BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Several studies have shown wide prevalence of vitamin D deficiency with serum 25(OH)D <49.9 nmol/L in urban Indians related to their poor sunshine exposure and skin pigmentation. However, there is limited information in rural Indians. We hypothesized presence of higher 25(OH)D in rural subjects as compared to urban because of farming related abundant sunshine exposure. ...

Abstract Plant phenology becoming a focus of current research worldwide is sensitive indicator global climate change. To understand observed soybean and explore its climatic determinants in frigid region (Northeast China northeast Inner Mongolia), we studied the phenological changes [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] for during 1981–2017, then analyzed contribution major causal factors to based on multi...

The prediction of solar radiation is important for several applications in renewable energy research. Solar radiation is predicted by a number of solar radiation models both conventional and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based models. There are a number of meteorological and geographical variables which affect solar radiation prediction, so identification of suitable variables for accurate so...

The effect of the volume flow rate of the heat transfer fluid (air) on the thermal parameters of the solar air collector with a single air pass without using fins under the absorbing plate have been investigated experimentally and theoretically. We use a new design of solar air collector which aims to optimize these parameters in the region cited above. Our solar air collector was realized at t...

This paper presents a discovery: the change of the outline shape of mistletoe (Viscum album ssp. album) berries in vivo and in situ during ripening. It was found that a plant organ that is usually considered to merely increase in size actually changes shape in a specific rhythmic fashion. We introduce a new approach to chronobiological research on a macro-phenotypic scale to trace changes over ...