Unfavorable Weather Conditions Research Articles

Features and Sustainable Design of Firefighting Safety Footwear for Fire Extinguishing and Rescue Operations

Firefighters are regularly exposed to risk of injuries as a result of their intervention activities connected with hazards from fire and explosion, as well as due to carrying heavy personal working equipment and injured victims from accidents. Another hazardous factor is working under unfavorable weather conditions and also moving on slippery or bumpy surfaces. Employers provide personal protective work equipment to employees if a hazard cannot be eliminated or reduced by technical means, such as means of collective protection or methods and forms of work organization. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) should provide effective protection against existing and foreseeable hazards and should not in itself create a greater risk. It should be adapted to the existing and predictable working conditions and working environment at the work site, meet the criteria of ergonomics and the health condition of an employee as well as be suitable and adapted to the wearer’s body so that, if possible, there is no risk of harm to the employee’s health. The aim of this Special Issue is to explore the limits of sustainable implementation of additive technologies within current manufacturing practices and current requirements for personal protective equipment for firefighters. More precisely, the goal of this special article is to show new ideas in firefighting footwear such as a quick donning and doffing system as well as various other improvements and sustainable design of firefighting footwear. The aim is to present new ideas and concepts, the latest advances, and technical tools supporting the sustainable use of protective firefighting footwear. Special attention will be paid to standards that ensure the highest standard and quality.

Spatial Ecology of an Arboreal Iguana (Oplurus cyclurus) in a Treeless Landscape.

Understanding the spatial ecology of species has important implications for conservation, as it helps identify suitable habitats and minimum requirements for biodiversity monitoring and management. The spiny-tailed lizard Oplurus cyclurus is a widespread endemic iguanid occurring in dry areas of southern and western Madagascar. While the species is known to be mostly arboreal, populations of the Isalo sandstone massif suggest local adaptation to a less forested savannah and a more exposed habitat. We radio-tracked 19 spiny-tailed lizards to investigate the species' rock-dwelling behaviour and spatial ecology at Isalo National Park. Tracked individuals showed high site and burrow fidelity, and a basking behaviour mostly tied to the accessibility of their burrow, the time of day, and their life stage. Activity peaked during the sunniest hours, while juveniles were more active than adults with unfavourable weather conditions. Despite high burrow fidelity, lizards used shelters non-exclusively, regularly changing (approx. once a week) with neighbouring burrows (average distance between burrows = 13.6 m). However, there was no obvious relation between lizards' body and/or tail size and the width and depth of selected burrows. Dynamic Brownian Bridge Movement Models estimated frequented areas over 247.8 m2 (95% isopleth), where territorial overlap is common. Our results challenge the notion that burrow-site fidelity is the sole driving factor behind space utilization in the studied population. We argue that the apparently unusual saxicolous habits imposed by habitat features (the absence of trees) may lead to local behavioural adjustments influencing antipredatory and foraging strategies, as well as intraspecific interactions.

The CCS greensand project: CO2 pilot injection and monitoring

The CCS greensand project: CO2 pilot injection and monitoring

GEOTEHNIČKI ASPEKTI PETRINJSKOG POTRESA I NEKE SANACIJE

Magnitude MW6.4 Petrinja earthquake on 29 December 2020, caused liquefaction in the fields, under some houses, under some bridges, damages to some roads and bridges, several levees, some landslides and rockfalls, and wide opening of sinkholes. Several levees along the Kupa and Sava rivers were damaged – mostly longitudinal cracks were noticed near or on the body of those levees, often followed by sandy soil ejected to the surface – on these locations some layers of soil containing sand were discovered on the depth of 5 to 8 m, which obviously liquefied during the earthquake – causing strong movements of the levee body, cracking and lateral spreading. Designs of the solutions are shown with changes made due to the very unfavourable weather conditions in long and heavy periods of rain. Design of a soil improvement is shown for a bridge which suffered settlelments due to liquefaction of the foundation soil. An example of successful foundation is shown – of a reservoir on a soil improved by gravel columns – which helped the pore pressure dissipation after the earthquake. The paper gives some information on other investigation and other remediation works.

