Spanish medical students’ attitudes and views towards Mental Health and Psychiatry: a multicentric cross-sectional study.

Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes towards mental illness and psychiatry among fifth year Spanish medical students. Methods The study included 171 students from three medical schools located in different areas of Spain: Cádiz; UCA (n= 113), Madrid; San Pablo-CEU (n=22), and Barcelona; UAB (n=36). They responded, prior to their undergraduate medical course in psychiatry, to the AMI questionnaire to measure the attitudes towards mental illness and to Balon’s adapted questionnaire to investigate their view towards psychiatry. Results The students (93.4 %) had a positive attitude towards mental illness (AMI). Attitudes towards psychiatry were fairly positive with a few negative views, specifically regarding the role of psychiatrists (items 11 and 13) and the prestige of the specialty (item 16). There were some statistically significant differences between the three medical schools in the perception of psychiatry as a medical discipline. A better attitude towards mental illness was associated with a better view of the overall merits of psychiatry. Conclusions Findings suggest that Spanish medical students do not have a negative attitude towards mental illness and they have a good perception of psychiatry, although there are still some misconceptions about this specialty. These student’s attitudes could favor an appropriate management of patients suffering from mental illness

Evaluation of a Hydrologic Model Applied to a Headwater Basin in the Rio Grande (USA) Using Observed and Modelled Land Surface Fluxes and States

Researchers at the Desert Research Institute are conducting research aimed at developing andcalibrating both operational and physically based numerical models that can be used to predict the quantityand timing of runoff in semi-arid regions where the majority of runoff originates in the seasonal snow pack.Unfortunately, observations of hydrologic variables (precipitation, streamflow, evapotranspiration, snowwater equivalent, etc.) are sparse in the semi-arid regions of the western United States and, therefore, theevaluation of model accuracy (usually in terms of streamflow) is often very limited. However, comparisonsof model output with newly developed high-resolution estimates of hydrologically based land surface fluxesand states may provide insight to model accuracy in areas with little or no observed information. In thisstudy, we apply a hydrologic model to a watershed in the headwaters of the Rio Grande to simulate thestreamflow generated at the watershed outlet and several internal subwatersheds. The model simulations ofstreamflow are compared to values from long term land surface model studies and observations at streamflowsurface water stations. Additional comparisons of model snow water equivalent (SWE) estimates are madewith the SWE values from the long term land surface model studies and SWE observations at three pointlocations within the watershed

Simulating future salinity dynamics in a coastal marshland under different climate scenarios

Salinization is a well‐known problem in agricultural areas worldwide. In the last 20–30 yr, rising salinity in the upper, unconfined aquifer has been observed in the Freepsumer Meer, a grassland near the German North Sea coast. For investigating long‐term development of salinity and water balance during 1961–2099, the one‐dimensional Soil–Water–Atmosphere–Plant (SWAP) model was set up and calibrated for a soil column in the area. The model setup involves a deep aquifer as the source of salt through upward seepage. In the vertical salt transport equation, dispersion and advection are included. Six different regional outputs of statistical downscaling methods were used as climate scenarios. These comprise different rates of increasing surface temperature and different trends in seasonal rainfall. The simulation results exhibit opposing salinity trends for topsoil and deeper layers. Although projections of some scenarios entail decreasing salinities near the surface, most of them project a rise in subsoil salinity, with the strongest trends of up to +0.9 mg cm−3 100 yr−1 at −65 cm. The results suggest that topsoil salinity trends in the study area are affected by the magnitude of winter rainfall trends, whereas high subsoil salinities correspond to low winter rainfall and high summer temperature. How these projected trends affect the vegetation and thereby future land use will depend on the future management of groundwater levels in the area