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\"Winning at Active Management conducts an in-depth examination of crucial issues facing the investment management industry, and will be a valuable resource for asset managers, institutional consultants, managers of pension and endowment funds, and advisers to individual investors. Bill Priest, Steve Bleiberg and Mike Welhoelter all experienced investment professionals, consider the challenges of managing portfolios through complex markets, as well as managing the cultural and technological complexities of the investment business. The book’s initial section highlights the importance of culture within an investment firm – the characteristics of strong cultures, the imperatives of communication and support, and suggestions for leading firms through times of both adversity and prosperity. It continues with a thorough discussion of active portfolio management for equities. The ongoing debate over active versus passive management is reviewed in detail, drawing on both financial theory and real-world investing results. The book also contrasts traditional methods of portfolio management, based on accounting metrics and price-earnings ratios, with Epoch Investment Partners’ philosophy of investing on free cash flow and appropriate capital allocation. Winning at Active Management closes with an inquiry into the crucial and growing role of technology in investing. The authors assert that the most effective portfolio strategies result from neither pure fundamental nor quantitative methods, but instead from thoughtful combinations of analyst and portfolio manager experience and skill with the speed and breadth of quantitative analysis. The authors illustrate the point with an example of an innovative Epoch equity strategy based on economic logic and judgment, but enabled by information technology. Winning at Active Management also offers important insights into selecting active managers – the market cycle factors that have held back many managers’ performance in recent years, and the difficulty of identifying those firms that truly possess investment skill. Drawing on behavioral economic theory and empirical research, the book makes a convincing case that many active investment managers can and do generate returns superior to those of the broad market\"-- Provided by publisher.

When urban areas expand without concomitant increases in wastewater treatment capacity, vast quantities of wastewater are released to surface waters with little or no treatment. Downstream of many urban areas are large areas of irrigated croplands reliant on these same surface water sources. Case studies document the widespread use of untreated wastewater in irrigated agriculture, but due to the practical and political challenges of conducting a true census of this practice, its global extent is not well known except where reuse has been planned. This study used GIS-based modeling methods to develop the first spatially-explicit estimate of the global extent of irrigated croplands influenced by urban wastewater flows, including indirect wastewater use. These croplands were further classified by their likelihood of using poor quality water based on the spatial proximity of croplands to urban areas, urban wastewater return flow ratios, and proportion of wastewater treated. This study found that 65% (35.9 Mha) of downstream irrigated croplands were located in catchments with high levels of dependence on urban wastewater flows. These same catchments were home to 1.37 billion urban residents. Of these croplands, 29.3 Mha were located in countries with low levels of wastewater treatment and home to 885 million urban residents. These figures provide insight into the key role that water reuse plays in meeting the water and food needs of people around the world, and the need to invest in wastewater treatment to protect public health.

In many countries, the irrigation return flow focuses only on surface and subsurface flows. In contrast, South Korea adopts a broader approach, defining the stream return flow as encompassing both quick and delayed return flows, which include subsurface flow and deep percolation. This study proposes redefining the stream return flow to include only the subsurface return flow, excluding deep percolation. We quantified the subsurface return flow and deep percolation using the SWAT-MODFLOW-PADDY (SMP) model, confirming that the current definition overestimated the stream return flow in Korea. The results show that the subsurface return flow accounted for 20% to 60% of the total infiltration, with the remaining 40% to 80% contributing to deep percolation and groundwater recharge. These findings reveal significant regional variations in the subsurface return flow rates, underscoring the limitations of applying a uniform stream return flow rate. We propose that allocated management water, subsurface, and quick return flows should be the primary components considered in stream return flow calculations, as the current practice of including delayed return flow leads to overestimated results. This study highlights the challenges in monitoring the subsurface return flow and the need for region-specific models that account for local conditions such as topography, soil characteristics, and climate. Our findings provide a more accurate approach to estimating the subsurface return flow, which is crucial for improving the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural water management in Korea.

In order to further promote the digitalization extent of environmental test, ensure that the test chamber can more realistically simulate the actual environment, and improve the environmental adaptability of vehicle equipment in extreme environments, the three-dimensional CFD simulation method was used to calculate simulation test chamber of an armored vehicle in high-altitude environment in the form of low-speed return flow wind tunnel. There are movable suspension and flap in the entrance to the contraction section of the test chamber. The velocity field and temperature field were analyzed, the temperature distribution and heat transfer in the characteristic section of the test section under different flap deflection angles were compared and analyzed by selecting working conditions, and make the relationship among flow speed and flow rate and the temperature field of the test section clear.

