Explore the vast range of titles available.

Maize can be sown in spring and fall seasons in Pakistan under maize–maize cropping system. Due to seasonal variability in meteorological parameters, optimization of planting time for maize hybrids is vital to harvest improved productivity in maize-maize system. This study was designed to explore the effect of diverse sowing dates on phenology, growing degree days (GDDs), photo-thermal-units (PTUs) and helio-thermal-units (HTUs), and its impact on radiation-use-efficiency (RUE) and grain yield (GY) in different maize hybrids under maize-maize cropping system. Two-year experiments were conducted to optimize planting dates for hybrids during 2016 and 2017. In spring, three hybrids were sown on Jan 15, Feb 5, Feb 25, Mar 15 and Apr 05. During fall, three hybrids were planted on Jun 15, Jul 05, Jul 25, Aug 15 and Sept 05. Results showed that spring early (Jan 15), while fall late (Jul 25) sowing took more days to complete 50% tasseling, silking and maturity. However, maize sown on Feb 05 and Jul 25 accumulated more GDDs to attain 50% tasseling, silking and maturity. Maize sown on Feb 05 and Jul 25 had more leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), RUE and GY, which was linked with higher accrual of GDDs, PTUs and HTUs. Likewise, hybrids P-33M15 and P-30R50, during spring and fall observed higher values of all above cited traits. Moreover, positive-correlation was witnessed among days taken to complete different phenophases, LAI, CGR and 1000-grain weight, total biomass, GY and RUE. However, higher GY and RUE was obtained in spring than fall. In conclusion, maize sown on Feb 05 and Jul 25 using hybrids P-33M15 and P-30R50, during spring and fall crops, respectively produced more GY and higher RUE due to more accumulation of GDDs, PTUs and HTUs. Thus the spring season seemed more productive than fall season under maize-maize cropping system.

Field experiments were conducted to study the effect of weather variability on mustard crop at Research Farm of Agromet Research Centre, SKUAST-J, Chatha, Jammu during rabi seasons of 2010- 11 to 2012-13. Treatments were comprised of three sowing dates (9th October, 24th October and 8th November) and two cultivars of mustard (RL-1359 and RSPR-01). The results revealed that days taken tophysiological maturity and yield reduced significantly with delayed sowing. Mustard crop sown on 9th October utilised more thermal, and heat units as compared to 24th October and 8th November sown crops. The shortening of the duration of the crop sown late was due to forced maturity because of higher temperature during reproductive phase of the crop. Heat use efficiency (HUE) was found to be higher for earlier sown crop and it decreased with delay in sowing. Correlation studies indicated that lower night temperature during vegetative phase is favourable and higher day temperature during reproductive phase is not favourable for mustard yield.

Field experiment was conducted during rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15 to study the thermal requirement for Indian mustard at research farm, College of Agriculture, Hisar,Haryana (latitude 290 10’ N and longitude 750 36’ E Latitude). The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications consisted four dates of sowing (Oct15th&25th and Nov5th& 15th) as main plots and five nitrogen levels(0 (Control), 40, 60, 80 and 100 kg N ha-1) as sub plots treatments. Results revealed that duration of phenological stages andthermal unit during days to 50 % flowering to maturity increased with successive delay in sowing. October 15 sowing crop produced significantly higher total dry matter accumulation, more number of siliquae, higher seed yield, and biological yield as compared to October 25, November 5 and November 15. Among the doses of nitrogen, 100 kg Nha-1 exhibited significantly higher total dry matter accumulation, heat use efficiency, more number of siliquae plant-1, higher 1000 seed weight , seed yield and biological yield followed by 80, 60, 40 and 0 kg N. 

A field experiment was carried out during the summer seasons of 2015 and 2016 in clay loamy soil of ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna to study the phenology, accumulation of growing degree days (GDD), heliothermal units (HTU), heat use efficiency (HUE), heliothermal use efficiency (HTUE) and performance of five sorghum cultivars including 3 hybrids (CSH 13 ,CSH16 andCSH 30) and 2 varieties (CSV 23 and SPV 462) were grown under two sowing dates viz.16th February and 3rd March in split-plot design. For our study purpose and as per package of practices, February 16 is considered as early sowing and March 3 as timely sowing condition. It was observed that GDDs and HTU reduced significantly by 45.9 oC days and 663.6 oC days hr respectively, in early sowing. The sorghum cultivars SPV 462 and CSH 13 accumulated markedly higher GDDs and HTUs. On mean basis, cv. CSH 16 produced significantly higher grain yield (5.51 tha-1) followed by CSH 13 (4.93 t ha-1). The significant reduction in grain yield was recorded in earlier sowing date than the timely sown crop. The phenothermal index gradually increases from emergence to maturity in all the tested cultivars irrespective of sowing date. Sorghum hybrid CSH 16 showed better performance in terms of HUE and HTUE followed by CSH 13 and SPV 462. Varieties giving higher yield, HUE and HTUE are identified under the varying growing environments, so as to suggest the appropriate sowing time of sorghum cultivars in middle the middle Indo-Gangetic Plains.

Field study was conducted to know the effect of thermal environment on different phenostages, grain yield andyield attributes of fababean (Vicia fabaL.) during rabi season of 2013-14 and 2014-15 at ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, (Bihar). Fababean was sown four dates (Nov. 1, 15 & 30, Dec. 15) with four varieties(Local, Vikranta, Gaurav and Suraksha).Yield of fababean varieties was strongly responsive to the thermal units/growing degree days (GDD) accumulated during emergence to maturity. Results revealed that duration of phenostages and thermal units varied with the dates of sowing. November 01 sown crop produced significantly higher number of seeds pod-1 (3.21), higher seed yield (3.13 t ha-1) and biological yield (6.30 t ha-1) compared to other sowing dates. Among varieties, Gaurav exhibited significantly higher total dry matter production, heat use efficiency (2.32 kg ha-1°C day), more number of seeds pod-1 (3.03) and higher seed yield (3.47t ha-1) followed by Suraksha, Vikranta and Local.

Heat exchangers, condensers plays a vital role in any kind of power cycle like modified Rankin cycle, these components involves transfer of both sensible and latent heat and have great influence over the power plant performance. The condenser employed in MTPS involves transfer of latent heat into steam. Yet it as to induce a phase change in thereby forming water. Increase in the effectiveness of condenser resulted in the increase of vacuum in the condenser. Thereby work done by steam is increased and coal saving (per ton of steam production) is achieved. This condensation process results in the formation of sludge’s (temporary) and (permanent). Along the inner periphery of the condenser tubes. These permanent scales have decreased thermal conductivity and inhibit the heat transfer rate. The more the thickness of the scale the less the heat is removed from the steam. This scale formation limits the life of the condenser tubes with maximum performance. In this project the thickness of the scale formed in the condenser tubes is calculated theoretically and the performance is analysed before and after scale formation in the condenser. Different materials which involve less scale formation, different ways of reducing scales and various scale removing methods are suggested.

This paper expands the research around a recently proposed method to reduce the search space region for thermal unit commitment problems. The importance of such techniques comes from the combinatorial explosion regarding the variables of the problem when there are a large quantity of generating units in the system. The proposed heuristic approach utilizes sensitivity indices to gather information about the system and fix many of the binary decision variables over the planning horizon. This work further explores the method by demonstrating its effectiveness in large-scale systems subjected to ramp constraints. Despite the significantly increased complexity, the results of this paper indicate that the method can achieve high quality solutions notably faster than other approaches from the literature.

Given the combinatorial explosion related to the operation decisions in the thermal unit commitment problem, this paper presents a new strategy to reduce the search space and to start the multi-modal optimization process. To achieve such goals, a relevance matrix is obtained to indicate how important each generating unit is at each hour of the operational planning. This matrix is generated through the results of a constructive heuristic based on sensitivity indexes that account for operational and economic characteristics of the generating units and of the system under planning. The proposed method is shown to reduce the complexity of the problem, thus decreasing the combinatorial explosion and, consequently, the computational burden. Its effectiveness is verified by performing optimizations with and without its utilization. The results achieved with the proposed space-reduction approach enable solutions that present good quality. Furthermore, these solutions are retrieved with significantly reduced processing time.

In this work, a new solar cooling system that is powered by a concentrated photovoltaic thermal module is presented. Given the intermittent nature of solar energy, the essence of this system lies in its capability to offer continuous cooling. Furthermore, the proposed cooling system is versatile in operation, with three alternative modes available depending on the user’s demands. Two operating scenarios of the system are presented. In the first scenario, thermal energy is utilized for cooling during the daytime, while electric energy is stored as compressed air for nighttime use. In the second scenario, both thermal and electric energies are employed for cooling during periods of high demand. The system is studied under different evaporator temperatures, various ambient temperatures, and different solar intensities. The results show that at an evaporation temperature of 4 °C, the system can provide continuous cooling, generating up to 10.24 kW of cooling power during the daytime and up to 7.66 kW during the nighttime, with an overall coefficient of performance of 0.612.