Estudi del procés de mineralització en el sòl compost de deixalles

Per tal de conèixer i poder explicar tots els processos que segueixen les diferents formes nitrogenades d'un sòl en el qual s'ha barrejat compost de residus sòlids urbans, es fan servir dos mètodes diferents: I- Incubació de les barreges sota condicions controlades, registrant l'activitat microbiana mitjançant una respirometria i analizant periòdicament el nivell de N-NH4+, N-NO3-. N.org. sol., N org. total i de C ox. sol. que hi ha a la barreja. II- Assaig de conreu de margall en tests, prenent mensualment mostres de substrat, del qual s'analitza el mateix que a les incubacions, i mostres de teixits vegetals, dels quals es determina la producció total i la riquesa en nitrogen. La mineralització del nitrogen i la producció vegetal als tractaments adobats amb compost presenten un retard considerable respecte als controls més com més alta és l'activitat dels microorganismes. Aquest retard s'atribueix a la immobilització microbiana.To know amd to explain the processes followed by the different nitrogenate forms of a soil where compost of City garbage has been added, two methods are used: I- Incubation of the mixture under controllate conditions, studying the microbial activity with respirometry and periodically analysing the level of N-NO3-, water soluble organic N, total organic N and oxidable water soluble carbon of the mixture. II- Growing test of ray grass in pots, taking soil and vegetable samples monthly doing the same analysis than in the incubation for the soil and controlling total dry production and nitrogen content for the ray grass. The high doses of compost used and its low stability initially produce nitrogen immobilization in the incubation as well as in the growing tests.Para conocer y poder explicar todos los procesos que siguen las diferentes formas nitrogenadas de un suelo al que se le ha mezclado compost de residus urbanos, se utilizan dos métodos diferentes: I- Incubación de la mezcla bajo condiciones controladas, registrando la actividad microbiana mediante una respirometria y analizando periódicamente el nivel de N-NH4 +, N-NO3-, N org. sol., N org. total y de C ox. sol. que hay en la mezcla. II- Ensayo de cultivo de ray-gras en macetas, tomando mensualmente muestras de sustrato, del que se analiza lo mismo que en las incubaciones, y muestras de tejido vegetal, del que se determina la producción total y la riqueza en nitrógeno. La mineralización del nitrógeno y la producción vegetal en los tratamientos abonados con compost presentan un retraso considerable respecto al control, mayor cuanto mayor es la actividad de los microorganismos. Este retraso se atribuye a la inmovilización microbiana

Use of internal boundary conditions for levees representation: application to river flood management

River floods can be simulated with the 2D shallow water system of equations using finite volume methods, where the terrain is discretized in cells that form the computational mesh. Usually a proper treatment of wet/dry fronts is required. River levees can be modelled as part of the topography by means of sufficiently small cells of higher elevation than the rest of the bed level in locally refined meshes. This procedure is associated with a large computational time since the time step depends directly on the cell size. The alternative proposed in this work includes the levees as internal boundary conditions in the 2D numerical scheme. In particular, levees have been defined by a weir law that, depending on the relative values of water surface levels on both sides, can formulate the discharge for different situations (i.e. free flow and submerged flow). In addition, having identified numerical difficulties in cases of low discharge under free flow conditions, a novel procedure to avoid oscillations has been developed and called volume transport method. The validation and comparison between methods has been carried out with benchmark test cases and, in addition, with a real flood event in the Ebro River (Spain)

2D numerical simulation of unsteady flows for large scale floods prediction in real time

The challenge of finding a compromise between computational time and level of accuracy and robustness has traditionally expanded the use simplified models rather than full two-dimensional (2D) models for flood simulation. This work presents a GPU accelerated 2D shallow water model for the simulation of flood events in real time. In particular, an explicit first-order finite volume scheme is detailed to control the numerical instabilities that are likely to appear when used in complex topography. The model is first validated with the benchmark test case of the Toce River (Italy) and numerical fixes are demonstrated to be necessary. The model is next applied to reproduce real events in a reach of the Ebro River (Spain) in order to compare simulation results with field data. The second case deals with a large domain (744 km2) and long flood duration (up to 20 days) allowing an analysis of the performance and speed-up achieved by different GPU devices. The high values of fit between observed and simulated results as well as the computational times achieved are encouraging to propose the use of the model as forecasting system

The shallow water equations and their application to realistic cases

The numerical modelling of 2D shallow flows in complex geometries involving transient flow and movable boundaries has been a challenge for researchers in recent years. There is a wide range of physical situations of environmental interest, such as flow in open channels and rivers, tsunami and flood modelling, that can be mathematically represented by first-order non-linear systems of partial differential equations, whose derivation involves an assumption of the shallow water type. Shallow water models may include more sophisticated terms when applied to cases of not pure water floods, such as mud/debris floods, produced by landslides. Mud/debris floods are unsteady flow phenomena in which the flow changes rapidly, and the properties of the moving fluid mixture include stop and go mechanisms. The present work reports on a numerical model able to solve the 2D shallow water equations even including bed load transport over erodible bed in realistic situations involving transient flow and movable flow boundaries. The novelty is that it offers accurate and stable results in realistic problems since an appropriate discretization of the governing equations is performed. Furthermore, the present work is focused on the importance of the computational cost. Usually, the main drawback is the high computational effort required for obtaining accurate numerical solutions due to the high number of cells involved in realistic cases. However, the proposed model is able to reduce computer times by orders of magnitude making 2D applications competitive and practical for operational flood prediction. Moreover our results show that high performance code development can take advantage of general purpose and inexpensive Graphical Processing Units, allowing to run almost 100 times faster than old generation codes in some cases

An erbium(III)-based NIR emitter with a highly conjugated ß-diketonate for blue-region sensitization

The sensitization of lanthanide complexes in the visible region is of particular interest for practical applications such as labeling, biological analysis and optoelectronics. A visible-light sensitized Er3+complex based on the use of a highly conjugated ß-diketonate (1, 3-di(2-naphthyl)-1, 3-propanedione, Hdnm) and 5-nitro-1, 10-phenanthroline (5NO2phen) as an ancillary ligand, [Er(dnm)3(5NO2phen)], has been synthesized, fully characterized and its photophysical properties have been investigated. Suitably expanded p-conjugation in the complex molecule makes the excitation window red-shifted to the visible region (up to 550 nm). Efficient energy transfer by antenna effect results in 1.53 µm emission from the Er3+ion

Vibrational analysis and thermal behavior of salvia hispanica, nigella sativa and papaver somniferum seeds

Introduction: Salvia hispanica L., Nigella sativa L. and Papaver somniferum L. are involved in opiate-dependent behavior. It is known that the seeds of these three herbs contain high amounts of antioxidants, which are helpful in disease prevention, but further research is needed on some of their other phytochemical components (terpene alkaloids, benzoquinones and others), which are claimed to affect human opioid receptors. Methods: Seeds from the three afore mentioned plants have been studied by ATR-FTIR vibrational spectroscopy and thermo analytical techniques (TG/DTG, DTA and DSC). Results: The infrared spectrum has confirmed the presence of the ester carbonyl of terpenoid alkaloids (such as nigellamine) and the fully conjugated cyclic dione structure of quinones (e.g., thymoquinone). As regards the thermal stability of these seeds, small differences have been observed in their thermal profiles (endothermic effects at around 333C for chia, 268C for black cumin and 319C for poppy seeds), which can be ascribed to their different content in carbohydrates. Conclusions: The functional groups of the main active constituents and the thermal behavior of these three seeds have been elucidated

