Atmospheric instability analysis and its relationship to precipitation patterns over the western Iberian Peninsula

International audienceThermodynamic and dynamic atmospheric stability indices will be analysed in order to classify the rainfall types occurred in western Iberia and provide information about the associated meteorological phenomena and preferred regional instability sources. In this work, instability sources over the western Iberian Peninsula will be characterised by means of radiosonde station data and reanalysis data sets from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), for the period 1971?2002. Dynamic stability indices such as the Q vector divergence (dQ) or the potential vorticity anomaly in the 330 K isentropic surface (PV) have been calculated with the aim of establishing different atmospheric stability scenarios. Furthermore, thermodynamic atmospheric stability contribution has been also evaluated with Total Totals index (TT) and moisture availability was inferred from circulation weather types (CWTs). The first results of this work assess the combined dynamic-thermodynamic preferred conditions, synoptic situations and humidity sources, leading to precipitation events over the western Iberian Peninsula and prove the essential role of CWT patterns on the rainfall genesis

Instability and its relation to precipitation over the Eastern Iberian Peninsula

International audienceSynoptic situations producing rainfall at four rawinsonde observatories at eastern Spain are classified as stratiform or convective depending on dynamic and thermodynamic instability indices. Two daily radiosonde and daily-accumulated precipitation data from four observatories in Eastern Spain are used: Madrid-Barajas (MB), Murcia (MU), Palma de Mallorca (PA) and Zaragoza (ZA). We calculated two thermodynamic instability indices from radiosonde data: CAPE and LI. Likewise, from ERA40 reanalysis data we have calculated the Q vector divergence over the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands, as a parameter describing dynamical instability. Synoptic situations producing rainfall were classified as convective or stratiform, satisfying a criterion based on the values of dynamic and thermodynamic indices at each observatory. It is observed that the number of days with stratiform precipitation related to the total number of precipitation days follows a consistent annual pattern

The flood event that affected Badajoz in November 1997

International audienceThe flooding episode of November 1997 in Badajoz was one of the most dramatic catastrophes in Spain: as a result, there were 21 fatalities and huge financial damages. The main purpose of this work is to assess the prevailing synoptic conditions as well as detailing the mesoscale effects by means of moisture sources and dynamic and thermodynamic instability analysis involved in the November 1997 Spanish severe weather episode. In order to achieve the above, this flood event is described in terms of moisture content evolution by means of individual particle simulation along 3-day back-trajectories. A Lagrangian model is applied in order to characterize the atmospheric particles involved in the focused case (localization, height and specific humidity) which give rise to sudden precipitation stream. Geopotential height and temperature fields were used to describe the synoptic situation. Thermodynamic indices, such as CAPE, SWEAT and KI, and dynamic parameters like potential vorticity anomaly at 330 K isentropic surface and Q vector divergence were also calculated in order to complete the analysis and to give a thorough weather frame taking into account the atmospheric instability. The results of this work suggest this flood event was due mainly to strong dynamic instability along with large amounts of moisture advected by a trough, while the thermodynamic instability played a secondary role. Finally, a new methodology based on a technique proposed by Tremblay (2005) has been developed in order to separate the precipitation into stratiform and convective components. It is evident that the event was associated with a predominant convective regime

Mineralogía y ceramicidad de las arcillas del yacimiento de Sitjar, Onda (Castellón)

Este trabajo tiene por objeto la caracterización mineralógica y físico-química de las arcillas terciarias explotadas en el yacimiento de Sitjar, cercano a la localidad de Onda (Castellón), utilizadas comomateria prima por la industria ceramica castellonense. Se estudian también algunas propiedades ceramicas de estas arcillas, incidiendo en el comportamiento térmico, para su correcta aplicación. a composición química y mineralógica posibilita su utilización como aditivo para la fabricaci6n de materiales porosos y refractarios

Machine Learning-based Query Augmentation for SPARQL Endpoints

Linked Data repositories have become a popular source of publicly-available data. Users accessing this data through SPARQL endpoints usually launch several restrictive yet similar consecutive queries, either to find the information they need through trial-and-error or to query related resources. However, instead of executing each individual query separately, query augmentation aims at modifying the incoming queries to retrieve more data that is potentially relevant to subsequent requests. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to query augmentation for SPARQL endpoints based on machine learning. Our approach separates the structure of the query from its contents and measures two types of similarity, which are then used to predict the structure and contents of the augmented query. We test the approach on the real-world query logs of the Spanish and English DBpedia and show that our approach yields high-accuracy prediction. We also show that, by caching the results of the predicted (More)This work has been supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014-642963), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (contract TIN2015-65316, project RTC-2016-4952-7 and contract TIN2016-78011-C4-4-R), the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (contract CAS18/00333) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (contract 2014-SGR-1051). The authors would also like to thank Toni Cortes for his feedback.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The ability of a host plant to associate with different symbiotic partners affects ectomycorrhizal functioning

