Lifeboat Foundation

These days, new tractors and combines are more like big computers, and require special tools to repair them. Farmers say they’re having to travel farther and pay more to fix them to make sure their harvest schedules stay on track. Jim Birge grew up farming in central Illinois and is now the Manager of the Sangamon County Farm Bureau in Springfield. He describes how new tractors and combines have gone high-tech, and farmers no longer have access to the tools to fix them.

What is a smart factory? It is a shop floor that adopts smart manufacturing, manufacturing that uses technologies and solutions—like AI and IoT—arising from Industry 4.0 to optimize the production process…

Industrial revolutions then, and now

To fully grasp what smart factory is and where it’s headed, we must first understand the history of manufacturing.

Continue reading “Smart Factory: What It Is and the Vital Solutions You Need to Build One” »

Imagine making some liquids mix that do not mix, then unmixing them.

In one of the grand challenges of science, a Flinders University device which previously ’unboiled’ egg protein is now unraveling the mystery of incompatible fluids; a development that could enhance many future products, industrial processes and even the food we eat.

Using the highly advanced rapid fluidic flow techniques possible in the Flinders vortex fluidic device (VFD), the Australian research team has capped off 10 years of research to find a way to use clean chemistry to unlock the mystery of ‘mixing immiscibles’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4fYXQ7HSMc

Electronic components applied to implement IoT based smart farming systems, ranging from processors, sensors, signal conditioning, power management, connectivity, and positioning.

The IoT systems in smart farming have been depicted in six main sections by EET India, which are processors, sensors, signal conditioning, power management, connectivity, and positioning. Common use cases like automatic fertilization, automatic irrigation, crop management, precision farming, and livestock monitoring all can be realized through IoT systems. After sensors detect the environmental phenomena and target objects, the information will be transmitted to controlled processors through wireless connectivity. Then, the processors can collect and analyze these data, or even help farmers with further decision making.

Fig. 1 An IoT system in smart farming (Source: EET India, TECHDesign)

A simple, cheap technology could help to boost food production and possibly allow crops to be grown in different places in order to cut down on food miles.

Hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities of fennel have been recorded in numerous investigations. The study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of fennel or its active component trans-Anethole (TA) on streptozotocin-induced liver injury in rats. Rats were injected with a single dose of STZ (65 mg/kg) and treated with fennel (200 and 400 mg/kg), TA (80 mg/kg), or metformin (300 mg/kg) for 35 days. Serum lipid profile and liver enzyme activity (aminotransferases), oxidative stress markers, and the degree of fibrosis in the liver tissue were assessed. Both fennel and TA decreased blood glucose levels, reduced liver enzyme activity, food, and water intake, and intensity of weight loss, reduced serum triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c). Additionally, fennel and TA significantly reduced MDA concentration while increased CAT activity and thiol content and reduced the degree of injury and fibrosis in the liver of diabetic rats. Our results suggest that fennel seed extract and its active compound TA are able to protect the liver against diabetes-induced hepatic injury in rats, probably via hypoglycemic and antioxidant effects.

The effects of fennel seed extract and its active compound trans-Anethole were investigated in the STZ-induced liver injury in rats. Both fennel and trans-Anethole effectively reduced blood glucose l…

The UN World Food Program executive director David Beasley said global elites should step up, and that $6 billion would help feed people at risk of starvation.

Virgin Galactic announced on Friday that Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya is stepping down from the space tourism company’s board of directors.