Journal
[Total: 234 ]
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Nahed Ismail,
2022
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As greenhouse production is considered the most water-conservative solution in the agricultural sector, greenhouse technology has become an integral approach for modern crop production methods. Different types of greenhouse structures are used to produce crops, and each type has advantages for a particular application, having been designed to meet multiple and specific requirements. This paper introduces a quality function deployment (QFD) framework to select two optimal greenhouse types (single-span and multi-span). This study aims to demonstrate greenhouse management and practices and review the development efforts during the last two decades. A market survey, focus group discussion, and personal interviews revealed nine key performance indicators (KPIs) (cost, wind loads, crop loads, roof slope, light transmission, fl1exibility, maintainability, rapid spread/ease of control, and heating and ventilation). Then, the participating decision-makers identified nine functional requirements, which, if fulfilled, would boost client satisfaction. The framework designed in this paper was developed to select and analytically investigate the optimal system for greenhouse microclimate control based on the retrieved KPIs and functional requirements for client satisfaction. This QFD framework can assist decision-makers, in the preliminary phase, in selecting optimal systems for greenhouse microclimate control based on their individualized situations.
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Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Rajhi,
2022
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This study presents the possibility of killing almost all microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria, spore forms, and viruses by sterilization process. European foulbrood (EFB) and American foulbrood (AFB) is a highly infectious bacterial honeybee disease caused by Melissococcusplutonius and Paenibacillus larvae, respectively. Removal of spores from contaminated beehives is a critical factor in controlling EFB and AFB. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of ultraviolet (UV) in killing Paenibacillus larvae spores on PVC, and wood hives. Hives infected with Paenibacillus larvae spores were treated with two UV powers (6 and 8 W) for up to 15 min. Sterilization at 8 W for 15 min resulted in a more than 6.6 log reduction in the number of Paenibacillus larvae spores on the PVC hives. Under the same experimental conditions, the reduction in wood hives was 6.2 log. Reductions achieved in Paenibacillus larvae spores on PVC hives after 5, 10 and 15 min of sterilization were significantly (p?0.05) higher than those on wood hives. So it is recommended to sterilize hives contaminated with spores with UV lamps.
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ayman abdel-khalik ibrahim,
2022
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Tomatoes are consumed as fresh and processed products, which contain nutritionally important phytonutrients. It is necessary to use a rapid and reliable analytical method to monitor the quality of tomato products. The study was conducted to study the feasibility of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and color measurement with data obtained from high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), for monitoring the change in tomato juice, as a consequence of thermal and high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatments at different conditions. Partial least squares regression was applied to assess the correlation between HPLC values of ascorbic acid (A.A.), lycopene (Lyc.), ?-carotene (?-car.), and NIRS. The correlation was confirmed with R2 P of .82, .92, and .91 based on the lowest values of the standard error of prediction (SEP) for A.A., Lyc., and ?-car., respectively. The lowest degradation of A.A. (35% and 49%), Lyc. (12% and 3.6%), and ?-car. (23.3% and 18.4%) was recorded for juice thermally processed and HHP treated, respectively.
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Magdy baiomy, Heba Ahmed mohamed,
2022
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The research aims to design and fabricate prototype of a bio-filter which used to process the emissions of CO and CO2.That are mainly generated from the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas. These are main energy resources in our daily life which used in different food activities as food factories and charcoal grills. The prototype consists of cylinder steel with two covers, two tubes welded on the outer face of each cover and candle of filter. Candidate was consisting of two circle walls and the space between two walls was 2 cm. In the experiments were conducted on four cases from bio materials as follows:-grinded ficus, green and dry leaves ; wet and dry sawdust . Measurements were done at five times after start emittion; 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 min. The moisture contents of the agricultural residues (bio-materials) was estimated before and after experiments.Leaves chemical analysis was done to determine the CO, CO2 before and after experiments. Also, CO, CO2 were measured in the air before input prototype and after output. The concluded results at using bio-filter were: - with green leaves: CO2 ratio decreased to 18% , CO decreased to 2 %. Then the absorb of "C" ratio by green leaves was 4.5%. - With dry leaves: CO2 decreased to 15 %, CO ratio didn’t change .And absorb of "C" ratio by dry leaves was 0.07%. - With wet sawdust: CO2 decreased to 0.03% and CO ratio didn’t change. - With dry sawdust: CO2 and CO didn’t change. the final conclusion was the ficus green leaves is the best bio-materials can use in bio-filter.
