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Time of flight (ToF) imaging is a promising emerging technology for the purposes of crop identification. This paper aim to presents localization system for identifying and localizing asparagus in the field based on point clouds from ToF imaging. Since the semantics are not included in the point cloud, it contains the geometric information of other objects such as stones and weeds other than asparagus spears. An approach is required for extracting the spear information so that a robotic system can be used for harvesting.

A real-time convolutional neural network (CNN)-based method is used for filtering the point cloud generated by a ToF camera, allowing subsequent processing methods to operate over smaller and more information-dense data sets, resulting in reduced processing time. The segmented point cloud can then be split into clusters of points representing each individual spear. Geometric filters are developed to eliminate the non-asparagus points in each cluster so that each spear can be modelled and localized. The spear information can then be used for harvesting decisions.

The localization system is integrated into a robotic harvesting prototype system. Several field trials have been conducted with satisfactory performance. The identification of a spear from the point cloud is the key to successful localization. Segmentation and clustering points into individual spears are two major failures for future improvements.

Most crop localizations in agricultural robotic applications using ToF imaging technology are implemented in a very controlled environment, such as a greenhouse. The target crop and the robotic system are stationary during the localization process. The novel proposed method for asparagus localization has been tested in outdoor farms and integrated with a robotic harvesting platform. Asparagus detection and localization are achieved in real time on a continuously moving robotic platform in a cluttered and unstructured environment.

A harvesting robot is developed as part of kiwifruit industry automation in New Zealand. This kiwifruit harvester is currently not economically viable, as it drops and damages too many kiwifruit in the harvesting task due to the positional inaccuracy of the gripper. This is due to the difficulties in measuring the exact effective dimensions of the gripper from the manipulator. The purpose of this study is to obtain the effective gripper dimensions using kinematic calibration procedures.

A setup of a constraint plate with a dial gauge is proposed to acquire the calibration data. The constraint plate is positioned above the robot. The data is obtained by using a dial gauge and a permanent marker. The effective dimensions of the gripper are used as error parameters in the calibration process. Calibration is exercised by minimizing the difference between target positions and measured positions iteratively.

The robot with the obtained effective dimensions is tested in the field. It is found that the fruit drops due to positional inaccuracy of the gripper are greatly reduced after calibration.

The kiwifruit industry in New Zealand is growing rapidly and announced plans in 2017 to double global sales by 2025. This growth will put extra pressure on the labour supply for harvesting. Furthermore, the Covid pandemic and resulting border restrictions have dramatically reduced seasonal imported labour availability. A robotic system is a potential solution to address the labour shortages for harvesting kiwifruit.

For kiwifruit harvesting, the picking envelope is well above the robot; the experimental data points obtained by placing a constraint plate above the robot are at similar positions to the target positions of kiwifruit. Using this set of data points for calibration yields a good effect of obtaining the effective dimension of the gripper, which reduces the positional inaccuracy as shown in the field test results.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

This article discusses the reasons and discourses adopted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (Hong Kong SAR Government), with Mr Tung Chee Hwa as the Chief Executive, in preparing young people to become more mature and responsible. In the Hong Kong context this means they should be willing to fulfil community obligations and opt for consultation rather than confrontation should individual or community rights be sought. Confucianism, named after Confucius (551‐479 BCE), has been and still is a vast and complicated system of philosophies, morals, rituals, and ideas, which for well over 2,000 years has informed and inspired the thinking and practice of countless people in Chinese societies and Asian countries in all important areas, including the economy and the polity (Tu, 1998a; Berthrong & Berthrong, 2000; Yao, 2002). Put simply, the goal of Confucian life is to create a peaceful world, with its ethical emphasis placed on the cultivation of the self and the promotion of harmonious and respectful relations with other people in different spheres of human activities.

Ports, as one of the important links between different modes of transport within the logistics chain, have special essence since their efficiency and competitiveness will certainly have an impact on the chain, and hence the national and regional economy. Vietnam, as a developing country gradually integrating into the regional and global economy, is rationalizing its economic sectors, including transportation. In this environment, ports play a vital role for the purpose of achieving comparative advantages in the international market. However, the Vietnamese port system is burdened with outdated work practices, low efficiency and poor competitiveness compared to other ports in the region. This paper identifies some of the problems in the Vietnamese port system and proposes strategies to address them.

Constrained by requirements of efficiency and economy as well as tight building regulations, Hong Kong's high-density residential architecture is very different from architectural approaches that are typically taught in the architectural studio. This paper reports on a second year architectural studio project taught at The University of Hong Kong that uses the Open Building paradigm to integrate the constraints of a high-density environment, community considerations and building technology in the context of a mixed use programme to be constructed on small individual lots.

