Note: Non-invasive optical method for rapid determination of alignment degree of oriented nanofibrous layers

This paper presents a rapid non-destructive method that provides information on the anisotropic internal structure of nanofibrous layers. A laser beam of a wavelength of 632.8 nm is directed at and passes through a nanofibrous layer prepared by electrostatic spinning. Information about the structural arrangement of nanofibers in the layer is directly visible in the form of a diffraction image formed on a projection screen or obtained from measured intensities of the laser beam passing through the sample which are determined by the dependency of the angle of the main direction of polarization of the laser beam on the axis of alignment of nanofibers in the sample. Both optical methods were verified on Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibrous layers (fiber diameter of 470 nm) with random, single-axis aligned and crossed structures. The obtained results match the results of commonly used methods which apply the analysis of electron microscope images. The presented simple method not only allows samples to be analysed much more rapidly and without damaging them but it also makes possible the analysis of much larger areas, up to several square millimetres, at the same time

Socio-psycological characteristics of college students who are prone to addictions

Addictive behavior in the modern world is a disincentive factor for personal-professional development of students. The purpose of this article is to identify the socio-psychological characteristics of college students who are prone to substance abuse. The problem suggested by the authors, is studied on the basis of an integrated approach which is based on an understanding of socialization as a process of social and professional growth, which determines the structure of psychological orientation and actively impacts its holistic subjective inner world, which allows to identify the socio-psychological characteristics of students, influencing the formation of the propensity to addictive behavior. The study made have revealed such personal characteristics of students with varying degrees depending on the propensity for alcoholism and drug addiction, such as anxiety, dependence on public opinion, and a high dependence on the attachment figure, difficult self-control, poor tolerance of difficulty, unpredictability in the actions, unstable emotional state. It was found out that students with a high propensity for substance dependence deformed structure of value orientations, reduced motivation to activity. The results of this paper can be used to develop programs of the educational process at universities, which will allow to adjust the work of teachers, psychologists, aimed at preventing the propensity of students for different addictions in order to increase the effectiveness and success of their socialization during training at the university

Socio-psycological characteristics of college students who are prone to addictions

Addictive behavior in the modern world is a disincentive factor for personal-professional development of students. The purpose of this article is to identify the socio-psychological characteristics of college students who are prone to substance abuse. The problem suggested by the authors, is studied on the basis of an integrated approach which is based on an understanding of socialization as a process of social and professional growth, which determines the structure of psychological orientation and actively impacts its holistic subjective inner world, which allows to identify the socio-psychological characteristics of students, influencing the formation of the propensity to addictive behavior. The study made have revealed such personal characteristics of students with varying degrees depending on the propensity for alcoholism and drug addiction, such as anxiety, dependence on public opinion and a high dependence on the attachment figure, difficult self-control, poor tolerance of difficulty, unpredictability in the actions, unstable emotional state. It was found out that students with a high propensity for substance dependence deformed structure of value orientations, reduced motivation to activity. The results of this paper can be used to develop programs of the educational process at universities, which will allow to adjust the work of teachers, psychologists, aimed at preventing the propensity of students for different addictions in order to increase the effectiveness and success of their socialization during training at the university. © 2014 Science Publication

Nutrient in leachate of biowaste compost and its availability for plants

Compost leachate (CL) is a liquid by-product of compost that contains carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and trace elements. It can partially replace the commercial liquid fertilisers to promote plant growth. However, CL may contain heavy metals, phytotoxic substances such as ammonia, organic compounds of low molecular weight, high level of salt and oils. Treatment of leachate is required to avoid the damage on the plant. This paper aims to review the nutrient and physical characteristics of the CL from three types of bio-wastes, i.e. municipal solid waste, animal waste and green waste. The effects of plants treated with CL in terms of rate and nutrient absorption were discussed. The nutrient and physical composition of the leachate is highly variable due to the diversity of the sources and age of the leachate. Compost leachate from municipal solid waste contains the highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) (15,188 – 105,300 mg/L) followed by those from animal waste (6,542 – 100,000 mg/L) and green waste (804 – 1,152 mg/L). The difference in COD is due to the difference in organic carbon content in the biowaste. Other physical parameters, such as electrical conductivity and pH, are correlated with the organic carbon content. For nutrient composition, municipal solid waste leachate contains the highest nitrogen content (630 – 2,438 mg/L), green waste has the highest potassium content (500 – 1,000 mg/L), while animal waste has the highest phosphate content (170 – 500 mg/L). The nutrient contents of CL derived from different biowaste reviewed in this study serves as a guideline for users to estimate the dilution rate and further nutrient formulation required for the application of CL on plants

