DESIGN AND TEST OF SELF-PROPELLED STRADDLE-TYPE LYCIUM BARBARUM L. SPRAYING MACHINE

According to the planting agronomy of Lycium barbarum L. in Ningxia, a self-propelled straddle-type sprayer was designed. The aim was to reduce the labor requirements, improve the spraying effect to the middle and lower parts of the canopy, reduce the influence of natural wind on droplet drift, and recycle excess liquid medicine to reduce environmental pollution. Tests showed that the coverage rate of liquid medicine on the leaf surface and back of the leaf peaked at 84.2% and 48.3%, respectively, when spraying pressure was high. Under different spraying distances, the coverage rate of liquid medicine on leaf surface and back of leaf reached 73.3% and 38.3% at the shortest distance. The uniformity of the spray droplet distribution was good, the use error was less than 10%, and the excess liquid was effectively recovered.

Mesin Pakan Otomatis Guna Meningkatkan Produktifitas Ternak Lele di Desa Sumbersari, Jember Jawa Timur

Catfish is one of the freshwater fish whose demand is increasing every year, both in the form of fresh fish and processed foods. This increase in demand along with the ease of maintenance has made catfish a cultivated commodity that is widely eyed by fish farmers. One of the important aspects in fish farming is the provision of fish feed, although it is relatively easy, but feed management is needed to increase fish production targets. The fish feeding method mostly uses manual sowing on the surface of the pond. This method has weaknesses in terms of labor requirements and the time required if catfish farmers have many ponds, especially if the breeders forget the schedule for fish feeding. The method of implementing this community service consists of socializing activities, presenting material, directing the steps for making automatic fish feeding tools, tool making practices, tool testing and evaluation. The manufacture of this automatic fish feed tool generally consists of making the body of the tool and the assembly of the timer module components. This activity was attended by 20 people who are members of the SYSGA group in Sumbersari District, a community group engaged in catfish farming. The activity went smoothly, the participants seemed enthusiastic during the activity. Further monitoring is needed to determine the level of effectiveness and efficiency of catfish production by breeders after the use of automatic fish feed equipment.

Discrete event simulation applied to single queue management: a case study at a bank agency

Capacity and queue management are currently used in financial institutions. With decreasing bank units due to internet services, research in this field has focused on improving to utilize their employees efficiently and achieve service excellence. In developing countries like Brazil, the customer has become more bank-accounted due to government and labor requirements, such as the wage credit became mandatory in the wage account. The paper's aim is motivated by a real-life case study to simulate discrete events to improve queue management at a Brazilian bank branch with the Arena software simulation environment. The simulation model was designed, tested, and applied considering the Discrete Event Simulation (DES) replication for queuing strategies on a real-world banking scenario. The arrival and service times were collected from 115 customers in Ferraz de Vasconcelos/SP city. It was performed in version 15.10 (2018) of the Arena software, with processor Intel core i3 CPU dual-core 3.07 GHz and 8GB of RAM. The results indicate that the bank agency should consider providing 9 to 11 operators to attend customers considering the arrival and service rate.

DETERMINATION OF THE OPTIMAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES USING THE FULL TIME EQUIVALENT (FTE) METHOD AT PT. XYZ

Determining the optimal number of employees in a company is a basic condition that must be concern into account when drafting a work plan. The work design process ultimately aims for balance the physical and mental aspects of humans in completing certain tasks so that. Determination of the number of employees whit the existing workload will support employees performance in perform their duties optimally. The purpose of this research is to determine the optimal number of salesman based on the workload calculated using the Full Time Equivlent method. Based on the results of research at PT. Xyz used the method FTE is know that the workload of the 4 salesman is classified as overloaded. Where is sales I has a workload of 1.48, sales II has a workload of 1.70, sales III has a workload of 1.66, sales IV get a workload of 1.42. Based on the table of labor requirements to the FTE value, the number of initial salesman was 4 sales and the addition of the number of salesman is as many as 10 salesmen. So, the optimal number of salesmen in Makassar city is 14 salesmen.

