The Climate-system Historical Forecast Project: do stratosphere-resolving models make better seasonal climate predictions in boreal winter?

Using an international, multi-model suite of historical forecasts from the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Climate-system Historical Forecast Project (CHFP), we compare the seasonal prediction skill in boreal wintertime between models that resolve the stratosphere and its dynamics (high-top') and models that do not (low-top'). We evaluate hindcasts that are initialized in November, and examine the model biases in the stratosphere and how they relate to boreal wintertime (December-March) seasonal forecast skill. We are unable to detect more skill in the high-top ensemble-mean than the low-top ensemble-mean in forecasting the wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation, but model performance varies widely. Increasing the ensemble size clearly increases the skill for a given model. We then examine two major processes involving stratosphere-troposphere interactions (the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO)) and how they relate to predictive skill on intraseasonal to seasonal time-scales, particularly over the North Atlantic and Eurasia regions. High-top models tend to have a more realistic stratospheric response to El Niño and the QBO compared to low-top models. Enhanced conditional wintertime skill over high latitudes and the North Atlantic region during winters with El Niño conditions suggests a possible role for a stratospheric pathway.

Development of a program of radiopaque lesions images via radiographic cases for active learning in oral medicine

Through the creation of this project in English, we have made a file of radiographic images that will be used by third year dental students in order to improve the practical teaching part of the subject of Oral Medicine, essentially by incorporating these files to the Virtual Campus. We have selected the most representative radiopaque radiographic images studied in pathology lectures given. We have prepared a file with 59 radiopaque radiographic images. These lesions have been divided according to their relationship and number with the tooth, into the following groups: “Anatomic radiopacities”, “Periapical radiopacities”, “Solitary radiopacities not necessarily contacting teeth”,“Multiple separate radiopacities”, and “Generalized radiopacities”. We created 4 flowcharts synthesizing the mayor explanatory bases of each pathological process in relation to other pathologies within each location. We have focused primarily in those clinical and radiographic features that can help us differentiate one pathology from another. We believe that by giving the student a knowledge base through each flowchart, as well as provide clinical cases, will start their curiosity to seek new cases on the Internet or try to look for images that we have not been able to locate due to low frequency. In addition, as this project has been done in English, it will provide the students with necessary tools to do a literature search, as most of the medical and dental literature is in English; thus far, providing the student with this material necessary to make the appropriate searched using keywords in English.