Low carbon certification of agricultural production using field GHG measurements. Development of an integrated framework with emphasis on mediterranean products

The urgent need to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture has prompted the development of certification systems aimed at promoting sustainable and low carbon practices. Although several low carbon certification systems for agricultural products exist in the European Union (EU), their adequacy for accurately measuring, evaluating, reporting, and verifying agricultural emissions and sequestration as well as associated carbon/GHG reduction credits at the farm level remains limited. This study presents a standardized approach to low carbon certification of agricultural production developed under the ClimaMED LIFE project, focusing on the integration of field-site GHG measurements (CO2, CH4, N2O emissions) into the certification framework. In this context, a six-stage low carbon certification system that incorporates a Tier 3 methodology encompassing several innovative on-site data collection and analysis technologies such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Internet of Things (IoT) telemetry is proposed. This integrated approach has been developed for five agricultural products, i.e. olive trees, grapes, cereals, pistachios and vegetables cultivated in the Mediterranean region based on several low-carbon practices implemented and monitored at farm level (15 pilot fields in total). This study also explores the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing such an integrated framework, considering technological, economic, and policy dimensions. The proposed framework shows significant potential as a valuable tool that can be easily adapted to several agricultural products to assist public authorities, policymakers, certification bodies, and agricultural stakeholders seeking to establish a robust and transparent certification system for evaluating and endorsing low carbon practices. This framework is expected to drive the broader incorporation of innovative technologies to accurately measure, monitor and report carbon/GHG reduction credits and promote the establishment of similar certification systems in various other sectors

AgroTRACE: A Complete Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Traceability System

The fresh food industry recognizes the importance of traceability and food safety; however, some sectors are considered more advanced than others in implementing the relevant processes throughout the supply chain. At the international level, the branches of industry and the key players in the management of the supply chain work together to co-create an integrated and consolidated traceability process in order to benefit all the subcategories of fresh food products, such as seafood, dairy, baked goods, meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables. Therefore, an effective tracking process needs to be based on a standard approach to fresh produce and its location recognition, while at the same time remaining flexible in the individual roles and responsibilities of the various links in the supply chain within the ecosystem. While many trading partners already have interfaces with external systems and processes for some level of traceability of their products, the next necessary step towards an integrated approach is to identify interoperability opportunities between internal and external processes across the food industry. Towards this direction, the AgroTRACE system aims to achieve end-to-end traceability of a fresh product supply chain through the deployment system, which combines internal and external tracking processes, so that each user is able to identify the immediate source and immediate recipient of the products. The system applies the “one step up, one step down” principle to provide effective tracking in the supply chain. In particular, each distinct product is recognized globally and in a unique way so that it can be located upstream and downstream of the supply chain. The innovation of the proposed system is further enhanced by the fact that the tracking will go beyond the route from field to field and covers the part of recycling (biomass, compost, etc.), in the context of the circular economy. That is, implement traceability from the field-to the shelf-to the field. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0

Challenges and solutions of surveillance systems in IoT-enabled smart campus:a survey

Abstract A Smart Campus is a miniature of a Smart City with a more demanding framework that enables learning, social interaction and creativity. To ensure a Smart Campus uninterruptible secure operation, a key requirement is that daily routines and activities are performed protected in an environment monitored unobtrusively by a robust surveillance system. The various components that compose such an environment, buildings, labs, public spaces, smart lighting, smart parking, or even smart traffic lights, require us to focus on surveillance systems, and recognize which detection activities to establish. In this paper, we perform a comparative assessment in the area of surveillance systems for Smart Campuses. A proposed taxonomy for IoT-enabled Smart Campus unfold five research dimensions: (1) physical infrastructure; (2) enabling technologies; (3) software analytics; (4) system security; and (5) research methodology. By applying this taxonomy and by adopting a weighted scoring model on the surveyed systems, we first present the state-of-the-art, and then we make a comparative assessment and classify the systems. We extract valuable conclusions and inferences from this classification, providing insights and directions towards required services offered by surveillance systems for Smart Campus

Portable gait analysis sensor model for Parkinson's disease

As part of a research project, a small gait analysis device is being developed that will be used outside of home by the patients themselves. Its main purpose will be to record accurate gait measurements in patients with Parkinson's Disease and proceed with in-depth analysis of the gait characteristics. A key feature of the device will be its small size, which creates specific requirements in terms of device consumption restrictions due to the small size of the battery and the need for autonomous operation for more than ten hours. This research work describes, on the one hand, the firmware of the device with an emphasis on the functions that will be implemented; and, on the other, the device software which will support the process that will be adopted for reading and processing data from the devices placed on patients' feet to record the gait characteristics of patients on a continuous basis. Using these computational approaches, we developed and carried out an experiment with a 1.60 m tall experimental female subject. We strapped a device to the subject's right ankle and instructed her to take five steps with her right foot, turn 180 degrees, and repeat with the same foot. © 202

Commercially available sensor-based monitoring and support systems in parkinson's disease: An overview

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder correlating with dysfunction or deprivation of brains dopaminergic neurons, lack of dopamine, and the formation of abnormal protein particles. There are several clinical tests for detection of Parkinson's disease, but nowadays a demand is rising for an objective assessment of symptoms and health-related outcomes. The rapid development of sensor-based technological devices permits conducting measurements without bias that they are able to be used in scientific research and clinical practice. This paper provides a technical overview of the available commercial wearable systems for monitoring and supporting Parkinson's disease management, taking into account their validity and reliability. The understanding of the current state-of-the-art could help patients and clinicians significantly improve Parkinson's disease management by minimizing health care costs and increasing patient's quality of life. © 2021 Bharati Vidyapeeth, New Delhi. Copy Right in Bulk will be transferred to IEEE by Bharati Vidyapeeth