Spatiotemporal analyses of soil moisture from point to footprint scale in two different hydroclimatic regions

This paper presents time stability analyses of soil moisture at different spatial measurement support scales (point scale and airborne remote sensing (RS) footprint scale 800 m × 800 m) in two different hydroclimatic regions. The data used in the analyses consist of in situ and passive microwave remotely sensed soil moisture data from the Southern Great Plains Hydrology Experiments 1997 and 1999 (SGP97 and SGP99) conducted in the Little Washita (LW) watershed, Oklahoma, and the Soil Moisture Experiments 2002 and 2005 (SMEX02 and SMEX05) in the Walnut Creek (WC) watershed, Iowa. Results show that in both the regions soil properties (i.e., percent silt, percent sand, and soil texture) and topography (elevation and slope) are significant physical controls jointly affecting the spatiotemporal evolution and time stability of soil moisture at both point and footprint scales. In Iowa, using point‐scale soil moisture measurements, the WC11 field was found to be more time stable (TS) than the WC12 field. The common TS points using data across the 3 year period (2002–2005) were mostly located at moderate to high elevations in both the fields. Furthermore, the soil texture at these locations consists of either loam or clay loam soil. Drainage features and cropping practices also affected the field‐scale soil moisture variability in the WC fields. In Oklahoma, the field having a flat topography (LW21) showed the worst TS features compared to the fields having gently rolling topography (LW03 and LW13). The LW13 field (silt loam) exhibited better time stability than the LW03 field (sandy loam) and the LW21 field (silt loam). At the RS footprint scale, in Iowa, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests show that the percent clay and percent sand are better able to discern the TS features of the footprints compared to the soil texture. The best soil indicator of soil moisture time stability is the loam soil texture. Furthermore, the hilltops (slope ∼0%–0.45%) exhibited the best TS characteristics in Iowa. On the other hand, in Oklahoma, ANOVA results show that the footprints with sandy loam and loam soil texture are better indicators of the time stability phenomena. In terms of the hillslope position, footprints with mild slope (0.93%–1.85%) are the best indicators of TS footprints. Also, at both point and footprint scales in both the regions, land use–land cover type does not influence soil moisture time stability

Feedback Enhances Simultaneous Wireless Information and Energy Transmission in Multiple Access Channels

In this report, the fundamental limits of simultaneous information and energy transmission in the two-user Gaussian multiple access channel (G-MAC) with and without feedback are fully characterized. More specifically, all the achievable information and energy transmission rates (in bits per channel use and energy-units per channel use, respectively) are identified. Furthermore, the fundamental limits on the individual and sum- rates given a minimum energy rate ensured at an energy harvester are also characterized. In the case without feedback, an achievability scheme based on power-splitting and successive interference cancellation is shown to be optimal. Alternatively, in the case with feedback (G-MAC-F), a simple yet optimal achievability scheme based on power-splitting and Ozarow's capacity achieving scheme is presented. Finally, the energy transmission enhancement induced by the use of feedback is quantified. Feedback can at most double the energy transmission rate at high SNRs when the information transmission sum-rate is kept fixed at the sum-capacity of the G-MAC, but it has no effect at very low SNRs.Comment: INRIA REPORT N{\deg}8804, accepted for publication in IEEE transactions on Information Theory, March, 201

Community detection and role identification in directed networks: understanding the Twitter network of the care.data debate

With the rise of social media as an important channel for the debate and discussion of public affairs, online social networks such as Twitter have become important platforms for public information and engagement by policy makers. To communicate effectively through Twitter, policy makers need to understand how influence and interest propagate within its network of users. In this chapter we use graph-theoretic methods to analyse the Twitter debate surrounding NHS Englands controversial care.data scheme. Directionality is a crucial feature of the Twitter social graph - information flows from the followed to the followers - but is often ignored in social network analyses; our methods are based on the behaviour of dynamic processes on the network and can be applied naturally to directed networks. We uncover robust communities of users and show that these communities reflect how information flows through the Twitter network. We are also able to classify users by their differing roles in directing the flow of information through the network. Our methods and results will be useful to policy makers who would like to use Twitter effectively as a communication medium

