Precision Agriculture Usage and Big Agriculture Data

Agricultural producers have quickly adopted precision agriculture technologies in recent years. With the availability of global positioning system (GPS) signals and other technology, producers can track yields, steer and control equipment, monitor field conditions, and manage inputs at very precise levels across a field, offering the potential to substantially increase productivity and profitability

Precision Agriculture Usage and Big Agriculture Data

Agricultural producers have quickly adopted precision agriculture technologies in recent years. With the availability of global positioning system (GPS) signals and other technology, producers can track yields, steer and control equipment, monitor field conditions, and manage inputs at very precise levels across a field, offering the potential to substantially increase productivity and profitability

High entropy transition metal carbides

Since their discovery in 2004, High Entropy Alloys (HEAs) have become a major research area in the field of metallurgy. These materials are typically single-phase mixtures of several (\u3e4) different alloying elements in equi- or near-equiatomic proportions. The result is a material which has structural order, yet chemical disorder; an arrangement which has been reported to lead to enhanced mechanical, physical and chemical properties. Where previously it was believed that the mixing of elements in this way would lead to impractical multi-phase and brittle intermetallic materials, the discovery that single phase solid solutions can be stabilised by their high configurational entropy has opened up a wide new range of useful compositional space to be explored 1. The ‘entropy-stabilised materials’ concept has recently been successfully applied to metal oxide2 and transition metal diboride3 systems, sparking significant interest in the ceramics, and particularly the Ultrahigh Temperature Ceramics (UHTCs), community. These single-phase materials consist of a chemically ordered anion sublattice (O or B) and a chemically disordered metal cation sublattice; and initial testing suggests that these materials may possess enhanced hardness and oxidation resistance. We report on the fabrication of entropy-stabilised UHTC refractory metal carbides. It is shown that it is possible to produce bulk homogeneous high entropy carbides. Our findings include densification trials, multi-scale microstructural investigations, and mechanical and physical properties characterisation. The significance of the work will be discussed in relation to the opportunities created for the development of new UHTCs. References: [1] Brian Cantor (2014) Multicomponent and High Entropy Alloys: Review. Entropy, 16, 4749-4768; doi:10.3390/e16094749 [2] Rost et al. (2015) Entropy-stabilised oxides. Nature Communications, 6, 8485; doi:10.1038/ncomms9485 [3] Gild et al. (2016) High-entropy metal diborides: a new class of high-entropy materials and a new type of ultrahigh temperature ceramics. Scientific Reports, 6, 37946; doi:10.1038/srep3794

Effects of Build Parameters on Compression Properties for Ultem 9085 Parts by Fused Deposition Modeling

It has been observed by various researchers that parts fabricated by the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process have anisotropic properties. The research presented in the present paper was aimed to study the compression properties of FDM parts and to comprehend their dependence on build parameters. In this study Ultem 9085 was used as the material to fabricate both solid and sparse-build coupons with variations in build direction, raster angle and air gap. A full factorial experimental design was used to study the individual and combined effects of these build parameters on the mechanical properties of the coupons. The mechanical properties studied include compressive yield strength, compressive modulus, compressive strength/mass ratio, and compressive modulus/mass ratio. Besides the obtained test data, qualitative observation and reasoning was used to help understand how the compression properties are affected by the build parameters

Effect of Sparse-Build Internal Structure on Performance of Fused Deposition Modeling Tools under Pressure

Two different approaches to design a sparse-build tool for fabrication by the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process are compared. One approach uses a 2D lattice structure and the other approach is inspired by topology optimization. Ultem 9085 is used as the material, and the amount of material used to build the tool is kept constant to ensure a fair comparison. A solid tool is also included in the comparison. The performance of the tool under uniform pressure is simulated using finite element analysis (FEA) and the accuracy of the FEA results is verified by comparing them with experimentally measured data for a similar tool. The build material, support material, build time, maximum displacement, and maximum von Mises stress are compared for the three build approaches, with an emphasis on the pros and cons of each sparsebuild tool with regards to performance under uniform pressure and fabrication by FDM

Mechanical and magnetic properties of spark plasma sintered soft magnetic FeCo alloy reinforced by carbon nanotubes

