Modeling Spatial Soil Water Dynamics in a Tropical Floodplain, East Africa

Analyzing the spatial and temporal distribution of soil moisture is critical for ecohydrological processes and for sustainable water management studies in wetlands. The characterization of soil moisture dynamics and its influencing factors in agriculturally used wetlands pose a challenge in data-scarce regions such as East Africa. High resolution and good-quality time series soil moisture data are rarely available and gaps are frequent due to measurement constraints and device malfunctioning. Soil water models that integrate meteorological conditions and soil water storage may significantly overcome limitations due to data gaps at a point scale. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if the Hydrus-1D model would adequately simulate soil water dynamics at different hydrological zones of a tropical floodplain in Tanzania, to determine controlling factors for wet and dry periods and to assess soil water availability. The zones of the Kilombero floodplain were segmented as riparian, middle, and fringe along a defined transect. The model was satisfactorily calibrated (coefficient of determination; R2 = 0.54–0.92, root mean square error; RMSE = 0.02–0.11) on a plot scale using measured soil moisture content at soil depths of 10, 20, 30, and 40 cm. Satisfying statistical measures (R2 = 0.36–0.89, RMSE = 0.03–0.13) were obtained when calibrations for one plot were validated with measured soil moisture for another plot within the same hydrological zone. Results show the transferability of the calibrated Hydrus-1D model to predict soil moisture for other plots with similar hydrological conditions. Soil water storage increased towards the riparian zone, at 262.8 mm/a while actual evapotranspiration was highest (1043.9 mm/a) at the fringe. Overbank flow, precipitation, and groundwater control soil moisture dynamics at the riparian and middle zone, while at the fringe zone, rainfall and lateral flow from mountains control soil moisture during the long rainy seasons. In the dry and short rainy seasons, rainfall, soil properties, and atmospheric demands control soil moisture dynamics at the riparian and middle zone. In addition to these factors, depths to groundwater level control soil moisture variability at the fringe zone. Our results support a better understanding of groundwater-soil water interaction, and provide references for wetland conservation and sustainable agricultural water management

Long-time principal geodesic analysis in director-based dynamics of hybrid mechanical systems

In this article, we investigate an extended version of principal geodesic analysis for the unit sphere S2 and the special orthogonal group SO(3). In contrast to prior work, we address the construction of long-time smooth lifts of possibly non-localized data across branches of the respective logarithm maps. To this end, we pay special attention to certain critical numerical aspects such as singularities and their consequences on the numerical accuracy. Moreover, we apply principal geodesic analysis to investigate the behavior of several mechanical systems that are very rich in dynamics. The examples chosen are computationally modeled by employing a director-based formulation for rigid and flexible mechanical systems. Such a formulation allows to investigate our algorithms in a direct manner while avoiding the introduction of additional sources of error that are unrelated to principal geodesic analysis. Finally, we test our numerical machinery with the examples and, at the same time, we gain deeper insight into their dynamical behavior

Boundary element based multiresolution shape optimisation in electrostatics

We consider the shape optimisation of high-voltage devices subject to electrostatic field equations by combining fast boundary elements with multiresolution subdivision surfaces. The geometry of the domain is described with subdivision surfaces and different resolutions of the same geometry are used for optimisation and analysis. The primal and adjoint problems are discretised with the boundary element method using a sufficiently fine control mesh. For shape optimisation the geometry is updated starting from the coarsest control mesh with increasingly finer control meshes. The multiresolution approach effectively prevents the appearance of non-physical geometry oscillations in the optimised shapes. Moreover, there is no need for mesh regeneration or smoothing during the optimisation due to the absence of a volume mesh. We present several numerical experiments and one industrial application to demonstrate the robustness and versatility of the developed approach.We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the EU commission through the FP7 Marie Curie IAPP project CASOPT (PIAP-GA-2008-230224). K.B. and F.C. thank for the additional support provided by EPSRC through #EP/G008531/1. J.Z. thanks for the support provided by the European Regional Development Fund in the IT4Innovations Centre of Excellence project (CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0070) and by the project SPOMECH – Creating a Multidisciplinary R&D Team for Reliable Solution of Mechanical Problems, reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0070 within the Operational Programme ‘Education for Competitiveness’ funded by the Structural Funds of the European Union and the state budget of the Czech Republic. Special thanks to Andreas Blaszczyk from the ABB Corporate Research Center Switzerland for fruitful discussions and for providing the industrial applications.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2015.05.01

Exciton-LO-phonon dynamics in InAs/GaAs quantum dots: Effects of zone-edge phonon damping

The dynamics of an exciton-LO-phonon system after an ultrafast optical excitation in an InAs/GaAs quantum dot is studied theoretically. Influence of anharmonic phonon damping and its interplay with the phonon dispersion is analyzed. The signatures of the zone-edge decay process in the absorption spectrum and time evolution are highlighted, providing a possible way of experimental investigation on phonon anharmonicity effects.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Electron shot noise beyond the second moment

The form of electron counting statistics of the tunneling current noise in a generic many-body interacting electron system is obtained. The third correlator of current fluctuations (the skewness of the charge counting distribution) has a universal relation with the current I and the quasiparticle charge q. This relation C_3 = q^2 I holds in a wide bias voltage range, both at large and small eV/kT, thereby representing an advantage compared to the Schottky formula. We consider the possibility of using the counting statistics for detecting quasiparticle charge at high temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Roughness gradient induced spontaneous motion of droplets on hydrophobic surfaces: A lattice Boltzmann study

The effect of a step wise change in the pillar density on the dynamics of droplets is investigated via three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann simulations. For the same pillar density gradient but different pillar arrangements, both motion over the gradient zone as well as complete arrest are observed. In the moving case, the droplet velocity scales approximately linearly with the texture gradient. A simple model is provided reproducing the observed linear behavior. The model also predicts a linear dependence of droplet velocity on surface tension. This prediction is clearly confirmed via our computer simulations for a wide range of surface tensions.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

Unusual Presentation of Localized Gastric Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma Mimicking Poorly Differentiated Gastric Adenocarcinoma

The risk of misdiagnosing neoplastic cells typically infiltrating an epithelium forming a lymphoepithelial lesion as poorly differentiated gastric cancer in endoscopic biopsies, particularly in low-grade mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphomas, is described. A 76-year-old woman was referred for management of a poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma. Diagnostic endoscopy in our unit showed a 2 cm raised, submucosal lesion with central erosion in the upper body of the stomach, but repeat biopsies of the lesion were interpreted as inflamed gastric mucosa and negative for malignancy. Systematic gastric biopsies to rule out any foci of MALT lymphoma changes were also negative. Therefore, endoscopic submucosal dissection was performed to obtain an accurate specimen. Histology revealed centrocyte-like cells and a lymphoepithelial lesion invading into the mucosa with obliteration of the gastric glands, which was initially interpreted as poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma

Stochastic simulations of the quantum Zeno effect

Published versio

Dark pair coherent states of the motion of a trapped ion

We propose a scheme for generating vibrational pair coherent states of the motion of an ion in a two-dimensional trap. In our scheme, the trapped ion is excited bichromatically by three laser beams along different directions in the X-Y plane of the ion trap. We show that if the initial vibrational state is given by a two-mode Fock state, the final steady state, indicated by the extinction of the fluorescence emitted by the ion, is a pure state. The motional state of the ion in the equilibrium realizes that of the highly-correlated pair coherent state.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure