Cascading Failures in Interconnected Power-to-Water Networks

The manageability and resilience of critical infrastructures, such as power and water networks, is challenged by their increasing interdependence and interconnectivity. Power networks often experience cascading failures, i.e. blackouts, that have unprecedented economic and social impact. Al- though knowledge exists about how to control such complex non-linear phenomena within a single power network, little is known about how such failures can spread and coevolve in the water network when failing power components energize the water distribution infrastructure, i.e. pumps and valves. This paper studies such a scenario and specifically the impact of power cascading failures on shortages of water supply. A realistic exemplary of an interconnected power-to-water network is experimentally evaluated using a modular simulation approach. Power and waterflow dynamics are simulated separately by taking into account different maximum powerlines capacities and water demand requirements. Results showcase the strong dependency of urban water sup- ply systems on the reliability of power networks, with severe shortages of water supply being caused by failures originating indistant power lines, especially for heavily loaded power networks

Droughts, Pluvials, and Wet Season Timing Across the Chao Phraya River Basin: A 254-Year Monthly Reconstruction from Tree Ring Widths and δ18O

Water system operations require subannual streamflow data—e.g., monthly or weekly—that are not readily achievable with conventional streamflow reconstructions from annual tree rings. This mismatch is particularly relevant to highly seasonal rivers such as Thailand's Chao Phraya. Here, we combine tree ring width and stable oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O) from Southeast Asia to produce 254-year, monthly-resolved reconstructions for all four major tributaries of the Chao Phraya. From the reconstructions, we derive subannual streamflow indices to examine past hydrological droughts and pluvials, and find coherence and heterogeneity in their histories. The monthly resolution reveals the spatiotemporal variability in wet season timing, caused by interactions between early summer typhoons, monsoon rains, catchment location, and topography. Monthly-resolved reconstructions, like the ones presented here, not only broaden our understanding of past hydroclimatic variability, but also provide data that are functional to water management and climate-risk analyses, a significant improvement over annual reconstructions

Time to Use Dendrohydrological Data in Water Resources Management?

In this editorial, we argue that the water resources management community should move away from relying only on short instrumental record, and instead incorporate long term tree-ring data into informing water management

Multi-Proxy, Multi-Season Streamflow Reconstruction With Mass Balance Adjustment

Despite having offered important hydroclimatic insights, streamflow reconstructions still see limited use in water resources operations, because annual reconstructions are not suitable for decisions at finer time scales. The few attempts toward sub-annual reconstructions have relied on statistical disaggregation, which uses none or little proxy information. Here, we develop a novel framework that optimizes proxy combinations to simultaneously produce seasonal and annual reconstructions. Importantly, the framework ensures that total seasonal flow matches annual flow closely. This mass balance criterion is necessary to avoid misguiding water management decisions, such as the allocation of water rights or dam release decisions. Using the framework, and leveraging a multi-species network of ring width and cellulose ¹⁸O in Southeast Asia, we reconstruct seasonal and annual inflow to Thailand's largest reservoir. The reconstructions are statistically skillful. Furthermore, they preserve the mass balance well: the differences are mostly within 10% of the mean annual flow. As a result, the reconstructions provide more reliable estimates of the seasonal and annual surface water availability. This work is one step closer toward operational usability of streamflow reconstruction in water resources management

Mechanisms of escape phenomenon of spinal cord and brainstem in human rabies

BACKGROUND: Rabies virus preferentially involves brainstem, thalamus and spinal cord in human furious and paralytic rabies beginning in the early stage of illness. Nevertheless, rabies patient remains alert until the pre-terminal phase. Weakness of extremities develops only when furious rabies patient becomes comatose; whereas peripheral nerve dysfunction is responsible for weakness in paralytic rabies. METHODS: Evidence of apoptosis and mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization in brain and spinal cord of 10 rabies patients was examined and these findings were correlated with the presence of rabies virus antigen. RESULTS: Although apoptosis was evident in most of the regions, cytochrome c leakage was relatively absent in spinal cord of nearly all patients despite the abundant presence of rabies virus antigen. Such finding was also noted in brainstem of 5 patients. CONCLUSION: Cell death in human rabies may be delayed in spinal cord and the reticular activating system, such as brainstem, thus explaining absence of weakness due to spinal cord dysfunction and preservation of consciousness

