Analysis of aerosol optical depth evaluation in polar regions and associated uncertainties

Some available processing algorithms used to calculate the aerosol optical depth from radiometric measurements were tested. The aim was to evaluate the associated uncertainties in polar regions due to the data processing, in order to adjust the methodology of the calculation and illustrate the importance of these error sources. The measurements were obtained during a sun photometer campaign in Ny-Ålesund within the framework of the POLAR-AOD project

Human Computer Interactions in Next-Generation of Aircraft Smart Navigation Management Systems: Task Analysis and Architecture under an Agent-Oriented Methodological Approach

The limited efficiency of current air traffic systems will require a next-generation of Smart Air Traffic System (SATS) that relies on current technological advances. This challenge means a transition toward a new navigation and air-traffic procedures paradigm, where pilots and air traffic controllers perform and coordinate their activities according to new roles and technological supports. The design of new Human-Computer Interactions (HCI) for performing these activities is a key element of SATS. However efforts for developing such tools need to be inspired on a parallel characterization of hypothetical air traffic scenarios compatible with current ones. This paper is focused on airborne HCI into SATS where cockpit inputs came from aircraft navigation systems, surrounding traffic situation, controllers' indications, etc. So the HCI is intended to enhance situation awareness and decision-making through pilot cockpit. This work approach considers SATS as a system distributed on a large-scale with uncertainty in a dynamic environment. Therefore, a multi-agent systems based approach is well suited for modeling such an environment. We demonstrate that current methodologies for designing multi-agent systems are a useful tool to characterize HCI. We specifically illustrate how the selected methodological approach provides enough guidelines to obtain a cockpit HCI design that complies with future SATS specifications.This work was supported in part by Projects MINECO TEC2011-28626-C02-01/02, by program CENIT-ATLANTIDA (cofinanced by Indra and Boeing R&TE), and by ULPGC Precompetitive Research Project (ULPGC Own Program).Publicad

Behavior of au nanoparticles under pressure observed by in situ small-angle X-ray scattering

The mechanical properties and stability of metal nanoparticle colloids under high-pressure conditions are investigated by means of optical extinction spectroscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), for colloidal dispersions of gold nanorods and gold nanospheres. SAXS allows us to follow in situ the structural evolution of the nanoparticles induced by pressure, regarding both nanoparticle size and shape (form factor) and their aggregation through the interparticle correlation function S(q) (structure factor). The observed behavior changes under hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic conditions are discussed in terms of liquid solidification processes yielding nanoparticle aggregation. We show that pressure-induced diffusion and aggregation of gold nanorods take place after solidification of the solvent. The effect of nanoparticle shape on the aggregation process is additionally discussed.We thank Professor Jan Dhont for helpful comments about nanoparticle diffusion in solid ethanol. F.R. acknowledges financial support from Projects PID2021-127656NB-I00 and MALTA-Consolider Team (RED2018-102612-T), and L.M.L.-M. from PID2020-117779RB-I00 and MDM-2017-0720, from the State Research Agency of Spain, Ministry of Science and Innovation. C.M.-S. acknowledges funding from the Spanish Ministry of Universities and the European Union-NextGeneration EU through the Margarita Salas research grant (C21.I4.P1). We acknowledge SOLEIL for the provision of synchrotron radiation facilities, and we would like to thank Dr. Javier Pérez, beamline supervisor, for assistance in using beamline SWING (proposals 20191731 and 20210678). This work benefited from the use of the SasView application, originally developed under NSF award DMR-0520547. SasView contains code developed with funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the SINE2020 project, grant agreement no. 654000

On the Stiffness of Gold at the Nanoscale

The density and compressibility of nanoscale gold (both nanospheres and nanorods) and microscale gold (bulk) were simultaneously studied by X-ray diffraction with synchrotron radiation up to 30 GPa. Colloidal stability (aggregation state and nanoparticle shape and size) in both hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic regions was monitored by small-angle X-ray scattering. We demonstrate that nonhydrostatic effects due to solvent solidification had a negligible influence on the stability of the nanoparticles. Conversely, nonhydrostatic effects produced axial stresses on the nanoparticle up to a factor 10× higher than those on the bulk metal. Working under hydrostatic conditions (liquid solution), we determined the equation of state of individual nanoparticles. From the values of the lattice parameter and bulk modulus, we found that gold nanoparticles are slightly denser (0.3%) and stiffer (2%) than bulk gold: V0 = 67.65(3) Å3 , K0 = 170(3)GPa, at zero pressure

Upgrade of a climate service tailored to water reservoirs management

We present the upgrade of a web tool designed to help in the decision making process for water reservoirs management in Spain. The tool, called S-ClimWaRe (Seasonal Climate predictions in support of Water Reservoirs management), covers the extended winter season (from November to March), when the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) pattern strongly influences the hydrological interannual variability in South-Western Europe. This climate service is fully user driven, and aims at meeting their requirements incorporating recent scientific progress.The research leading to these results has received funding from the MEDSCOPE project co-funded by the European Commission as part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, grant agreement 690462

Seasonal climate predictions in support of water reservoirs management in Spain

Póster presentado en: 1st Climateurope festival celebrado en Valencia, del 5 al 7 de abril de 2017.This work has been partially funded by the FP7 EUPORIAS projec

Nesfatin-1 in human and murine cardiomyocytes: synthesis, secretion, and mobilization of GLUT-4

