Modelling the thermal effluent of a near coast power plant (Sines, Portugal)

ABSTRACT The present work is focused on the dispersion of a thermal effluent, produced by the Sines power plant, Portugal, along coastal waters. This facility intakes a yearly average around 40 m 3 /s of seawater, for the required cooling process, which is subsequently discharged back to the ocean at a 10 ºC increase in temperature. A three-dimensional hydrodynamic local model was nested into a regional model and set up to simulate the transport of the thermal effluent during two distinct periods, August and October 2013, respectively featuring dominant north and south wind. The simulations were performed for both situations, with and without the thermal discharge, where the later provides baseline scenarios. Obtained model results closely followed the existing field data. The temperature increase is shown to decay from 10 ºC near the outlet vicinity to 2 ºC at a distance of 2 km from the outlet for both scenarios. Even though the main driving force of this phenomenon is the wind, tidal conditions also have additional influence on thermal plume dispersion near the discharge area. In the north wind scenario the plume extends away from the coast while under south wind dominance the plume is contained near the coast, extending towards the inlet. As a consequence there is a positive feedback under south wind dominance, which is caused by the intake of already warm water from the thermal plume itself. Consequently, south wind dominance is the most unfavorable scenario for both coastal environment and the operational efficiency of the power plant. Keywords: Thermal discharge; Three-dimensional model; Coastal hydrodynamics; Water temperature Submission: 8 JAN 2015; Peer review: 1 MAR 2015; Revised: 20 MAY 2015; Accepted: 26 JUN 2015; Available on-line: 29 JUN 2015 This article contains supporting information online at http://www.aprh.pt/rgci/pdf/rgci-577_Salgueiro_Supporting-Information.pdf Salgueiro et al. (2015) 534 RESUMO Modelação de um efluente térmico numa zona costeira (central termoelétrica de Sines, Portugal) Este artigo tem como objetivo estudar a dispersão do efluente térmico da central termoelétrica de Sines (Portuga

Magnetic phase transitions in Gd64Sc36 studied using non-contact ultrasonics

The speed and attenuation of ultrasound propagation can be used to determine material properties and identify phase transitions. Standard ultrasonic contact techniques are not always convenient due to the necessity of using couplant; however, recently reliable non-contact ultrasonic techniques involving electromagnetic generation and detection of ultrasound with electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) have been developed for use on electrically conducting and/or magnetic materials. We present a detailed study of magnetic phase transitions in a single crystal sample of Gd64Sc36 magnetic alloy using contact and non-contact ultrasonic techniques for two orientations of external magnetic field. Phase diagrams are constructed based on measurements of elastic constant C33, the attenuation and the efficiency of generation when using an EMAT. The EMATs are shown to provide additional information related to the magnetic phase transitions in the studied sample, and results identify a conical helix phase in Gd64Sc36 in the magnetic field orientation

Stabilized vortex solitons in layered Kerr media

In this letter we demonstrate the possibility of stabilizing beams with angular momentum propagating in Kerr media. Large propagation distances without filamentation can be achieved in layered media with alternating focusing and defocusing nonlinearities. Stronger stabilization can be obtained with the addition of an incoherent beam.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. We have removed the sentence "Thus, they erroneously point out to the existence of fully stabilized vortex solitons" in page 2, column 2, line 7-8, because it might be confusin

Square vortex solitons with a large angular momentum

We show the existence of square shaped optical vortices with a large value of the angular momentum hosted in finite size laser beams which propagate in nonlinear media with a cubic-quintic nonlinearity. The light profiles take the form of rings with sharp boundaries and variable sizes depending on the power carried. Our stability analysis shows that these light distributions remain stable when propagate, probably for unlimited values of the angular momentum, provided the hosting beam is wide enough. This happens if the peak amplitude approaches a critical value which only depends on the nonlinear refractive index of the material. A variational approach allows us to calculate the main parameters involved. Our results add extra support to the concept of surface tension of light beams that can be considered as a trace of the existence of a liquid of light.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Time Evolution of tunneling and decoherence: soluble model

