Efficient water management in agricultural sector necessitates the manipulation of all possible options for water supply and demand management methods. The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of using natural volcanic tuff as a soil mulching on plant and soil properties under different water levels. The experiments were performed using 1-year-old olive transplants planted in barrels filled with silty clay soil. Half of the barrels were covered with a coarse volcanic tuff, while the other samples were remained without covering and considered as control. The two sets of barrels were irrigated with four levels of water which correspond to 75%, 65%, 55%, and 45% of the field capacity. The treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results revealed that plant height, number of branches, trunk diameter, shoots length, shoot diameter, number of leaves, and plant weight for soil covered with volcanic tuff were significantly greater than control plants after the fifth growing season. The leaf water potential and relative water content of plants grown in mulched soil were significantly greater than those of control. An increase in nutrient contents of soil and plant tissues was found as a result of soil amendment with volcanic tuff. In summary, a positive influence of volcanic tuff additions on olive growth, leaves water status, and soil nutrient levels was determined.

Groundwater forms the main freshwater supply in arid and semi-arid areas, and contamination of this precious resource is complicated by the slow rate of recharge in these areas. Nitrate contamination of groundwater is a global water quality problem, as it entails threat to human health as well as aquatic ecosystems. Source identification of contamination is the cornerstone and a prerequisite for any effective management program of water quality. Stable isotope composition of the dissolved nitrate (δ 15 N-NO 3 -and δ 18 O-NO 3 -) has been applied to identify NO 3 -sources and the main transformation processes in the upper aquifer system (A1/2, A4, and B2/A7 aquifers) in the Wadi Shueib catchment area, Jordan. Moreover, the stable isotope compositions of the groundwater (δ 2 H-H 2 O and δ1 8 O-H 2 O) in conjunction with the groundwater hydrochemistry were integrated to investigate the origin and evolution of the groundwater. Results revealed that groundwater in the study area is fresh and hard-very hard water, and mainly a Ca-Mg-Cl type. NO 3 -concentration was in the range of 7.0-74.0 mg/L with an average of 37.0 mg/L. Most of the samples showed concentration higher than the natural background concentration of NO 3 -(5.0-10.0 mg/L). The δ 2 H-H 2 O and δ 18 O-H 2 O values indicated that the groundwater is meteoric, and of Mediterranean origin, with a strong evaporation effect. The δ 15 N-NO 3 -values ranged between 6.0‰ and 11.3‰ with an average of 8.7‰, and the δ 18 O-NO 3 -values ranged between 1.6‰ and 5.9‰ with an average of 3.4‰. These values are in conformity with the stable isotope composition of nitrate derived the nitrification of wastewater/manure, and soil NH 4 . Nitrification and denitrification are the main transformation processes affecting nitrogen species. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences in the δ 2 H-H 2 O and δ 18 O-H 2 O values, and δ 15 N-NO 3 -and δ 18 O-NO 3 -values for the three aquifers (A1/2, A4, and B2/A7), indicating that the groundwater of these aquifers has the same origin, and a common source of pollution.

The recycling of untreated dry biosolids, as costless biodegradable adsorbent for the removal of cadmium from aqueous phase was characterized. The adsorption of cadmium was reported to depend on initial pH, adsorbent dose, agitation time, and initial Cd concentration. The results of the batch experiments revealed that the maximum adsorption capacity of the untreated dry biosolids was 39.22 mg g -1 under optimum operating conditions (i.e. pH: 5, adsorbent dose: 2 g l -1 , contact time: 16h). Adsorption reaches equilibrium after 16h, which can be attributed to both external surface adsorption (R 2 = 0.86) and intraparticle dif usion (R 2 = 0.98). The Langmuir isotherm model best described cadmium adsorption (R 2 = 0.99) and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model was obeyed, suggesting that the mechanism involved was chemisorption. Biodegradability would make the recovery of adsorbed Cd an environmentally friendly process. Comparing the obtained findings with the related published results, it can be concluded that treating biosolids might be an unnecessary and costly procedure for recycling biosolids as an adsorbent for cadmium.

Image data registration, i.e., the process of transforming an image dataset so that the structures represented are properly adjusted to the homologous structures represented in a second image dataset, has been a topic of huge research in Computational Vision. Such transformation has been frequently applied on static image data, but also on dynamic image data, i.e., image sequences. For example, in Biomedical Engineering, computational methods of image data registration have a crucial role in supporting efficient image-based diagnosis, by fusion the information conveyed in image data acquired by different image modalities, at distinct time instants or from several viewpoints. Hence, the computational registration of image data has been a remarkable tool for clinicians and researchers since complex image based tasks, such as the comparison of a given clinical case with previously studied ones, the automatic identification of regions of interest in images (i.e. image segmentation) and information fusion, are facilitated and can be achieved automatically and without subjectivity. Usually, associated to the topic of image data registration are found methods concerning data matching, i.e. the searching for correspondences between two related images, and data interpolation, specially due to the application of the transformation found to one image in the discrete domain. During this presentation, the topic of image data registration is going to be introduced, automatic computational methodologies to matching and registering static and dynamic image data that we have been developing are going to be described, and application cases involving static image data, image sequences and image data acquired by different imaging modalities are going to be presented and discussed.

It is common knowledge that Yarmouk River Basin (YRB) is shared between Jordan and Syria. Management of YRB trans-boundary water resources is attracting increasing interest because it is a strategic water resource for the riparian countries. Actually, lack of sharing information regarding hydrological flows and basin's water management between partners' countries makes it difficult to distinguish between natural and man-made factors affecting the water body. Therefore, this study seeks to address and assess the main on-site changes that exert on YRB. Geospatial technique and arithmetic equations were combined to carry out an assessment of the changes on water resources in YRB. Data, information and field measurements of the basin were aggregated, compiled and presented to determine the extent of changes during the period 1980-2020. Remarkable findings showed that precipitation amount in the basin significantly declined during the period 1980-2020 in particularly after the year 1992. Pumping rate of groundwater was 550×10 3 m 3 /a, exceeding the basin's safe yield. Draw down of static groundwater level over time approached the value of -3.2 m/a due to the over abstraction in the aquifer body. Additionally, the evaporation rate reached more than 99% in some regions in the basin. Moreover, the number of private wells has increased from 98 wells in 1980 to 126 wells in 2020, showing the excessive extraction of groundwater. These findings indicate that the study area is subjected to a considerable groundwater depletion in the near future due to extensive abstraction, continuous drilling of illegal wells and decreased annual precipitation under the shadow of the rapid population growth and continuous influx of refugees. Therefore, decision makers-informed scenarios are suggested in the development of water resource portfolios, which involves the combination of management and infrastructural actions that enhance the water productivity of the basin. Further studies are recommended to evaluate the on-site changes on water resources in YRB in collaboration with riparian countries and to establish monitoring system for continuous and accurate measurements of the basin.