iFarm: Development of cloud-based system of cultivation management for precision agriculture
Precision agriculture is aimed at optimizing farming management and it requires records of agricultural work. Farmers conventionally write records on paper but it is difficult and tedious to check past agricultural-work data and control the cost of agricultural products. A system of cultivation management, iFarm, is proposed, which was developed to support efficient farming management. The system consists of smartphone applications, Web browsers and a cloud server. Farmers on farmland can easily refer to work plans, enter field data into the cloud system, and share them with head office in real time by using smartphones. Farmers at head office can analyze data in the cloud system with a Web browser and estimate farming costs and form work plans based on their analyses.
A framework for performance evaluation of plucking activity in tea
Cultivation of tea is characterized by a number of activities spread over many months in which plucking is a major activity. In north-eastern and southern parts of India where tea is a major crop, plucking involves picking of two leaves and a bud with bare hands which after careful processing is converted into the tea beverage. However, no precise ways to characterize and quantify such activities have been developed. We propose a novel framework to characterize a tea-worker's plucking performance with the help of wrist-borne wearable systems. With a limited observation period in an uncontrolled environment for a tea-worker, our framework obtains (a) with a high accuracy the pluck-count which is directly associated with leaf-count and (b) other useful measures associated with related sub-activities. We believe this is a harbinger of change which will go a long way in improving the overall efficiency of the tea industry.
Effects of Racial Diversity on Complex Thinking in College Students
Are experiment varying the racial (Black, White) and opinion composition in small-group discussions was conducted with college students (N = 357) at three universities to test for effects on the perceived novelty of group members' contributions to discussion and on participants' integrative complexity. Results showed that racial and opinion minorities were both perceived as contributing to novelty. Generally positive effects on integrative complexity were found when the groups had racial-and opinion-minority members and when members reported having racially diverse friends and classmates. The findings are discussed in the context of social psychological theories of minority influence and social policy implications for affirmative action. The research supports claims about the educational significance of race in higher education, as well as the complexity of the interaction of racial diversity with contextual and individual factors.