RiverFlow2D numerical simulation of flood mitigation solutions in the Ebro River

[EN] A study of measures oriented to flood mitigation in the mid reach of the Ebro river is presented: elimination of vegetation in the riverbed, use of controlled flooding areas and construction or re-adaptation of levees. The software used is RiverFlow2D which solves the conservative free-surface flow equations with a finite volume method running on GPU. The results are compared with measurements at gauge stations and aerial views. The most effective measure has turned out to be the elimination of vegetation in the riverbed. It is demonstrated that not only the maximum flooded area is narrower but also it reduces the water depth up to 1 m. The other measures have local consequences when the peak discharge is relatively high although they could be useful in case the discharge is lower[ES] En este trabajo se presenta un estudio de medidas orientadas a la mitigación de avenidas en el tramo medio del río Ebro: limpieza de vegetación del cauce, uso de zonas de inundación controlada y construcción o re-adaptación de motas. Para ello se utiliza el software RiverFlow2D que resuelve las ecuaciones conservativas del flujo de superficie libre con un método de volúmenes finitos realizando los cálculos sobre GPU. Se comparan los resultados con medidas en estaciones de aforo e información extraída de ortofotos. La medida más efectiva, de las analizadas, ha resultado ser la eliminación de la vegetación en el cauce. Se demuestra que no sólo el área máxima inundada es menor en todo el tramo sino que también reduce la altura de agua hasta en 1 m. El resto de medidas tienen consecuencias locales y de poca entidad cuando los caudales pico son altos, aunque podrían resultar de utilidad para avenidas con caudales más bajos.Este trabajo se encuentra en el marco del proyecto de investigación CGL2015-66114-R financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación/FEDER. Los autores quieren agradecer también a la Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro por su disponibilidad de consulta y gestión de datos.Echeverribar, I.; Morales-Hernández, M.; Lacasta, A.; Brufrau, P.; García-Navarro, P. (2017). Simulación numérica con RiverFlow2D de posibles soluciones de mitigación de avenidas en el tramo medio del río Ebro. Ingeniería del Agua. 21(1):53-70. https://doi.org/10.4995/ia.2017.6550SWORD5370211Ahmad, S., Simonovic, S. 2006. An intelligent decision support system for management of floods. Water Resources Management, 20(3), 391-410. doi:10.1007/s11269-006-0326-3Ahmadian, R., Falconer, R. A., Wicks, J. 2015. Benchmarking of flood inundation extent using various dynamically linked one- and two-dimensional approaches. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 1-15. doi:10.1111/jfr3.12208Bates, P. D., De Roo, A. P. J. 2000. A simple raster-based model for flood inundation simulation. Journal of Hydrology, 236(1-2), 54-77. doi:10.1016/S0022-1694(00)00278-XBladé, E., Cea, L., Corestein, G., Escolano, E., Puertas, J., Vázquez-cendón, E., Dolz, J., Coll, A. 2014. Iber: herramienta de simulación numérica del flujo en ríos. Revista internacional de Métodos Numéricos para Cálculo y Diseño en Ingeniería, 30(1), 1-10. doi:10.1016/j.rimni.2012.07.004Brufau, P., García-Navarro, P. 2001. Modelo de simulación bidimensional de transitorios en aguas superficiales: aplicación a roturas de presa. Ingeniería Civil, 121, 33-40.Caviedes-Voullième, D., Morales-Hernández, M., López-Marijuan, I., García-Navarro, P. 2014. Reconstruction of 2D river beds by appropriate interpolation of 1D cross-sectional information for flood simulation. Environmental modelling & software, 61, 206-228. