This communication introduces HLM-Tetis, which is a model structure coupled to the Hillslope Link Model (HLM) framework developed by the Iowa Flood Center. The model was designed to improve some ...limitations of previous HLM model structures. The following changes have been made: (1) modules to simulate snow processes; (2) better flexibility to simulate infiltration and percolation; (3) more flexibility to derive total runoff from the partitioning of overland flow, interflow and baseflow components. We show applications of the model in flood events at five basins in Iowa where previous model structures had performance limitations.
Understanding the optical and electronic excitations in conjugated polymers, their delocalization, and dynamics is of paramount importance for improving the performance of optoelectronic devices. The ...structure of a conjugated polymer in the solid state, the presence of ordered domains, and conformational subunits strongly affect the exciton and polaron interactions. The effect of the crystalline structure of polyfluorene films on exciton dynamics was studied using a combination of electrochemical and spectroscopic methods. Optoelectronic alterations caused by the p-doping process strongly suggest that the electrochemical charge injection occurs mainly in the more ordered -phase. Evidence for the presence of either - or -phase is supported by the different behavior of the fluorescence quenching at increasing doping levels (the quenching elements appear more homogeneously distributed in the -PFO phase). Estimated singlet exciton coherence lengths indicate that it delocalizes over 20 repeat units in the -PFO phase, but it extends only over 14 units for -PFO.
Understanding the optical and electronic excitations in conjugated polymers, their delocalization, and dynamics is of paramount importance for improving the performance of optoelectronic devices.
We explore the projected changes in flood impacts across Iowa (central United States) and the associated uncertainties by forcing a hydrologic model with downscaled global climate model outputs and ...four Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Our results point to projected increasing magnitude and variability in flooding across the state, especially for high‐emission scenarios. Next, we partition the flood impacts' projections into: (a) the response of the global climate models to anthropogenic forcing, (b) scenario uncertainty due to emissions, and (c) internal climate variability. We find scenario uncertainty plays a small role, while climate model uncertainty and internal climate variability dominate the flood impacts' projections, with the contribution of model uncertainty increasing toward the end of this century. Insights from our work can be utilized by stakeholders to understand the current limitations of flood impact projections and provide suggestions about where modelers should focus efforts to reduce uncertainty.
Plain Language Summary
This study looks at how climate change is projected to affect floods in Iowa (central United States). The results suggest that flooding is projected to worsen and become more unpredictable, especially with higher greenhouse gas emissions. The main sources of uncertainty in these projections are the differences in climate models' response to forcings and natural climate variability. Understanding these uncertainties can help improve future climate change assessments for flood risk stakeholders such as agencies working toward climate adaptation and water management and improve related risk assessments and planning analysis.
Key Points
Climate models producing larger increases in flood peak magnitude typically produce larger changes in variance
Climate model uncertainty is dominant in the early 21st century, while internal climate variability dominates the later part of the 21st century
Uncertainty in flood peaks directly translates to flood risk across Iowa
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The state of Iowa in the Central United States has experienced increasing flooding, with major events occurring most recently in 1993, 2008, 2011, and 2019. These floods caused over $23B in damage ...despite Iowa’s three flood control reservoirs and expansive levee systems, suggesting the need for additional solutions. Iowa is home to over 4,000 small dams whose cumulative capacity more than double the state’s current flood storage. These locations are operated passively, i.e., without the use of gated outlets to control basin storage utilization, thus limiting their flood mitigating potential. Here, the authors simulate gated outlets at 130 small dams within a 660 km2 watershed to (1) evaluate how effectively these storages can be activated across a watershed using gated outlets; and (2) quantify the utilization capacity of an activated distributed storage system for flow reduction. The authors used stochastic storm transposition to generate thousands of spatially variable rainfall events using Stage IV rainfall data within the Iowa domain at durations of 6, 12, 24, and 48 h and annual exceedance probabilities (AEPs) of 0.2, 0.1, 0.02, and 0.01. This expands the effective period of record, providing storms of various durations, intensities, and spatiotemporal distributions. An active management scheme was defined within the reservoir module of the hillslope link model designed to store water within the ponding locations. The study calculated the flow reductions that were achieved through this active scheme and found that flows were reduced for every rainfall duration and probability regardless of basin spatial scale. Reductions reached as high as 70% for a 6 h, 0.2 AEP event at a 93 km2 drainage area, while flows were reduced by roughly 12% for a 48 h, 0.01 AEP event at the basin outlet. This work establishes activated distributed storage as a meaningful flood reduction measure under realistic rainfall conditions at a variety of spatial scales.
New flood records are being set across the world as precipitation patterns change due to a warming climate. Despite the presence of longstanding water management infrastructure like levees and ...reservoirs, this rise in flooding has been met with property damage, loss of life, and hundreds of billions in economic impact, suggesting the need for new solutions. In this work, the authors suggest the active management of distributed networks of ponds, wetlands and retention basins that already exist across watersheds for the mitigation of flood damages. As an example of this approach, we investigate optimal control of the gated outlets of 130 such locations within a small watershed using linear programming, genetic algorithms, and particle swarm optimization, with the objective of reducing downstream flow and maximizing basin storage. When compared with passive operation (i.e., no gated outlets) and a uniformly applied active management scheme designed to store water during heavy rainfall, the optimal control techniques (1) reduce the magnitudes of peak flow events by up to 10%, (2) reduce the duration of flood crests for up to several days, and (3) preserve additional storage across the watershed for future rainfall events when compared with active management. Combined, these findings provide both a better understanding of dynamically controlled distributed storage as a flood fighting technique and a springboard for future work aimed at its use for reducing flood impacts.
