Pressurized irrigation

En un área de aprox. 2 000 000 ha del sur de Córdoba (Argentina) se evaluaron los equipos de riego con el fin de conocer su funcionamiento, el grado de uniformidad con que trabajan y la eficiencia de riego lograda por los productores. Se realizaron 21 evaluaciones sobre equipos operando de acuerdo con la programación establecida por sus usuarios; 14 sobre pivote, una sobre avance lateral, 4 sobre enrolladores (3 de cañón y uno de baja presión) y 2 sobre side roll. Los parámetros de calidad de riego brindaron coeficiente medio de uniformidad = 81,4 %, con uniformidad de distribución = 73,23 %. En el 80 % de los casos, la lámina aplicada fluctuó entre 10 y 20 mm siendo su promedio = 17 mm. De los resultados se puede inferir que -en general- la superficie asignada a cada equipo es siempre mayor que su capacidad para realizar oportunamente una óptima reposición del agua al suelo y que, si bien los coeficientes de uniformidad y distribución del agua pueden considerarse aceptables, la programación del riego es mala en todos los establecimientos evaluados poniéndose de manifiesto en la baja eficiencia de almacenamiento y repercutiendo directamente sobre la producción de los cultivos regados.In approx. 2 000 000 ha in the South of Córdoba (Argentina) was evaluated the performance of the irrigation equipments, the way they are operated and employed, the degree of uniformity they work and the efficiency of irrigation obtained by the farmers. There were 21 evaluations of equipments operating according to the irrigation program established by the owners, 14 on pivots, 1 on lateral move, 4 rollers (3 for gun sprinkler and 1 with low pressure) and 2 side roll. The parameters of the quality of irrigation show values of uniformity coefficient of 81.4 % with a uniformity of distribution of 73.23 %. The 80 % of the cases present a applied depth between 10 and 20 mm with a average value of 17 mm. Based on the obtained values, it can be assumed that -in general- the surface assigned to each of the equipments, is always larger than its capacity to replace soil water adequately. Although the uniformity coefficient and water distribution can be considered acceptable, the most important aspect that highlights this study is the bad irrigation scheduling in all the evaluated farms, stated in the low efficiency of soil water storage that affects directly the production of the irrigated crops.Fil: Puiatti, Juan M. P..Fil: Crespi, Raúl Jesús.Fil: Rivetti, Ana Rosa

Le matériau sol-chaux comme une matériau résistant à l'érosion pour les ouvrages hydrauliques : état de l'art et projet de R&D français DigueElite

International audienceThe treatment of silty and clayey soils with lime (calcium oxide or hydroxide) is a technique widely used for soils improvement and stabilization for construction of roads, highways, railways, platforms. However, the principles of lime treatment for hydraulic earthen structures remains barely applied or even forgotten (European case). If existing testimonials (levees, dams, mainly in US and Australia) are evidences that show effectiveness and durability of lime-treated structures, there was a necessity to evaluate a series of unknown characteristics and relevant properties of lime-treated soils for an application in hydraulic context, through laboratory studies and full-scale experiments

Assessing the feasibility of augmenting fall detection systems by relying on UWB-based position tracking and a home robot

Falls in the home environment are a primary cause of injury in older adults. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year, one in four adults 65 years of age and older reports experiencing a fall. A variety of different technologies have been proposed to detect fall events. However, the need to detect all fall instances (i.e., to avoid false negatives) has led to the development of systems marked by high sensitivity and hence a significant number of false alarms. The occurrence of false alarms causes frequent and unnecessary calls to emergency response centers, which are critical resources that should be utilized only when necessary. Besides, false alarms decrease the level of confidence of end-users in the fall detection system with a negative impact on their compliance with using the system (e.g., wearing the sensor enabling the detection of fall events). Herein, we present a novel approach aimed to augment traditional fall detection systems that rely on wearable sensors and fall detection algorithms. The proposed approach utilizes a UWB-based tracking system and a home robot. When the fall detection system generates an alarm, the alarm is relayed to a base station that utilizes a UWB-based tracking system to identify where the older adult and the robot are so as to enable navigating the environment using the robot and reaching the older adult to check if he/she experienced a fall. This approach prevents unnecessary calls to emergency response centers while enabling a tele-presence using the robot when appropriate. In this paper, we report the results of a novel fall detection algorithm, the characteristics of the alarm notification system, and the accuracy of the UWB-based tracking system that we implemented. The fall detection algorithm displayed a sensitivity of 99.0% and a specificity of 97.8%. The alarm notification system relayed all simulated alarm notification instances with a maximum delay of 106 ms. The UWB-based tracking system was found to be suitable to locate radio tags both in line-of-sight and in no-line-of-sight conditions. This result was obtained by using a machine learning-based algorithm that we developed to detect and compensate for the multipath effect in no-line-of-sight conditions. When using this algorithm, the error affecting the estimated position of the radio tags was smaller than 0.2 m, which is satisfactory for the application at hand

