Soil sampling automation using mobile robotic platform

ArticleLand based drone technology has considerable potential for usage in different areas of agriculture. Here a novel robotic soil sampling device is being introduced. Unmanned mobile technology implementation for soil sampling automation is significantly increasing the efficiency of the process. This automated and remotely controlled technology is enabling more frequent sample collection than traditional human operated manual methods. In this publication universal mobile robotic platform is adapted and modified to collect and store soil s amples from fields and measure soil parameters simultaneously. The platform navigates and operates autonomously with dedicated software and remote server connection. Mechanical design of the soil sampling device and control software is introduced and discu ssed

KAJIAN FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI TIDAK OPTIMALNYA FUNGSI PASAR TRADISIONAL LOLOWA DAN PASAR TRADISIONAL FATUBENAO KECAMATAN KOTA ATAMBUA - KABUPATEN BELU

Population growth and economic growth have increased the activities of Pasar Inpres Atambua, and made the market become crowded and chaotic. It has also become necessary to develop the marginal area of Atambua District or increase the economic activity in the marginal area by distributing the economic facilities to that area. In relation to the above problems, by the end of year 2004 the local government attempted to relocate some of merchants from Pasar Inpres Atambua to traditional markets of Lolowa and Fatubenao (new locations), representing marginal areas of Atambua District. However, the two new markets are still not functioning well yet because the merchants are not interested in doing their business activities at the new markets. Merchants who had been relocated returned to Pasar Inpres Atambua to do their business activities. This research aims to find the answers, as which factors have caused the traditional markets not to function optimally at the new locations, in relation to governmental policy aspect, space-physical aspect and socioeconomic aspect. The target is reached by: identifying and analyzing local government policy, identifying and analyzing existing condition, identifying and analyzing the support facility sistem, identifying and analyzing activity pattern of consumers, identifying and analyzing social and economic condition, and formulating factors causing the two new traditional markets not to function optimally. The research method used in this research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative method will be done as descriptive analysis, while quantitative method will use some of quantitative analyzer tools, namely: factor analysis, distance and opportunity closest analysis, centrality index analysis and flow potential analysis. From the analysis done, there are some findings of the study, namely: indication of ignorance and disobedience in land use; no allocation space for commercial facility in Kelurahan Lidak and Fatubenao; development process of the new market not through a feasibility study; merchants readiness to be relocated to the new locations, with the condition: not only some of them but entirely; no community participate in the planning of the new market; the land-use planning product have disagreed with the existing city growth; accessibilities to the two new markets is not good; the two new markets can accommodate the merchants from Pasar Inpres Atambua; and there is no public transportation to the traditional market of Fatubenao. Other findings are: merchants of Pasar Inpres Atambua have a lot of customers and have a good relation with consumers; facility distribution, population density and potential flow are not adequate enough in Kelurahan Lidak and Fatubenao; there are refugees from the East Timor ex Province, who live in the Fatubenao traditional market. The conclusion is, there are some relevant conditions between unoptimal function of traditional markets of Lolowa and Fatubenao and governmental policy aspect, socio-economic aspect and space-physical aspect. These aspects are elaborated in some factors, namely: accessibilities (transportation infrastructure and transportation mode), agglomeration, distribution of social and economic facilities, internal factors (building physical, support facilities