Limited precipitation restricts crop yield in the North China Plain, where high level of production depends largely on irrigation. Establishing the optimal irrigation scheduling according to the crop water requirement (CWR) and precipitation is the key factor to achieve rational water use. Precipitation data collected for about 40 years were employed to analyze the long-term trend, and weather ...

OBJECTIVES We assessed the relationship of season and weather types with myocardial infarction (MI) and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in a geographically defined population, and tested the hypothesis that the increased risk in winter was related to weather. BACKGROUND Winter peaks in coronary heart disease (CHD) have been documented. Yet, it is uncertain if seasonality exists for both incident e...

Quantifying the response of any given system beyond their current condition to weather alone or together with other factors requires predicting realizations of future weather conditions. The predicted weather data should not only be sufficiently accurate, but also their time scale should be in accordance to the decision support system in which the studied system is being applied. Inclusion of p...

Accurate and reliable daily global weather reports are necessary for weather forecasting and climate analysis. However, the availability of these reports continues to decline due to the lack of economic support and policies in maintaining ground weather measurement systems from where these reports are obtained. Thus, to mitigate data scarcity, it is required to utilize weather information from ...

Results We present global planting date patterns for maize, spring wheat and winter wheat (our full, publicly available data set contains planting and harvesting dates for 19 major crops). Maize planting in the northern mid-latitudes generally occurs in April and May. Daily average air temperatures are usually c. 12–17 °C at the time of maize planting in these regions, although soil moisture of...

abstract potential evapotranspiration is one of basic parameter in hydrologic cycle that should be estimate in irrigation design and scheduling, watershed hydrology studies. many applications in diverse disciplines require estimates of evapotranspiration (et) at hourly or smaller time steps. the primary objectives of this study were to compare the american society of civil engineers (asce) and ...

Quantifying the exploitable gap between average farmer yields and yield potential (YP) is essential to prioritize research and formulate policies for food security at national and international levels. While irrigated maize accounts for 58% of total annual maize production in the Western U.S. Corn Belt, current yield gap in these systems has not been quantified. Our objectives were to quantify ...

BACKGROUND Periods of unusually hot weather, especially in temperate climates, carry with them a burden of morbidity and mortality, particularly in urban areas. With lessening debate on its origins, and signs of global warming already apparent, it is becoming imperative for public health practitioners to recognize and predict the risks of "heat waves", and to develop protective community respon...