1,720,991 research outputs found
Design of an innovative system for precision beekeeping
No full textThe innovative technologies of precision agriculture can be applied today to different productive sectors of agriculture in order to optimize crop production and to improve the quality of the final products. One of these is beekeeping, a very important sector both from an environmental and a production standpoint. The production of honey depends on many factors, some of which are environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity and wind. The aim of this study was the design of a Precision Apicolture System (PAS) platform for monitoring and controlling the main environmental factors, both inside and outside the hive, in order to assess their influence on the honey daily production. The tests were carried out in a cultivated field with French honeysuckle plants in full bloom. The results obtained confirm the accuracy of the data recorded by the PAS platform, providing a valid decisional support to the operator (Decision Support System)
Precision Oliviculture: Research Topics, Challenges, and Opportunities—A Review
Full text linkSince the beginning of the 21st century, there has been an increase in the agricultural area devoted to olive growing and in the consumption of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). The continuous change in cultivation techniques implemented poses new challenges to ensure environmental and economic sustainability. In this context, precision oliviculture (PO) is having an increasing scientific interest and impact on the sector. Its implementation depends on various technological developments: sensors for local and remote crop monitoring, global navigation satellite system (GNSS), equipment and machinery to perform site-specific management through variable rate application (VRA), implementation of geographic information systems (GIS), and systems for analysis, interpretation, and decision support (DSS). This review provides an overview of the state of the art of technologies that can be employed and current applications and their potential. It also discusses the challenges and possible solutions and implementations of future technologies such as IoT, unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), and machine learning (ML)
Closed tank pneumatic press application to improve Sauvignon Blanc wine quality and nutraceutical properties
Full text linkThe machines used in the winemaking process directly affect the quality of wine and its nutraceutical properties. Grapes’ pressing is a very important step in winemaking as it may promote the presence and/or absence of enzymatic processes on the must, leading to the creation of different products in terms of chemical composition, starting from the same grapes. The aim of the study was to compare two different pressing systems of Sauvignon Blanc grapes using an innovative pneumatic discontinuous closed tank press in two operating modes: the traditional pressing mode in presence of oxygen and the inert pressing mode, performed through grapes pressing under inert gas with nitrogen recovery. Chemical composition of musts and wines was analysed. Pressing under inert atmosphere caused an increase in total polyphenols; total acidity values in musts raised up denoting a very favourable environment for the development of the aromatic component of the future wine. The absorbance measured at 420 nm, an index of total browning reaction of foods, was significantly lower in the wine coming from inert pressing. Principal component analysis application allowed extracting composite quality indicators of must for evaluating the effectiveness of the inert pressing procedure. Results are encouraging and open up new research prospective with the aim of applying innovative techniques to improve the quality of the final product
A new wireless device for real-time mechanical impact evaluation in a citrus packing line
No full textPostharvest operations of fresh fruits in packing lines are potential cause of bruising and damage with remarkable consequences for fruit quality and marketability. Different types of impact recording devices (the so-called electronic fruits or pseudo fruits) have been developed in the last thirty years with the aim of measuring the magnitude of the impacts experienced by fruits during postharvest operations. The aim of this study was to develop and test a novel wireless instrumented sphere in order to study the critical points in a citrus packing line, real-time measuring the impacts suffered by fruits during processing. The non-commercial device was based on a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) sensor node with sensing range from ±1 g to ± 400 g (g = 9.8 m s-2), a Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) memory, a Radio Frequency (RF) transmitter, a microcontroller, a 75 mAh lithium battery. The sensor node was positioned inside a plastic ellipsoidic case with a total weight of 100 g in order to represent the cv. Tardivo di Ciaculli mandarin. A FR receiver allowed the real-time transmission of the measured data. The tests were performed in the “Consorzio del Mandarino Tardivo di Ciaculli” packing line (Palermo, Italy). Total acceleration values, representing the stresses suffered by the fruit inside the packing line, were studied using a variance component model. The results showed that in most of the measurements, total acceleration remained below 20 g but between the brushing and the waxing machine, considerably higher values were obtained, up to 80 g. In particular, waxing was identified as the most critical operation based on the impact magnitude transmitted to the fruit. Our system proved to be effective for performing the online assessment of the accelerations experienced by the fruits, immediately visualizing them with the opportunity of promptly deciding where to intervene to guarantee fruits’ quality in postharvest operations
