One of key elements when implementing e-learning system is integration in already existing system. System implementation begins with a planning process and ends with installation and maintenance. First of all, it is necessary to determine project team and set responsibilities, collect all information about current situation and possible changes. Latvia University of Agriculture has just started to plan implementation of Moodle system, as its e-learning environment. This article attempts to provide answers on some implementation questions during the system development lifecycle process.

Informatics is profoundly reshaping social relations and changing pupils’ education. A goal was set to offer the pupils an integrated informatics learning content, orientated to develop an emotionally and intellectually equilibrated and harmonic personality. The aim of the paper is to characterize the integration in the content of the subject of informatics and research the realisation of integrated learning material in educational practice. Subjects in the school curricula provide concrete guidelines on knowledge, skills and attitudes that should be taught and what goals and purposes their education program follows. To establish the understanding of pupils on development of taste in integrated informatics subject, an educational experimentation was conducted. The data are obtained by using a pretest-post-test design and analysis of teaching-learning informatics in classroom. Pupils at Lielvarde secondary school were asked to involve for learning a new integrated informatics material for developing their understanding of taste. The method of analysis of aesthetic and pedagogical literature and data processing and analysis by Wilcoxon signed-rank Test and Chi-square test are used. Pupils undertook independent practical tasks at the computer with the aim of developing their knowledge and cognitive skills (understanding, selection, reflection). Learning integrated informatics material is a pedagogical condition for fostering the development of pupils’ understanding of taste. Learning integrated informatics material executed diverse practical tasks with choice of color match, ethnographic characters and making a portfolio which enriched pupils' experience of taste and effectuated as acquisition of their cognitive skills.

The aim of studies was to identify how different morphological and biological characteristics influence spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) competitiveness against weeds in various organic and conventional farming locations. Do those traits have an influence on the yield and in which growing conditions the selection of genotypes for organic farming should be done? The plant traits related to competitiveness against weeds at the beginning of the vegetation period are important in breeding for organic agriculture. Ten different varieties were included in trials for three years in two organic and two conventional environments. The included varieties were divided in four groups with respect to time of release and adaptation to growing environments: old extensive varieties and landraces for low input agriculture, medium old varieties with good adaptation to unfavourable conditions, modern varieties for low input, and modern varieties for high input conditions. Results showed that such traits as productive tillering ability, development speed and plant height at the beginning of stem elongation stage provide good soil shading. The most of traits were negatively related to the grain yield. Selection of genotypes for traits which influence spring barley competitiveness against weeds, such as a growth habit in the tillering stage, development speed in tillering stage, plant height at the beginning of stem elongation, length of flag leaf and the width of flag leaf, and the plant height before harvest, may take place in conventional conditions as well as in organic conditions.

The yield and quality (volume weight, 1000 kernel weight, protein content, falling number, gluten content, gluten index, gluten content in dry matter) of winter wheat was studied in variety 'Portal'. The wheat was part of the five-year crop rotation experiment where red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), peas (Pisum sativum L.), potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) were following each other. There were two production variants which followed the crop rotation. In one variant mineral fertilizers and pesticides were used, and the other variant was conversion to organic without any synthetic agrochemicals. In mineral fertilizing variant, on the background of P25 and K95 kg haE-1 the N amount varied from 0 to 150 kg haE-1 and herbicide Mustang (preparation norm 0.5 L haE-1, active substance florasulam, 6.25 g LE-1; 2.4-D, 300 g LE-1), insecticide Fastac 50 (preparation norm 0.2 L haE-1, active substance 50 g LE-1 alphacypermethrin) fungicide Falcon EC 460 (preparation norm 0.4 L haE-1, active substances 167 g tebuconazole, 250 g spiroxamine, 43 g triadimenol) and growth regulator Moddus (preparation norm 0.4 L haE-1, active substance 250 g LE-1 trinexapac-ethyl) were used. In conversion to organic the winter wheat grains which followed the red clovers after effect had higher volume weight, 1000 kernel weight and gluten index compared to the variants where mineral fertilizers were used. The yield, protein content, falling number and gluten content in dry matter increased with increase of the amount of mineral N. The wet gluten content was significantly higher compared to the other variants where the N amount was 50 kg haE-1.

