In Pursuit of the World’s Best Steak – Advanced Robotics and X-ray Technology to Transform an Industry

Australia strives to be the world’s preferred supplier of premium red meat, but it is challenged by having a high cost structure. In response, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), the processing industry, and key technology providers have spent the last 14 years developing and implementing robotic automation supported by advanced real time sensing technology such as x-ray imaging. This paper outlines the investment strategy behind collaborating with the world’s leading companies, and successfully integrating: meat science, industrial robotics, medical imaging, and airline baggage inspection security systems, into Australian beef and sheep meat supply chains. These world-first systems, that were initially implemented in lamb processing, feature: robotic cutting, dual energy x-ray, machine vision, laser sensing, and carcase traceability for producer feedback. The beef processing sector is now set to benefit from the learnings and technical progress demonstrated in lamb processing. These innovations have moved Australia into first place for advanced red meat processing automation and have delivered in some cases an under 2-year capital payback with an up to 25% improvement in boning room productivity

Sex Dolls at Sea

Investigating and reimagining the origin story of the sex doll through the tale of the sailor's dames de voyage. The sex doll and its high-tech counterpart the sex robot have gone mainstream, as both the object of consumer desire and the subject of academic study. But sex dolls, and sexual technology in general, are nothing new. Sex dolls have been around for centuries. In Sex Dolls at Sea, Bo Ruberg explores the origin story of the sex doll, investigating its cultural implications and considering who has been marginalized and who has been privileged in the narrative. Ruberg examines the generally accepted story that the first sex dolls were dames de voyage, rudimentary figures made of cloth and leather scraps by European sailors on long, lonely ocean voyages in centuries past. In search of supporting evidence for the lonesome sailor sex doll theory, Ruberg uncovers the real history of the sex doll. The earliest commercial sex dolls were not the dames de voyage but the femmes en caoutchouc: “women” made of inflatable vulcanized rubber, beginning in the late nineteenth century. Interrogating the sailor sex doll origin story, Ruberg finds beneath the surface a web of issues relating to gender, sexuality, race, and colonialism. What has been lost in the history of the sex doll and other sex tech, Ruberg tells us, are the stories of the sex workers, women, queer people, and people of color whose lives have been bound up with these technologies

Towards Cost-based Optimization for Data-intensive Web Service Computations

The recent popularity of XML and Web services has lead to a surge in models and platforms for distributed XML data management applications. This work investigates performance issues involved in the deployment of the ActiveXML (AXML) platform for such applications. AXML documents are XML documents, part of which is extensional (present in the document), while part is intensional (specified as calls to Web services). Materializing an AXML document thus requires activating all service calls, and gathering the call results in the document

A Mathematical Programming Formulation for the Single-Picker Routing Problem in a Multi-Block Layout

The Single-Picker Routing Problem (SPRP) arises in warehouses when items have to be retrieved from their storage locations in order to satisfy a given demand. It deals with the determination of the sequence according to which the requested items have to be picked in the picking area of the warehouse and the identification of the corresponding paths to be travelled by human operators (order pickers). The picking area typically possesses a block layout, i.e. the items are located in parallel picking aisles, and the order pickers can only change over to another picking aisle at certain positions by means of so-called cross aisles. Using this special structure, Scholz et al. (2016) developed a model formulation whose size is independent of the number of locations to be visited. They presented the model for a single-block layout and briefly described how it can be extended to the case of multiple blocks. However, by extending this formulation, the number of variables and constraints is multiplied by the number of blocks and, therefore, the model is not suitable for solving the SPRP in warehouses composed of several blocks. In this paper, the extension to multiple blocks is considered and it is pointed out how to drastically reduce the size of the formulation. Depending on the storage locations of the requested items, the number of variables can be decreased by up to 96%

Digital Intimacy in Real Time: Live Streaming Gender and Sexuality

This article serves as the guest editors’ introduction to the Television and New Media special issue dedicated to gender and sexuality in live streaming. Live streaming is a key part of the contemporary digital media landscape; it sits at the center of wide-reaching shifts in how culture, entertainment, and labor are expressed and experienced online today. Gender and sexuality are crucial elements of live streaming. Across live streaming’s many forms, these elements manifest in myriad ways: from gendered performances to gender-based harassment, from LGBTQ community building to real-time sex work. This special issue models an interdisciplinary approach to studying gender and sexuality in live streaming, featuring scholarship from the humanities, social sciences, and human-computer interaction. It also serves as an impassioned call to those who study technological tools and platforms like live streaming to pay attention to the crucial roles that identity, power, embodiment, and intimacy play in these technologies. There can be no full cultural understanding of live streaming that does not address its entanglements with sexuality and gender

Effect of diluted bitumen on the survival, physiology, and behavior of the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) and relevance to birds of the Salish Sea

Given the ongoing and potential increases in shipment of diluted bitumen (dilbit) out of the port of Vancouver, there is a need for toxicity data to assess the impact of catastrophic dilbit spillage on wildlife, particularly in the Salish Sea. Peer reviewed literature on dilbit toxicity is limited to teleost fish, despite the importance of coastal waters as habitat for a diverse bird fauna, including listed species. In this study we used the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) as a tractable, avian model system for preliminary studies on Cold Lake blend dilbit. Objectives were to 1) determine appropriate methods of establishing dilbit toxicity to birds, 2) determine a range of lethal and sublethal doses, and 3) obtain meaningful physiological and behavioural endpoints. We conducted three 14-day exposure trials resulting in a LD100 (lethal dose resulting in 100% mortality) at 12 milliliters per kilogram body weight day (ml/kg bw day) and a LD50 (lethal dose resulting in 50% mortality) at 10 ml/kg bw day. Mortality was associated with significant mass loss, external oiling, increased non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity in plasma, and pectoral muscle wasting. In addition, we found evidence for sub-lethal effects at dilbit doses less than 10 ml/kg, such as elevated hepatic EROD activity. Further sub-lethal effects include changes in activity behaviours of treated birds on day 6 such as increased sleeping and decreased self-maintenance behaviours such as preening. Surprisingly, we found no effect of dilbit on hematocrit or hemoglobin levels even though anemia is a common endpoint reported in conventional crude oil avian dosing studies

Heat distribution by natural convection : a modelling procedure for enclosed spaces.

Thesis. 1979. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: leaves 148-151.M.Arch

Õppe-kasvatustöö korraldamise põhimõtted lasteaed-algkoolis

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2654367~S1*es