources in Southern Iberian Peninsula
Airborne pollen transport at micro-, meso-gamma and meso-beta scales must be studied by atmospheric models, having special relevance in complex terrain. In these cases, the accuracy of these models is mainly determined by the spatial resolution of the underlying meteorological dataset. This work examines how meteorological datasets determine the results obtained from atmospheric transport models used to describe pollen transport in the atmosphere. We investigate the effect of the spatial resolution when computing backward trajectories with the HYSPLIT model. We have used meteorological datasets from the WRF model with 27, 9 and 3 km resolutions and from the GDAS files with 1 ° resolution. This work allows characterizing atmospheric transport of Olea pollen in a region with complex flows. The results show that the complex terrain affects the trajectories and this effect varies with the different meteorological datasets. Overall, the change from GDAS to WRF-ARW inputs improves the analyses with the HYSPLIT model, thereby increasing the understanding the pollen episode. The results indicate that a spatial resolution of at least 9 km is needed to simulate atmospheric flows that are considerable affected by the relief of the landscape. The results suggest that the appropriate meteorological files should be considered when atmospheric models are used to characterize the atmospheric transport of pollen on micro-, meso-gamma and meso-beta scales. Furthermore, at these scales, the results are believed to be generally applicable for related areas such as the description of atmospheric transport of radionuclides or in the definition of nuclear-radioactivity emergency preparedness
Combining the bulk transfer formulation and surface renewal analysis for estimating the sensible heat flux without involving the parameter KB-1
The single‐source bulk transfer formulation (based on the Monin‐Obukhov Similarity Theory, MOST) has been used to estimate the sensible heat flux, H, in the framework of remote sensing over homogeneous surfaces (HMOST). The latter involves the canopy parameter, , which is difficult to parameterize. Over short and dense grass at a site influenced by regional advection of sensible heat flux, HMOST with = 2 (i.e., the value recommended) correlated strongly with the H measured using the Eddy Covariance, EC, method, HEC. However, it overestimated HEC by 50% under stable conditions for samples showing a local air temperature gradient larger than the measurement error, 0.4 km−1. Combining MOST and Surface Renewal analysis, three methods of estimating H that avoid dependency have been derived. These new expressions explain the variability of H versus , where is the friction velocity, is the radiometric surface temperature, and is the air temperature at height, z. At two measurement heights, the three methods performed excellently. One of the methods developed required the same readily/commonly available inputs as HMOST due to the fact that the ratio between and the ramp amplitude was found fairly constant under stable and unstable cases. Over homogeneous canopies, at a site influenced by regional advection of sensible heat flux, the methods proposed are an alternative to the traditional bulk transfer method because they are reliable, exempt of calibration against the EC method, and are comparable or identical in cost of application. It is suggested that the methodology may be useful over bare soil and sparse vegetation.This research was funded by CERESS project AGL2011–30498 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain, cofunded FEDER), CGL2012–37416‐C04‐01 (Ministerio de Ciencia y Innovación of Spain), and CEI Iberus, 2014 (Proyecto financiado por el Ministerio de Educación en el marco del Programa Campus de Excelencia Internacional of Spain)
Lower IgG somatic hypermutation rates during acute dengue virus infection is compatible with a germinal center-independent B cell response
Reads, clonal groups, and lineages numbers per individual and condition. The table shows the number of raw and used sequences as well as the number of clonotypes and lineages per individual. (XLS 30 kb
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