The investigation was done at the Latvia State Institute of Fruit-Growing in Dobele in 2009, on the basis of an established field experiment planted in 1997 with apple (Malus domestica Borh.) cultivar 'Melba' (rootstock B9) trees spaced at 1.5 × 4 m distances. Three different treatments of soil moisture management were compared: control, sawdust mulch and fertigation. Soil of the experimental plot was Haplic Luvisol (Hypereutric), sandy loam, interspaced with Cutanic Luvisol, sandy loam. Organic matter – 25 g kgE-1, soil reaction pH – 6.5. Plant available P was 130.9, K – 157.7, and Mg – 102.2 mg kgE-1. The aim of the investigation was to determine nitrogen removal with fruit yield taking into consideration the used soil moisture regulation method – sawdust mulch or fertigation. The applied soil moisture regulation methods (mulch and fertigation) had significant influence on the content of dry matter in apple fruits (p is less than 0.05). The highest content of dry matter was found in the control treatment. A significantly higher nitrogen concentration (47 g kgE-1) in apple dry matter was in the control treatment, whereas in mulch and fertigation treatments nitrogen concentrations were lower (36 and 42 g kgE-1). The highest nitrogen concentration in dry matter was found in fruits with the biggest mass (r=0.61). A negative significant (p is less than 0.05) correlation was found between nitrogen concentration and trunk diameter (r=–0.85), and between nitrogen concentration and yield (r=–0.84). Removal of N was 24.4 kg haE-1 in the control, 22.3 kg haE-1 in the mulch, and 25.0 kg haE-1 in the fertigation treatment.

To raise the level of energy efficiency of the ventilation systems of pigsties it is useful to introduce heat exchangers. A heat exchanger is a device built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. In the case when a heat exchanger is used in the ventilation systems of premises of pigsties, clean and cold air (in the autumn-winter period) gets amount of heat energy from unclean but warm inside air. Respiration of pigs and the processes occurring on the surface of manure cause the generation of carbon dioxide and ammonia, which are considered harmful gases not only for people and animals but also for the equipment, high relative humidity that occurs also during respiration of pigs influences working conditions as well. The article deals with experimental results obtained from the experiments about plate counter-flow heat exchanger models with plastic cellular boards (HE PVC) and plastic plates (WVT-120K) as heat transfer surfaces. Operational parameters describing the energy efficiency of heat exchangers were calculated – power of recovered heat energy (kW), heat transfer coefficient (WmE-2 deg CE-1), and coefficient of efficiency by recovered heat. Due to better operational parameters of experimental recuperative outflow heat exchanger (HE PVC) simulation and analysis of its exploitation during 4 seasons (December/January) depending on outside air temperature in the article are made as well. The possibility of development of ESA heat exchanger construction with built-in tubular electrical heater to preheat outside air (at outside air temperatures below -15 deg C) has been carried out in the research.

The pears (Pyrus communis) are one of most popular fruits that consumers willingly use as fresh produce. On the market place, consumer mainly pays attention to per's externals, size, colour, as well as to fruit taste, substantially influenced by degree of readiness, which in its turn has affect on the chemical composition of pears. The physical, chemical and sensory indices are significant when fruits have been used for fresh-cut fruit salad preparation. All tests have been carried out at Latvia State Institute of Fruit Growing, Dobele in year 2009-2010. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical, chemical and organoleptical properties of winter cultivars of pears grown in Latvia. The object of the research was 13 cultivars of pears: 'Delta', 'Latgale', 'Tayushchaya', 'Talgarskaya', 'BP 8965', 'Elektra', 'Janvarskaya', 'Beta', 'Bere Kiyevskaya', 'Eckehard', 'Belorusskaya Pozdnaya', 'Erika', and 'Conference' and as a control commercial cultivar. The pears were analysed and their parameters were measured: average mass and diameter of fruits, flesh firmness, colour of flesh, titratable acid (TA) and soluble solids content (SSC) were determined. Sensory analyses were carried out by 9-point hedonic line scale method. Soluble solids content (degree Brix) of pear fruits grown in Latvia is within 9.6 - 14.5 degree Brix. The titratable acidity (TA) is insignificant (0.05-0.26%). The average mean mass of one fruit depending on a cultivar, is 174 g, the flesh firmness at the maturity stage is on average 10.7 to 26.5N. The fruits of cultivars 'Tayushchaya', 'Elktra', and 'Bere kiyevskaya' by their sensory indices were evaluated as the best.

