Frankies Gyan

Followers

Following

Public Views

I am an Agricultural/Mechanical Engineer From the Faculty of Engineering, University of Ghana and GRATIS ghana. I am currently pursing my PhD in Biosystems Engineering at Gyeongsang National University.
Supervisors: Professor R.J Bani - Faculty of Engineering, University of Ghana

less

Uploads

Papers by Frankies Gyan

Mitigating chilling stress of pepper plant (Capsicum annuum L.) using Dimethyl Ether combustion gas in controlled greenhouse

DECEMBER 2019

In this study, the possibility of enhancing chilling stress tolerance of pepper plant (Capsicum a... more In this study, the possibility of enhancing chilling stress tolerance of pepper plant (Capsicum annuum Linnaeus) during early growth stages was investigated using DME combustion gas in controlled greenhouse. The experiment was conducted to determine the performance of DME combustion gas when used as a fuel for DME burner for raising temperature and CO2 concentration in greenhouse and also to examine its effects on morphology parameters of hot pepper in winter season. To analyze the relationship between the application of DME and morphology parameters of pepper plant, three treatments (DME-1, DME-2 and DME-3) for three controlled greenhouses were assayed. DME-1 and DME-2 treatments consisted of average DME flow quantity in duct were 17.4 m3/min and 10.2 m3/min, respectively to greenhouse-1 and greenhouse-2 and no DME gas was supplied to greenhouse-3 which was left as control (DME-3). Morphology parameters such as plant height, leaf area and leaf area index (LAI), net assimilation rat...

Download

Comparison of different compost materials for growing strawberry plants

Acta Horticulturae, 2020

Analysis of water retention capacities of various compost and its relationship to strawberry moisture level

Acta Horticulturae, 2020

O3-8 : Water Drinking System Design in Pig Barns-Pig’s Neck Angle Based Approach

Drinking water is essential for the steady growth of pigs. Comparatively nipple drinker prompts m... more Drinking water is essential for the steady growth of pigs. Comparatively nipple drinker prompts more water intake while more water wastage as opposed to conventional drinking bowls. By fixing the nipple drinkers in right position can ready to diminish over half of water loss. The objective of this examination is to locate the right spot to fixing the nipple drinkers on the basis of neck movement angle of pigs. Three pig barns with group-housed environment which consists of six finishing pigs in every livestock test bed were used as model pig barns. The height to place the drinker calculated by the angle of pig. As indicated by the angle estimation, three treatments were directed with the name of T1 with 30.270 angle, T2 with 860 angle and T3 with 120.270 angle where the angle created by pig. To understand the diurnal drinking pattern of pigs to provide adequate water in peak time, thus a CMOS camera placed on the top roof of a pig barn to monitor number of visits and duration of dri...

Thermal Increment in Window Less Livestock Barn Using Radiant Heating Lamps on Photovoltaic Panels

Determination of the performance of DME combustion gas application on physiological parameters of hot pepper plant in controlled greenhouse

Predicting Common Patterns of Livestock-Vehicle Movement Using GPS and GIS: A C ase Stu dy o n Jeju Island, S outh K orea

In the past few years, although livestock-farming productivity has increased, it has been confron... more In the past few years, although livestock-farming productivity has increased, it has been confronted with economic and health issues; infectious diseases can damage livestock as well as humans living on livestock farms (Liverani et al., 2013). To minimize the damage from infectious livestock diseases at the early stages, preventive measures are needed. Airborne diseases spread from livestock farms, manure, and transportation of livestock. Certain diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and influenza can spread easily from these sources. FMD can be spread through direct contact with an infected animal or through indirect contact, such as through objects, vehicles, people, or airborne spreading (Weber et al., 2008). Since 2000, there have been four outbreaks of FMD in Korea. In 2010 and 2011, because of FMD, a total of 3.35 million pigs were slaughtered to prevent the virus from spreading (Seo et al., 2015). Every year, there are economic losses and risk to public health because...

