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Publications

2021

QVigourMap: A GIS Open Source Application for the Creation of Canopy Vigour Maps

Authors
Duarte, L; Teodoro, AC; Sousa, JJ; Padua, L;

Publication
AGRONOMY-BASEL

Abstract
In a precision agriculture context, the amount of geospatial data available can be difficult to interpret in order to understand the crop variability within a given terrain parcel, raising the need for specific tools for data processing and analysis. This is the case for data acquired from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), in which the high spatial resolution along with data from several spectral wavelengths makes data interpretation a complex process regarding vegetation monitoring. Vegetation Indices (VIs) are usually computed, helping in the vegetation monitoring process. However, a crop plot is generally composed of several non-crop elements, which can bias the data analysis and interpretation. By discarding non-crop data, it is possible to compute the vigour distribution for a specific crop within the area under analysis. This article presents QVigourMaps, a new open source application developed to generate useful outputs for precision agriculture purposes. The application was developed in the form of a QGIS plugin, allowing the creation of vigour maps, vegetation distribution maps and prescription maps based on the combination of different VIs and height information. Multi-temporal data from a vineyard plot and a maize field were used as case studies in order to demonstrate the potential and effectiveness of the QVigourMaps tool. The presented application can contribute to making the right management decisions by providing indicators of crop variability, and the outcomes can be used in the field to apply site-specific treatments according to the levels of vigour.

2021

Smart & Sustainable Mobility on Campus: A secure IoT tracking system for the BIRA Bicycle

Authors
Torres, N; Martins, P; Pinto, P; Lopes, SI;

Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF 2021 16TH IBERIAN CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES (CISTI'2021)

Abstract
Changing mobility behaviors in academia - such as encouraging the use of bicycles - can help to reduce CO2 emissions since trips made by car or motorbikes tend to effectively reduce. Additionally, by obtaining mobility-related data we can infer patterns, optimize mobility and strengthen more sustainable habits within academia. In this paper, we propose a secure LoRa-based tracking system for the BIRA bicycle. The BIRA bicycle is an initiative of Instituto Politecnico de Viana do Castelo (IPVC) that aims to promote bicycle usage on campus, by encouraging the adoption of more sustainable mobility habits within the institution. The proposed system consists of BIRA bicycles equipped with low-cost GPS trackers. The collected data is then transmitted using a LoRaWAN infrastructure to an application server, which is responsible for storing and serving the client application with several contextual information, such as location, route, speed, and battery level. The results have shown that the proposed system is a viable low-cost solution for tracking bicycles and users' habits at a campus or even a city level.

2021

Heart rate variability in patients with refractory epilepsy: The influence of generalized convulsive seizures

Authors
Faria, MT; Rodrigues, S; Campelo, M; Dias, D; Rego, R; Rocha, H; Sa, F; Tavares Silva, M; Pinto, R; Pestana, G; Oliveira, A; Pereira, J; Cunha, JPS; Rocha Goncalves, F; Goncalves, H; Martins, E;

Publication
EPILEPSY RESEARCH

Abstract
Objective: Patients with epilepsy, mainly drug-resistant, have reduced heart rate variability (HRV), linked to an increased risk of sudden death in various other diseases. In this context, it could play a role in SUDEP. Generalized convulsive seizures (GCS) are one of the most consensual risk factors for SUDEP. Our objective was to assess the influence of GCS in HRV parameters in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Methods: We prospectively evaluated 121 patients with refractory epilepsy admitted to our Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. All patients underwent a 48-hour Holter recording. Only patients with GCS were included (n = 23), and we selected the first as the index seizure. We evaluated HRV (AVNN, SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, LF, HF, and LF/HF) in 5-min epochs (diurnal and nocturnal baselines; preictal - 5 min before the seizure; ictal; postictal - 5 min after the seizure; and late postictal - >5 h after the seizure). These data were also compared with normative values from a healthy population (controlling for age and gender). Results: We included 23 patients, with a median age of 36 (min-max, 16-55) years and 65% were female. Thirty percent had cardiovascular risk factors, but no previously known cardiac disease. HRV parameters AVNN, RMSSD, pNN50, and HF were significantly lower in the diurnal than in the nocturnal baseline, whereas the opposite occurred with LF/HF and HR. Diurnal baseline parameters were inferior to the normative population values (which includes only diurnal values). We found significant differences in HRV parameters between the analyzed periods, especially during the postictal period. All parameters but LF/HF suffered a reduction in that period. LF/HF increased in that period but did not reach statistical significance. Visually, there was a tendency for a global reduction in our patients' HRV parameters, namely AVNN, RMSSD, and pNN50, in each period, comparing with those from a normative healthy population. No significant differences were found in HRV between diurnal and nocturnal seizures, between temporal lobe and extra-temporal-lobe seizures, between seizures with and without postictal generalized EEG suppression, or between seizures of patients with and without cardiovascular risk factors. Significance/conclusion: Our work reinforces the evidence of autonomic cardiac dysfunction in patients with refractory epilepsy, at baseline and mainly in the postictal phase of a GCS. Those changes may have a role in some SUDEP cases. By identifying patients with worse autonomic cardiac function, HRV could fill the gap of a lacking SUDEP risk biomarker.

