Case study: Effect of climatic characterization on river discharge in an alpine-prealpine catchment of the spanish pyrenees using the SWAT model

The new challenges in assessment of water resources demand new approaches and tools, such as the use of hydrologic models, which could serve to assist managers in the prediction, planning and management of catchment water supplies in view of increased demand of water for irrigation and climatic change. Good characterization of the spatial patterns of climate variables is of paramount importance in hydrological modelling. This is especially so when modelling mountain environments which are characterized by strong altitudinal climate gradients. However, very often there is a poor distribution of climatic stations in these areas, which in many cases, results in under representation of high altitude areas with respect to climatic data. This results in the poor performance of the models. In the present study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to the Barasona reservoir catchment in the Central Spanish Pyrenees in order to assess the influence of different climatic characterizations in the monthly river discharges. Four simulations with different input data were assessed, using only the available climate data (A1); the former plus one synthetic dataset at a higher altitude (B1); and both plus the altitudinal climate gradient (A2 and B2). The model''s performance was evaluated against the river discharges for the representative periods of 2003-2005 and 1994-1996 by means of commonly used statistical measures. The best results were obtained using the altitudinal climate gradient alone (scenario A2). This study provided insight into the importance of taking into account the sources and the spatial distribution of weather data in modelling water resources in mountainous catchments

Análisis sedimentológico del embalse de Barasona, Huesca

[Resumen] La pérdida de capacidad debido al aterramiento es un grave problema en numerosos embalses. El pantano de Barasona, en la cuenca del Esera-Isábena, Pirineos Centrales, uno de los más antiguos de España, ha perdido un tercio de su 3 capacidad inicial (71 Hm ) desde su construcción en 1932. El estudio de 23 sondeos ha permitido caracterizar el sedimento,definir facies sedimentarias, reconstruir tridimensionalmente el relleno del vaso y proponer un modelo deposicional dominado por las fluctuaciones en el régimen de aporte de los ríos. Las variaciones en la composición mineralógica proporcionan información sobre áreas fuente y procesos de erosión y transporte en la cuenca. Correlacionando los niveles de limos arenosos con los episodios de avenidas, se ha construido una cronología preliminar que permitirá evaluar variaciones en la tasa de aporte de sedimentos al embalse y en la dinámica del sistema embalse-cuenca..[Abstract] Sediment deliver and consequent loss of water storage capacity aggravate reservoir management problems. The Barasona reservoir in the Esera-Isabena watershed, Central Pyrenees, is one of the oldest in Spain (1932) and has lost one 3 third of its initial water capacity (71 Hm ). In this study we analyze the composition of the infilling of the Barasona reservoir, identify sedimentary facies, and reconstruct the tri-dimensional geometry based on 23 cores. Sedimentary dynamics is mainly controlled by fluctuations in the river inflow. Changes in mineral composition inform of sediment provenance and transport processes in the catchment area. A preliminary chronology based on the identification of floods in the sedimentary record (sandy silt layers) will allow to investigate changes in the sediment yield and in the interaccions reservoir-catchment

High-Temperature Superconducting Level Meter for Liquid Argon Detectors

Capacitive devices are customarily used as probes to measure the level of noble liquids in detectors operated for neutrino studies and dark matter searches. In this work we describe the use of a high-temperature superconducting material as an alternative to control the level of a cryogenic noble liquid. Lab measurements indicate that the superconductor shows a linear behaviour, a high degree of stability and offers a very accurate determination of the liquid volume. This device is therefore a competitive instrument and shows several advantages over conventional level meters.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in JINS

Parameter-uniform numerical methods for singularly perturbed linear transport problems

Pointwise accurate numerical methods are constructed and analysed for three classes of singularly perturbed first order transport problems. The methods involve piecewise-uniform Shishkin meshes and the numerical approximations are shown to be parameter-uniformly convergent in the maximum norm. A transport problem from the modelling of fluid–particle interaction is formulated and used as a test problem for these numerical methods. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the numerical methods and to confirm the theoretical error bounds established in the paper. © 2022 The Authors. Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Deep excursion beyond the proton dripline. I. Argon and chlorine isotope chains

