Harsh Weather Conditions Research Articles

Evaluation of genetic resource of Chinese potato (Plectranthus rotundifolius) for abiotic stress management — a review

Tropical tuber crops are mainly grown in limited scales even in the areas where they are consumed as staple foods. Due to change in the feeding habits tuber crops are gradually disappearing from the human diet. There is a necessary to promote the tuber crops cultivation by realizing their nutritional value and adaptability to harsh weather conditions. Chinese potato is one of the important minor tuber crops of nutritional and commercial value in tropical regions of the world. Chinese potato (Plectranthus rotundifolius) belongs to the family Lamiaceae (Labiatae) of order Lamiales with a chromosome number of 2n= 64. It has several medicinal properties due to the presence of flavanoids that help to lower the cholesterol level of blood. It is facing several production problems like photosensitivity, low yield and poor tuberization. Moreover, very less genetic variation is available in the country. As germplasm serves as an invaluable source of variation, there is a necessity to collect, conserve and make utilisation of it.

Spectral filtering copper-coated hibiscus-butanol extract for photovoltaic cells

Abstract The efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) panel was queried in this research. Past research on spectra response has shown that the maximum solar response, i.e. using color filters is 24%. This result is not very good for a PV system exposed to the harsh weather condition in any part of the African continent. In this research, the bio-filter was used to perform spectral filtering of harmful solar radiation hitting the surface of the solar PV panel. The bio-filter was synthesized from the extract of the hibiscus flower. Hibiscus is a common plant found in almost all parts of Africa. The results show that the bio-filter has a relative efficiency of 94%. This makes the product a novel to be adopted in Africa and other tropical belts to elongate the life span and performance of the solar photovoltaic panel.

Simulation of Th Effct of Libyan Sand on Th Reflctance Surface of CSP

The reflctor characteristics are negatively affcted by the harsh desert weather conditions and hence the performance of the system decreases. Ths paper investigates the effct of two diffrent types of moving sands “A” and “B” from Libya on the performance and safety of the solar reflctors. Samples are collected from areas that are suitable for installing CSP plants. Thy are in diffrent particle sizes and chemical compositions: sand “A” with size ranges between 0.025-0.355 mm, and “B” is within 0.124-0.479 mm. Thexperiment outcome using sand blasting indicated that sand “A” has more inflence than sand “B” as the small particles of “A” spread over a large area of the reflctor. It is also noticed in the range studied that the speed variation effct has more impact than the mass quantity changing. For clean surfaces, the reflctivity is dropped by 2.2%, and the damaged surfaces increased about 1 mm in case of 0.5 g mass at 27 m/s storm speed. For 2g mass at 21 m/s storm speed, the roughness is found 3 mm.

Spectral Filtering Copper Coated Hibiscus-Methanol Extract for Photovoltaic Module Applications

This research focuses on ways to protect the photovoltaic solar panel from harmful radiation during harsh weather conditions. The bio-filter made up of copper coated hibiscus extract from methanol was proposed. It was discovered that the bio-filter was able stabilize the fluctuations and in some cases improved on the output of the PV panel. It was recommended that the onward study on this kind of bio-filter would enhance higher patronage of PV products in the African market.

Structural and Hydrodynamic Aspects of Steel Lazy Wave Riser in Deepwater

Abstract Exploration of oil and gas in deep and ultra-deepwater under harsh weather condition is challenging. A steel lazy wave riser (SLWR) is considered to be a cost-effective alternative to get the gas or oil flow up to the platform under these conditions. The staggered buoyant section provides buoyancy force which forms an arch shape of the SLWR. This arch shape makes the SLWR configuration flexible and isolates the dynamic responses of the upper part and lower part of the riser. However, there is a lack of full understanding of the behavior of SLWRs. This is, due to a complicated loading from waves, vessel motions and flow induced vibrations caused by ocean currents, complex structural configurations, and non-linearities. Time-domain simulation is necessary to accurately predict the dynamic responses and capture the non-linearities. Realistic fatigue damage calculation is essential in the design phase of SLWR. The design of SLWR could be optimized with a better understanding of the dynamic responses of SLWR.

Determining Effects of Winter Weather Conditions on Adult Amblyomma americanum (Acari: Ixodidae) Survival in Connecticut and Maine, USA.

The lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum L.) is native to the United States, with its primary range encompassing the Southeast and portions of the Midwest. It is an aggressive ectoparasite that actively seeks out hosts through detection of carbon dioxide and vibrations and can transfer ehrlichiosis-causing bacteria as well as a carbohydrate that causes alpha-gal syndrome (red meat allergy) in humans. It has become of increasing concern as its range has recently expanded into coastal regions of the Northeast. Historically, harsh northeastern winter weather conditions made these areas inhospitable for A. americanum survival, but a warming climate coupled with increased host availability seem to have facilitated their range expansion. We developed a study to observe the effects of weather conditions on adult A. americanum overwintering survival. The study was conducted over three years in Connecticut and Maine. Ground-level conditions were manipulated to determine the effects of differing combinations of natural insulative barriers (leaf litter and snow accumulation) on adult A. americanum survival. We determined that there was a significant difference in survival between the two states, between years in Maine, and between sexes within Connecticut. However, presence or absence of snow and/or leaf litter had no impact on survival. Overall, we found a positive correlation between mean hourly temperature and adult survival in Maine, where temperatures were consistently below freezing. The results of this study can be included in an adaptive, predictive analytic model to accommodate the expected fluctuations and range expansion of A. americanum that will most likely accompany an increase in temperatures throughout the Northeast.

Are moths the missing pollinators in Subantarctic New Zealand?

On offshore islands, flowers are typically small, simple in colour and shape and more reliant on wind- or self-pollination than insect-mediated pollination. Islands also tend to have a species-poor pollinating fauna. The New Zealand Subantarctic islands (latitude between about 46° and 60°) have a depauperate pollinator fauna. However, many flowers in this region are large, brightly coloured and apparently completely reliant on insect visitors for pollination. In the absence of bees and butterflies, moths and flies may be particularly important pollinators in the region. Using six Heath moth traps simultaneously over four nights in three different habitat types, 241 moths were caught, representing six species. We found that moths carried pollen identified to four plant species (Bulbinella rossii, Dracophyllum longifolium, Gentianella concinna and Acaena minor), with B. rossii and D. longifolium pollen being most abundant on moth bodies. Weather conditions explained moth abundance and distribution, but neither weather nor the number of moths caught were reliable predictors of their potential as pollinators; moths carried on average more pollen grains from more plant species in the shrubland despite harsh weather conditions and few individuals caught. Local flowering abundances may help explain this trend, with the predominance of D. longifolium flowering in the shrubland and B. rossii in the exposed megaherb field. This study is the first to provide evidence that moths may be capable of acting as pollinators in Subantarctic New Zealand, and that their contribution should not continue to be overlooked.

Surface coated rigid polyurethane foam with durable flame retardancy and improved mechanical property

High loading of flame retardants are usually required to prepare fire safety rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF), which often leads to deterioration of its mechanical properties. In this work, a silicone resin (poly-DDPM) was synthesized and coated on the surface of RPUF in association with expandable graphite (EG) via brush painting in order to improve its flame retardancy with minimal damage to the inherent mechanical property. The flammability characterization by limiting oxygen index (LOI), UL 94 and cone calorimeter tests revealed that the fire resistance of the foam samples was significantly improved by the presence of poly-DDPM/EG coating with an average add on of 8.5 mg/cm2. The LOI value was increased to 32.3 from 18, the UL 94 grade was upgraded to V-0, the peak heat release rate and the peak smoke release rate was reduced 55% and 59% respectively compared with that of the control RPUF sample. Additionally, the coated sample could not be ignited when it was exposed to a butane burner for 10 min. The compressive strength of the coated RPUF was impressively increased 10%. Furthermore, the fire resistance of the coating was durable under artificial harsh weather conditions. The poly-DDPM/EG coating adhered on the RPUF surface tightly, and transformed into expanded graphite flakes loaded nano-silica to achieve a protective char layer upon combustion. The demonstrated coated RPUF has great potential for commercial products.

Inherent Safety in Offshore Drilling Operations

Inherent safety (IS) is a proactive approach for safety management during process plant design and operation. It has been proven that, considering the lifetime costs of a process and its operation, an inherently safer approach is an environmentally friendly and cost-optimal option. IS can be incorporated at any stage of design and operation. However, application of IS is highly effective at the early design stage. In this work, incorporation of IS in designing offshore oil and gas (O&G) drilling operations is successfully done to achieve risk reduction. Some of offshore hazards/concerns including highly flammable substances, possible harsh weather conditions, toxic gas i.e. hydrogen sulphide and congested platforms and rigs layout are challenging to overcome especially during emergency responses. Based on this knowledge, we intend to exploit the versatility of the principles of IS for the purpose of achieving risk reduction in relation to offshore O&G drilling operations. As for hazard identification, HAZID is chosen while relevant IS principles – “substitution”, “moderation” and “simplification” are recommended for risk reduction efforts.

