Water loss in horticultural products. Modelling, data analysis and theoretical considerations

The water loss of individual fruit (melon, plum and mandarin) was analysed using the traditional diffusion based approach and a kinetic approach. Applying simple non linear regression, both approaches are the same, resulting in a quite acceptable analysis. However, by applying mixed effects non linear regression analysis, explicitly including the variation over the individuals, the kinetic approach was found to reflect the processes occurring during mass loss better than the diffusion approach. All the variation between the individuals in a batch could be attributed to the initial mass or size of the individuals. The fraction of the fruit mass that is available for transpiration is the key item in the water loss process, rather than the skin resistance and fruit area. Obtained explained parts are well over 99%

Unconventional Oil and Gas Development: Evaluation of selected hydrocarbons in the ambient air of three basins in the United States by means of diffusive sampling measurements

The impact of emissions associated with the extraction of crude oil and natural gas upon air quality in the United States (US) is widely recognised to have an impact on climate change, human health and ground-level ozone formation. A number of measurement approaches are being applied to evaluate the environmental impact of the oil and gas (O&G) sector, including satellite, airborne and ground-based platforms. Measurement based studies, in particular those that estimate flux rates, are critical for the validation of emission inventories that often under-report actual emissions of methane and volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the O&G sector. On-going research projects in the US are investigating the consistency of emission rates from O&G emission sources associated with extraction, transmission and distribution activities. The leakage rates of methane, as related to production levels, in the US for O&G developments varies from less than 1% (e.g. Upper Green River Basin, Wyoming) to over 6% (Uintah Basin, Utah). European research and policy approaches can learn from efforts in the US that are improving the accuracy of reporting emissions from O&G sources, enhancing our understanding of air quality impacts, and reducing emissions through regulatory controls. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission performed a diffusive sampling project, with the collaboration of the University of Wyoming, in conjunction with the SONGNEX (Studying the Atmospheric Effects of Changing Energy Use in the US at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change) project led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The SONGNEX project is an airborne measurement campaign supported by a number of associated ground based studies. The applicability of the Pocket Diffusive (PoD) sampler, for measurement of VOC (C4-C10), heavy hydrocarbons and volatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in areas heavily influenced by O&G development, is evaluated. Three sampling surveys were performed to assess three basins (Upper Green River, Uintah and North Platte) characterised by different management regimes, meteorology and hydrocarbon products. This first extensive field deployment of the PoD sampler demonstrates the effectiveness of the sampler for time-integrated measurements of targeted pollutants over wide spatial areas. The ambient air at these basins reveal different compositional profiles of hydrocarbons (C4-C10). Analysis of aromatics supports a finding of relatively elevated levels in the Pinedale Anticline (Upper Green River). From an evaluation of the behaviour of alkanes, it is evident that there is a relatively high leakage rate in the Uintah Basin. Heavy hydrocarbons (C11-C22) and PAHs are measured at relatively low levels. Despite low concentrations, analysis of these compounds improves the accuracy of source identification. A comparison of ground based PoD data and airborne SONGNEX data showed good agreement for commonly reported VOCs. The utility of the PoD sampler for analysis of emission sources was enhanced with reporting of a wide range of compounds. Spatial Positive Matrix Factorization analysis showed the possibility of using PoD samplers for differentiating emission sources, characterizing different areas and estimating the relative contribution of different emission sources.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

Photon Filamentation in Resonant Media with High Fresnel Numbers

The phenomenon of turbulent photon filamentation occurs in lasers and other active optical media at high Fresnel numbers. A description of this phenomenon is suggested. The solutions to evolution equations are presented in the form of a bunch of filaments chaotically distributed in space and having different radii. The probability distribution of patterns is defined characterizing the probabilistic weight of different filaments. The most probable filament radius and filament number are found, being in good agreement with experiment.Comment: Revtex file, 5 pages. Reference to the English edition of the journal is give