Nesfatin-1, a satiety-inducing peptide identified in hypothalamic regions that regulate energy balance, is an integral regulator of energy homeostasis and a putative glucose-dependent insulin coadjuvant. We investigated its production by human cardiomyocytes and its effects on glucose uptake, in the main cardiac glucose transporter GLUT-4 and in intracellular signaling. Quantitative RT-PCR, Western blots, confocal immunofluorescence microscopy, and ELISA of human and murine cardiomyocytes and/or cardiac tissue showed that cardiomyocytes can synthesize and secrete nesfatin-1. Confocal microscopy of cultured cardiomyocytes after GLUT-4 labeling showed that nesfatin-1 mobilizes this glucose transporter to cell peripherals. The rate of 2-deoxy-D-[(3)H]glucose incorporation demonstrated that nesfatin-1 induces glucose uptake by HL-1 cells and cultured cardiomyocytes. Nesfatin-1 induced dose- and time-dependent increases in the phosphorylation of ERK1/2, AKT, and AS160. In murine and human cardiac tissue, nesfatin-1 levels varied with diet and coronary health. In conclusion, human and murine cardiomyocytes can synthesize and secrete nesfatin-1, which is able to induce glucose uptake and the mobilization of the glucose transporter GLUT-4 in these cells. Nesfatin-1 cardiac levels are regulated by diet and coronary health

Reconstructing the impact of human activities in a NW Iberian Roman mining landscape for the last 2500 years

This article was made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Little is known about the impact of human activities during Roman times on NW Iberian mining landscapes beyond the geomorphological transformations brought about by the use of hydraulic power for gold extraction. We present the high-resolution pollen record of La Molina mire, located in an area intensely used for gold mining (Asturias, NW Spain), combined with other proxy data from the same peat core to identify different human activities, evaluate the strategies followed for the management of the resources and describe the landscape response to human disturbances. We reconstructed the timing and synchronicity of landscape changes of varying intensity and form occurred before, during and after Roman times. An open landscape was prevalent during the local Late Iron Age, a period of relatively environmental stability. During the Early Roman Empire more significant vegetation shifts took place, reflected by changes in both forest (Corylus and Quercus) and heathland cover, as mining/metallurgy peaked and grazing and cultivation increased. In the Late Roman Empire, the influence of mining/metallurgy on landscape change started to disappear. This decoupling was further consolidated in the Germanic period (i.e., Visigothic and Sueve domination of the region), with a sharp decrease in mining/metallurgy but continued grazing. Although human impact was intense in some periods, mostly during the Early Roman Empire, forest regeneration occurred afterwards: clearances were local and short-lived. However, the Roman mining landscape turned into an agrarian one at the onset of the Middle Ages, characterized by a profound deforestation at a regional level due to a myriad of human activities that resulted in an irreversible openness of the landscape. © 2014 The Authors

Visor de escenarios de cambio climático de adapteCCa: consulta interactiva y acceso a escenarios-PNACC 2017

Ponencia presentada en: XI Congreso de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Cartagena entre el 17 y el 19 de octubre de 2018.[ES]Las proyecciones regionales de cambio climático son una información básica para realizar estudios de impacto y adaptación en distintos sectores socio-económicos. La recopilación y producción de estas proyecciones a nivel nacional es una tarea básica del Plan Nacional de Adaptación al Cambio Climático (PNACC), a través de Escenarios-PNACC. La primera versión (2012) se basó en la información del IPCCAR4 y en dos acciones estratégicas nacionales (ESCENA y ESTCENA). Recientemente, se ha llevado a cabo una actualización de estos escenarios regionales a partir de IPCC-AR5 y de los proyectos CORDEX y VALUE (con la participación de AEMET y CSIC-UC), que proporciona series diarias en rejilla y puntuales de distintas variables e índices para múltiples escenarios y modelos. En este trabajo se presenta la actualización Escenarios-PNACC 2017, así como el visor de escenarios de cambio climático desarrollado en el marco de la plataforma AdapteCCa para facilitar a los usuarios el análisis interactivo y el acceso a esta información (http://escenarios.adaptecca.es).[EN]Regional projections of climate change are key information to carry out impact and adaptation studies in different socio-economic sectors. The compilation and production of these projections at the national level is a basic task of the National Plan of Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC), through Escenarios-PNACC. The first version (2012) was based on IPCC-AR3 information and two national strategic actions (ESCENA and ESTCENA). Recently, an update of these regional scenarios has been carried out from IPCC-AR5 and from the CORDEX and VALUE projects (with the participation of AEMET and CSIC-UC), providing daily gridded and point series of different variables and indices for multiple scenarios and models. This paper describes the update Escenarios-PNACC 2017, as well as the "viewer of climate change scenarios" developed within the framework of the AdapteCCa platform to provide users with interactive analysis and access to this information (http://escenarios.adaptecca.es)

Buenas Prácticas en los Programas Universitarios para Mayores en España

Ana Isabel Muñoz Alcón y Francisco Trullén Galve (Universidad Catolica de Ávila); María P. García de la Torre y Francisco Ascón Belver (Universidad de A Coruña); M. Isabel Luis Rico, Ángel Gañán Adánez, Tamara de la Torre Cruz, Vanesa Baños Martínez (Universidad de Burgos); Yolanda Lázaro Fernández y Jaime Cuenca Amigo (Universidad de Deusto); Camino Caballero Posado (Universidad de Extremadura); Mª Adoración Holgado Sánchez y Mª Teresa Ramos Bernal (Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca); Sara Serrate González, Javier Alba Barrios y José Manuel Muñoz Rodríguez; Miguel Ángel Nombela Castaño (Universidad de Vigo