A Study on Improving the Performance of the Planting Device of a Vegetable Transplanter

Vegetables play an important role in human nutrition, especially in Asia but also in other parts ... more Vegetables play an important role in human nutrition, especially in Asia but also in other parts of the world (Ness and Powles, 1997). According to Lee (2010), daily consumption of vegetables in Korea increased by 14.4% from 1998 to 2005. This survey provides justification for the mechanization of vegetable production to meet the growing demand. Srivastava (2000) found that mechanized cultivation, along with other improved crop production practices, can effectively increase both crop yield and quality. In mechanizing vegetable production, vegetable transplanters are important for reducing manual labor. Vegetable transplanters are used for transferring vegetable seedlings from the nursery and planting them into the soil. A vegetable transplanter has a component referred to as the planting device, and Min (2015) described it as functioning simply by dropping seedlings into the soil. At present, domestic transplanters are categorized as either semi-automatic or automatic (Park et al, 2...

Tillage Operational Analysis Based on Soil Moisture Content, Machine Speed, and Disc Space of Compact Disc Harrow

Tillage is an integral part of agricultural production and has been a prominent aspect of technol... more Tillage is an integral part of agricultural production and has been a prominent aspect of technological development in the evolution of agriculture. Gill and Vandenberg (1968) defined tillage as a process aimed at creating a desired final soil condition for seeds from some undesirable initial soil condition through the manipulation of agricultural soil. According to Abdalla (2014), soil tillage consists of breaking the compact surface of the earth to a certain depth and loosening the soil mass to obtain a good soil condition for plant growth. To ensure normal plant growth, the soil must be prepared in such conditions that plant roots have enough air, water, and nutrients (Gill and McCreery, 1960; Gill and Vandenberg, 1968; McKyes, 1985; Boydas and Turgut, 2007). Ati et al. (2015) explained that well-aggregated soil provides better moisture retention, adequate aeration, and easy penetration for plant roots. Tillage plays an important role in controlling weeds and managing crop residu...

A novel recurrent neural network approach in forecasting short term solar irradiance

ISA Transactions, 2021

Forecasting solar irradiance is of utmost importance in supplying renewable energy efficiently an... more Forecasting solar irradiance is of utmost importance in supplying renewable energy efficiently and timely. This paper aims to experiment five variants of recurrent neural networks (RNN), and develop effective and reliable 5-minute short term solar irradiance prediction models. The 5 RNN classes are long-short term memory (LSTM), gated recurrent unit (GRU), Simple RNN, bidirectional LSTM (Bi-LSTM), and bidirectional GRU (Bi-GRU); the first 3 classes are unidirectional and the last two are bidirectional RNN models. The 26 months data under consideration, exhibits extremely volatile weather conditions in Jinju city, South Korea. Therefore, after different experimental processes, 5 hyper-parameters were selected for each model cautiously. In each model, different levels of depth and width were tested; moreover, a 9-fold cross validation was applied to distinguish them against high variability in the seasonal time-series dataset. Generally the deeper architectures of the aforementioned models had significant outcomes; meanwhile, the Bi-LSTM and Bi-GRU provided more accurate predictions as compared to the unidirectional ones. The Bi-GRU model provided the lowest RMSE and highest R2 values of 46.1 and 0.958; additionally, it required 5.25*10-5 seconds per trainable parameter per epoch, the lowest incurred computational cost among the mentioned models. All 5 models performed differently over the four seasons in the 9-fold cross validation test. On average, the bidirectional RNNs and the simple RNN model showed high robustness with less data and high temporal data variability; although, the stronger architectures of the bidirectional models, deems their results more reliable.

Impacts of nipple drinker position on water intake, water wastage and drinkingduration of pigs

TURKISH JOURNAL OF VETERINARY AND ANIMAL SCIENCES, 2020

Water determines the life quality of pigs, however, adequate measures need to be taken in order t... more Water determines the life quality of pigs, however, adequate measures need to be taken in order to reduce wastage while the animals are drinking. The current study hypothesized and examined a suitable position at which to fix the nipple drinker to provide sufficient drinking water to pigs while also limiting water wastage. Additionally, this study describes both the drinking pattern and drinking duration of pigs. The height to place the drinker was calculated based on the neck movement of the pigs (neck movement angle, NMA). According to the NMA, 3 independent treatments were investigated with angles placed at clockwise 30°, 0°, and counter clockwise 30°. These positions will be correspondingly referred to as T1, T2, and T3, respectively. To understand the diurnal drinking pattern and drinking duration, along with each pig's drinking cycle, the number of visits to the drinker was recorded with a camera. The outcome shows that T3 had less water wastage and a higher average daily gain compared to T1 and T2. Further, the number of visits to the drinker and drinking duration were affected by the treatments. The research affirmed that the nipple drinker with a counter clockwise 30° angle at a proper height is the best at reducing water wastage for finishing pigs. Correspondingly, the T3 treatment might create opportunities to drink more water in group housed pigs.

