Selling Technology: The Changing Shape of Sales in an Information Economy

[Excerpt] This book describes and explains the changing nature of sales through the daily experiences of salespeople, engineers, managers, and purchasing agents who construct markets for emergent technologies through their daily engagement in sales interactions… [It] provides a grounded empirical account of sales work in an area that has been the subject of insufficient study, namely contemporary industrial markets where firms trade with other firms

CAN Bus Technology Enables Advanced Machinery Management

A controller area network (CAN) provides the central communication link on virtually every modern agricultural machine. Tractors, combines, and other powered vehicles use CAN Bus technology to connect multiple individual electronic control units (ECUs) and exchange sensor and control data. The advent of CAN technology has improved vehicle diagnostics, simplified electronic control design, and enabled advanced implement management through standards such as ISOBUS

Precision Ag Technology Savings

The use of precision farming products continues to increase. With increasing input costs, producers are often looking for ways to adopt technology to make farming operations more efficient and productive. Two precision ag products, auto guidance and automatic section control, lead the way in cost savings while also enhancing the productivity of machinery operations. Guidance systems reduce overlap in fields which leads to less passes across the field, less fuel and product use (i.e. seed, fertilizer, and herbicide), and fewer operator hours. These savings can be directly calculated if the amount of overlap is known. Additionally, swath control products reduce seed and chemical overlap into headlands and field boundaries by automatically shutting off planter or boom sections as they cross into headland areas

Threadless fastener apparatus Patent

Threadless fastener apparatus comprising receiving apertures for plurality of articles, self-locked condition, and capable of using nonmalleable materials in both end

Podcast episode 1: Kathe Darr

This article and podcast was originally published in The Prophet -- a journal created by and for the students at the Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) to amplify the voices of STH students by promoting and sharing a range of perspectives on matters of concern including, but not limited to, spiritual practices, faith communities and society, the nature of theology, and current affairs. It serves as a platform for STH students to share their academic work, theological reflections, and life experiences with one another and the wider community.Professor Kathe Darr, newly-installed Harrell F. Beck Chair of Hebrew Scripture, speaks to Emily Ling (MDiv ’19) about her new role, her life at and away from BU, and the occasional Netflix binge

Measurement of Normal Stresses at the Soil-Tire Interface

Agricultural energy usage is an important topic among agricultural industry producers, manufacturers, and regulators. The transfer of power between axle and drawbar is identified as one of the greatest inefficiencies in agricultural field operations. Understanding the stresses at the soil-tire interface would provide insight into the current state of tire traction development and data useful in developing future tire designs. This article presents a measurement system to quantify the normal stresses at the soil-tire interface of an agricultural tractor tire, thus making it possible to evaluate these stresses along the tire footprint. A normal stress measurement system was developed in the laboratory and tested in the field. Additionally, a dedicated data acquisition system was developed, tested, and validated in the field environment. Test results show the system capabilities as well as information on the challenges of drawing general, consistent conclusions concerning the stresses developed between a tire and the soil at field working speeds in agricultural soil

A Wireless Data Acquisition System for Monitoring Temperature Variations in Swine Barns

Increasing interest in monitoring the spatial variation of temperature at the animal level in swine finishing barns has led to the development of a new wireless data acquisition system. Previous studies used individual commercial data loggers placed in a protective container, then lowered into the animal pens. These traditional systems required significant effort to download each logger individually and to post-process the data into a time-synchronized file with all measurement points. The newly developed wireless system allows all measurement points to be simultaneously collected and logged to a single external data file. The specific project objectives include (1) develop a wireless sensor node capable of meeting the data transfer and sensor interface requirements of a swine finishing barn and (2) evaluate the performance of the wireless node through experimental testing. Each wireless node is preset with a specific ID which is logged with the sensor data to provide a definite indicator for the data’s source location within the barn. The individual nodes use a high accuracy thermistor for temperature sensing and are capable of transmitting one additional analog signal and eight digital signals to the data logger. The digital inputs were commonly used to collect fan activity data for ventilation monitoring. The additional analog channel can be used for other environmental sensing or for monitoring static pressure. When powered from a single 3.6 volt, 1200 mAhr battery, the wireless nodes have a usable life of 3.5 years when transmitting at a 5-minute sampling interval. This system was successfully developed and implemented for a 4-year study of swine finishing barns

A Model for Predicting Signal Transmission Performance of Wireless Sensors in Poultry Layer Facilities

Wireless sensor networking technology has great potential to advance monitoring of animal environments. Recent applications are very limited due to a lack of understanding of the performance of wireless sensors in large-scale, concentrated, and confined animal feeding operations. Wireless sensor performance in poultry layer facilities was evaluated through empirical testing of path loss, which was measured as the received signal strength indicator value, using two commercial wireless sensor modules connected in a point-to-point configuration. Significant path loss was caused by free space, animal cages, animal presence, and concrete floor separations. The influence of each affecting factor was modeled based on the single slope derivation of the Friis free space path loss model. The transmission efficiency factor within a single aisleway was found to be 2.6. Fully stocked animal cages yielded an additional 22.5 and 24.9 dB path loss for one and two cages, respectively. Concrete floors separating levels of the test layer facility exhibited an additional path loss compared to the path loss at a similar distance when not separated by concrete. A two-dimensional path loss prediction model was developed based on the log of transmission distance, the number of aisle separations, a second-order aisle separation term, and an interaction term between separation distance and aisle separation. The model was able to predict 86% of the system variability and was able to produce an average error of -0.7 dB for all combined points. The model results are based on experimental measurements made versus a 1 mW transmission source and can thus be accurately scaled to predict the performance of higher or lower power transmission systems within a similarly designed poultry layer facility