Alire: a library repository manager for the open source Ada ecosystem

Open source movements are main players in today''s software landscape. Communities spring around programming languages, providing compilers, tooling and, chiefly, libraries built with these languages. Once a community reaches a certain critical mass, management of available libraries becomes a point of contention. Operating system providers and distributions often support but the most significant or mature libraries so, usually, language communities develop their own cross-platform software management tools. Examples abound with languages such as Python, OCaml, Rust, Haskell and others. The Ada community has been an exception to date, perhaps due to its smaller open source community. This work presents a working prototype tailored to the Ada compiler available to open source enthusiasts, GNAT. This tool is designedfrom two main principles: zero-cost infrastructure and a pure Ada work environment. Initially available for Linux-based systems, it relies on the semantic versioning paradigm for dependency resolution and uses Ada specification files to describe project releases and dependencies

Reactive programming in Ada 2012 with RxAda

The ReactiveX API, also known as the Reactive Extensions in the. NET world, is a popular functional reactive programming framework for asynchronous, event-based, multithreaded programming. Although Ada built-in tasking reduces the dire needs for additional multithreading support of some other languages, the reactive approach has properties that are well-suited to the safety and maintainability culture predominant in the Ada world, such as complexity reduction, well-defined concurrency semantics, and enhanced legibility by means of concise and explicit information flows appealing to imperative reasoning. This work presents the design of a ReactiveX Ada implementation that aims to balance desirable library properties such as compile-time type-safety, amount of user-required generic instantiations, and a smooth learning curve for both library clients and maintainers. Concurrency design aspects of the library are detailed, showing how the Flat_Map and Thread abstractions have been implemented following Ada programming expectations, in particular with regard to task termination. In the intervening time from its first presentation, the library has gained implemented operators to the point of having all fundamental building blocks available. With RxAda, the Ada programmer can henceforth benefit from the abundant documentation existing for the language-agnostic ReactiveX approach without stepping out of the Ada tool chain

The role of mindfulness on the relationship between daily micro-events and daily gratitude: A within-person analysis

This study is based on the affective events theory and aimed to investigate the situational predictors for mindfulness-related differences in daily affect and gratitude. We tested a mediated moderation model in which daily micro-events (daily hassles and uplifts) were related to affect and gratitude at the within-person level. We also tested a cross-level interaction of mindfulness on the relationship between daily micro-events and gratitude and between daily micro-events and affect. A total of 101 participants participated in a 10-day diary study (n = 1010). Multilevel modeling showed that, at the person-level of analysis, daily micro-events were significantly related to daily affect, and in turn, to daily gratitude. At the within-level of analysis mindfulness moderated the link between daily micro-events and daily gratitude and between daily micro-events and daily affect, such that it become stronger for individuals who scored higher on mindfulness. These findings make relevant theoretical contributions to understanding the power of mindfulness for daily affective dynamics. These results also expand knowledge on within-person processes that explain daily affect and gratitude, in addition to more traditional between-person factors. In sum, the present research demonstrates that being mindful may improve, not only positive affect, but also gratitude.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Classification of sediments by means of Self-Organizing Maps and sediment quality guidelines in sites of the southern Spanish coastline

This study was carried out to classify 112 marine and estuarine sites of the southern Spanish coastline (about 918 km long) according to similar sediment characteristics by means of artificial neural networks (ANNs) such as Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and sediment quality guidelines from a dataset consisted of 16 physical and chemical parameters including sediment granulometry, trace and major elements, total N and P and organic carbon content. The use of ANNs such as SOM made possible the classification of the sampling sites according to their similar chemical characteristics. Visual correlations between geochemical parameters were extracted due to the powerful visual characteristics (component planes) of the SOM revealing that ANNs are an excellent tool to be incorporated in sediment quality assessments. Besides, almost 20% of the sites were classified as medium-high or high priority sites in order to take future remediation actions due to their high mean Effects Range-Median Quotient (m-ERMQ) value. Priority sites included the estuaries of the major rivers (Tinto, Odiel, Palmones, etc.) and several locations along the eastern coastline

Modeling TiO2/UV–vis bacterial inactivation: Useful tools for reactor optimization and design

Heterogeneous photocatalysis applying TiO2 based catalysts has been widely studied for removing inorganic and organic compounds from water and for bacterial inactivation. This available and low-cost catalyst has demonstrated to be effective in the removal of organic pollutants and inactivation of pathogenic bacteria from water. The design of proper types of industrial-scale photoreactors has not been yet successfully implemented, probably due to the conceptual complexity of modeling this process in real wastewater. As a result, TiO2 based photocatalysis is still considered an effective but energetic-inefficient process. In this work, Escherichia coli (gram-positive) and Enterococcus sp (gram-negative) were selected for studying the kinetics of TiO2 photocatalysis. Since several approaches, such as fist-order kinetics, are not truly representative of the bacterial inactivation process, the experimental data were fitted to different mathematical models, such as Gompertz model, which has demonstrated to describe the process properly. Moreover, the effect of the main variables of the process in the inactivation kinetic constant of the Gompertz model has ben studied. More precisely, light intensity, water matrix, catalyst concentration and bacteria have been under study and their effect has been included in the kinetic equation. Finally, operational and construction parameters of a 20 m3/d annular photoreactor for bacterial inactivation has been successfully optimized applying the proposed kinetic model

Bioaccumulation of inorganic elements in dreissena polymorpha from the Ebro river, Spain: could zebra mussels be used as a bioindicator of the impact of human activities?

