In regions affected by seasonal and permanently frozen conditions soil moisture influences the thermal regime of the ground as well as its ice content, which is one of the main factors controlling the sensitivity of mountain permafrost to climate changes. In this study, several well established soil moisture monitoring techniques were combined with data from geophysical measurements to assess t...

The compressive properties of premium quality cocoa beans from Ghana considering the effect of moisture content in the moisture range of 7% to 22 % (w.b) were studied. The results of the study demonstrated that the displacement at maximum load or the deformation and the crushing energy had more positive linear function with moisture content and increased significantly from 0.80 mm to 1.87 mm an...

In an effort to determine which biological reactions can occur in relation to the water content of seeds, the regulation of lettuce seed dormancy by red and far red light was determined at various hydration levels. Far red light had an inhibiting effect on germination for seeds at all moisture contents from 4 to 32% water. Germination was progressively stimulated by red light as seed hydratio...

Case hardening is a feature of dried wood that causes the wood to deform (cup) after re-sawing and equalising the moisture content. VTT has analysed case hardening with the aid of the simulation model PEO and with experimental drying, conditioning and storage tests. Case hardening cannot be predicted by the moisture content gradient alone. However, the case hardening gap after drying to a high ...

An 8-electrode capacitance tomography (ECT) sensor was built and used to measure moisture content (MC) and mass flow of pine chip flows. The device was capable of directly measuring total water quantity in a sample but was sensitive to both dry matter and moisture, and therefore required a second measurement of mass flow to calculate MC. Two means of calculating the mass flow were used: the fir...

This study was performed to investigate the effect of storage conditions on seed germination performance of faba bean (cv. Shami). For this purpose, a three factors factorial experiment was conducted in laboratory of Seed Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj University, in 2013-2014, based on CRD design with five replications.  The experimental factors were storage temperature...

Ground-reflected global positioning system signals measured by a geodetic-quality GPS system can be used to infer temporal changes in near-surface soil moisture for the area surrounding the antenna. This technique, known as GPS-interferometric reflectometry, analyzes changes in the interference pattern of the direct and reflected signals, which are recorded in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) data, ...

An empirical rate equation was developed to predict head rice yield reduction for rough rice exposed to moisture adsorptive conditions. Time of exposure, initial moisture content, and relative humidity were significant to the reductions in head rice yield caused by moisture adsorption. An equation used to predict the number of kernels which fissured upon exposure to various environments was mod...

This paper deals with studying and modeling static friction coefficient (SFC) and dynamic friction coefficient (DFC) of wheat grain as affected by several treatments. Significance of single effect (SE) and dual interaction effect (DIE) of treatments (moisture content and contact surface) on SFC and, SE, DIE, and triple interaction effect (TIE) of treatments (moisture content, contact surface an...

During the rice harvesting season in Thailand, large amounts of fresh paddy are sent to rice mills immediately after harvesting due to a lack of proper farm storage space. At certain levels of moisture content, rice grains may generate hazardous gases, which can replace oxygen (O(2)) in the confined spaces of underground rice mill pits. This phenomenon has been observed in a fatal accident in T...