Irrigation is one of the major consumers of fresh water but crops consume only a small part of supplied water and huge quantities emerge downstream as rejuvenated flow and recharge groundwater. The assessment of these flows is cumbersome due to dependence on multiple factors; hence a fixed percentage is assumed by government agencies for designing downstream projects. Three different modeling and measurement techniques, i.e., water balance, isotopic analyses, and hydrological modeling were used to compute surface and sub-surface components of irrigation return flow in an irrigation project (Sanjay Sagar Project with the capacity of 82 MCM and 9863 ha command area) situated in the hard rock region of Central India. The water balance analysis confirmed that a major portion ranging from 12.3 to 35.9%, with an average of 22.9% of supplied water to the command reached the Bah River as regenerated flow, while 1.9–16% with an average of 10.2% of supplied water reached the groundwater body as recharge. The isotopic analysis yielded qualitative insights into the proportional influence of irrigation water on open wells and bore wells in the range of 81% and 9%, respectively. The outcomes of the SWAT model demonstrated that within Sanjay Sagar's command, irrigation led to approximately 27.8% of regenerated flow and 8.9% of recharge from applied irrigation.

Increasing demand for water has put tremendous pressure on groundwater resources in the hard rock terrain, where groundwater is a major source of agriculture, domestic and industrial purposes. Here, in the present study, we have assessed groundwater abstraction and recharge using Groundwater Resources Estimation Committee-1997 (GEC-97) norms and Water Table Fluctuation approach for the Jhansi district in the Bundelkhand region, central India. The assessment of abstraction was about 50,943 hectare meters (ham), of which ~ 91% uses for agriculture and the remaining 9% for domestic and industrial practices. We have also assessed groundwater recharge based on all available sources such as canal, rainfall, irrigation return flow, surface water structures on an annual and seasonal scale. Our results suggest higher recharge of about 42% from irrigation return flow during non-monsoon season compared to monsoon season because of higher groundwater abstraction for irrigation purposes. The rainfall recharge was about 33% in the study area during the assessment year of 2016. In general, the assessed groundwater abstraction and recharge show marked spatial and seasonal variation across the study area. The assessment of groundwater resources during 2016 suggests a ‘safe’ category of groundwater development stage for Jhansi district. The high-spatial-resolution (block-wise) assessment suggests more than 60% groundwater development stage for two blocks in the Jhansi district required better groundwater management policy. The results obtained from the present study can be helpful for high-spatial-resolution groundwater resources management.

Selenium contamination in arid agricultural basins remains a key ecological concern, yet the Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area has received comparatively little hydrochemical study. This investigation provides the most integrated assessment to date of selenium, salinity, nitrate, stable water isotopes (δ2H and δ18O), and selected redox-sensitive trace elements within the Wister Unit and its contributing open agricultural drains, with the goal of identifying controls on selenium concentrations and mobility. Water samples from open agricultural drains, shallow groundwater tile drains, canal project water, and tailwater return flow were analyzed for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), major ions, nutrients, selenium, and stable water isotopes. A subset of samples was anlayzed for iron, manganese, and vanadium. Overall, 71% of open drain and tile drain samples collected in this study exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aquatic-life criterion of 5 µg/L, indicating persistent ecological risk. All waters plotted along an evaporation trajectory originating from imported Colorado River irrigation water; however, isotopic enrichment did not scale directly with salinity. Pure evaporation models predicted much lower TDS values than observed, and the most evaporated samples were not the most saline or selenium-rich. These results demonstrate that simple soil water evaporation alone cannot explain the data. Instead, the broad isotopic range at similar salinities reflects a secondary process in which salts that accumulated in soils during dry or average years are later mobilized and flushed during periods of surplus water and heavy irrigation. Low dissolved iron, manganese, and vanadium concentrations in a subset of water samples indicate predominantly oxidizing conditions, under which selenium behaves conservatively during salt leaching, producing a strong correlation with TDS. Selenium levels measured in Wister Unit are generally lower than those reported in nearby areas during the 1990s–2000s, implying changes in salt accumulation, hydrologic routing, or agricultural practices. These results refine the conceptual model for the Wister Unit and motivate future work on selenium speciation, nitrate isotope tracing, time series monitoring, and soil-salt interactions.

