Agencia Catalana de L'Aigua

ABSTRACTFreshwater mussels play essential roles in ecosystem processes, such as water filtration and nutrient cycling, but, in the last decades, they have become increasingly threatened by habitat destruction, pollution, and the arrival of invasive species. In this study, a living population of the bivalve Anodonta cygnea is reported in Catalonia, Spain, based on molecular and morphological analyses. A comparison with A. anatina from a nearby population in southern France highlights the importance of using genetic tools to accurately distinguish between closely related freshwater mussel species. The introduction of A. cygnea likely reflects a recent range expansion, facilitated by human activities and environmental changes in the region. Its establishment in local ecosystems raises concerns about potential ecological impacts, including competition with native species and alteration of freshwater habitats. These findings underscore the critical need for effective monitoring and management strategies to mitigate the ecological risks associated with invasive species. This study emphasizes the importance of integrating molecular methods into conservation efforts to improve the understanding of species distributions and address the challenges posed by biodiversity loss in aquatic ecosystems.

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> Northern landscapes are enduring ongoing impacts of anthropogenic land use and climate change. Rivers are valuable indicators of this change reflected by the timing and amount of water and terrestrial material they mobilize. Assessing the influence of a changing climate on diverse river systems is best achieved using multi-annual monitoring and replication of effort across varied tributary catchment conditions. We used this approach to monitor concentrations, catchment yields, and export of total suspended sediments (TSS) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) of a large, diverse, glacial river network (North Saskatchewan River; NSR) in western Canada during years of extensive weather fluctuations. Though concentrations of TSS and DOC increased eastward through the NSR basin from Rocky Mountain cordillera to agriculturalized plains, catchment yields were statistically highest from cordillera regions, reflecting an eastward rain shadow. Wet conditions across the basin resulted in variable but statistically higher TSS and DOC yields compared to drought conditions. During higher water, we observed disordered, threshold-type, erosive mobilization of TSS through the basin whereas DOC increased more predictably with runoff. Variability of yields and export was substantial both within and between pristine and impacted catchments, and within the NSR mainstem illustrating the complexity of river sediment and organic matter transport at the network scale. Consequently, in a warming and wetting climate, we expect TSS and DOC transport to intensify with sediment transport being more difficult to predict compared to organic matter, which has implications for aquatic ecosystems and &gt;1.5 M people who depend on the NSR for drinking water.

Ecohydrological studies frequently use the stable isotopic composition of precipitation as a natural tracer. In wooded areas, understanding how the precipitation isotopic composition is modified as it passes through the canopy is therefore key to accurate ecohydrological assessments. This work presents a model to estimate the isotopic composition of throughfall at a detailed time-step, based on the dynamics of rainfall isotopic composition and meteorological conditions during rainfall events. The model couples the Rutter (1971) rainfall interception model with the Gonfiantini (1986) equation, the latter is used to estimate the stable isotopic composition of open water bodies subject to evaporation.The model was tested and validated using intra-event volumes (5 min intervals) and isotopic compositions (131 samples, sampled each 5-mm of rainfall) from 25 rainfall/throughfall events in a Scots pine forest at the Vallcebre Research Catchments (South-Eastern Pyrenees, Spain).The results demonstrate the model's ability to predict both throughfall volumes and the isotopic compositions across a range of precipitation events with marked differences in precipitation volumes (9 to 72 mm), mean intensities (0.6 to 29 mmh-1), meteorological conditions, and different intra-event dynamics of the rainfall isotopic composition. An excellent correlation was found between observed and predicted throughfall volumes, with 84% of the events having a Kling-Gupta efficiency greater than 0.65. In addition, the model accurately predicted the observed throughfall isotopic signature (for &amp;#948;18O, r2=0.98, p

Our previous research provides evidence that vergence eye movements may significantly influence cognitive processing and could serve as a reliable measure of cognitive issues. The rise of consumer-grade eye tracking technology, which uses sophisticated imaging techniques in the visible light spectrum to determine gaze position, is noteworthy. In our study, we explored the feasibility of using webcam-based eye tracking to monitor the vergence eye movements of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) during a visual oddball paradigm. We simultaneously recorded eye positions using a remote infrared-based pupil eye tracker. Both tracking methods demonstrated more pronounced cognitive vergence responses for targets as opposed to distractors. In summary, the use of a consumer-grade webcam to record cognitive vergence shows potential. This method could potentially lay the groundwork for future research aimed at creating an affordable screening tool for mental health care.