Solving Sudoku with Membrane Computing

Sudoku is a very popular puzzle which consists on placing several numbers in a squared grid according to some simple rules. In this paper we present an efficient family of P systems which solve sudokus of any order verifying a specific property. The solution is searched by using a simple human-style method. If the sudoku cannot be solved by using this strategy, the P system detects this drawback and then the computations stops and returns No. Otherwise, the P system encodes the solution and returns Yes in the last computation step.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2008-04487-EMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009–13192Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-0420

Parameter conditioning with a noisy Monte Carlo genetic algorithm for estimating effective soil hydraulic properties from space

The estimation of effective soil hydraulic parameters and their uncertainties is a critical step in all large-scale hydrologic and climatic model applications. Here a scale-dependent (top-down) parameter estimation (inverse modeling) scheme called the noisy Monte Carlo genetic algorithm (NMCGA) was developed and tested for estimating these effective soil hydraulic parameters and their uncertainties. We tested our method using three case studies involving a synthetic pixel (pure and mixed) where all modeling conditions are known, and with actual airborne remote sensing (RS) footprints and a satellite RS footprint. In the synthetic case studies under pure (one soil texture) and mixed-pixel (multiple soil textures) conditions, NMCGA performed well in estimating the effective soil hydraulic parameters even with pixel complexities contributed by various soil types and land management practices (rain-fed/irrigated). With the airborne and satellite remote sensing cases, NMCGA also performed well for estimating effective soil hydraulic properties so that when applied in forward stochastic simulation modeling it can mimic large-scale soil moisture dynamics. The results also suggest a possible scaling down of the effective soil water retention curve (h) at the larger satellite remote sensing pixel compared with the airborne remote sensing pixel. However, it did not generally imply that all effective soil hydraulic parameters should scale down like the soil water retention curve. The reduction of the soil hydraulic parameters was most profound in the saturated soil moisture content ( sat) as we relaxed progressively the soil hydraulic parameter search spaces in our satellite remote sensing studies. Overall, the NMCGA framework was found to be very promising in the inverse modeling of remotely sensed near-surface soil moisture for estimating the effective soil hydraulic parameters and their uncertainties at the remote sensing footprint/climate model grid

Oxydation d'un acide humique aquatique par le bioxyde de chlore. Incidences sur une post-chloration et sur un traitement au charbon actif