Weather explains the decline and rise of insect biomass over 34 years.

Insects have a pivotal role in ecosystem function, thus the decline ofmore than 75% in insect biomass in protected areas over recent decades in Central Europe1 and elsewhere2,3 has alarmed the public, pushed decision-makers4 and stimulated research on insect population trends. However, the drivers of this decline are still not well understood. Here, we reanalysed 27 years of insect biomass data from Hallmann et al.1, using sample-specific information on weather conditions during sampling and weather anomalies during the insect life cycle. This model explained variation in temporal decline in insect biomass, including an observed increase in biomass in recent years, solely on the basis of these weather variables. Our finding that terrestrial insect biomass is largely driven by complex weather conditions challenges previous assumptions that climate change is more critical in the tropics5,6 or that negative consequences in the temperate zone might only occur in the future7. Despite the recent observed increase in biomass, new combinations of unfavourable multi-annual weather conditions might be expected to further threaten insect populations under continuing climate change. Our findings also highlight the need for more climate change research on physiological mechanisms affected by annual weather conditions and anomalies.

Measurement device-independent quantum key distribution with vector vortex modes under diverse weather conditions

Most quantum key distribution schemes exploiting orbital angular momentum-carrying optical beams are based on conventional set-ups, opening up the possibility of detector side-channel attacks. These optical beams also suffer from spatial aberrations due to atmospheric turbulence and unfavorable weather conditions. Consequently, we introduce a measurement device-independent quantum key distribution implemented with vector vortex modes. We study the transmission of vector vortex and scalar beams through a turbulent atmospheric link under diverse weather conditions such as rain or haze. We demonstrate that a maximum secure key transmission distance of 178 km can be achieved under clear conditions by utilizing the vector vortex beams, which have been mainly ignored in the literature. When raindrops have a diameter of 6 mm and fog particles have a radius of 0.5 upmum, the signals can reach 152 km and 160 km, respectively. Since these distances are comparable, this work sheds light into the feasibility of implementing measurement device-independent quantum key distribution using vector vortex modes under diverse weather conditions. Most significantly, this opens the door to practical secure quantum communications.

Spring temperature drives phenotypic selection on plasticity of flowering time.

In seasonal environments, a high responsiveness of development to increasing temperatures in spring can infer benefits in terms of a longer growing season, but also costs in terms of an increased risk of facing unfavourable weather conditions. Still, we know little about how climatic conditions influence the optimal plastic response. Using 22 years of field observations for the perennial forest herb Lathyrus vernus, we assessed phenotypic selection on among-individual variation in reaction norms of flowering time to spring temperature, and examined if among-year variation in selection on plasticity was associated with spring temperature conditions. We found significant among-individual variation in mean flowering time and flowering time plasticity, and that plants that flowered earlier also had a more plastic flowering time. Selection favoured individuals with an earlier mean flowering time and a lower thermal plasticity of flowering time. Less plastic individuals were more strongly favoured in colder springs, indicating that spring temperature influenced optimal flowering time plasticity. Our results show how selection on plasticity can be linked to climatic conditions, and illustrate how we can understand and predict evolutionary responses of organisms to changing environmental conditions.

THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATIC CONDITIONS ON PROFITABILITY OF APPLE PRODUCTION UNDER REPLANTATION CONDITIONS AND CROP ROTATION

The production of apples is conditioned by many environmental and economic factors, including the cultivated variety, the condition of the plants, the stress factors, demand, supply, costs incurred, prices of fruit and means of production. The aim of the study was to analyse the influence of climatic conditions on the profitability of production of apple trees of the Najdared cultivar. Between 2015 and 2017 an experiment was conducted on apple trees growing on replantation soil and on crop rotation soil in Wielkopolska Region. The analysis of climatic conditions indicated significant differences in air temperatures and precipitation in particular years. When analysing the profitability of the production of apples, it was found that significantly more favourable financial results are obtained on the soil after crop rotation compared to the production on replanted soil. Moreover, the decrease in the profitability of apple production of the trees grown on the replantation soil, especially during unfavourable weather conditions, was greater than the trees grown at the crop rotation soil. On the basis of the research, it was found that in the future, sustainable cultivation of apple trees should be carried out on sites after crop rotation.

