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A Multisensory eXtended Reality Platform for Food Spoilage Detection
No full textFood spoilage is a pervasive issue with significant implications for public health, economic stability, and environmental sustainability. Addressing food spoilage is essential to promoting healthier living, reducing economic waste, and ensuring sustainable practices. When storing food in refrigerators, it would be crucial to monitor at least factors such as temperature, humidity, and signs of spoilage to ensure food quality and safety. The paper presents a concept for a smart fridge equipped with sensors to monitor critical factors such as temperature, humidity, and spoilage indicators. These sensors collect real-time data, which can be visualized through a multisensory eXtended Reality (XR) Digital Twin that provides a highly realistic 3D visualization of the real fridge, incorporating dynamic temperature simulations represented through 3D color maps and an olfactory simulation that replicates the smell of rotten food. The first impressions of the Multisensory XR Digital Twin emphasize its effectiveness in bridging the gap between raw data and user perception, allowing for an immersive interaction with the fridge as if physically present. Key benefits identified include enhanced spatial awareness and realism, multisensory feedback, and greater user engagement
Alternative Tactics to Herbicides in Integrated Weed Management: A Europe-Centered Systematic Literature Review
No full textWeeds pose a significant threat to crop yields, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Modern agriculture relies heavily on herbicides; however, their excessive use can lead to negative environmental impacts. As a result, recent research has increasingly focused on Integrated Weed Management (IWM), which employs multiple complementary strategies to control weeds in a holistic manner. Nevertheless, large-scale adoption of this approach requires a solid understanding of the underlying tactics. This systematic review analyses recent studies (2013 2022) on herbicide alternatives for weed control across major cropping systems in the EU-27 and the UK, providing an overview of current knowledge, the extent
to which IWM tactics have been investigated, and the main gaps that help define future research priorities. The review relied on the IWMPRAISE framework, which classifies weed control tactics into five pillars (direct control, field and soil management, cultivar choice and crop establishment, diverse cropping systems, and monitoring and evaluation) and used Scopus as a scientific database. The search yielded a total of 666 entries, and the most represented pillars were Direct Control (193), Diverse Cropping System (183), and Field and Soil Management (172). The type of crop most frequently studied was arable crops (450), and the macro-area where the studies were mostly conducted was Southern Europe (268). The tactics with the highest number of entries were Tillage Type and Cultivation Depth (110), Cover Crops (82), and Biological Control (72), while those with the lowest numbers were Seed Vigor (2) and Sowing Depth (2). Overall, this review identifies research
gaps and sets priorities to boost IWM adoption, leading policy and funding to expand
sustainable weed management across Europe
Synthesis and Properties of Chemically Modified Cyclodextrins as Drug Delivery Systems: An Update
No full textPurpose: Cyclodextrins (CDs) are cyclic oligosaccharides widely employed in pharmaceutical formulations due to their unique ability to form inclusion complexes with a broad range of drugs thus improving their solubility and bioavailability. In recent years, chemical modification of CDs has emerged as a powerful strategy to enhance their drug delivery capabilities. This review provides a focused overview of chemically modified CDs developed in the last 15 years (2010–2025) with the aim of improving solubility, drug encapsulation efficiency, and delivery. Methods: Particular attention is given to the synthetic strategies employed to obtain functionalized CDs capable of providing enhanced biopharmaceutical properties such as improved drug solubility, receptor binding features, drug retention and permeation on absorption sites. Conclusions: Tailored chemical modifications have been reported to improve the pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, and controlled release of encapsulated drugs, thereby helping to address some limitations of native CDs and potentially supporting the development of advanced drug delivery systems with improved selectivity and reduced side effects. Progress in this field underscores the importance of molecular design in the development of next-generation pharmaceutical excipients
Artificial Intelligence in Agri-Robotics: A Systematic Review of Trends and Emerging Directions Leveraging Bibliometric Tools
