Reduce Falls

Run overs caused by falls from tractors and trailing equipment are one of the more serious unintentional injuries on farms. These types of falls are particularly common for older farmers and children, but everyone can be at risk, given the right conditions. Do your part to prevent falls from machinery by adopting safe practices.

The University Compost Facility after Three Years

The University Compost Facility, 52274 260th St., Ames, Iowa has completed three full years of operation. The facility is managed by the ISU Research Farms and has a separate revolving account that receives fees and sales, and pays expenses. The facility is designed to be self-supporting, i.e. not receive allocations for its operations. The facility consists of seven, 80 × 140 ft hoop barns and a new 55 × 120 ft hoop barn, all with paved floors. The facility also has a Mettler-Toledo electronic scale with a 10 ft × 70 ft platform to weigh all materials. Key machinery is 1) compost turner, a used pull-type Aeromaster PT-170, 14 ft wide made by Midwest Biosystems, Tampico, IL; 2) a converted dump truck trailer used to construct windrows and haul material; 3) telehandler, Caterpillar TH407 with cab and 2.75 cubic yard bucket; and 4) tractor, John Deere 7520 (125 hp) with IVT (Infinite Variable Transmission) and front-wheel assist used to pull the turner and dump trailer.

Agronomía, agrónomos y Estado en Brasil: organizaciones y disputas (1930-1961)

El trabajo estudia, de modo comparado, dos proyectos para la agricultura brasileña, elaborados por dos de las sociedades que representaron a los agrónomos entre 1930 y 1961: la Sociedad Brasileña de Agronomía (SBA) y la Sociedad Paulista de Agronomía (SPA). El análisis de los periódicos de estas agremiaciones ofrece información sobre las principales gestiones, reivindicaciones y prácticas emprendidas por cada una de ellas. También brinda elementos para reconstruir la acción de sus cuadros dirigentes, la cual se considera aquí como instrumento y vehículo representativo de los distintos proyectos. Mientras los dirigentes de la SBA - simultáneamente diplomados por la Escuela Nacional de Agronomía, funcionarios del Ministerio de Agricultura y directores de la Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura - defendían el incentivo estatal a la diversificación productiva y la promoción gubernamental de nuevos productos agrícolas orientados a la exportación, los agrónomos de la SPA, más directamente articulados con la gran burguesía industrial paulista, proponían claramente, ya en la década de 1940, la industrialización de la agricultura brasileña, mediante la propaganda de insumos industriales agrícolas y la implantación de la industria de tractores en el país.

Resistencias al orden formalizado por la Constitución de Mendoza de 1854 en el ámbito de la campaña

El trabajo analiza la efectiva aplicación de los principios del moderno constitucionalismo en Mendoza luego de formalizado el orden liberal mediante la carta magna provincial de 1854. Trata de averiguar, si en el período de su vigencia (1854-1895), no obstante el proceso de complejización del aparato estatal y la política de afianzamiento de su potestad sobre el territorio, quedaron espacios que escaparon a ese poder, o se dieron prácticas resistentes a los principios en boga. Se ha puesto particular atención a las localidades de la campaña, que por las distancias o la poca accesibilidad, se estima eran poco proclives a los cambios y estaban menos expuestas al control estatal.

Agronomía, agrónomos y Estado en Brasil: organizaciones y disputas (1930-1961)

El trabajo estudia, de modo comparado, dos proyectos para la agricultura brasileña, elaborados por dos de las sociedades que representaron a los agrónomos entre 1930 y 1961: la Sociedad Brasileña de Agronomía (SBA) y la Sociedad Paulista de Agronomía (SPA). El análisis de los periódicos de estas agremiaciones ofrece información sobre las principales gestiones, reivindicaciones y prácticas emprendidas por cada una de ellas. También brinda elementos para reconstruir la acción de sus cuadros dirigentes, la cual se considera aquí como instrumento y vehículo representativo de los distintos proyectos. Mientras los dirigentes de la SBA - simultáneamente diplomados por la Escuela Nacional de Agronomía, funcionarios del Ministerio de Agricultura y directores de la Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura - defendían el incentivo estatal a la diversificación productiva y la promoción gubernamental de nuevos productos agrícolas orientados a la exportación, los agrónomos de la SPA, más directamente articulados con la gran burguesía industrial paulista, proponían claramente, ya en la década de 1940, la industrialización de la agricultura brasileña, mediante la propaganda de insumos industriales agrícolas y la implantación de la industria de tractores en el país.

