Microclimatic studies in summer moong (Vigna Radiata L. Wilczek) and bare fields

An experiment was conducted to study the microclimate of summer moong in relation to bare field. Albedo values were higher at flowering than maturity stage. Air temperature values were lower in cropped field than bare field values at flowering and maturity stage. The average relative humidity deviations were 1.8,4.4,5.0 and 3.6 per cent at flowering and 2.2, 3.0,4.2, 3.8 and. 3.2 per cent at maturity stage at 0800, 1000, 1200, 1400 and 1700 IST. The wind speed values were lower in lower in cropped field than bare field.

Design and Fabrication of Low-Cost Incubator to Evaluate Hatching Performance of Egg

In this study, a poultry egg incubator was designed, fabricated, and tested to evaluate its hatching performance. The incubator consists of a microcontroller with egg turner trays and incubating chamber of 116 nos. of egg capacity. The hatchability of the developed incubator was 79.3% and 87.1% hatchability during manual and automatic trials respectively. The temperature in the developed incubator was within the acceptable incubation temperature ranges from 37.6 °C to 38.6 °C. The average relative humidity in the developed incubator was maintained at 63.6% at manual and 55-65% at automatic trial. The eggs were turned manually approximately at 6 hours of interval. On the other hand, in the automatically controlled trial, it was done by egg turner maintaining exactly 6 hours of interval. It is noted that the percentage of hatching in rice husk incubators is below 55% which is much below comparing with the developed incubator. Also, the newborn chickens in rice husk incubators are unhealthy as they don’t get a sufficient amount of heat. Besides, in the sand incubation technique, kerosene-based hurricane lamps are used which produce Carbon Dioxide. The developed incubator is environment friendly because it doesn’t produce any by-product that is responsible for harming the environment. Also, after the successful trials, we have found the benefit-cost ratio was 1.42 which was quite satisfactory. The egg incubator can maintain the optimum conditions for the hatching of the chicken eggs and is capable of incubating and hatching the chicken eggs effectively. If the developed incubator is commercially supplied to the end-user, it will be a beneficial process of hatching for the farmer of Bangladesh.

Influence of weather parameters on powdery mildew of mango inflorescence in humid tropics of South Gujarat

The influence of environmental parameters on the development of powdery mildew caused by Oidium mangiferae Berthet on mango inflorescence was studied for seven consecutive years (2012-18) in humid tropics climatic conditions of South Gujarat. The disease incidence and severity (DIS), area under disease progress curve-AUDPC (A-value) and apparent infection rate (r-value) were recorded at panicle and fruit setting stages of the tree at weekly intervals. The correlation studies showed that incidence and severity of powdery mildew significantly negative relationship with morning relative humidity (r = -0.631; p<0.05 and r = -0.721; p<0.01) and average relative humidity (r = -0.766 and r = -0.787; p<0.01). Temperature (maximum and average) and evaporation showed positive relationship with incidence and severity of powdery mildew. Further, stepwise linear regression model indicated that average relative humidity as single predictor independent variable had the strongest relationship disease incidence and severity, which explained 59 percent disease incidence and 62 percent for disease severity variability. This forewarning model can be useful for efficient management of powdery mildew disease of mango and as well as agro advisory services to farmers.