GREENHOUSE COST INDEX METHODOLOGY BASED ON THE DIVERSE REGIONS OF IRAQ

Greenhouses have become widespread structures that create an ideal microclimate for growing crops worldwide. A greenhouse is a structure that allows people to regulate climatic conditions, such as, temperature and humidity. There are many different designs of greenhouses, but generally, these buildings include large areas of transparent material to capture the light and heat of the sun. They also offer protection from unfavorable weather conditions and pests, providing a popular solution for crop production worldwide, including Iraq, which uses alternative energy sources for climate control. Using machine learning models has helped design different greenhouse types; however, their ability to predict costs and designs based on features is yet to exist. Therefore, to address these issues, this study aimed to develop cost-effective and user-friendly greenhouse systems through two different approaches: Firstly, the use of random forests (RFs) model with the highest precision (0.99) formulated the cost of the greenhouse for new input data to calculate a greenhouse cost estimate based on the system's performance as a benchmark while selecting the greenhouse's features through training and testing, and secondly, the use of the farmer's desired price as a basis for developing a greenhouse design. This scientific approach will enable the farming community to manage the costs of various aspects, such as, building materials, energy sources, climate control devices, water and fertilizer delivery, growing substrates, internal logistics, and labor. The presented research will provide farmers with a practical basis that also considers the constraints, i.e., the economy, climate, law, market, and resource availability. It will empower the farmers to make the right decisions regarding greenhouse systems with their specific requirements and circumstances.

Baseline Assessment of Marine Resources Caught by Fishermen in Selected Coastal Barangays of Cawayan, Masbate, Philippines

Marine resources have been essential for human consumption and livelihood activities, particularly for small-scale fishermen in the fishing industry. This study employed a descriptive research design, utilizing interviews and structured survey questionnaires for data collection. The findings revealed the presence of 28 fish species caught by the fishermen in Cawayan, including Asian seabass, bisugo, dolphin fish, giant trevally, gold band goatfish, grouper, lattice monocle bream, mackerel tuna, mullet, needlefish, narrow barred, octopus, oxeye scad, pink shrimp, pin spotted spinefoot, pony fish, sardines, sailfish, shark, short mackerel, slip mouth fish, squid, stingray, threadfin emperor, whiting, and yellow stripe scad. The study also identified five shellfish species, namely baler shell, fierce shell, mother-of-pearl shell, scallop, and ark shell. Seaweed species, including sea moss and sea grapes, as well as the presence of blue crab, contributed to the diverse marine ecosystem. Age emerged as a significant factor in fishing, as older fishermen exhibited extensive knowledge and expertise in identifying the caught fish species. Younger individuals, on the other hand, demonstrated physical strength and minimized the risk of work-related injuries. Notably, a significant portion of fishermen (32%) operated boats they did not own, with motorboats being the preferred choice for the majority (93%). Additionally, 72% of respondents indicated that their fishing income covered only their daily expenses, while 57% lacked alternative sources of income during unfavorable weather conditions. The researchers recommend educating and equipping fishermen with the latest fishing knowledge and skills, facilitated by collaborative efforts among the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), local government units (LGUs), community extensionists, and extension workers. Sharing sustainable and advanced fishing practices will contribute to the well-being and long-term prosperity of fishing communities.

