Linear response separation of a solid into atomic constituents: Li, Al, and their evolution under pressure

We present the first realization of the generalized pseudoatom concept introduced by Ball, and adopt the name enatom to minimize confusion. This enatom, which consists of a unique decomposition of the total charge density (or potential) of any solid into a sum of overlapping atomiclike contributions that move rigidly with the nuclei to first order, is calculated using (numerical) linear response methods, and is analyzed for both fcc Li and Al at pressures of 0, 35, and 50 GPa. These two simple fcc metals (Li is fcc and a good superconductor in the 20-40 GPa range) show different physical behaviors under pressure, which reflects the increasing covalency in Li and the lack of it in Al. The nonrigid (deformation) parts of the enatom charge and potential have opposite signs in Li and Al; they become larger under pressure only in Li. These results establish a method of construction of the enatom, whose potential can be used to obtain a real-space understanding of the vibrational properties and electron-phonon interaction in solids.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, V2: fixed problem with Fig. 7, V3: minor correction

Conceptual hydrological model calibration using multi-objective optimization techniques over the transboundary Komadugu-Yobe basin, Lake Chad Area, West Africa

Study Area: The discharge of the transboundary Komadugu-Yobe Basin, Lake Chad Area, West Africa is calibrated using multi-objective optimization techniques. Study focus: The GR5J hydrological model parameters are calibrated using six optimization methods i.e. Local Optimization-Multi Start (LOMS), the Differential Evolution (DE), the Multiobjective Particle the Swarm Optimization (MPSO), the Memetic Algorithm with Local Search Chains (MALS), the Shuffled Complex Evolution-Rosenbrock’s function (SCE-R), and the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach. Three combined objective functions i.e. Root Mean Square Error, Nash- Sutcliffe efficiency, Kling-Gupta efficiency are applied. The calibration process is divided into two separate episodes (1974–2000 and 1980–1995) so as to ascertain the robustness of the calibration approaches. Runoff simulation results are analysed with a timefrequency wavelet transform. New hydrological insights for the region: For calibration and validation stages, all optimization methods simulate the base flow and high flow spells with a satisfactory level of accuracy. For calibration period, MCMC underestimate it by -0.07 mm/day. The performance evaluation shows that MCMC has the highest values of mean absolute error (0.28) and mean square error (0.40) while LOMS and MCMC record a low volumetric efficiency of 0.56. In all cases, the DE and the SCE-R methods perform better than others. The combination of multi-objective functions and multi-optimization techniques improve the model’s parameters stability and the algorithms’ optimization to represent the runoff in the basin

Local well-posedness for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in the intersection of modulation spaces Mp,qs(Rd)∩M∞,1(Rd)M_{p, q}^s(\mathbb{R}^d) \cap M_{\infty, 1}(\mathbb{R}^d)

We introduce a Littlewood-Paley characterization of modulation spaces and use it to give an alternative proof of the algebra property, somehow implicitly contained in Sugimoto (2011), of the intersection $M^s_{p,q}(\mathbb{R}^d) \cap M_{\infty, 1}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ for $d \in \mathbb{N}$, $p, q \in [1, \infty]$ and $s \geq 0$. We employ this algebra property to show the local well-posedness of the Cauchy problem for the cubic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in the above intersection. This improves Theorem 1.1 by B\'enyi and Okoudjou (2009), where only the case $q = 1$ is considered, and closes a gap in the literature. If $q > 1$ and $s > d \left(1 - \frac{1}{q}\right)$ or if $q = 1$ and $s \geq 0$ then $M^s_{p,q}(\mathbb{R}^d) \hookrightarrow M_{\infty, 1}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ and the above intersection is superfluous. For this case we also reobtain a H\"older-type inequality for modulation spaces.Comment: 14 page

Carbon dioxide fluxes from contrasting ecosystems in the Sudanian Savanna in West Africa

Background: The terrestrial land surface in West Africa is made up of several types of savanna ecosystems differing in land use changes which modulate gas exchanges between their vegetation and the overlying atmosphere. This study compares diurnal and seasonal estimates of CO2 fluxes from three contrasting ecosystems, a grassland, a mixture of fallow and cropland, and nature reserve in the Sudanian Savanna and relate them to water availability and land use characteristics. Results: Over the study period, and for the three study sites, low soil moisture availability, high vapour pressure deficit and low ecosystem respiration were prevalent during the dry season (November to March), but the contrary occurred during the rainy season (May to October). Carbon uptake predominantly took place in the rainy season, while net carbon efflux occurred in the dry season as well as the dry to wet and wet to dry transition periods (AM and ND) respectively. Carbon uptake decreased in the order of the nature reserve, a mixture of fallow and cropland, and grassland. Only the nature reserve ecosystem at the Nazinga Park served as a net sink of CO2, mostly by virtue of a several times larger carbon uptake and ecosystem water use efficiency during the rainy season than at the other sites. These differences were influenced by albedo, LAI, EWUE, PPFD and climatology during the period of study. Conclusion: These results suggest that land use characteristics affect plant physiological processes that lead to flux exchanges over the Sudanian Savanna ecosystems. It affects the diurnal, seasonal and annual changes in NEE and its composite signals, GPP and RE. GPP and NEE were generally related as NEE scaled with photosynthesis with higher CO2 assimilation leading to higher GPP. However, CO2 effluxes over the study period suggest that besides biomass regrowth, other processes, most likely from the soil might have also contributed to the enhancement of ecosystem respiration. © 2015 Quansah et al

Water resources management using the WRF-Hydro modelling system: Case-study of the Tono dam in West Africa

Water resources are a major source of economic development for most West African (WA) countries. There is, however inadequate information on these resources for the purposes of planning, decision-making and management. This paper explores the potential for using a state of the art hydrological model (WRF-Hydro) in a fully coupled (i.e. land surface hydrology-atmosphere) mode to assess these water resources, particularly the Tono basin in Ghana. WRF-Hydro model is an enhanced version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) which allows simulating river discharge. A 2-domain configuration is chosen: an outer domain at 25 km horizontal resolution encompassing the West African Region and an inner domain at 5 km horizontal resolution centered on the Tono basin. The infiltration partition parameter and Manning’s roughness parameter were calibrated to fit the WRF-Hydro simulated discharge with the observed data. The simulations were done from 1999 to 2003, using 1999 as a spin-up period. The results were compared with TRMM precipitation, CRU temperature and available observed hydrological data. The WRF-Hydro model captured the attributes of the “observed” streamflow estimate; with Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) of 0.78 and Pearson’s correlation of 0.89. Further validation of model results is based on using the output from the WRF-Hydro model as input into a water balance model to simulate the dam levels. WRF-Hydro has shown the potential for use in water resource planning (i.e. with respect to streamflow and dam level estimation). However, the model requires further improvement with respect to calibration of model parameters (e.g. baseflow and saturated hydraulic conductivity) considering the effect of the accumulation of model bias in dam level estimation