Rancangan End-effector untuk Robot Pemanen Buah Paprika

A research on designing an end-effector for a sweet pepper (Capsicum grossum) harvesting robot has been conducted. The objectives of this research were to design an end-effector prototype for the sweet pepper harvesting robot and to examine the performance of the end-effector in actuating the harvesting work. The end-effector was constructed in such a way so that enable to perform cutting and gripping motion in one action. The end-effector was designed using aluminum materials in order to get as light mass as possible. It dimension was 28 cm in length, 14 cm in width, and about 90 grams in weight. The field test of the prototype was conducted based on the conditions of plantation inside the greenhouse. Three kinds of inclination slope including 0o, 10o, and 20o were treated for the end-effector installation. The experimental result show that the third installation treatment ie: the end-effector with 20° inclination slope tend to produce the best performance which has the highest number of harvesting succeed

Development of Dynamic Local Work Load Measurement Method Using Electromyography (EMG) (an Experimental Measurement with Drilling Activities)

This paper presents a scheme to build a system of musculosceletal maesurement using Electromyography and for measuring physical dynamic workload of local muscles, i.e., drilling activities. Electro-myography (EMG) can be signal of muscle contractions and provides continous record as the analog signal. The result of this dynamic local workload measurement show a nonlinear relationship between peak level power spectra of EMG signal and torque. the work load for drilling 0.8 mm to 5 mm plate activities ranges between 0,1513 to 1, 6979 Joule

Disain dan Pengujian Metering Device untuk Alat Penjatah Pupuk Granular Laju Variabel (Variable Rate Granular Fertilizer Applicator)

Uniform Rate of fertilizer Application (URA) practice is disregarding the productive potential of the various areas within the field. Thus, some area is less fertilized and other is over fertilized. It is also an important issue recently that nitrogen from fertilizers may be subjected to lost into atmosphere or enters streams through surface or subsurface drainage (leaching). The place with over-fertilization will be a potential source of pollution in the form of ammonia (NH3), nitrite (NO2) and nitrate (NO3) which may hazard people health. Variable rate of fertilizer applicator is a solution to overcame the negative impact of URA. It can control the appropriate of fertilizer dosage and location of application in the field. The objective of this research is to design a metering device for variable rate granular fertilizer applicator. The result of variable rate fertilizer testing with single metering device with single rotor indicated that the rate of urea, SP-36 and NPK are 0.84, 0.96 and 1.2 g/rotation respectively. The testing with double rotor indicated that the rate of urea, SP-36 and NPK are 1.14, 2.22 and 2.1 g/rotation respectively. The all of the testing result indicated that metering device which designed can be applied with urea, SP-36 and NPK fertilizer

Sistem Pengendali Kemudi Traktor Otomatis Empat Roda pada Pengujian Lintasan Lurus

Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian pengembangan traktor otomatis. Meskipun penelitian mengenai traktor otomatis telah banyak dilakukan, namun pengembangan masih terus dilakukan untuk mendapatkan presisi yang lebih tinggi dan metode yang optimal. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengembangkan sistem pengendali kemudi traktor agar dapat mengikuti jalur kerja lintasan lurus ketika melakukan kegiatan pengolahan tanah. Model yang dikembangkan harus mampu menghitung sudut setir koreksi dari posisi traktor agar traktor mampu berjalan pada lintasan lurus yang telah ditentukan. Arah pergerakan traktor diketahui dari perbandingan dua posisi traktor yang diperoleh dari RTK DGPS. Algoritma pengendalian terdiri dari susunan perintah-perintah untuk mengendalikan traktor bergerak mengikuti lintasan acuan. Simulasi dilakukan untuk mengetahui kemampuan algoritma yang telah dibuat untuk mengendalikan traktor agar dapat berjalan mengikuti lintasan acuan. Kemampuan algoritma tersebut kemudian diuji dalam kondisi riil dilapangan pada lintasan lurus sepanjang 30 m dengan kecepatan traktor 0.5 m/s. Hasil pengujian di lapangan diperoleh tingkat akurasi kinerja kontrol sebesar 97.13% dan besar simpangan rata-rata terhadap lintasan acuan sebesar 8.62 cm

