Food habits of indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) (Kerr 1792), in district Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir

The Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix indica) is classified as an agricultural pest species. It feeds on plants and crops; hence, it is responsible for massive financial losses worldwide. The current study was conducted to assess the diet composition of Indian Crested Porcupine in District Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K). Thus, fecal samples were collected and examined from different sampling sites. Reference slides of the material collected from the study area were prepared for identification of dietary components in fecal pellets. A total of 80 fecal samples were collected and processed. Percent relative frequencies (P.R.F.) were calculated for each plant species recovered from pellets. Data revealed that Indian Crested Porcupine consumed 31 plant species in its diet, among them Zea mays (34.31±7.76) was the most frequently selected species followed by Rumex obtusifolius (15.32±2.57) and Melia azedarach (12.83±4.79). The study revealed that the greatest diversity of (n=20) plant species were consumed in summer season while minimum (n=13) species were used during winter. Among the parts of plants, stem was highly consumed in spring (57.2%) as compared to seed in fall (36.7%) while spikes and leaf were the least recovered parts from the fecal matter. The Berger-Parker diversity index showed highly diversified food (10.92) in the summer time of the year as compared to the autumn season (2.95). This study provides a baseline for the diet preference of this pest in the study area. Based on current findings, a detailed investigation on damage assessment, exploration, habitat use and management of Indian Crested Porcupine in AJ&K has been recommended.

The impact of efficient insulation on thermal performance of building elements in hot arid region

The application of thermal insulation technique for buildings in hot arid region still under development and requires investigation for many aspects, especially those related to the individual elements of the construction. The present study investigates the impact of efficient insulation on the thermal performance of the following construction elements: wall, roof and foundation. The techniques used for the insulation have followed the Passive House criteria. The study introduces many benefits for passive design of the building in extreme hot climate. The work has done experimentally in Kirkuk, Iraq for two building models; one is efficiently insulated and the other is traditional. The data, which are collected in summer time, show reduction in indoor temperature of the efficient model by 8 °C in average comparing to that of traditional one. Measurements show stability in the internal wall temperatures for efficient model with an average temperature of 33 °C comparing to 42 °C for traditional one. Similarly, the insulated roof radiates less heat into the indoor than that of traditional model. Furthermore, the effect of both efficient insulated roof and canopy shading reduces the temperature of internal surface temperature of the roof by 12 °C comparing to the traditional model. A local simulation program based on ASHRAE relations has shown an energy saving in the cooling load up to 70%.

On the relationship of power lines outages caused by thunderstorms with Forbush decreases of cosmic rays

It is known that power lines outages often occur during thunderstorms. Here are the results of comparing of power lines outages in Yakutia from 2012 to 2018 with the database of Forbush-Storm events. This database contains information on geomagnetic storms and Forbush-decreases of cosmic rays from 1996 to 2018. There are 3 classes of the events: if these two ground-based manifestations of solar wind disturbances occur simultaneously (Forbush with Storm, F+S) or separately (Forbush without Storm, F-S and Storm without Forbush, S-F). For 7 years in the summer time, 73 power lines outages associated with thunderstorms were recorded. It is shown that in 56 cases these outages occurred simultaneously with (F-S) class, 16 – with (F+S) class, and only in 1 case lightning outages were not associated with Forbush-Storm events (-F-S). In 19 cases of (S-F) class, not a single lightning outage was recorded. This means that lightning outages on power lines are mainly associated with decreases in the cosmic rays intensity, and during geomagnetic storms, power transmission disruptions occur when storms are simultaneous with Forbush-decreases of cosmic rays. Apparently, this indicates the significance of the effect of cosmic rays on atmospheric electricity, and it is more significant than the effect of geomagnetic storms.

Reconstruction of All-Weather Daytime and Nighttime MODIS Aqua-Terra Land Surface Temperature Products Using an XGBoost Approach

Generating spatiotemporally continuous land surface temperature (LST) data is in great demand for hydrology, meteorology, ecology, environmental studies, etc. However, the thermal infrared (TIR)-based LST measurements are prone to cloud contamination with missing pixels. To repair the missing pixels, a new XGBoost-based linking approach for reconstructing daytime and nighttime Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST measurements was introduced. The instantaneous solar radiation and two soil-related predictors from China Data Assimilation System (CLDAS) 0.0625°/1-h data were selected as the linking variables to depict the relationship with instantaneous MODIS LST data. Other land surface properties, including two vegetation indices, the water index, the surface albedo, and topographic parameters, were also used as the predictor variables. The XGBoost method was used to fit an LST linking model by the training datasets from clear-sky pixels and was then applied to the MODIS Aqua-Terra LSTs during summer time (June to August) in 2017 and 2018 across China. The recovered LST data was further rectified with the Savitzky–Golay (SG) filtering method. The results showed the distribution of the reconstructed LSTs present a reasonable pattern for different land-cover types and topography. The evaluation results using in situ longwave radiation measurements showed the RMSE varies from 3.91 K to 5.53 K for the cloud-free pixels and from 4.42 K to 4.97 K for the cloud-covered pixels. In addition, the reconstructed LST products correlated well with CLDAS LST data with similar LST spatial patterns. The variable importance analysis revealed that the two soil-related predictors and the elevation variable are key parameters due to their great contribution to the XGBoost model performance.

