An Investigation on the Thermal Environment of Residential Courtyards in the Cold Area of Western Sichuan Plateau

Located on the east side of China’s Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is the Western Sichuan Plateau, the courtyard adopts a passive design to withstand the harsh climate in cold areas, and its internal thermal environment has a direct impact on the productivity and activities of the residents. This paper takes a plateau village (3500 m above sea level) beside the Sichuan–Tibet line as the research area, and selects four typical local courtyard layouts and an outdoor reference point for the measurement and comparison of the thermal environment. By comparing the measured parameters inside and outside the courtyard, and the correlation analysis, it was deduced as follows. (1) In the cold winter, traditional plateau residential courtyards can create a stable internal micro-climate, but the cold resistance of the courtyards is closely related to its layout. (2) Except for wind speed, other thermal environment parameters of the courtyard are all affected by solar radiation (3) The correlation analysis of the various environmental parameters and physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) showed that the correlation coefficient between the mean radiation temperature (Tmrt) and all courtyard PET values is <0.0001, showing a significant correlation. The indicators of mean temperature radiation are mainly affected by the temperature and the wind speed; furthermore, the temperature and solar radiation are positively correlated, which confirms that the solar radiation and wind speed within the courtyard are the main factors affecting the internal thermal environment in the courtyard. (4) Feedback the courtyard layout problems through the difference in the thermal environment parameters within different courtyards, and then determine some shortcomings in the current courtyard layout design. The inferences drawn from this work will provide a scientific basis for the design, layout, and construction of courtyards in other cold plateau areas.

Assessment of productivity in different thermal working environments

In the paper the assessment of subjective productivity is presented as a function of indoor environment parameters on the example of students situated in the intelligent building. The volunteers in several different rooms (of various air temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration) filled in the questionnaires and assessed their current productivity. It might be related to both the educational performance and office work of low intensity. The physical parameters were measured with the microclimate high accuracy meter. The data obtained during the measurements of the indoor air parameters were compared with the subjective assessments of the volunteers and conclusions were drawn as to the impact of the working environment on the productivity of room users. The gathered experimental material might be useful for the building managers, so that proper indoor conditions within buildings might be applied that maximize productivity and working performance.

Comparison between double slope solar still and fourfold slope solar still: energy, exergy, exergoeconomic, and enviroeconomic evaluation

This paper proposes a single basin fourfold slope solar still, which includes a fourfold slope glass cover plate used for solar heat collection and steam condensation. In order to show the efficiency of fourfold slope solar still, comparative experiments are conducted under the winter climate conditions in Hangzhou for testing the operational performance of double slope type solar still (DOSS) and fourfold slope still (FOSS), so as to make a comparative analysis between them. Results show that the productivity of fourfold slope still is 19.51% higher than that of double slope still, and fourfold slope solar still enhances the average hourly energy efficiency by 31.11%. According to the energy method, the energy payback time values of fourfold slope solar still and double slope solar still are 64.88 months and 75.42 months respectively. According to the environmental parameter method, FOSS and DOSS reduce 5.47 tons and 4.58 tons of CO2 respectively. The corresponding values based on the exergy environment parameters are 0.21 and 0.18 tons of CO2, respectively. The fourfold slope solar still has more obvious emission reduction function than the double slope solar still. The cost of distilled water of fourfold slope solar still is 0.28 RMB/kg, and the cost of double slope solar still is 0.30 RMB/kg. In addition, the environmental and economic parameters of fourfold slope still and double slope still are 79.29$ (561.37RMB) and 66.35$ (469.76RMB), respectively. While, the corresponding values based on the exergoenvironmental parameter are 3.05$ (21.59RMB) and 2.56$ (18.12RMB), respectively. From the analysis of exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental parameters, fourfold slope single basin solar still appears to be more effective.

Effects of Different Temperatures on the Antibacterial, Immune and Growth Performance of Crucian Carp Epidermal Mucus

Fish is one of the important sources of energy and protein, and proper water temperature is key to successful fish breeding. The authors of this study evaluated crucian carp growth, mucus antibacterial properties, and immune indicators at 17, 21, 24, 27, and 31 °C. The results indicated that in the range of 17–31 °C, the resistance of epidermal mucus to Vibrio harveyi decreased with temperature rising. At 24 and 27 °C, the activities of lysozyme and catalase significantly increased; alkaline phosphatase activity, superoxide dismutase activity, and total protein concentration first increased and then decreased with rising temperature; the highest values were observed at 24 °C, with increases of 56.55%, 26.64%, and 44.52%, respectively, compared to those under the 17 °C treatment. When the treatment reached 27 °C, the temperature had an effect on the growth and antibacterial properties of crucian carp, and the activities of alkaline phosphatase and superoxide dismutase were significantly reduced. At temperatures of 17–24 °C, the survival rate of crucian carp could reach more than 93%, and at the temperature of 24 °C, the specific growth rate reached the highest value of 43.29%. Therefore, the most favorable temperature for the long-term breeding of crucian carp was found to be 24 °C. This study provides a favorable experimental basis for the establishment of intelligent aquaculture systems and the setting of water environment parameters.