En enero de 2020 se puso en marcha oficialmente Giravolt, un programa de difusión de las tecnologías 3D en el sector del patrimonio cultural en Catalunya. La iniciativa parte conjuntamente de la Agència y la Direcció General del Patrimoni Cultural, tras un análisis en 2018 de las tecnologías con un impacto creciente en el sector y la constatación que las tecnologías 3D se encontraban en una fase de adopción creciente en muchos otros sectores. El programa pretende fomentar la utilización de estas tecnologías en el sector del patrimonio, la comprensión de su utilidad en las diferentes fases de la cadena de trabajo, y su aplicación por los gestores e instituciones de forma autónoma en los próximos años.El programa se divide en cuatro ejes:· Creación y mantenimiento de un corpus digital. A través de diferentes convocatorias, Giravolt escanea objetos de museo, espacios arqueológicos o monumentos arquitectónicos. Con más de 300 modelos a Septiembre de 2022, y más de 100.000 visitas, esta colección de modelos 3D pretende ser una selección del patrimonio cultural en Catalunya, destacando especialmente su diversidad, tanto temática, como geográfica y cronológica.· Vinculación con el sector profesional. Diferentes acciones pretenden conectar a los profesionales del sector a estas tecnologías, se han programado diferentes jornadas de formación por todo el territorio, se han puesto en marcha capturas 3D especializadas para proyectos de investigación, por ejemplo, en grabados paleolíticos, pinturas rupestres, reconstrucciones de monumentos ibéricos o documentación de monumentos romanos y renacentistas. Una acción especialmente importante ha sido la publicación de una guía de buenas prácticas y protocolo para el sector.· Vinculación con el sector educativo. Además de participar en formaciones universitarias, se ha creado una actividad llamada #despertaelpatrimoni (despierta el patrimonio) que permite a escuelas e institutos escanear por sí mismos en 3D con sus teléfonos el patrimonio de su localidad y publicarlo en Internet.· Difusión a los diferentes públicos. A este epígrafe corresponden desde acciones de impresión 3D para crear actividades de accesibilidad, hasta presentaciones multimedia en colaboración con artistas contemporáneos, o la puesta en marcha de proyectos pilotos de realidad virtual.

The natural history of COVID-19 and predictors of mortality in older adults need to be investigated to inform clinical operations and healthcare policy planning. A retrospective study took place in 80 long-term nursing homes in Catalonia, Spain collecting data from March 1st to May 31st, 2020. Demographic and clinical data from 2,092 RT-PCR confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were registered, including structural characteristics of the facilities. Descriptive statistics to describe the demographic, clinical, and molecular characteristics of our sample were prepared, both overall and by their symptomatology was performed and an analysis of statistically significant bivariate differences and constructions of a logistic regression model were carried out to assess the relationship between variables. The incidence of the infection was 28%. 71% of the residents showed symptoms. Five major symptoms included: fever, dyspnea, dry cough, asthenia and diarrhea. Fever and dyspnea were by far the most frequent (50% and 28%, respectively). The presentation was predominantly acute and symptomatology persisted from days to weeks (mean 9.1 days, SD = 10,9). 16% of residents had confirmed pneumonia and 22% required hospitalization. The accumulated mortality rate was 21.75% (86% concentrated during the first 28 days at onset). A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed a positive predictive value for mortality for some variables such as age, pneumonia, fever, dyspnea, stupor refusal to oral intake and dementia (p<0.01 for all variables). Results suggest that density in the nursing homes did not account for differences in the incidence of the infection within the facilities. This study provides insights into the natural history of the disease in older adults with high dependency living in long-term nursing homes during the first pandemic wave of March-May 2020 in the region of Catalonia, and suggests that some comorbidities and symptoms have a strong predictive value for mortality.

The biomonitoring methods implemented by water authorities are mostly developed for perennial rivers, and do not apply to temporary rivers (TRs). We propose a new classification for TRs to better assess their ecological status. It arises from the LIFE+ TRivers project, which was conducted in the Catalan and the Júcar Mediterranean river basin districts (RBD). The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) provided two systems to set river types (systems A or B from Annex II), which have been officially used by water authorities across Europe to set “national river types” (NRTs). However, essential hydrological variables for TRs are largely omitted. NRTs established according to the WFD were compared with TR categories obtained by using a rainfall-runoff model, “natural flows prescribed regimes” (NFPRs), and with “aquatic phases regimes” (APRs) calculated by using TREHS software. The biological quality indices currently used in Spain, based on macroinvertebrates and diatoms (IBMWP, IMMI-T, and IPS), were compared with a “general degradation” gradient in order to analyze the two TR river classification procedures (NFPR and APR). The results showed that NRTs did not properly classify TRs, and that the APR classification identified ecologically meaningful categories, especially those related to stagnant phases. Four “management temporary river categories” based on APRs are proposed to be used for water managers to properly assess the ecological status of TRs.

La coeducación es una metodología pedagógica utilizada en la educación formal, que va más allá de la educación mixta y es la base para educar en igualdad a niños, niñas y adolescentes sin discriminación por razones de género. Pretende la desaparición de cualquier tipo de exclusión o infravaloración, la superación de estereotipos sexistas y la eliminación de roles y jerarquías de género androcéntricas en el desarrollo educativo desde los primeros años de escolarización de niños y niñas. La coeducación aplica la perspectiva de género a las prácticas educativas, que cuando se aplica en un contexto patrimonial se transforma en coeducación patrimonial. El objetivo del artículo es acercar al lector al conocimiento de una nueva metodología educativa basada en la coeducación patrimonial, a fin de poder aplicarla en los programas educativos ofrecidos a los centros educativos por museos e instituciones patrimoniales para garantizar una educación igualitaria y no discriminatoria, que ayude a formar personas críticas, justas y libres.