184 research outputs found

    Feasibility of Ceilometers Data to Estimate Radiative Forcing Values: Application to Different Conditions around the COVID-19 Lockdown Period

    Get PDF
    The authors would like to acknowledge to ACTRIS-SPAIN (CGL2017-90884-REDIT), coordinated by Granada University, for providing quality-assured aerosol measurements and acknowledge to AERONET and COPERNICUS Global Land Services for sun-photometer and satellite quality-assured data processing and distribution. The authors also acknowledge to the Atmospheric Modelling & Weather Forecasting Group in the University of Athens, the Earth Science Dpt. from the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the Naval Research laboratory for the provision of SKIRON, DREAM/BSCDREAM8b and NAAPs aerosol maps, respectively. Philippe Dubuisson, the developer of the GAME code, is specially acknowledged. Furthermore, the developers of the HYSPLIT model are also acknowledged. The task of identifying African dust events and quantifying the dust contribution in the regions of the Spanish territory has been routinely carried out in the framework of projects funded by the Spanish ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO).In this study, the feasibility of using ceilometer signals to retrieve radiative forcing values is evaluated. The Global Atmospheric Model (GAME) radiative transfer model is used to estimate the shortwave and longwave radiative forcing using an aerosol parameterization based on AERONET data and vertical profiles from a Lufft CHM-15k Nimbus ceilometer. First, eight cases confirmed as dusty days are analyzed to check the feasibility of using ceilometer profiles to feed GAME. The obtained radiative forcing estimates are in good agreement with the literature showing negative values in the short wave (SW) (cooling effect) and positive values in the long wave (LW) (heating effect), both at all levels. As in the literature, radiative forcing estimates show a strong dependence on variations in the aerosol optical depth (AOD), solar zenith angle (θz), surface temperature (ST), and single scattering albedo at 440 nm (SSA440). Thus, GAME can be fed using ceilometer measurements obtaining reliable results. Then, as the temporal evolution of the AOD440 between 27 January and 15 June compared to the 6-year weekly AERONET AOD440 average (from 2014 to 2019) shows a decrease because of the lockdown imposed in Spain due to the COVID-19, a total of 37 radiative forcing calculations without African dust, divided into 8 scenarios, are performed in order to check the effect of the lockdown measures in the radiative forcing. It is shown that the decrease in the AOD, during the lockdown, caused a decrease in the cooling effect in the SW spectral range at all levels. Besides, the increase in the ST increased the heating effect of the aerosols in the LW at the top of the atmosphere and the presence of pollution and absorbing particles (SSA440 < 0.90) caused an increase of the heating effect in the LW at the surface. Therefore, the observed variations in the radiative forcing estimates before and during the lockdown are directly related with the decrease in emissions of aerosols related to human activities.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (CRISOL) CGL2017-85344-RMadrid Regional Government (TIGAS-CM) Y2018/EMT-5177Maria Sklodowska-Curie IF 796539H2020 programme from the European Union 654109; 87111

    Antiapoptotic proteins Bcl2 and BclX do not protect chronic myeloid leukemia cells from imatinib-mediated growth arrest

    Get PDF
    Imatinib (Glivec, Gleevec, STI571), a Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitor, is the most used drug in chronic myeloid leukemia. Imatinib induces apoptosis in a number of CML-derived cell lines, including K562. However, in order to achieve hematological remissions it is required chronic treatment with the drug, a fact inconsistent with a cytotoxic mechanism of imatinib in vivo. In this work we have analysed the effects of imatinib on the proliferation and apoptosis of K562-derived cell lines with constitutive expression of the anti-apoptotic genes Bcl2 and BclX. We found that imatinib-mediated apoptosis was completely abrogated in both Bcl2- and BclX-cell lines. However, imatinib inhibited proliferation, although growth rate was higher than in parental K562. We conclude that, besides its apoptotic effect, imatinib acts through an apoptosis-independent mechanism to arrest cell growth.The work was supported by grant PM98-0109 and SAF2002-04193 from Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology to J.L.Peer Reviewe

    New avenues for increasing yield and stability in C3 cereals: exploring ear photosynthesis

    Get PDF
    Small grain cereals such as wheat, rice and barley are among the most important crops worldwide. Any attempt to increase crop productivity and stability through breeding implies developing new strategies for plant phenotyping, including defining ideotype attributes for selection. Recently, the role of non-foliar photosynthetic organs, particularly the inflorescences, has received increasing attention. For example, ear photosynthesis has been reported to be a major contributor to grain filling in wheat and barley under stress and good agronomic conditions. This review provides an overview of the particular characteristics of the ear that makes this photosynthetic organ better adapted to grain filling than the flag leaf and revises potential metabolic and molecular traits that merit further research as targets for cereal improvement. Currently, the absence of high-throughput phenotyping methods limits the inclusion of ear photosynthesis in the breeding agenda. In this regard, a number of different approaches are presented

    Diseño de experiencias prácticas sobre memoria cache

    Get PDF
    La planificación de actividades prácticas a fin de consolidar el aprendizaje de los conceptos clave relacionados con la memoria cache no es una tarea fácil. En esta ponencia destacamos los conceptos que hemos considerado fundamentales sobre el sistema de memoria cache. A continuación planteamos un conjunto de actividades prácticas basándonos en el refuerzo de dichos conceptos y establecemos la metodología para su enseñanza. Finalmente, presentamos una herramienta de ayuda, accesible mediante un navegador web, que apoyará el proceso de aprendizaje
    corecore