No full textAgricultural robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming essential to building more sustainable, efficient, and resilient food systems. As climate change, food security pressures, and labour shortages intensify, the integration of intelligent technologies in agriculture has gained strategic importance. This systematic review provides a consolidated assessment of AI and robotics research in agriculture from 2000 to 2025, identifying major trends, methodological trajectories, and underexplored domains. A structured search was conducted in the Scopus database—which was selected for its broad coverage of engineering, computer science, and agricultural technology—and records were screened using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria across title, abstract, keywords, and eligibility levels. The final dataset was analysed through descriptive statistics and science-mapping techniques (VOSviewer, SciMAT). Out of 4894 retrieved records, 3673 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included. As with all bibliometric reviews, the synthesis reflects the scope of indexed publications and available metadata, and potential selection bias was mitigated through a multi-stage screening workflow. The analysis revealed four dominant research themes: deep-learning-based perception, UAV-enabled remote sensing, data-driven decision systems, and precision agriculture. Several strategically relevant but underdeveloped areas also emerged, including soft manipulation, multimodal sensing, sim-to-real transfer, and adaptive autonomy. Geographical patterns highlight a strong concentration of research in China and India, reflecting agricultural scale and investment dynamics. Overall, the field appears technologically mature in perception and aerial sensing but remains limited in physical interaction, uncertainty-aware control, and long-term autonomous operation. These gaps indicate concrete opportunities for advancing next-generation AI-driven robotic systems in agriculture. Funding sources are reported in the full manuscript
“Felipe B. Pedraza Jiménez, Lope de Vega al trasluz. Nuevos estudios sobre el viejo Lope, Cénlit, Berriozar [Navarra], 2023, 255 pp. ISBN: 9788419529114”
No full textRecensione critica del volume di F. B. Pedraza che riunisce alcuni suoi studi sull'opera di Lope de Vega
Gellan gum electrohydrodynamic microencapsulation of probiotics for intestine-targeted delivery
No full textMicroencapsulation is a promising strategy to improve time-stability, viability and targeted delivery of probiotics, thus enhancing their beneficial roles in the intestine. However, areas of improvement persist, including optimal viability protection during storage and gastrointestinal (GI) transit, control over encapsulation and targeted release. Due to pH-responsiveness, gellan gum (GG) could be ideal to face some of these criticalities. In this study, we set-up a robust electrohydrodynamic (EHD) microdripping process to produce GG microparticles (GGMs) encapsulating Limolactobacillus fermentum . By varying GG concentration, flow rate and applied voltage, the optimized EHD parameters led to highly monodisperse microbeads with controlled morphology. Successful encapsulation of L. fermentum in GGMs was obtained at concentrations of 106 CFU/mL and 109 CFU/mL, leading to 300 ± 40 μm and 450 ± 100 μm particle sizes, with encapsulation efficiency of 94 ± 6 % and 99 ± 1 %, respectively. GGMs demonstrated post-encapsulation probiotic viability with lactic acid production. Freeze-dried formulations were lasting under storage until 3 months and resulted stable under GI-simulated conditions. Their bioactive properties were demonstrated by antimicrobial efficacy against Escherichia coli and enhanced defensin expression in Caco-2 intestinal cells. Overall, EHD microdripping was a versatile and robust platform useful in functional foods and gut microbiome engineering
Social Norms and International Environmental Agreements: a Natural Solution to Environmental Problems?
No full text
Calliphora vomitoria: both the beauty and the beast
No full textCalliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera Calliphoridae) is a blowfly spread throughout Europe, several Asian
countries, across North and Central America, and, to a lesser degree, in Africa. It is commonly known as the blue bottle
fly or orange-bearded blue bottle due to some of its morphological features. As necrophagous carrion breeders, its
larvae participate in organic matter decomposition. Gravid females may also target meat prepared for human and/or
animal consumption for their oviposition, and the resulting larvae would render the foodstuffs unmarketable. In addition,
if developing on human remains, it can help with the estimation of the minimum post-mortem interval in forensic
investigations. When adult, C. vomitoria can act as a pollinator of some wildflowers and crops. On the other hand, adults
may be mechanical vectors of several pathogens they encounter in the septic breeding and feeding sites. This narrative
review includes a description of C. vomitoria morphology, spatiotemporal distribution worldwide, biology, and behaviour.
The focus then shifts to its habits that are considered beneficial (relevance in legal investigations, interactions with
plants and fungi, potential source of antimicrobials) or harmful (larval development in food, mechanical transmission of
pathogens, allergies) to the ecosystems, humans, and animals. Finally, we discuss the strategies currently implemented
for its monitoring, trapping, and management through chemical, microbial, and biological agents. The research areas
not yet investigated enough, some future exploitation prospects, and the possibility to actualise more biorational control
strategies are highlighted