and utilities), space policy, participatory policy, social relation of consumers and merchants and also the refugee existence factor. Recommendation given to optimize the function of traditional markets of Lolowa and Fatubenao is to revise the land-use planning product and accommodate it with existing condition so that it can encourage economic activity at the new location. Pertumbuhan penduduk dan pertumbuhan ekonomi menyebabkan tingginya aktivitas di Pasar Inpres Atambua, akibatnya pasar menjadi padat dan tidak teratur. Selain itu juga sudah merupakan suatu kebutuhan untuk mengembangkan wilayah pinggiran Kecamatan Kota Atambua atau memacu aktivitas ekonomi di wilayah pinggiran tersebut dengan mengarahkan pendistribusian fasilitas ekonomi ke wilayah pinggiran. Berkaitan dengan hal tersebut, pada akhir tahun 2004 pemerintah daerah telah berupaya untuk memindahkan sebagian pedagang dari pasar tersebut ke Pasar Lolowa dan Pasar Fatubenao (lokasi baru) yang merupakan wilayah pinggiran Kecamatan Kota Atambua. Namun kedua pasar tersebut sampai saat ini masih belum dapat berfungsi dengan baik karena hampir tidak ada pedagang yang berminat untuk menempati pasar tersebut. Pedagang yang telah dipindahkan telah dipindahkan ke lokasi pasar yang baru kembali beraktivitas di Pasar Inpres Atambua. Untuk itu diadakan penelitian ini yang bertujuan untuk mencari jawaban, faktor-faktor apa saja yang mengakibatkan tidak optimalnya fungsi pasar tradisional di lokasi baru dengan menyelidiki keterkaitannya dengan aspek kebijakan pemerintah, aspek fisik keruangan dan aspek sosial ekonomi. Tujuan tersebut dicapai melalui sasaran-sasaran: identifikasi dan analisis kebijakan pemerintah daerah, identifikasi dan analisis kondisi eksisting, identifikasi dan analisis sistem penunjang, identifikasi dan analisis pola aktivitas, identifikasi dan analisis sosial ekonomi masyarakat dan merumuskan faktor-faktor penyebab tidak optimalnya fungsi pasar tradisional yang baru. Metode penelitian yang akan digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah gabungan antara metode penelitian kualitatif dan metode penelitian kuantitatif. Metode penelitian kualitatif akan menggunakan analisis deskriptif, sedangkan untuk metode penelitian kuantitatif akan digunakan analisis faktor dan alat analisis kuantitatif lain seperti analisis jarak dan kesempatan terdekat, analisis indeks sentralitas, dan analisis potensi penduduk. Dari analisis yang dilakukan terdapat beberapa temuan studi antara lain terdapat indikasi ketidaktahuan dan ketidaktaatan masyarakat dalam pemanfaatan ruang, tidak ada peruntukan fasilitas perdagangan di Kelurahan Lidak dan Fatubenao, pembangunan pasar yang baru tidak melalui studi kelayakan, pedagang bersedia dipindahkan asal tidak hanya sebagian, tetapi seluruhnya, tidak adanya pelibatan masyarakat dalam pembangunan pasar yang baru, produk tata ruang sudah tidak sesuai dengan perkembangan kota, aksesibilitas menuju dua pasar baru belum cukup baik, pasar baru dapat menampung pindahan pedagang dari Pasar Inpres Atambua dan tidak terdapatnya jalur angkutan kota ke Pasar Fatubenao. Temuan lainnya adalah pedagang di Pasar Inpres Atambua banyak yang mempunyai langganan tetap atau hubungan yang baik dengan konsumen, sebaran fasilitas, kepadatan penduduk dan potensi penduduk masih belum cukup memadai di Kelurahan Lidak dan Kelurahan Fatubenao, masih terdapat pengungsi yang tinggal di bangunan Pasar Fatubenao. Kesimpulan yang dapat diambil adalah bahwa terdapat keterkaitan antara tidak optimalnya fungsi Pasar Lolowa dan Pasar Fatubenao dengan aspek kebijakan pemerintah, aspek fisik keruangan dan aspek sosial ekonomi. Aspek-aspek tersebut diuraikan dalam beberapa faktor yaitu: aksesibilitas (prasarana jalan dan moda transportasi), aglomerasi, sebaran fasilitas sosial dan ekonomi, internal pasar (fisik bangunan pasar, sarana pendukung dan utilitas), kebijakan keruangan, kebijakan partisipasi masyarakat, hubungan sosial pedagang dan konsumen serta faktor keberadaan pengungsi. Rekomendasi yang diberikan untuk mengoptimalkan fungsi Pasar Lolowa dan Pasar Fatubenao adalah merevisi tata ruang dan menyesuaikannya dengan kondisi eksisting yang ada sehingga dapat menghidupkan aktivitas perekonomian di kedua lokasi pasar yang baru tersebut

Deep learning to automate the labelling of head MRI datasets for computer vision applications