The forests and woods are the main resources in Latvia. It is vital to understand the amount of wood resources that is being extracted from private forests now and in future in order to be able to predict the forest sector development and growth. The study objective was to identify the key factors in the wood resource availability and assess their role in private forests. In October 2009, the study was conducted to appraise the private forest owners the operational results and find out the future plans in connection to wood resource extraction. In the study a random sampling method was applied, where in the respondent selection the State Forest Service database information was used. In the study the respondent interviewing method CATI with computerized telephone interviews was used. In the selection of affecting factors the expert's method was applied. The study showed that only 25.40% of all private forest owners claimed that there was wood resources extraction in forests, but 29.50% of all private forest owners claimed that they were planning to perform the wood resource extraction in 2010. If the timber selling prices increased by more than 10 LVL per m3 in 2010, then 38% of all respondents claimed that they would increase the wood resource extraction in forests. The study data show that 30% of all private forest owners admit that there are growing stands in the forests, but they can’t be harvested, because road infrastructure is poorly developed or there are no roads in the forests.

Researching new remote sensing and data processing methods is very important subject in forestry. The objectives of research are to explore methods to determine single tree characteristics using LIDAR and adapt them for Latvian forest conditions. Different algorithms and mathematical relations for automatic calculation of tree species, coordinates, height and diameter at breast height are described. Within the project four different clustering methods for tree identification were evaluated. The first method's construction is based on reflection point count in certain height range. The second and third methods are searching for global and local maximums on height axis of LIDAR data collection. In the fourth method segmentation of aerial photography is done by using the user selected sample data. Tree tops were s discovered by searching similarly coloured regions. Field measurements were used for the calibration of LIDAR data and analysis. Sample plots were fitted in the study area with different species composition, age and density. The total number of measured trees in sample plots is 1844. Results show that height can be found mainly for I, II, III craft class trees with average error 2.5%. Stem diameter estimation error of pine is 28%, spruce 17%, birch 4.2% and second storey trees 5.4% using linear equations D = 0.6616*H + 4.6969 (for coniferous trees) and D = 0.7756*H + 3.7132 (for deciduous trees). Dividing trees in classes of coniferous and deciduous can be done by using near infra red photography. The total number of first storey trees identified by LIDAR is 91%, by aerial photographic method 94%.

The effect of growing conditions, age and stocking density on the amount of deadwood in the pine forest stands of Latvia was analyzed in this research. The material for studies was collected within the framework of the National Forest inventory of Latvia in the period 2004 to 2008. From databases of the National forest inventory the data about 1627 sample plots dominated by pine were selected and analysed. The total amount of deadwood (m3 haE-1) was compared among five forest edaphical rows - forests on dry mineral soils, forests on wet mineral soils, forests on wet peat soils, forests on drained mineral soils and forests on drained peat soils. Deadwood was also analysed in five age groups – young, middle age, premature, mature and over-mature stands, as well as in six groups of stocking density – small-density, sparse-density, middle-density, high-density, full-density and over-density stands. It was found out, that the growing conditions (p = 0.000 is less than α = 0.05), stand age (p = 0.000) and stocking density (p = 0.000) have significant influence on the amount of deadwood in pine forest stands. The highest amount of deadwood is in the pine stands on wet mineral soils – 18.6 ± 2.09 m3 haE-1. With increase of the stand age the amount of deadwood also increases and in the mature pine stands the amount of deadwood is 17.8 ± 1.58 m**3 haE-1. The amount of deadwood in the pine forest stands also increases with stocking density and in the over-density stands it is 21.6 ± 2.50 m**3 haE-1.