【推荐2】Mental health is a critical aspect of overall well-being, yet it is often ignored in our fast- paced society.     1     A well-cared and healthy mind leads to improved emotions, better relationships, and a more positive outlook on life.

    2     When we are stressed or upset, it is our mind’s way of reacting to negative stimuli(刺激). Good mental health allows us to cope with these emotions in a positive manner. In addition, when our minds are not clouded by negative thoughts or emotions it is easier to think clearly.     3    

Studies have shown that a person with good mental health lives longer and has a higher quality of life. The effects of positive mental health on the body are plenty, including reducing the risk of diseases and improving overall physical well-being.

Our mental state has a significant impact on relationships. People with good mental health are more likely to be kind and understanding.     4     This may further guarantee them with a stable emotional condition.

Mental health is as essential as physical health in maintaining a fulfilling life. If we run into trouble, don’t keep it to yourself.     5     With the right support, we can all enjoy the benefits of a healthy mind.

【推荐3】Harvesting fruit is a very precise operation. The fruit must be picked when it is perfectly ripe. But with pickers in short supply in recent years. growers needed to quickly find another way to harvest their crops. Tevel Aerobotics Technologies came to the farmers’ rescue with the Flying Autonomous Robots (FARs) that can help pick fruit.

“Not finding enough fruit pickers is every farmer’s biggest concern,” Yaniv Maor, Tevel’s founder and CEO said. Ask any farmer, anywhere in the world and they’ll tell you they don’t have the people. Food consumption is increasing, but labor availability(劳动力可用性) is decreasing. If pickers are not available. fruit will go bad on the trees. The flying robots will work day and night in almost any weather, without taking a break, to pick as much ripe fruit as possible.

Maor set up Tevel in 2017 and developed the technology after seeing young Israelis pick fruit and get tired after a few hours. He realized that there had to be a better way, so he began developing the software and artificial intelligence (AI) that are needed for the smart robot pickers. “We have to teach the robots about the structure of each fruit how to access the fruit and how to rotate(转动) it and disconnect it from the tree,” Maor said.

The flying robots circle round trees and pick only the ripe ones with a twist(扭动) of their integrated grasper arms. The robots are fitted with cameras that USC AI to assess the size and color of the fruit so that only the ripe ones are picked. The cameras also ensure that the robots’ paths are not blocked.

The robots arc currently picking Asian pears in Israel. In 2022, the FARs were used in pilot programs in Italy to pick peaches and other fruits, as well as in the US. They are not a replacement for labor, instead, they are a solution for the inadequate human pickers. In the future fewer people will work in picking and more will work in managing the robots, analyzing the data and making decisions.

【推荐1】Do you have bright ideas? Ideas for inventions that change society or, at least, make life easier for somebody? Perhaps we all do sometimes but we don’t often make the idea come true. Recently, in Britain, there was a competition called British Designers for Tomorrow. The competition encouraged young people to carry out their bright ideas. There were two groups in the contest: Group One was for school children over 16. And there were eleven prize-winners altogether.

Neil Hunt, one of the prize-winners, was called “Sunshine Superman”. It’s important when people study the weather to be able to record sunshine. We need to know how many hours of sunshine we have and how strong it is. Most sunshine records only record direct sunlight. Neil’s is accurate and this is very important for research into way of using its power.

You can do so much with animated cartoon. Look at Simon West’s idea for animated road signs. He uses pictures which appear to move as you go nearer to or farther from them. This isn’t a new idea. But it is new to use these pictures on road signs. “We found that people were likely to see moving signs,” said Simon. So now, you can really see rocks falling, trains moving, horses running or car falling over the edge of a cliff. Quite a warning!

The ideas in the competition were so inventive that we are surprised that British industry doesn’t ask more school children for suggestions. Perhaps this will be the start of “pupil power”!

【推荐3】Long pieces from the outer shell of the coconut (椰子), known as coir (椰子壳粗纤维), are often used with other materials to build barriers. The barriers are used to protect beaches from getting washed away by the force of waves. The coconut material is widely available and costs a lot less than barriers made of other materials, such as wood, steel or concrete. And it is designed to biodegrade (生物降解) or break down, over time.

Some projects create “living shorelines” made from natural elements rather than hard materials. One is being built along part of an eroded (被侵蚀的) riverbank in Neptune, New Jersey. The effort has already greatly improved areas that suffered major erosion damage. “We’re always trying to reduce wave energy while protecting the shoreline,” said Tim Dillingham, the group’s director. “And whenever we can, we like to employ nature-based solutions.”

Another project is happening in Boston. That is where Julia Hopkins, an assistant pro-fessor at Northeastern University, is using coir, wood chips and other materials to create floating barriers to slow the force of waves. Hopkins is pleased with the results. She says the coconut material is not costly and is actually being recycled rather than being thrown away.

Two projects in East Providence, Rhode Island, used coconut material in 2020. The next year,731 meters of damaged shoreline in New York’s Jamaica Bay were treated through a project that also included coconut coir material. Similar projects have been carried out in the states of Delaware and Texas.

The method doesn’t always work, however. In 2016, the Felix Neck Wildlife Refuge in Edgartown, Massachusetts, built barriers around a salt marsh that had eroded in the past. While the effort did help reduce erosion for a while, the material did not last long because of strong waves.

Suzan Bellincampi is the refuge’s director. “The project is really interesting in terms of what we want to do and how we adapt it,” she said. “It’s not for every site. It works in some places; it doesn’t work in all places.”

【推荐1】There’re plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables available in local markets. But while those red juicy strawberries look fresh, consumers have no way of knowing how long the fruit can be stored at home. The same goes for distribution centers and supermarkets.

Now, the food technology startup OneThird, located in the Netherlands, is looking to change that with an infrared (红外线) scanner that can accurately predict how long fresh fruits and vegetables will last. The startup is named OneThird because one-third of food is wasted due to spoilage (变质) every year.

The startup’s founders were inspired by a UK company that uses this type of technology in the medical field and decided to see if it was applicable for food. “I looked at the challenges in the food-supply chain and found out that 40 percent of food waste is fresh produce. One of the biggest causes of waste is that nobody knows shelf life.” founder and CEO of OneThird, Marco Snikkers said.

Quality inspections at farms and distribution centers are done manually (手动地). An inspector checks the fruits and vegetables and makes notes about the size and quality. Then the food is sent to consumers without considering travel time or how long the produce will remain usable.

Using the infrared scanner at the distribution center means that inspectors can use the information to approve shipments that will ensure the produce can be distributed on a timely basis. This means that a shipment of rip e tomatoes will not be sent long distances away.

OneThird’s scanner combines the technology of optical scanners, image modeling, and Artificial Intelligence to provide accurate shelf-life predictions.

The startup found that the technology can reduce up to 25 percent produce waste that was caused by spoilage. “Global food waste has an enormous environmental impact; reducing global food waste cuts global greenhouse gas emissions and promotes global food security,” said Jacob Smith, a climate expert from the University of Maine.