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Nahed Ismail,
2022
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The collecting of garden-residues (leaves, seeds, flowers, ... etc.) using a modest machines is not done as a completely mechanization operations. For these reasons, the aim of this work was identified to constructive, confirm and investigate a machine to collect and packing the garden residues, which included two main units, the collecting and delivery units. The variable parameters comprise revolutions of blower "RB" (1000; 1700; 2400 and 3100rpm) and delivery tube diameter "DTD" (10; 15 and 20cm) under two residues moisture contents "RMC" of 14% (free dropped) and 64% (forced dropped). The performance of collect-packing machine “CPM” were done by identifying residues bulk density "BD" at go out moment and rate of residues volume reduction "RV", machine productivity "RP" and specific energy consumed "SEC". Then the regression modeling was identified as combine relationship among studied variables. The results concluded that the “CPM” is suitable for collecting free and forced dropped garden residues. The best level of the “RB” and “DTD” are 3100 rpm and 15 cm under 14% “RMC” and 3100 rpm and 20 cm for 64% “RMC” respectively. At “RMC” of 14%, the highest “BD”, “RV”, and “RP” are 45.3kg m-3, 29.22% and 257.26 kg h-1 respectively at lowest “SEC” of 0.196 kW h Mg-1. The corresponding values at “RMC” of 64% were 32.32 kg m-3, 88.01%, and 294.79 kg h-1 at “SEC” of 0.251 kW h Mg-1 respectively. The regression modeling has a strong relation to describe the effect of studied variables under different machine performance.
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Nahed Ismail,
2022
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This research aims to add an inverse pulsation technique inside the hopper that speeds up the crushed grain flow and moves the stagnant fodder caused by rat-holing and arching. In the experimental lab, the hopper constructs a funnel flow system by regulating the inner inclined angle of 30° with the horizontal hopper surface. While crushed maize is discharged from the hopper, the air chamber makes a continuous cycle of constriction and expansion causing an inverse pulsation that forces the materials towards the hopper outlet. The pressure of the compressed air is controlled by a pressure gauge and the time of filling in and deflation of the air that is settled by an electronically programming code using an Arduino Uno unit. The levels of studied variables include diameter of outlet orifices "Do" (40; 45; and 50 mm), pressure of elastic air chamber "PAC" (2.0; 2.5 and 3.0 bar) per each pressure times of filling in and deflation ratio "TFD" (0.5; 0.6 and 0.7), for six batch number pulsation "NP" (1.0; 2.0; 3.0; 4.0; 5.0 and 6.0). The results cleared that the air chamber pulsation technique can improve the flow from the funnel hopper by about 51.69, 53.69 and 50.31% % at outlet orifices diameters of 40, 45 and 50 mm respectively compared to the free flow as a control unit.
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Mariam Amer,
2022
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Bioplastics are alternatives of conventional petroleum-based plastics. Bioplastics are polymers processed from renewable sources and are biodegradable. This study aims at conducting an environmental impact assessment of the bioprocessing of agricultural wastes into bioplastics compared to petro-plastics using an LCA approach. Bioplastics were produced from potato peels in laboratory. In a biochemical reaction under heating, starch was extracted from peels and glycerin, vinegar and water were added with a range of different ratios, which resulted in producing different samples of bio-based plastics. Nevertheless, the environmental impact of the bioplastics production process was evaluated and compared to petro-plastics. A life cycle analysis of bioplastics produced in laboratory and petro-plastics was conducted. The results are presented in the form of global warming potential, and other environmental impacts including acidification potential, eutrophication potential, freshwater ecotoxicity potential, human toxicity potential, and ozone layer depletion of producing bioplastics are compared to petro-plastics. The results show that the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, through the different experiments to produce bioplastics, range between 0.354 and 0.623 kg CO2 eq. per kg bioplastic compared to 2.37 kg CO2 eq. per kg polypropylene as a petro-plastic. The results also showed that there are no significant potential effects for the bioplastics produced from potato peels on different environmental impacts in comparison with poly-?-hydroxybutyric acid and polypropylene. Thus, the bioplastics produced from agricultural wastes can be manufactured in industrial scale to reduce the dependence on petroleum-based plastics. This in turn will mitigate GHG emissions and reduce the negative environmental impacts on climate change.