Download

Assessment of the Influence of Environmental Variables on Pig’s Body Temperature using ANN and MLR Models

Indian Journal of Animal Research, 2020

An experiment was conducted to find out the most influential factors affecting pig’s body tempera... more An experiment was conducted to find out the most influential factors affecting pig’s body temperature (PBT). For this purpose, eight environmental parameters and three growth related factors were considered as variables. Among these factors, seven environmental parameters, including temperature, CO2, temperature-humidity index inside and outside the pig’s barn and relative humidity inside the barn were taken as input variables for artificial neural networks (ANN) and multiple linear regression (MLR) models due to their good correlation (r ³ 0.5) with PBT. The results showed that ANN and MLR models had the lowest R2 values (0.81 and 0.69, respectively) and the highest RMSE (1.17 and 1.48, respectively) when they were run without temperature-humidity index; however, the maximum R2 (0.90 and 0.75, respectively) and minimum RMSE (0.92 and 1.40, respectively) were found without relative humidity. Based on the results, the temperature-humidity index could represent an important indicator ...

Download

Modeling of Ambient Environment and Thermal Status Relationship of Pig’s Body in a Pig Barn

Indian Journal of Animal Research, 2020

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of temperature model (T model), relative ... more An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of temperature model (T model), relative humidity model (H model), temperature-humidity model (TH model), and temperature-humidity index model (THI model) in predicting pig’s body surface temperature (PBT). Infrared Sensor (IR) was used to measure PBT at different locations: left side (LS), right side (RS), forehead (FH) and back side (BS). Ambient environmental parameters inside the room such as temperature (ART), relative humidity (RRH) and CO2 concentration were measured using livestock environment management system (LEMS). THI model was selected as the best model in making more accurate prediction in both training (R2=0.72, RMSE=0.80, RSE=0.26 and MAPE=2.08) and validation (R2=0.74, RMSE=1.10, RSE=0.40 and MAPE=2.80) stages. For more precise modeling, apart from temperature and humidity data other environmental factors inside pig’s barn (CO2 concentration, wind speed, air pressure etc.) as well as growth factors (body weigh...

Download

A Partially Amended Hybrid Bi-GRU—ARIMA Model (PAHM) for Predicting Solar Irradiance in Short and Very-Short Terms

Energies, 2020

Solar renewable energy (SRE) applications are substantial in eradicating the rising global energy... more Solar renewable energy (SRE) applications are substantial in eradicating the rising global energy shortages and reversing the approaching environmental apocalypse. Hence, effective solar irradiance forecasting models are crucial in utilizing SRE efficiently. This paper introduces a partially amended hybrid model (PAHM) by the implementation of a new algorithm. The algorithm innovatively utilizes bi-directional gated unit (Bi-GRU), autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and naive decomposition models to predict solar irradiance in 5-min and 60-min intervals. Meanwhile, the models’ generalizability strengths would be tested under an 11-fold cross-validation and are further classified according to their computational costs. The dataset consists of 32 months’ solar irradiance and weather conditions records. A fundamental result of this study was that the single models (Bi-GRU and ARIMA) outperformed the hybrid models (PAHM, classical hybrid model) in the 5-min predictions, neg...

Download

Assessment of the Effect of Dimethyl Ether (DME) Combustion on Lettuce and Chinese Cabbage Growth in Greenhouse

