Constraint programming is an approach for solving (mostly combinatorial) problems by stating constraints over the problem variables. Iri some problems, there is no solution satisfying all the constraints, so the problem formulation must deal with uncertainty, vagueness, or imprecision. In such a case the standard constraint satisfaction techniques dealing with hard constraints cannot be used directly and some form of soft constraints is required. In the paper we siirvey four generic models for soft constraints, námely hierarchical, partial, valued, and semiring-based constraint satisfaction.
Mathematical models are effective tools for evaluating the impact of predicted climate change on agricultural production, but it is difficult to test their applicability to future weather conditions. We applied the SWAP model to assess its applicability to climate conditions, differing from those, for which the model was developed. We used a database obtained from a winter wheat drought stress experiment. Winter wheat was grown in six soil columns, three having optimal water supply (NS), while three were kept under drought-stressed conditions (S). The SWAP model was successfully calibrated against measured values of potential evapotranspiration (PET), potential evaporation (PE) and total amount of water (TSW) in the soil columns. The Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (N-S) for TWS for the stressed columns was 0.92. For the NS treatment, we applied temporally variable soil hydraulic properties because of soil consolidation caused by regular irrigation. This approach improved the N-S values for the wetting-drying cycle from -1.77 to 0.54. We concluded that the model could be used for assessing the effects of climate change on soil water regime. Our results indicate that soil water balance studies should put more focus on the time variability of structuredependent soil properties.
We propose a dynamic model specifically designed to simulate changes in the photosynthetic electron transport rate, which is calculated from fluorescence measurements when plants are exposed, for a short time, to a series of increasing photon flux densities. This model simulates the dynamics of the effective yield of photochemical energy conversion from the maximum and natural chlorophyll fluorescence yields, taking into account a cumulative effect of successive irradiations on photosystems. To estimate a characteristic time of this effect on photosystems, two series of experiments were performed on two benthic diatom culture concentrations. For each concentration, two different series of irradiations were applied. Simplified formulations of the model were established based on the observed fluorescence curves. The simplified versions of the model streamlined the parameters estimation procedure. For the most simplified version of the model (only 4 parameters) the order of magnitude of the characteristic time of the residual effect of irradiation was about 38 s (within a confidence interval between 20 and 252 s). The model and an appropriate calibration procedure may be used to assess the physiological condition of plants experiencing short time-scale irradiance changes in experimental or field conditions. and J.-M. Guarini, C. Moritz.
Soil sealing is the permanent covering of the land surface by buildings, infrastructures or any impermeable artificial material. Beside the loss of fertile soils with a direct impact on food security, soil sealing modifies the hydrological cycle. This can cause an increased flooding risk, due to urban development in potential risk areas and to the increased volumes of runoff. This work estimates the increase of runoff due to sealing following urbanization and land take in the plain of Emilia Romagna (Italy), using the Green and Ampt infiltration model for two rainfall return periods (20 and 200 years) in two different years, 1976 and 2008. To this goal a hydropedological approach was adopted in order to characterize soil hydraulic properties via locally calibrated pedotransfer functions (PTF). PTF inputs were estimated via sequential Gaussian simulations coupled with a simple kriging with varying local means, taking into account soil type and dominant land use. Results show that in the study area an average increment of 8.4% in sealed areas due to urbanization and sprawl induces an average increment in surface runoff equal to 3.5 and 2.7% respectively for 20 and 200-years return periods, with a maximum > 20% for highly sealed coast areas.
The study presented herein investigates the impact of simulated changes in land cover on rainfall-runoff conditions for the transboundary basin of the upper Lužnice. The HEC-HMS hydrological model was chosen for these simulations. Scenario models were used to simulate the impact of modifications in basin land cover with individual scenarios reflecting ground cover changes. The years 1990 and 2000, which are available in the CORINE Landcover database, were chosen as variants of river basin land cover. In addition, two theoretical versions of possible extreme variants in fundamental land cover changes - the conversion from agricultural land to grassland and the forestation of the river basin, with the exception of roads and bodies of water - were also included. Single day rainfall totals with a recurrence period of 10, 20, 50 and 100 years were selected to calculate the volume of runoff and culmination discharge. These results demonstrate a clear decrease in the degree of impact of land cover structure on runoff conditions, increasing with the magnitude of precipitation. and Článek představuje výsledky simulace vlivu změn krajinného krytu na srážko-odtokové poměry v přeshraničním povodí horní Lužnice. Pro modelování byl vybrán hydrologický model HEC-HMS. K modelování vlivu změn krajinného pokryvu povodí byla použita metoda scénářového modelování, kde se v jednotlivých scénářích mění krajinný pokryv. Jako varianty krajinného pokryvu povodí byly zvoleny roky 1990 a 2000, pro které je k dispozici databáze CORINE Landcover, a dále dvě teoretické krajní varianty možných variant změn struktury krajinného krytu - zatravnění zemědělské půdy a zalesnění povodí kromě intravilánů, komunikací a vodních ploch. Pro výpočet objemů odtoků a kulminačních průtoků byly vybrány jednodenní návrhové srážkové úhrny s pravděpodobností opakování 10, 20, 50 a 100 let. Z výsledků simulace je zřejmý pokles vlivu struktury krajinného pokryvu na odtokové poměry se vzrůstající extremitou srážky.