Knowledge gap with the existing building energy assessment systems

Energy supply, the increasing demands for energy, climate change, and the imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must be considered in designing buildings. In order to design energy-efficient buildings, there should be accurate information about the thermal performance of the building. The thermal simulation readings should be precise. Its precision will also have a definite indication of the operational energy costs enabling the likelihood of conserving more energy used in building operations and reducing the greenhouse effect that is a result of emissions of greenhouse gases. Energy-efficient buildings are vital as they reduce the consumption of energy in and allow sustainable development. Erecting such buildings will require correct and realistic prediction of the buildings performance when subjected to a wide variety of harsh weather conditions in order to have a view of the impact of all the physical elements that influence the thermal performance. The behavior of the occupants also influences the thermal performance of a building. To achieve this, energy assessment instruments are used to accurately forecast the buildings thermal performance. This paper critically reviews energy rating methods for housing and the limitations of assessment systems.

Influence of microhabitat and landscape-scale factors on the richness and occupancy of small mammals in the northern Western Ghats: A multi-species occupancy modeling approach

Human-dominated ecosystems are characterized by three main processes, viz., habitat degradation, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, these posing a great threat to biodiversity. However, the relationships between these processes are not clearly understood. Moreover, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation occur at landscape-scale and their effects depend on the spatial scale. We trapped small mammals in a human-dominated area in the northern Western Ghats, India, at 23 sites in three habitats, capturing 479 individuals of 17 species. We adopted the multi-species occupancy model (MSOM) approach within a Bayesian framework to assess species site occupancy using microhabitat-scale and landscape-scale variables measured at five spatial scales. We found that species richness had a hump-shaped relationship with landscape complexity, and it can be best explained at a spatial scale of 300 m. The findings suggest that both microhabitat-scale and landscape-scale variables influence small mammal occupancy. Overall, shrub density had a positive effect on species occurrence with high certainty, which could be related to the protection provided by shrubs from predators and harsh weather conditions. Shrub density was largely influenced small mammal richness and occupancy and thus should be managed appropriately for their conservation. Considering the negative impact of landscape complexity on endemic rodents, especially on the Critically Endangered Millardia kondana, further fragmentation of grasslands and forest habitats and their conversion into unsuitable habitats in the area should be minimized. All high-elevation grasslands important for M. kondana should be strictly protected and managed. We recommend adoption of the MSOM approach in similar studies, as it allows estimation of occupancy even for species with low detectability.

Properties and effects of dormant aggregates on concrete strength

Aggregates used for concrete are sometimes abandoned on sites for extended periods of time. These aggregates are left dormant and exposed to harsh weather conditions before utilization. This study investigates the effect of aggregate dormancy of both fine aggregate (river sand) and coarse aggregate (gravel) on quality of concrete produced and its strength. Data for the study was collected over a 3 years dormant period of the aggregates, to determine the efficiency of the aggregates and its quality on concrete production and its strength. Experimental procedures such as; silt content, water absorption, specific gravity, sieve analysis, and the compressive strength test were conducted on the dormant aggregates to analyse its quality and strength of concrete produced through it. The analysis of the performed experiment on the dormant aggregates was presented through tables and figures. The finding of the study shows that that the strength of the concrete increases yearly due to reduction of silt content, high specific gravity, and an increase in the water absorption of the dormant aggregates. Base on the finding of this study, it is concluded that the dormancy of aggregates (river sand and gravel) have no effect on the concrete quality and its strength.

Comparative Study of Building Envelope Cooling Loads in Al-Amarah City, Iraq

In recent years, the summer season in Iraq has become longer and hotter than before, leading to high cooling loads inside buildings and increased demand for electrical energy. The use of sustainable energy and insulation techniques for building envelopes are reasonable solutions for overcoming harsh weather conditions and reaching acceptable thermal comfort levels. In this study, a survey on more than 60 residential buildings in Al-Amarah City, Iraq, was conducted on 21 July 2018 to examine the nature of the most common construction materials used in the building envelopes. Furthermore, the cooling loads of building envelope elements, e.g. roof, external walls and windows, was calculated using the cooling load temperature difference/solar cooling load/cooling load factor method of ASHRAE. The results were tabulated and compared for each combination of elements. The results showed that reflective glass is the optimal choice for exterior windows. The 'clay"“insulation"“fired clay bricks"“cement mortar' and 'cement mortar"“thermo-stone bricks"“cement mortar"“gypsum mortar' combination layers performed well for roof and external wall installations, respectively. Several recommendations were deduced from this study, which can be used as guidelines for construction authorities in Al-Amarah City and individuals interested in energy-efficient buildings.

