Modelling the effects of local emission abatement measures in hot-spots of Madrid

This work aims at estimating NOx and PM10 emissions from road traffic with high spatial and temporal resolution (seconds and meters). This is useful to understand the effect of local abatement measures and it is an essential input to microscale air quality models. For that, 1-hour representative traffic scenarios are simulated with the traffic microsimulation model VISSIM in selected hot-spots. Measured traffic data (fluxes and fleet composition) are used as inputs for the model to obtain speed-time profiles for each vehicle. These profiles are used to calculate specific emission factors for different vehicle classes according to the VERSIT+micro model through the ENVIVER interface. This modelling system allows assessing possible effects of different local scale interventions such as vehicle volume reduction, fleet composition and vehicle technology changes, etc. both on the total amount of emission amount and their spatial distribution. According to this analysis, some local measures may bring about important emission reductions in both locations, up to 28% and 23% for NOx and PM10 respectively. Such measures may therefore constitute a valuable complement for city-scale policies and measures

Evaluación de la Prescripción–Indicación de Ceftriaxona en adultos ingresados en los servicios de Medicina Interna y Cirugía del Hospital Nuevo Amanecer de Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas en el período de Julio a Septiembre del año 2015

La prescripción es un proceso lógico deductivo que concreta la acción de salud luego de un diagnóstico y evaluación del paciente. Sin embargo, es bien sabido que bajo algunas circunstancias se llevan a cabo prácticas incorrectas en cuanto a esto como emplear medicamentos en escenarios clínicos no se requeridos, omitir medidas no farmacológicas, usar fármacos de eficacia o seguridad cuestionables entre otras muchas posibilidades. Por lo que al final nuestro propósito es racionalizar y mejorar el uso hospitalario de los fármacos para garantizar la seguridad, eficacia y vida útil de los antibióticos, aminorar las complicaciones en los pacientes y disminuir el impacto económico que estos generan. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo de corte transversal en los meses de Julio a Septiembre de 2015 en los Servicios de Medicina Interna, Cirugía y Ortopedia del Hospital Nuevo Amanecer de Puerto Cabezas, con un total de 285 pacientes escogidos de manera no probabilística por conveniencia bajo ciertos criterios de selección y bajo la más estricta confidencialidad. Haciendo revisión de las fichas de admisión y evoluciones diarias de los pacientes tomando muy en cuenta la justificación del uso del antibiótico en cada caso particular, plasmando los datos en un formulario estructurado para dar respuesta a todas las interrogantes planteadas e incluyéndolos en el programa de análisis estadístico IBM SPSS 20.0.1. Los principales diagnósticos que justificaban el uso de Ceftriaxona fueron Pielonefritis (18.6%), Neumonias y Traumas abdominales (12.6%) así como gastroenteritis (6.3%) entre otros. El 51.6% de los pacientes estaban ingresados en el servicio de medicina interna, 26.3% en cirugía y 18.9% en Ortopedia. 13.3% de los pacientes requirieron rotación antibiótica hacia meropenem (30.4%), clindamicina (26.1%) o gentamicina con metronidazol (19.6%). En el 76% la ceftriaxona fue prescrita de manera inadecuada y sólo en el 24% se hizo de conformidad con los protocolos terapéuticos nacionales vigentes, que es directamente proporcional a una perdida cuantiosa de dinero al tomar en cuenta el valor del fármaco y la cantidad de pacientes con inadecuación de la prescripción. En conclusión más de dos tercios de los individuos fueron manejados en desavenencia con los protocolas médicos vigentes proporcionados por el MINSA existiendo alternativas farmacológicas más adecuadas. Es decir que la adecuación de la prescripción farmacológica a las indicaciones fue deficiente, denotando la falta de conocimiento y consideración en el personal de salud, para hacer un uso racional del fármaco y dar una mejor atención a la població

Morbilidad Obstétrica Extrema en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos del Hospital Alemán Nicaragüense en el año 2019