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to build a deep learning model to derive labels from neuroradiology reports and assign these to the corresponding examinations, overcoming a bottleneck to computer vision model development. METHODS: Reference-standard labels were generated by a team of neuroradiologists for model training and evaluation. Three thousand examinations were labelled for the presence or absence of any abnormality by manually scrutinising the corresponding radiology reports ('reference-standard report labels'); a subset of these examinations (n = 250) were assigned 'reference-standard image labels' by interrogating the actual images. Separately, 2000 reports were labelled for the presence or absence of 7 specialised categories of abnormality (acute stroke, mass, atrophy, vascular abnormality, small vessel disease, white matter inflammation, encephalomalacia), with a subset of these examinations (n = 700) also assigned reference-standard image labels. A deep learning model was trained using labelled reports and validated in two ways: comparing predicted labels to (i) reference-standard report labels and (ii) reference-standard image labels. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) was used to quantify model performance. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score were also calculated. RESULTS: Accurate classification (AUC-ROC > 0.95) was achieved for all categories when tested against reference-standard report labels. A drop in performance (ΔAUC-ROC > 0.02) was seen for three categories (atrophy, encephalomalacia, vascular) when tested against reference-standard image labels, highlighting discrepancies in the original reports. Once trained, the model assigned labels to 121,556 examinations in under 30 min. CONCLUSIONS: Our model accurately classifies head MRI examinations, enabling automated dataset labelling for downstream computer vision applications. KEY POINTS: • Deep learning is poised to revolutionise image recognition tasks in radiology; however, a barrier to clinical adoption is the difficulty of obtaining large labelled datasets for model training. • We demonstrate a deep learning model which can derive labels from neuroradiology reports and assign these to the corresponding examinations at scale, facilitating the development of downstream computer vision models. • We rigorously tested our model by comparing labels predicted on the basis of neuroradiology reports with two sets of reference-standard labels: (1) labels derived by manually scrutinising each radiology report and (2) labels derived by interrogating the actual images

Towards a co‐crediting system for carbon and biodiversity

This is the final version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: Data sharing is not applicable to this article because no new data were generated or analysed in this studySocietal Impact Statement: Humankind is facing both climate and biodiversity crises. This article proposes the foundations of a scheme that offers tradable credits for combined aboveground and soil carbon and biodiversity. Multidiversity—as estimated based on high-throughput molecular identification of soil meiofauna, fungi, bacteria, protists, plants and other organisms shedding DNA into soil, complemented by acoustic and video analyses of aboveground macrobiota—offers a cost-effective method that captures much of the terrestrial biodiversity. Such a voluntary crediting system would increase the quality of carbon projects and contribute funding for delivering the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Summary: Carbon crediting and land offsets for biodiversity protection have been developed to tackle the challenges of increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of global biodiversity. Unfortunately, these two mechanisms are not optimal when considered separately. Focusing solely on carbon capture—the primary goal of most carbon-focused crediting and offsetting commitments—often results in the establishment of non-native, fast-growing monocultures that negatively affect biodiversity and soil-related ecosystem services. Soil contributes a vast proportion of global biodiversity and contains traces of aboveground organisms. Here, we outline a carbon and biodiversity co-crediting scheme based on the multi-kingdom molecular and carbon analyses of soil samples, along with remote sensing estimation of aboveground carbon as well as video and acoustic analyses-based monitoring of aboveground macroorganisms. Combined, such a co-crediting scheme could help halt biodiversity loss by incentivising industry and governments to account for biodiversity in carbon sequestration projects more rigorously, explicitly and equitably than they currently do. In most cases, this would help prioritise protection before restoration and help promote more socially and environmentally sustainable land stewardship towards a ‘nature positive’ future.Estonian Science FoundationEEA Financial Mechanism Baltic Research ProgrammeNovo Nordisk FondenSwedish Research CouncilNWO-VICISwedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (MISTRA)Royal Botanic Gardens, KewSPUNNWO Gravit

Benefits of a ball and chain: simple environmental enrichments improve welfare and reproductive success in farmed American mink (Neovison vison)

