LoRa Based IoT Platform for Remote Monitoring of Large-Scale Agriculture Farms in Chile.

Nowadays, conventional agriculture farms lack high-level automated management due to the limited number of installed sensor nodes and measuring devices. Recent progress of the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies will play an essential role in future smart farming by enabling automated operations with minimum human intervention. The main objective of this work is to design and implement a flexible IoT-based platform for remote monitoring of agriculture farms of different scales, enabling continuous data collection from various IoT devices (sensors, actuators, meteorological masts, and drones). Such data will be available for end-users to improve decision-making and for training and validating advanced prediction algorithms. Unlike related works that concentrate on specific applications or evaluate technical aspects of specific layers of the IoT stack, this work considers a versatile approach and technical aspects at four layers: farm perception layer, sensors and actuators layer, communication layer, and application layer. The proposed solutions have been designed, implemented, and assessed for remote monitoring of plants, soil, and environmental conditions based on LoRaWAN technology. Results collected through both simulation and experimental validation show that the platform can be used to obtain valuable analytics of real-time monitoring that enable decisions and actions such as, for example, controlling the irrigation system or generating alarms. The contribution of this article relies on proposing a flexible hardware and software platform oriented on monitoring agriculture farms of different scales, based on LoRaWAN technology. Even though previous work can be found using similar technologies, they focus on specific applications or evaluate technical aspects of specific layers of the IoT stack.

A new genus of freshwater crab of the tribe Kingsleyini Bott, 1970 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae) with description of a new species from Mato Grosso, Brazil.

A new genus and species of freshwater crab, Melothelphusa apiaka n. gen., n. sp., from Mato Grosso, Central Brazil is described and illustrated. Brasiliothelphusa dardanelosensis Magalhães & Türkay, 2010, is assigned to the new genus Melothelphusa. Therefore, the genus Brasiliothelphusa Magalhães & Türkay, 1986, is restricted to its type species B. tapajoense Magalhães & Türkay, 1986. The new taxa can be easily separated from their close relatives by a suite of morphological characters from the first gonopod.

A new species of freshwater crab of the genus Kingsleya Ortmann, 1897 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae) from Amazonia, Brazil.

A new species of freshwater crab, Kingsleya celioi, from the Brazilian Amazon (Pará State) is described and illustrated. The new species can be easily separated from their congeners by a suite of morphological characters, including the apical plate of the first gonopod large, widest medially in abdominal view, with single large spine-like outgrowth in midlength of mesial margin; distal, proximal lobes of apical plate unequal in size, distal lobe largest, tapering distally in lateral view.

A new species of freshwater crab of the genus Microthelphusa Pretzmann, 1968 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae) from the Amazon region of Guyana.

A new species of freshwater crab, Microthelphusa furcifer, is described and illustrated from the Potaro-Siparuni Kuribrong River in the Guyana Shield (Amazon region of Guyana). The new species can be easily separated from its congeners by the morphology of the first gonopod. The first gonopod of Microthelphusa meansi Cumberlidge, 2007, is illustrated to clarify some aspects of its morphology.