Energy harvesting is an attractive solution to extend system lifetime for internet of everything (IoE) nodes. Ambient light is a common energy source that can be harvested by photovoltaic (PV) cells. However, light intensity varies widely depending on location, ranging from ~10s of lux in dim indoor conditions to ~100klux under direct sunlight. Designing a fully integrated light harvester that ...

To further understanding of the environmental implications of rainwater harvesting and its water savings potential relative to conventional U.S. water delivery infrastructure, we present a method to perform life cycle assessment of domestic rainwater harvesting (DRWH) and agricultural rainwater harvesting (ARWH) systems. We also summarize the design aspects of DRWH and ARWH systems adapted to t...

A grain combine was equipped with a whole-plant corn head and modified to produce single-pass, whole-plant corn harvesting with two crop streams: grain and stover. Capture of potential stover DM varied from 48% to 89% for leaves, from 49% to 92% for stalks, and was greater than 90% for husks and cobs, depending on corn head height. Stover aggregate moisture varied between 36% and 50% (w.b.), an...

Grain separation losses is a key parameter to weigh the performance of combine harvesters, and also a dominant factor for automatically adjusting their major working parameters. The traditional separation losses monitoring method mainly rely on manual efforts, which require a high labor intensity. With recent advancements in sensor technology, electronics and computational processing power, thi...

Sucrose losses after cane harvest is one of the most important problems in sugarcane crop particularly for millers and farmers. Loss in sucrose after harvesting causes low sugar recovery in mills. There are a large number of factors associated with low sugar recovery such as varietal type, atmospheric conditions, time lag, etc. Sucrose losses occurring in postharvest sugarcane are generally of ...

To date, virtually all photovoltaic (PV) systems employ series-connected PV cells to some degree. A typical 4kW residential solar array, for example, might comprise a dozen series-connected 200-W modules, or roughly 864 cells connected in series. The virtues of this arrangement are (1) that the system’s conductive losses are well managed because the array output current is no higher than that o...

About a quarter of the world's food production is lost after harvesting, even though a number of food preservation methods are readily available. Losses occur especially in the tropical regions where most developing countries are situated: perhaps because the available food preservation technologies do not function efficiently in such environments, or because they do not lend themselves to the ...

ABSTRACT Pathogens of the Straminipile genus Phytophthora cause significant disease losses to global cocoa production. P. megakarya causes significant pod rot and losses due to canker in West Africa, whereas P. capsici and P. citrophthora cause pod rots in Central and South America. The global and highly damaging P. palmivora attacks all parts of the cocoa tree at all stages of the growing cycl...

The optical properties of three-dimensional crescent-shaped gold nanoparticles are studied using a transformation optics methodology. The polarization insensitive, highly efficient, and tunable light harvesting ability of singular nanocrescents is demonstrated. We extend our approach to more realistic blunt nanostructures, showing the robustness of their plasmonic performance against geometric ...

Based on circuit simulations, this paper investigates a concept for a power electronic interface circuit for MEMS electrostatic energy harvesters. Two ordinary overlapvarying transducers are first electrically configured as a symmetric voltage doublers which enables the device to self-start from an initially low bias. The harvesting system is then reconfigured to couple with a buck-boost DC-DC ...