A Survey on Sylow Normalizers and Classes of Groups

We report on a stream of research in relation with Sylow normalizers, i.e. normalizers of Sylow subgroups, of finite groups and group’s classes.D'aniello, A.; Kazarin, L.; Martínez Pastor, A.; Perez Ramos, MD. (2014). A Survey on Sylow Normalizers and Classes of Groups. Applied Mathematical Sciences. 8(134):6745-6752. doi:10.12988/ams.2014.49689S67456752813

Analysis of Li-ion battery degradation using self-organizing maps

This paper proposes a new methodology to identify the different degradation processes of Li-Ion battery cells. The goal of this study is to determine if different degradation factors can be separated by waveform analysis from aged cells with similar remaining capacity. In contrast to other works, the proposed method identifies the past operating conditions in the cell, regardless of the actual State of Health. The methodology is based on a data-driven approach by using a SOM (Self-organizing map), an unsupervised neural network. To verify the hypothesis a SOM has been trained with laboratory data from whole data cycles, to classify cells concerning their degradation path and according to their discharge voltage patterns. Additionally, this new methodology based on the SOM allows discriminating groups of cells with different cycling conditions (based on depth of discharge, ambient temperature and discharge current). This research line is very promising for classification of used cells, not only depending on their current static parameters (capacity, impedance), but also the battery use in their past life. This will allow making predictions of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of a battery with greater precision

Formación universitaria en protección radiológica: nuestra experiencia en la Universidad de Málaga (España)

La Universidad de Málaga (UMA) desde 2011 tiene acreditada la formación en protección radiológica, con homologación del Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (CSN). Desde este año, hasta nuestros días se han impartido un total de 31 cursos. La temática de los cursos impartidos han sido: director y operador de instalaciones de radiodiagnóstico médico; supervisor y operador de instalaciones radiactivas (radioterapia, medicina nuclear, laboratorio de fuentes no encapsuladas, control de procesos y técnicas analíticas), y de isótopos en el medio marino. Se han formado un total de 397 alumnos, con un 93 % de aprobados, profesionales de la enfermería, médicos, podólogos, veterinarios, odontólogos y auxiliares de higiene bucodental. Los cursos de formación constan de una parte teórica impartida por profesores del departamento de radiología y medicina física, del laboratorio de protección radiológica del CIMES y del servicio de instalación radiactiva; y de otra práctica, desarrollada en los laboratorios IRUMA de los Servicios Centrales de Investigación de la UMA, y en centros asistenciales de Radiología y Radioterapia del grupo VITHAS Salud. Todos estos cursos están integrados en titulaciones propias de la UMA, formando parte de su campus virtual (https://epropias.cv.uma.es/), basado en una plataforma Moodle. Esto supone un total de 159 créditos ECTS impartidos, en cursos de formación superior y de extensión universitaria. Por lo tanto, obtienen una doble titulación integrada

Estimación de niveles de referencia de dosis y contribución a la dosis poblacional de las TC en España

La Tomografía Computarizada (TC) es una de las pruebas de radiodiagnóstico que mayor dosis de radiación emite. En los últimos años ha aumentado mucho su uso en la práctica médica y, por ello, hemos querido estudiar en este trabajo la dosis de radiación procedente de los TC que recibe la población en España Tras analizar los datos recopilados de los centros hospitalarios de todas las Comunidades Autónomas Españolas y basándonos en los principales tipos de procedimiento de TC referenciados en el Report Radiation Protection nº154, hemos estimado los valores de referencia de dosis (DRLs) (3ºquartil) para los procedimientos que mayor contribución aportan a la dosis colectiva, por encima de 1000 hombre-Sv. Se ha tenido en cuenta la dosis por longitud (DLP). Los DRLs estimados han sido (mGy*cm) son TC cabeza 450, TC tórax 490, TC columna 690, TC abdomen 750, TC pelvis 780 y TC tronco 890. Los resultados obtenidos confirmaron que más de la mitad de la Dosis Efectiva Colectiva (dosis poblacional), el 66%, depende de las Tomografías Computarizadas, 645,23 mSv/1000 habitantes para un total global de todos los estudios con RX de 969,35 mSv/1000 habitantes. Por lo tanto, es importante intentar disminuir la exposición de la población a la radiación, haciendo un buen uso de las nuevas tecnologías e incluyendo la Protección Radiológica en la práctica médica

Sistema de registro de dosis radiológica a pacientes en la historia clínica digital.

