Sand and Dust Storm - Warning Advisory and Assessment System

Comunicación presentada en: International Workshop on Sand and Dust Storms "Dust Sources and their Impacts in the Middle East", celebrado en Estambul del 23 al 25 de octubre de 2017Given the important impacts of airborne dust on human health, the environment and diverse socio-economic sectors, in 2007, the World Meteorological Organization endorsed the launching of the Sand and Dust Storm - Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) with the mission to enhance the ability of countries to deliver timely and high-quality sand and dust storm forecasts, observations, information and knowledge to users. This paper describes SDS-WAS' mission, organization and objectives, highlights its transition from R&D to operational forecast services and postulates the implementation of future dust early warning systems

Airborne dust monitoring and forecasting at the WMO SDS-WAS Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe

Ponencia presentada en: First of International Conference on Dust, 2-4 March 2016, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, IranOver recent years, the scientific community has realized the importance of studying the release of mineral dust into the atmosphere, its transport over long distances and its interaction with the Earth's climate system, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, as well as its impact on air quality, human health and various socio-economic sectors. Responding to societal demands, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS) with the mission to enhance the ability of countries to deliver timely and quality sand and dust storm forecasts, observations, information and knowledge to end-users. This communication reports the activity of the SDS-WAS Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe in the field of dust monitoring and forecasting, with special emphasis on the dust model inter-comparison and forecast evaluation. As part of this initiative, the Regional Center daily provides dust predictions from ten state-of-the-art numerical models run by different research and operational agencies around the world, ensemble multimodel products and comparison with remote-sensing products. Finally, In order to develop the operational component of SDS-WAS and to transfer the experience gained in the research phase to the operational services, the Barcelona Dust Forecast Center was opened in February 2014 to generate and disseminate operational dust predictions for Northern Africa (north of equator), Middle East and Europe. The forecast fields are generated using the NMMB/BSC-Dust model run at a horizontal resolution of 0.1 degrees and distributed through the center web portal, the WMO Global Telecommunications System and EUMETCast

The dust cycle and impacts: observation and prediction of airborne dust

Comunicación presentada en: 4th Training Course on WMO SDS-WAS Products (satellite and ground observation and modelling of atmospheric dust) celebrado del 17 al 20 de noviembre de 2014 en Casablanca, Marruecos

Patridoc UVic: programa per a la protecció i conservació del patrimoni documental de la Universitat de Vic

A qualsevol institució existeixen una sèrie de documents i d'expedients que es consideren essencials, o sigui, indispensables per al funcionament de la Universitat. El desembre de 2007 el Consell de Direcció de la Universitat aprova el programa per a la protecció i conservació d'aquest patrimoni documental (PATRIDOC-UVIC), impulsat per l'Arxiu General i la Comissió d'Arxiu

Small-scale pasteurization plants: modeling and real-time control

The pasteurization process is one of the most common treatments in the food industries in order to eliminate harmful pathogenic and spoilage microorganism. The process consists in maintaining a high temperature stablished during a short period of time (HTST). Most of the pasteurization plants are controlled by tradicional PID (ProportionasIntegral-Derivative). Much effort has been made to develop advanced controllers. However, an accurate model that describes the system is required. The main of the present project is to develop a dynamical model for a pasteurization plant for a real-time control. Experimental plant consists in a small-scale pasteurization plant PCT23 MKII completely monitorized owned by the enterprise Armfield. The first task refers to modelling the different elements of the plant. Each one is modelled using the physical principles resulting a nonlinear model. Different parameters of the proposed model are later estimated by experimental data. Finally, the complete model is validated by new experimental data. Linear parameter-varying (LPV) model represents a class of non-linear systems that can be controlled using powerful linear-like techniques. As a nonlinear model is proposed to describe the real system, the second task refers to develop LPV) model. Results shows that the proposed models fit the experimental data with an error lower than a 3 %. Advanced controllers could be designed using these models. As a first approach a PID controller has been designed. The control objective is leading the controlled variables (temperatures) in order to reach the set point rejecting the disturbances

Comparación entre dos modelos unidimensionales diseñados para predicción a corto plazo de niebla y nubes bajas