Mangrove rice biodiversity valorization in Guinea Bissau. A bottom-up approach

Summary Rice is the staple crop of Guinea Bissau, and its production system is based on human labor with very limited possibility of mechanization, particularly in the Mangrove ecosystem. Due to this and to the low possibilities of controlling environment parameters, such as water level and availability, the genetic resistance to extreme abiotic factors was identified as a key point for increasing yields quantity and stability. Among the ample genetic material available in the country, no purification activities were carried out in the past decades. This led to the cultivation of mixtures or ecotypes and not to uniform varieties, with consequent issue related to cultivation and milling. On 103 samples collected, only on about 50% of ecotypes, the purification was carried out as the remaining half was too much variable. The purification ended with less than 20% of material considered stable and uniform varieties. Moreover, the program adopted a bottom-up approach for collection and variety conservation to drive the program and improve the genetic material.

Discrete Simulations in Analyzing the Effectiveness of Raw Materials Transportation during Extraction of Low-Quality Deposits

The article presents an analysis of the influence of selected operating environment parameters on the operation of a technological system in a mine and examines the profitability of exploiting a deposit of low quality. A model based on a cyclical transportation system in a surface limestone mine, developed in the Haulsim software, served to evaluate—from an economic perspective—several material transportation scenarios depending on the quality of the deposit. A discrete simulation of machine operation allowed a detailed analysis of the technological, operating and economic parameters for selected solutions. The results may be the basis for a decision to begin or to resign from mineral extraction. The simulation results demonstrate that maintaining the operating environment in good technical condition positively influences machine operating cycle times, the required total time of the transportation task and the operating costs. The analysis was performed for the production period of one full year, allowing for the effective work and technological downtimes. This approach allowed the usefulness of the model to be demonstrated in evaluating not only the effectiveness of individual technological procedures but also its economic aspect, related to a decision on the exploitation of “difficult” deposits.

Greenhouse Monitoring Using IOT

Agriculture plays vital role in the economic of developing country. This paper Proposes, monitoring and access control system for greenhouse by using IOT. Our Proposed system will check for certain common conditions, for instance such as moistness, soil condition, temperature, humidity, light intensity, Carbon monoxide detection and operate the water supply through phone itself. All the environmental instance information are send to cloud server using Wi-Fi module ESP32. If any climatic condition crosses certain specific threshold limit related action will be taken place like if the temperature becomes high the rooftop of the green house will be opened or the exhaust fan will be switch ON manually by the user and if the light intensity goes down the external light supply will be given to the plants. The microcontroller will turn ON the motor if the moisture content of soil doesn’t meet the required condition. The sensors used in the proposed system are Resistive soil moisture sensor, DHT11 sensor, MQ9 sensor and LDR. The user can monitor and control parameters through mobile phone by using BLYNK app. This model was attempted in order to achieve the intelligent monitoring of greenhouse environment parameters like temperature, humidity, soil moisture etc., keeping the user continuously informed of the conditions inside the greenhouse using IOT technology.

Design of Flow Velocity and Direction Monitoring Sensor Based on Fiber Bragg Grating

The real-time monitoring of the flow environment parameters, such as flow velocity and direction, helps to accurately analyze the effect of water scour and provide technical support for the maintenance of pier and abutment foundations in water. Based on the principle of the Fiber Brag Grating sensor, a sensor for monitoring the flow velocity and direction in real-time is designed in this paper. Meanwhile, the theoretical calculation formulas of flow velocity and direction are derived. The structural performance of the sensor is simulated and analyzed by finite element analysis. The performance requirements of different parts of the sensor are clarified. After a sample of the sensor is manufactured, calibration experiments are conducted to verify the function and test the accuracy of the sensor, and the experimental error is analyzed. The experimental results indicate that the sensor designed in this paper achieves a high accuracy for the flow with a flow velocity of 0.05–5 m/s and the flow velocity monitoring error is kept within 7%, while the flow direction monitoring error is kept within 2°. The sensor can meet the actual monitoring requirements of the structures in water and provide reliable data sources for water scour analysis.