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ATEF GHANDOUR,
2022
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Agricultural water is suffering from increasing scarcity under the stress of rapid population growth and food demand, global consumption of freshwater resources has grown more than six folds in the past century and future demand on fresh water will continue to increase significantly in the coming decades. Nowadays more than 70% of the available fresh water worldwide is used for agriculture. Therefore, improving agricultural water management became more urgent with high importance more than ever before. This improvement has many different ways and means in term of water use efficiency, irrigation water saving, crop selection including water-efficient and climate-smart crops. The water footprint (WF) based on irrigation water quality is importantly one of the means and ways that provides a decision making tools for crop selection to maximize agricultural water productivity and sustainably improve water use efficiency. This paper presents a generic links between climate variability and water footprint. To support this link, a case study for selected crops (wheat and maize) in different agro-climate zones in Egypt is presented. In this study, three agro-ecological zones representing three different microclimate conditions were elected, namely; Nile Delta, Middle Egypt and Upper Egypt regions. The climatic data were analyzed to estimate the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and calculate crop water uses (CWU) for wheat and maize for average of five-year period from 2015 to 2019. Cultivated areas and yield data during the period of concern were also analyzed. Water footprint (WF) was calculated for old land (clay soils) and new lands (sandy soils) in three climate region based on blue and gray waters and green water was excluded due to negligible rainfall amount in Egypt. The results showed that the average values of WF for maize were1067, 1395, 1655 m3/ton in old land and 1395, 1634, 2232 m3/ton in new land under the three climate regions respectively, while it was 923, 982, 1117 m3/ton in old land and 1180, 1258, 1452 m3/ton for wheat in new land under three regions respectively. The results show that the crop water uses fluctuated over regions due to climate variability where the CWU values were 6211, 7335, 8007 m3/ha for maize and CWU values were 4348, 4825, 5774 m3/ha for wheat in three regions respectively. This shows that about 11% and 33% increase in maize CWU and about 18% and 29% increase in wheat CWU in Middle and Upper Egypt regions comparing to what was observed in Nile Delta due to increase in weather parameter such as solar radiation, temperature and wind speed. The Egypt average value of wheat water footprint was 1152 m3/ton and average value of maize water footprint was 1563 m3/ton. The variability of WF clearly shows the effect of microclimate variability on WF and irrigation requirements from region to another. Therefore, climate variability should be considered in planning irrigation water supply and managing water demand at farm and regional levels.
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Samy Maray,
2022
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A study was conducted, on a 30 ha wheat field under a solar energy powered center pivot irrigation system in a commercial farm located 400 km north of Khartoum, Sudan, to evaluate the feasibility of variable rate fertilizer application of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) on wheat crop based on variable soil phosphorus content. Soil phosphorus content was divided into three categories (low: 3.75 to .50 ppm, medium: 4.51 to 5.25 ppm and high: 5.26 to 6.00 ppm) and a GIS soil phosphorus content map of the experimental field was generated. Three variable application rates (200 kg ha_1, 160 kg ha_1 and 120 kg ha_1) of granular DAP fertilizer were determined to fit the low, medium and high soil phosphorus contents, respectively. The the DAP fertilizer rate of 200 kg ha_1 was the rate practiced for wheat production in the experimental farm. The normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), measured at different wheat growth stages using sentinel-2 satellite images, and wheat grain yield were used to evaluate the response of wheat crop to the variable DAP fertilizer application rates. Excluding the tillering stage, the results showed significant differences in the NDVI values among different soil phosphorus levels and DAP fertilizer application rates at other growth stages, including stem elongation, grain filling and maturity stages. Moreover, wheat yield results showed significant differences among different soil phosphorus contents (P > F = 0.0001) and DAP fertilizer application rates (P > F = 0.0457). On the average, the highest yield of 2.449 t ha_1 was recorded in the field areas treated with the high DAP fertilizer application rate (200 kg ha_1), where the second highest yield of 2.441 t ha_1 was observed in field areas under the medium DAP fertilizer application rate (160 kg ha_1); however, no significant differences between these two yield values. Based on these results, the total savings of the DAP fertilizer was estimated to be 792 kg (equivalent to 475.2 $) in the experimental field (30 ha), only when the medium DAP fertilizer rate (160 kg ha_1) was used in the medium and high soil phosphorus zones, saving 15.84 $ ha_1 without affecting production.
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Samy Maray,
2022
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An area of growing interest in wheat-breeding programs for abiotic stresses is the accurate and expeditious phenotyping of large genotype collections using nondestructive hyperspectral sensing tools. The main goal of this study was to use data from canopy spectral signatures (CSS) in the full-spectrum range (400–2500 nm) to estimate and predict the plant biomass dry weight at booting (BDW-BT) and anthesis (BDW-AN) growth stages, and biological yield (BY) of 64 spring wheat germplasms exposed to 150 mM NaCl using 13 spectral reflectance indices (SRIs, consisting of seven vegetation-related SRIs and six water-related SRIs) and partial least squares regression (PLSR). SRI and PLSR performance in estimating plant traits was evaluated during two years at BT, AN, and early milk grain (EMG) growth stages. Results showed significant genotypic differences between the three traits and SRIs, with highly significant two-way and three-way interactions between genotypes, years, and growth stages for all SRIs. Genotypic differences in CSS and the relationships between the three traits and a single wavelength over the full-spectrum range depended on the growth stage. Water-related SRIs were more strongly correlated with the three traits compared with vegetation related SRIs at the BT stage; the opposite was found at the EMG stage. Both types of SRIs exhibited comparable associations with the three traits at the AN stage. Principal component analysis indicated that it is possible to assess plant biomass variations at an early stage (BT) through published and modified SRIs. SRIs coupled with PLSR models at the BT stage exhibited good prediction capacity of BDW-BT (57%), BDW-AN (82%), and BY (55%). Overall, results demonstrated that the integration of SRIs and multivariate models may present a feasible tool for plant breeders to increase the efficiency of the evaluation process and to improve the genetics for salt tolerance in wheat-breeding programs.
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