Lighting and noise levels in compost dairy barns with natural and forced ventilation

R.R. Andrade¹*, I.F.F. Tinôco¹, F.A. Damasceno², M. Barbari³*, D.A. Valente¹, M.O. Vilela¹, C.F. Souza¹, L. Conti³ and G. Rossi³

¹Federal University of Viçosa, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Av. Peter Henry Rolfs, s/n Campus University of Viçosa, BR 36570-900, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
²Federal University of Lavras, Department of Engineering, BR37200-000 Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil
³University of Florence, Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, Via San Bonaventura, 13, 50145 Firenze, Italy
*Correspondence: matteo.barbari@unifi.it, rafaella.andrade@ufv.br

Abstract:

The housing system, called compost barn, is attracting the interest of several farmers. It allows dairy cows to remain in free movement inside a shed without any containment partitions like those used in freestall barns. In Brazil the compost barns with open sides are very common, but recently some closed barns with climatic control systems have been implemented. The objective of this work was to evaluate and compare lighting and noise levels in an open compost barn with natural ventilation and in a closed compost barn with a climate control system. The latter one is based on tunnel ventilation: inlet of air trough evaporative cellulose panels and exit through fans placed on the opposite wall. Through analysis of the collected data it was observed that the sound pressure recorded inside both analysed buildings did not exceed the ranges of noise discomfort recommended for the rearing of animals. However, the sound pressure amplitude inside the barn with climate control system was greater than in the open barn. The light intensity was significantly lower in the closed barn when compared to the open barn (84.96 and 1,413.58 lx, respectively). The artificial lighting system distributed throughout the closed barn was not sufficient to maintain brightness within the recommended range for lactating cows. In addition, it was found that in the closed building with forced ventilation, the highest brightness values are located near the exhaust fans.

Key words:

animal facility, compost-bedded pack barn, dairy cows, light intensity

Influence of face lighting on the reliability of biometric facial readers

V. Hartová¹*, J. Hart² and P. Prikner¹

¹Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Vehicles and Ground Transport, Kamýcká 129, CZ165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
²Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Technological Equipment of Buildings, Kamýcká 129, CZ165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
*Correspondence: nverca@seznam.cz

Abstract:

At present, there is an increasing need to protect workplace entry and specially guarded premises. In addition to standard access systems on a chip cards are getting to the fore of biometric identification systems such as readers for fingerprint, biometric scans faces and others. Biometric readers face still improve, but still have a lot of blind spots, thanks to which their reliability and user-friendliness decreases. One such problem is the light intensity in the room where the reading device is located. The varying intensity of the light in the room causes a different illumination of the person’s face. It emphasizes or suppresses the main points of the face that needed for user authorization, and the whole identification process is prolonged and difficult. The reliability value is significantly different from the value given by the manufacturers. It is very important to highlight on this problem and begin to address it by altering the current production engineering.

Key words: