Proceedings of the Lunar Materials Technology Symposium

The meeting was organized around a possible lunar outpost scenario, featuring industrial technologies, systems, and components applicable to the extraction, processing, and fabrication of local materials. Acknowledged space resources experts as well as investigators from outside the field whose knowledge could be applied to space development activities were brought together. Presentations came from a variety of specialists in fields such as minerals processing, environmental control, and communications. The sessions of the symposium were divided into the following areas: resource characterization, energy management, materials processing, environment control, and automation and communications

Machine Learning

Machine Learning can be defined in various ways related to a scientific domain concerned with the design and development of theoretical and implementation tools that allow building systems with some Human Like intelligent behavior. Machine learning addresses more specifically the ability to improve automatically through experience

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

USCID Fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.Integrated regional water management -- Change of irrigation water quantity according to farm mechanization and land consolidation in Korea -- Local stakeholders participation for small scale water resources management in Bangladesh -- Water user participation in Egypt -- The man swimming against the stream knows the strength of it -- Roles and issues of Water Users' Associations for Sustainable Irrigation and Drainage in the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan in Central Asia -- Chartered Water User Associations of Afghanistan -- Updated procedures for calculating state-wide consumptive use in Idaho -- Measuring and estimating open water evaporation in Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico -- Evapotranspiration of deficit irrigated sorghum and winter wheat -- Evaluation of a two-layer model to estimate actual evapotranspiration for vineyards -- Estimating pecan water use through remote sensing in Lower Rio Grande -- Estimating crop water use from remotely sensed NDVI, crop models, and reference ET -- Alfalfa production using saline drainage water -- Performance evaluation of subsurface drainage system under unsteady state flow conditions in coastal saline soils of Andhrapradesh, India -- Management strategies for the reuse of wastewater in Jordan -- Providing recycled water for crop irrigation and other uses in Gilroy, California -- Oakdale Irrigation District Water Resources Plan -- Use of information technology to support integrated water resources management implementation -- Decision-support systems for efficient irrigation in the Middle Rio Grande -- Salt management -- Ghazi Barotha Project on Indus River in Pakistan -- Field tests of OSIRI -- Water requirements, irrigation evaluation and efficiency in Tenerife's crops (Canary Islands, Spain) -- Using wireless technology to reduce water use in rice production -- Variability of crop coefficients in space and time -- Assessing the implementation of integrated water management approach in closed basins -- New strategies of donors in the irrigation sector of Africa -- Holistic perspective for investments in agricultural drainage in Egypt -- Mapping system and services for canal operation techniques -- An open channel network modernization with automated structures -- Canal control alternatives in the irrigation district 'Sector BXII del Bajo Guadalquivir,' Spain -- Hydrodynamic behavior of a canal network under simultaneous supply and demand based operations -- Simulation on the effect of microtopography spatial variability on basin irrigation performance -- Drip irrigation as a sustainable practice under saline shallow ground water conditions -- Water retention, compaction and bean yield in different soil managements under a center pivot system -- Precision mechanical move irrigation for smallholding farmers -- Wild flood to graded border irrigation for water and energy conservation in the Klamath basin -- A method describing precise water application intensity under a CPIS from a limited number of measurements -- An irrigation sustainability assessment framework for reporting across the environmental-economic-social spectrum -- Planning for future irrigation landscapes -- One size does not fit all -- Water information networks -- Improving water use efficiency -- Irrigation system modernization in the Middle Rio Grande Valley -- Relationship of operation stability and automatic operation control methods of open canal -- Responsive strategies of agricultural water sector in Taiwan -- Effect of network water distribution schedule and different on-farm water management practices on sugarbeet water use efficiency -- Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) considerations for irrigation -- Accuracy of radar water level measurements -- Transition submergence and hysteresis effects in three-foot Cutthroat flumes -- Practical irrigation flow measurement and control -- Linear anionic PAM as a canal water seepage reducing technology -- In-situ non-destructive monitoring of water flow in damaged agricultural pipeline by AE -- Reoptimizing global irrigation systems to restore floodplain ecosystems and human livelihoods -- Water management technologies for sustainable agriculture in Kenya -- Impacts of changing rice irrigation practices on the shallow aquifer of Nasunogahara basin, Japan -- Drought protection from an in-lieu groundwater banking program -- Development of agricultural drought evaluation system in Korea -- Bean yield and root development in different soil managements under a center pivot system -- Can frost damage impact water demand for crop production in the future? -- Real time water delivery management and planning in irrigation and drainage networks -- Growth response of palm trees to the frequency of irrigation by bubblers in Khuzestan, Iran -- Application of Backpropagation Neural Network to estimate evapotranspiration for ChiaNan irrigated area, Taiwan -- Increasing water and fertilizer use efficiency through rain gun sprinkler irrigation in sugar cane agriculture

