The amount, frequency, and duration of precipitation have important impact on the occurrence and severity of forest fires. To fully understand the effects of precipitation regimes on forest fires, a drought index was developed with number of consecutive dry days (daily precipitation less than 2 mm) and total precipitation, and the relationships of drought and precipitation with fire activities ...

Various antireflection thin films are often used to cover glass to increase solar cell electrical parameters. In the recent years many efforts have been done to develop and improve of solar cell films with high electrical output. One of the most important challenges of obtaining of high-efficiency thin films of solar cells is creation an effective light trapping system. The new polymeric protec...

The hydrologic cycle results from the combination of energy conversions and atmospheric transport, and the laws of thermodynamics set limits to both. Here, we apply thermodynamics to derive the limits of the strength of hydrologic cycling within the Earth system and about the properties and processes that shape these limits. We set up simple models to derive analytical expressions of the limits...

background: in general, measurements of solar ultraviolet (uv) radiation are related to horizontal surfaces. while the hu­mans walking and standing outdoors expose to the natural solar uv radiation, their eyes, cheeks, extremities, trunks, or many other anatomical sites are close to vertical plane and random orient to different directions. in this study, we character­ized the diurnal variations...

Abstract In the tundra, woody plants are dispersing towards higher latitudes and altitudes due to increasingly favourable climatic conditions. The coverage height of increasing, which may influence soils tundra ecosystem. Here, we use structural equation modelling analyse 171 study plots examine if affect growing-season topsoil moisture temperature (< 10 cm) as well soil organic carbon stock...

In the present work, a prototype of a new type of solar collectors, which called Direct Absorption Solar Collector, was built and its thermal performance is experimentally compared with conventional flat plate solar collector under transient and steady state conditions. Different volume fractions of multi wall carbon nanotubes in water and ethylene glycol mixture (70%:30% in volume) were used a...

Soil moisture impacts on precipitation have been strongly debated. Recent observational evidence of afternoon rain falling preferentially over land parcels that are drier than the surrounding areas (negative spatial effect), contrasts with previous reports of a predominant positive temporal effect. However, whether spatial effects relating to soil moisture heterogeneity translate into similar t...

Rotaviruses were detected by counterimmunoelectro-osmophoresis in the feces of 16 (13.8%) of 116 infants and young children with gastroenteritis during a 5-month period (September 1979 through January 1980) in Ife, Nigeria. The rate of rotavirus detection varied inversely with relative humidity and was highest in December (38.5% positive) when the humidity was lower. There was not such a distin...

This study investigates the amenity value of climate to British households. By using the hedonic price approach, the marginal willingness to pay for small changes in climate variables, specified as averages and ranges, is derived. The estimates suggest that British people would typically prefer a greater distribution of precipitation across the seasons (i.e. holding annual precipitation constan...