Cette étude de laboratoire a eu pour but d'examiner la réactivité du bioxyde de chlore sur un acide humique d'origine aquatique en solution aqueuse et en milieu neutre (pH = 7,5) et de préciser en particulier l'incidence d'une préoxydation chimique au CIO2 sur les potentiels de formation de composés organohalogénés (trihalométhanes, acides dicloroacétique et trichloroacétique, chlore organiquement lié) et sur l'adsorbabilité du carbone organique sur charbon actif.Les résultats obtenus montrent que radian du bioxyde de chlore sur racide humique Pinail à l'obscurité, conduit à des faibles abattements du carbone organique dissous (< 10 %) et de l'absorbance UV à 254 nm (de l'ordre de 30 %) et conduit à des productions potentiel es en composées organohalogénés très nettement inférieures à celles formées par chloration. De plus, une préoxydation chimique au bioxyde de chlore permet de diminuer d'une manière très significative la production de composés organohalogénés au cours d'une post-chloration et semble améliorer l'adsorbabllité du carbone organique sur charbon actif.L'oxydation de l'acide humique par le bioxyde de chlore s'accompagne, par ailleurs, de la formation de chlorites (0,65 mg/mg de CIO2 consommé) qui peuvent ensuite être oxydés en chlorates au cours d'une post-chloration ou réduits en chlorures par un traitement au charbon actif.Enfin, les résultats obtenus font apparaître que le mécanisme d'oxydation de composés organiques parle bioxyde de chlore en présence de la lumière ainsi que les interactions entre le bioxyde de chore, les chlorites, la matière organique et le charbon actif méritent d'être plus précisément étudiés.Chlorine dioxide has drawn much recent attention as an alternative disinfectant and oxidant for drinking water to replace chlorine because of its powerful disinfecting ability and its limited capacity to produce organohalogenated compounds. However, the use of chlorine dioxide leads to chlorite (ClO2-) and chlorate (ClO3-) as inorganic oxidation by-products which are reported to have toxic effects on humans. The reactions of ClO2 with simple organic compounds (phenols, aliphatic and aromatic amines...) produce polar compounds such as quinone, ketones, aldehydes and carboxylic acids while oxydation by-products of dissolved organic matter of surface waters (in particular humic substances) are largely unknown. Consequently, the aim of this work was to obtain a better understanding of the effects of the use of chlorine dioxide in drinking water treatment To this end, experiments were carried out with dilute aqueous solutions of an isolated aquatic humic acid (Pinail humic acid, PHA) and the objectives of this present study were :- To evaluate the ClO2 demand and to determine the productions of chlorite, chlorate and of organohalogenated compounds such as trihalomethanes (THMs), dichloroacetic and trichloroacetic acids (DCA, TCA) which are the main organohalogenated products formed by chlorination.- To show the effects of chlorine dioxide preoxidation on organic halide formation potentials (postchlorination) and on the removal of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by activated carbon. In addition, reactions of chlorite with chlorine or with activated carbon were also examined.EXPERIMENTALPniail humic acid was dissolved in phosphate buffered ultra-pure water (pH = 7.5). Oxidation and adsorption experiments were carried out in headspace-free bottles, at 20 ± 1 °C and in the dark. Stock solutions of chlorine dioxide (4-6 g l-1) and of chlorine (6-10 g l-1) were prepared in the laboratory and titrated by iodometry. Residual chlorine dioxide concentration in PHA solutions was determined by spectrophotometric measurement at 360 nm and by two colorimetric methods : the chlorophenol red and the ACVK methods. Concentrations of DOC and of total organic chlorine or halogen (TOCI, TOX) were measured using a DOHRMANN DC 80 carbon analyser and a DOHRMANN DX 20 A TOX analyser equipped with a microcoulometric cell, respectively. THMs, DCA and TCA were determined by a gas chromatograph equipped with a 63 Ni electron capture detector after extraction by pentane for the THMs, and methylation in ether phase for DCA and TCA. Inorganic chlorine species were analysed by HPLC with a UV detector (ClO2-) or by chromatography (Cl-, ClO3-).RESULTS• Oxidation of PHA by ClO2The results showed that PHA consumed about 2 mg of ClO2/mg of DOC after a reaction time of 24 hours (fig. 1) and that there is a rapid consumption of ClO2 during the first 30 minutes of the reaction (fig. 2) Oxidation by ClO2 had no effect on DOC concentration (DOC removal : < 10 %) and led to a significant decrease (about 30 %) of the UV-absorbance at 254 or 270 nm (fig. 1 and 2), and to productions of ClO2- (0,65 mg of ClO2-/mg of ClO2 consumed) which were independant of the applied oxidant dose and of the reaction time.Furthermore, after a 72 hour reaction time in the dark, chlorine dioxide ([ClO2]0 = 5 mg l-1, [PHA]0 = 5 mg l-1, DOC = 2,6 mg l-1) produces very small amounts of chloroform (< 5 µg l-1), DCA (5 µg l-1) and TCA (5 µg l-1) and organochlorinated compounds (TOCl : 36 µg/mg DOC) compared to chlorine oxidation (tableau 1). However, in the presence of sunlight, ClO2 is rapidly photodecomposed (fig. 3) and the photodegradation products of ClO2 allow bromide oxidation (fig. 11) and lead to higher productions of organohalogenated compounds such as THMs (fig. 4).• Chlorine dioxide preoxidation followed by chlorinationAs shown in figure 5, chlorine dioxide preoxidation reduces the production of organohalogenated compounds and the chlorine demand during postchlorination. For a preoxidant dose corresponding to the ClO2 demand of PHA, the decrease in the formation potentials of CHCl3, DCA, TCA and TOCl was about 40-50 %. These results confirm the similarity of the action of chlorine dioxide and chlorine on aromatic structures which have high electron density carbons and which constitute probably the most reactive precursors of organohalogenated by-products.As far as chlorite concentration is concerned, the results showed that chlorite formed during the preoxidation step was completely oxidized to chlorate during postchlorination, under the experimental conditions used in this study (chlorine dose : 40 mg l-1; contact time : 24 or 72 hours). Because of the reactions of chlorine eh chlorine and with residual chlorine dioxide, a small increase in the chlorine demand was observed when PHA solutions were heavily preoxidized (fig. 5).• Chlorine dioxide preoxidation followed by activated carbon treatmentBatch experiments were carried out with a powdered activated carbon (PAC, granulometry : < 80 µm) which was obtained by crushing a commercial granular activated carbon (CECA 40,12 x 40 mesh). Once equilibrium was achieved (contact time : 10 days), adsorption isotherms indicated that chlorine dioxide preoxidation increases the absorbability of DOC on activated carbon (fig; 4tableau 2). Furthermore, chlorite in oxidized PHA solutions was reduced by PAC to chloride. The capacity of CECA 40 activated carbon for ClO2- reduction to Cl- was about 170 mg ClO2-/g of PAC (fig. 7). Other experiments showed that chlorite may react with specific surface groups on PAC to produce inorganic carbon (fig. 7) and with PHA only in the presence of PAC as shown the DOC and UV-absorbance curves in figure 8 and the increase of TOX concentration in the liquid phase in figure 9. Thus the observed increase in DOC absorbability on PAC after a chlorine dioxide preoxidation may be attributed to cheminal interactions between PAC, chlorite, residual chlorine dioxide and adsorbed organic matter and requires further study

