Thermal decomposition of the different particles size fractions of almond shells and olive stones. Thermal behaviour changes due to the milling processes

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of particle size on the non-isothermal pyrolysis of almond shells (AS) and olive stones (OS) and to show possible differences in the composition of the different fractions obtained after milling and sieving. The results obtained from the study of different particle size of AS and OS samples show significant differences in the solid residue obtained and in the shape and overlapping degree of the peaks, especially with the smaller particle size. These differences can be due to different factors: (a) the amount of inorganic matter, which increases as particle size decreases, (b) heat and mass transfer processes, (c) different sample composition as a consequence of the milling process which may provoke changes in the structure and the segregation of the components (in addition to the ashes) increasingly changes the composition of the sample as the particle size decreases.

Dynamical Approach for Real-Time Monitoring of Agricultural Crops

In this paper, a novel approach for exploiting multitemporal remote sensing data focused on real-time monitoring of agricultural crops is presented. The methodology is defined in a dynamical system context using state-space techniques, which enables the possibility of merging past temporal information with an update for each new acquisition. The dynamic system context allows us to exploit classical tools in this domain to perform the estimation of relevant variables. A general methodology is proposed, and a particular instance is defined in this study based on polarimetric radar data to track the phenological stages of a set of crops. A model generation from empirical data through principal component analysis is presented, and an extended Kalman filter is adapted to perform phenological stage estimation. Results employing quad-pol Radarsat-2 data over three different cereals are analyzed. The potential of this methodology to retrieve vegetation variables in real time is shown.

How relevant is the origin of human capital for immigrant wages? Evidence from Spain

The objective of this article is to analyse the role played by the different components of human capital in the wage determination of immigrants in the Spanish labour market. Using microdata from the Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes, we find that human capital of immigrants acquired in Spain presents higher returns than human capital obtained in home countries, reflecting the limited international transferability of the latter. This result is reinforced by the strong heterogeneity observed in wage returns to different kinds of human capital across immigrants from different origins and, in particular, by the fact that immigrants with the higher returns to human capital acquired in their home countries are those coming from other developed countries and Latin America, the two regions more similar to Spain in terms of development and/or culture.