Improving Restoration Efficiency by Modeling Optimal Sowing Periods: A Case Study of Two Native Plants and Restoration of a Site

Efficient ecological restoration techniques are urgently required to minimize seed consumption and labor requirements. Here, we determined the optimal sowing period for two native species, Agastache rugosa (Korean mint) and Astilbe rubra (False goat’s beard), toward their use for ecological restoration of Mt. Gariwang, a site damaged by the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics’ activities. We investigated the effects of daily mean temperature (DMT) and daily temperature range (DTR) on seed germination percentage, which decreased for both species with decreasing DTR and was optimal at a DMT of 25 °C and 17.5 °C for A. rugosa and A. rubra, respectively. We developed a single multiple regression equation that evaluated the effects of DMT and DTR simultaneously and determined the temperature scores when the germination percentage reached 85%. We applied the developed multiple regression equation by analyzing the temperature data of the restoration site. In addition, precipitation data analysis was added to set the optimal sowing period. As a result, the optimal sowing period for the two species was determined from May 21 to the end of May. This makes it possible to minimize seed consumption and labor requirements when sowing seeds. The model developed herein will be useful not only to guide the ecological restoration of Mt. Gariwang, but also for other regions using site-specific temperature data.

Wastewater-based epidemiology predicts COVID-19 community prevalence

Wastewater-based epidemiology uses pooled wastewater samples to monitor community health and has been used extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic to track SARS-CoV-2 RNA shed by infected individuals into wastewater. Wastewater concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA have been positively correlated with contemporaneous counts of COVID-19 cases, making it useful for following relative disease burden trends within a community. However, the statistical associations are too weak for wastewater-based epidemiology to reliably predict reported case counts, limiting its potential. Here we show that wastewater SARS-CoV-2 concentrations are highly correlated with the community prevalence estimated from 8 randomized household community surveys in 6 Oregon communities over a 10-month period. We found that wastewater-based epidemiology is a significantly better predictor of COVID-19 community prevalence than reported case counts, which suffer from systematic biases including variations in access to testing and underreporting of asymptomatic cases, even after accounting for uncertainty inherent in the wastewater and prevalence estimates by using Monte Carlo simulations. Additionally, our results show that wastewater-based epidemiology can identify the rise and fall of neighborhood-scale COVID-19 hot spots and provide rapid information about the presence of SARS-CoV-2 variants at the neighborhood- and city-scale through sequence analyses of the wastewater. These results validate the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology to be a quantitative method to predict the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and identify the presence of variants of concern in a given community or neighborhood, independent of availability and access to individual-level testing. These advantages in combination with its scalability, relatively modest cost and low labor requirements, makes integrating permanent wastewater-based epidemiology infrastructure into public health systems a key component in creating pandemic-resilient cities in the future.

The Way Forward for Indirect Structural Health Monitoring (iSHM) Using Connected and Automated Vehicles in Europe

Europe’s aging transportation infrastructure requires optimized maintenance programs. However, data and monitoring systems may not be readily available to support strategic decisions or they may require costly installations in terms of time and labor requirements. In recent years, the possibility of monitoring bridges by indirectly sensing relevant parameters from traveling vehicles has emerged—an approach that would allow for the elimination of the costly installation of sensors and monitoring campaigns. The advantages of cooperative, connected, and automated mobility (CCAM), which is expected to become a reality in Europe towards the end of this decade, should therefore be considered for the future development of iSHM strategies. A critical review of methods and strategies for CCAM, including Intelligent Transportation Systems, is a prerequisite for moving towards the goal of identifying the synergies between CCAM and civil infrastructures, in line with future developments in vehicle automation. This study presents the policy framework of CCAM in Europe and discusses the policy enablers and bottlenecks of using CCAM in the drive-by monitoring of transport infrastructure. It also highlights the current direction of research within the iSHM paradigm towards the identification of technologies and methods that could benefit from the use of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs).

