Cele Oasis on the southern edge of Tarim Basin was used to investigate the impact of human activity on the soil environment of the oasis–desert ecotone during the oasis expansion process. Since farmland is extending into the oasis–desert ecotone during oasis expansion, reclaimed farmland and control plots within the ecotone were investigated. The variations in soil moisture, soil nutrients and ...

This study investigates the role of soil moisture on the threshold runoff response in a small headwater catchment in the Italian Alps that is characterised by steep hillslopes and a distinct riparian zone. This study focuses on: (i) the threshold soil moisture-runoff relationship and the influence of catchment topography on this relation; (ii) the temporal dynamics of soil moisture, streamflow ...

The effect of ammonia pretreatment on the anaerobic digestion performance of rice straw was investigated. The rice straw was pretreated with four different moisture contents (30%, 50%, 70%, and 90%) and three concentrations of ammonia (2%, 4%, and 6%). The results showed that the anaerobic digestion achieved best performance for the rice straw pretreated by ammonia concentration of 4% and moist...

The central aim of this thesis is to support the efforts to counteract certain environmental problems caused by emissions of volatile organic compounds. The purpose of this work was (1) to develop a method to measure emissions from dryers, (2) to determine the effect of drying medium temperature and end moisture content of the processed material on emissions of monoterpenes and other hydrocarbo...

The present study aimed to evaluate the drying quality of three tomato cultivars (Amoroso, Berlinto and Messina) at low final-moisture content. Tomatoes were cut into slices and hot-air-dried from 92% (wet basis) to 12% final moisture content at 55 degrees C, 65 degrees C and 75 degrees C at 1.5 m/sec air flow. Color, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA) and ascorbic acid (AA) co...

The chemical composition of the meat from various cuts of poultry obtained from three commercial brands (brand I, II and III) of chicken from different processing plants available in the Saudi Arabian market were studied. Six raw meat samples of whole chicken and mixed portions (Breast fillet with skin, breast fillet without skin, drumsticks with skin, thigh cut skin on bone in and wings with s...

Soil hydrological processes play an important role in land-atmosphere system. In most climate models, these processes are described by soil moisture variations in the first 2 m of soil resulting from precipitation, evaporation, and transpiration. Groundwater effects on soil moisture variations and surface evaporation are either neglected or not explicitly treated. Although groundwater may have ...

he presence of moisture in a transformer deteriorates transformer insulation by decreasing both the electrical and mechanical strength. In general, the mechanical life of the insulation is reduced by half for each doubling in water content [l]; the rate of thermal deterioration of the paper is proportional to its water content [2]. Electrical discharges can occur in a high voltage region due to...

the mechanical strength of cumin seed and the effects of moisture content, seed size, speed and direction of loading on the force and energy required to fracture cumin seed were investigated. the results showed that moisture and loading direction were significant at the 1% level on the force and energy required to fracture cumin seed. the effects of seed size on force and loading speed on energ...

For several years passive microwave observations have been used to retrieve soil moisture from the Earth’s surface. Low frequency observations have the most sensitivity to soil moisture, therefore the current Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and future Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) satellite missions observe the Earth’s surface in the L-band frequency. In the past, several sate...