The Potential of Adjuvants Used with Microbiological Control of Insect Pests with Emphasis on Organic Farming

Biological plant protection is a crucial component of integrated pest management strategies. It is considered a safer alternative to chemical plant protection, with reduced risks to human health and the environment. The significance of biological plant protection has been on the rise, driven by the European Union’s mandate to decrease the reliance on chemical pesticides, the discontinuation of certain chemical active substances, and their limited availability. Microbiological plant protection products find application in organic farming systems. Among these, mycoinsecticides are prominent examples, utilizing insecticidal fungi such as Beauveria bassiana, Cordyceps fumosoroseus, C. farinosa, and Metarhizium anisopliae complex. Due to the high sensitivity of these organisms to unfavorable weather and environmental conditions, their use in the protection of field crops may not bring the desired effect. The enhancement of their efficacy may be accomplished through the use of adjuvants. Adjuvants are substances incorporated into plant protection products, including microbial insecticides, or used alone to enhance their effectiveness. They can play a pivotal role in improving the performance of mycoinsecticides by ensuring better coverage on plant surfaces and increasing the likelihood of successful pest control, thereby contributing to the overall success of biological methods of pest control. Consequently, it becomes imperative to investigate the impact of various adjuvants on the survival and effectiveness of microorganisms. Furthermore, there is no officially approved list of adjuvants for use in organic farming, the use of inadequate adjuvant may result in failure to obtain an organic certificate. The origin of adjuvants determines their classification, which significantly impacts for employment in organic farming practices. Included tables provide a list of adjuvants and additives known to enhance the efficacy of pest and disease control.

Towards Sustainable Energy Grids: A Machine Learning-Based Ensemble Methods Approach for Outages Estimation in Extreme Weather Events

The critical challenge of enhancing the resilience and sustainability of energy management systems has arisen due to historical outages. A potentially effective strategy for addressing outages in energy grids involves preparing for future failures resulting from line vulnerability or grid disruptions. As a result, many researchers have undertaken investigations to develop machine learning-based methodologies for outage forecasting for smart grids. This research paper proposed applying ensemble methods to forecast the conditions of smart grid devices during extreme weather events to enhance the resilience of energy grids. In this study, we evaluate the efficacy of five machine learning algorithms, namely support vector machines (SVM), artificial neural networks (ANN), logistic regression (LR), decision tree (DT), and Naive Bayes (NB), by utilizing the bagging ensemble technique. The results demonstrate a remarkable accuracy rate of 99.98%, with a true positive rate of 99.6% and a false positive rate of 0.01%. This research establishes a foundation for implementing sustainable energy integration into electrical networks by accurately predicting the occurrence of damaged components in the energy grid caused by extreme weather events. Moreover, it enables operators to manage the energy generated effectively and facilitates the achievement of energy production efficiency. Our research contributes to energy management systems using ensemble methods to predict grid vulnerabilities. This advancement lays the foundation for developing resilient and dependable energy infrastructure capable of withstanding unfavorable weather conditions and assisting in achieving energy production efficiency goals.

Awareness of Farmers on Weather Based Agro Advisory Services in Telangana State, India

Agriculture production is significantly influenced by the weather. From seeding to crop harvest, it has a significant impact on all aspects of farming. Crop germination, establishment, growth, development and yield are all affected. Extreme weather conditions including drought, floods, heavy rains, heat waves, frost, hailstorms, cyclones, etc. may cause the farming community to suffer significant crop yield losses. Since the farming community will be aware of the upcoming weather conditions in advance, required adjustments may be made to farm level agricultural operations and decisions to lessen the consequences of unfavorable weather conditions. Therefore, Integrated Agro met Advisory Services will make it possible for the farmer to be informed of current and expected weather as well as advice to the farmer the best course of action to reduce losses caused by unfavorable weather conditions and increase the output of agricultural systems. A study was conducted in Telangana state to ascertain the degree of farmer’s awareness on weather-based agro advisory services. Random sampling technique employed to collect data from 120 farmers. Ex-post facto research design was used for the investigation. The data with regards to level of awareness possessed by farmers about weather based agro advisory services, it is revealed that 38.33 % of them had the medium level of awareness followed by low level 35.01 % and high level 26.66% of awareness, respectively. All profile characteristics of respondents showed a significant correlation with the degree to which farmers were aware of weather-based agro advisory services, with the exception of education, annual income, farming experience, mass media exposure, and cropping pattern. Multiple linear regression value 77.61 per cent contributed to the extent of variation towards independent variables.

