Comparison of passive and active canopy sensors for the estimation of vine biomass production

Recent advances in optical designs and electronic circuits have allowed the transition from passive to active proximal sensors. Instead of relying on the reflectance of natural sunlight, the active sensors measure the reflectance of modulated light from the crop and so they can operate under all lighting conditions. This study compared the potential of active and passive canopy sensors for predicting biomass production in 25–32 randomly selected positions of a Merlot vineyard. Both sensors provided estimates of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from a nadir view of the canopy at veraison that were good predictors of pruning weight. Although the red NDVI of the passive sensors explained more of the variation in biomass (R2 = 0.82), its relationship to pruning weight was nonlinear and was best described by a quadratic regression (NDVI = 0.55 + 0.50 wt-0.21 wt2). The theoretically greater linearity of the amber NDVI-biomass relationship could not be verified under conditions of high biomass. The linear correlation to stable isotope content in leaves (15N) provided evidence that canopy reflectance detected plant stresses as a result of water shortage and limited fertilizer N uptake. Thus, the canopy reflectance data provided by these mobile sensors can be used to improve site-specific management practices of vineyards

Design Guidelines for Energy Efficient AC to DC Power Supplies

Data processing for Internet of Things (IoT), and Internet and Communications Technologies (ICT), is increasing with unpresented rates, something that has led to an increased requirement for Power Supply Units (PSU). A respectful 1% of global energy consumption is due to data processing in datacenters. The global datacenter energy consumption is rising the last few years due to the 5G technology and the low latency and high-speed requirements. In the same manner IoT applications, and energy industries are rising, and is estimated that an impressive 70% of global energy is passing through converters such as PSUs. This work analyses the main constituent components in each individual conversion stage of a PSU and proposes the most appropriate designs for higher efficiency. The theoretical analysis is verified by simulations using the PSIM Thermal Module. Finally, this paper suggests techniques and trade-offs that must be exploited for the optimized PSU design with higher energy efficiency under varying parameters

Design Guidelines for Energy Efficient AC to DC Power Supplies

Data processing for Internet of Things (IoT), and Internet and Communications Technologies (ICT), is increasing with unpresented rates, something that has led to an increased requirement for Power Supply Units (PSU). A respectful 1% of global energy consumption is due to data processing in datacenters. The global datacenter energy consumption is rising the last few years due to the 5G technology and the low latency and high-speed requirements. In the same manner IoT applications, and energy industries are rising, and is estimated that an impressive 70% of global energy is passing through converters such as PSUs. This work analyses the main constituent components in each individual conversion stage of a PSU and proposes the most appropriate designs for higher efficiency. The theoretical analysis is verified by simulations using the PSIM Thermal Module. Finally, this paper suggests techniques and trade-offs that must be exploited for the optimized PSU design with higher energy efficiency under varying parameters

Curving and looping of the internal carotid artery in relation to the pharynx: frequency, embryology and clinical implications

Variations of the course of the internal carotid artery in the parapharyngeal space and their frequency were studied in order to determine possible risks for acute haemorrhage during pharyngeal surgery and traumatic events, as well as their possible relevance to cerebrovascular disease. The course of the internal carotid artery showed no curvature in 191 cases, but in 74 cases it had a medial, lateral or ventrocaudal curve, and 17 preparations showed kinking (12) or coiling (5) out of a total of 265 dissected carotid sheaths and 17 corrosion vascular casts. In 6 cases of kinking and 2 of coiling, the internal carotid artery was located in direct contact with the tonsillar fossa. No significant sex differences were found. Variations of the internal carotid artery leading to direct contact with the pharyngeal wall are likely to be of great clinical relevance in view of the large number of routine procedures performed. Whereas coiling is ascribed to embryological causes, curving is related to ageing and kinking is thought to be exacerbated by arteriosclerosis or fibromuscular dysplasia with advancing age and may therefore be of significance in relation to the occurrence of cerebrovascular symptoms

Prenatal Diagnosis of Aneuploidy Using Artificial Neural Networks in Relation to Health Economics

RASimAs (Regional Anaesthesia Simulator and Assistant) is a EU FP7 project that aims at increasing the application, the effectiveness and the success rates of regional anaesthesia by developing two independent but complementary systems, one system for training by using patient-specific computer models, and one for guidance in the assistance of nerve’s location during the actual intervention. In this context, the present document focuses on the training system, which will be deployed in multiple participating hospitals that will be connected to a central information system. In particular, this paper deals with the software architecture of the aforementioned integrated environment and the components that constitute it. We present indicative key components and functionalities such as the user authentication and authorization service, the user profile and performance metrics management service, the role based access control system, the VPH (Virtual Physiological Human) library, and the synchronization between the training centres and the central information system

An Adaptive Memory Programming Framework for the Robust Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem

We present an adaptive memory programming (AMP) metaheuristic to address the robust capacitated vehicle routing problem under demand uncertainty. Contrary to its deterministic counterpart, the robust formulation allows for uncertain customer demands, and the objective is to determine a minimum cost delivery plan that is feasible for all demand realizations within a prespecified uncertainty set. A crucial step in our heuristic is to verify the robust feasibility of a candidate route. For generic uncertainty sets, this step requires the solution of a convex optimization problem, which becomes computationally prohibitive for large instances. We present two classes of uncertainty sets for which route feasibility can be established much more efficiently. Although we discuss our implementation in the context of the AMP framework, our techniques readily extend to other metaheuristics. Computational studies on standard literature benchmarks with up to 483 customers and 38 vehicles demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to quickly provide high-quality solutions. In the process, we obtain new best solutions for a total of 123 benchmark instances