Battery-less near field communications (nfc) sensors for internet of things (iot) applications

L’ implementació de la tecnologia de comunicació de camp proper (NFC) en els telèfons intel·ligents no para de créixer degut a l’ús d’aquesta per fer pagaments, això, junt amb el fet de poder aprofitar l’energia generada pel mòbil no només per la comunicació, sinó també per transmetre energia, el baix cost dels xips NFC, i el fet de que els telèfons tinguin connectivitat amb internet, possibilita i fa molt interesant el disseny d’etiquetes sense bateria incorporant-hi sensors i poder enviar la informació al núvol, dins del creixent escenari de l’internet de les coses (IoT). La present Tesi estudia la viabilitat d’aquests sensors, analitzant la màxima distància entre lector i sensor per proveir la potència necessària, presenta tècniques per augmentar el rang d’operació, i analitza els efectes de certs materials quan aquests estan propers a les antenes. Diversos sensors han estat dissenyats i analitzats i son presentats en aquest treball. Aquests son: Una etiqueta que mesura la humitat de la terra, la temperatura i la humitat relativa de l’aire per controlar les condicions de plantes. Un sensor per detectar la humitat en bolquers, imprès en material flexible que s’adapta a la forma del bolquer. Dues aplicacions, una per estimació de pH i una altre per avaluar el grau de maduració de fruites, basats en un sensor de color. I, per últim, s’estudia la viabilitat de sensors en implants per aplicacions mèdiques, analitzant l’efecte del cos i proposant un sistema per augmentar la profunditat a la que aquests es poden llegir utilitzant un telèfon mòbil. Tots aquests sensors poden ser alimentats i llegits per qualsevol dispositiu que disposin de connexió NFC.La implementación de la tecnología de comunicaciones de campo cercano (NFC) en los teléfonos inteligentes no para de crecer debido al uso de esta para llevar a cabo pagos, esto, junto con el hecho de poder aprovechar la energía generada por el móvil no sólo para la comunicación, sino también para transmitir energía, el bajo coste de los chips NFC, i el hecho que los teléfonos tengan conectividad a internet, posibilita y hace muy interesante el diseño de etiquetas sin batería que incorporen sensores i poder enviar la información a la nube, enmarcado en el creciente escenario del internet de las cosas (IoT). La presente Tesis estudia la viabilidad de estos sensores, analizando la máxima distancia entre lector i sensor para proveer la potencia necesaria, presenta técnicas para aumentar el rango de operación, y analiza los efectos de ciertos materiales cuando estos están cerca de las antenas. Varios sensores han sido diseñados y analizados y son presentados en este trabajo. Estos son: Una etiqueta que mide la humedad de la tierra, la temperatura y la humedad relativa del aire para controlar las condiciones de plantas. Un sensor para detectar la humedad en pañales, impreso en material flexible que se adapta a la forma del pañal. Dos aplicaciones, una para estimación de pH y otra para evaluar el grado de maduración de frutas, basados en un sensor de color. Y, por último, se estudia la viabilidad de sensores en implantes para aplicaciones médicas, analizando el efecto del cuerpo y proponiendo un sistema para aumentar la profundidad a la que estos se pueden leer usando un teléfono móvil. Todos estos sensores pueden ser alimentados y leídos por cualquier dispositivo que disponga de conexión NFC.The implementation of near field communication (NFC) technology into smartphones grows rapidly due the use of this technology as a payment system. This, altogether with the fact that the energy generated by the phone can be used not only to communicate but for power transfer as well, the low-cost of the NFC chips, and the fact that the smartphones have connectivity to internet, makes possible and very interesting the design of battery-less sensing tags which information can be sent to the cloud, within the growing internet of things (IoT) scenario. This Thesis studies the feasibility of these sensors, analysing the maximum distance between reader and sensor to provide the necessary power, presents techniques to increase the range of operation, and analyses the effects of certain materials when they are near to the antennas. Several sensors have been designed and analysed and are presented in this work. These are: a tag that measures the soil moisture, the temperature and the relative humidity of the air to control the conditions of plants. A moisture sensor for diapers, printed on flexible material that adapts to the diaper shape. Two applications, one for pH estimation and another for assessing the degree of fruit ripening, based on a colour sensor. And finally, the feasibility of sensors in implants for medical applications is studied, analysing the effect of the body and proposing a system to increase the depth at which they can be read using a mobile phone. All of these sensors can be powered and read by any NFC enabled device