A Solution to Prevent a Blackout Crisis: Determining the Behavioral Potential and Capacity of Solar Power

Increasing the power grid peak in the summer time causes power outages in industries and residential areas in Iran. The most obvious example of this issue is the power outages in the summer of 2018. Management of the demand-side is the most important strategy to reduce the grid peak due to the high cost of the development of the power plant capacity (500$ per kilowatt). In the present study, the effect of behavioral parameters in decreasing the power grid peak was identified. The behavioral simulation was done as an agent-based model using the raw data of the time-use survey (TUS) of the Statistics Center of Iran. 4228 urban households were surveyed, and the quality of people’s behavior was determined in each time step of 15 minutes during the day and night with 2 deterministic and stochastic approaches. In the stochastic approach, the Markov chain method was used. It showed that the power grid peak can only be reduced by 10% with behavioral flexibility and up to 25% by upgrading technology. In addition, based on the power deficit in 2018, 2000 megawatts of solar power capacity must be added to the network at peak times to meet grid demand.

English in a Time of Total War

This chapter focusses on the language of total war, and its consequences, in Britain. Total war is marked by the explicit renegotiation of the boundaries of conflict, alongside the participants it claims; as contemporary comment stressed, the people were, in effect, now to be the new front line. For Clark, the language of aerial attack, and domestic response, was, by extension, to be another area of marked lexical and semantic shift, whether in the rise of distinctive collocations such as Zeppelin nights and Zeppelin barometers, or in the domestic diction of gas warfare (and gas marks) alongside the emergence of dug-outs on the Home Front. Time itself, via British Summer Time or artificial time, changed too, as – at least intentionally — did the language of key British institutions such as ‘buying a round’.

Administrative and legal enforcement of order calculation of time in Ukraine.

The article deals with a topical problem – a general description of the features of administrative-legal support of the calculation of time in Ukraine. In particular, the author emphasizes that the proper provision of public needs in the field of time calculation in Ukraine is entrusted to the executive authorities - the government and its relevant structures. Public administration relations arising from the above needs, based on the content of the subject of administrative law, belong to the scope of this branch of Ukrainian law. It has been noted that the history of the problem shows that during the stay of Ukrainian lands in other countries, the definition of time for Ukrainians, as well as for other European nations, was not stable and still has not become final. Time zone (UTC + 2) was introduced on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR as a component of the USSR on May 2, 1924, and maternity time was introduced on the territory of the Soviet Union on June 20, 1930, after which the time of the third zone (UTC + 3) on the territory of Soviet Ukraine became also year-round. The attention has been paid that from July 1, 1990 on the territory of the USSR the maternity time was abolished and the UTC + 2 time zone was restored, from September 29, 1991 summer time was also abolished. However, by the Resolution of March 6, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine restored the validity of this time. Thus, after the above-mentioned government decisions, Kyiv time became equal to the corresponding zone UTC+2, and during summer time - UTC+3. Another attempt to change the time took place last year, when at the initiative of R.O. Stefanchuk, the bill № 4201 of 09.10.2020 «On the calculation of time in Ukraine» was submitted to the parliament, which provided for the waiver of the seasonal transition of time from 2021. It has been emphasized that at least six factors, namely political, economic, international, physiological, socio-domestic and geographical, should be the basis of government decisions to change the time in the country (including in Ukraine). Peculiarities that characterize the current process of administrative and legal support for changing the procedure for calculating the time mine in our country are: its significant politicization, low level of preparedness, implementation in conditions of significant time lag, lack of proper communication between government and the people, the need for coordination and synchronization with EU, the implementation in the traditional format of legal (administrative-legal) regulation, in which, as a rule, is sufficiently simplified without due regard for the nature and characteristics of certain social relations is their legal regulation. The attention has been paid to the fact that there is a high probability that the 17 EU countries that currently live in the first time zone (GMT + 1) may permanently stay in summer time – GMT+2. According to the legislative initiative of R.O. Stefanchuk, at the same time GMT+2 as a year-round is proposed to be introduced in Ukraine. That is, 17 EU countries will remain in the summer, and we in the winter. As a result, Kyiv time will be equal to Warsaw, Berlin or Paris, which, given the significant actual difference in real time, can bring significant inconvenience to most Ukrainian citizens, and our country has major, including security problems. The author has stated that the administrative-legal support of the calculation of time in Ukraine is characterized by a number of features, the main of which is its actual absence. Instead of providing groups with relevant social needs, our state continues to use an outdated and ineffective format of legal regulation of social relations. This leads to one-sidedness, simplification and haste in the preparation of relevant regulations. Under the conditions of immediate introduction of a more effective scheme of providing administrative legal needs, the issues of time calculation in Ukraine will most likely be solved systematically, comprehensively with proper scientific substantiation, taking into account all specific social needs and significant features that characterize this important component of public life.

