Load Cell Mechatronic Approach with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in SolidWorks Design Development of a Small-Scale Egg Sorter

This research was about developing an automated small-scale egg sorting machine, equipped with mechatronic components, that can sort chicken eggs and place them in trays according to five (5) weight classifications: pewee, small, medium, large, and extra-large with the use of an Arduino load sensor. The machine was made up of a load cell sensor, an Arduino mega controller, a suction mechanism hanging from a rail system driven by a National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) stepper motor, and a set of five egg trays for the five (5) egg weight classifications. The Arduino Mega microcontroller was used to operate the machine's moving parts, pump, sensors, and LCD. The machine was equipped with an alarm system that produces a sound when the suction picks up the 13th egg of a full tray. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation was done using SolidWorks software to analyze the vacuum pump capacity and the effects of dynamic force on the eggs during the pick and place process. Testing results of the actual fabricated machine indicated that it was able to successfully weigh, pick through suction, sort, and place eggs into 2x6 trays according to weights. The accuracy was 92.55 percent

Emergent quality issues in the supply of Chinese medicinal plants: A mixed methods investigation of their contemporary occurrence and historical persistence

Quality issues that emerged centuries ago in Chinese medicinal plants (CMP) were investigated to explore why they still persist in an era of advanced analytical testing and extensive legislation so that a solution to improve CMP quality could be proposed. This is important for 85% of the world’s population who rely on medicinal plants (MP) for primary healthcare considering the adverse events, including fatalities that arise from such quality issues. CMP are the most prevalent medicinal plants globally. This investigation used mixed-methods, including 15 interviews with CMP expert key informants (KI), together with thematic analysis that identified the main CMP quality issues, why they persisted, and informed solutions. An unexplained case example, Eleutherococcus nodiflorus (EN), was analysed by collection of 106 samples of EN, its known toxic adulterant Periploca sepium (PS), and a related substitute, Eleutherococcus senticosus (ES), across mainland China, Taiwan and the UK. Authenticity of the samples was determined using High-performance thinlayer chromatography. Misidentification, adulteration, substitution and toxicity were the main CMP quality issues identified. Adulteration was found widespread globally with 57.4% EN found authentic, and 24.6% adulterated with cardiotoxic PS, mostly at markets and traditional pharmacies. The EN study further highlighted that the reason CMP quality issues persisted was due to the laboratory-bound nature of analytical methods and testing currently used that leave gaps in detection throughout much of the supply chain. CMP quality could be more effectively tested with patented analytical technology (PAT) and simpler field-based testing including indicator strip tests. Education highlighting the long-term economic value and communal benefit of delivering better quality CMP to consumers was recommended in favour of the financial motivation for actions that lead to the persistence of well-known and recurrent CMP quality issues

The enchantment of Western Herbal Medicine

In the UK the profession of Western Herbal Medicine (WHM) has had to engage with politics and with science in order to survive. Social science work on WHM suggests that traditional knowledge is being overtaken by biomedical knowledge, with one paradigm replacing another, although collaboration with science is also seen as possible. Throughout this work the voices of herbalists themselves have rarely been presented. Drawing from a biographic narrative approach to interviewing, along with supporting ethnographic methods, thirteen cases of individual herbalists are presented here. Eight out of the thirteen cases reveal ‘visible entryways’ to becoming herbalists - beginnings that are congruent with WHM as an increasingly professionalized practice. However, five of these eight cases reveal some sort of ‘enchantment’ with plants or herbal medicines as being important for their practices. Enchantment is characterized as a sensual affective energy and is situated among debates, initiated by Max Weber, on the place of enchantment and disenchantment in the modern world. The five remaining cases reveal‘hidden entryways’, where there are sensual enchanted experiences of crossings between humans and plants on the road to becoming herbalists, often at a young age. Enchantment is also found later on in most of these narratives. The thirteen cases suggest that, rather than a paradigmatic takeover of WHM by science, there is an enchantment of some herbalists by plants and medicines that includes both scientific and traditional approaches to practice. It is argued that the meeting and crossing of herbalists with plants and medicines allows herbalists to draw easily from a diverse range of influences that others may see as incommensurable. Herbs, rather than concepts and theories are, for the most part, at the centre of WHM. The findings suggest that plants and herbal medicines may be seen as having more agency than has been previously considered. Drawing on a herbalist’s engagement with Ivan Illich it is asked whether herbs and herbalists may be seen as each other’s ‘convivial tools’. Beyond WHM, in the plant sciences, the agency of plants is being investigated in the controversial field of plant behaviour and plant neurobiology where the possibility of plant intelligence is raised. Within the social sciences, posthumanism and ontological turns also address the agency of the non-human, where plant agency is beginning to be considered. It is asked whether the profession of WHM in the UK should engage with these developments in the plant and social sciences in order to establish additional networks of support