Remote-controlled robot inspects suitcase bombs.

Abandoned items of luggage are frequently found at airports and train stations. This is a case for the emergency services, who have to assume that these items might contain bombs. They must assess the potential threat quickly, avert any possible danger, and preserve evidence for criminal proceedings. In the future, police will have the support of a remote-controlled sensor system as they go about their duties, say researchers who are developing this sensor suite in cooperation with industry partners and criminal investigation authorities. Emergency services do not have to enter the danger zone,the system the researchers have developed comprises a multimodal sensor suite consisting of a millimeter wave scanner, a high-resolution digital camera, and a 3D environment monitoring system. The components are contained in a housing and mounted on a robot platform. Bomb disposal engineers remotely control the robot from a safe distance. Its swiveling 3D sensors make a three-dimensional survey of the crime scene, and the digital camera provides high-resolution images for later optical evidence preservation. Meanwhile the millimeter wave sensor scans the source of danger and creates an image of what's inside. A built-in embedded PC on the robot collects the data and sends it to the investigators, where it will be merged on the computer by means of sensor data fusion. Up to now our techniques have not allowed us to form a 3D outline of suitcase bombs, and it has been impossible -- or only partially possible -- to make a spatial map of the contents. With the sensor suite we can visualize in three dimensions what's inside a luggage item, and so determine the composition of the bomb and how the parts are arranged in the luggage," explains Stefan A. Lang, team leader at the FHR and the project's coordinator. This lets the explosives experts quickly assess the threat, and going forward they will also be able to preserve as much evidence as possible about the bomb. Until now, specialists were often forced to destroy suitcase bombs -- making it difficult to identify the perpetrators. Other advantages of the contact-free detection system: it is light, compact, and platform independent, which means it can be mounted on any robot. story credit; science daily.

WATERMELON FARMER SINGS TO GET THE SWEETEST FRUIT.

A Queensland watermelon grower says he sings and talks to his crop to ensure he gets the sweetest fruit, but the tastiest is left in the field. Grower Anthony Rehbein says he sings to his watermelons to ensure he gets the best fruit. (ABC Rural) Anthony Rehbein will harvest 100 tonne of the fruit per day for an eight week period over summer, and has used social media to allow consumers to follow the life cycle of a watermelon."Everyday since I planted them I talk to them, sing to them, look at them, touch them, make sure there's no stress so no matter what crop you grow you've got to nurture just like kids," he said.Despite the love and attention Mr Rehbein gives it, he said fussy consumers have forced him to leave behind a quarter of his crop, because the melons contain seeds."There's two types (of melon) and you can't grow one without the other," he said."There's a pollinator, which is a seeded watermelon, and then there's a seedless, which is three quarters of your crop. The bees come in, do their work and cross pollinate so the customer gets seedless watermelons."That's the only way you don't get seeds, is through bee pollination, and using the Red Tigers, which is a fantastic seeded watermelon, and the Royal Armarda, which is our seedless."You've got to have both."But Mr Rehbein still believes the seeded varieties are the better eating fruit. Mr Rehbein sais the busy harvest is an exciting time on the farm."The pickers go out and pick virtually every daylight hour that we have," he said."They're looking for the blush of the melon, like a slight yellowing or a sunburn on top, which tells you that the internal colour is nice and red and ready to go."They give it a little 'love tap' so that they know that the melon is solid and full inside. He said the melons hit the Sydney or Melbourne markets within three days of being picked."When it's hot, people like melon and it's a great time of year, we're coming out of winter, great to take to the beach," he said.Read the benefits of watermelon;www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7719362384747421432#editor/target=post;postID=1320249339715928435;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=6;src=postname Story credit; ABC NEWS.

TICK VACCINE FOR AFRICAN CATTLE .

Two Queensland scientists have been recruited as part of a global project to help develop a tick vaccine for the African cattle industry.The tick may be an enemy of the Australian beef industry, but the situation is even more dire in Africa.The research is part of a global project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to help the overseas cattle producers combat tick infestation. Researcher Alicja Lew-Tabor said ticks were having a significant impact on domestic beef production in Africa.Unlike Australian producers, African producers generally only supply their domestic market and Dr Lew-Tabor said ticks caused significant problems in meat and milk supply. "Most of the countries in Africa have cattle of sorts, whether it is for milk or beef production, and most of them would be in regions that are affected by cattle tick and the diseases that they carry," Dr Lew-Tabor said."Ticks are resistant to a lot of the drugs that they use to put on the cattle; they become resistant to them in time."That chemical resistance was the very reason why Dr Lew-Tabor and fellow researcher Manuel Rodriguez-Valle were selected to join the worldwide project. For five years, they have worked on the development of many vaccine strains which could have potential in Africa.They started with 300 possibilities and have selected 25 vaccines which could be successful in controlling the tick infestation.Dr Rodriguez-Valle said the work was tedious, but the results looked good."We have two candidates that look very interesting [and] we will have results very quickly, at the end of February; we are very confident in them," he said.To control the results, the cattle are kept isolated in pens.The goal is to try to reduce the number of ticks per animal by 70 per cent. We infect the animals with around 5,000 tick larvae and wait until the ticks drop off each animal, then we collect the tick, weigh it and analyse the reduction in the number of ticks," Dr Rodriguez-Valle said.The vaccines inject antigens into the cattle, creating antibodies to attack the ticks."We got 80 per cent protection in a trial that we did in Brazil but what they [Gates Foundation] has wanted us to do is pull that mixture apart and work out what the most active components are," Dr Lew-Tabor said.The vaccine is expected to be ready to use within five years, and Dr Lew-Tabor said there could be benefits for Australian beef producers too."They will be able to bring the more susceptible breeds into regions where they don't have those breeds," she said. source; ABC NEWS.