[EN]There is a large impact of fog and low clouds in the field of airborne transportation. As a consequence, there is an increasing demand of precise forecasts in order to mitigate the negative effects of visibility reduction. Nevertheless, the production of these forecasts constitutes an unsolved issue yet. In several places, one-dimensional (single-column) models have been tested for local forecasts. They provide many insights into the complex physical mechanisms that are relevant in the fog or low clouds formation. Nevertheless, any influence related with surface or atmospheric horizontal unhomogeneity remains, in most cases, out of control. In 2005, an intercomparison experiment among different single-column models in the field of fog and low clouds forecast was carried out. Since the results were useful but inconclusive, it was agreed to undertake a massive and systematic comparison between H1D and COBEL-ISBA. During the intercomparison period, the models have been run for Paris-Charles de Gaulle International Airport. The most significant difference between the models is found in the nocturnal cooling rate, which is -on average- stronger in H1D. The reason could lie in the fact that H1D predicts less cloud coverage than COBEL-ISBA. The verification results show that the initialization is an important aspect for very short-term forecast and COBEL-ISBA seems to perform better for this point. They also demonstrate that the treatment of horizontal heterogeneities is important for longer forecast scopes, and H1D seems to perform better for this aspect.[ES]El impacto de la niebla y las nubes bajas en el transporte aéreo es muy importante. Existe una demanda creciente de predicciones precisas que permitan mitigar los efectos negativos de la reducción de la visibilidad. Sin embargo, la realización de estas predicciones constituye todavía un reto sin resolver. En varios lugares se han ensayado modelos unidimentales (de columna vertical) para predicciones locales. Estos modelos proporcionan mucha información sobre los complejos mecanismos físicos que intervienen en la formación de la niebla y las nubes bajas. Sin embargo, las influencias relacionadas con la inhomogeneidad horizontal de la superficie o de la atmósfera quedan, en la mayoría de los casos, fuera de control. En 2005 se realizó un experimento consistente en comparar el comportamiento de distintos modelos unidimensales en la predicción de niebla y nubes bajas. Puesto que los resultados fueron útiles pero no concluyentes, se acordó llevar a cabo una comparación masiva y sistemática entre H1D y COBEL- ISBA. Durante el período de comparación, los modelos han realizado predicciones para el aeropuerto internacional de París-Charles de Gaulle. La diferencia más significativa entre sus resultados se encuentra en el ritmo de enfriamiento nocturno, que en promedio es mayor para H1D. La causa podría residir en que H1D predice una menor cobertura nubosa que COBEL-ISBA. Los resultados de la verificación muestran que la asimilación de datos es un aspecto muy importante para la predicción a muy corto plazo y COSBEL-ISBA parece comportarse mejor en este aspecto. También demuestran que el tratamiento de las inhomogeneidades horizontales es importante para plazos de predicción más largos y H1D parece comportarse mejor en este caso

La Cardiologia del segle XXI

Les malalties cardiovasculars, juntament amb el càncer, són dos dels àmbits en què s'han concentrat més els recursos sanitaris els darrers anys. Pel que fa a la cardiologia, hi ha hagut grans avenços en àrees com l'intervencionisme, l'electrofisiologia, el diagnòstic i la cirurgia, i això ha creat tot un seguit d'eines terapèutiques que han fet evolucionar molt el tractament de les malalties cardiovasculars. Pel que fa al futur, la cardiologia s'espera que evolucioni envers una medicina més personalitzada, preventiva, predictiva i participativa, en què el pacient serà un actor ple en la diagnosi de la seva malaltia. Tot això ens portarà a l'anomenada medicina de sistemes.Cardiovascular diseases, along with cancer are two of the areas where health resources are more involved in recent years. As for cardiology, there have been major advances in areas such as intervention, electrophysiology, diagnosis and surgery, and this has created a series of therapeutic tools that have make evolve the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Regarding the future of cardiology, is expected to evolve towards a more personalized, preventive, predictive and participatory medicine, where the patient is a full actor in the diagnosis of the disease. All this leads to the so-called systems medicine