Analytical methods in wineries: is it time to change?

A review of the methods for the most common parameters determined in wine—namely, ethanol, sulfur dioxide, reducing sugars, polyphenols, organic acids, total and volatile acidity, iron, soluble solids, pH, and color—reported in the last 10 years is presented here. The definition of the given parameter, official and usual methods in wineries appear at the beginning of each section, followed by the methods reported in the last decade divided into discontinuous and continuous methods, the latter also are grouped in nonchromatographic and chromatographic methods because of the typical characteristics of each subgroup. A critical comparison between continuous and discontinuous methods for the given parameter ends each section. Tables summarizing the features of the methods and a conclusions section may help users to select the most appropriate method and also to know the state-of-the-art of analytical methods in this area

A smart voltage and current monitoring system for three phase inverters using an android smartphone application

In this paper, a new smart voltage and current monitoring system (SVCMS) technique is proposed. It monitors a three phase electrical system using an Arduino platform as a microcontroller to read the voltage and current from sensors and then wirelessly send the measured data to monitor the results using a new Android application. The integrated SVCMS design uses an Arduino Nano V3.0 as the microcontroller to measure the results from three voltage and three current sensors and then send this data, after calculation, to the Android smartphone device of an end user using Bluetooth HC-05. The Arduino Nano V3.0 controller and Bluetooth HC-05 are a cheap microcontroller and wireless device, respectively. The new Android smartphone application that monitors the voltage and current measurements uses the open source MIT App Inventor 2 software. It allows for monitoring some elementary fundamental voltage power quality properties. An effort has been made to investigate what is possible using available off-the-shelf components and open source software

Vineyard yield estimation using image analysis – a review

Mestrado em Engenharia de Viticultura e Enologia (Double degree) / Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de Lisboa / Faculdade de Ciências. Universidade do PortoYield estimation is one of the main goals of the wine industry, this because with an accurate yield estimation it is possible to have a significant reduction in production costs and a better management of the wine industry. Traditional methods for yield estimation are laborious and time consuming, for these reasons in the last years we are witnessing to the development of new methodologies, most of which are based on image analysis. Thanks to the continuous updating and improvement of the computer vision techniques and of the robotic platforms, image analysis applied to the yield estimation is becoming more and more efficient. In fact the results shown by the different studies are very satisfying, at least as regards the estimation of what is possible to see, while are under development several procedures which have the objective to estimate what is not possible to see, due to bunch occlusion by leaves and by others clusters. I this work the different methodologies and the different approaches used for yield estimation are described, including both traditional methods and new approaches based on image analysis, in order to present the advantages and disadvantages of each of themN/

Assessment of plant water status variability by thermography: comparing ground measurements with remote imaging

Mestrado Vinifera Euromaster - Viticulture and Enology - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaRemote sensing provides a fast alternative for traditional in situ water status measurement in vineyards. Canopy temperature measurements derived from aerial thermography were compared to thermal and plant physiological ground-truthing data of single vines in a low and high vigour zone. The experimental trial was carried out in a vineyard of Colli Piacentini, located in the province of Piacenza (Italy). Statistical methods were used to evaluate the correlation between acquired temperatures and plant physiological parameters. Results by simple regression showed significant correlation, with coefficient of determination (R2) higher than 0.6 for the indices studied; R2 higher than 0.7 for correlations of thermal data with vine water status' and R2 higher than 0.9 for correlations deriving from data of vines of the high vigour zone. These results propose that thermography is a good estimator for vine water status and photosynthetic activity. However, records of aerial and proximal thermal imaging are not congruent but have a similar behaviour and correlation when comparing to ground measurements. Therefore, when only using thermography, vine water stress is not only indicated by a higher canopy temperature in absolute values but is an implication of temperature variation within the field over time. Comparative measurements can improve assessing vine water status by observing changes in canopy temperatureN/

Thermography to assess grapevine status and traits opportunities and limitations in crop monitoring and phenotyping – a review

