Interdroplet vapor pressure gradients are the driving mechanism for several phase-change phenomena such as condensation dry zones, interdroplet ice bridging, dry zones around ice, and frost halos. Despite the fundamental nature of the underlying pressure gradients, the majority of studies on these emerging phenomena have been primarily empirical. Using classical nucleation theory and Becker-Dör...

Liquid behaviors, including droplet condensation and frost melt water retention, of fins during frosting and defrosting processes on three aluminum fins with different surface characteristics under winter operating conditions of an air source heat pump were investigated. The effects of the surface characteristics, including the contact angle and the contact angle hysteresis, were analyzed. Drop...

Frost resistant mutants of Brassica oleracea var. botrytis were investigated for the presence of CBF/DREB1 and COR15a gene products and induced frost resistance. Total RNA of clones was isolated after 3 h, 6 h, 24 h and 14 d acclimation at 4 °C and proteins and free proline were isolated after 14 d acclimation. cDNA was produced using RT-PCR and the first CBF gene in B. oleracea detected and di...

The future bloom and risk of blossom frosts for Malus domestica were projected using regional climate realizations and phenological ( = impact) models. As climate impact projections are susceptible to uncertainties of climate and impact models and model concatenation, the significant horizon of the climate impact signal was analyzed by applying 7 impact models, including two new developments, o...

This paper discusses results of a simulation with the regional climate model HIRHAM for 1958-2001, driven by the ECMWF reanalysis (ERA40) data over the Arctic domain. The aim is to analyze the ability of the model to capture certain features of climate extremes derived from daily mean, maximum and minimum temperatures. For this purpose, a range of climate indices (frost days, cold and warm spel...

Frost, the solid deposition of water vapor from humid air, forms on the surface of a solid substrate when its temperature drops below the freezing point of water. In this study, we demonstrate how this natural phenomenon can be applied to develop novel nanoporous materials. The solvent annealing of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) infiltrated into nanopores induced template-directed dewetting thu...

A great number of organismiis can wvithstan(d temperatures below the freezing point of water. Many plants are even resistant against severe frosts especially during the winter months. In the late spring, during summer and in the early fall, however, they may be killed by moderate frosts. In order to gain resistance they must undergo a hardening process; in spring this resistance is lost by deha...

An earlier onset of photosynthesis in spring for boreal forest trees is predicted as the climate warms, yet the importance of soil vs air temperatures for spring recovery remains to be determined. Effects of various soil- and air-temperature conditions on spring recovery of photosynthesis in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) seedlings were assessed under controlled environmental conditions. Using w...

This study investigated experimentally and theoretically, how condensate and initial formation of a thin frost layer on the surface of the evaporator affects the evaporator performance of room air-conditioners compared to dry coil conditions. The theoretically obtained results were validated with the measured values in both wet and initial frost formation conditions and a good correlation was f...

Introduction: The first steam engines were built to raise water against gravity. The Martian seasonal frost cycle entails the evaporative removal of some 3x10 15 kg of material from the northern lowlands, its transport as gas through the atmosphere, and its depo-sition as snow or frost some 5km higher up in the south, and vice-versa : a cycle entailing considerable mechanical potential energy. ...