Decoherence effects associated to the damping of a tunneling two-level system are shown to dominate the tunneling probability at short times in strong coupling regimes in the context of a soluble model. A general decomposition of tunneling rates in dissipative and unitary parts is implemented. Master equation treatments fail to describe the model system correctly when more than a single relaxation time is involved

Una estrategia de intervención comunitaria en la prevención de los delitos sexuales en féminas / A strategy of community intervention to prevent sexual crimes on women

Se realizan un total de seis seminario-talleres sobre la frecuencia y características de los delitos sexuales en féminas en la provincia, en las zonas mayormente afectadas por el fenómeno (áreas de salud " Raúl Sánchez " y "Hermanos Cruz") a los cuales asistieron 407 representantes de las comunidades elegidas y al término de cada sesión se aplicó a estos una encuesta anónima para recoger sus opiniones sobre el posible impacto del método en la preparación, para identificar situaciones relacionadas con la violencia sexual en féminas y también sobre sus posibles causas, destacándose la opinión popular de un 52,3% que los vinculan al alcoholismo y en otros porcientos, la falta de control de los padres para con los hijos, desajustes familiares e inadecuados vestuarios y horarios de salida de las jóvenes, entre otros, encontrando el método empleado, aceptación y apoyo entre los encuestados, que se consideran medianamente preparados para identificar y prevenir situaciones vulnerantes. Palabras clave: Delitos sexuales, prevención, género, violación, alcoholismo. ABSTRACT A series of six seminaries were performed in order to know the frequency and characteristics of sexual crimes, especially in women. The study was carried out in a population of 407 neighbors in Pinar del Río Province, belonging to a selected health area of Raúl Sánchez and Hermanos Cruz Teaching Polyclinic. At the end of each seminary an anonymous survey was applied to gathers their opinion to get a big effects of this technique to identify some sexual crimes and furthermore the main ethiology. A 52.3 % reported an opinion about alcoholism with approved-supported methods for the entire universe. They are mild prepared to identify and prevent vulnerable situations. Key words: Sexual crimes, prevention, violation, gender, alcoholism

Caracterización medico legal de los delitos sexuales en Pinar del Río, 2003-2005 / Medical and legal characteristics of sex offenses in Pinar del Río, 2003-2005

Se encuestó una muestra de 399 víctimas de diferentes edades enviadas al departamento de Medicina legal de Pinar del Río en el trienio 2003-2005 por estarse instruyendo procedimiento penal a causa de algún delito realizado por intermedio de una conducta sexual impositiva que da lugar a la radicación del expediente. Se aplicó de modo directo una encuesta anónima, abierta, previamente elaborada y constitutiva de 9 preguntas, los resultados fueron tabulados por el método de los palotes y llevadas las variables a sábanas, agrupadas en tablas, arrojando la información que los municipios más afectados fueron Pinar del Río, San Cristóbal, consolación del Sur, San Juan y Sandino, siendo los grupos etáreos más vulnerantes las menores de 20 años. Las figuras delictivas que más se repiten son la violación y los abusos lascivos predominando en la relación víctima - victimario; los conocidos, vecinos, padrastros y familiares. En el modus operandi sobresalen el abuso de confianza, intimidación, violencia física y abuso de autoridad, siendo la casa de la víctima y alrededores, casa del victimario, centro de estudios o trabajo y cercanías, caminos, carreteras, lugares recreativos, los lugares mayormente escogidos por los ofensores. Palabras clave: Violación, acoso sexual, delitos sexuales, víctimas de crimen, medicina legal, perfil de salud. ABSTRACTThis study was conducted on different ages 399 victims, where a questionnaire was assessed. They were sent to Legal Medicine Departament of Pinar del Río, during triennium 2003-2005 due to a penal processing. A crime was comsummated in relation to impositive sexual mis conduct with proceeding files an anonymous, opening and direct questionnaire with 9 questions was analyzed. The data were statistically analyzed using palotes methods. All the variables were placed in a sheep and graphic. Pinar del Río, San Cristobal, Consolación Sur, San Juan and Sandino, were more affected. Patients of 20 years old and lees were more wounded violation and lascivious abuse were more frcuently with a big important to stepfather neighbor and relatives. In the operanting modus we consider abuse of confidence, intimidation and physical violence the perfect selected place by ofender are victim home and around, hear a school or job.Key words: Rape, sexual harassment, sex offenses, crime victims, forensic medicine, health profile

