Smart Attached Working Equipment in Precision Agriculture

Nowadays the increasing of the efficiency of agricultural production and the increasing of crop yields cannot be achieved without modern digital technology and smart machines that are a part of it. With the spread of precision agriculture and the digitalisation next to the power machines the attached equipment is becoming smarter and smarter. Through permanent technological and IT development, it became possible to thoroughly monitor and analyse operating functions and parameters not only for the most important power machines such as tractors, combines and other, but also there are existing solutions for measurement and related to that a collection and an analyse of data - of specific utilisation parameters for other attached equipment. All of these processed data are essential for making well-considered actions related to the production technology and the machine operating. They help us to gain information about the quality of machine operations of the technology, the environmental factors, or even about the state of attached working equipment and machines. In this work, the vibration control system as smart solutions on the fail movers will be presented which are effective tools for the utilization of machines, for the precision machine work as well as for prolonging the machine life cycle

Mindful embodiment: preliminary investigation of the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and mindfulness, and the effectiveness of two pilot interventions for adult men and women.

Body image (BI) dissatisfaction and disturbance is a source of significant distress for men and women of all ages. However, because of its subclinical nature, BI dissatisfaction is often left untreated. Societal pressure to meet body weight and shape ideals place individuals at risk of negative BI; disordered eating; excessive exercise; use of enhancing and appearance altering drugs or surgical procedures; and psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, perfectionism, and isolation. The overall aim of the current thesis was to investigate the role of mindfulness (i.e., the ability to be present, aware, accepting, and non-judgemental of private experiences including thoughts, feelings, sensations, and behaviours) in improving BI dissatisfaction. The issues were explored through two studies: the first study predominantly focused on investigating the relationship between mindfulness and BI dissatisfaction, with the second study concentrated on evaluating two pilot interventions for BI dissatisfaction; mindfulness stand-alone intervention and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness intervention. The aim of the first study was to investigate the relationship between mindfulness in everyday activities and BI dissatisfaction. A community sample of 208 participants completed measures related to mindfulness, acceptance, ability to distance from thoughts, self-compassion, BI dissatisfaction and disturbance, perfectionism, psychological well-being, self-esteem, and eating disorder symptomatology. Results indicated that higher levels of mindfulness and acceptance were significantly related to less appearance and body dissatisfaction, psychosocial disturbances in daily life as a result of BI dissatisfaction (e.g., avoiding situations), negative emotions and distress, and overvalued importance placed on appearance in both men and women. These findings hold promising implications for the treatment of BI dissatisfaction. Therefore, a follow-up study was conducted to investigate the effect of mindfulness skills training on BI dissatisfaction via intervention. The aim of the second study was to investigate the effectiveness of CBT plus mindfulness, and stand-alone mindfulness interventions targeting BI dissatisfaction in adult men and women. To date, no research has examined the effectiveness of these interventions in this area. Since the reported interventions were pilot interventions, a mixed-methodology design was used this study comprising of case series methodology and qualitative feedback from participants. For most out of nine participants, both interventions were shown to be effective in reducing BI dissatisfaction, psychosocial disturbance associated with BI dissatisfaction, negative emotions and distress around BI, and thinking errors/distortions. Although there were limitations in both studies, the results provide useful information regarding the relationship between mindfulness and dissatisfaction with appearance. Recommendations for future research include further examining the relationships between BI dissatisfaction and mindfulness, and the use of a randomised control trials to evaluate the effectiveness of the two pilot interventions investigated in this study

Comparison of NIR powders to conventional fingerprint powders.

Fingerprint powders remain one of the most common detection techniques used at the crime scene. However, powder efficiency and contrast can be hindered when applied to highly patterned backgrounds. This problem can be overcome using powders that are luminescent in the near-infrared (NIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Despite being commercially available, those powders have been the focus of only a small number of studies, limited to a few substrates or donors. Their performance and advantages over common techniques are still to be thoroughly investigated. This study aims at assessing the performances of two NIR powder (fpNATURAL 1® and Universal Powder an in-house developed powder) against two conventional powders, a black and a luminescent powder (Sirchie Black, GREENcharge™) under various optical conditions (white light, visible luminescence and NIR luminescence). The powders were compared on four substrates using fingermarks of four different ages from five donors. A total 900 fingermarks were collected for each pairwise comparison. NIR imaging provided good background suppression and a high contrast, however it was shown that conventional powders remained the most effective powdering methods on the substrates tested as sufficient contrast could be achieved under white light or in luminescent mode in the visible region. The results showed that Universal Powder performed similarly to conventional powders, but poor performances were obtained on most substrates with fpNATURAL 1®. Based on the results obtained, it is recommended to use NIR powders only on substrates or conditions where traditional powders are known to perform poorly