False Seedbeds Reduce Labor Requirements for Weeding in Chile Pepper

This study evaluated false seedbeds, which are sequences of irrigation and tillage that eliminate weed seedlings before crop planting, to reduce requirements for hand hoeing in chile pepper (Capsicum annuum). To address this objective, a field study was conducted near Las Cruces, NM from July 2015 to Oct. 2016 (experimental run 1) and July 2016 to Oct. 2017 (experimental run 2). False seedbeds were designed to target weeds that typically emerge after chile pepper planting. This was done by implementing false seedbeds the summer before chile pepper seeding. During chile pepper seasons, data included repeated measures of weed seedling emergence, amounts of time required for individuals to hoe field sections (i.e., hoeing time), and yields of two chile products: early harvest of green fruit and late harvest of red fruit. Hoeing time and yield data were included in cost–benefit analyses that also incorporated expenses and revenues projected by crop budget models for the study region. Results indicated false seedbeds caused a 54% decrease in weed population density during the chile pepper season of experimental run 1; however, for experimental run 2, false seedbeds did not affect cumulative weed seedling emergence. For both experimental runs, false seedbeds reduced hoeing times, suggesting that false seedbeds affected hoeing by means other than reduced weed density. After accounting for costs for implementation, false seedbeds reduced hand hoeing costs by $262/acre to $440/acre. These reductions in hoeing costs coincided with improved profitability in all but one combination of year and product. Green fruit yield was lower in false seedbed plots in experimental run 1; however, false seedbeds did not affect green fruit yield in experimental run 2, or red fruit yield in both experimental runs. These results indicate that false seedbeds implemented the summer before planting are promising techniques for reducing labor requirements for weeding in chile pepper production.

TAKSASI PRODUKSI TANAMAN KOPI DENGAN METODE ABC

This study aims to determine the estimation results of coffee plant production at PT. Sulotco Jaya Abadi. The estimation activity is carried out using the ABC method, which is one of the main methods used at PT Sulotco Jaya Abadi. This method uses a random sample of land divided into 4 plots covering three criteria for fruit in the land, namely dense fruit, medium fruit, and low fruit, so that in this taxation each hectare uses 12 sample trees. The observations show that the estimated production value obtained at the coffee plantation at PT Sulotco Jaya Abadi is 1,393 kg per hectare. This value is in the range of the company's actual production for the last five years (2014-2018), namely 671 kg/ha to 2,638 kg/ha. The results of the estimation itself show an increasing trend in results in the last three years. Some of the things that are thought to have an effect on the calculated value obtained are the current plantation management as well as the skills / skills of the assessor when carrying out activities on the land which cannot be ignored. At the same time, the production value of 1,393 kg/ha can be used to plan the labor requirements for coffee pickers, which is 15 people per hectare with an estimated budget or harvest cost per hectare of IDR 1,393,000.

Understanding the Perceptions of Secondary School Youth toward Agricultural Careers in Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Nigeria

Youth are critical participants in the modernization of African agriculture but often their perception of farming is negative. A baseline survey of 1264 students from eight secondary schools in Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo, Kenya and Nigeria was conducted to assess their attitudes toward career pathways to agriculture and agribusiness. KoboToolBox was used to collect data online before compilation and inspection for errors in Microsoft Excel and exportation into STATA for analysis. Findings were presented as summary statistics, frequencies and multiple linear regression. A large majority (86%) of the students attended agricultural courses and 54% identified agriculture as having a place in their future, but often not as their highest career ambition. Livestock, field cropping, small animal production, and horticulture were the most viable enterprises for the youngsters. Nearly half (46%) that were averse to agriculture as a career path based their decision upon excessive labor requirements (30%), difficulties in securing land (25%), and low returns to effort (20%). Disparities from a country, area and gender perspective were recorded. Perceptions and career plans among the sexes differed; with females having less experience with machinery, and were more drawn to horticulture and agro-processing. Despite unfavorable attitudes toward agriculture, the study established that youth from these countries recognize that opportunity exists from adopting modern farming methods and commercial agricultural enterprises. The results of this study suggest several avenues for future Start Them Early Program activities intended to strengthen career pathways toward agriculture in African secondary schools. Keywords: Africa, agricultural education, career pathways, Start Them Early Program, youth