Hydrosedimentary records and Holocene environmental dynamics in the Yamé Valley (Mali,Sudano-Sahelian West Africa)

Research conducted in the Yamé Valley (Dogon Country, Mali) provides valuable information about the river systems and their Holocene evolution in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa. Past research in the region has relied primarily on marine and lacustrine records. The new results confirm correlation between palaeoclimatic fluctuations recorded in both the river system and in tropical African lakes. They offer a new continental milestone for understanding of the environmental repercussions of Holocene monsoon oscillations. These studies demonstrate the value of river systems as a palaeoenvironmental record and the role of palaeoclimatic and anthropogenic factors in the Holocene dynamics of Sudano-Sahelian hydrosystems.     

Stochastic modelling of seasonal and yearly rainfalls with low-frequency variability

Stochastic rainfall models are important for many hydrological applications due to their appealing ability to simulate synthetic series that resemble the statistical characteristics of the observed series for a location of interest. However, an important limitation of stochastic rainfall models is their inability to preserve the low-frequency variability of rainfall. Accordingly, this study presents a simple yet efficient stochastic rainfall model for a tropical area that attempts to incorporate seasonal and inter-annual variabilities in simulations. The performance of the proposed stochastic rainfall model, the tropical climate rainfall generator (TCRG), was compared with a stochastic multivariable weather generator (MV-WG) in various aspects. Both models were applied on 17 rainfall stations at the Kelantan River Basin, Malaysia, with tropical climate. The validations were carried out on seasonal (monsoon and inter-monsoon) and annual basis. The third-order Markov chain of the TCRG was found to perform better in simulating the rainfall occurrence and preserving the low-frequency variability of the wet spells. The log-normal distribution of the TCRG was consistently better in modelling the rainfall amounts. Both models tend to underestimate the skewness and kurtosis coefficient of the rainfall. The spectral correction approach adopted in the TCRG successfully preserved the seasonal and inter-annual variabilities of rainfall amounts, whereas the MV-WG tends to underestimate the variability bias of rainfall amounts. Overall, the TCRG performed reasonably well in the Kelantan River Basin, as it can represent the key statistics of rainfall occurrence and amounts successfully, as well as the low-frequency variability.     

Opposite polarity dusty plasma expansion in Earth’s mesosphere

The self-similar expansion method is applied on the fluid system of equations which describes a plasma system consisting of opposite polarity dust grains, positive ions and electrons. The resultant system of equations is solved numerically to study the properties of the plasma expansion of this system. It is found that the presence of the second species of the dust has a great effect on the properties of the expansion of the other species.     

Spatial-temporal changes of NDVI and their relations with precipitation and temperature in Yangtze River basin from 1981 to 2001

Multitemporal NOAA/AVHRR NDVI images and monthly temperature and precipitation data were obtained across Yangtze River basin covering the period 1981–2001. The spatial and temporal patterns of NDVI are the same, while spatial analysis shows that the NDVI is influenced by the vegetation types growing in the study regions, and NDVI presents an increasing trend during the study period in the whole basin. The climate indicators play an important role in the changes of vegetation cover in the river basin. In the two Indicators, temperature has a significant effect on the NDVI values than precipitation in the whole basin. However, in the 11 subbasins, the different rules are shown in different subbasins.     

Incorporation of chitosan and glass substrate for improvement in adsorption,separation, and stability of TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> photodegradation

It is demonstrated that single titanium dioxide (TiO₂) has high potential for photodegradation of pollutants. However, it is still far from becoming an effective photocatalyst system, due to issues of adsorption process, separation, as well as dissolution. Therefore, this study highlights the high adsorption capacity, simplified separation, and the promising stability of TiO_2(SY) (synthesized via sol–gel method) photocatalyst, fabricated using chitosan–TiO_2(SY) and supported by glass substrate (Cs–TiO_2(SY)/glass substrate) photocatalysts. Chitosan (Cs), with abundant –R–NH and NH₂ groups, promotes the adsorption sites of methyl orange (MO) and OH groups for major attachment to TiO_2(SY). Meanwhile, the glass substrate increases stability and assists separation of the photocatalysts. Initially, nano-TiO_2(SY) has been characterized using high-resolution transmission electron microscope. Cs–TiO_2(SY)/glass substrate was fabricated via dip-coating. The distribution and interface between the photocatalytic components were characterized by Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectrometer. UV–Vis analysis of the multilayer photocatalyst (2, 4, 6, and 8 layers) was further carried out by the adsorption–photodegradation, with MO as model of pollutant. Seventy percent of the total removal of MO via optimized eight layers of photocatalyst was achieved within 1 h of UV irradiation. The adsorption photocatalyst achieved 50 % with no exposure to UV light for 15 min of irradiation. It is concluded that suitable photocatalytic conditions and sample parameters possessing the multilayer photocatalyst of Cs–TiO_2(SY) are beneficial toward the adsorption–photodegradation process in wastewater treatment.     

Optical and photometric studies of Earth orbiting small space objects

Variations of light curves for space objects are investigated. Optical observations and photometric measurements for small space debris on highly elliptical orbits (HEO) and geostationary orbits (GEO) are used to determine their orbital parameters. Light curves of small space debris with various area-to-mass ratios and orbital characteristics are discussed. Tracking of some objects shows very rapid brightness variations related to perturbations of the orbital parameters. Changes in brightness and equatorial coordinates of the studied objects are found in observational data. Our results allow improving the accuracy of space debris orbital elements.     

The construction of a third-order secular analytical J-S-U-N theory by the Hori-Lie technique

We expand both parts, the principal and indirect, of the Hamiltonian function up to the third order in the masses for the four major planets Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune. Accordingly we write down the secular terms ofF ₁,F ₂,F ₃ and the critical terms ofF ₁,F ₂ in terms of the canonical variables of H. Poincaré neglecting powers higher than the second inH, K, P, Q.