Mathematica--A System for Doing Mathematics by Computer.

Although most countries in the world are rapidly urbanizing, the majority of the global population – particularly the poor – continue to live in rural areas. This Handbook rejects the popular notion that urbanization should be universally encouraged and presents clear evidence of the vital importance of rural people and places, particularly in terms of environmental conservation. Expert contributors from around the world explore how global trends, state policies and grassroots movements affect contemporary rural areas in both developed and developing countries.

Agriculture and rural development

Buildings do not usually perform during operation as well as predicted during the design stage. Disagreement between simulated and metered energy consumption represents a common issue in building simulation. For this reason, the calibration of building simulation models is of growing interest. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses play an important role in building model accuracy. They can be used to identify the building model parameters most influent on the energy consumption. Given this, these analyses should be integrated within calibration methodologies and applications for tuning the parameters. This paper aims at providing a picture of the state of the art of calibration methodologies in the domain of building energy performance assessment. First, the most common methodologies for calibration are presented, emphasizing criticalities and gaps that can be faced. In particular the main issues to be addressed, when carrying out calibrated simulation, are discussed. The standard statistical criteria for considering the building models calibrated and for evaluating their goodness-of-fit are also presented. Second, the commonly used techniques for investigating uncertainties in building models are reviewed. Third, a review of the latest main studies in the calibrated simulation domain is presented. Criticalities and recommendations for new studies are finally provided.

/pdf/methodologies-and-advancements-in-the-calibration-of-167iknr8bj.pdf

Methodologies and Advancements in the Calibration of Building Energy Models

Comparing straw, compost, and biochar regarding their suitability as agricultural soil amendments to affect soil structure, nutrient leaching, microbial communities, and the fate of pesticides

Acceptability of biodiesel by automotive sector is limited due to some of its adverse properties such as cold flow properties, oxidation stability and corrosiveness with automotive fuel system materials Adverse cold flow properties of biodiesel lead to the problem of plugging and gumming of filters and injectors There is a concern about the poor oxidation stability of biodiesel, which results in the formation of sediments and gums causing problem in the engine fuel injection system Biodiesel reacts with automotive fuel system materials adversely resulting in corrosion of metals and degradation of elastomers Beside these adverse issues, biodiesel possesses incredible inherent lubricity This article aims to review the adverse biodiesel properties like cold flow properties, oxidation stability; corrosive and acidic nature resulting in non-compatibility with automotive fuel system materials It also discusses the excellent lubrication behaviour of biodiesel and its positive impact An effort has been made to present the review of 145 research papers along with the sharing of our some in-house experimental results Additive treatment with biodiesel has been found to be suitable for improving the low temperature properties and oxidation stability Certain metallic and elastomeric components have been reported as compatible/non-compatible with biodiesel Although attempts have already been made by some researchers on the adverse properties of biodiesel but the scope is rather limited to the properties alone than correlating the same with automotive materials compatibility

Biodiesel properties and automotive system compatibility issues

The offset position of an implement creates an oblique drawbar force. This force occurs when the resistance direction of the implement is at a certain angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the tractor (tractor traction direction). The focus of this study was to demonstrate the dependence of wheeled tractor power delivery efficiency on wheel slippage for central and oblique drawbar forces, both on plowed and unplowed stubble. For this purpose, the travel speed of tractor, wheel slippage, drawbar force and engine speed were measured. Mathematical models were formed using a nonlinear regression analysis, and after that, an algorithm for calculating the power delivery efficiency of wheeled tractors depending on the drawbar force and the angle of the drawbar force was developed. This method allowed us to determine the dependence of the power delivery efficiency on the wheel slippage for different angles of the drawbar force. The highest power delivery efficiency of a tractor is achieved at a central drawbar force (angle of the oblique drawbar force equals zero). Results showed the influence of oblique drawbar force on the power delivery efficiency of the wheeled tractor on soft and loose types of soil. Power delivery efficiency of the tractor on unplowed stubble decreased by 6.7% when the angle of the oblique drawbar force increased to 10 degrees, and by 15.0% when the angle of the oblique drawbar force increased to 20 degrees. On plowed stubble, power delivery efficiency decreased by 10.4% at a 10 degree angle of oblique drawbar force and by 21.9% at an angle of oblique drawbar force of 20 degrees. The importance of properly attaching the implement to the tractor was also confirmed.

Lazar Savin

Papers

Power delivery efficiency of a wheeled tractor at oblique drawbar force

Possibility of using biodiesel from sunflower oil as an additive for the improvement of lubrication properties of low-sulfur diesel fuel

Effects of accelerated oxidation on the selected fuel properties and composition of biodiesel

Corn seeding process fault cause analysis based on a theoretical and experimental approach

Influence of biodiesel on the performances of farm tractors: Experimental testing in stationary and non-stationary conditions