Statistical features of edge turbulence in RFX-mod from Gas Puffing Imaging

Plasma density fluctuations in the edge plasma of the RFX-mod device are measured through the Gas Puffing Imaging Diagnostics. Statistical features of the signal are quantified in terms of the Probability Distribution Function (PDF), and computed for several kinds of discharges. The PDFs from discharges without particular control methods are found to be adequately described by a Gamma function, consistently with the recent results by Graves et al [J.P. Graves, et al, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 47, L1 (2005)]. On the other hand, pulses with external methods for plasma control feature modified PDFs. A first empirical analysis suggests that they may be interpolated through a linear combination of simple functions. An inspection of the literature shows that this kind of PDFs is common to other devices as well, and has been suggested to be due to the simultaneous presence of different mechanisms driving respectively coherent bursts and gaussian background turbulence. An attempt is made to relate differences in the PDFs to plasma conditions such as the local shift of the plasma column. A simple phenomenological model to interpret the nature of the PDF and assign a meaning to its parameters is also developed.Comment: 27 pages. Published in PPC

Coherence-imaging approach to time-resolved charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy in high-temperature plasma

A coherence-based, or interferometric approach to spectral analysis of charge-exchange recombination (CXR) emission radiation from high-temperature plasma probed or heated using energetic neutral beams, offers a number of advantages over wavelength-domain instruments. The spectral-line shift and broadening are obtained from measurements of the spectralcoherence at a given fixed time delay. The coherence is monitored by first approximately isolating the spectral line of interest using an interference filter and subsequently imaging the spectral scene using a field-widened electro-optic path-delay-modulated polarization interferometer.Interferometers have the advantage of high-light throughput (no slit aperture). Moreover, because the spectral information is encoded at harmonics of the electro-optic modulation frequency, a single detector suffices to capture the spectral information, thereby opening the possibility for time-resolved two-dimensional spectralimaging. When unwanted spectral features are passed by the interference filter, the interpretation of the coherence phase and amplitude images can become ambiguous. By modulating the particle beam source, however, we show that coherence imaging using a single-delay modulatable interferometer can distinguish and characterize the Doppler-broadened CXR emission component against a significant background of continuum and intrinsic radiation, or pollution from nearby spectral features

Resonance Lifetimes from Complex Densities

The ab-initio calculation of resonance lifetimes of metastable anions challenges modern quantum-chemical methods. The exact lifetime of the lowest-energy resonance is encoded into a complex "density" that can be obtained via complex-coordinate scaling. We illustrate this with one-electron examples and show how the lifetime can be extracted from the complex density in much the same way as the ground-state energy of bound systems is extracted from its ground-state density

Impur ity behaviour and r adiation patter n in the RFX-mod r ever sed field pinch

Intr oduction RFX-mod is the largest reversed field pinch operating nowadays, with 2 m in major radius, 0.459 m in minor radius and an installed power dimensioned to drive up to 2 MA of plasma current. In the long shutdown period completed at the end of 2004, several new features have been introduced. Above all, a closer resistive shell with external saddle coils has been installed to harness the rich spectrum of MHD modes. This paper describes the behaviour of the impurities in discharges with plasma current of about 600 kA, in terms of influxes from the wall, radiated power and effective charge; first results on the impurity toroidal velocity are also presented. In the former machine configuration, impurities did not represent a major problem. Despite the strong plasma wall interactions the effective charge was kept at reasonable levels (i.e. below 2), especially at high density. In this respect first observations on the restarted machine confirm the trend. In fact, the measured effective charge towards the plasma density is comparable or slightly lower than what found in the former machine. The effect on the influxes and on the emitted radiation of the strong poloidal and toroidal asymmetries associated with the plasma horizontal shift and with the wallmode locking have been investigated. Results and discussion The TV camera pictures of the inner wall in 600kA discharges show strong plasma wall interactions (PWI) in the region where the phase locked MHD modes form a local deformation in the plasma column (se

Degradation of the Reactive Blue 4 Dye in Aqueous Solution Using Zero-Valent Copper Nanoparticles

The degradation of the Reactive Blue 4 (RB4) dye by zero-valent copper nanoparticles (nZVC) was investigated. Degradation rates of approximately 90% were reached within 10 minutes of reaction. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analysis shows that the dye molecules undergo mineralization, therefore indicating the degradation process is oxidative. Experimental tests, held in the presence of tertiary butyl alcohol, acting as a hydroxyl radicals (∙OH) captor, and copper (I) oxide, demonstrated that the reaction mechanism is governed by the concentration of Cu (I) instead of ∙OH. The second-order kinetics model was the most appropriate one to explain the experimental data. Higher values of the reaction rate constant were obtained in higher temperatures and higher nZVC doses and in lower RB4 initial concentrations. The initial pH in more acidic conditions (3 and 4) was kinetically more favorable to the degradation reaction; the activation energy was estimated to be 42 kJ mol−1 based on calculations using the experimental data. Finally, the recovered nanoparticles were utilized on a new reaction cycle, showing a small loss of their efficiency and catalytic activity