High tunnels, or unheated plastic greenhouses, are becoming increasingly popular among organic vegetable growers across the United States. However, the intensive production typical of these systems presents soil health challenges, including salinization due to high fertilizer or compost inputs coupled with lack of rainfall to leach salts. Legume cover crops may improve soil health in high tunnels by reducing the need for external inputs, while adding organic matter. We tested the soil health effects of a winter hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) cover crop used to replace fertilizer N in an organic tomato cropping system in high tunnels. Studies were replicated across three sites differing in climate and soil type (Kansas, Kentucky, and Minnesota) over three years. We measured vetch cover crop effects on a suite of soil health indicators, including potentially mineralizable nitrogen (PMN), permanganate oxidizable carbon, and microbial biomass. Preliminary results suggest that vetch effects on PMN were highly variable. Soil mineral N, meanwhile, was often lower in the vetch treatment than in a fertilized control, both in spring and in fall. While further work on vetch effects on crop yields is needed, our results suggest that even legume cover crops such as vetch have the potential to reduce nitrate leaching.
Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) are toxic chemical entities emitted invariably from stationary thermal operations when a trace of chlorine is present. Replacing the high-temperature destruction operations of these compounds with catalytic oxidation has led to the formulation of various potent metal oxides catalysts; among them are ceria-based materials. Guided by recent experimental measurements, this study theoretically investigates the initial steps operating in the interactions of ceria surface CeO2(111) with three CVOC model compounds, namely chloroethene (CE), chloroethane (CA) and chlorobenzene (CB). We find that, the CeO2(111) surface mediates fission of the carbon–chlorine bonds in the CE, CA and CB molecules via mo
... Show MoreIn this paper we study the effect of adding Zinc Oxide powder (ZnO) at different ratios (10%,20%,30%,40%,50%) as particles and organic dyes rhodamine B(RhB), rohdamine 6G(Rh6G) and eosin(EO) are added at different doping ratios to polystyrene (PS), to form photosensitized(PS/ZnO/dye) composites, for samples were prepared as films by spin method. Photoconductive properties are investigated. For I-V characteristic measurements, the photocurrent (Iph) and dark current (Id) are generally increased in non linear behavior with increasing light intensity and applied voltage for all composites. The photocurrent goes decrease through its maximum value at high white light intensities or high voltage for 2.4*10-
... Show MoreIn this paper,we focus on the investigated and studied of transition rate in metal/organic semiconductor interface due to quantum postulate and continuum transition theory. A theoretical model has been used to estimate the transition rate cross the interface through estimation many parameters such that ;transition energy ,driving electronic energy U(eV) ,Potential barrier ,electronic coupling ,semiconductor volume ,density ,metal work function ,electronic affinity and temperature T. The transition energy is critical facter of charge transfer through the interfaces of metal organic films device and itscontrol of charge injection and transport cross interface. However,the potential at interfa
... Show MoreA hybrid nanoparticles light emitting diode (NPs-LED) was fabricated as layers of ITO/TPD:PMMA/ Eu2O3 / Alq3 / Al, by phase segregation method using spin coating technique. The NPs-LED hybrid device emitted light and consisted of three layers in a definite order placed on the transparent conducting oxide as an ITO substrate; the first layer was made of (N, N'-bis (3-methylphenyl) -N, N'-bis (phenyl) benzidine) (TPD) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymers combined together. The second layer consisted of Europium (III) oxide (Eu2O3), while the third layer was Alq3, one of the most frequently-used electron transport layers.
The electroluminescence (EL) of N
... Show Morethe shear strength parameters of the treated and untreated gypsum soil under the effect of four soaking and drying cycles has studied in this paper, moreover examined the effect of wetting and drying cycles on the collapse potential of the soil and comparing between the behavior of the treated and untreated gypsum soil under the effect of the two conditions. Gypsum soil sample brought from Sawa lake in Al Muthana governorate with the content of gypsum 65.5%, the polyurethane polymer (PP) was used with different percentages 3, 6, and 10% to enhance the mechanical properties of gypsum soil, model was prepared to achieve four soaking and drying cycle to the samples before testing, this model consists of an Aluminum plate base with dimensions 7
... Show MoreAn experiment was carried out in a field in Husayniyah sub-district of the Holy Karbala Governorate. The research included studying the impact of the plowing depth and soil moisture on some technical indicators when using the disc plow. The 80 hp New Holland tractor was used in this experiment. Two factors were studied, the first factor is the soil moisture (12- 9%), (16-13%) and (20-17%) and the second factor was the depth of tillage (10-13) cm, (15-18) cm and (20-23) cm, which represented the secondary blocks. Bulk density, percentage of slippage and drawing force were studied. The field trials was conducted according to Split blocks in a randomized complete block design in three replicate. Consequences showed (according to the conditions
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