Influence of weather types on the hydrosedimentary response in three small catchments on the Island of Mallorca, Spain.

The influence of the sea and topography are vital factors in the atmospheric processes affecting any island, as they introduce peculiarities in the hydrosedimentary response of fluvial systems. In view of that, the relationship between the surface atmospheric conditions (weather types, WTs), rainfall, runoff and erosion dynamics in three small catchments located in Mallorca were analysed. The catchments are representative in terms of geomorphology and land use but also due to their location within the major rainfall areas previously identified in the island by (Sumner et al., 1993). Data of rainfall, runoff and sediment variables, coupled with calculated WTs were used for the 2013-2017 period. WTs frequency and distribution during this period were compared to the last climatic period reference (1981-2010) to test the climate validity of the study period. The results illustrated how hydrosedimentary response was mostly caused by eco-geographical patterns but also by differences in the response of each catchment to WTs, related to the intrinsic geographical position in the island and different exposures to humid winds. Anticyclonic WT was the most frequent, despite it being only involved in one flood event at the eastern catchment. Conversely, eastern and northeastern WTs generated more than 85% of the total runoff and sediment, representing only 39% of flood events. The understanding of the specific role of WTs on the island's hydrology was improved, considering that freshwater resources are scarce and eco-sociologically crucial.

A ZigBee-based wireless system for monitoring vital signs in hyperbaric chambers: Technical report.

This paper presents the replacement of a traditional wired communication link of the hyperbaric chambers with a wireless ZigBee-based system. This move allows a reduction in the costs of seals capable of withstanding the internal pressures and gives rise to a more versatile system. The new system is able to capture and process individual vital signs like the electrocardiography signal, and other analog sources, sending the data to an external computer and allowing analysis, representation and sharing with medical staff. This system solves such problems as the attenuation of the signal produced by the metal walls of the hyperbaric chamber and has a coverage area large enough to manage up to six patients with an effective data rate conversion of 2kHz. Furthermore, a battery-based and multiparameter platform is designed for multipatient hyperbaric chambers.

Nano and Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): A New Grand Challenge for Precision Agriculture?

By collecting data at spatial and temporal scales that are inaccessible to satellite and field observation, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are revolutionizing a number of scientific and management disciplines. UAVs may be particularly valuable for precision agricultural applications, offering strong potential to improve the efficiency of water, nutrient, and disease management. However, some authors have suggested that the UAV industry has overhyped the potential value of this technology for agriculture, given that it is difficult for non-specialists to operate UAVs as well as to process and interpret the resulting data. Here, we analyze the barriers to applying UAVs for precision agriculture, which range from regulatory issues to technical requirements. We then evaluate how new developments in the nano- and micro-UAV (NAV and MAV, respectively) markets may help to overcome these barriers. Among the possible breakthroughs that we identify is the ability of NAV/MAV platforms to directly quantify plant traits using methods (e.g., object-oriented classification) that require less image calibration and interpretation than spectral index-based approaches. We suggest that this potential, when combined with steady improvements in sensor miniaturization, flight precision, and autonomy as well as cloud-based image processing, will make UAVs a tool with much broader adoption by agricultural managers in the near future. If this wider uptake is realized, then UAVs have real potential to improve agriculture's resource-use efficiency. © 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wireless transmission of biosignals for hyperbaric chamber applications.

This paper presents a wireless system to send biosignals outside a hyperbaric chamber avoiding wires going through the chamber walls. Hyperbaric chambers are becoming more and more common due to new indications of hyperbaric oxygen treatments. Metallic walls physically isolate patients inside the chamber, where getting a patient's vital signs turns into a painstaking task. The paper proposes using a ZigBee-based network to wirelessly transmit the patient's biosignals to the outside of the chamber. In particular, a wearable battery supported device has been designed, implemented and tested. Although the implementation has been conducted to transmit the electrocardiography signal, the device can be easily adapted to consider other biosignals.