Can simple enrichments enhance caged mink welfare? Pilot data from 756 sub-adults spanning three colour-types (strains) identified potentially practical enrichments, and suggested beneficial effects on temperament and fur-chewing. Our main experiment started with 2032 Black mink on three farms: from each of 508 families, one juvenile male-female pair was enriched (E) with two balls and a hanging plastic chain or length of hose, while a second pair was left as a non-enriched (NE) control. At 8 months, more than half the subjects were killed for pelts, and 302 new females were recruited (half enriched: ‘late E’). Several signs of improved welfare or productivity emerged. Access to enrichment increased play in juveniles. E mink were calmer (less aggressive in temperament tests; quieter when handled; less fearful, if male), and less likely to fur-chew, although other stereotypic behaviours were not reduced. On one farm, E females had lower cortisol (inferred from faecal metabolites). E males tended to copulate for longer. E females also weaned more offspring: about 10% more juveniles per E female, primarily caused by reduced rates of barrenness (‘late E’ females also giving birth to bigger litters on one farm), effects that our data cautiously suggest were partly mediated by reduced inactivity and changes in temperament. Pelt quality seemed unaffected, but E animals had cleaner cages. In a subsidiary side-study using 368 mink of a second colour-type (‘Demis’), similar temperament effects emerged, and while E did not reduce fur-chewing or improve reproductive success in this colour-type, E animals were judged to have better pelts. Overall, simple enrichments were thus beneficial. These findings should encourage welfare improvements on fur farms (which house 60-70 million mink p.a.) and in breeding centres where endangered mustelids (e.g. black-footed ferrets) often reproduce poorly. They should also stimulate future research into more effective practical enrichments

Kajian Faktor-Faktor Yang Imempengarubi Tidak Optimalnya Fungsi Pasar Tradisional Lolowa Dan Pasar Tradisional Fatubenao Kecamatan Kota Atambua Kabupaten Belu (Studies On Factors Influencing Unoptimal Function Of Lolowa And Fatubenao Traditional Markets At Atambua District— Belu Regency )