Mujeres, arquetipos de una época de cambios : un estudio sobre el papel de la mujer en la serie Sex and the City
No full textEl objeto de estudio de la tesina a desarrollar es la serie televisiva “Sex and the City”. Relata la historia de cuatro mujeres solteras que se encuentran en la franja etaria entre los 30 y 40 años de edad; ellas hablan –en cada capítulo- de sus pensamientos, sus deseos, sus frustraciones y sus éxitos. Elegí esta serie, ya que muchas veces mirando los capítulos en televisión, escuchaba los diálogos de los personajes y me sentía identificada, al igual que alguna de mis amigas. Nací a finales de los años 70´s, crecí con el liberalismo y me educaron para ser una mujer independiente. Tengo dos padres sociólogos, que estudiaron su carrera en la Universidad de Buenos Aires en los años difíciles de la dictadura y fueron pioneros del divorcio cuando yo era una niña de ocho años. Mi madre fue la que nos crió a mi hermano y a mí trabajando para que no nos faltara nada, mi padre estuvo en un rol secundario colaborando en lo económico y parte de lo educativo. Sin embargo, ella siempre nos hizo ver que la vida la va gestando uno mismo y que cada cual es artífice de sus progresos y sus fracasos. Por eso, cuando comencé a ver esta serie televisiva sentí que algunas de esas historias eran momentos que había vivido y presentí que iba a vivir. Creo que este análisis puede contribuir como un eslabón más, de una larga cadena de trabajos sobre la mujer, que se han presentado en la Carrera de Ciencias de la Comunicación, mostrándola como principal protagonista, que intenta manifestarse en un mundo que le ofrece ciertas resistencias, especialmente cuando expresa sus pensamientos y sus deseos personales. Este estudio pretende demostrar la articulación de la serie con la historia norteamericana y los eventos que ocurrieron dentro de dicho país en los tiempos que se transmitió la serie y sus películas. Por otro lado, se intentará visualizar los cambios que fueron ocurriendo en la década de los 90’s con respecto a las mujeres occidentales y especialmente a las norteamericanas. Debo aclarar que he encontrado trabajos referidos a \n“Sex and the City”, pero conteniendo análisis diferentes al que propongo en mi tesina, con lo cual apunto a un aporte novedoso.Fil: Di Pietro Catania, Ariadna. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Buenos Aires, Argentin
Effects of tilling methods on soil penetration resistance, organic carbon and water stable aggregates in a vineyard of semiarid Mediterranean environment
No full textTillage, especially in semiarid Mediterranean environment, enhances the mineralization process of soil organic matter (SOM)
and, in turn, decreases aggregate stability. Furthermore, continuous tillage leads to the formation of plough pan beneath the
tilled layer. In the present study, we investigated the effect of an innovative self-propelled machine (spading machine, SM)
for shallow tillage on SOM, water stable aggregates (WSA) and soil penetration resistance (PR). Such effects were compared
to those of chisel plough (CP), rotary tiller (RT) and no tillage (NT). Each tilling method was applied up to a depth of 15 cm,
whereas in NT only a brush cutter was used for weed control. Soil analyses were performed at the start of the experiment
(March 2009, T0), in April 2010 (T1), May 2012 (T3), and June 2014 (T5) at both 0–15 and 15–30 cm. Compared to T0,
soil PR increased with time in all the treatments and generally followed the order S
A decision support system based on multisensor data fusion for sustainable greenhouse management
No full textThe sustainable exploitation of natural resources is nowadays an important challenge for governments and institutions, considering the expected increase of the world population. In order to respond to this emergent criticality, the principles of green economy have been introduced in the European policy discussion to achieve a good compromise between the sustainability and the profitability of productions by increasing the efficiency of farming operations. Such approach poses some technical and financial challenges for small-sized enterprises because they generally do not possess adequate internal knowledge, nor they can acquire external expertise due to their budget restrictions. Decision Support Systems (DSS) can be an effective solution to overcome such difficulties, since they can involve expertsâ knowledge and complex mathematical elaborations on contextual data, thus helping managers in taking more effective decisions. Based on these motivations, the paper proposes a methodological approach to the development of a DSS in the specific context of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) applied to intensive (greenhouse) production, and an experimental validation based on real data. The DSS involves a rule-based decision approach based on referenced mathematical models applied to the information gathered by a sensor network. The multi sensor decision fusion methodology proposed represents an innovative contribution to the literature and an easy-to use and low cost solution to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers in protected crops
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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