IoT-based systems for soil nutrients assessment in horticulture

Soil nutrients assessment has great importance in horticulture. Implementation of an information system for horticulture faces many challenges: (i) great spatial variability within farms (e.g., hilly topography); (ii) different soil properties (e.g., different water holding capacity, different content in sand, sit, clay, and soil organic matter, different pH, and different permeability) for different cultivated plants; (iii) different soil nutrient uptake by different cultivated plants; (iv) small size of monoculture; and (v) great variety of farm components, agroecological zone, and socio-economic factors. Advances in information and communication technologies enable creation of low cost, efficient information systems that would improve resources management and increase productivity and sustainability of horticultural farms. We present an information system based on different sensing capability, Internet of Things, and mobile application for horticultural farms. An overview on different techniques and technologies for soil fertility evaluation is also presented. The results obtained in a botanical garden that simulates the diversity of environment and plant diversity of a horticultural farm are discussed considering the challenges identified in the literature and field research. The study provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the development of technologies that enable horticultural farmers to improve resources management.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of dry textile electrodes for electromiography: a comparison between knitted structures and conductive yarns

The paper presents a practical approach concerning the design, implementation and testing of dry textile electrodes for surface electromyography purposes. Several knitted structures were designed and knitted with conductive yarns, in order to compare the influence of the fabric structure in the electrode performance. The effect of the type of conductive yarn was also studied by comparing three different yarns. It was found that the textile electrodes perform well for sEMG acquisition, with a clear depiction of the muscle activity produced. There are significant differences between the structures tested and there is also some influence from the yarn used.This work is supported by Portuguese National Funding, through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, in the framework of project EHRPhysio PTDC/DTP-DES/1661/2012 and project UID/CTM/00264/2013

Treat me well : affective and physiological feedback for wheelchair users

This work reports a electrocardiograph and skin conductivity hardware architecture, based on E-textile electrodes, attached to a wheelchair for affective and physiological computing. Appropriate conditioning circuits and a microcontroller platform that performs acquisition, primary processing, and communication using Bluetooth were designed and implemented. To increase the accuracy and repeatability of the skin conductivity measuring channel, force measurement sensors were attached to the system certifying measuring contact force on the electrode level. Advanced processing including Rwave peak detector, adaptive filtering and autonomic nervous system analysis based on wavelets transform was designed and implemented on a server. A central design of affective recognition and biofeedback system is described.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Exergames for motor rehabilitation in older adults: an umbrella review

Background: Exergames have been used as an innovative motor rehabilitation method with the main aim of improving motivation and exercise. As research interest in exergaming for rehabilitation is rapidly growing, a review of existing systematic reviews is important to synthesize the available evidence and provide recommendations. Objectives: In this article, we systematically synthesized the information from reviews that have examined the effects if exergames on different body movement parameters in older adults with and without specific pathologies. Method: Searches were conducted in Web of Science, Scopus, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, PubMed, SciELO, B-On and Google Scholar, articulating different terms and Boolean operators. Systematic reviews, meta-analysis and literature reviews published until May 2017 that investigated exergame interventions on physical outcomes, such as balance, gait, limb movements, muscle strength, in healthy and non-healthy older adults. Results: Based on prior reviews, exergaming, as a standalone intervention, has a positive effect on balance, gait, muscle strength, upper limb function, and dexterity. When compared to traditional physiotherapy, exergaming has at least similar effects on these outcomes. Many of the investigated studies indicated low methodological quality for the evaluation of the effects of exergames on different outcomes related to motor rehabilitation. Conclusions: Exergames could be used as a complement to traditional forms of motor rehabilitation, but future individual studies and reviews should follow more rigorous methodological standards in order to improve the quality of the evidence and provide guidelines for the use of exergames in motor rehabilitation.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Multi-sensing node architecture for water quality monitoring

Peer Reviewe

YOLOX-Ray: An efficient attention-based single-staged object detector tailored for industrial inspections

Industrial inspection is crucial for maintaining quality and safety in industrial processes. Deep learning models have recently demonstrated promising results in such tasks. This paper proposes YOLOX-Ray, an efficient new deep learning architecture tailored for industrial inspection. YOLOX-Ray is based on the You Only Look Once (YOLO) object detection algorithms and integrates the SimAM attention mechanism for improved feature extraction in the Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) and Path Aggregation Network (PAN). Moreover, it also employs the Alpha-IoU cost function for enhanced small-scale object detection. YOLOX-Ray’s performance was assessed in three case studies: hotspot detection, infrastructure crack detection and corrosion detection. The architecture outperforms all other configurations, achieving mAP50 values of 89%, 99.6% and 87.7%, respectively. For the most challenging metric, mAP50:95, the achieved values were 44.7%, 66.1% and 51.8%, respectively. A comparative analysis demonstrated the importance of combining the SimAM attention mechanism with Alpha-IoU loss function for optimal performance. In conclusion, YOLOX-Ray’s ability to detect and to locate multi-scale objects in industrial environments presents new opportunities for effective, efficient and sustainable inspection processes across various industries, revolutionizing the field of industrial inspections.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fear or humour in anti-smoking campaigns? Impact on perceived effectiveness and support for tobacco control policies