Dreissena polymorpha is among the top 100 most harmful invasive species in aquatic habitats. European Directive 2013/39/UE establishes Environmental Quality Standards for biota because it has been demonstrated that pollutants bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms. This study evaluated bioaccumulation of inorganic elements in the soft tissues of D. polymorpha in order to assess the usefulness of zebra mussels as a bioindicator of contaminant presence in super fi cial waters. Concentrations of 66 elements were measured in order to evaluate their relation- ship with nearby anthropogenic activity and to the values recommended by Environmental Quality Standards for biota. Bivalves were col- lected from four sample points along the Ebro River Basin (Spain), where diverse human activities are carried out. Zebra mussels accumulate toxins in soft tissue during their life cycle, including Al, Cr, Fe, Hg, Pb, Th, Cd and U. The highest levels of accumulation corresponded to elements associated with human activity in the area, showing the impact of anthropogenic actions on biota. D. polymorpha not only supplies information about current water quality but also acts as a witness of past water quality by bioconcentrating toxic elements present in the environment and providing relevant results about historical water contamination. In conclusion, D. polymorpha is a harmful and dangerous invasive species, but its pervasiveness means that it can be used as a bioindicator to assess current and past presence of elements in water

Study of evolution of microbiological properties in sewage sludge-amended soils: A pilot experience

Large amounts of sewage sludge are generated in urban wastewater treatment plants and used as fertilizer in agriculture due to its characteristics. They can contain contaminants such as heavy metals and pathogenic microorganisms. The objective of this research work is to study, in real conditions, the evolution of microbial concentration in agricultural soils fertilized by biologically treated sewage sludge. The sludge (6.25 tons Ha-1 ) was applied in two agricultural soils with different textures and crops. A microbiological (total coliforms, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Salmonella sp. and total mesophylls) and physical-chemical characterization of the sludge, soils and irrigation water were carried out. The evolution of these parameters during sowing, growth and harvesting of crops was studied. Initially, sewage sludge had a higher concentration of microorganisms than soils. Irrigation water also contained microorganisms, fewer than sewage sludge amendment but not negligible. After amendment, there were no differences in the microbiological evolution in the two types of soil. In general, bacterial concentrations after crop harvest were lower than bacterial concentrations detected before sewage sludge amendment. Consequently, the application of sludge from water treatment processes did not worsen the microbiological quality of agricultural soil in this study at real conditions

Photoactivation and photoregeneration of TiO2/PAC mixture applied in suspension in water treatments: approach to a real application

The process TiO2/PAC/UV-vis has been under study and compared with the isolated treatments of adsorption and photocatalysis determining possible synergies between adsorption and photocatalysis of target antibiotics: amoxicillin, enrofloxacin, sulfadiazine, and trimethoprim. The characterization of the TiO2/PAC mixture was carried out via FESEM and FTIR. Moreover, a kinetic study has been performed. The effect of UV-vis radiation and the type of matrix was analyzed in TiO2/PAC/UV-vis process. The performance of this treatment has been monitored during three cycles, evaluating also the regeneration of TiO2/PAC mixture by UV-vis light. TiO2/PAC/UV-vis process allowed the removal of the antibiotics in the range 90–100% (an average removal of 93% of the initial concentration) after 60 min of treatment. However, only amoxicillin showed a significant synergy applying TiO2/PAC/UV-vis process. Regarding matrix effect, no influence of the matrix type (ultrapure water or treated wastewater) was observed. Since PAC tends to be deactivated gradually, the TiO2/PAC/UV-vis process performance decreases after each cycle in a 15% average. Finally, regeneration via UV-vis light started to be effective after a total of 4 h of regeneration

Long-term study of antibiotic presence in Ebro river basin (Spain): identification of the emission sources

Water monitoring is key to determining the presence of potentially hazardous substances related to urban activities and intensive farming. This research aimed to perform a long-term (four years) quantitative monitoring of selected antibiotics (azithromycin, enrofloxacin, trimethoprim and sulfadiazine) both in rivers and wastewaters belonging to the Ebro River basin (North of Spain). The target antibiotics were chosen on the basis of a preliminary multispecies screening. The analysis of the antibiotics was carried out by LC-MS/MS on wastewater-treatment plant (WWTP) effluent, effluents of a slaughterhouse and hospital, rivers downstream and upstream of these WWTPs, and rivers close to extensive farming areas. The ANOVA test was performed to study the significant differences between the points exposed to concrete emission sources and antibiotic concentration. The monitoring, carried out from 2018 to 2020, has been essential to illustrating the presence of the most abundant antibiotics that were detected in the Ebro River basin. Enrofloxacin has appeared in river waters in significant concentrations, especially near intensive farming, meanwhile azithromycin has been frequently detected in wastewaters. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland