considerable information exists in the literature showing that expansive layer silicates are not the only clay minerals present in vertisols. however, the presence of a very high clay content dominated by fine clay, regardless of the clay type, together with the wetting and drying cycle in the soil can also produce a high shrink-swell potential. we studied some vertisols with diverse parent mat...

An optimal de-convolution (ODC) technique has been developed to estimate microwave brightness temperatures of agricultural fields using microwave radiometer observations. The technique is applied to airborne measurements taken by the Passive and Active L and S band (PALS) sensor in Iowa during Soil Moisture Experiments in 2002 (SMEX02). Agricultural fields in the study area were predominantly s...

We report a study of the magnetoresistance (MR) of the metallic perovskite oxide LaNiO3−δ as a function of the oxygen stoichiometry δ (δ ≤ 0.14), magnetic field ( H ≤ 6T ) and temperature (1.5K ≤ T ≤ 25K). We find a strong dependence of the nature of MR on the oxygen stoichiometry. The MR at low temperatures change from positive to negative as the sample becomes more oxygen deficient ( i.e, δ i...

Spatial and temporal changes in high-latitude moisture convergence simulated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model, version 3 (CCSM3) are investigated. Moisture convergence is calculated using the aerological method with model fields of specific humidity and winds spanning the periods from 1960 to 1999 and 2070 to 2089. The twenty-first century incorpora...

Soil moisture is a critical process in the water cycle and its assessment is of paramount importance to forecast changes in the water balance of a region. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology overcomes the limitations of point data by producing a tridimensional view of subsurface characteristics with a large economy of time, logistic, data processing and analysis. The purpose of this resea...

Urbanization-associated land use and land cover (LULC) changes lead to modifications of surface microclimatic and hydrological conditions, including the formation of urban heat islands and changes in surface runoff pattern. The goal of the paper is to investigate the changes of biophysical variables due to urbanization induced LULC changes in Indianapolis, USA, from 2001 to 2006. The biophysica...

the drying behavior and characteristics of date paste were studied at temperatures of 60, 70, and 80ºc as thin layer with sample thicknesses of 1, 1.5, and 2 cm in a laboratory scale vacuum chamber. modeling of drying kinetics of date paste was investigated based on the specific temperatures and sample thicknesses. the experimental moisture loss data were fitted to eight thin layer drying model...