Diplomado Gestión de Riesgo para la adaptación ante el cambio climático Módulo 03: Economia y Cambio Climatico

Nuestro país está situado en una región donde hay tiempos que se padece por sequía y se pierden las cosechas, deslizamientos de tierras, derrumbes y tiempos en que las lluvias y los huracanes causan grandes desastres a la población, tal es el caso de los daños que ocasionó el paso del huracán Félix por las comunidades de la región autónoma del atlántico norte, provocó inundaciones en muchas comunidades con el desbordamiento de los ríos, cauces y lagunas, destrucción de calles, camino y carreteras de todo tiempo, impidiendo la comunicación terrestre, contaminación de pozos, para el consumo de agua potable, destrucción del bosque, afectación a la vegetación, mortalidad de animales silvestres y caseros(vaca, gallinas, caballos, cerdos etc), como también la perdida de seres humanos y otros daños, lo que nos permitió comprender el grado de vulnerabilidad a la que estamos sometidos ante fenómenos naturales. Está demostrado que los fenómenos de índole natural no se puede cambiar, pero se pueden reducir las vulnerabilidades para que los daños que estas ocasionen sean menos, de manera que es necesario que los gobiernos y la población se preparan para enfrentarlos y buscar alternativas que sean amigables con el ambiente y contribuya a la reducción del riesgo; desde esta perspectiva la universidad URACCAN a través del Instituto de recursos naturales, medio ambiente y desarrollo sostenible (IREMADES) en colaboración con la Cruz Roja Nicaragüense /Cruz Roja Holandesa por medio del proyecto ̈Reducción de la Vulnerabilidad de las Comunidades, relacionadas a los efectos del Cambio Climático en la Zona Norte de Nicaragua ̈ implementar el Diplomado Comunitario en Gestión Comunitaria para la Adaptación al Cambio Climático, encaminado a consolidar las capacidades de los recursos humanos de funcionarios institucionales y actores claves que están vinculado con el desarrollo social, económico y ambiental de los municipio de la RAAN, con el ánimo de articular estrategias locales en función de implementar mecanismos de adaptación al cambio climático y la reducción del riesgo

Cardiomiopatía hipertrófica: experiencia de 5 años en un centro cardiovascular

ResumenIntroducciónLa cardiomiopatía hipertrófica se define como el engrosamiento de la pared ventricular izquierda que no es explicado por condiciones anormales de la carga y que impone un riesgo de: arritmias, falla cardiaca y muerte súbita.Se pretende identificarLa prevalencia, las características clínicas y del tratamiento de los pacientes con cardiomiopatía hipertrófica atendidos en nuestra institución.Materiales y métodosSe extrajeron y analizaron los registros de pacientes con cardiomiopatías hipertróficas, definiendo las características generales y explorando las diferencias entre subgrupos, todos los contrastes estadísticos asumieron una confianza del 95%.ResultadosSe evaluaron 22 casos de la cardiomiopatía hipertrófica, el sexo femenino aportó el 40,9% del total de los casos, la edad promedio fue 54 años. El 77,27% presentaron insuficiencia mitral, el 63,64% reportaron dolor torácico, el 68,18% se encontraban en tratamiento inhibidor de renina y el 95,45% tenían betabloqueador, el grosor promedio del septum fue del 22,77mm, la prevalencia de fibrilación auricular fue del 22,7% y la de enfermedad coronaria del 18%.ConclusionesLa prevalencia de la cardiomiopatía hipertrófica en el período 2009-2013 fue del 2,35%, relacionado principalmente con la insuficiencia mitral y tenían antecedente de dolor torácico, la prevalencia de la fibrilación auricular en pacientes con cardiomiopatía hipertrófica en el presente estudio fue del 22,7% y la de enfermedad coronaria del 18%.AbstractIntroductionHypertrophic cardiomyopathy is defined as the thickening of the left ventricular wall that is not explained by abnormal loading conditions, imposing a risk for arrhythmias, heart failure and sudden death.We attempt to identify the prevalence, clinical features and treatment of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy assisted within our institution.Material and methodsRecords of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were pulled and analysed, defining general features and exploring differences among subgroups; all statistical contrasts assumed a confidence of 95%.Results22 cases of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were assessed, 40.9% of whom were female, average age was 54. 77.27% showed mitral insufficiency, 63.4% reported chest pain, 68.18% were receiving renin inhibitor therapy and 95.45% were taking beta blockers. Average septum thickness was 22.77mm, prevalence of atrial fibrillation was 22.7% and coronary disease 18%.ConclusionPrevalence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy during the 2009-2013 period was of 2.35%, mostly related to mitral insufficiency and previous history of chest pain; prevalence of atrial fibrillation in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in our study was of 22.7%, and 28% for coronary disease

A Multi-wavelength View of the TeV Blazar Markarian 421: Correlated Variability, Flaring, and Spectral Evolution

We report results from a multi-wavelength monitoring campaign on Mrk 421 over the period of 2003-2004. The source was observed simultaneously at TeV and X-ray energies, with supporting observations frequently carried out at optical and radio wavelengths. The large amount of simultaneous data has allowed us to examine the variability of Mrk 421 in detail. The variabilities are generally correlated between the X-ray and gamma-ray bands, although the correlation appears to be fairly loose. The light curves show the presence of flares with varying amplitudes on a wide range of timescales both at X-ray and TeV energies. Of particular interest is the presence of TeV flares that have no coincident counterparts at longer wavelengths, because the phenomenon seems difficult to understand in the context of the proposed emission models for TeV blazars. We have also found that the TeV flux reached its peak days before the X-ray flux during a giant flare in 2004. Such a difference in the development of the flare presents a further challenge to the emission models. Mrk 421 varied much less at optical and radio wavelengths. Surprisingly, the normalized variability amplitude in optical seems to be comparable to that in radio, perhaps suggesting the presence of different populations of emitting electrons in the jet. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of Mrk 421 is seen to vary with flux, with the two characteristic peaks moving toward higher energies at higher fluxes. We have failed to fit the measured SEDs with a one-zone SSC model; introducing additional zones greatly improves the fits. We have derived constraints on the physical properties of the X-ray/gamma-ray flaring regions from the observed variability (and SED) of the source. The implications of the results are discussed. (Abridged)Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures, to appear in Ap

