The study examined the effect of moisture content on maize shelling speed using a manually operated hand Sheller (cone type). Twenty (20) unthreshed maize cob samples (A-J) were used for the study. The samples were analysed in the laboratory for parameters such as weight of samples before and after drying, moisture content and shelling speed. The result indicated that sample J, after sixty nine...

The combined effect of soil moisture in unsaturated soil layers and pore-water pressure in saturated soil layers is critical to predict landslides. An improved infinite slope stability model, that directly includes unsaturated zone soil moisture and groundwater, is derived and used to analyze the factor of safety’s sensitivity to unsaturated zone soil moisture. This sensitivity, the change in t...

Precipitation and temperature are important drivers of soil respiration. The role of moisture and temperature are generally explored at seasonal or inter-annual timescales; however, significant variability also occurs on hourly to daily time-scales. We used small (1.54 m(2)), throughfall exclusion shelters to evaluate the role soil moisture and temperature as temporal controls on soil CO2 efflu...

The moisture budget associated with the eastward-propagating Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) was diagnosed using 1979–2001 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data. A marked zonal asymmetry of the moisture relative to the MJO convection appears in the planetary boundary layer (PBL, below 700 hPa), creating a potentially more unstable stratification to the east of the MJO convection and favoring th...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the possible changes in tidal volume, minute volume and respiratory rate caused by the use of a heat and moisture exchanger in patients receiving pressure support mechanical ventilation and to quantify the variation in pressure support required to compensate for the effect caused by the heat and moisture exchanger. METHODS Patients under invasive mechanical ventilation i...

Soil moisture plays a key role in vegetation restoration and ecosystem stability in arid and semiarid regions. The response of soil moisture to rainfall pulses is an important hydrological process, which is strongly influenced by land use during the implementation of vegetation restoration. In this study, vertical soil moisture variations of woodland (Pinus tabulaeformis), native grassland (Sti...

Soil moisture is an important factor for vegetation restoration and ecosystem sustainability in the Loess Plateau of China. The strong spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture is controlled by many environmental factors, including topography and land use. Moreover, the spatial patterns and soil hydrological processes depend on the scale of the site being investigated, which creates a challenge fo...

Crospovidone is a commonly used tablet disintegrant. However, the synthetic disintegrant has been known to be hygroscopic and high moisture content in crospovidone used could exert deleterious effects on tablets formulated with it. The objective of this study was to elicit a better understanding between crospovidone-water interaction and its effect on disintegrant performance. Moisture sorption...