Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT This study aimed to characterize the performance of three electrochemical ammonia sensor modules (MQ137, FECS44-100, and MIX2801) in comparison to standard equipment (iPMU) under atmospheric conditions of an open Compost Barn (CB) during the winter period in Brazil. The study was conducted in Cajuri (MG) over three days, collecting data from 06 am to 05 pm on ammonia concentration, temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity in the CB, specifically at the center of the bedding area. The evaluation period was divided into three parts: Period 1 (06 to 09 am); Period 2 (10 am to 01 pm); and Period 3 (02 pm to 05 pm). Recorded data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. It was observed that the greatest discrepancy among the readings occurred in Period 1 (for all sensor modules and the iPMU), due to air saturation conditions. In Periods 2 and 3, readings from the sensor modules closely matched those recorded by the iPMU. Throughout all periods, the MIX2801 showed the most significant discrepancies compared to the iPMU, whereas the MQ137 was the closest to the standard equipment. This finding suggests that the MQ137 is a viable option for use in CB facilities.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT This study aimed to explore the efficacy of utilizing wastewater from fish farming tanks for fertigating lettuce crops as an alternative to inappropriate disposal methods. A randomized block experimental design was employed in a 3 x 8 factorial scheme, comprising three treatments: two varying percentages of wastewater (50% and 100%), alongside a control treatment employing only well water, with eight replications each. The trial was conducted in a field under protected cultivation, within a low tunnel-type structure. Biometric parameters of the lettuce plants were analyzed, including stem diameter, plant height, stem length, head diameter, root length, leaf fresh matter, leaf dry matter, stem fresh matter, stem dry matter, root fresh matter, root dry matter, leaf count, fresh shoot mass, and commercial productivity. Significant results were observed with the application of 100% wastewater treatment up to 20 days after transplanting (DAT), particularly for the biometric variables: plant head diameter (average 37.4 cm) and leaf count (average 13.7 units) at 36 DAT, of crisp lettuce Grand Rapids loose leaf seedlings. The reuse of wastewater during the experiment showed promising potential in replacing chemical fertilizers throughout the crop cycle. This practice facilitates the repurposing of water from fish farming, providing farmers with an alternative income source during the fish development phase, and mitigates improper wastewater disposal.

Resumo em Inglês:

HIGHLIGHTS For farmers growing fresh corn, it is essential to promote a harvester with a high-pressure impurity removal device. The device is effective for both stalk crushing and impurity removal. The provision of high-pressure impurity technology can reduce the difficulty of processing subsequent products associated with fresh corn in order to reduce costs, while at the same time speeding up the decomposition time of stalk in the field and creating good growing conditions for crop.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT Cutting oil palm fronds is an important activity in the harvesting and upkeep of this tree, and this is currently done manually, meaning that it is subject to uncertain labor supplies and low efficiency. Manual cutting is primarily done with a harvesting knife, using a linear motion. Mechanization of this action has been achieved based on an oscillating cutting motion, which is prone to high levels of vibration and inefficiency due to the accelerating and decelerating motion of the oscillating mass. There is therefore a need for a technique based on a circular cutting motion, in order to reduce the power consumption of the mechanized cutter, but there is a lack of in-depth research on the mechanics of the cutting force for palm oil fronds using a circular saw. In this study, we explore the effects of the feed rate, rotation speed, frond width, and entrance angle on the cutting force when using a circular saw, and an equation relating these parameters is derived to calculate the cutting force based on experimental results. No significant difference is found between cutting force models for oil palm fronds (0.92 < R2 < 0.99, P < 0.05) under different cutting conditions.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT The shape of a spray droplet from a flat-fan nozzle in the plant protection sector is similar to a ‘U shape’, the middle particle size being small but the diameter of both sides being too large. So, flat-fan nozzles have the defects of wide droplet size and poor uniformity of droplet size. This paper simulates and tests the impingement nozzle, based on the coupling effect of the jet and impinging stream, so as to improve the droplet size uniformity and droplet spectrum. After jet impingement, it was found that the droplet size of the spray fan surface of the impingement nozzle showed the characteristics of large, uniform and smaller sides. This was beneficial in solving the uneven distribution of droplet size distribution in the field operation of the sprayer. The droplet distribution of the impingement nozzle is more concentrated, forming a narrow droplet spectrum. The experimental results are in good agreement with the results of numerical simulations and theoretical analysis. The impingement nozzle solves the shortcomings of wider fan droplets and smaller particle size uniformity, and provides feasible technical support for developing intelligent precision spray equipment.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT Rice pest detection technology plays a crucial role in enabling food production, ensuring ecological balance, supporting sustainable agriculture, and promoting the health of farmers. However, existing technology is faced with challenges such as low detection accuracy, high computational complexity, and large model sizes, making it unsuitable for mobile deployment. This paper presents MDP-YOLO, a lightweight rice pest detection model based on the YOLOv5s model. It includes improvements such as the use of ShuffleNetV2 as the backbone network to significantly reduce the number of parameters and complexity of the model; the introduction of GhostConv to replace redundant convolutional layers, in order to further reduce the computational complexity and size; the integration of a large-scale feature extraction layer to enhance the ability of the algorithm to detect small rice pest objects; and the use of CBAM to increase the focus on the regions of interest. Tests on collected datasets show that the modified MDP-YOLO model increases the mean average precision by 5.5% and reduces the FLOPs, parameters, and model size by 72.4%, 89.2%, and 70.1%, respectively, compared to the original YOLOv5s model. Ablation experiments indicate that MDP-YOLO gives superior detection rice pest detection performance compared to other algorithms. MDP-YOLO can effectively detect rice pests, and provides theoretical and technical support for the deployment of lightweight rice pest detection models in practical scenarios.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT Sugarcane is one of Brazil's leading crops, and the transshipment harvesting operation represents a significant portion of operating costs. Among the primary machines used in harvesting is the tractor-transshipment set, with considerable energy demands. This study focused on evaluating the gear selection effect in an agricultural tractor on operational performance and costs during the sugarcane transshipment operation. The treatments consisted of four operational work gears at different engine speeds: r1 – 1150 rpm, r2 – 1230 rpm, r3 – 1360 rpm, and r4 – 1500 rpm on the engine. The analyzed variables were volumetric and specific fuel consumption, operational efficiency, and operational cost. The variables were adapted from ASABE (2011) methodology, and the data were submitted to parametric statistics and regression analysis. The rotation engine selection in tractors directly affected fuel consumption with positive angular coefficients and r2 between 0.92-0.96. Fuel consumption reduces by 37.5%, adopting 1150 rpm compared to 1500 rpm rotation. The highest rotation (1500 rpm - r4) increased the volumetric and productive fuel consumption, enabling savings up to reduced fuel cost by 1.08 US$ ha -1 . Thus, training sugarcane transshipment operators is essential to optimize the production process efficiency and reduce costs.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT Artificial Intelligence has been widely applied in data prediction for better decision making and process optimization. In the post-harvest, the control of biotic and abiotic factors is fundamental for the conservation of seed quality. Meanwhile, the tetrazolium test has been used to evaluate seed quality, however, with several limitations that can lead to evaluation errors. Thus, machine learning models can be an alternative to predict the quality of soybean seeds, with gains in the speed of obtaining results in relation to laboratory analysis methods, making the processes more robust and with low operational cost. With this, the aim of this study was to identify the best machine learning model for predicting mechanical damage, vigor and viability of soybean seeds during storage, depending on different conditions (10, 15 and 25 ºC), packaging (with coating and uncoated) and storage times (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months). M5P decision tree (M5P) and Random Forest (RF) models showed the best performance for predicting seed vigor (r = 0.75 and MAE = 10.0), and viability (r = 0.85 and MAE = 5.1), and mechanical damage to seeds (r = 0.64 and MAE = 11.2). It was concluded that the Random Forest (RF) model was the one that best predicted the results of soybean seed quality, with a more simplified and agile analysis for the development of vigor and viability of soybean seeds in storage.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT In the Prata watershed there are units corresponding to the Pleistocene Terraces and the Fluvium-Lagoon Sediments. This watershed is inserted almost entirely in the area of plateaus (Tabuleiros) with altitudes of 10 to 100 meters, and in areas with altitudes of 2 to 10 meters in the area of floodplains and fluvio-lagoon terraces. The present work aimed to characterize and classify soils in the Brazilian Soil Classification System - SiBCS and correlate them with the IUSS Working Group WRB-FAO (in parentheses), besides evidence some soil-landscape relations, that occur in Pleistocene terraces and fluvium-lagoon sediments in the Prata watershed, located in the ecological reserve of Dois Irmãos State Park in Recife – PE, Brazil. Soil samples were used to perform physical, chemical and mineralogical analysis in laboratory. Watershed delimitation, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), slope map, soil map and slope x soil map were obtained and studied. The soils are quite acidic and have a very low natural fertility, with the Latossolos (Ferralsols) predominating in the landscape. The silt and clay fractions of the studied Argissolos (Acrisols) and Latossolos (Ferralsols) presented quartz and kaolinite as the main component. In the profile of Neossolo Quartzarênico (Arenosols) only quartz was identified as a component of the silt and clay fractions. The kaolinitic mineralogy of the clay fraction is consistent with the environment of its formation, that is, hot and humid. There is no relationship between the colors of soils and their exposure to the sun on the slopes where they occur. The occurrence of a sandy and whitish horizon between the litter and the A horizon, is not foreseen in the norms and criteria adopted in the Brazilian Soil Classification System - SiBCS.

Resumo em Inglês:

ABSTRACT Brazil stands as a significant economic power in agribusiness, particularly in poultry farming. Broiler chicken production has been developing and evolving in the country for many decades. From these advancements, studies have shown that lighting can be directly related to the well-being and development of the birds. Proper lighting programs can enhance the birds' production capacity while providing a pleasant quality of life. This aids in avoiding psychological disturbances caused by poor environmental conditions, such as cannibalism or skeletal malformation. In this context, this paper aims to present some historical data about Brazil and the onset of poultry farming, the relationship between poultry farming and lighting, and some concepts related to lighting.