Different volume fractions (0.5 vol. % to 4.5 vol. %) of CNTs were used to reinforce a binary Fe50Co soft magnetic alloy. The first method for dispersion was involved dry mixing and ball milling of the powder, while the second was included wet mixing in dimethylformamide under ultrasonic agitation, drying and then dry ball milling. The powders were consolidated using spark plasma sintering. Tensile test and SEM analyses were performed to characterize the mechanical properties and the fracture surface of the sintered materials. The best magnetic and mechanical properties were achieved using the first method. A maximum enhancement in tensile strength of around 20% was observed in the 0.5 vol. % CNT composite with improved elongation compared to the monolithic Fe50Co alloy. In addition, the magnetic properties were enhanced by adding CNTs up to 1 vol. %, and an improvement in densification was observed in composites up to 1.5 vol. % CNT with respect to monolithic Fe50Co alloy

Embedding lived experience into mental health academic research organizations: Critical reflections

Background: As part of a growing emphasis on engaging people with lived experience of mental health conditios in mental health research, there are increasing calls to consider and embed lived experience throughout academic research institutes. This extends beyond the engagement of lay patients andalso considers the potential roles of academic researchers with lived experience. When the lived experience of academic researchers is applied to academic work, there is the potential to improve the relevance of the research, while destigmatizing mental illness within academia. However, there are different and often contrasting perspectives on the way a lived experience academic researcher initiative should be implemented. Objectives: This article describes some of the key issues to be considered when planning an initiative that leverages and values the lived experience of academic researchers, including the advantages and disadvantages of each potential approach. Discussion & Recommendations: Institutions are encouraged to reflect on the ways that they might support and value lived experience among academic researchers. In developing any such initiative, institutions are encouraged to be transparent about their objectives and values, undertake a careful planning process, involve researchers with lived experience from the outsetand consistently challenge the stigma experienced by academic researchers with lived experience. Patient or Public Contribution: Multiple authors are academic researchers with lived experience of mental health conditions

Infrastructure and Process Improvements After LADEE

The purpose of the Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission was to measure the density, composition and time variability of the lunar dust environment. The successful mission launched Sept 7, 2013 and was de-orbited and impacted the moon's surface on April 17, 2014. The spacecraft had 3 primary science instruments, the Lunar Dust Experiment, Neutral Mass Spectrometer, and the Ultra Violet Spectrometer. The mission also had a Laser Communications payload that set a record download rate of 622 Mbps (megabits per second) from the moon orbit. The goal is to use the LADEE software base for upcoming smallsat missions. The onboard flight software for the mission was developed using a Model-Based Software methodology and agile software development practices. High level models were developed in Simulink, autocoded to C and layered on Core Flight Executive and Core Flight Software, VxWorks and required board support packages. Software package versions were frozen several years ago, and need to be brought to modern standards for future spacecraft missions. We are evaluating alternate Real Time Operating Systems and avionics architectures that comply with CubeSat form-factor and power limitations. In addition, the tool chain for the software development process has been improved. We will discuss the rationale, trades and implementation for the upgrade path after the LADEE mission

Synthesis and properties of graphene and graphene/carbon nanotube-reinforced soft magnetic FeCo alloy composites by spark plasma sintering

The effect of the addition of graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) and graphene nanoplatelet/carbon nanotube (GNT) mixtures on the mechanical and magnetic properties of spark plasma sintered soft magnetic FeCo alloys was studied. Three different volume fractions (0.5, 1 and 2 vol%) of GNPs and GNTs were investigated. Ball milling was used to disperse the GNPs in monolithic FeCo powder, while magnetic stirring and ultrasonic agitation were used to prepare hybrid GNT prior to ball milling. The highest saturation induction (B sat) of 2.39 T was observed in the 1 vol% GNP composite. An increase in the volume fraction of the ordered nanocrystalline structure was found to reduce the coercivity (H c) of the composites. The addition of CNTs to the GNP composite prevented grain growth, leading to grain refinement. An 18 % increase in hardness was observed in the 1 vol% GNP composite as compared to the as-received FeCo alloy. A reduction in tensile strength was observed in all of the composite materials, except for the 0.5 vol% GNT composite, for which a value of 643 MPa was observed. Raman spectroscopy indicated a reduction in the defect density of the GNPs after adding CNTs

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio