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Soil moisture monitoring and control are essential aspects for precision agriculture. The paper presents the designing and calibration of a low-cost soil moisture monitoring system. The system includes 28 capacitive sensors, connected to an Arduino based data acquisition system, allowing simultaneous multi-point measurements. The calibration process was conducted on six reference points within the moisture content range of 0-25%. The calibration results indicate a non-linear variation and reveal a significant deviation between the sensors leading to the determination of individual variation curves for each sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vehicle market at the European level (and also elsewhere) has registered a high dynamic for the adoption of electric vehicles as the future means of transport. Government policies and decisions fully support this move, but there are still massive barriers to entry into the EV market due to consumer attitudes and perceptions. Consumer attitudes and perceptions will be decisive in the market success of future electric vehicle models, given that consumers are particularly interested in the vehicles' technical and dynamic performance. The pressure from customers' demands for performance leaves its mark not only on the increase of performance and technical parameters, but directly contributes to the generation of interdependence between these parameters. This article presents a comparative statistical analysis of 203 electric vehicle models (from various construction categories), present in the European vehicle market (between the years 2019 and 2022), to highlight the direct and indirect links (interdependencies) between technical and performance parameters depending on the constructive class (type). The goal of this article is to determine whether there is a relationship between the three key performance metrics for electric vehicles—autonomy, top speed, and acceleration—and five significant technical/constructive metrics for these vehicles—battery capacity, energy efficiency, electric motor power, fast charging speed, and vehicle weight (brand and year of availability in the market). Based on the analyzed data, it can be stated that the design and construction of an electric vehicle model currently takes into account both performance and technical parameters, with a strong link between the weight of the vehicle and the energy capacity of the battery (+0.687) being highlighted and also the relationship between autonomy and vehicle weight (+0.355). The conclusions of this study can be used in the future by manufacturers for the development of new models of electric vehicles (new generic platforms and chassis) by classifying/standardizing these vehicles into specific classes, corresponding to the requirements of different classes of consumers or identifying constructive solutions specific to each type of consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental data achieved with the Air Quality Monitoring Station in Dej city, Romania, reveal a normal state of particulate matter (PM) emissions below the standard limit in April and May 2017. These airborne particles contain a large amount of mineral fractions such as: quartz, calcite, clays (e.g., kaolinite and muscovite), and lepidocrocite. Their size varies in a wide range: from 1 to 200 μm for floating particles (FP) and from 1 to 10 μm for PM10 observed by optical microscopy and SEM. The in vivo testing shows the ability of PM10 to penetrate into the upper respiratory tract. Mineral fractions were found in nasal exudates. At a shorter exposure time (e.g., 1 minute), only PM10 particles were observed. Particles larger than PM10 were found in nasal exudates at prolonged exposure for up to 3 minutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tranyilvanian Plain is considered as an area with a low capacity to adapt to climate changes, monitoring the climate and implementing the adaption measures being essential for the development of certain durable agricultural technologies. The monitoring and variability of climate elements were achieved during 2008 (March) - 2014, through a network of 10 HOBO stations which store soil temperature data electronically (at 10, 30, 50 cm deep) and air (at 1 m hight), soil moisture (at 10 cm depth) and are equipped with rain gauges. The purpose of the paper is to establish the tendency in the evolution of the soil thermal and hydric regime, to predict and identify the climate tendencies from the Transylvanian Plain. The thermal regime of soils in this area is mesic, the differences between the annual averages of summer temperatures and the average of winter temperatures 50 cm deep in the soil are ranging between 12.81- 20.01°C. The evolution of temperatures at the soil level during 2008-2014 indicate the clear tendencies of rising temperatures at the soil surface (0 cm). The coefficients of linear correlation among the data lines analyzed indicate a rising synchronous evolution of the annual average temperature, with values of the correlation indices of 0.52-0.81. The same linear tendency in evolution of rising of the annual average temperature is recorded also in the case of temperatures from 10 cm and 30 cm deep in the soil. The evolution of temperatures in the air during 2008-2014 shows slightly rising evolutionary tendencies. The evolution of rainfall during 2008-2014 shows a falling linear tendency of them, the highest values of the annual average is recorded in 2010 (631 mm), and the lowest quantities of rainfall were recorded in 2012 (263.9 mm). The value of the correlation coefficient associated to the falling evolution tendency of rainfall is r = -0.51. The multiannual average of rainfall from the Transylvanian Plain is 466.52 mm. From the analysis of the statistical relation between rainfall and soil moisture, the calculated correlation coefficient has a value of r = 0.92 which indicates a direct and positive causal relation between the two parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]