Utilisation of blood clam Anadara granosa

Blood clam (Anadara granosa) forms a fishery of considerable magnitude in the Kakinada Bay where an estimated 20001 are landed annually. Ini addition culture technology for blood clam has been standardised In India, throwing open the possibility of large scale farming of this species. Presently clam meat is burnt along with shell to produce lime. In order to optimise the utilisation Of blood clam as against the existing gross under utilisation Kakinada Research Centre of CIFT has developed the technologies for Icing, freezing and canning of the clam. A pickled product and sausage are the other products developed by the Centre. The paper describes the technologies developed for utilisation of blood clam

Design of the Prototype Instrument for Measuring Freshness of Fish Based on Resistance

The freshness of the dead fish is very difficult to be known visually whereas the use of chemical analyses is not only time consuming but also is not readily available at for market. Therefore, it is considered necessary to find out a newmethod for that purpose. In this. research, a prototype instrument for measuring freshness of the dead fish was designed based on the fish electrical resistance. The sensor was made of a couple of steel wires with diameter of 0.5 mm. During measurement, the wires sensor was inserted into the fish body with the distance of 2 cm to each other. Result of the research showed linear relationship between dead fish freshness and its resistance. The linear relationship was also found between water content of the fish body and its resistance

Dense nuclear matter in a strong magnetic field

We investigate in a relativistic Hartree theory the gross properties of cold symmetric nuclear matter and nuclear matter in beta equilibrium under the influence of strong magnetic fields. If the field strengths are above the critical values for electrons and protons, the respective phase spaces are strongly modified. This results in additional binding of the systems with distinctively softer equations of state compared to the field free cases. For magnetic field $\sim 10^{20}$ Gauss and beyond, the nuclear matter in beta equilibrium practically converts into a stable proton rich matter.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex, figure include

Job satisfaction and motivation of health workers in public and private sectors: cross-sectional analysis from two Indian states

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ensuring health worker job satisfaction and motivation are important if health workers are to be retained and effectively deliver health services in many developing countries, whether they work in the public or private sector. The objectives of the paper are to identify important aspects of health worker satisfaction and motivation in two Indian states working in public and private sectors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cross-sectional surveys of 1916 public and private sector health workers in Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, India, were conducted using a standardized instrument to identify health workers' satisfaction with key work factors related to motivation. Ratings were compared with how important health workers consider these factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was high variability in the ratings for areas of satisfaction and motivation across the different practice settings, but there were also commonalities. Four groups of factors were identified, with those relating to job content and work environment viewed as the most important characteristics of the ideal job, and rated higher than a good income. In both states, public sector health workers rated "good employment benefits" as significantly more important than private sector workers, as well as a "superior who recognizes work". There were large differences in whether these factors were considered present on the job, particularly between public and private sector health workers in Uttar Pradesh, where the public sector fared consistently lower (<it>P </it>< 0.01). Discordance between what motivational factors health workers considered important and their perceptions of actual presence of these factors were also highest in Uttar Pradesh in the public sector, where all 17 items had greater discordance for public sector workers than for workers in the private sector (<it>P </it>< 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There are common areas of health worker motivation that should be considered by managers and policy makers, particularly the importance of non-financial motivators such as working environment and skill development opportunities. But managers also need to focus on the importance of locally assessing conditions and managing incentives to ensure health workers are motivated in their work.</p

Clonal mutations in primary human glial tumors: evidence in support of the mutator hypothesis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A verifiable consequence of the mutator hypothesis is that even low grade neoplasms would accumulate a large number of mutations that do not influence the tumor phenotype (clonal mutations). In this study, we have attempted to quantify the number of clonal mutations in primary human gliomas of astrocytic cell origin. These alterations were identified in tumor tissue, microscopically confirmed to have over 70% neoplastic cells.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was performed using a set of fifteen 10-mer primers of arbitrary but definite sequences in 17 WHO grade II astrocytomas (low grade diffuse astrocytoma or DA) and 16 WHO grade IV astrocytomas (Glioblastoma Multiforme or GBM). The RAPD profile of the tumor tissue was compared with that of the leucocyte DNA of the same patient and alteration(s) scored. A quantitative estimate of the overall genomic changes in these tumors was obtained by 2 different modes of calculation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall change in the tumors was estimated to be 4.24% in DA and 2.29% in GBM by one method and 11.96% and 6.03% in DA and GBM respectively by the other. The difference between high and lower grade tumors was statistically significant by both methods.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study demonstrates the presence of extensive clonal mutations in gliomas, more in lower grade. This is consistent with our earlier work demonstrating that technique like RAPD analysis, unbiased for locus, is able to demonstrate more intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity in lower grade gliomas compared to higher grade. The results support the mutator hypothesis proposed by Loeb.</p