On the continuing relevance of Mandelbrot’s non-ergodic fractional renewal models of 1963 to 1967

The problem of “1∕ƒ” noise has been with us for about a century. Because it is so often framed in Fourier spectral language, the most famous solutions have tended to be the stationary long range dependent (LRD) models such as Mandelbrot’s fractional Gaussian noise. In view of the increasing importance to physics of non-ergodic fractional renewal models, and their links to the CTRW, I present preliminary results of my research into the history of Mandelbrot’s very little known work in that area from 1963 to 1967. I speculate about how the lack of awareness of this work in the physics and statistics communities may have affected the development of complexity science, and I discuss the differences between the Hurst effect, “1∕ƒ” noise and LRD, concepts which are often treated as equivalent

Scale issues in soil moisture modelling: problems and prospects

Soil moisture storage is an important component of the hydrological cycle and plays a key role in land-surface-atmosphere interaction. The soil-moisture storage equation in this study considers precipitation as an input and soil moisture as a residual term for runoff and evapotranspiration. A number of models have been developed to estimate soil moisture storage and the components of the soil-moisture storage equation. A detailed discussion of the impli cation of the scale of application of these models reports that it is not possible to extrapolate processes and their estimates from the small to the large scale. It is also noted that physically based models for small-scale applications are sufficiently detailed to reproduce land-surface- atmosphere interactions. On the other hand, models for large-scale applications oversimplify the processes. Recently developed physically based models for large-scale applications can only be applied to limited uses because of data restrictions and the problems associated with land surface characterization. It is reported that remote sensing can play an important role in over coming the problems related to the unavailability of data and the land surface characterization of large-scale applications of these physically based models when estimating soil moisture storage.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

How land use/land cover changes can affect water, flooding and sedimentation in a tropical watershed: a case study using distributed modeling in the Upper Citarum watershed, Indonesia

[EN] Human activity has produced severe LULC changes within the Upper Citarum watershed and these changes are predicted to continue in the future. With an increase in population parallel to a 141% increment in urban areas, a reduction of rice fields and the replacement of forests with cultivations have been found in the past. Accordingly, LCM model was used to forecast the LULC in 2029. A distributed model called TETIS was implemented in the Upper Citarum watershed to assess the impact of the different historical and future LULC scenarios on its water and sediment cycles. This model was calibrated and validated with different LULCs. For the implementation of the sediment sub-model, it was crucial to use the bathymetric information of the reservoir located at the catchment's outlet. Deforestation and urbanization have been shown to be the most influential factors affecting the alteration of the hydrological and sedimentological processes in the Upper Citarum watershed. The change of LULC decreases evapotranspiration and as a direct consequence, the water yield increased by 15% and 40% during the periods 1994-2014 and 2014-2029, respectively. These increments are caused by the rise of three components in the runoff: overland flow, interflow and base flow. Apart from that, these changes in LULC increased the area of non-tolerable erosion from 412 km(2) in 1994 to 499 km(2) in 2029. The mean sediment yield increased from 3.1 Mton -yr(-1) in the 1994 LULC scenario to 6.7 Mton-yr(-1) in the 2029 LULC scenario. An increment of this magnitude will be catastrophic for the operation of the Saguling Dam.This study was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the research projects TETISMED (CGL2014-58,127-C3-3-R) and TETISCHANGE (RTI2018-093717-B-I00). The authors are also thankful to the Directorate General of Higher Education of Indonesia (DIKTI) for the Ph.D. funding of the first author.Siswanto, SY.; Francés, F. (2019). How land use/land cover changes can affect water, flooding and sedimentation in a tropical watershed: a case study using distributed modeling in the Upper Citarum watershed, Indonesia. Environmental Earth Sciences. 78(17):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8561-0S115781