European guayule market

Some companies are involved in guayule market or research since years or decades (YULEX, PANARIDUS, ENERGYENE, BRIDGESTONE, COOPERTIRES, PIRELLI, VERSALIS). Each company has its own strategy: focusing on high value non allergenic latex, producing end-products (tires, gloves) rather than to sale raw-material (latex and / or rubber), valorizing all the guayule (Parthenium argentatum Gray) co-products (latex, rubber, resin, bagasse...), increasing agricultural yield...Some European research projects (EU-PEARLS) allowed to build a European guayule (but also Kazakh dandelion) knowledge, partnership and intellectual property especially on water extraction process. VERSALIS, an Italian company, is involved on sustainable polymer production, bio sourced monomer (for PLA synthesis) and bio polymers like guayule rubber. A key point for developing a sustainable guayule production chain would be boosted by an integrated approach for valorizing the whole bush, not only the rubber part, according to the bio refinery concept which requires a dedicated integrated process. CIRAD / CTTM patented process is the starting point of a European guayule natural rubber commodity chain for profitable and sustainable market. We will give some detail concerning CIRAD / CTTM strategy to help to develop guayule in Mediterranean Europe. Involvement of the Bio-Based Industry with Private and Public Partnership (BBI-PPP) is needed. The aim of several EU partners involved in a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) commitment is to support any project to recognize Guayule rubber as a critical raw material. Guayule field extension and access to a processing plant is needed at this stage in Europe. Demand for guayule latex and rubber is real, but for potential investors profitability has to be demonstrated at a semi-pilot scale before commercialization and substitution of 10% of the total NR import from Asia to be achieved by 2025. (Texte intégral