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.The two-layer model of Shuttlerworth and Wallace (SW) was evaluated to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ETa) above a drip-irrigated Merlot vineyard, located in the Talca Valley, Region del Maule, Chile (35° 25' LS; 71° 32' LW ; 136m above the sea level). An automatic weather system was installed in the center of the vineyard to measure climatic variables (air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed) and energy balance components (solar radiation, net radiation, latent heat flux, sensible heat flux, and soil heat flux) during November and December 2006. Values of ETa estimated by the SW model were tested with latent heat flux measurements obtained from an eddy-covariance system on a 30 minute time interval. Results indicated that SW model was able to predict ETa with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.44 mm d-1 and mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.36 mm d-1. Furthermore, SW model predicted latent heat flux with RMSE and MAE of 32 W m-2 and 19W m-1, respectively

Sewage Treatment Plants

Sewage Treatment Plants: Economic Evaluation of Innovative Technologies for Energy Efficiency aims to show how cost saving can be achieved in sewage treatment plants through implementation of novel, energy efficient technologies or modification of the conventional, energy demanding treatment facilities towards the concept of energy streamlining. The book brings together knowledge from Engineering, Economics, Utility Management and Practice and helps to provide a better understanding of the real economic value with methodologies and practices about innovative energy technologies and policies in sewage treatment plants

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.Application of different irrigation management practices plays a considerable role in water saving to achieve potential yields. On the other hand, network water distribution schedule is a governing factor in this regard. In current study conducted in Mahabad plain in North West of Iran, four different irrigation managements on sugarbeet cultivation including traditional farmer's management, Furrow Deepening, Reduced Discharge per Deepened Furrow, and Alternate Furrow Irrigation have been studied in real farmers' fields measuring 10.2 hectares. Participatory management approach has been used while working in farmers' fields. Soils textures are silty clayey. Results of studies indicate that water used has been reduced considerably while higher root and sugar yields are obtained due to better on-farm water management practices. Water Use Efficiency, in kg of yield per m3 of water used, increased considerably under alternate furrow irrigation management in comparison to what obtained under traditional management. Results show application of alternate furrow irrigation in sugarbeet cultivation not only resulted in lesser water use per hectare, but also it increased both root and sugar yields and, consequently, higher water use efficiency was obtained. Assessments have been made on irrigation schedule imposed by the irrigation network and its effects on actual water requirements. Results show that the delivery schedule practiced in the network in incapable of delivering the actual amount of water requirement for the dominant crop of the scheme. Suggestions are made to the network operator to improve overall network efficiency including revisions on water resources planning and allocation and/or improve network operation system

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.Since 3000 BC, rice has been the main crop in the Korean Peninsula, and where currently most of the available irrigation water is used to grow paddy rice. Methods for calculating the quantity of irrigation water required developed in the 1990's were compared to quantities measured in the field. The largest difference between calculated and measured quantities occurred in April and May. Based on field data we obtained in the middle part of the Korean Peninsula, significant changes have occurred in rice management, which has changed the amount of irrigation water required. Rice is now transplanted earlier, and duration of the transplanting phase on the regional scale is shorter through mechanization and consolidation of land holdings. These changes need to be taken into account when calculating the quantity of water needed for irrigation

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Salt management is a critical component of irrigated agriculture in arid regions. Successful crop production cannot be sustained without maintaining an acceptable level of salinity in the root zone. This requires drainage and a location to dispose drainage water, particularly, the salts it contains, which degrade the quality of receiving water bodies. Despite the need to generate drainage water to sustain productivity, many irrigation schemes have been designed and constructed with insufficient attention to drainage, to appropriate re-use or disposal of saline drainage water, and to salt disposal in general. To control the negative effects of drainage water disposal, state and federal agencies in several countries now are placing regulations on the discharge of saline drainage water into rivers. As a result, many farmers have implemented irrigation and crop management practices that reduce drainage volumes. Farmers and technical specialists also are examining water treatment schemes to remove salt or dispose of saline drainage water in evaporation basins or in underlying groundwater. We propose that the responsibility for salt management be combined with the irrigation rights of farmers. This approach will focus farmers' attention on salt management and motivate water delivery agencies and farmers to seek efficient methods for reducing the amount of salt needing disposal and to determine methods of disposing salt in ways that are environmentally acceptable

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.A In order to promote irrigation sustainability through reporting by irrigation water managers around Australia, we have developed an adaptive framework and methodology for improved triple-bottom-line reporting. The Irrigation Sustainability Assessment Framework (ISAF) was developed to provide a comprehensive framework for irrigation sustainability assessment and integrated triple-bottom-line reporting, and is structured to promote voluntary application of this framework across the irrigation industry, with monitoring, assessment and feedback into future planning, in a continual learning process. Used in this manner the framework serves not only as a "reporting tool", but also as a "planning tool" for introducing innovative technology and as a "processes implementation tool" for enhanced adoption of new scientific research findings across the irrigation industry. The ISAF was applied in case studies to selected rural irrigation sector organisations, with modifications to meet their specific interests and future planning