Battle of Postdisaster Response and Restoration

[EN] The paper presents the results of the Battle of Postdisaster Response and Restoration (BPDRR) presented in a special session at the first International water distribution systems analysis & computing and control in the water industry (WDSA/CCWI) Joint Conference, held in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in July 2018. The BPDRR problem focused on how to respond and restore water service after the occurrence of five earthquake scenarios that cause structural damage in a water distribution system. Participants were required to propose a prioritization schedule to fix the damages of each scenario while following restrictions on visibility/nonvisibility of damages. Each team/approach was evaluated against six performance criteria: (1) time without supply for hospital/firefighting, (2) rapidity of recovery, (3) resilience loss, (4) average time of no user service, (5) number of users without service for eight consecutive hours, and (6) water loss. Three main types of approaches were identified from the submissions: (1) general-purpose metaheuristic algorithms, (2) greedy algorithms, and (3) ranking-based prioritizations. All three approaches showed potential to solve the challenge efficiently. The results of the participants showed that for this network, the impact of a large-diameter pipe failure on the network is more significant than several smaller pipes failures. The location of isolation valves and the size of hydraulic segments influenced the resilience of the system during emergencies. On average, the interruptions to water supply (hospitals and firefighting) varied considerably among solutions and emergency scenarios, highlighting the importance of private water storage for emergencies. 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Design, upgrade and characterization of the silicon photomultiplier front-end for the AMIGA detector at the Pierre Auger Observatory

AMIGA (Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array) is an upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory to complement the study of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECR) by measuring the muon content of extensive air showers (EAS). It consists of an array of 61 water Cherenkov detectors on a denser spacing in combination with underground scintillation detectors used for muon density measurement. Each detector is composed of three scintillation modules, with 10 m$^2$ detection area per module, buried at 2.3 m depth, resulting in a total detection area of 30 m$^2$. Silicon photomultiplier sensors (SiPM) measure the amount of scintillation light generated by charged particles traversing the modules. In this paper, the design of the front-end electronics to process the signals of those SiPMs and test results from the laboratory and from the Pierre Auger Observatory are described. Compared to our previous prototype, the new electronics shows a higher performance, higher efficiency and lower power consumption, and it has a new acquisition system with increased dynamic range that allows measurements closer to the shower core. The new acquisition system is based on the measurement of the total charge signal that the muonic component of the cosmic ray shower generates in the detector.Comment: 40 pages, 33 figure

Direct measurement of the muonic content of extensive air showers between 2×1017\mathbf { 2\times 10^{17}} and 2×1018 \mathbf {2\times 10^{18}}~eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory

The hybrid design of the Pierre Auger Observatory allows for the measurement of the properties of extensive air showers initiated by ultra-high energy cosmic rays with unprecedented precision. By using an array of prototype underground muon detectors, we have performed the first direct measurement, by the Auger Collaboration, of the muon content of air showers between 2×10$^{17}$ and 2×10$^{18}$ eV. We have studied the energy evolution of the attenuation-corrected muon density, and compared it to predictions from air shower simulations. The observed densities are found to be larger than those predicted by models. We quantify this discrepancy by combining the measurements from the muon detector with those from the Auger fluorescence detector at 10$^{17.5}$eV and 10$^{18}$eV. We find that, for the models to explain the data, an increase in the muon density of 38% ±4%(12%) ± (21%)¦(18%) for EPOS-LHC, and of 50%(53%) ±4%(13%) ± (23%)¦(20%) for QGSJetII-04, is respectively needed

Status and performance of the underground muon detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Muons and Infill for the Ground Array (AMIGA) is an enhancement of the Pierre Auger Observatory, whose purpose is to lower the energy threshold of the observatory down to 1016.5 eV, and to measure the muonic content of air showers directly. These measurements will significantly contribute to the determination of primary particle masses in the range between the second knee and the ankle, to the study of hadronic interaction models with air showers, and, in turn, to the understanding of the muon puzzle. The underground muon detector of AMIGA is concomitant to two triangular grids of water-Cherenkov stations with spacings of 433 and 750 m; each grid position is equipped with a 30 m2 plastic scintillator buried at 2.3 m depth. After the engineering array completion in early 2018 and general improvements to the design, the production phase commenced. In this work, we report on the status of the underground muon detector, the progress of its deployment, and the performance achieved after two years of operation. The detector construction is foreseen to finish by mid-2022