IN-YOLO: Real-Time Detection of Outdoor High Voltage Insulators Using UAV Imaging

The high voltage insulator requires continuous monitoring and inspection to prevent failures and emergencies. Manual inspections are costly as it requires covering a large geographical area where insulators are often subjected to harsh weather conditions. Automatic detection of insulators from aerial images is the first step towards performing real-time classification of insulator conditions using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). In this paper, we provide a cost-effective solution for detecting insulators under the conditions of an uncluttered background, varied object resolution and illumination conditions using You Only Look Once (YOLO) deep learning neural network model from aerial images. We apply data augmentation to avoid overfitting with a training set size of 56000 image samples. It is demonstrated experimentally that this method can accurately locate insulator on UAV based real-time image data. The detected insulator images are then successfully subjected to insulator surface condition assessment for the presence of ice, snow and water using different classifiers.

Superpixel-Driven Optimized Wishart Network for Fast PolSAR Image Classification Using Global ${k}$ -Means Algorithm

Limitation of optical remote sensing technology gave rise to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging. SAR is a microwave imaging technique, which promises to have a long-range propagation characteristic allowing imaging under harsh weather conditions or in hostile lighting situation. This has opened up a domain of classification using polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) images. In this article, we propose a fast PolSAR image classification algorithm, which uses not only pixel-based feature but also spatial features around each pixel. This is achieved by introducing superpixel-driven optimized Wishart network. The first improvement suggested in this article is to take advantage of a fast global $k$ -means algorithm for obtaining optimal cluster centers within each class. It uses real-valued vector representation of PolSAR coherency matrix along with fast matrix inverse and determinant algorithms to reduce computational overhead. Our method then exploits the information of neighboring pixels by forming a superpixel so that even a noisy pixel may not be assigned a wrong class label. The proposed network uses dual-branch architecture to efficiently combine pixel and superpixel features. We concluded that our proposed method has better efficiency in terms of classification accuracy and computational overhead compared with other deep learning-based methods available in the literature.

Undesirable immigrants: hobbyist vivaria as a potential source of alien invertebrate species.

BackgroundSmall size and large diversity of adaptations make invertebrates a group of animals which can be easily transported by different human activities. Many species can travel as “hitchhikers” with plant material (both on plant surfaces and in the soil), including plants used for decoration in vivaria. Vivaria are often tropical in nature environments, with high temperatures and humidity, suitable for invertebrates from tropical regions. Although many of such invertebrates cannot survive in temperate regions where harsh weather conditions are present, it is also known that some can successfully acclimatise. As a result, their negative impact on local flora and fauna cannot be excluded.Material and methodsTerrestrial invertebrates were collected in several cities of Poland from tropical vivaria where poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) and/or orchids (Orchidaceae) were kept by hobbyists. Collecting of the material was preceded by a simple questionnaire placed on the biggest Polish forum devoted to poison dart frogs. Moreover, we contacted some Polish wholesalers offering tropical invertebrates (Isopoda and Collembola), used as the food source for frogs, hoping to receive information about locations where those invertebrates were delivered, over the period of one year. We obtained mtDNA barcodes using the COI marker (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene) for seven potential morphospecies.ResultsIn total, 12 taxa classified as Turbellaria, Annelida, Gastropoda, Isopoda, Diplopoda, Chilopoda and Collembola were collected and preserved in pure ethanol. We collected material and/or information from 65 locations, including 56 cities to which exotic isopods and springtails were sold by wholesalers over the period of nine months (average number per month = 18 cities). We obtained 18 COI sequences which were assigned to seven BINs and thus confirmed identification of seven species. The results indicate that the number of species transported with exotic plants is not small and can be observed regularly. Species noted as “hitchhikers” on plant structures and/or as inhabitants of soil in plant pots, originally came from South and Central America, Africa, Asia and possibly from North America or Southern Europe. Three taxa were noted for the first time from Poland, including Rhynchodemus sylvaticus (Rhynchodemidae), Trichorhina sp.1 (Platharthridae), and Guppya gundlachi (Euconulidae).DiscussionThe presented study clearly shows that an exotic hobby such as keeping tropical poison dart frogs and/or orchids may promote fast and uncontrolled dispersion of a high number of invertebrates classified in different taxonomical groups. Plant material (green elements of plants and the soil in which they are planted) used in vivaria can be an important source of such animals.