Centerscope

Centerscope, formerly Scope, was published by the Boston University Medical Center "to communicate the concern of the Medical Center for the development and maintenance of improved health care in contemporary society.

Feline leukaemia virus: half a century since its discovery

In the early 1960s, Professor William (Bill) F.H. Jarrett was presented with a timeGÇôspace cluster of cats with lymphoma identified by a local veterinary practitioner, Harry Pfaff, and carried out experiments to find if the condition might be caused by a virus, similar to lymphomas noted previously in poultry and mice. In 1964, the transmission of lymphoma in cats and the presence of virus-like particles that resembled GÇÿthe virus of murine leukaemiasGÇÖ in the induced tumours were reported in Nature. These seminal studies initiated research on feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) and launched the field of feline retrovirology. This review article considers the way in which some of the key early observations made by Bill Jarrett and his coworkers have developed in subsequent years and discusses progress that has been made in the field since FeLV was first discovered

Increasing dominance of large lianas in Amazonian forests

Ecological orthodoxy suggests that old-growth forests should be close to dynamic equilibrium, but this view has been challenged by recent findings that neotropical forests are accumulating carbon and biomass, possibly in response to the increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. However, it is unclear whether the recent increase in tree biomass has been accompanied by a shift in community composition. Such changes could reduce or enhance the carbon storage potential of old-growth forests in the long term. Here we show that non-fragmented Amazon forests are experiencing a concerted increase in the density, basal area and mean size of woody climbing plants (lianas). Over the last two decades of the twentieth century the dominance of large lianas relative to trees has increased by 1.7–4.6% a year. Lianas enhance tree mortality and suppress tree growth, so their rapid increase implies that the tropical terrestrial carbon sink may shut down sooner than current models suggest. Predictions of future tropical carbon fluxes will need to account for the changing composition and dynamics of supposedly undisturbed forests

Methods to estimate aboveground wood productivity from long-term forest inventory plots

Forest inventory plots are widely used to estimate biomass carbon storage and its change over time. While there has been much debate and exploration of the analytical methods for calculating biomass, the methods used to determine rates of wood production have not been evaluated to the same degree. This affects assessment of ecosystem fluxes and may have wider implications if inventory data are used to parameterise biospheric models, or scaled to large areas in assessments of carbon sequestration. Here we use a dataset of 35 long-term Amazonian forest inventory plots to test different methods of calculating wood production rates. These address potential biases associated with three issues that routinely impact the interpretation of tree measurement data: (1) changes in the point of measurement (POM) of stem diameter as trees grow over time; (2) unequal length of time between censuses; and (3) the treatment of trees that pass the minimum diameter threshold (“recruits”). We derive corrections that control for changing POM height, that account for the unobserved growth of trees that die within census intervals, and that explore different assumptions regarding the growth of recruits during the previous census interval. For our dataset we find that annual aboveground coarse wood production (AGWP; in Mg ha−1 year−1 of dry matter) is underestimated on average by 9.2% if corrections are not made to control for changes in POM height. Failure to control for the length of sampling intervals results in a mean underestimation of 2.7% in annual AGWP in our plots for a mean interval length of 3.6 years. Different methods for treating recruits result in mean differences of up to 8.1% in AGWP. In general, the greater the length of time a plot is sampled for and the greater the time elapsed between censuses, the greater the tendency to underestimate wood production. We recommend that POM changes, census interval length, and the contribution of recruits should all be accounted for when estimating productivity rates, and suggest methods for doing this.European UnionUK Natural Environment Research CouncilGordon and Betty Moore FoundationCASE sponsorship from UNEP-WCMCRoyal Society University Research FellowshipERC Advanced Grant “Tropical Forests in the Changing Earth System”Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Awar

Airlift bioreactor for biological applications with microbubble mediated transport processes

Airlift bioreactors can provide an attractive alternative to stirred tanks, particularly for bioprocesses with gaseous reactants or products. Frequently, however, they are susceptible to being limited by gas–liquid mass transfer and by poor mixing of the liquid phase, particularly when they are operating at high cell densities. In this work we use CFD modelling to show that microbubbles generated by fluidic oscillation can provide an effective, low energy means of achieving high interfacial area for mass transfer and improved liquid circulation for mixing. The results show that when the diameter of the microbubbles exceeded 200 µm, the “downcomer” region, which is equivalent to about 60% of overall volume of the reactor, is free from gas bubbles. The results also demonstrate that the use of microbubbles not only increases surface area to volume ratio, but also increases mixing efficiency through increasing the liquid velocity circulation around the draft tube. In addition, the depth of downward penetration of the microbubbles into the downcomer increases with decreasing bubbles size due to a greater downward drag force compared to the buoyancy force. The simulated results indicate that the volume of dead zone increases as the height of diffuser location is increased. We therefore hypothesise that poor gas bubble distribution due to the improper location of the diffuser may have a markedly deleterious effect on the performance of the bioreactor used in this work