Significance of the organic aerosol driven climate feedback in the boreal area

Aerosol particles cool the climate by scattering solar radiation and by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. Higher temperatures resulting from increased greenhouse gas levels have been suggested to lead to increased biogenic secondary organic aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei concentrations creating a negative climate feedback mechanism. Here, we present direct observations on this feedback mechanism utilizing collocated long term aerosol chemical composition measurements and remote sensing observations on aerosol and cloud properties. Summer time organic aerosol loadings showed a clear increase with temperature, with simultaneous increase in cloud condensation nuclei concentration in a boreal forest environment. Remote sensing observations revealed a change in cloud properties with an increase in cloud reflectivity in concert with increasing organic aerosol loadings in the area. The results provide direct observational evidence on the significance of this negative climate feedback mechanism.

Measurement report: Photochemical production and loss rates of formaldehyde and ozone across Europe

Various atmospheric sources and sinks regulate the abundance of tropospheric formaldehyde (HCHO) which is an important trace gas impacting the HOx (≡ HO2 + OH) budget and the concentration of ozone (O3). In this study, we present the formation and destruction terms of ambient HCHO and O3 calculated from in-situ observations of various atmospheric trace gases measured at three different sites across Europe during summer time. These include a coastal site in Cyprus in the scope of the Cyprus Photochemistry Experiment (CYPHEX) in 2014, a mountain site in Southern Germany as part of the Hohenpeißenberg Photochemistry Experiment (HOPE) in 2012 and a forested site in Finland where measurements were performed during the Hyytiälä United Measurements of Photochemistry and Particles (HUMPPA) campaign in 2010. We show that at all three sites formaldehyde production from the OH oxidation of methane (CH4), acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), isoprene (C5H8) and methanol (CH3OH) can almost completely balance the observed loss via photolysis, OH oxidation and dry deposition. Ozone chemistry is clearly controlled by nitrogen oxides (NOx ≡ NO + NO2) that includes O3 production from NO2 photolysis and O3 loss via the reaction with NO. Finally, we use the HCHO budget calculations to determine whether net ozone production is limited by the availability of VOCs (VOC limited regime) or NOx (NOx limited regime). At the mountain site in Germany O3 production is VOC limited, whereas it is NOx limited at the coastal site in Cyprus. The forested site in Finland is in the transition regime.

A Simple Lagrangian Parcel Model for the Initiation of Summer-time Mesoscale Convective Systems over the Central United States

Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) account for more than 50% of summer-time precipitation over the central United States (US) and have a significant impact on local weather and hydrologic cycle. It is hypothesized that the inadequate treatment of MCSs is responsible for the longstanding warm and dry bias over the central US in coarse-resolution general circulation model (GCM) simulations. In particular, a better understanding of MCS initiation is still lacking. Here a single-column Lagrangian parcel model is first developed to simulate the basic features of a rising parcel. This simple model demonstrates the collective effects of boundary layer moistening and dynamical lifting in triggering convective initiation and reproduces successfully its early afternoon peak with surface equivalent potential temperature as a controlling factor. It also predicts that convection is harder to trigger in the future climate under global warming, consistent with the results from convection-permitting regional climate simulations. Then a multi-column model that includes an array of single-column models aligned in the east-west direction and incorporates idealized cold pool interaction mechanisms is developed. The multi-column model captures readily the cold pool induced upscale growth feature in MCS genesis from initially scattered convection that is organized into a mesoscale cluster in a few hours. It also highlights the crucial role of lifting effects due to cold pool collision and spreading, subsidence effect, and gust front propagation speed in controlling the final size of mesoscale clusters and cold pool regions. This simple model should be useful for understanding fundamental mechanisms of MCS initiation and providing guidance for improving MCS simulations in GCMs.