The imbalance between water supply and demand in the arid and semi-arid regions of northwest China has become increasingly severe, highlighting the urgent need to develop and utilize unconventional water resources. Return flow, originating from canal leakage and field drainage, is widely distributed in these regions. However, as it contains a certain amount of salts, long-term use of return flow can lead to soil salinization and degradation of soil structure. Therefore, the scientific utilization of return flow has become a key issue for achieving sustainable agricultural development and efficient water use in arid areas. This study was conducted in the Yinbei Irrigation District, Ningxia, northwest China. Water samples were collected from the main and branch drainage ditches and analyzed to evaluate the feasibility of using return flow irrigation in the area. In addition, based on two years of continuous field monitoring and HYDRUS model simulations, the long-term dynamics of soil salinity under moderate return flow irrigation over the next 20 years were predicted. The results show that the total salinity of the main return ditches consistently remained below the agricultural irrigation water quality standard of 2000 mg/L, with Na+ and SO42− as the predominant ions. Seasonal variations in return flow salinity were notable, with higher levels observed in spring compared to summer. Simulation results based on field trial data indicated that soil salinity displayed regular seasonal fluctuations. During the rice-growing season, strong leaching kept the salinity in the plough layer (0–40 cm) low. However, after irrigation ceased, evaporation in autumn and winter led to an increase in surface soil salinity, creating annual peaks. Long-term simulations showed that soil salinity throughout the entire profile (0–100 cm) followed a pattern of “slight increase—gradual decrease—dynamic stability.” Specifically, winter salinity peaks slightly increased during the first two years but then gradually declined, stabilizing after approximately 15 years. This indicates that long-term return-flow irrigation does not result in the accumulation of soil salinity in the plough layer.

Coastal aquifers are at threat of salinization in most parts of the world. This study was carried out in coastal shallow aquifers of Aousja-Ghar El Melh and Kalâat el Andalous, northeastern of Tunisia with an objective to identify sources and processes of groundwater salinization. Groundwater samples were collected from 42 shallow dug wells during July and September 2007. Chemical parameters such as Na⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, HCO₃⁻, NO₃⁻, Br⁻, and F⁻were analyzed. The combination of hydrogeochemical, statistical, and GIS approaches was used to understand and to identify the main sources of salinization and contamination of these shallow coastal aquifers as follows: (i) water-rock interaction, (ii) evapotranspiration, (iii) saltwater is started to intrude before 1972 and it is still intruding continuously, (iv) irrigation return flow, (v) sea aerosol spray, and finally, (vi) agricultural fertilizers. During 2005/2006, the overexploitation of the renewable water resources of aquifers caused saline water intrusion. In 2007, the freshening of a brackish-saline groundwater occurred under natural recharge conditions by Ca-HCO₃meteoric freshwater. The cationic exchange processes are occurred at fresh-saline interfaces of mixtures along the hydraulic gradient. The sulfate reduction process and the neo-formation of clays minerals characterize the hypersaline coastal Sebkha environments. Evaporation tends to increase the concentrations of solutes in groundwater from the recharge areas to the discharge areas and leads to precipitate carbonate and sulfate minerals.

The tidal-driven flow field and average residence time for water in Jiaozhou Bay in the years 1966, 1988, 2000, and 2008 were investigated using the EFDC (Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code) with a coupled dye module. Jiaozhou Bay (JZB) in northeastern China is a semi-enclosed shallow bay that has undergone large-scale land reclamation over the last four decades, especially over the extensive intertidal flats. Data from field observations were used to calibrate and verify the EFDC model for JZB. The verified JZB model was used to study spatial variations of flow field and water exchanges from 1966 to 2008. The overwhelming influence of human activities, especially land reclamation, is the main cause of the significant changes in hydrodynamic conditions and water exchange in JZB. The human-induced changes of the coastline position-configuration and nearshore bathymetry have resulted in substantial changes in the residual current patterns, especially in Qianwan Bay, Haixi Bay, and northeastern Jiaozhou Bay. The overall tidal prim of JZB has been reduced by 26% as compared to that in 1928. This is considerably less than the 35% reduction obtained by other studies. The decreasing water-exchange ability corresponds to an increasing average residence time (ART) over the past several decades, particularly after the 1980s. In addition, the influences of the return flow of the bay water from the open sea back into the estuary were quantified by determining the return flow factor for each year. An existing tidal prism model was revised by introducing a mixing factor κ, and a simplified formula was developed for JZB. The revised tidal prism model suggests continued deterioration in water quality and exchange ability of Jiaozhou Bay in the near future.