Wireless hydrotherapy smart-suit network for posture monitoring

A wireless smart-suit network for monitoring body kinetics, heart and respiratory rate during hidrocinesiotherapy sessions is presented. Sensing modules composed by 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis magnetometers and interface electronics are used to monitor the body kinetics. Heart rate is measured using an ear clip infrared sensor and respiratory frequency is measured with inductance plethysmography. The sensor network is integrated in a swimming suit and data is transmitted in real time to a base station using a 2.4 GHz RF transceiver. Measurements of the rotation of shoulders, hips and spine are performed with a resolution of less than 2 degrees. A new MAC protocol for wireless sensing and actuation, LPRT protocol, implemented in MICAz motes is used. Some of the characteristics of the proposed protocol are low power consumption, real-time support and loss intolerant traffic. The protocol uses contentionfree operation and retransmission scheme and is very flexible and has high throughput efficiency.Agência de Inovação (ADI

A Constrained Fuzzy Knowledge-Based System for the Management of Container Yard Operations

The management of container yard operations is considered by yard operators to be a very challenging task due to the many uncertainties inherent in such operations. The storage of the containers is one of those operations that require proper management for the efficient utilisation of the yard, requiring rapid retrieval time and a minimum number of re-handlings. The main challenge is when containers of a different size, type, or weight need to be stored in a yard that holds a number of pre-existing containers. This challenge becomes even more complex when the date and time for the departure of the containers are unknown, as is the case when the container is collected by a third-party logistics company without any prior notice being given. The aim of this study is to develop a new system for the management of container yard operations that takes into consideration a number of factors and constraints that occur in a real-life situation. One of these factors is the duration of stay for the topmost containers of each stack, when the containers are stored. Because the duration of stay for containers in a yard varies dynamically over time, an ‘ON/OFF’ strategy is proposed to activate/deactivate the duration of stay factor constraint if the length of stay for these containers varies significantly over time. A number of tools and techniques are utilised for developing the proposed system including: discrete event simulation for the modelling of container storage and retrieval operations, a fuzzy know ledge-based model for the stack allocation of containers, and a heuristic algorithm called ‘neighbourhood’ for the container retrieval operation. Results show that by adopting the proposed ‘ON/OFF’ strategy, 5% of the number of re-handlings, 2.5% of the total retrieval time, 6.6% of the total re-handling time and 42% of the average waiting time per truck are reduced

Using online databases to produce comprehensive accounts of the vascular plants from the Brazilian protected areas: The Parque Nacional do Itatiaia as a case study.

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with about 37,000 species of land plants. Part of this biodiversity is within protected areas. The development of online databases in the last years greatly improved the available biodiversity data. However, the existing databases do not provide information about the protected areas in which individual plant species occur. The lack of such information is a crucial gap for conservation actions. This study aimed to show how the information captured from online databases, cleaned by a protocol and verified by taxonomists allowed us to obtain a comprehensive list of the vascular plant species from the "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia", the first national park founded in Brazil. All existing records in the online database JABOT (15,100 vouchers) were downloaded, resulting in 11,783 vouchers identified at the species level. Overall, we documented 2,316 species belonging to 176 families and 837 genera of vascular plants in the "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia". Considering the whole vascular flora, 2,238 species are native and 78 are non-native

Projections of global-scale extreme sea levels and resulting episodic coastal flooding over the 21st Century

Global models of tide, storm surge, and wave setup are used to obtain projections of episodic coastal flooding over the coming century. The models are extensively validated against tide gauge data and the impact of uncertainties and assumptions on projections estimated in detail. Global “hotspots” where there is projected to be a significant change in episodic flooding by the end of the century are identified and found to be mostly concentrated in north western Europe and Asia. Results show that for the case of, no coastal protection or adaptation, and a mean RCP8.5 scenario, there will be an increase of 48% of the world’s land area, 52% of the global population and 46% of global assets at risk of flooding by 2100. A total of 68% of the global coastal area flooded will be caused by tide and storm events with 32% due to projected regional sea level rise

Robustness and uncertainties in global multivariate wind-wave climate projections

Understanding climate-driven impacts on the multivariate global wind-wave climate is paramount to effective offshore/coastal climate adaptation planning. However, the use of single-method ensembles and variations arising from different methodologies has resulted in unquantified uncertainty amongst existing global wave climate projections. Here, assessing the first coherent, community-driven, multi-method ensemble of global wave climate projections, we demonstrate widespread ocean regions with robust changes in annual mean significant wave height and mean wave period of 5–15% and shifts in mean wave direction of 5–15°, under a high-emission scenario. Approximately 50% of the world’s coastline is at risk from wave climate change, with ~40% revealing robust changes in at least two variables. Furthermore, we find that uncertainty in current projections is dominated by climate model-driven uncertainty, and that single-method modelling studies are unable to capture up to ~50% of the total associated uncertainty

Enhancing sampling design in mist-net bat surveys by accounting for sample size optimization

The advantages of mist-netting, the main technique used in Neotropical bat community studies to date, include logistical implementation, standardization and sampling representativeness. Nonetheless, study designs still have to deal with issues of detectability related to how different species behave and use the environment. Yet there is considerable sampling heterogeneity across available studies in the literature. Here, we approach the problem of sample size optimization. We evaluated the common sense hypothesis that the first six hours comprise the period of peak night activity for several species, thereby resulting in a representative sample for the whole night. To this end, we combined re-sampling techniques, species accumulation curves, threshold analysis, and community concordance of species compositional data, and applied them to datasets of three different Neotropical biomes (Amazonia, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado). We show that the strategy of restricting sampling to only six hours of the night frequently results in incomplete sampling representation of the entire bat community investigated. From a quantitative standpoint, results corroborated the existence of a major Sample Area effect in all datasets, although for the Amazonia dataset the six-hour strategy was significantly less species-rich after extrapolation, and for the Cerrado dataset it was more efficient. From the qualitative standpoint, however, results demonstrated that, for all three datasets, the identity of species that are effectively sampled will be inherently impacted by choices of sub-sampling schedule. We also propose an alternative six-hour sampling strategy (at the beginning and the end of a sample night) which performed better when resampling Amazonian and Atlantic Forest datasets on bat assemblages. Given the observed magnitude of our results, we propose that sample representativeness has to be carefully weighed against study objectives, and recommend that the trade-off between logistical constraints and additional sampling performance should be carefully evaluated

New Brazilian Floristic List Highlights Conservation Challenges

A comprehensive new inventory of Brazilian plants and fungi was published just in time to meet a 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity target and offers important insights into this biodiversity's global significance. Brazil is the home to the world's richest flora (40,989 species; 18,932 endemic) and includes two of the hottest hotspots: Mata Atlantica (19,355 species) and Cerrado (12,669 species). Although the total number of known species is one-third lower than previous estimates, the absolute number of endemic vascular plant species is higher than was previously estimated, and the proportion of endemism (56%) is the highest in the Neotropics. This compilation serves not merely to quantify the scale of the challenge faced in conserving Brazil's unique flora but also serves as a key resource to direct action and monitor progress. Similar efforts by other megadiverse countries are urgently required if the 2020 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation are to be attained.Ministerio do Meio AmbienteMinisterio do Meio AmbienteCentro Nacional de Conservacao da FloraCentro Nacional de Conservacao da FloraNational Council for Scientific and Technological DevelopmentNational Council for Scientific and Technological DevelopmentBentham and Moxon TrustBentham and Moxon Trus

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states