Con el objetivo de caracterizar la Morbilidad Obstétrica Extrema en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos del Hospital Alemán Nicaragüense en el año 2019, se realizó un estudio observacional, descriptivo, no correlacional, retrospectivo y de corte transversal en 81 pacientes que cumplieron con los criterios de inclusión. Fueron analizados los datos sobre las características sociodemográficas, características y evolución obstétricas, eventos o complicaciones que llevaron al ingreso de las pacientes, los criterios diagnósticos y los indicadores resultantes para Near Miss. Del análisis y discusión de los resultados obtenidos, se alcanzaron las siguientes conclusiones: La Morbilidad obstétrica extrema se dio en pacientes jóvenes, con edades entre los 20 y 34 años (49%); en su mayoría en unión de hecho estable procedentes del área urbana, cursando con su primer embarazo (41%), la mayoría a término (46%); un 94% de las pacientes requirió finalizar la gestación, siendo la vía abdominal la más utilizada (72%). Las pacientes ingresaron a UCI en estado puerperal, principalmente por eventos asociados a preeclampsia (63%). De los Criterios para Morbilidad Obstétrica Extrema el que más se cumplió tomando en cuenta las variables clínicas fue el estado de shock (45%), con las variables de laboratorio fue la trombocitopenia <menor a 50,000 asociado a preeclampsia (54%) y con las variables de intervención fue la de transfusión de 3 o más hemoderivados (47%). El manejo resultó en su mayoría la necesidad del acto transfusional (40%), uso de vasoactivos (19%) y reintervenciones quirúrgicas (14%) y egresadas a sala de hospitalización en menos de 3 días (63%). Se determinó una relación NM/MM de 27:1, con una razón de NM de 13,2 por 1000NV para el periodo en estudiad

Comparison and Assessment of Two Emission inventories for the Madrid Region

Emission inventories are databases that aim to describe the polluting activities that occur across a certain geographic domain. According to the spatial scale, the availability of information will vary as well as the applied assumptions, which will strongly influence its quality, accuracy and representativeness. This study compared and contrasted two emission inventories describing the Greater Madrid Region (GMR) under an air quality simulation approach. The chosen inventories were the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) and the Regional Emissions Inventory of the Greater Madrid Region (REI). Both of them were used to feed air quality simulations with the CMAQ modelling system, and the results were compared with observations from the air quality monitoring network in the modelled domain. Through the application of statistical tools, the analysis of emissions at cell level and cell – expansion procedures, it was observed that the National Inventory showed better results for describing on – road traffic activities and agriculture, SNAP07 and SNAP10. The accurate description of activities, the good characterization of the vehicle fleet and the correct use of traffic emission factors were the main causes of such a good correlation. On the other hand, the Regional Inventory showed better descriptions for non – industrial combustion (SNAP02) and industrial activities (SNAP03). It incorporated realistic emission factors, a reasonable fuel mix and it drew upon local information sources to describe these activities, while NEI relied on surrogation and national datasets which leaded to a poorer representation. Off – road transportation (SNAP08) was similarly described by both inventories, while the rest of the SNAP activities showed a marginal contribution to the overall emissions

Improvements of air quality simulations of particulate matter in the Iberian peninsula with road dust resuspension and dust emission modules

The Mediterranean Basin is one of the most sensitive zones in the planet to air pollution. Besides anthropogenic emissions, the Iberian Peninsula is affected by natural particule matter (PM) sources. Dry weather conditions allow road dust to be resuspended by vehicle-induced turbulence. These emissions may be as important as those directly emitted by vehicles (combustion and from road abrasion and tyre and break wear processes). In addition, it is widely documented that crustal particles transported from the Saharan Desert may contribute significantly to ambient PM concentration in Madrid. This poster summarizes the methodology and results of the implementation of a module to account for these sources -not included in current emission inventories- into the Eulerian air quality model CMAQ. Comparison of predicted PM concentrations with ambient air quality measurements and satellite observation point out that this module clearly improves the performance of the standard CMAQ version

Advancements in the design and validation of an air pollution integrated assessment model for Spain

This paper describes the design and application of the Atmospheric Evaluation and Research Integrated model for Spain (AERIS). Currently, AERIS can provide concentration profiles of NO2, O3, SO2, NH3, PM, as a response to emission variations of relevant sectors in Spain. Results are calculated using transfer matrices based on an air quality modelling system (AQMS) composed by the WRF (meteorology), SMOKE (emissions) and CMAQ (atmospheric-chemical processes) models. The AERIS outputs were statistically tested against the conventional AQMS and observations, revealing a good agreement in both cases. At the moment, integrated assessment in AERIS focuses only on the link between emissions and concentrations. The quantification of deposition, impacts (health, ecosystems) and costs will be introduced in the future. In conclusion, the main asset of AERIS is its accuracy in predicting air quality outcomes for different scenarios through a simple yet robust modelling framework, avoiding complex programming and long computing times