Protected Horticulture and Plant Factory, 2019

The experiment was conducted to determine the performance of DME combustion gas when used as a fu... more The experiment was conducted to determine the performance of DME combustion gas when used as a fuel for DME burner for raising temperature and CO 2 concentration in greenhouse and also to examine its effects on chlorophyll content, and fresh and dry weight of lettuce and Chinese cabbage. DME-1 and DME-2 treatments consisted of average DME flow quantity in duct were 17.4 m 3 min-1 and 10.2 m 3 min-1 respectively to greenhouse-1 and greenhouse-2 and no DME gas was supplied to greenhouse-3 which was left as control (DME-3). DME supply times were 0.5 hr day-1 , 1 hr day-1 , 1:30 hrs day-1 and 2 hrs day-1 on week 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Chlorophyll content and fresh and dry weight of lettuce and Chinese cabbage were measured for each treatment and analyzed through analysis of variance with a significance level of P<0.05. The result of the study showed that CO 2 concentration increased up to 265% and 174% and the level of temperature elevated 4.8 o C and 3.1 o C in greenhouse-1 and 2, respectively as compared to greenhouse-3 due to application of DME combustion gas. Although, the same crop management practices were provided in greenhouse-1, 2 and 3 at a same rate, the highest change (p<0.05) of chlorophyll content, fresh weight and dry weight were found from the DME-1 treatment, followed by DME-2. As a result, DME combustion gas that raised the level of temperature and CO 2 concentration in the greenhouse-1 and greenhouse-2, might have an effect on growth of lettuce and Chinese cabbage. At end of experiment, the highest fresh and dry weight of lettuce and Chinese cabbage were measured in greenhouse-1 and followed by greenhouse-2. Similarly chlorophyll content of greenhouse-1 and greenhouse-2 were more compared to greenhouse-3. In general, DME was not producing any harmful gas during its combustion period, therefore it can be used as an alternative to conventional fuel such as diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for both heating and CO 2 supply in winter season. Moreover, endorsed quantify of DME combustion gas for a specified crop can be applied to greenhouse to improve the plant growth and enhance yield.

Download

Regression Analysis to Estimate Morphology Parameters of Pepper Plant in a Controlled Greenhouse System

Journal of Biosystems Engineering, 2019

Regression analysis to predict growth indices of plant is essential for understanding the relatio... more Regression analysis to predict growth indices of plant is essential for understanding the relationship between the total leaf area, production of fresh weight and dry matter, and expansion of the plant growth. An experiment was conducted to develop regression models for estimating leaf area, fresh weight, and dry weight from measurements of plant height at the vegetative phase of hot pepper (Capsicum annuum Linnaeus) grown in biodegradable pots in a greenhouse. Five models were evaluated and compared: linear regression model, two-order polynomial regression model (P. order 2), three-order polynomial regression model (P. order 3), four-order polynomial regression model (P. order 4), and power regression model. The models were compared using the coefficient of determination (R2), Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r), root mean square error (RMSE), relative standard error (RSE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Power regression involving plant height demonstrated the highest R-square among the other models with minimum error estimate for the expected leaf area (R2 > 0.96, r > 0.98, RMSE 0.98, r > 0.99, RMSE 0.97, r > 0.98, RMSE < 0.03, RSE < 0.02, and MAPE < 11.7) of the plant considering both the fit and degree of adjustment, and the interpretation of the model. This study creates scope for further experimentation on various species of crops by changing management practices under different environmental conditions to enhance knowledge and understanding of the growing patterns of plants.

Analysis of Draft Force Requirement of a Compact Disc Harrow and Model Development for Future Predictions

Journal of Biosystems Engineering, 2019

PurposeDuring tillage operations, draft force contributes hugely to the operational cost. Accurat... more PurposeDuring tillage operations, draft force contributes hugely to the operational cost. Accurate knowledge of draft force (DF) requirement for tillage implements is a useful tool for machinery selection, matching of implements to tractor, etc. The goal of this research was to measure the draft force of a compact disc harrow and analyze the effect of soil moisture content (SMC) and machine speed on draft force. Also, another aim is to develop a model equation to predict draft force requirement of compact disc harrow.MethodsA EWX 10000F winch was used to provide the draft (pull) force which was powered by a 24 V DC battery. The draft force was measured using a load cell which transmitted the measured values to an AND ad 4532B indicator. The draft force of the compact disc harrow was measured at three different levels of SMC: low SMC (5–7%, 9–11%, 13–15%); medium SMC (25–27%, 29–31%, 33–35%); and High SMC (40–42%, 44–46%, 48–50%) with machine speed (MS) of 0.06 m/s, 0.09 m/s, and 0.12 m/s.ResultsThe results obtained were statistically analyzed and it showed that the lowest draft force occurred at 26% SMC with a force of about 658 N. A multi-variable regression equation was developed after the regression analysis. The regression equation DF = 466.91 + 6.25*(SMC) + 2952.1*(MS) was selected as the best model for predicting draft force. This equation was verified using the Bland–Altman plot, the t test analysis, and the standard error analysis.ConclusionThe results of the verification methods proved that the suggested model can be used for predicting draft force requirement of a compact disc harrow.