Este trabajo fue premiado en el Congreso con el 3º mejor póster de más de 400 trabajos presentados.La importancia del registro de la dosis radiológica recibida por un paciente tras una exposición a una exploración de radiodiagnóstico en la historia clínica es uno de los procesos claves dentro de la seguridad del paciente, como pone de manifiesto la Directiva Europea 2013/59 EURATOM, que obliga a la adaptación de los sistemas de información hospitalaria para gestionar la medición y evaluación de las dosis así como la evaluación del riesgo asociado a las mismas. El objetivo de este trabajo es exponer los procesos a desarrollar para la inclusión de esta información en la historia médica electrónica. Para ello, se ha analizado la información de dosis de los sistemas radiológicos y su forma de registro, cálculo y extracción de 33 hospitales españoles participantes en el proyecto DOPOES I (Dosis a la población derivadas de exploraciones de radiodiagnóstico en España). Dicha base de datos recoge información de 9 millones de procedimientos radiológicos. Como resultado, se ha obtenido un sistema de codificación unificado (codRis_DOPOES v.19) para 500 procedimientos radiológicos, así como el establecimiento de las bases para el diseño e implementación de un sistema de registro de dosis hospitalario. De esta manera que se pueda integrar en el historial médico del paciente permitiendo conocer tanto las dosis recibidas en cada procedimiento, facilitando el trabajo de los profesionales sanitarios y valorando mejor el riesgo asociado al uso de las radiaciones ionizantes

Association of single and joint metals with albuminuria and estimated glomerular filtration longitudinal change in middle-aged adults from Spain: The Aragon workers health study

The nephrotoxicity of low-chronic metal exposures is unclear, especially considering several metals simultaneously. We assessed the individual and joint association of metals with longitudinal change in renal endpoints in Aragon Workers Health Study participants with available measures of essential (cobalt [Co], copper [Cu], molybdenum [Mo] and zinc [Zn]) and non-essential (As, barium [Ba], Cd, chromium [Cr], antimony [Sb], titanium [Ti], uranium [U], vanadium [V] and tungsten [W]) urine metals and albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) (N = 707) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (N = 1493) change. Median levels were 0.24, 7.0, 18.6, 295, 3.1, 1.9, 0.28, 1.16, 9.7, 0.66, 0.22 μg/g for Co, Cu, Mo, Zn, As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Sb, Ti, V and W, respectively, and 52.5 and 27.2 ng/g for Sb and U, respectively. In single metal analysis, higher As, Cr and W concentrations were associated with increasing ACR annual change. Higher Zn, As and Cr concentrations were associated with decreasing eGFR annual change. The shape of the longitudinal dose-responses, however, was compatible with a nephrotoxic role for all metals, both in ACR and eGFR models. In joint metal analysis, both higher mixtures of Cu–Zn–As–Ba–Ti–U–V–W and Co–Cd–Cr–Sb–V–W showed associations with increasing ACR and decreasing eGFR annual change. As and Cr were main drivers of the ACR change joint metal association. For the eGFR change joint metal association, while Zn and Cr were main drivers, other metals also contributed substantially. We identified potential interactions for As, Zn and W by other metals with ACR change, but not with eGFR change. Our findings support that Zn, As, Cr and W and suggestively other metals, are nephrotoxic at relatively low exposure levels. Metal exposure reduction and mitigation interventions may improve prevention and decrease the burden of renal disease in the population