Scientific, Health and Social Aspects of the Food Industry

This book presents the wisdom, knowledge and expertise of the food industry that ensures the supply of food to maintain the health, comfort, and wellbeing of humankind. The global food industry has the largest market: the world population of seven billion people. The book pioneers life-saving innovations and assists in the fight against world hunger and food shortages that threaten human essentials such as water and energy supply. Floods, droughts, fires, storms, climate change, global warming and greenhouse gas emissions can be devastating, altering the environment and, ultimately, the production of foods. Experts from industry and academia, as well as food producers, designers of food processing equipment, and corrosion practitioners have written special chapters for this rich compendium based on their encyclopedic knowledge and practical experience. This is a multi-authored book. The writers, who come from diverse areas of food science and technology, enrich this volume by presenting different approaches and orientations

Evaluation of the quality of individual quick frozen fish products.

In the present study the effects of characteristic freezing times and storage time at -22°C on the quality of the adductor muscle of post-rigor scallops (Pecten maximus)and gilthead seabream fillets (Sparusa urata) were studied in regard to the integrity of muscle structure, myofibrillar protein denaturation and aggregation, lipid degradation, texture and sensory changes. This information would be useful for achieving optimal conditions for freezing these species and assessing their quality during frozen storage for commercial purposes. Scallop muscles and gilthead seabream fillets were frozen individually with characteristic freezing times that can be met in commercial practice of freezing seafoods. After freezing, the samples were thawed and their quality was evaluated. Fresh samples were analyzed as controls. Intermediate characteristic freezing times (i. e. 89 and 49 minutes for scallop muscles and 74 minutes for gilthead seabream fillets) caused more damage to cell structure of both species than the shorter and longer characteristic freezing times tested. Short characteristic freezing times (i. e. 19 minutes for scallop muscles, and 2 and 18 minutes for gilthead seabream fillets) reduced the thawing losses of both species compared to the longer characteristic freezing times (. e. 235 to 1000 minutes for scallop muscles, and 640 minutes for gilthead seabream fillets) tested. Freezing at short characteristic freezing times produced raw fillets similar in texture to the fresh fillets. Therefore, short characteristic freezing times (equal to or less than 19 minutes) are beneficial for freezing both species. Scallop muscles and gilthead seabream fillets were kept frozen for up to 301 and 340 days, respectively. Sampling was carried out at regular intervals on fresh and stored frozen samples. Storage time affected the integrity of infra-cellular organelles, reduced the water holding capacity, caused structural changes to myofibrillar proteins and affected the sensory attributes of both species. Frozen scallop muscles were in acceptable eating condition after a storage period of ten months, with most of the changes in bio-chemical and physical properties being pronounced after three months of storage. Based on the changes in taste scores versus storage time, it was assessed that the practical storage life of frozen gilthead seabream fillets was circa 5 to 6 months Cat+-ATPase activities for scallop muscles and a linear model that combines free fatty acids, peroxide values and protein content in centrifugal tissue fluids for gilthead seabream fillets, may be reliable methods for industry to use for assessing their quality during long term storage at -22°C

Consumer risk reflections on organic and local food in Seattle, with reference to Newcastle upon Tyne