Simulation Model for Airport Disruption Management

Ensuring the regularity of flights is one of the key tasks of the airline. Three main components of effective functioning of the air transport system comprise ensuring flight safety, regularity and high quality of the services provided, that is, the service component of the air transportation process.At the same time, it is worth paying attention to the fact that regularity or punctuality of flights is the basis for ensuring safety, the rhythmic implementation of the daily plan allows strictly adhering to the standards for timely maintenance and preventive inspections of aircraft. And flights operated with significant delays nullify all the efforts of air carriers to show a high level of service on board and when servicing passengers at airports. Violation of regularity of flights implies airline's losses and significant reputational damage. The traditional reasons for flight delays are unfavourable weather conditions, technical reasons, late arrival of the aircraft. But the indicator of delays in departures and arrivals of flights of some Russian air companies increases from time to time due to the congestion of airports, the congestion of airport waiting areas, disruptions in the rhythm of the execution of the daily planning.Every flight delay creates a disruption. The issue of disruption management has always been a topic for scientific discussions and research. The object of research presented in the article is to study the model of managing an airport disruption, the task was to study options for decision-making in the form of a queue of aircraft for departure and analyse the results of these decisions, where the objective function will be to minimise losses from delay.For decision-making, it is proposed to use a simulation model of a conditional disruptive situation.

Retailing in times of soaring inflation: What we know, what we don't know, and a research agenda

Inflation is back – with a vengeance. Following the highly disruptive years of the pandemic, the world has experienced inflation levels not seen for many decades. A “perfect storm” of underlying causes including expansionary monetary and fiscal policies during the pandemic, pent‑up demand, supply-demand imbalances and commodity-driven cost pressures due to unfavorable weather conditions in various regions and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, all conspired to steeply increase consumer price levels around the world. While current inflation levels are not unprecedented (they were even higher in the 1970s and 1980s), the decades-long period of extremely low inflation experienced in most countries means that current inflation rates continue to shock consumers, manufacturers and retailers. Equally, academic research has very little to say about how to conduct marketing in inflationary times, and that is why this paper presents an overview of what we know, what we don't know and what we argue we should know in the form of a research agenda.We first review key takeaways from prior inflation-focused research in the marketing literature, along with insights that could be derived from related studies that considered other causes of disposable-income reductions. However, given that the inflation literature is sparse, while insights from other forms of disposable-income reduction may not automatically generalize to the current inflationary setting, we identify various knowledge gaps along with a wide-ranging set of questions in need of further research in marketing and retailing. We do so, in the spirit of the Empirics-First approach to relevant knowledge generation, by identifying several frequently used retailer-initiated coping strategies. We subsequently circle back to pertinent prior literature to help with the interpretation of the observed patterns, identify best practices, and warn against potential pitfalls. We hope that this article will inspire cutting-edge research into the consumer-, retailer- and marketing consequences of extreme inflation, a worldwide problem that affects us all and is directly linked to the core role of retailing in the supply-chain channel.

Apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) dormancy – a review of regulatory mechanisms and agroclimatic requirements

Dormancy enables apple trees (Malus × domestica Borkh) to survive unfavorable weather conditions. The accumulation of cold temperatures during winter is required to release dormancy, whilst heat accumulation in spring promotes bud break and blooming. Chilling and heat requirements are used to anticipate cultivars’ suitability to local agroclimatic conditions. This review summarizes recent advances on the physiological and genetic mechanisms regulating dormancy in apple trees; and presents a compilation of available chilling and heat requirements for apple cultivars. Information shows a wide range of chilling requirements in existing cultivars. However, results reported for the same cultivar are highly variable between locations and methods used to estimate chilling; raising concerns on the suitability of using chill requirements to inform planting decisions. In the context of climate change, it is essential to ensure current knowledge on the physiological and genetic mechanisms regulating bud break guides the development of improved models that can generate better estimates of chilling and heat requirements in apple.

