The aim of this work was to study the effect of spray drying conditions on quality of coconut sugar powder and their characteristics. Effects of inlet air temperature (120°C, 150°C and 180°C) and maltodextrin concentrations (DE 9-12) at 10%, 20% and 30% (w/v) on physical properties of spray dried coconut sugar powder were investigated. Buchi mini spray dryer, model B-290, was used in this work....

Understanding the spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture is crucial for the land surface processes and their management. Accurate estimation of spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture is important for various hydrological studies also. Recently, remote sensing techniques have been used to estimate soil moisture. Estimation of soil moisture by remote sensing techniques provide...

Soil bacteria may be influenced by vegetation and play important roles in global carbon efflux and nutrient cycling under global changes. Coniferous and broadleaved forests are two phyletically distinct vegetation types. Soil microbial communities in these forests have been extensively investigated but few studies have presented comparable data regarding the characteristics of bacterial communi...

This study aimed to experimentally acquire evolution profiles between depth, bulk density, Free Air Space (FAS), air permeability and thermal conductivity in initial composting materials. The impact of two different moisture content, two particle size and two types of bulking agent on these four parameters was also evaluated. Bulk density and thermal conductivity both increased with depth while...

This paper presents the development and implementation of a spatio-temporal variational data assimilation system (4D-var) for the soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer model “Community Land Model” (CLM3.5), along with the development of the adjoint code for the core soil–atmosphere transfer scheme of energy and soil moisture. The purpose of this work is to obtain an improved estimation technique ...

Vitamin D(3) has been called the "sunshine" vitamin since the formation of vitamin D is mediated by exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D(3) is linked to many health benefits, however serum levels of vitamin D(3) have been decreasing over the last few decades and the lower levels of vitamin D(3) may have consequences on normal physiology. We investigated the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitami...

Urban land surface models (LSM) are commonly evaluated for short periods (a few weeks to months) because of limited observational data. This makes it difficult to distinguish the impact of initial conditions on model performance or to consider the response of a model to a range of possible atmospheric conditions. Drawing on results from the first urban LSM comparison, these two issues are consi...

The conceptual framework for causes presented here is intended neither as a review nor an expansion of knowledge, but rather as a viewpoint which bridges the gap between metaphysical notions of cause and basic epidemiologic parameters. The focus, then, is neither metaphysics nor epidemiology, but the gulf between them. In the same spirit as recent discussion on these pages about definitions of ...

Adequacy of water supply plays a vital role in maintaining lawn health. Water need to be dispersed intelligently to provide a sufficient amount of moisture to the soil. Conventional system was investigated and it is found that the system used excessive amount of water and the amount dispersed may not be suitable for the moisture level of the lawn since it does not consider soil moisture based o...

The target was to study and develop industrially suitable methods to apply thermoplastic coatings on plywood. Typically, wear and climatic resistance for wooden sheets, such as chip board and plywood, is achieved by thermosetting resin coating (e.g. phenolformaldehyde). However, economical and environmental issues are driving towards thermoplastic coatings (e.g. polyethylene) in such products. ...