Policing and community safety in northern Canadian communities: challenges and opportunities for crime prevention

Although there is an emerging body of research literature on rural policing, less is known about policing in small communities in Canada’s territories populated largely by Indigenous peoples. These communities are often situated in geographically isolated areas, are subjected to harsh weather conditions, and may experience high rates of crime and disorder. Drawing on interviews conducted with RCMP officers in the two Canadian territories of Yukon and Nunavut, this paper examines the dynamics of policing in northern communities and how these might affect efforts to create sustainable, effective crime prevention initiatives. The findings reveal that geographic isolation, social problems, and history of distrust of the police, combined with the structure through which police services are delivered, present significant challenges to the development and sustainability of crime prevention initiatives. The unique environments of northern communities, however, also provide opportunities for the creation of police–community partnerships built on mutual trust that can provide the basis for effective crime prevention programs.

Automotive radar and camera fusion using Generative Adversarial Networks

Radar sensors are considered to be very robust under harsh weather and poor lighting conditions. Largely owing to this reputation, they have found broad application in driver assistance and highly automated driving systems. However, radar sensors have considerably lower precision than cameras. Low sensor precision causes ambiguity in the human interpretation of the measurement data and makes the data labeling process difficult and expensive. On the other hand, without a large amount of high-quality labeled training data, it is difficult, if not impossible, to ensure that the supervised machine learning models can predict, classify, or otherwise analyze the phenomenon of interest with the required accuracy. This paper presents a method for fusing the radar sensor measurements with the camera images. A proposed fully-unsupervised machine learning algorithm converts the radar sensor data to artificial, camera-like, environmental images. Through such data fusion, the algorithm produces more consistent, accurate, and useful information than that provided solely by the radar or the camera. The essential point of the work is the proposal of a novel Conditional Multi-Generator Generative Adversarial Network (CMGGAN) that, being conditioned on the radar sensor measurements, can produce visually appealing images that qualitatively and quantitatively contain all environment features detected by the radar sensor.

A cross-sectional survey of Indians in Kuwait with risk factors for coronary artery disease

Background: The Indian sub-population is the biggest among the foreigners in Kuwait. Due to the harsh weather conditions most of the time in the year there is less inclination towards a healthy lifestyle. The present study was conducted to determine the extent of the Indian population living in Kuwait having the risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD).Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted including 400 subjects aged 18 years or more (346 males and 54 females). They were subjected to general physical examination, and were asked to respond to a standard questionnaire.Results: Significantly more females than males were found to be overweight (63% vs. 43.9%, p<0.01) or obese (16.7% vs. 4.3%, p<0.005). Females also had higher proportions than males in having inadequate physical activity (79.6% vs. 53.2%, p<0.001). Significantly more males were having an inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables as compared to females (34.7% vs. 18.5%, p<0.005). There was no significant difference between the genders in proportions of hypertension, smoking, and diabetes. Overweight, hypertension, and inadequate physical activity showed a rising trend with increasing age. The studied population was compared with several geographically different populations, as well as the different populations living in India.Conclusions: As the stay and the jobs of Indians in Kuwait depend upon their health-status, prevention of CAD is of paramount importance. Looking at the levels of the prevalence of several risk factors, multilevel interventions are needed for reducing the CAD-morbidity and mortality.

The development and application of an autonomous working turbidity measurement network: Assessing the spatial and temporal distribution of suspended particulate matter on tidal flats in the North Frisian Wadden Sea

Measuring suspension load (i.e. turbidity) in tide-dominated shallow marine systems like the North-Frisian Wadden Sea forms a major challenge with respect to understanding and modelling sediment origin, transport and dispersal. Sediment transport and deposition in highly dynamic and vulnerable coastal regions becomes especially relevant in terms of the natural adaption capacity of intertidal and supratidal areas to global sea-level rise.We have developed a network of eight autonomously operating turbidity measuring stations in an island-like salt marsh area (Hallig Langeness) in the tidal flats of the North-Frisian Wadden Sea. Using this system we got first insights about the availability of suspended particulate matter (SPM). In order to obtain the best possible estimation of the SPM concentrations in our study area, each measuring station has been individually calibrated considering the local conditions by using sediment collected by self-built sediment accumulators which are installed next to the respective measuring station. With this method we have investigated the availability of SPM and its spatial and temporal distribution during several spring and winter months.The results indicate strong and systematic SPM variability between individual stations ranging on average from 0.04 to 0.56 g/l. Control factors include installation altitude, the proximity to tidal channels, the positive influence on SPM availability by adjacent land reclamation areas or the negative influence on SPM availability due to a shielded position between two spur dykes. Further results show a strong increase of the SPM concentration under harsh weather conditions and inundation events whereby strong winds alone are not sufficient for a significant SPM increase. Instead, the combination of suitable wind direction, its strength and duration play a major role. The increase in SPM concentrations under harsh weather conditions tends to be highest at stations with less protection against the open water. Our new extensive network of turbidity measurements also allows for detecting areas with predominantly low SPM availabilities, the so-called low spots.