Although rainfall in the United States Mid-South is sufficient to produce corn (Zea mays L.) without irrigation in most years, timely irrigation has been shown to increase yields. The recent interest in ethanol fuels is expected to lead to increases in US corn production, and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is one possible way to increase application efficiency and thereby reduce water use. Th...

Reverse osmosis membrane (RO) is becoming a most popular instrument to desalinate seawater as a result of new developments in membrane technology. The critical factor governing successful long-term reverse osmosis (RO) in desalination plants is fouling caused by the turbidity of seawater, such as by suspended solids, sparingly soluble salts, or biological growth. To reduce the turbidity, the se...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to assess the relationship between apoptosis in human ejaculated spermatozoa, sperm morphology and the novel sperm deformity index (SDI). METHODS Semen specimens from 50 healthy donors were prepared by density-gradient centrifugation followed by incubating the prepared sperm with paramagnetic annexin V-conjugated microbeads and subjecting this to magnetic cell sort...

In this paper will explore ways to go beyond the traditional SDI (spatial data infrastructures) in the direction of the Digital Earth, with the objective of supporting environmental policies that will lead to sustainability. We use the Amazon region as a starting point for the discussion. Environmental policy making for a place such as the Amazon has to take into account that phenomena occur an...

As one of the most important technology for implementing large-scale distributed systems, peer-to-peer (P2P) computing has attracted much attention in both research and academia communities, for its advantages such as high availability, high performance, and high flexibility to the dynamics of networks. However, multidimensional data indexing remains as a big challenge to P2P computing, because...

Scarcity of fresh high-quality water has heightened the importance of wastewater reuse primarily in dry regions together with improving its efficient use by implementing the Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI) method. Sustainable effluent reuse combines soil and plant aspects, along with the maintainability of the application system. In this study, field experiments were conducted for two years on...

Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) are becoming more mature worldwide. However, despite this growing maturity, longitudinal research on the governance of SDIs is rare. The current research examines the governance history of two SDIs in The Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). Both represent decades-long undertakings to create a large-scale base map. During these processes, SDI governance change...

Currently, the best practice to support land planning calls for the development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) capable of integrating both geospatial datasets and time series information from multiple sources, e.g., multitemporal satellite data and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). This paper describes an original OGC standard interoperable SDI architecture and a geospatial data ...

The coastal zone is a complex area, consisting of both the marine and terrestrial environments. It is also home for an increasing number of activities, rights and interests, and according to the UN Atlas of the Ocean 44% of the worlds population. Worldwide countries are realising the need to balance development and exploitation of resources in the coastal zone with environmental and social need...

Policy, including technology policy, is made of language. Politicians, bureaucrats, and consultants use language to shape action and ways of thinking by fabricating rules that enable individuals to deal with unresolvable contradictions of everyday life. The evolution of geospatial ICT policy can be best understood through the language of spatial data infrastructure (SDI) initiatives and the ana...