Mestrado em Engenharia de Viticultura e Enologia (Double degree) / Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de Lisboa / Faculdade de Ciências. Universidade do PortoClimate change and the increasing water shortage pose increasing challenges to agriculture and viticulture, especially in typically dry and hot areas such as the Mediterranean and demand for solutions to use water resources more effectively. For this reason, new tools are needed to precisely monitor water stress in crops such as grapevine in order to save irrigation water, while guaranteeing yield. Imaging technologies and remote sensing tools are becoming more common in agriculture and plant/crop science research namely to perform phenotyping/selection or for crop stress monitoring purposes. Thermography emerged as important tool for the industry and agriculture. It allows detection of the emitted infrared thermal radiation and conversion of infrared radiation into temperature distribution maps. Considering that leaf temperature is a feasible indicator of stress and/or stomatal behavior, thermography showed to be capable to support characterization of novel genotypes and/or monitor crop’s stress. However, there are still limitations in the use of the technique that need to be minimized such as the accuracy of thermal data due to variable weather conditions, limitations due to the high costs of the equipment/platforms and limitations related to image analysis and processing to extract meaningful thermal data. This work revises the role of remote sensing and imaging in modern viticulture as well as the advantages and disadvantages of thermography and future developments, focusing on viticultureN/

Methods to assess grapevine water status: a review

Mestrado em Engenharia de Viticultura e Enologia (Double degree) / Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de Lisboa / Faculdade de Ciências. Universidade do PortoViticulture and wine industry are important economic resources for many countries, represented in a wide range of extremely diverse climates all over the world and highly affected by global climate change at different scales. The global warming is the main cause of water sources reduction due to an altered precipitation pattern; this means a reduction in sources of supply and an increase in water demand from crops especially in Mediterranean regions. The high impact of irrigation in grapevine berry quality and yield makes the development of plant water status monitoring systems an essential issue in the context of sustainable viticulture. Knowledge of the physiological responses of the crop and the development of suitable water status monitoring systems are the main prerequisites for proper irrigation management, in order to mitigate climate change effects. This review aims to provide a state-of-the-art summary of the most important literature on grapevine water status assessment for monitoring and adapting vineyard management strategies to production goals in view of global warming. In this work mainly plant-based methods are reviewed, their advantages and drawbacks are discussed. In this work some factors influencing water relations and effects of severe water stress on grapevine are also reported. The main plant-based methods for irrigation scheduling, including those based on direct or indirect measurement of plant water status and those based on plant physiological responses to drought, are outlined and evaluated. New technologies approaches that belong to the field of precision viticulture are also described, which could offer the integration of heterogeneous information collected in the vineyard at different spatial and temporal resolutions. These new approaches offer new synergies to overcome the limitations inherent to plant water status measurement techniques obtained directly or indirectly. The potential of plant-based systems for automated irrigation control using various scheduling techniques is also discussedN/

Technology and Information Fusion Needs to Address the Food, Energy, Water Systems (FEWS) Nexus Challenges

In response to the Food, Energy, Water Systems (FEWS) Nexus Challenge grant awarded by NSF, the team of investigators led by David Ebert, along with Christian Butzke, Melba Crawford, Phillip Owens, and Dimitrios Peroulis conducted a two-day workshop in Napa, California on November 5th and 6th, 2015. The workshop addressed the emerging issues in the food/energy/water systems throughout the diverse geography of the United States and over various crops and environmental conditions to better understand and model and ultimately devise a solution for the challenges to the FEWS nexus. One of the intended outcomes of the workshop was to generate a report that will chart the research challenges and opportunities for solving these challenges and have an impact on scientific fields including, sensing technology, hydrology, soil science, climate, data fusion, analysis, visualization, and data driven decision 2 making, as well as agricultural production, local and regional economies, sustainability and planning. The information contained in this post-workshop report serves as that foundation.In response to the Food, Energy, Water Systems (FEWS) Nexus Challenge grant awarded by NSF, the team of investigators led by David Ebert, along with Christian Butzke, Melba Crawford, Phillip Owens, and Dimitrios Peroulis conducted a two-day workshop in Napa, California on November 5th and 6th, 2015. The workshop addressed the emerging issues in the food/energy/water systems throughout the diverse geography of the United States and over various crops and environmental conditions to better understand and model and ultimately devise a solution for the challenges to the FEWS nexus. One of the intended outcomes of the workshop was to generate a report that will chart the research challenges and opportunities for solving these challenges and have an impact on scientific fields including, sensing technology, hydrology, soil science, climate, data fusion, analysis, visualization, and data driven decision 2 making, as well as agricultural production, local and regional economies, sustainability and planning. The information contained in this post-workshop report serves as that foundation