Screening of recently seized new psychoactive substances in urine of potential consumers and urban wastewater

Poster apresentado no VIII Meeting of the Spanish Mass Spectrometry Society (SEEM), 2017, Barcelona,EspanhaNewPsychoactive Substances (NPS) areconstantly being developed as legalsubstitution of traditional drugs of abuse.Although the traditional drugs maintain popular, new drugs are regularly introduced, changing the drug market ceaselessly. Monitoring NPS and its consumption is challengingas these compoundsare normally missed in routine drug analysis. Users do often not exactly know what they consume andinformation available islimitedof what is being sold. Furthermore, very little information exists onmetabolism of these newly introduced NPS. This highlights the needof applying a strategic workflow making use of modernanalytical techniques to face this novel public health safety challenge.The workflowpresented in this work consists of three stages: i)the creation of a databaseincluding approximately 200 NPS. These NPS wererecently reported to the National Early Warning Systems (EWS) ofSpain andItaly and the EWS of the European Monitoring Center for Drugsand Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). ii) The collection of urine samples of individuals suspected of drug consumption, pooled urine samples from festivals and urban wastewater samples. iii) The screening of NPS using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution massspectrometry with a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass analyzer. Although the database is under constant development,including NPS reported to be present in wastewaters around Europe, new compounds appearing in the market, as well as metabolites reported in the literature, the workflow applied allowed the detection of several unchanged NPS in urine and pooled urine samples. In several cases, NPSwere also detected in wastewater samples, which indicatesthat consumptionof some of these compounds is elevated. The absence of reference standards for several NPS found, as well as for some NPS metabolites, made it unfeasible the full confirmation of some compounds in the urine/wastewater samples analyzed. However, accurate-mass full-spectrum data provided by HRMS allowed their tentative identification with high degree of reliability. The subsequent acquisition of reference standards, when available, will allow the unequivocal confirmation of their identity.N/

Una estrategia de intervención comunitaria en la prevención de los delitos sexuales en féminas / A strategy of community intervention to prevent sexual crimes on women

Se realizan un total de seis seminario-talleres sobre la frecuencia y características de los delitos sexuales en féminas en la provincia, en las zonas mayormente afectadas por el fenómeno (áreas de salud " Raúl Sánchez " y "Hermanos Cruz") a los cuales asistieron 407 representantes de las comunidades elegidas y al término de cada sesión se aplicó a estos una encuesta anónima para recoger sus opiniones sobre el posible impacto del método en la preparación, para identificar situaciones relacionadas con la violencia sexual en féminas y también sobre sus posibles causas, destacándose la opinión popular de un 52,3% que los vinculan al alcoholismo y en otros porcientos, la falta de control de los padres para con los hijos, desajustes familiares e inadecuados vestuarios y horarios de salida de las jóvenes, entre otros, encontrando el método empleado, aceptación y apoyo entre los encuestados, que se consideran medianamente preparados para identificar y prevenir situaciones vulnerantes. Palabras clave: Delitos sexuales, prevención, género, violación, alcoholismo. ABSTRACT A series of six seminaries were performed in order to know the frequency and characteristics of sexual crimes, especially in women. The study was carried out in a population of 407 neighbors in Pinar del Río Province, belonging to a selected health area of Raúl Sánchez and Hermanos Cruz Teaching Polyclinic. At the end of each seminary an anonymous survey was applied to gathers their opinion to get a big effects of this technique to identify some sexual crimes and furthermore the main ethiology. A 52.3 % reported an opinion about alcoholism with approved-supported methods for the entire universe. They are mild prepared to identify and prevent vulnerable situations. Key words: Sexual crimes, prevention, violation, gender, alcoholism