Impacts on Emissions and Air Quality of alternative fuel mixes in Spain

Presentación de los principales resultados del análisis en emisiones y calidad del aire de distintas matrices energéticas en Españ

Designing a comprehensive methodology to integrate sustainability issues in CDIO projects

We present in this study the first steps in the design and implementation of a new methodology that aims to consider systematically the different dimensions of sustainability, including ethical and strategic aspects, attempting to balance all them. The pilot methodology was implemented in the course 2014-15 in the ?INGENIA? course, a 12 ECTS compulsory subject taught in the first year of the master in industrial engineering of the Technical University of Madrid. As this is an on-going process, we also introduce some practical guidelines we are currently addressing to the students by means of taking into account various approaches in particular socio-economic contexts or to differentiate specificities by industrial sectors or activity fields. Ultimately, we aim at enabling our INGENIA-CDIO students to raise reflections and assessments about the related impacts of their engineering projects

Estimation of PM10-bound manganese concentration near a ferromanganese alloy plant by atmospheric dispersion modelling

Numerous studies have associated air manganese (Mn) exposure with negative health effects, primarily neurotoxic disorders. This work presents a description of the emission and dispersion of PM10-bound Mn from industrial sources in the Santander bay area, Northern Spain. A detailed day-specific emission estimation was made and assessed for the main Mn source, a manganese alloy production plant under 8 different scenarios. Dispersion analysis of PM10-bound Mn was performed using the CALPUFF model. The model was validated from an observation dataset including 101 daily samples from four sites located in the vicinities of the manganese alloy plant. Model results were in reasonable agreement with observations (r= 0.37; NMSE= 2.08; Fractional Bias= 0.44 and Modelled/Observed ratio = 1.57). Simulated and observed Mn concentrations in the study area were much higher than the guidelines proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), highlighting the need to reduce the Mn concentrations in the area. Based on the analysis of the Mn source contribution from the ferromanganese alloy plant, some preventive and corrective measures are discussed at the end of the paper. This work shows that CALPUFF dispersion model can be used to predict PM10-bound Mn concentrations with reasonable accuracy in the vicinities of industrial facilities allowing the exposure assessment of the nearby population, which can be used in future epidemiological studies.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the Project CTM2013-43904R. The authors also acknowledge the Spanish State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) for providing meteorological and atmospheric sounding data for the period of study

Study of Boundary Conditions influence on CMAQ simulations over the Iberian Peninsula

Air pollution continues to be a major concern in many regions of the world, including Europe, and effective abatement measures are required to meet air quality standards in future years. The Integrated Air Quality Modelling System for the Iberian Peninsula (SIMCA) is a project that it is being implemented in Spain to support the design and evaluation of air quality strategies and abatement plans. The system relies on the WRF+SMOKE+CMAQ models. An important step in the development and implementation of SIMCA consists of understanding the uncertainties involved in modelling process. In this paper, a sensitivity analysis of the CMAQ model to the boundary conditions (BC) needed to simulate air pollution levels in the Iberian Peninsula is presented. The main objective of the study is to assess the model response to different alternatives to supply boundary conditions in the context of the Integrated Assessment Modelling (IAM) activities needed to provide an effective support to the policy-making process. Three ways to provide BC are tested: - fixed, time-independent, concentration profiles - concentrations predicted in a CMAQ mother domain (48 km, 1h resolution) - concentration values from the Geos-CHEM chemical-transport global model (2x2.5º, 3h resolution) The CMAQ model has been run in two episodes using identical configuration and input data, except for the BC. Model outputs for the main pollutants (SO2, NO2, NO, O3, PM10 and PM2.5) are then compared with observed concentration values from 165 monitoring stations. The stations selected are distributed across the Iberian Peninsula and include a balanced number of rural, industrial, urban background and traffic locations. The comparison is based on the analysis of a number of statistics commonly used for model evaluation and considers several aggregation levels so the influence of the BC can be assessed in a very detailed way. According to this study, there is no single valid method of providing boundary conditions since the performance of the alternatives tested depend on the pollutant, episode and type of location. Besides the statistical evaluation some other relevant issues in the context of IAM are discussed to gain a better insight into the suitability of the methods analyse