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.07.016Comisión Técnica del Comité Español de la Estrategia Internacional para la Reducción de Desastres, Dirección general de protección civil y emergencias, Ministerio del interior, Gobierno de España. Reducción del riesgo de desastres, nº 3 enero-abril 2016. http://www.proteccioncivil.org.DHI. 2009. MIKE 21 Flow Model. Hydrodynamic Module Scientific Documentation. MIKE by DHI, 2009.García, R., Restrepo, P., Deweese, M., Ziemer, M., Palmer, J., Thornburg, J., Murillo, J., Morales, M., García-Navarro, P., Lacasta, A. 2015. Advanced GPU Parallelization for two-dimensional operational river flood forecasting. Proceedings of the 36th IAHR World Congress, Junio 28-Julio 3. The Hague, The Netherlands.Lacasta, A., Morales-Hernández, M., Murillo, J., García-Navarro, P. 2014. An optimized GPU implementation of a 2D free surface simulation model on unstructured meshes. Advances in engineering software, 78, 1-15. doi:10.1016/j.advengsoft.2014.08.007Lacasta, A., Juez, C., Murillo, J., García-Navarro, P. 2015. An efficient solution for hazardous geophysical flows simulation using GPUs. Computers & Geosciences, 78, 63-72. doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2015.02.010Morales-Hernández, M., García-Navarro, P., Burguete, J., Brufau, P. 2013. A conservative strategy to couple 1D and 2D models for shallow water flow simulation. Computers & Fluids, 81, 26-44. doi:10.1016/j.compfluid.2013.04.001Murillo, J., Brufau, P., García-Navarro, P., Rodríguez, M., Andrés-Urrutia, A. 2007. A mathematical model for numerical simulation of shallow water flow: description and practical application of Guad2D. Proceedings of the Environmental Informatics and System Research Congress (Enviroinfo 2007), September 12-14, Warsaw, Poland, 409-416.Plan de Gestión del Riesgo de Inundación, Confederación Hidrográfica del Ebro. http://www.chebro.es/PGRI. Último acceso: enero 2017.Roe, P. L. 1981. Approximate Riemann solvers, parameter vectors and difference schemes. Journal of Computational Physics, 43(2), 357-372. doi:10.1016/0021-9991(81)90128-5Shang, Z. 2014. High performance computing for flood simulation using Telemac based on hybrid MPI/OpenMp parallel programming. International Journal of modeling, simulation and scientific computing, 5(4), 1-13.Suman, A., Akther, F. 2014. River Flood Modelling Using SOBEK: A Case Study from Ciliwung Catchment, Indonesia. International Journal of Engineering Research, 3(11), 662- 668. doi:10.17950/ijer/v3s11/1108Toriman, M.E., Hassan, A.J., Gazim, M.B., Mokhtar, M., Mastura, S.A., Jaafar, O., Karim, O., Aziz, N.A. 2009. Integration of 1-d Hydrodynamic Model and GIS Approach in Flood Management Study in Malaysia. Research Journal of Earth Sciences, 1(1), 22-27.Van der Knijff, J.M., Younis, J., De Roo, A.P.J. 2010. LISFLOOD: a GIS-based distributed model for river basin scale water balance and flood simulation. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 24(2), 189-212. doi:10.1080/1365881080254915

Chemotherapeutic agent 5-fluorouracil increases survival of SOD1 mouse model of ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a lethal motor neuron disease with no cure. Currently there are only two ALS drugs approved by the FDA, both with a limited therapeutic effect. In the search for drug candidates for ALS, we studied the effect of known stem cell mobilizing agents (treatment) and antimetabolite 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (anti-treatment) in SOD1G93A model of ALS. Surprisingly, we found that anti-cancer drug 5-FU increases lifespan, delays the disease onset and improves motor performance in ALS mice. Although we were not able to demonstrate the mechanistic basis of the beneficial 5-FU action in ALS mice, our findings suggest that 5-FU or similar drugs are possible drug candidates for the treatment of motor neuron diseases through drug repurposing.This work was funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) from the European Union (Grants PI14/00947 and PI17/00949), Asociación Adelante de La Roda, Plataforma Afectados por la ELA, Asociación Juntos Venceremos ELA, AVPA Zaragoza (RO), TERCEL (RD12/0019/0011 and RD16/0011/0035) and CIBERNED (CB06/05/1105) funds from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of Spain (XN), and Fondazione Roma and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (AM). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript