An Agronomic Approach to Pine Nut Production by Grafting Stone Pine on Two Rootstocks

Stone pine (Pinus pinea) grows in natural stands within the Mediterranean basin and its nut is highly appreciated for its nutritional profile. Nevertheless, a decline in this species due to biotic and abiotic damages is currently being clearly observed. This situation has led to its development as a nut crop, to try to save its production and obtain regular harvests over the years. Under this agronomic scenario, the aim of this work was to compare the behavior of the stone pine grafted onto two rootstocks, P. pinea (PP) and P. halepensis (PH), by evaluating cone productivity, tree growth response, mast seeding patterns and pine nut composition. The field test was composed of 14 PH and 14 PP, randomly distributed into groups of 4–5 trees/rootstock. Data were from seven productive growing seasons. The results show higher growth and ripe cone production on PP rather than PH, although the productivity (cones/m2 canopy) was similar. Any effect of rootstock was observed on the mast seeding pattern and weight of cones, while the pine nut composition showed differences in the fatty acids content. The global quality of production was similar in PH and PP.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measuring Oscillating Walking Paths with a LIDAR

This work describes the analysis of different walking paths registered using a Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) laser range sensor in order to measure oscillating trajectories during unsupervised walking. The estimate of the gait and trajectory parameters were obtained with a terrestrial LIDAR placed 100 mm above the ground with the scanning plane parallel to the floor to measure the trajectory of the legs without attaching any markers or modifying the floor. Three different large walking experiments were performed to test the proposed measurement system with straight and oscillating trajectories. The main advantages of the proposed system are the possibility to measure several steps and obtain average gait parameters and the minimum infrastructure required. This measurement system enables the development of new ambulatory applications based on the analysis of the gait and the trajectory during a walk

Renovation assessment of building districts: Case studies and implications to the positive energy districts definition

As the built environment is among the main contributing sectors to climate change, it is needed to investigate new paradigms to push decarbonization efforts towards the ambitious objectives defined internationally. It is a shared understanding that shifting the perspective from the single building to the district perspective is required to fully take into consideration the complexity of all interactions undergoing within the built environment, thus the concept of Positive Energy District emerged as a district with annual net zero energy import and net zero CO2 emission working towards an annual local surplus production of renewable energy. In this framework, this paper explores the investigation of the potential for achieving the level of Positive Energy District in a group of non-residential buildings in Balaguer, Catalonia, Spain. These buildings, occupying 8,825 m2 in the city centre, require significant refurbishment for improved energy performance. The analysis includes building energy modelling and simulation, renovation studies, several alternative balance calculations, and carbon emissions assessment. The paper also considers mobility and embodied energy and their impact on energy/carbon balances. The results show that Positive Energy Districts carbon and primary energy balances are not met with rooftop PV installations when retrofitting an existing district towards the Positive energy target but further significant PV areas (roughly + 50%) are required to meet merely the use stage balances: negative results are traced when mobility and embodied energy are computed. A formulation alternative to the simple mathematical balance to facilitate the diffusion of Positive Energy District as catalyst of urban decarbonisation could be needed, including context factors and alternative systems (e.g., rating systems)

Design and Implementation of a Biomimetic Turtle Hydrofoil for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

This paper presents the design and implementation of a turtle hydrofoil for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The final design of the AUV must have navigation performance like a turtle, which has also been the biomimetic inspiration for the design of the hydrofoil and propulsion system. The hydrofoil design is based on a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0014 hydrodynamic profile. During the design stage, four different propulsion systems were compared in terms of propulsion path, compactness, sealing and required power. The final implementation is based on a ball-and-socket mechanism because it is very compact and provides three degrees of freedom (DoF) to the hydrofoil with very few restrictions on the propulsion path. The propulsion obtained with the final implementation of the hydrofoil has been empirically evaluated in a water channel comparing different motion strategies. The results obtained have confirmed that the proposed turtle hydrofoil controlled with a mechanism with three DoF generates can be used in the future implementation of the planned AUV.ISSN:1424-822

An embedded real-time red peach detection system based on an OV7670 camera, ARM Cortex-M4 processor and 3D Look-Up Tables

This work proposes the development of an embedded real-time fruit detection system for future automatic fruit harvesting. The proposed embedded system is based on an ARM Cortex-M4 (STM32F407VGT6) processor and an Omnivision OV7670 color camera. The future goal of this embedded vision system will be to control a robotized arm to automatically select and pick some fruit directly from the tree. The complete embedded system has been designed to be placed directly in the gripper tool of the future robotized harvesting arm. The embedded system will be able to perform real-time fruit detection and tracking by using a three-dimensional look-up-table (LUT) defined in the RGB color space and optimized for fruit picking. Additionally, two different methodologies for creating optimized 3D LUTs based on existing linear color models and fruit histograms were implemented in this work and compared for the case of red peaches. The resulting system is able to acquire general and zoomed orchard images and to update the relative tracking information of a red peach in the tree ten times per second

Working on a Standard Joint Unit: a pilot test

Cannabis; 9-Tetrahidrocannabinol; Unidad estándar; Estudio pilotoCannabis; 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol; Standard unit; Pilot studyCànnabis; 9-Tetrahidrocannabinol; Unitat estàndard; Estudi pilotIntroducción. Explorar el consumo de cánnabis sigue siendo complejo debido a la falta de sistemas de registro. Se evaluó la factibilidad de obtener una Unidad de Porro Estándar (UPE) que considere los principales cannabinoides con implicación clínica mediante un estudio naturalístico. Metodología. Estudio piloto con consumidores actuales de cánnabis de cuatro áreas (universidades, ocio nocturno, servicio ambulatorio de salud mental y asociaciones cannábicas) en Barcelona. Se diseñó y administró un cuestionario sobre patrones de consumo y se determinó la predisposición a donar un porro para análisis. Se utilizaron estadísticos descriptivos para analizar los datos. Resultados. Cuarenta consumidores de cannabis respondieron a la encuesta (tasa de respuesta 95%), siendo la mayoría hombres (72,5%) y jóvenes adultos (mediana de edad 24,5 años; RIQ 8,75 años) que consumen a diario o casi diariamente (70%). La marihuana es el derivado más consumido (85%), habiendo de mediana 0,25 gr de marihuana por porro. Un 67,5% de los participantes se mostraron predispuestos a donar un porro para análisis. Conclusión. La obtención de la UPE con la metodología prevista es factible. Tras el piloto el cuestionario ha sido adaptado y se ha introducido un incentivo para estimular la donación de muestras. Establecer la UPE permitirá avanzar en el conocimiento de las consecuencias del consumo de cannabis.Introduction. Assessing cannabis consumption remains complex due to no reliable registration systems. We tested the likelihood of establishing a Standard Joint Unit (SJU) which considers the main cannabinoids with implication on health through a naturalistic approach. Methodology. Pilot study with current cannabis users of four areas of Barcelona: universities, nightclubs, out-patient mental health service, and cannabis associations. We designed and administered a questionnaire on cannabis use-patterns and determined the willingness to donate a joint for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results. Forty volunteers answered the questionnaire (response rate 95%); most of them were men (72.5%) and young adults (median age 24.5 years; IQR 8.75 years) who consume daily or nearly daily (70%). Most participants consume marihuana (85%) and roll their joints with a median of 0.25 gr of marihuana. Two out of three (67.5%) stated they were willing to donate a joint. Conclusion. Obtaining an SJU with the planned methodology has proved to be feasible. Pre-testing resulted in an improvement of the questionnaire and retribution to incentivize donations. Establishing an SJU is essential to improve our knowledge on cannabis-related outcomes.Este estudio se financió con la subvención española del Plan Nacional sobre Drogas, Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo (PNSD 2013I082; Antoni Gual Solé)