Development of IoT Smart Greenhouse System for Hydroponic Gardens

This study focused on the development of a smart greenhouse system for hydroponic gardens with the adaptation of the Internet of Things and monitored through mobile as one of the solutions towards the negative effects of the worlds booming population, never ending - shrinking of arable lands, and the effect of climate change drastically in our environments. To achieve the goal of the study, the researchers created an actual hydroponic greenhouse system with completely developing plants, and automation in examining and monitoring the water pH level, light, water, and greenhouse temperature, as well as humidity which is linked to ThingSpeak. The developed SMART Greenhouse monitoring system was tested and evaluated to confirm its reliability, functions, and usability under ISO 9126 evaluation criteria. The respondents who include casual plant owners and experts in hydroponic gardening able to test and evaluate the prototype, and the mobile application to monitor the parameters with the results of 7.77 for pH level, 83 for light, 27.94 deg C for water temperature, 27 deg C for greenhouse temperature, and 75% for humidity with a descriptive result in both software and hardware as Very Good with a mean average of 4.06 which means that the developed technology is useful and recommended. The SMART Greenhouse System for Hydroponic Garden is used as an alternative tool, solution, and innovation technique towards food shortages due to climate change, land shortages, and low farming environments. The proponents highly suggest the use of solar energy for the pump power, prototype wiring should be improved, the usage of a high-end model of Arduino to address more sensors and devices for a larger arsenal of data collected, enclosures of the device to ensure safety, and mobile application updates such as bug fixes and have an e-manual of the whole systems

Modifications of the Protein Characteristics of Pacaya Caused by Thermal Treatment: A Spectroscopic, Electrophoretic and Morphological Study

The inflorescences of Chamaedorea tepejilote Liebm. are consumed as food in Central America and southern Mexico but is an underutilized food because of its sensory characteristics, principally due to its bitter taste. However, the inflorescences of Chamaedorea tepejilote Liebm. are nutritionally promising due to their high protein content (approximately 25%). Protein isolates from pacaya were modified via three different thermal treatments to determine the effect of the treatments on the protein structures. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the pacaya protein isolate particles had less rough and irregular surfaces with larger particle sizes due to an aggregation process when a thermal treatment was used compared to those when no thermal treatment was used. An increase in the intensity of the low molecular weight protein fractions (≤20 kDa) in the electrophoretic pattern of the proteins was observed, which was generated by the hydrolysis of the proteins by heat treatment. The modifications in the FT-IR spectra showed that thermal treatment of pacaya affected the secondary structure of its proteins, mainly when microwave treatment was used. Raman spectroscopy revealed that the α–helical structure was dominant in the proteins of pacaya and that thermal treatment increased the fraction of the β–sheet structure at the expense of the α–helical structure