Automated Greenhouse Watering and Heating System for the Schenectady ARC

Everyone wants to feel useful and to be able to contribute to their community. The Schenectady ARC aims to provide people with developmental disabilities the resources, services, and support that enable them to advocate and participate within their communities. The program seeks to encourage these people to develop skills and hobbies that give them independence and purpose. One way is operating the ARC\u27s greenhouse. Individuals at the Maple Ridge Center are responsible for operating the water system to irrigate the plant growing tables, daily, and ensuring that the proper amount of water is distributed to the plants. This is a rewarding activity and offers them the opportunity to develop useful skills in greenhouse management and maintenance. However, despite offering manual and automatic options, the current equipment of the greenhouse is not user-friendly and vulnerable if water leaks. The objective of our project is to communicate with the Schenectady ARC to develop an automatic controller for heating and water delivery that will be easy to use, safe, robust, affordable and easy to maintain. This project was started by Guo Qianyue CPE class of 2016, kept on by Stengel Kyle CPE class of 2018, continued by Lisa Gu CPE class of 2019, and followed by Larissa Umulinga CPE class of 2020. The system we created is a wireless sensor system that reads and transmits the moisture and temperature data wirelessly to control the watering and heating system at the ARC greenhouse. This paper describes the problem, goals, design specifications, testing plan, standards and ethics for this project

A bottom-up view of food surplus: using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to investigate agricultural strategies and diet at Bronze Age Archontiko and Thessaloniki Toumba, northern Greece

We use stable isotope analysis of crop, faunal and human remains to investigate agricultural strategies and diet at EBA-LBA Archontiko and MBA-LBA Thessaloniki Toumba. Crop production strategies varied between settlements, phases and species; flexibility is also apparent within the crop stores of individual houses. Escalating manuring intensity at LBA Thessaloniki Toumba coincides with large co-residential ‘blocks’ geared towards hoarding of agricultural surpluses, spectacularly preserved by fire at nearby LBA Assiros Toumba. Faunal isotope values reflect a range of feeding strategies, including probable herding of cattle on C4-rich coastal salt marshes, evident at Archontiko through to the LBA alongside bulk cockle harvesting. Palaeodietary analysis of LBA humans at Thessaloniki Toumba indicates that C3 crops represent the only plausible staples. Millet was a minor food but may have played a particular role in the sub-adult diet. Meat probably featured in supra-household food sharing and hospitality, associated with Mycenaean-style tableware in the LBA

Effects of Periodic Religious Fasting for Decades on Nutrient Intakes and the Blood Biochemical Profile

The aim of the present study was to examine differences and correlations in nutrient intakes and serum parameters related to nutrient intake (lipid profile, vitamins, and trace elements) in 200 lifelong Christian Orthodox Church (COC) fasters with periodic abstinence from certain foods (predominantly of animal origin) for approximately half of the year and 200 non-fasting controls, all of whom did not take dietary supplements. Nutrient intakes were assessed through three-day dietary recalls. Blood samples were drawn for the analysis of potential biomarkers of nutrient intake. Fasters had lower energy intake, due to lower fat and protein intake, compared to non-fasters (p < 0.05). Fasters also had lower intakes of vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, D, folate, pantothenate, sodium, calcium, zinc, and phosphorus. Most participants (in both groups) did not meet the recommended dietary allowances of most vitamins and elements. Most serum biochemical parameters did not reflect the differences in nutrient intakes between groups, and none exhibited a correlation coefficient above 0.5 with nutrient intakes. Our findings suggest that COC fasting is associated with reduced intake of many nutrients, although this does not seem to have an impact on the blood biochemical profile

Effects of Periodic Religious Fasting for Decades on Nutrient Intakes and the Blood Biochemical Profile

The aim of the present study was to examine differences and correlations in nutrient intakes and serum parameters related to nutrient intake (lipid profile, vitamins, and trace elements) in 200 lifelong Christian Orthodox Church (COC) fasters with periodic abstinence from certain foods (predominantly of animal origin) for approximately half of the year and 200 non-fasting controls, all of whom did not take dietary supplements. Nutrient intakes were assessed through three-day dietary recalls. Blood samples were drawn for the analysis of potential biomarkers of nutrient intake. Fasters had lower energy intake, due to lower fat and protein intake, compared to non-fasters (p 1, B2, B6, B12, D, folate, pantothenate, sodium, calcium, zinc, and phosphorus. Most participants (in both groups) did not meet the recommended dietary allowances of most vitamins and elements. Most serum biochemical parameters did not reflect the differences in nutrient intakes between groups, and none exhibited a correlation coefficient above 0.5 with nutrient intakes. Our findings suggest that COC fasting is associated with reduced intake of many nutrients, although this does not seem to have an impact on the blood biochemical profile

Prehistoric cereal foods of southeastern Europe: An archaeobotanical exploration

© 2018 The Authors This paper addresses for the first time a large body of archaeobotanical data from prehistoric Southeastern Europe, mostly published for the first time, that correspond to cereal food preparations. The evidence presented here comes from 20 sites situated in Greece and Bulgaria, spanning the Early Neolithic through to the Iron Age (7th millennium B.C.-1st millennium B.C.). The remains correspond to cereal fragments or agglomerations of fragments that resulted from ancient food preparation steps such as grinding, boiling, sprouting/malting, mixing in bread-like or porridge-like foodstuffs. The article builds on previous pilot studies and with the aid of stereomicroscopy and scanning electron microscopy offers a first classification and possible interpretations of the finds leading to the recipes that might have generated them. At the same time the article highlights the significance of retrieving and studying in depth such rare archaeobotanical finds, points out the interpretative problems stemming from such material and suggests ways forward to address similar archaeological finds in different parts of the world. The paper demonstrates the potential of the systematic study of cereal-based food remains, in our case prehistoric Southeastern Europe, to reveal a wide variability in cereal food transformation practices, suggestive of the interplay between available ingredients, cultural traditions and the complex interaction between society and environment.status: publishe

Prehistoric cereal foods of southeastern Europe: An archaeobotanical exploration

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