Viability of bridge inspectors determining defect ratings using photographic images

The visual inspection of bridges is a major undertaking for asset owners and operators. In the UK, visual inspections require inspectors to visit bridges on site and often at night and under unfavourable weather conditions. Therefore, it would be beneficial to move some of the visual inspection process off site. This paper studies whether the defect classification aspects of the inspection process could be conducted remotely using photographs. This study examines the defect ratings assigned by ten survey participants who were tasked with examining photographs from visual inspections of ten UK bridges. The survey results were compared with the results from the general inspections previously carried out for the bridges in question. From this data set, the differences in the ratings given and the extent to which defects are missed were examined. The results show that a higher number of defects were identified for a given bridge by the remote inspectors. Statistical analysis shows that aggregated defects rated by off-site inspectors tend to be more severe and of a higher priority rating compared with those from the on-site inspectors. The results also indicate that there is closer agreement between on-site and off-site inspectors for defects of a higher severity rating.

Fungi complicit in oak powdery mildew infection in the Oława Forest District

Oaks are important forest-forming species in Poland. It is an important species from an economic perspective in Polish forestry. Oak is characterized by high tolerance in terms of soil requirements, which include soil formations from sandy to clayey with a reaction from acidic to indifferent, sometimes even alkaline in pedunculate oak. It is sensitive to late frosts. In recent years, climate change has been observed in Europe and also in Poland. Abiotic stresses caused by unfavourable weather conditions have worsened the health of oak trees, on which other pathogens, primarily fungi, have become established. The research was carried out at two sites in the Oława Forest District in Bystrzyca in 2022. They consisted in collecting 10 representative shoots from each research area, which were then used to isolate fungal species in the laboratory. The results of the experiment confirm that co-occurring species can be observed with the presence of powdery mildew. Oak shoots are colonised by both pathogenic and saprotrophic fungal species. The high occurrence of pathogenic fungi species along with powdery mildew on oak shoots can be associated with the deterioration of the phytosarcoma condition of oaks, however, in order to be able to state this unequivocally, research on this phenomenon should be focused on in the future.

The Production and Marketing Constraints Faced by Ginger and Turmeric Growers in Assam's Hill and Plain Region, India

The present study was conducted to know the constraints perceived by Ginger and Turmeric growers in terms of production and marketing in the hill and plain district of Karbi Anglong and Jorhat of Assam during September 2021. Using Multistage Stratified Random Sampling, the constraints perceived by 252 respondents from both districts were tabulated and ranked accordingly. The major constraints that affected the production and marketing of ginger and turmeric in the hills were low adoption of better and improved production practices and technology, and the presence of middlemen/ local traders respectively whereas, for the plain region, the major constraints that affected production and marketing of ginger and turmeric were unfavorable weather conditions and poor market infrastructure respectively. As Assam is a major hub for ginger and turmeric production, policies should aim at providing better quality planting materials, provision of proper market infrastructure, creation of a “spices park” and creation of a proper export channel.

Optimized Control of a Hybrid Water Pumping System Integrated with Solar Photovoltaic and Battery Storage: Towards Sustainable and Green Water-Power Supply

This article presents the modeling and optimization control of a hybrid water pumping system utilizing a brushless DC motor. The system incorporates battery storage and a solar photovoltaic array to achieve efficient water pumping. The solar array serves as the primary power source, supplying energy to the water pump for full-volume water surrender. During unfavorable weather conditions or when the photovoltaic array is unable to meet the power demands of the water pump, the battery discharges only at night or during inadequate solar conditions. Additionally, the photovoltaic array can charge the battery on its own when water distribution is not necessary, negating the need for external power sources. A bi-directional charge control mechanism is employed to facilitate automatic switching between the operating modes of the battery, utilizing a buck-boost DC–DC converter. The study incorporates a control system with loops for battery control and DC voltage control within the bidirectional converter. The water cycle algorithm adjusts four control parameters by minimizing an objective function based on tracking errors. The water cycle optimization is compared to other methods based on overshoot and settling time values to evaluate its performance, showcasing its effectiveness in analyzing the results.