Influence of aeration rate and reactor shape on the composting of poultry manure and sawdust

Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2019

To achieve successful composting, all the biological, chemical and physical characteristics need ... more To achieve successful composting, all the biological, chemical and physical characteristics need to be considered. The investigation of our study were based on various physicochemical properties, i.e., temperature, ammonia concentration, carbon dioxide concentration, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), C/N ratio, organic matter (OM) content, moisture content, bacterial population, and seed germination index (GI), during the composting of poultry manure and sawdust for different aeration rates and reactor shapes. Three cylindrical-shaped and three rectangular-shaped pilot-scale 60-L composting reactors were used in this study, with aeration rates of low 0.3, mid 0.6, and high 0.9 L min −1 kg −1 DM(dry matter). All parameters were monitored over 21 days of composting. Results showed that the low aeration rate (0.3 L min −1 kg −1 DM) corresponded to a higher and longer thermophilic phase than did the high aeration rate (0.9 L min −1 kg −1 DM). Ammonia and carbon dioxide volatilization were directly related to the temperature profile of the substrate, with significant differences between the low and high aeration rates during weeks 2 and 3 of composting but no significant difference observed during week 1. At the end of our study, the final values of pH, EC, moisture content, C/N ratio, and organic matter in all compost reactors were lower than those at the start. The growth of mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria were directly correlated with mesophilic and thermophilic condition of the compost. The final GI of the cylindrical reactor with an airflow rate of 0.3 L min −1 kg −1 DM was 82.3%, whereas the GIs of the other compost reactors were below 80%. In this study, compost of a cylindrical reactor with a low aeration rate (0.3 L min −1 kg −1 DM) was more stable and mature than the other reactors.

Download

Composting of chicken manure with a mixture of sawdust and wood shavings under forced aeration in a closed reactor system

International Journal of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture, 2018

Purpose This study aimed to achieve successful composting and aeration rate and to optimize the c... more Purpose This study aimed to achieve successful composting and aeration rate and to optimize the carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratio to provide favourable conditions for the process. In the current experiment, investigation were made on variations in physico-chemical properties, i.e., temperature, ammonia and carbon dioxide emissions, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM) and seed germination index (GI%) of composting chicken manure mixed with sawdust and wood shavings under different aeration rates in a closed reactor system. Methods Three cylindrical reactors (total volume, 60 L) were used with three aeration rates of 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 L min −1 kg −1 OM. The air was dispensed from the bottom of an air compressor. The ambient and compost temperature were monitored thrice daily over 30 days of composting. Results The highest temperatures were 56.9, 55.8 and 48.1 °C, with 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 L min −1 kg −1 OM aeration rates, respectively. At the end of composting, lowest ammonia and carbon dioxide emissions were observed with 0.25 L min −1 kg −1 OM aeration, indicating that this compost was more stable than other composts. The lowest GI was recorded on day 30 with 0.75 L min −1 kg −1 OM aeration, indicating severe phytotoxicity in the substrate. Maximum OM degradation occurred with 0.25 L min −1 kg −1 OM aeration. Conclusion This study, therefore, suggested that 0.25 L min −1 kg −1 OM aeration in the composing of the chicken manure mixed with sawdust and wood shavings in closed a reactor system provided the most favourable conditions for maturation.

Download

Prognostic effect of body mass index to mortality in Korean older persons

Geriatrics & gerontology international, Jan 7, 2017

Body mass index (BMI) is regarded as a predictor of life expectancy and a determinant of mortalit... more Body mass index (BMI) is regarded as a predictor of life expectancy and a determinant of mortality. However, the effect of age on BMI-related mortality remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to examine the prognostic effect of BMI to mortality risk among Korean older persons. Data were collected from the Korean National Health Insurance Services' Senior Cohort database. This study analyzed the data of 79 341 men and 91 298 women aged ≥65 years who underwent health examinations in the 2007 fiscal year. Individual mortality was identified 5 years after 2008. The participants were stratified into seven groups according to basal BMI. Hazard ratios of death were calculated through Cox proportional hazards model after adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, exercise, alcohol intake and income. During the 5-year follow up, 11 651 men and 7 235 women died. In both sexes, a lower BMI had a higher hazard ratio (HR), but the trend of increasing HR at high BMI was not clear. For ...

Download

Frankies Gyan

Uploads

Papers by Frankies Gyan

Log In