2021

Dynamic Response Surface Method Combined with Genetic Algorithm to Optimize Extraction Process Problem

Authors
Lima, LA; Pereira, AI; Vaz, CB; Ferreira, O; Carocho, M; Barros, L;

Publication
OPTIMIZATION, LEARNING ALGORITHMS AND APPLICATIONS, OL2A 2021

Abstract
This study aims to find and develop an appropriate optimization approach to reduce the time and labor employed throughout a given chemical process and could be decisive for quality management. In this context, this work presents a comparative study of two optimization approaches using real experimental data from the chemical engineering area, reported in a previous study [4]. The first approach is based on the traditional response surface method and the second approach combines the response surface method with genetic algorithm and data mining. The main objective is to optimize the surface function based on three variables using hybrid genetic algorithms combined with cluster analysis to reduce the number of experiments and to find the closest value to the optimum within the established restrictions. The proposed strategy has proven to be promising since the optimal value was achieved without going through derivability unlike conventional methods, and fewer experiments were required to find the optimal solution in comparison to the previous work using the traditional response surface method.

2021

The Synergic Relationship Between Industry 4.0 and Lean Management: Best Practices from the Literature

Authors
Santos, BP; Enrique, DV; Maciel, VBP; Lima, TM; Charrua Santos, F; Walczak, R;

Publication
MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING REVIEW

Abstract
Industry 4.0 promises to make manufacturing processes more efficient using modern technologies like cyber-physical systems, internet of things, cloud computing and big data analytics. Lean Management (LM) is one of the most widely applied business strategies in recent decades. Thus, implementing Industry 4.0 mostly means integrating technologies in companies that already operate according to LM. However, due to the novelty of the topic, research on how LM and Industry 4.0 can be integrated is still under development. This paper explores the synergic relationship between these two domains by identifying six examples of real cases that address LM-Industry 4.0 integration in the extant literature. The goal is to make explicit the best practices that are being implemented by six distinct industrial sectors such as automotive, paper, furniture, healthcare, apparel, and machine manufacturing.

2021

Conditional value-at-risk model for smart home energy management systems

Authors
Javadi M.S.; Nezhad A.E.; Gough M.; Lotfi M.; Anvari-Moghaddam A.; Nardelli P.H.J.; Sahoo S.; Catalão J.P.S.;

Publication
e-Prime - Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy

Abstract
This paper presents a self-scheduling framework, using a risk-constrained optimization model for the home energy management system (HEMS), considering fixed, controllable, and interruptible loads, as a new contribution to earlier studies. The objectives are reducing the electricity bill and managing the risk of purchasing energy over on-peak hours and prosumer's discomfort index (DI) due to shifting load to undesired hours. In this regard, the problem formulation is represented as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. Afterward, the proposed HEMS is promoted to a conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) model. The prosumer is equipped with an energy storage system and a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel. A substantial fraction of the load demand is controllable, and there is an inverter-based heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), where HVAC is modeled as a variable-capacity interruptible load. The optimal scheduling of the loads is supposed to be done by the proposed HEMS, and the time-of-use (TOU) mechanism is utilized, including three price steps over the day. The results, obtained from thoroughly simulating the problem using household data, validate the performance of the presented HEMS in mitigating the amount of the electricity bill, while keeping the discomfort index of the prosumer at a desired level.

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