Central questions of human geography can be explored in contemporary turns to organic and local foods (Goodman 2003, 2004; Murdoch & Міеle 2001). Why do people adapt differently to similar places, or vice-versa? Patterns are emerging in global trends of organic food consumption, such as the correlation of upper education and income levels with organic demand but these indicators do not explain everything, and too little is known on the micro-scale of everyday practices by different types of consumers in different countries (Raynolds 2004; IFOAM 2004). Buck, Getz & Guthman (1997) identified the Bay Area in northern California as one of the most significant centres of organic production and consumption in the us. My study focuses on Seattle and presents evidence that it is an organic growth pole in the same league as San Francisco, because so many Seattleites are concerned with food-related issues including animal welfare, environmental sustainability, social justice and nutrition. These ecotopic attitudes (Callenbach 1975) manifest themselves in behaviours linked to alternative food networks (AFNs), booming farmers' markets - and Puget Consumers Co-op, the largest in the US with 38,000 members and $93m sales which promotes organic and local foods, preserves farmland, and joined a boycott of organic-industrial milk brands because customers feared violations of USDA 'access to pasture' grazing rules in what I term the organic pasture wars (Pollan 2001; Cornucopia Institute August 10, 2006; USDA 2002; PCC 2006a&b; Scholten 2007e). Personal and family health is part of Seattle's turn to organics, but grassroots resistance to vertical integration in globalising food systems, evidenced by some Greens' vow to go beyond organic in USDA organic rules, may be termed altruistic, i.e. marked by care for others and the environment. Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK is, like Seattle, a former node for coal, steel and ships, but its champions such as Siemens have not been the economic drivers that Boeing and Microsoft have been on Puget Sound. Tyneside's consumption may have less to do with altruism than food scares such as anthropogenically-exacerbated mad cow disease (BSE/vCJD) which raised reflection among rich and poor, and induced vegetarianism in many young women (Whatmore 2002; Atkins & Bowler 2001). Foot and mouth disease, which spread from Newcastle in 2001, exacerbated doubts on food safety, and drove a turn to natural foods. Thus, while Newcastle is not claimed to be the equivalent of Seattle, both post-fordist cities host similar actors, often women, whose geographical imaginations transcend political economy (Marsden, Munton & Ward 1996). Ironically fieldwork was completed shortly before discovery of BSE near Seattle in 2003. The thesis brings risk theory into discussion of food. Its theoretical touchstone is the risk society thesis of Beck (1986) and Beck, Giddens & Lash (1994), attended by insights of Mary Douglas (1996) and Deborah Lupton (1999). Methodology includes interviews, focus groups and questionnaires from 404 UK/US respondents. Snowball sampling (Atkinson & Flint 2001) targeted groups in a range of stereotyped relationships to risks:• Academics: stereotypically risk-averse, undergraduates to professors, teachers & educators;• Firefighters: variably risk-embracing, or managing risk for career advancement' (Lupton, 1999: 156);• Motorcyclists: risk-embracing 'edgeworkers' justifying risk in work or hobbies (Lyng, 1990: 859);• Others: not fitting above groups, e.g. academic bikers, or motos with higher degrees if also teachers. Key claims are that Newcastle's organic use (three-times that found in Edinburgh a decade before) is on a continuum toward Seattle which has better prices and availability - evidence that the organic diet can be multi-ethnically democratic and not limited to elites (Tregear et al. 1997; Goodman 2004; Hartman 2004; Scholten 2006a & b). After a BSE scare, consumers often flirt with organics from afar before returning to conventional diets. But repeated scares may permanently dislodge the commodity fetish of industrial food, and as consumers' knowledge grows, more of them adopt food from trusted local farmers which better satisfies values such as health, local economic security, and ecological sustainability (Caplan 2000; Winter 2003). Seattle's political power as an organic pole is world class, but Newcastle also shows ethical strengths in AFNs and fair trade. In the new bio-fuel boom Seattle and Newcastle can learn from each other to resolve global issues such as food miles

Evaluation of the ingestive behaviour of the dairy cow under two systems of rotation with slope