Numerical modelling has been widely used in the underground excavation design, where the in situ stress state plays a crucial role in the stability analysis. However, determination of an exact stress state for a specific geological region remains uncertain due to the complicated tectonic nature and measurement limitations. The stability is thus better analysed by considering the in situ stress as a finite spectrum and pinpointing the possible worst-case scenario. The most probable scenarios of in situ stress states in the Rožná mine area were analysed based on the varying trends in principal stress ratio and mean stress values obtained from four different measurement/analysis campaigns. The influence of different in situ stress judgement on the deformation and failure characteristics of the Bukov Underground Research Facility (URF) (Phase II, Czech) were investigated by the finite volume program FLAC3D. Results show that the increased horizontal stress anisotropy and the mean stress level jointly increase the overall deformation and lower the URF stability. Such influences on the roadway horizontal convergence are more considerable than the vertical ones. A mathematical model considering mean stress and horizontal stress ratio was proposed to quantitatively describe the overall stability, especially useful for excavations possessing complicated configuration., Libin Gong, Kamil Soucek, Petr Waclawik, Martin Vavro, Lubomir Stas, Jan Nemcik and Sahendra Ram., and Obsahuje bibliografii
This paper investigates the use of Higher Order Neural Networks using a number of architectures to forecast the Gasoline Crack spread. The architectures used are Recurrent Neural Network and Higher Order Neural Networks; these are benchmarked against the standard MLP model. The final models are judged in terms of out-of-sample annualised return and drawdown, with and without a number of trading filters.
The results show that the best model of the spread is the recurrent network with the largest out-of-sample returns before transactions costs, indicating a superior ability to forecast the change in the spread. Further the best trading model of the spread is the Higher Order Neural Network with the threshold filter due a superior in- and out-of-sample risk/return profile.
In accordance with the Directive 2008/105/EC Member States may designate regulatory mixing zones adjacent to points of discharge. Concentrations of one or more substances listed in Part A of Annex 1 of this Directive may exceed the relevant EQS within such mixing zones if they do not affect the compliance of the rest of the body of surface water with those standards. As a basis for designating regulatory mixing zone adjacent to an existing point source is the best knowing of the really hydrodynamic mixing zone very important. That’s the reason, why conductivity in the Elbe River dowstream waste water treatment plant (WWTP) Hradec Králové was measured. Numerical analysis of results is described in this paper. WWTP Hradec Králové is located on the left shore of the Elbe River and belong between one of the biggest Czech Republic´s WWTP of a size in excess of 100 000 PE. The region after complete vertical mixing is of interest in this study. Modeling of the two-dimenzional (2D) contaminant spreading of plume from point source in a river based on the method of Fisher et al. (1979) with correction for the effective origin of effluent is used. Comparison of the numerical results with field measurements shows that this method is useable for prediction of the hydrodynamic mixing zone adjacent to WWTP Hradec Králové in case when the effluent is positively buoyant. and Ve shodě se Směrnicí 2008/105/ES mohou členské státy vymezit regulační mísící zóny přilehlé k místu vypouštění. Koncentrace jedné nebo více látek uvedené v seznamu v části A přílohy 1 této směrnice smějí překračovat významné normy environmentální kvality uvnitř takových regulačních mísících zón, pokud nebudou mít vliv na dodržení těchto norem ve zbývající části vodního útvaru. Jako základ pro vymezení regulační mísící zóny přilehlé k existujícímu bodovému zdroji znečištění je velmi důležitá co nejlepší znalost skutečné hydrodynamické zóny. To je důvod, proč byla v Labi pod čistírnou odpadních vod (ČOV) Hradec Králové měřena konduktivita. V tomto článku je popsána modelová interpretace výsledků měření. ČOV Hradec Králové se nachází na levém břehu Labe a patří mezi jednu z největších ČOV v České republice s kapacitou přesahující 100 000 EO. Studie se zajímá o oblast po kompletním vertikálním promísení. Je použito modelování dvoudimenzionálního (2D) šíření vlečky znečištění z bodového zdroje v řece, založené na metodě, kterou uvádí Fischer et al. (1979) s korekcí pro účinný začátek vypouštění. Porovnání numerických výsledků s výsledky z terénního měření ukazují, že metoda je použitelná pro predikci hydrodynamické mísící zóny přilehlé k ČOV Hradec Králové v případě, že odpadní vody jsou v recipientu positivně nadlehčovány.