Population growth and economic growth have increased the activities of Pasar Inpres Atambua, and made the market become crowded and chaotic. It has also become necessary to develop the marginal area of Atambua District or increase the economic activity in the marginal area by distributing the economic facilities to that area. In relation to the above problems, by the end of year 2004 the local government attempted to relocate some of merchants from Pasar Inpres Atambua to traditional markets of Lolowa and Fatubenao (new locations), representing marginal areas of Atambua District. However, the two new markets are still notfianctioning well yet because the merchants are not interested in doing their business activities at the new markets. Merchants who had been relocated returned to Pasar Inpres Atambua to do their business activities.. This research aims to find the answers, as which factors have caused the traditional markets not to function optimally at the new locations, in relation to governmental policy aspect. space physical aspect and socioeconomic aspect. The target is reached by: identifying and analyzing local government policy, identifring and analyzing existing condition, identifying and analyzing the support facility system, identifying and analyzing activity pattern of consumers, identifying and analyzing social and economic condition, and formulating factors causing the two new traditional markets not to function optimally. The research method used in this research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative method will be done as descriptive analysis, while quantitative method will use some of quantitative analyzer took namely: factor analysis, distance and opportunity closest analysis, centrality index analysis and flow potential analysis. From the analysis done, there are some findings of the study, namely: indication of ignorance and disobedience in land use; no allocation space for commercial facility in Kelurahan Lidak and Fatubenao; development process of the new market not through a feasibility study; merchants readiness to be relocated to the new locations, with the condition: not only some of them but entirely; no community participate in the planning of the new market; the land-use planning product have disagreed with the existing city growth; accessibilities to the two new markets is not good; the two new markets can accommodate the merchants from Pasar Inpres Atambua; and there is no public transportation to the traditional market of Fatubenao. Other findings are: merchants of Pasar Inpres Atambua have a lot of customers and have a good relation with consumers; facility distribution, population density and potential flow are not adequate enough in Kelurahan Lidak and Fatubenao; there are refugees from the East Timor ex Province, who live in the Fatubenao traditional market. The conclusion is, there are some relevant conditions between unoptimal function of traditional markets of Lolowa and Fatubenao and governmental policy aspect, socio-economic aspect and space-physical aspect. These aspects are elaborated in some factors, namely: accessibilities (transportation infrastructure and transportation mode), agglomeration, distribution of social and economic facilities, internal factors (building physical, support facilities and utilities), space policy, participatory policy, social relation of consumers and merchants and also the refugee existence factor. Recommendation given to optimize the function of traditional markets of Lolowa and Fatubenao is to revise the land-use planning product and accommodate it with existing condition so that it can encourage economic activity at the new location. Pertumbuhan penduduk dan pertumbuhan ekonomi menyebabkan tingginya aktivitas di Par lnpres Atambua, akibatnya pasar menjadi padat dan tidak teratur. Selain itu jugs sudah merupakan suatu kebutuhan untuk mengembangkan wilayah pinggiran Kecamatan Kota Atambua atau memacu aktivitas ekonomi di wilayah pinggiran tersebut dengan mengarahkan pendistribusian fasilitas ekonomi ke wilayah pinggiran. Berkaitan dengan hal tersebut, pada akhir tahun 2004 pemerintah daerah telah berupaya untuk memindahican sebagian pedagang dan pasar tersebut ke Pasar Lolowa dan Pasar Fatubenao (lokasi barn) yang merupakan wilayah pinggiran Kecamatan Kota Atambua. Namun kedua pasar tersebut sampai saat ini masih belum dapat berfungsi dengan balk karena hampir tidak ada pedagang yang berminat untuk menempati pasar tersebut. Pedagang yang telah dipindahkan telah dipindahkan ke lokasi pasar yang barn kembali beraktivitas di Pasar Inpres Atambua. Untuk itu diadakan penelitian ini yang bertujuan untuk mencari jawaban, faktor-faktor apa raja yang mengakibatkan tidak optimalnya fungsi pasar tradisional di lokasi bare dengan menyelidiki keterkaitannya dengan aspek kebijakan pemerintah, aspek fisik keruangan dan aspek sosial ekonomi. Tujuan tersebut dicapai melalui sasaran-sasaran: identifikasi dan analisis kebijakan pemerintah daerah, identifikasi dan analisis kondisi eksisting, identifikasi dan analisis sistem penunjang, identifikasi dan analisis pola aktivitas, identifikasi dan analisis sosial ekonomi masyarakat dan merumuskan faktor-faktor penyebab tidak optimalnya fungsi pasar tradisional yang barn. Metode penelitian yang akan digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah gabungan antara metode penelitian kualitatif dan metode penelitian kuantitatif Metode penelitian kualitatif akan menggunakan analisis deskriptit sedangkan untuk metode penelitian kuantitatif akan digunakan analisis faktor dan alat analisis kuantitatif lain seperti analisis jarak dan kesempatan terdekat, analisis indeks sentralitas, dan analisis potensi penduduk. Dan analisis yang dilakukan terdapat beberapa temuan studi antara lain terdapat indikasi ketidaktahuan dan ketidaktaatan masyarakat dalam pemanfaatan ruang, tidak ada peruntukan fasilitas perdagangan di Kelurahan Lidak dan Fatubenao, pembangunan pasar yang bare tidak melalui studi kelayakan, pedagang bersedia dipindahkan asal tidak hanya sebagian, tetapi seluruhnya, tidal( adanya pelibatan masyarakat dalam pembangunan pasar yang barn, produk tata ruang sudah tidak sesuai dengan perkembangan kota, aksesibilitas menuju dua pasar bare belum cukup baik, pasar bare dapat menampung pindahan pedagang dari Pasar Inpres Atambua dan tidak terdapatnya jalur angkutan kota Ice Pasar Fatubenao. Temuan lainnya adalah pedagang di Pasar Inpres Atambua banyak yang mempunyai langganan tetap atau hubungan yang baik dengan konsumen, sebaran fasilitas, kepadatan penduduk dan potensi penduduk masih belum cukup memadai di Kelurahan Lidak dan Kelurahan Fatubenao, masih terdapat pengungsi yang tinggal di bangunan Pasar Fatubenao. Kesimpulan yang dapat diambil adalah bahwa terdapat keterkaitan antara tidak optimalnya fungsi Pasar Lolowa dan Pasar Fatubenao dengan aspek kebijakan pemerintah, aspek fisik keruangan dan aspek sosial ekonomi. Aspek-aspek tersebut diuraikan dalam beberapa faktor yaitu: aksesibilitas (prasarana jalan dan moda transportasi), aglomerasi, sebaran fasilitas sosial dan ekonomi, internal pasar (fisik bangunan pasar, sarana pendukung dan utilitas), kebijakan keruangan, kebijakan partisipasi masyarakat, hubungan sosial pedagang dan konsumen serta faktor keberadaan pengungsi. Rekomendasi yang diberikan untuk mengoptimalkan fungsi Pasar Lolowa dan Pasar Fatubenao adalah merevisi tata ruang dan menyesuaikannya dengan kondisi eksisting yang ada sehingga dapat menghidupkan aktivitas perekonomian di kedua lokasi pasar yang bare tersebut