The ingestive behaviour of grazing animals is modulated by the vegetation characteristics, topography and the type of stocking method. This research was carried out in 2019, at the Rumipamba CADER-UCE. It aimed to evaluate the impact of two contrasting stocking methods of dairy cows grazing a pasture with an average of slope >8.5%. Four dairy cows were set to graze a 0.4 ha paddock for 5 days for continuous stocking methods, while for the electric fence methods the dairy cows were restricted to 0.2 ha and the fence was moved uphill every 3 hours, repeating this process four times a day. Cow were equipped with activity sensors for 12 h per day. The whole procedure was repeated 2 times after realizing an equalization cuts and both paddocks, a rest time of 30 days and a random reassignment of paddocks to one of the treatments. The cows showed a difference in terms of the percentage of grazing P=0.0072, being higher with the electric fence (55% of the measurement time). From rising-plate-meter estimates of available biomass along the grazing periods, we calculated despite similar forage allowances (electric fence = 48.06 kg DM/cow/d and continuous = 48.21 DM/cow/d) a higher forage intake was obtained in the electric fence treatment (17.5 kg DM/cow/d) compared the continuous stocking (15.7 kg DM/cow/d) (P=0.006). In terms of milk production animals grazing under the differences electrical fence stocking method tended (P=0.0985) to produce more milk (17.39 kg/d) than those grazing in the continuous system (15.16 kg/d) due to the influence of the slope (P=0.05), while for milk quality the protein content was higher for the electric fence (33.7 g/l) than the continuous method (30.5 g/l) (P=0.039). None of the other milk properties differed between methods (P>0.05)

The Practical Housewife

On loan from the Ballymore Estate, which is in Co. Wexford, lived in by Mary & Edward Donovan, Barrister at Law, the family also owned 24, Peter Street, Dublin in 1747. They had 21 children, sixteen lived and five died unbaptized. Perhaps, some of her daughters wrote down some of the recipes, as the family would have employed cooks down through the generations. See Donavan Manuscript http://arrow.dit.ie/gasbook

6th Workshop on Agri-food Research-WiA.17

[SPA] Este libro contiene los resúmenes trabajos presentados al VI Workshop en Investigación Agroalimentaria (WiA. 17) organizado por el Programa de doctorado en Técnicas Avanzadas en Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario (TAIDA) de la UPCT y celebrado en Cartagena del 8 al 9 de mayo de 2017. El programa científico se estructura en cuatro sesiones: Biotecnología Agroalimentaria, Tecnología e Ingeniería de Alimentos, Tecnología e Ingeniería de Producción Vegetal y Ingeniería Agroforestal y Económica.[ENG] The scientific manuscripts presented in the 6th Workshop on Agri-Food Research (WIA.17) are here reported. The WiA.17 is an annual Workshop organized by the Doctoral Program in Advanced Techniques for Research and Development in Food and Agriculture (TAIDA) of the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena - UPCT (Spain) in where PhD candidates present their research works. Presentations showed a great scientific interest and reflect the high potential of the Research Groups that belong to the several departments and institutions integrated into our PhD Program (UPCT, CEBAS-CSIC, and IMIDA). We expect that during the celebration of this Workshop, the coexistence and exchange of ideas and experiences among PhD candidates, research groups, researchers, technicians, etc., has been favored. The scientific program is structured into four sessions: Agrifood Biotechnology, Food Technology and Engineering, Plant Production Technology and Engineering and Agroforestry and Economy Engineering, depending on the topics of interest involved in our Program. We also had three general invited lectures to strengthen the knowledge that researchers are gaining in their formation during this stage and we consider very useful for other researchers. The Scientific Organizing Committee consider that it is necessary that PhD candidates undertake this type of formative training activities to acquire the typical skills of a PhD remarking how to summarize their results, highlight the importance of them, presenting and disseminating clearly and concisely to a diverse audience in a limited time, as usually happens in the presentations at worldwide scientific conferences.The Organizing Committee acknowledges the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica -ETSIA- and the Institute of Plant Biotechnology -IBV- of the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena – UPCT- their assistance in making possible this event. To Mare Nostrum Campus -CMN- the dissemination done. Funding received from the International Doctorate School of UPCT is also appreciated