Background
The World Health Organization considers medication errors to be an issue that requires attention at all levels of care, to reduce the severe and preventable harm related to drug therapy. ...Different standards for clinical pharmaceutical practices have been proposed by various organizations across the world, where the pharmacist, as part of the multidisciplinary health team, can help improve patient safety.
Objective
To assess the impact of the introduction of a clinical pharmacy practice model on medication error in patients of a university hospital.
Setting
The study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, Medellín, Colombia.
Methods
A randomized, controlled cluster-wedge staggered trial with a duration of 14 months was conducted to compare the clinical pharmacy practice model with the usual care process in the hospital. Five hospital health care units were included, which were initially assigned to the control group, and after an observation period of 2 months, they were randomly assigned to the intervention group. The trial protocol was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier NCT03338725).
Main outcome measure
The incidence of medication errors in hospitalized patients was the main outcome measure.
Results
The incidence of medication error was 13.3% and 22.8% for the intervention group and control group, respectively. The probability of presenting a medication error was 48% lower when the patient was in the intervention group (RR 0.52; 95% CI: 0.34–0.79). The probability of presenting a medication error over time was 44% lower in the intervention group (
p
= 0.0005); meanwhile, the resolution of a medication error over time was 70% higher in the intervention group (
p
= 0. 0029).
Conclusion
The clinical pharmacy practice model, made up of strategies focused on reducing medication errors, significantly reduces medication errors in patients during hospitalization compared with usual practice. This work assessed the effect of a clinical pharmacy model on the incidence of medication errors and demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing these errors in hospitalized patients.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03338725. Registered on 9 November 2017. First patient randomized on February 2, 2018.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Objetivo. El artículo analiza las prácticas artísticas como mediación frente a la violencia política en Colombia. Metodología. Se propone un primer momento de indagación histórica y documental, para ...situar algunos rasgos predominantes de las prácticas artísticas desde los años 70. Posteriormente se delimitan dos casos de estudio: los proyectos artísticos de Juan Manuel Echavarría y Erika Diettes, por lo que se realizan análisis de las entrevistas realizadas y aproximaciones semióticas a sus proyectos creativos. Resultados. Los dos referentes analizados aportan a una valoración renovada de la relación entre arte y política, así como al ámbito de lo testimonial como eje narrativo de la experiencia de la violencia. Conclusión. Las prácticas artísticas configuran no solo representaciones de la violencia política, sino formas particulares de registrar, archivar y transmitir culturalmente sus efectos e implicaciones colectivas.
The City of Cedar Rapids was significantly affected by the June 2008 flood. However, little is known about the role anthropogenic warming during this event, not only in terms of hydrologic response ...but also of impacts. Here we use a continuous distributed hydrologic model forced with precipitation with and without external forcing and show that the impacts of this flood were likely magnified because of increased anthropogenic warming; compared to the baseline scenario with the external forcing removed, this event was ∼1.28-fold larger in flood extent, an approximate 3.4-time larger in the number of affected buildings, and an estimated 5.8- and 7.1-time larger in structural and content damage, respectively. While much of the effort up to this point has focused on the attribution of the physical hazard, our results highlight the cascading increase of the contribution of the external forcing (mainly from anthropogenic forcing) moving from hazard to human impacts.
The authors explore the uncertainty implied in the estimation of changes in flood frequency due to climate change at the basins of the Cedar River and Skunk River in Iowa, United States. The study ...focuses on the influence of climate change on the 100-year flood, used broadly as a reference flow for civil engineering design. Downscaled rainfall projections between 1960–2099 were used as forcing into a hydrological model for producing discharge projections at locations intersecting vulnerable transportation infrastructure. The annual maxima of the discharge projections were used to conduct flood frequency analyses over the periods 1960–2009 and 1960–2099. The analysis of the period 1960–2009 is a good predictor of the observed flood values for return periods between 2 and 200 years in the studied basins. The findings show that projected flood values could increase significantly in both basins. Between 2009 and 2099, 100-year flood could increase between 47% and 52% in Cedar River, and between 25% and 34% in South Skunk River. The study supports a recommendation for assessing vulnerability of infrastructure to climate change, and implementation of better resiliency and hydraulic design practices. It is recommended that engineers update existing design standards to account for climate change by using the upper-limit confidence interval of the flood frequency analyses that are currently in place.
Iowa and the Nishnabotna watershed (Iowa), Midwest U.S.
Historically, Iowa and the Midwest have faced floods during the summer season. Some historical floods on record are the 2008 and 2013 floods. ...In March 2019, a meteorological bomb cyclone set the conditions for an unexpected major snow-related flood. This study (1) presents a comprehensive analysis of the March 2019 flood and asses the early-spring peak flows trends, (2) explores the use of a parsimonious hydrological model with a snow component, and (3) validates the model performance for the last 20 years.
The March 2019 event was an extreme flood event that set records on at least 10% of the USGS gauges in Iowa. Moreover, the early spring peak flow analysis showed a significant increasing trend between February and April. In this period, the trend is positive for most gauges, with more than a 30% increase at an annual rate of 4% of the mean yearly peak flow. These findings showed the relevance of snow-detonated floods and their regional understanding. Considering the results' significance, we provided evidence that HLM and a conceptual snow component can represent, forecast, and provide insights regarding snow-detonated events.
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•Snow-detonated peak flows have an increasing trend in Iowa.•The March 2019 flood affected Iowa's West region, highlighting the relevance of snow-detonated events.•The implemented hydrological model represents snow accumulation, melting, and associated streamflow fluctuations.•The model is adequate to analyze snow-related processes and impacts on the region.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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