Brief Communication: A low-cost Arduino®-based wire extensometer for earth flow monitoring

Abstract. Continuous monitoring of earth flow displacement is essential for the understanding of the dynamic of the process, its ongoing evolution and designing mitigation measures. Despite its importance, it is not always applied due to its expense and the need for integration with additional sensors to monitor factors controlling movement. To overcome these problems, we developed and tested a low-cost Arduino-based wire-rail extensometer integrating a data logger, a power system and multiple digital and analog inputs. The system is equipped with a high-precision position transducer that in the test configuration offers a measuring range of 1023 mm and an associated accuracy of ±1 mm, and integrates an operating temperature sensor that should allow potential thermal drift that typically affects this kind of systems to be identified and corrected. A field test, conducted at the Pietrafitta earth flow where additional monitoring systems had been installed, indicates a high reliability of the measurement and a high monitoring stability without visible thermal drift

Design and implementation : a smart monitoring and controlling system of three-phase photovoltaic inverter based on LoRa

In this paper, a new smart monitor and control system has been designed for injected power application to grid from a three-phase photovoltaic inverter (a smart monitor and control system (SMCS)). The system consists two main units. Firstly, the control system unit: this unit connects directly to the inverter to measure the output voltage of three-phase photovoltaic inverter and the control circuit, It can turn the inverter 'on' or 'off' from a long distance. Secondly, the monitoring unit: this unit is designed to monitor the states of the photovoltaic inverter system from long distances. It has two monitoring options OLED and a smartphone monitoring application. LoRa technique (long range) used to send and receive data between controllers system and monitoring system. LoRa is a new type of wireless communication technology within the Internet of Things (IoT). The SMCS application has been designed by using open source software "MIT App Inventor 2"; this application is used to sends and receives the data from a control unit by using Bluetooth as a wireless communication in order to monitor and control the whole system. The main advantage of the SMCS that it can monitor and control three-phase photovoltaic inverters that have been installed in remote and rural areas

Antimicrobial activity of pomegranate peel extracts from "Karamustafa" and "Idzis" varieties

The aim of this study was determination of antimicrobial activity of pomegranate peel extracts from “Karamustafa” and “Idžis” varieties. For this purposes, the peel of the two varieties of pomegranates was dried, powdered and extracted three times by methanol: water solution (80:20). After evaporation, the extracts were investigated for their “in vitro” antibacterial and antifungal properties using a disk-diffusion method in Petri dishes. The pomegranate peel extracts were tested for antibacterial activity against one Gram-positive bacterial strain Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), and against one Gram-negative bacterial strain Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), and for antifungal activity using Candida albicans (ATCC 1023). In brief, each microorganism was suspended in Mueller Hinton (MH) broth and diluted approximately to 10E6 colony forming unit (cfu)/mL. Gentamicin (20 μg/well), nalidixic acid (30 μg/well), ciprofloxacine (5 μg/well) and erytromicine (15 μg/well) were used as positive control. The antibacterial activity is ranked from no activity (-: inhibition diameter < 10 mm), low (+: inhibition diameter between 10 and 15 mm), moderate (++: inhibition diameter between 15 and 20 mm) and high activity (+++: diameter inhibition ≥ 20 mm). All tests were performed in triplicate and clear halos greater than 10 mm were considered as positive results. Our results showed very high antimicrobial activity of the extracts from both variety against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) with inhibition zone of 40 mm. The antifungal activity against Candida albicans (ATCC 1023) was very low with inhibition zone of 10 mm