PROFIT POTENTIAL OF RAISING TURKEY.

A farmer explains the benefits of raising turkeys for profit;Ms Leadoux would not have it any other way, although she got involved because of her husband. Ms Leadoux produces about 6,000 turkeys throughout the year, with preparation for Christmas starting more than 12 months ahead of the festive season.However, she said demand for turkey throughout the year had resulted in huge increases in demand."We are struggling to keep up," she said."We have worked pretty hard to establish a market throughout the year, which means we are producing turkey more often. We are continually knocking back orders at this time of the year, and big orders, like 400 birds."Ms Leadoux said the potential for further increases in demand was "absolutely huge""People have traditionally seen turkey as a festive fare, a speciality meat," she said. "People have been amazed at the variety. When we first started going down to the market, people would walk past the stand. We started taste-testing the product, and getting them to try it."Now it's just phenomenal. The potential of this business is absolutely huge." The profit potential is phenomenal, an aspect of the value chain that is a goldmine. # turkey # poultry # profit # market. story source;ABC NEWS.

BLUE FIN TUNA IN JAPAN.

( courtesy ;internet). Most tuna farming in Japan involves catching young tuna in the wild and cultivating them in coastal reserves – a practice that experts believe has contributed to plummeting populations of small fish. Kinki University, however, prides itself on a method it calls “complete cultivation”, in which the fish are artificially raised from egg to adulthood before the larvae are then used to start a new cycle. Experts involved in the project say they still have a long way to go before they can farm enough tuna to meet demand. The survival rate for newly hatched fry is low, and rearing tuna in captivity requires vast areas of coastal water. Shigeru Miyashita, of the university’s fisheries laboratory, said the rate at which researchers had successfully raised bluefin from egg to adult – without using any fish caught in the wild – had improved over the years. “Through the complete aqua-farming of bluefin tuna, we hope to help ensure the stability of the world’s marine resources,” Miyashita said. “But to make 10,000 tonnes of farmed adult tuna you need 1.6m fry. The other problem is space. Wild Pacific bluefin have the whole ocean to swim in, but we have to raise them in a confined area. The university’s project received a boost at the end of last year when it joined forces with Toyota Tsusho, the trading arm of the Japanese carmaker, to begin the mass farming of bluefin tuna hatchlings at a site in Goto, south-western Japan. We started this project because we were concerned about the future of the bluefin tuna. Japanese people love tuna – we now want to encourage them to eat ours instead of the wild variety.” story excerpts from the Guardian.

How satellite technology is helping to fight illegal fishing.

A new initiative is arming coastguards with satellite intelligence that allows them to target their search for pirate fishing vessels in remote marine areas Pirate fishing vessels plundering fish from the world’s marine reserves, such as the one around Ascension Island announced on the weekend, can now be watched, tracked and brought to justice using satellite technology.Despite a proliferation of huge, publicly lauded marine reserves, actually stopping fishing in many remote areas has previously been almost impossible. Fishing vessels are required to carry a transponder that tracks their movements and allows authorities to monitor their behaviour. But illegal fishers simply switch off the machine, disappearing from the system. A UK-funded initiative, developed by Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC) and the Pew Charitable Trusts, uses satellite radars to track these “dark targets”. Now, instead of blindly patrolling vast areas of ocean, coastguard vessels use the satellite intelligence to target their search. Bradley Soule, senior fisheries analyst for SAC. Satellite radar has traditionally been used by the military and law enforcement agencies. But the cost has dropped dramatically, opening up the data for private companies to use.“It is definitely a big deal,” he said. “[The global satellite tracking] gives a sense of the scope ... It is a wide-ranging problem.” Roughly one in every five fish landed around the world is caught illegally. Story source ;http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/04/how-satellite-technology-is-helping-to-fight-illegal-fishing

TECHNOLOGY OVERDRIVE!!!!

Technology @ its best!!! I just have to share this # all things are possible. Jessica Cox proved...YOU DON'T NEED 'WINGS' TO FLY...the first pilot with no arms..I salute her!!