Several anti-smoking campaigns have been used for decades to reduce smoking consumption. However, so far, there is no consensus regarding the effectiveness of inducing distinct emotions in reducing smoke consumption. This study tested the effects of two types of anti-smoking ads, inducing fear or humor, on emotions, perceived effectiveness, support for tobacco control policies, urges to smoke, and susceptibility to smoke. Participants (N = 108; 54 smokers) of both genders were randomly assigned to one of the two following emotion ads condition: fear (N = 52) or humor (N = 56). During exposure, the continuous flow of their emotions by self-report and physiologically was collected. Measures of ads impact on emotions, perceived effectiveness, urges and susceptibility to smoking, and support for tobacco policies were applied after exposure. The results have shown that fear ads were perceived as more effective and reduced the urges to smoke in smokers. Non-smokers were more supportive of tobacco control policies. In conclusion, this study showed that fear campaigns can reduce the urge to smoke among smokers and are perceived to be more effective. This perceived effectiveness can be partially explained by feelings of fear, regardless the other emotions it also triggers, and of the smoking status.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Neural architecture search for 1D CNNs - Different approaches tests and measurements

In the field of sensors, in areas such as industrial, clinical, or environment, it is common to find one dimensional (1D) formatted data (e.g., electrocardiogram, temperature, power consumption). A very promising technique for modelling this information is the use of One Dimensional Convolutional Neural Networks (1D CNN), which introduces a new challenge, namely how to define the best architecture for a 1D CNN. This manuscript addresses the concept of One Dimensional Neural Architecture Search (1D NAS), an approach that automates the search for the best combination of Neuronal Networks hyperparameters (model architecture), including both structural and training hyperparameters, for optimising 1D CNNs. This work includes the implementation of search processes for 1D CNN architectures based on five strategies: greedy, random, Bayesian, hyperband, and genetic approaches to perform, collect, and analyse the results obtained by each strategy scenario. For the analysis, we conducted 125 experiments, followed by a thorough evaluation from multiple perspectives, including the best-performing model in terms of accuracy, consistency, variability, total running time, and computational resource consumption. Finally, by presenting the optimised 1D CNN architecture, the results for the manuscript’s research question (a real-life clinical case) were provided.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Health monitoring using textile sensors and electrodes: an overview and integration of technologies

Publicado em "MeMeA 2014 International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications : proceedings", ISBN 978-1-4799-2920-7This paper gives an overview of technologies and results of integration and test of textile integrated sensors and electrodes for monitoring of biosignals (electrocardiographic - ECG and electromyographic - EMG), breathing and moisture. Using a seamless jacquard knitting machine, it is possible to integrate these sensors and electrodes directly into the fabrics, which can then be used in clothing for monitoring of elderly people, in sports or in hazardous occupations. The total integration of the sensing elements and connections into the garment presents great advantages in physical as well as psychological comfort of the user. It has been shown that the measurements are of adequate quality for most of the applications. In some cases, as is the case of ECG and EMG, signals acquired are similar to those obtained using conventional electrodes.The authors wish to thank funding by FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, projects PEst-C/CTM/UI0264/2011, PTDC/DTP-DES/1661/2012 and project PROTACTICAL - Co-Promoção Nº Projecto: 23267, sponsored by AD

Analysis of the Steinmetz compensation circuit with distorted waveforms through symmetrical component-based indicators

This paper deals with the use of a set of indicators defined within a symmetrical component-based framework to study the characteristics of the Steinmetz compensation circuit in the presence of waveform distortion. The Steinmetz circuit is applied to obtain balanced currents in a three-phase system supplying a single-phase load. The circuit is analyzed without and with harmonic distortion of the supply voltages. The compensation effect is represented by the classical unbalance factor and by the Total Phase Unbalance (TPU) indicator defined in the symmetrical component-based framework. Comparing the two indicators, it is shown that the classical unbalance factor is insufficient to represent the effect of voltage distortion and fails to detect the lack of total unbalance compensation occurring with distorted waveforms. Correct information is provided by calculating the TPU indicator. © 2009 IEEE