Analysis of Display Cabinet Design with Commissioning Test for Fresh Sea Food

This research is a design of a display cabinet cooling system with integrated energy from PLN electricity and solar power. This equipment is used for displaying marine fish and other fresh sea food in restaurants or cafes in support of Balinese culinary specialties, namely grilled fish and seafood which are very well known and can be a very extraordinary carrying capacity for Bali tourism. This cooling system is designed to be able to maintain the temperature of the cooling room (cabin) up to -5 oC. This is in accordance with the standards for storing fresh sea fish and sea food in a temperature range of -2oC to 2oC, where fish and sea food are still in a very fresh condition for an average of 1 week. Other standards to maintain product freshness also require room humidity between RH 90% – RH 95%. Furthermore, data collection on system performance is carried out using the commissioning test method to determine the initial performance achievement of the tool so that its shortcomings can be evaluated which will be developed and corrected in further research. From the research, it is found that the temperature achievement is very good, the solar and PLN integration system with the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) control system has also worked well where the switch occurs when the battery charging condition is below 30% or below 10V. However, something that has not been achieved is the humidity in this system, the average relative humidity (RH) is 50% so that the final condition of the product becomes dry on the surface of the fish. This relatively low humidity is due to the fact that it still relies on the humidity increase system by opening the cooler cabin door. In the next development, the right humidifier system will be designed for this display cabinet system.

Influence of climatic variables on the epidemiological situation of dengue in the Ceará- Brazil

Dengue is a worldwide public health problem; studies show a correlation between dengue and climatic variables. Thus, this research aimed to investigate the correlation of the number of cases of patients with primary dengue symptoms (NCPPDS) with the compensated average temperature (TCA), average precipitation (PA) and compensated average relative humidity (RHCA) for the state of Ceará (2013-2018), in addition to identifying the municipalities most affected by the disease. For this analysis, institutional databases were collected and the data were compiled and processed through Statistical Package for the Social Science software. The association between climatic variables and NCPPDS was made using Pearson's correlation. It was noted that the city of Fortaleza was the municipality most affected by the disease, followed by its metropolitan region. Pearson's correlation was significant and inversely proportional between the NCPPDS and TCA in the years studied. In the NCPPDS analysis and PA, a directly proportional significant correlation was observed in the years 2013, 2017 and 2018. Regarding RHCA during the years 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018, a directly proportional significant correlation to dengue cases was also observed. These results showed that precipitation and humidity directly influenced the number of dengue cases in the state of Ceará, and in accordance with studies in other Brazilian regions, these findings represent a general picture for dengue spreading.

Studies of meteorological elements and climate change in the Uruçuí river basin/Brazil

The objective is to show the variability of meteorological elements in the hydrographic basin area of the hydrographic basin of the Uruçuí Preto River–PI/Brazil, aiming to contribute to sustainable development in the productive areas of agriculture, laser, and hydrology. The meteorological elements studied are air temperature and relative humidity and their fluctuations, thermal amplitude, wind (intensity and direction), total insolation, cloud cover, evaporation, evapotranspiration, and rainfall. The data were from the 1960-1990 series, acquired by the Superintendency of the Development of the Northeast and by the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of Piauí. The maximum annual temperature is 32.1°C, its minimum 20.0°C, with an average annual temperature of 26.1°C. A climatic classification was used according to the KÖPPEN systems, where two climatic types are distinguished in the Uruçuí Preto/PI river basin, the Aw, tropical hot and humid, with rain in summer and dry in winter; Bsh, warm semi-arid, with summer rains and dry winter. The variation of the thermal amplitude is from 11.9 to 14.9ºC. The average relative humidity of the air was 47 to 79%; the average annual precipitation was 937.7 mm; it was observed that the annual march of relative humidity follows the annual distribution of precipitation because the precipitation was the feeding process from natural sources of water vapor and moisture. Total Sunstroke in the BHRUP area ranges from 2520 to 2750 hours. It is concluded that the maximum annual temperatures increased during the period, which can cause several socioeconomic problems, and human health.

Interrelationship between daily COVID-19 cases and average temperature as well as relative humidity in Germany