Some plants that associate with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are also able to simultaneously establish symbiosis with other types of partners. The presence of alternative partners that may provide similar benefits may affect ECM functioning. Here we compared potential leucine-aminopeptidase (LA) and acid phosphatase (AP) enzyme activity (involved in N and P cycling, respectively) in ECM fungi of three hosts planted under the same conditions but differing in the type of partners: Pinus (ECM fungi only), Eucalyptus (ECM and arbuscular mycorrhizal -AM- fungi) and Acacia (ECM, AM fungi and rhizobial bacteria). We found that the ECM community on Acacia and Eucalyptus had higher potential AP activity than the Pinus community. The ECM community in Acacia also showed increased potential LA activity compared to Pinus. Morphotypes present in more than one host showed higher potential AP and LA activity when colonizing Acacia than when colonizing another host. Our results suggest that competition with AM fungi and rhizobial bacteria could promote increased ECM activity in Eucalyptus and Acacia. Alternatively, other host-related differences such as ECM community composition could also play a role. We found evidence for ECM physiological plasticity when colonizing different hosts, which might be key for adaptation to future climate scenarios.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Improving the modeling of geomagnetically induced currents in Spain

Vulnerability assessments of the risk posed by geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) to power transmission grids benefit from accurate knowledge of the geomagnetic field variations at each node of the grid, the Earth's geoelectrical structures beneath them, and the topology and relative resistances of the grid elements in the precise instant of a storm. The results of previous analyses on the threat posed by GICs to the Spanish 400 kV grid are improved in this study by resorting to different strategies to progress in the three aspects identified above. First, although at midlatitude regions the source fields are rather uniform, we have investigated the effect of their spatial changes by interpolating the field from the records of several close observatories with different techniques. Second, we have performed a magnetotelluric (MT) sounding in the vicinity of one of the transformers where GICs are measured to determine the geoelectrical structure of the Earth, and we have identified the importance of estimating the MT impedance tensor when predicting GIC, especially where the effect of lateral heterogeneities is important. Finally, a sensitivity analysis to network changes has allowed us to assess the reliability of both the information about the network topology and resistances, and the assumptions made when all the details or the network status are not available. In our case, the most essential issue to improve the coincidence between model predictions and actual observations came from the use of realistic geoelectric information involving local MT measurements

CDK-dependent nuclear localization of B-Cyclin Clb1 promotes FEAR activation during meiosis I in budding yeast

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) are master regulators of the cell cycle in eukaryotes. CDK activity is regulated by the presence, post-translational modification and spatial localization of its regulatory subunit cyclin. In budding yeast, the B-cyclin Clb1 is phosphorylated and localizes to the nucleus during meiosis I. However the functional significance of Clb1's phosphorylation and nuclear localization and their mutual dependency is unknown. In this paper, we demonstrate that meiosis-specific phosphorylation of Clb1 requires its import to the nucleus but not vice versa. While Clb1 phosphorylation is dependent on activity of both CDK and polo-like kinase Cdc5, its nuclear localization requires CDK but not Cdc5 activity. Furthermore we show that increased nuclear localization of Clb1 during meiosis enhances activation of FEAR (Cdc Fourteen Early Anaphase Release) pathway. We discuss the significance of our results in relation to regulation of exit from meiosis I

Chromatin establishes an immature version of neuronal protocadherin selection during the naive-to-primed conversion of pluripotent stem cells.

In the mammalian genome, the clustered protocadherin (cPCDH) locus provides a paradigm for stochastic gene expression with the potential to generate a unique cPCDH combination in every neuron. Here we report a chromatin-based mechanism that emerges during the transition from the naive to the primed states of cell pluripotency and reduces, by orders of magnitude, the combinatorial potential in the human cPCDH locus. This mechanism selectively increases the frequency of stochastic selection of a small subset of cPCDH genes after neuronal differentiation in monolayers, 10-month-old cortical organoids and engrafted cells in the spinal cords of rats. Signs of these frequent selections can be observed in the brain throughout fetal development and disappear after birth, except in conditions of delayed maturation such as Down's syndrome. We therefore propose that a pattern of limited cPCDH-gene expression diversity is maintained while human neurons still retain fetal-like levels of maturation

Fast axonal transport of the proteasome complex depends on membrane interaction and molecular motor function

Protein degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system in neurons depends on the correct delivery of the proteasome complex. In neurodegenerative diseases, aggregation and accumulation of proteins in axons link transport defects with degradation impairments; however, the transport properties of proteasomes remain unknown. Here, using in vivo experiments, we reveal the fast anterograde transport of assembled and functional 26S proteasome complexes. A high-resolution tracking system to follow fluorescent proteasomes revealed three types of motion: actively driven proteasome axonal transport, diffusive behavior in a viscoelastic axonema and proteasome-confined motion. We show that active proteasome transport depends on motor function because knockdown of the KIF5B motor subunit resulted in impairment of the anterograde proteasome flux and the density of segmental velocities. Finally, we reveal that neuronal proteasomes interact with intracellular membranes and identify the coordinated transport of fluorescent proteasomes with synaptic precursor vesicles, Golgi-derived vesicles, lysosomes and mitochondria. Taken together, our results reveal fast axonal transport as a new mechanism of proteasome delivery that depends on membrane cargo ‘hitch-hiking’ and the function of molecular motors. We further hypothesize that defects in proteasome transport could promote abnormal protein clearance in neurodegenerative diseases.Fil: Otero, Maria Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; ArgentinaFil: Alloatti, Matías. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; ArgentinaFil: Cromberg, Lucas Eneas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; ArgentinaFil: Almenar Queralt, Angels. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Encalada, Sandra E.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Pozo Devoto, Victorio Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; ArgentinaFil: Bruno, Luciana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Goldstein, Lawrence S. B.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Falzone, Tomas Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia "Prof. Eduardo de Robertis". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Biología Celular y Neurociencia; Argentin