Following a series of short introductory exercises, the main studio assignment required groups of students to negotiate the design of individual projects and community areas within a given generic structural frame. Based on their individual design ideas and architectural programme, students developed a structural solution following a kit-of-parts approach. We describe the tasks and rule sets given as the studio framework and discuss students' response to this new type of architectural programme. Based on our experiences, we critically review initial studio settings, final outcomes and observations made during the teaching and learning process with regard to future implementations of similar open building studio projects.

In this study, an attempt has been made to collect the research that has been done on the construction and design of the H₂O₂ sensor. So far, many efforts have been made to quickly and sensitively determine H₂O₂ concentration based on different analytical principles. In this study, the importance of H₂O₂, its applications in various industries, especially the food industry, and the importance of measuring it with different techniques, especially portable sensors and on-site analysis, have been investigated and studied.

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a very simple molecule in nature, but due to its strong oxidizing and reducing properties, it has been widely used in the pharmaceutical, medical, environmental, mining, textile, paper, food production and chemical industries. Sensitive, rapid and continuous detection of H₂O₂ is of great importance in many systems for product quality control, health care, medical diagnostics, food safety and environmental protection.

Various methods have been developed and applied for the analysis of H₂O₂, such as fluorescence, colorimetry and electrochemistry, among them, the electrochemical technique due to its advantages in simple instrumentation, easy miniaturization, sensitivity and selectivity.

Monitoring the H₂O₂ concentration level is of practical importance for academic and industrial purposes. Edible oils are prone to oxidation during processing and storage, which may adversely affect oil quality and human health. Determination of peroxide value (PV) of edible oils is essential because PV is one of the most common quality parameters for monitoring lipid oxidation and oil quality control. The development of cheap, simple, fast, sensitive and selective H₂O₂ sensors is essential.

Nature and occurrence of food-borne pathogens in raw and processed food products evolved greatly in the past few years due to new modes of transmission and resistance build-up against sundry micro-/macro-environmental conditions. Assurance of food health and safety thus gained immense importance, for which bio-sensing technology proved very promising in the detection and quantification of food-borne pathogens. Considering the importance, different studies have been performed, and different biosensors have been developed. This study aims to summarize the different biosensors used for the deduction of food-borne pathogens.

The present review highlights different biosensors developed apropos to food matrices, factors governing their selection, their potential and applicability. The paper discusses some related key challenges and constraints and also focuses on the needs and future research prospects in this field.

The shift in consumers’ and industries’ perceptions directed the further approach to achieve portable, user and environmental friendly biosensing techniques. Despite of these developments, it was still observed that the comparison among the different biosensors and their categories proved tedious on a single platform; since the food matrices tested, pathogen detected or diagnosed, time of detection, etc., varied greatly and very few products have been commercially launched. Conclusively, a challenge lies in front of food scientists and researchers to maintain pace and develop techniques for efficiently catering to the needs of the food industry.

Biosensors deduction limit varied with the food matrix, type of organism, material of biosensors’ surface, etc. The food matrix itself consists of complex substances, and various types of food are available in nature. Considering the diversity of food there is a need to develop a universal biosensor that can be used for all the food matrices for a pathogen. Further research is needed to develop a pathogen-specific biosensor that can be used for all the food products that may have accuracy to eliminate the traditional method of deduction.

The present paper summarized and categorized the different types of biosensors developed for food-borne pathogens.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.

This study uses a best–worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) and compares the outcome with that of the purchase intention scale, an established probabilistic measure of purchase intention. The total sample consists of 409 fans of three soccer teams sponsored by three different competing brands: Nike, Adidas and Puma.

With sports sponsorship, fans were willing to pay more for the sponsor’s product, with the sponsoring brand obtaining the highest market share. Prominent brands generally performed better than less prominent brands. The best–worst scaling method was also 35% more accurate in predicting brand choice than a purchase intention scale.

Future research could use the same method to study other types of sponsors, such as title sponsors or other product categories.

Sponsorship managers can use this methodology to assess the return on investment in sponsorship engagement.

Prior sponsorship studies on brand equity tend to ignore market share or fans’ willingness to pay a price premium for a sponsor’s goods and services. However, these two measures are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of sponsorship. This study demonstrates how to conduct such an assessment using the BWDCE method. It provides a clearer picture of sponsorship in terms of its economic value, which is more managerially useful.