Search

Appeared in: Open Search Symposium 2019, 23-24 October 2019, Garching / Munich, Germany. &nbsp

From 1970 to 2012, about 9000 High Impact Weather Events (HIWE) were reported globally: all together, they caused the loss of 1.94 million lives and economic damage of US$ 2.4 trillion (2014 UNISDR report). Storms and floods accounted for 79 per cent of the total number of disasters due to weather, water and climate extremes and caused 55 per cent of lives lost and 86 per cent of economic losses. Predicting high impact weather events (HIWE) is still one of the main challenges of the 21st century, with significant socio-economic implications. At the heart of this challenge, lies the ability to access hydro-meteorological data and models and to facilitate the collaboration between meteorologists, hydrologists, and Earth science experts for accelerated scientific advances in hydro-meteorological research (HMR). The EU funded DRIHM (Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology) and DRIHM2US (Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology to US) projects developed a prototype e-Science environment to facilitate this collaboration and to provide advanced end-to-end HMR services (models, datasets and post-processing tools). The DRIHM(2US) services will be presented and demonstrated for the Genoa 2014 flash-flood event.

[Resumen] OBJETIVO: Desarrollar un modelo in vitro de reparación de lesiones de cartílago articular humano basado en la capacidad de diferenciación condrogénica de las células mesenquimales estromales aisladas de médula ósea humana (CMEs-MOh) cultivadas sobre soportes de colágeno tipo I (Col I). METODOLOGÍA: Se aislaron CMEs-MOh a partir de biopsias de cadera. Estas células se caracterizaron morfológicamente y funcionalmente in vitro. Posteriormente, las CMEs-MOh se cultivaron sobre soportes de Col I donde, una vez comprobado que las células crecían sobre él, se introdujeron en los modelos de reparación in vitro para su cultivo en medio de diferenciación condrogénico. La valoración de la reparación se realizó empleando técnicas histológicas e inmunohistoquímicas y la escala de la International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) II modificada. RESULTADOS: A partir de médula ósea (MO) de cadera, se obtuvieron CMEs-MOh. La caracterización morfológica y funcional in vitro de estas células puso de manifiesto que se trataba de células mesenquimales estromales. Las CMEs-MOh fueron capaces de crecer, diferenciarse y formar un neotejido en el modelo de reparación, obteniendo una reparación de cartílago articular del 54%, denominada “fibrocartílago”. CONCLUSIONES: Se consiguió obtener y aislar CMEs-MOh a partir de biopsias de cadera. El análisis morfológico y la capacidad de diferenciación adipogénica, osteogénica y condrogénica, permite considerar a las células aisladas como CMEs-MOh. Estas células, cultivadas sobre Col I, tienen capacidad de crecer, diferenciarse a células con características similares a condrocitos y producir un neotejido en el interior de las lesiones de cartílago articular. [Abstract] AIM: To develop an in vitro model of human cartilage repair based on the chondrogenic potential of mesenchymal stromal cells, isolated from human bone marrow (CMEs-MOh), cultured on type I collagen (Col I) scaffolds. METHODOLOGY: CMEs-MOh were isolated from hip biopsies. These cells were characterized morphologically and functionally in vitro. Subsequently, CMEs-MOh were cultured on Col I scaffolds where, once it had been verified that the cells grew on them, they were introduced inside the in vitro repair model and cultured in chondrogenic medium. The evaluation of repair was performed using histological and inmunochemistry techniques and the modified International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) II scale. RESULTS: CMEs-MOh were obtained from hip bone marrow. Morphological, and functionally characterization of these cells demonstrated that they were CMEs. These cells were able to grow, differentiate and synthesize a neotissue in the in vitro repair model, obtaining a cartilage repair of 54%, denominated “fibrocartilage”. CONCLUSIONS: CMEs-MOh were obtained and isolated from hip biopsies. The morphological and adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation analysis, allow to consider these cells as CMEs-MOh. Cells isolated from human bone marrow, grew on Col I, differentiated to chondrocyte-like cells and synthesized a cartilage-like neotissue, inside the lesions of the in vitro cartilage repair model. Traballo fin de mestrado (UDC.CIE). Biotecnoloxía avanzada. Curso 2015/2016