Recognizing reflexivity among conservation practitioners

When deciding how to conserve biodiversity, practitioners navigate diverse missions, sometimes conflicting approaches, and uncertain trade-offs. These choices are based not only on evidence, funders’ priorities, stakeholders’ interests, and policies but also on practitioners’ personal experiences, backgrounds, and values. Recent scholarly literature has called for greater “reflexivity” – an individual or group's ability to examine themselves in relation to their actions and interactions with others – in conservation science. But what role does reflexivity play in conservation practice? Here, we explore how self-reflection can shape how individuals and groups conserve nature. We provide examples of reflexivity in conservation practice by drawing on a year-long series of workshop discussions, online exchanges, conversations with ten experts, peer-reviewed and grey literature, and our own experiences. We find that reflexivity among practitioners spans individual and collective levels and informal and formal settings. Reflexivity may also encompass diverse themes, including practitioners’ values, emotional struggles, social identities, training, cultural backgrounds, and experiences of success and failure. However, reflexive processes have limitations, dangers, and costs; both informal and institutionalized reflexivity requires allocation of limited time and resources, can be hard to put into practice, and alone cannot solve conservation challenges. Yet, when intentionally undertaken, reflexive processes might be integrated into adaptive management cycles at multiple points, helping conservationists and organizations better reach their goals. Reflexivity could also play a more transformative role in conservation, motivating practitioners to re-evaluate their goals and methods entirely. Ultimately, we highlight how reflexivity might help the conservation movement imagine and thus work towards a better world for wildlife, people, and the conservation sector itself

Analysis Correlation Sociodemographics on the Level of Knowledge and Attitude of Society of Java in Efforts to Control the Covid-19 Outbreaks

Background: Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic throughout the world including in Indonesia, especially on the island of Java, with the number of cases always increasing, both confirmed cases and death cases. Objective: To find out the knowledge and attitudes of the people of Java Island related to sociodemographic (age, sex, education, and employment status) in efforts to control Covid-19. Methods: Cross-sectional design with a sample of 1,579 selected by simple random sampling. Collecting data using a questionnaire assisted by the google form program then the data is analyzed by using the chi-square test. Results: Of the 1,579 respondents who participated, namely the youth category by 57%, female gender by 76%, undergraduate education by 47.1%, and the work status of the student category by 41%. A total of 1008 respondents (64%) have good knowledge and 1251 respondents (79%) have a positive attitude. The results of the chi-square test on the knowledge variable showed that there was a relationship between age (p = 0.023) and education (p = 0.021), while gender (p = 0.359) and work status (p = 0.308) had no relationship. In the attitude variable, the results of the chi-square test showed that the p-value between age (p = 0.927), gender (p = 0.072), education (p = 0.140) and work status (p = 0.119) had no relationship, but the knowledge and attitude turns out that there is a value of p = 0.000 <0.05 with a confidence interval of 95%. These results indicate a relationship between knowledge and attitudes towards efforts to control COVID-19. Conclusion: The majority of people on the island of Java are knowledgeable and have a positive attitude in efforts to control COVID-19. &nbsp