The proton-unbound argon and chlorine isotopes have been studied by measuring trajectories of their decay-in-flight products by using a tracking technique with micro-strip detectors. The proton (1p) and two-proton (2p) emission processes have been detected in the measured angular correlations “heavy-fragment”+p and “heavy-fragment”+p+p, respectively. The ground states of the previously unknown isotopes 30Cl and 28Cl have been observed for the first time, providing the 1p separation energies Sp of −0.48(2) and −1.60(8) MeV, respectively. The relevant systematics of 1p and 2p separation energies have been studied theoretically in the core+p and core+p+p cluster models. The first-time observed excited states of 31Ar allow to infer the 2p-separation energy S2p of 6(34) keV for its ground state. The first-time observed state in 29Ar with S2p = −5.50(18) MeV can be identified either as a ground or an excited state according to different systematics.Helmholtz Association grant IK-RU-002Helmholtz International Center for FAIR HIC for FAIRRussian Science Foundation grant No. 17-12-01367Polish National Science Center Contract No. UMO- 2015/17/B/ST2/00581Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education Grant No. 0079/DIA/2014/43, Grant DiamentowyHelmholtz- CAS Joint Research Group grant HCJRG-10

A POD-based reduced order model applied to 1D shallow water equations

Many environmental problems involving free surface flow can be solved using the shallow water equations (SWE) often involving high computational costs due to the large spatial and temporal scales of the events. In recent times, reduced order models (ROM) techniques are increasingly used to improve the computational efficiency of simulation models. The Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) method provides an orthogonal basis for representing a given set of data and constructing the ROM by means of the method of snapshots. In this work, a POD-based intrusive ROM strategy is applied to the 1D SWE. The main goal of this work is to build a simulation model able to reproduce realistic scenarios. We analyse the computational improvement and the accuracy of the ROM results with respect to those of the full-order model (FOM)

Health care for people with intellectual disability in Spain

We describe the healthcare system for people with intellectual disability (ID) in Spain. First, we provide general population statistics before focusing on the most recent prevalence data related to people with disability in general, and with ID in particular. We also discuss how health care is organized. Most of the Spanish population is covered by the public healthcare system, which is structured into primary care (first-level health services; easily accessible and capable of tackling the most common ailments) and specialized care (second-level health services; comprising the most complex and costly diagnostic and therapeutic resources). We then explain Spain's primary legislation that promotes the rights of people with disabilities, highlighting the importance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which is enshrined in the Spanish General Law on the Rights of People with Disabilities and their Social Inclusion (Royal Legislative Decree 1/2013). Second, we describe the organization of Spanish disability support and health services, whose regulation is highly complex given that the autonomous regions set their own rules about coverage, services, and financing. Third, we present some recent studies that allow a better understanding of health care for people with ID in Spain, including a summary of the ongoing #Rights4MeToo project. We report specific data on the right to habilitation/rehabilitation. People with ID and professionals providing them with supports agreed that the most problematic aspects of health care for people with ID were the lack of: coordination across services, user-friendly information to maintain or improve their health, psychological treatments, preventive medical check-ups, and knowledge about disability among health professionals. There is a need to give people with ID priority access to services, reduce waiting times, increase the length of medical appointments, and create protocols and prevention campaigns targeting them

Changes in serotypes causing invasive pneumococcal disease (2005–2007 vs. 1997–1999) in children under 2 years of age in a population with intermediate coverage of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine

AbstractSerotypes causing invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in children aged <2 years in Catalonia (Spain) before and after licensing of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine (7vPCV) were assessed, using samples taken during 1997–1999 and 2005–2007 respectively. The distribution of serotypes causing IPD within these groups was obtained by serotyping strains sent by 22 Catalan hospitals to the Carlos III Health Institute, Madrid. Between 1997–99 and 2005–2007, the proportion of vaccine serotypes causing IPD in Catalonia fell from 70.54% to 31.67% (p <0.0001). The proportion of vaccine-related serotypes, mainly serotype 19A, increased from 9.82% to 32.50% (p <0.0001). The proportion of non-vaccine, non-related serotypes (serotypes not related to vaccine serotypes) rose from 19.64% to 35.83% (p <0.05). Within this group, the proportions of serotype 24F increased significantly. There has been a change in the distribution of serotypes isolated from cases of IPD in children <2 years old in Catalonia, comprising a reduction in the proportion of 7-valent vaccine serotypes, a rise in vaccine-related serotypes, especially 19A, and a smaller rise in non-vaccine, non-related serotypes, especially serotype 24F. A new 13-valent vaccine will cover 77.91% of the serotypes causing IPD in children <2 years old in Catalonia from 2005 to 2007