An objective identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events for Northwest Italy is established using time series of annual precipitation maxima for 1938–2002 at over 200 stations. Rainfall annual maxima are considered for five reference durations (1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h). In a first step, a day is classified as an extraordinary rainfall day when a regional threshold calculated on the basis of a two-components extreme value distribution is exceeded for at least one of the stations. Second, a clustering procedure taking into account the different rainfall durations is applied to the identified 163 events. Third, a division into six clusters is chosen using Ward's distance criteria. It is found that two of these clusters include the seven strongest events as quantified from a newly developed measure of intensity which combines rainfall intensities and spatial extension. Two other clusters include the weakest 72% historical events. The obtained clusters are analyzed in terms of typical synoptic characteristics. The two top clusters are characterized by strong and persistent upper air troughs inducing not only moisture advection from the North Atlantic into the Western Mediterranean but also strong northward flow towards the southern Alpine ranges. Humidity transports from the North Atlantic are less important for the weaker clusters. We conclude that moisture advection from the North Atlantic plays a relevant role in the magnitude of the extraordinary events over Northwest Italy.

Deep moist convection is a threatening phenomenon that recurrently hits both the Mediterranean and tropical seas. For this reason, many attempts have been made to try to characterize and predict it, and with this objective several physical indices have been proposed in literature during the last decade. Among these and for tropical environments, saturation fraction and gross moist stability, which are a measure of the atmospheric columnar saturation and an estimation of the convective behaviour through the relation of the convective forcing and the convection response, respectively, have been proposed. For the midlatitude, Mediterranean convection, the convective adjustment time-scale τc has been introduced, which is an estimation of the convective equilibrium of the environment through the use of CAPE and its rate of change by convective heating. This paper hypothesizes with the idea of a potential suitability of the tropical indices in a continuously-warming Mediterranean atmosphere, by testing them for the set of severe rainfall events over Italy during January 2007-February 2009. In another study, they had already been successfully classified into two categories of events showing non-equilibrium or rather equilibrium conditions, by using the convective adjustment time-scale τc. Our results indicate that such classification based on the equilibrium criterion as function of the episodes' duration does not show consistency for the saturation fraction, while the events mean normalized gross moist stability is widely negative, the meaning of which for the midlatitude environment is not clear yet and remains an open debate within the scientific community.

The Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorological Study (DRIHMS) is a coordinated action co-funded by the European Commission. DRIHMS analyzes the main issues that arise when designing and setting up a pan-European Grid-based e-Infrastructure for research activities in the hydrologic and meteorological fields. The main outcome of the project is represented first by a set of Grid usage patterns to support innovative hydro-meteorological research activities, and second by the implications that such patterns define for a dedicated Grid infrastructure and the respective Grid architecture.

Introducción: en la actualidad la obesidad es considerada por la Organización Mundial de la Salud, como la epidemia del siglo XXI la cual viene afectando a toda la población y de forma alarmante en la población de niños y niñas. En el Perú no hay datos oficiales en población infantil pero cifras no oficiales revela cifras de 10,0% y 5,6% para la prevalencia de sobrepeso y obesidad respectivamente. Objetivo: mejorar el problema del sobrepeso/obesidad del alumnado de una escuela de la minera Barrick-Pierina, con una intervención educativa que fomenta estilos de vida saludables promociona una alimentación balanceada y un incremento en la actividad física, evaluando al final el cambio de los Índice de Masa Corporal (IMC) calculados según el percentil. Material y método: diseño: Intervención de muestra simple. La variable dependiente (IMC) fue seguida longitudinalmente, entre Mayo, 2004 y Abril, 2005. Locación: Una escuela urbana de la minera Barrick-Pierina. Participantes: 121 participantes ( 65 niñas, 56 niños), de 6 a 16 años (edad media, 9,6 años). Intervención: El Programa "Estilos de Vida Saludables" usó 5 actividades, basadas en las guías de autoimplementación del CDC de Atlanta: 10 clases teóricas sobre balance energético, dos talleres de loncheras saludables para los padres de familia, asesoría nutricional semanal para el proveedor de la cafetería, un festival de ensaladas de la cosecha del biohuerto y 10 clases de educación física. La estrategia fue planteada por personal de salud multidisciplinario y desarrollada por el equipo de 19 profesores del colegio. Indicador: El percentil del IMC promedio. Resultados: el percentil promedio basal del IMC fue de 64,8 (DS = 23,4) y descendió a 58,5 ( DS = 25,4), con una diferencia estadísticamente significativa (p