Resistencias al orden formalizado por la Constitución de Mendoza de 1854 en el ámbito de la campaña

El trabajo analiza la efectiva aplicación de los principios del moderno constitucionalismo en Mendoza luego de formalizado el orden liberal mediante la carta magna provincial de 1854. Trata de averiguar, si en el período de su vigencia (1854-1895), no obstante el proceso de complejización del aparato estatal y la política de afianzamiento de su potestad sobre el territorio, quedaron espacios que escaparon a ese poder, o se dieron prácticas resistentes a los principios en boga. Se ha puesto particular atención a las localidades de la campaña, que por las distancias o la poca accesibilidad, se estima eran poco proclives a los cambios y estaban menos expuestas al control estatal.

Agronomía, agrónomos y Estado en Brasil: organizaciones y disputas (1930-1961)

El trabajo estudia, de modo comparado, dos proyectos para la agricultura brasileña, elaborados por dos de las sociedades que representaron a los agrónomos entre 1930 y 1961: la Sociedad Brasileña de Agronomía (SBA) y la Sociedad Paulista de Agronomía (SPA). El análisis de los periódicos de estas agremiaciones ofrece información sobre las principales gestiones, reivindicaciones y prácticas emprendidas por cada una de ellas. También brinda elementos para reconstruir la acción de sus cuadros dirigentes, la cual se considera aquí como instrumento y vehículo representativo de los distintos proyectos. Mientras los dirigentes de la SBA - simultáneamente diplomados por la Escuela Nacional de Agronomía, funcionarios del Ministerio de Agricultura y directores de la Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura - defendían el incentivo estatal a la diversificación productiva y la promoción gubernamental de nuevos productos agrícolas orientados a la exportación, los agrónomos de la SPA, más directamente articulados con la gran burguesía industrial paulista, proponían claramente, ya en la década de 1940, la industrialización de la agricultura brasileña, mediante la propaganda de insumos industriales agrícolas y la implantación de la industria de tractores en el país.

Resistencias al orden formalizado por la Constitución de Mendoza de 1854 en el ámbito de la campaña

El trabajo analiza la efectiva aplicación de los principios del moderno constitucionalismo en Mendoza luego de formalizado el orden liberal mediante la carta magna provincial de 1854. Trata de averiguar, si en el período de su vigencia (1854-1895), no obstante el proceso de complejización del aparato estatal y la política de afianzamiento de su potestad sobre el territorio, quedaron espacios que escaparon a ese poder, o se dieron prácticas resistentes a los principios en boga. Se ha puesto particular atención a las localidades de la campaña, que por las distancias o la poca accesibilidad, se estima eran poco proclives a los cambios y estaban menos expuestas al control estatal.

Transport costs, distance, and time : evidence from the Japanese Census of Logistics

Geographic distance is a standard proxy for transport costs under the simple assumption that freight fees increase monotonically over space. Using the Japanese Census of Logistics, this paper examines the extent to which transport distance and time affect freight costs across shipping modes, commodity groups, and prefecture pairs. The results show substantial heterogeneity in transport costs and time across shipping modes. Consistent with an iceberg formulation of transport costs, distance has a significantly positive effect on freight costs by air transportation. However, I find the puzzling results that business enterprises are likely to pay more for short-distance shipments by truck, ship, and railroad transportation. As a plausible explanation, I discuss aggregation bias arising from freight-specific premiums for timely, frequent, and small-batch shipments.

Transport modal choice by multinational firms : firm-level evidence from Southeast Asia

We examine transport modal decision by multinational firms to shed light on the role of freight logistics in multinational activity. Using a firm-level survey in Southeast Asia, we show that foreign ownership has a significantly positive and quantitatively large impact on the likelihood that air/sea transportation is chosen relative to truck shipping. This result is robust to the shipping distance, cross-border freight, and transport infrastructure. Both foreign-owned exporters and importers also tend to use air/sea transportation. Thus, our analysis presents a new distinction between multinational and domestic firms in their decision over transport modes.