COVID-19 pandemic continues to obstruct social lives and the world economy other than questioning the healthcare capacity of many countries. Weather components recently came to notice as the northern hemisphere was hit by escalated incidence in winter. This study investigated the association between COVID-19 cases and two components, average temperature and relative humidity, in the 16 states of Germany. Three main approaches were carried out in this study, namely temporal correlation, spatial auto-correlation, and clustering-integrated panel regression. It is claimed that the daily COVID-19 cases correlate negatively with the average temperature and positively with the average relative humidity. To extract the spatial auto-correlation, both global Moran’s $${\mathscr {I}}$$ I and global Geary’s $${\mathscr {C}}$$ C were used whereby no significant difference in the results was observed. It is evident that randomness overwhelms the spatial pattern in all the states for most of the observations, except in recent observations where either local clusters or dispersion occurred. This is further supported by Moran’s scatter plot, where states’ dynamics to and fro cold and hot spots are identified, rendering a traveling-related early warning system. A random-effects model was used in the sense of case-weather regression including incidence clustering. Our task is to perceive which ranges of the incidence that are well predicted by the existing weather components rather than seeing which ranges of the weather components predicting the incidence. The proposed clustering-integrated model associated with optimal barriers articulates the data well whereby weather components outperform lag incidence cases in the prediction. Practical implications based on marginal effects follow posterior to model diagnostics.

Multi-criteria assessment of new residential building envelope typologies, that meet 2012 Ontario Building code requirements

In keeping with Canada’s climate change mitigation goals, the 2012 Ontario Building Code will demand higher levels of insulation than in current practice. Rapid changes to higher RSI levels will force light frame home builders to employ building envelope designs that are hitherto untried, and therefore present risks in terms of durability and efficiency. To address the disparate issues in choosing design options with respect to OBC 2012 requirements and beyond, seventeen wall assembly configurations were analyzed in terms of heat transfer, moisture safety, environmental impact and costs, for new residential housing in Ontario. ASHRAE Standard 160P was used to determine the moisture safety of the wall assemblies. Furthermore, a new technique for analyzing hygrothermal performance was developed where the maximum number of consecutive daily average relative humidity levels that exceeded 80% were quantified and analyzed. An overall normalized score was awarded to each wall to assist stakeholder decision-making processes.

Multi-criteria assessment of new residential building envelope typologies, that meet 2012 Ontario Building code requirements

In keeping with Canada’s climate change mitigation goals, the 2012 Ontario Building Code will demand higher levels of insulation than in current practice. Rapid changes to higher RSI levels will force light frame home builders to employ building envelope designs that are hitherto untried, and therefore present risks in terms of durability and efficiency. To address the disparate issues in choosing design options with respect to OBC 2012 requirements and beyond, seventeen wall assembly configurations were analyzed in terms of heat transfer, moisture safety, environmental impact and costs, for new residential housing in Ontario. ASHRAE Standard 160P was used to determine the moisture safety of the wall assemblies. Furthermore, a new technique for analyzing hygrothermal performance was developed where the maximum number of consecutive daily average relative humidity levels that exceeded 80% were quantified and analyzed. An overall normalized score was awarded to each wall to assist stakeholder decision-making processes.

Analysis of the variation in potential evapotranspiration and surface wet conditions in the Hancang River Basin, China

Evapotranspiration is an important component of the water cycle, and possible trends in evapotranspiration can, among others, influence water management and agricultural production. Potential evapotranspiration (ETp) is a measure of the ability of the atmosphere to remove water from the surface through the processes of evaporation and transpiration. It plays an important role in assessing regional dry–wet conditions and variations in meteorological conditions. This study analyzed the change trends of monthly ETp and surface dryness and wetness in the Hancang River Basin and, through principal component analysis and correlation analysis, explored the main meteorological factors that affected ETp and the interactions between meteorological factors; ETp values were estimated using the FAO-56 Penman–Monteith method. The results showed that there was a large gap in ETp between different months in the Hancang River Basin, with a trend of first increasing and then decreasing within a year. The highest monthly evapotranspiration was 114.119 mm (July), and the lowest was 42.761 mm (January). The maximum relative humidity index was 0.822 (August), and the minimum was -0.979 (January). The average temperature, precipitation, average relative humidity, and solar radiation are positive factors that affect ETp, while average air pressure is a negative factor that affects ETp. This study provides a reference for the wet conditions of small watersheds and for countermeasures to address climate change.