A multi-period capacitated school location problem with modular equipment and closest assignment considerations

In rapidly growing urban areas, it is deemed vital to expand (or contract) an existing network of public facilities to meet anticipated changes in the level of demand. We present a multi-period capacitated median model for school network facility location planning that minimizes transportation costs, while functional costs are subject to a budget constraint. The proposed Vintage Flexible Capacitated Location Problem (ViFCLP) has the flexibility to account for a minimum school-age closing requirement, while the maximum capacity of each school can be adjusted by the addition of modular units. Non-closest assignments are controlled by the introduction of a parameter penalizing excess travel. The applicability of the ViFCLP is illustrated on a large US school system (Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina) where high school demand is expected to grow faster with distance to the city center. Higher school capacities and greater penalty on travel impedance parameter reduce the number of non-closest assignments. The proposed model is beneficial to policy makers seeking to improve the provision and efficiency of public services over a multi-period planning horizon.     

Analyse conjointe des régimes pluviométriques et hydrologiques dans le bassin de la Tafna (Algérie Occidentale)

Résumé

La variabilité du climat, une gestion non optimale de la ressource en eau et l'intensification des activités anthropiques pourraient être les trois facteurs majeurs menaçant les écoulements et l'état de la ressource en eau dans les sous-bassins algériens. C'est le cas du bassin de la Tafna dans la partie occidentale de l'Algérie. Ce bassin est situé dans une région au climat semi-aride. Outre l'influence des précipitations, nous examinerons dans cet article la contribution possible d'autres facteurs (géologiques, topographiques et anthropiques) à la variabilité des écoulements dans le bassin de la Tafna. Pour cela, en plus de l'analyse du régime pluviométrique et des débits, nous avons choisi d'analyser le baseflow index ou BFI et les débits de base. Cinq sous-bassins de la Tafna, où des données journalières de pluie et de débit étaient disponibles sur la période 1976–2006 ont été étudiés. L'analyse, qui a distingué deux sous-régions déterminées par la topographie: les bassins d'altitude et ceux de plaine, montre que, selon leur contexte géologique, les sous-bassins ont des comportements différents en terme d'écoulement. Les zones en altitude présentant un écoulement de base et un BFI plus importants que les bassins de plaine. Ceci peut être relié à la nature lithologique des formations, les bassins d'altitude présentant une composante karstique importante. Les analyses de tendance/rupture sur les précipitations annuelles ne montrent aucune tendance significative sur la période 1976–2006. On note une baisse des débits moyens annuels uniquement sur deux stations en altitude (significatives aux seuils 1 et 10% respectivement). Une tendance à une diminution significative des débits de base est obtenue sur deux bassins d'altitude et un bassin de plaine (au seuil 1 ou 5%). La baisse du BFI est significative au seuil 1% pour seulement une station d'altitude. Ceci serait le signe d'une baisse du stock dans les bassins d'altitude. La modification des écoulements de base sur certains sous-bassins de la Tafna serait donc imputable à des causes, notamment de nature anthropique, ne relevant pas d'une diminution de la pluviométrie.

Editeur Z.W. Kundzewicz; Editeur associé M. Lang

Citation Bakreti, A., Braud, I., Leblois, E., et Benali, A. 2013. Analyse conjointe des régimes pluviométriques et hydrologiques dans le bassin de la Tafna (Algérie Occidentale). Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (1), 1–19.     

The Geminga fraction

Radio-quiet γ-ray pulsars like Geminga may account for a number of the unidentified EGRET sources in the Galaxy. The number of Geminga-like pulsars is very sensitive to the geometry of both the γ-ray and radio beams. Recent studies of the shape and polarization of pulse profiles of young radio pulsars have provided evidence that their radio emission originates in wide cone beams at altitudes that are a significant fraction (1–10%) of their light cylinder radius. Such wide radio emission beams will be visible at a much larger range of observer angles than the narrow core components thought to originate at lower altitude. Using 3D geometrical modeling that includes relativistic effects from pulsar rotation, we study the visibility of such radio cone beams as well as that of the γ-ray beams predicted by slot gap and outer gap models. From the results of this study, one can obtain revised predictions for the fraction of Geminga-like, radio quiet pulsars present in the γ-ray pulsar population.      

Can the optical very large array be coupled with the JNLT?

Coupling the JNLT with the Keck telescope is of considerable interest. Further enhancement may be possible with auxiliary small telescopes, as planned for ESO's VLT. Current plans for installing the optical very large array at Mauna Kea provide opportunities for extra OVLA telescopes near the JNLT.A coudé field slicer is proposed for interferometric observing of a reference star together with the main object. Additions to the JNLT coudé spectrograph are also suggested for use as a speckle camera with multiple spectral channels.Paper presented at the Symposium on the JNLT and Related Engineering Developments, Tokyo, November 29–December 2, 1988.     

Short-term measures for the control of ozone peaks: expertise from CTM simulations

In Europe, in case of the observation or the forecast of a photochemical event, punctual and local reductions in anthropogenic emissions can be triggered at the regional scale. Although the necessity for the establishment of such measures appears to be justified by bad air quality records over large European cities, individual short-term action plans (STAPs) have been blindly elaborated by regional authorities. Moreover, as they impose industrial and road traffic emission restrictions, these measures have an elevated economical cost. It is consequently crucial to determine their efficiency and potential for ozone peak reduction. The study presented in this paper aims to draw up an expertise on standard European STAPs, through the example of a French Mediterranean city. The objective is to determine and investigate the impact of current STAPs on ozone peak formation and to test ways to optimise their efficiency. In this frame, a set of emission scenarios has been elaborated and tested with the chemistry-transport model CHIMERE on the Berre–Marseille area. Simulations have shown that the tested action plans are not sufficient to eradicate severe ozone peaks and that more drastic restrictions on emissions are required to significantly affect ozone plumes. However, results also showed that the potential for ozone reduction remains small, with a maximum impact of only 5 ppbv for feasible STAPs. Finally, a temporal analysis of the ozone-emission relationship was engaged in order to optimise their application.     

Improving Kirchhoff migration with repeated local plane-wave imaging? A SAR-inspired signal-processing approach in prestack depth imaging

A local plane-wave approach of generalized diffraction tomography in heterogeneous backgrounds, equivalent to Kirchhoff summation techniques when applied in seismic reflection, is re-programmed to act as repeated synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging for seismic prestack depth migration. Spotlight-mode SAR imaging quickly provides good images of the electromagnetic reflectivity of the ground via fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based signal processing. By calculating only the Green's functions connecting the aircraft to the centre of the illuminated patch, scattering structures around that centre are also recovered. SAR technology requires us to examine seismic imaging from the local point of view, where the quantity and quality of the available information at each image point are what are important, regardless of the survey geometry. When adapted to seismics, a local image of arbitrary size and sampling is obtained by FFT of seismic energy maps in the scattering wavenumber domain around each node of a pre-calculated grid of Green's functions. These local images can be used to generate a classic prestack depth-migrated section by collecting only their centres. However, the local images also provide valuable information around the centre, as in SAR. They can therefore help to pre-analyse prestack depth migration efficiently, and to perform velocity analysis at a very low cost. The FFT-based signal-processing approach allows local, efficient and automatic control of anti-aliasing, noise and resolution, including optimized Jacobian weights. Repeated local imaging could also be used to speed up migration, with interpolation between local images associated with a coarse grid of Green's functions, as an alternative to interpolation of Green's functions. The local images may, however, show distortions due to the local plane-wave approximation, and the velocity variations across their frame. Such effects, which are not necessarily a problem in SAR, should be controlled and corrected to further enhance seismic imaging. Applications to realistic models and to real data show that, despite the distortion effects, the local images can yield similar information to prestack depth migration, including common-image-point gathers for velocity analyses and AVO/AVA effects, at a much lower cost when a small target is considered.     

Ontologies to interpret remote sensing images: why do we need them?

The development of new sensors and easier access to remote sensing data are significantly transforming both the theory and practice of remote sensing. Although data-driven approaches based on innovative algorithms and enhanced computing capacities are gaining importance to process big Earth Observation data, the development of knowledge-driven approaches is still considered by the remote sensing community to be one of the most important directions of their research. In this context, the future of remote sensing science should be supported by knowledge representation techniques such as ontologies. However, ontology-based remote sensing applications still have difficulty capturing the attention of remote sensing experts. This is mainly because of the gap between remote sensing experts’ expectations of ontologies and their real possible contribution to remote sensing. This paper provides insights to help reduce this gap. To this end, the conceptual limitations of the knowledge-driven approaches currently used in remote sensing science are clarified first. Then, the different modes of definition of geographic concepts, their duality, vagueness and ambiguity, and the sensory and semantic gaps are discussed in order to explain why ontologies can help address these limitations. In particular, this paper focuses on the capacity of ontologies to represent both symbolic and numeric knowledge, to reason based on cognitive semantics and to share knowledge on the interpretation of remote sensing images. Finally, a few recommendations are provided for remote sensing experts to comprehend the advantages of ontologies in interpreting satellite images.     

Local and controlled prestack depth migration in complex areas

Prestack depth migrations based on wavefield extrapolation may be computationally expensive, especially in 3D. They are also very dependent on the acquisition geometry and are not flexible regarding the geometry of the imaging zone. Moreover, they do not deal with all types of wave, considering only primary reflection events through the model. Integral approaches using precalculated Green's functions, such as Kirchhoff migration and Born-based imaging, may overcome these problems. In the present paper, both finite-difference traveltimes and wavefront construction are used to obtain asymptotic Green's functions, and a generalized diffraction tomography is applied as an example of Born-based acoustic imaging. Target-orientated imaging is easy to perform, from any type of survey and subselection of shot/receiver pairs. Multifield imaging is possible using Green's functions that take into account, for instance, reflections at model boundaries. This may help to recover parts of complex structures which would be missing using a paraxial wave equation approach. Finally, a numerical evaluation of the resolution, or point-spread, function at any point of the depth-migrated section provides valuable information, either at the survey planning stage or for the interpretation.