Tractor PT: A traction prediction software for agricultural tractor

Traction prediction modelling, a key factor in farm tractor design, has been driven by the need to find the answer to this question without having to build physical prototypes. A wide range of theories and their respective algorithms can be used in such predictions. The “Tractors and Tillage” research team at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, which engages, among others, in traction prediction for farm tractors, has developed a series of programs based on the cone index as the parameter representative of the terrain. With the software introduced in the present paper, written in Visual Basic, slip can be predicted in two- and four-wheel drive tractors using any one of four models. It includes databases for tractors, front tyres, rear tyres and working conditions (soil cone index and drawbar pull exerted). The results can be exported in spreadsheet format.

Design parameters for continuously variable power-split transmissions using planetaries with 3 active shafts

Since 1996, when the first agricultural tractor with CVT transmission was shown, the presence of this type of transmissions has been increasing. All companies offer them in their products range. Nevertheless, there is little technical documentation that explains the basics of its operation. This report shows all types of CVT transmissions: non-power-split type and power-split ones, as well as the three types used in agricultural tractors, hydro-mechanical power-split transmissions (3 active shafts, input coupled planetary; 3 active shafts, output coupled planetary and 4 active shafts). The report also describes the design parameters of a type of CVT transmission, which use a power-split system with 3 active shafts as well as the fundamental relations among them. Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of ISTVS. All rights reserved.

Do charges to freight trucks and trains in the European Union reflect their social marginal costs? Application to the case of Spain

In the last few years, the European Union (EU) has become greatly concerned about the environmental costs of road transport in Europe as a result of the constant growth in the market share of trucks and the steady decline in the market share of railroads. In order to reverse this trend, the EU is promoting the implementation of additional charges for heavy goods vehicles (HGV) on the trunk roads of the EU countries. However, the EU policy is being criticised because it does not address the implementation of charges to internalise the external costs produced by automobiles and other transport modes such as railroad. In this paper, we first describe the evolution of the HGV charging policy in the EU, and then assess its practical implementation across different European countries. Second, and of greater significance, by using the case study of Spain, we evaluate to what extent the current fees on trucks and trains reflect their social marginal costs, and consequently lead to an allocative-efficient outcome. We found that for the average case in Spain the truck industry meets more of the marginal social cost produced by it than does the freight railroad industry. The reason for this lies in the large sums of money paid by truck companies in fuel taxes, and the subsidies that continue to be granted by the government to the railroads.

Intelligent automatic overtaking system using vision for vehicle detection

There is clear evidence that investment in intelligent transportation system technologies brings major social and economic benefits. Technological advances in the area of automatic systems in particular are becoming vital for the reduction of road deaths. We here describe our approach to automation of one the riskiest autonomous manœuvres involving vehicles – overtaking. The approach is based on a stereo vision system responsible for detecting any preceding vehicle and triggering the autonomous overtaking manœuvre. To this end, a fuzzy-logic based controller was developed to emulate how humans overtake. Its input is information from the vision system and from a positioning-based system consisting of a differential global positioning system (DGPS) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Its output is the generation of action on the vehicle’s actuators, i.e., the steering wheel and throttle and brake pedals. The system has been incorporated into a commercial Citroën car and tested on the private driving circuit at the facilities of our research center, CAR, with different preceding vehicles – a motorbike, car, and truck – with encouraging results.

The Phase Space as a New Representation of the Dynamical Behaviour of Temperature and Enthalpy in a Reefer monitored with a Multidistributed Sensors Network

The study of temperature gradients in cold stores and containers is a critical issue in the food industry for the quality assurance of products during transport, as well as forminimizing losses. The objective of this work is to develop a new methodology of data analysis based on phase space graphs of temperature and enthalpy, collected by means of multidistributed, low cost and autonomous wireless sensors and loggers. A transoceanic refrigerated transport of lemons in a reefer container ship from Montevideo (Uruguay) to Cartagena (Spain) was monitored with a network of 39 semi-passive TurboTag RFID loggers and 13 i-button loggers. Transport included intermodal transit from transoceanic to short shipping vessels and a truck trip. Data analysis is carried out using qualitative phase diagrams computed on the basis of Takens?Ruelle reconstruction of attractors. Fruit stress is quantified in terms of the phase diagram area which characterizes the cyclic behaviour of temperature. Areas within the enthalpy phase diagram computed for the short sea shipping transport were 5 times higher than those computed for the long sea shipping, with coefficients of variation above 100% for both periods. This new methodology for data analysis highlights the significant heterogeneity of thermohygrometric conditions at different locations in the container.