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Publications

2024

The use of water in wineries: A review

Authors
Matos, C; Castro, M; Baptista, J; Valente, A; Briga-Sá, A;

Publication
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract
Water is essential at various stages of winemaking, from irrigation in the vineyard to cleaning equipment and facilities, controlling fermentation temperatures, and diluting grape juice if necessary. Additionally, water is used for sanitation purposes to ensure the quality and safety of the final product. This article provides an overview of the existing knowledge regarding the use of water in wineries throughout the winemaking process, water consumption values, effluent treatment, efficient use of water measures, and water reuse. Different assessment methods, including Water Footprint (WF) and Life Cycle Assessment(LCA), provide varied insights into water use impacts, emphasizing the importance of standardized methodologies for accurate assessment and sustainable practices. This research showed that the characterization of the vinification processes of each type of wine is fundamental for further analysis on the environmental impact of winemaking regarding water use. It was also observed that WF is affected by factors like climate, irrigation needs, and cleaning procedures. Thus, efficient water management in all the stages of wine production is crucial to reduce the overall WF. Water efficiency measures may involve the modification of the production processes, reusing and recycling water and the implementation of cleaner production practices and technological innovations, such as automated fermentation systems that reduce water needs. Furthermore, waste management in wineries emphasizes the importance of sustainable practices and technological innovations to mitigate environmental impacts and enhance resource efficiency.

2024

An Optimized Electric Power and Reserves Economic Dispatch Algorithm for Isolated Systems Considering Water Inflow Management

Authors
Ferreira-Martinez, D; Oliveira, FT; Soares, FJ; Moreira, CL; Martins, R;

Publication
IEEE 15TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON POWER ELECTRONICS FOR DISTRIBUTED GENERATION SYSTEMS, PEDG 2024

Abstract
While the share of renewable energy in interconnected systems has been increasing steadily, in isolated systems it represents a bigger challenge. This paper presents a dispatch algorithm integrating thermal, wind, solar and hydro generation and storage for an isolated network, which allows maximizing renewable energy integration and reducing the share of thermal energy in the mix. The possibility of using the battery to provide spinning reserve is also considered. The algorithm was tested and validated using real data from the island of Madeira, Portugal. Results prove the robustness and flexibility of the algorithm, showing that a significant decrease in the thermal fraction is achievable, and that it is possible to accommodate an increase in renewable generation with minimal or no curtailment at all.

2024

A Demonstrator for Future Fiber-Optic Active SMART Repeaters

Authors
Cruz, NA; Silva, A; Zabel, F; Ferreira, B; Jesus, SM; Martins, MS; Pereira, E; Matos, T; Viegas, R; Rocha, J; Faria, J;

Publication
OCEANS 2024 - SINGAPORE

Abstract
The deep-sea environment still presents many challenges for systematic, comprehensive data acquisition. The current generation of SMART cables incorporates low-power sensors in long-range telecommunication cables to improve knowledge of ocean variables, aid in earthquake and tsunami warnings, and enhance coastal protection. The K2D Project seeks to expand SMART cables' capabilities by increasing the diversity of sensors along deep water cables, integrating active devices, and leveraging mobile platforms like deep-water AUVs, thereby improving spatial coverage and advancing ocean monitoring technology. This paper discusses a demonstration of these capabilities, focusing on the description of the main building blocks developed along the project, with results from a sea deployment in September 2023.

2024

É bué fixe ser fixe online: discutindo o desenvolvimento de um jogo educativo/formativo para trabalhar a netiquette junto de crianças em idade escolar

Authors
Correia, Miguel; Marques, Catarina; Trigo, Luís; Quirino, Carolina; Silva, Henrique; Rocha, Tiago; Coelho, António;

Publication

Abstract

2024

Comparative Analysis of CNNs and Vision Transformers for Automatic Classification of Abandonment in Douro's Vineyard Parcels

Authors
Leite, D; Teixeira, I; Morais, R; Sousa, JJ; Cunha, A;

Publication
REMOTE SENSING

Abstract
The Douro Demarcated Region is fundamental to local cultural and economic identity. Despite its importance, the region faces the challenge of abandoned vineyard plots, caused, among other factors, by the high costs of maintaining vineyards on hilly terrain. To solve this problem, the European Union (EU) offers subsidies to encourage active cultivation, with the aim of protecting the region's cultural and environmental heritage. However, monitoring actively cultivated vineyards and those that have been abandoned presents considerable logistical challenges. With 43,843 vineyards spread over 250,000 hectares of rugged terrain, control of these plots is limited, which hampers the effectiveness of preservation and incentive initiatives. Currently, the EU only inspects 5 per cent of farmers annually, which results in insufficient coverage to ensure that subsidies are properly used and vineyards are actively maintained. To complement this limited monitoring, organisations such as the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto (IVDP) use aerial and satellite images, which are manually analysed to identify abandoned or active plots. To overcome these limitations, images can be analysed using deep learning methods, which have already shown great potential in agricultural applications. In this context, our research group has carried out some preliminary evaluations for the automatic detection of abandoned vineyards using deep learning models, which, despite showing promising results on the dataset used, proved to be limited when applied to images of the entire region. In this study, a new dataset was expanded to 137,000 images collected between 2018 and 2023, filling critical gaps in the previous datasets by including greater temporal and spatial diversity. Subsequently, a careful evaluation was carried out with various DL models. As a result, the ViT_b32 model demonstrated superior performance, achieving an average accuracy of 0.99 and an F1 score of 0.98, outperforming CNN-based models. In addition to the excellent results obtained, this dataset represents a significant contribution to advancing research in precision viticulture, providing a solid and relevant basis for future studies and driving the development of solutions applied to vineyard monitoring in the Douro Demarcated Region. These advances not only improve efficiency in detecting abandoned plots, but also contribute significantly to optimising the use of subsidies in the region.

2024

Optimization of Machine Learning Models Applied to Robot Localization in the RobotAtFactory 4.0 Competition

Authors
Klein, LC; Mendes, J; Braun, J; Martins, FN; Fabro, JA; Costa, P; Pereira, AI; Lima, J;

Publication
OPTIMIZATION, LEARNING ALGORITHMS AND APPLICATIONS, OL2A 2024, PT I

Abstract
Several approaches have been developed over time aiming to improve the localization aspects, especially in mobile robotics. Besides the more traditional techniques, mainly based on analytical models, artificial intelligence has emerged as an interesting alternative. The current study proposes to explore the machine learning model structure optimization for pose estimation, using the RobotAtFactory 4.0 competition as the main context. Using a Bayesian Optimization-based framework, the parameters of a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model, trained to estimate the components of the 2D pose (x, y, and theta) of the robot were optimized in four different scenarios of the same context. The results obtained showed a quality improvement of up to 60% on the estimation when compared with the modes without any optimization. Another aspect observed was the different optimizations found for each model, even in the same scenario. An additional interesting result was the possibility of the reuse of optimization between scenarios, presenting an interesting approach to reduce time and computational resources.

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