The evolution of multipurpose sensors over the last decades has been investigated with the aim of developing innovative devices with applications in several fields of technology, including in the food industry. The integration of such sensors in food packaging technology has paved the way for intelligent food packaging. These integrated systems are capable of providing reliable information about the quality of the packed products during their storage period. To accomplish this goal, intelligent packs use a variety of sensors suited for monitoring the quality and safety of food products by recording the evolution of parameters like the quantity of pathogen agents, gases, temperature, humidity and storage period. This technology, when combined with IoT, is able to provide a lot more information than conventional food inspection technologies, which are limited to weight, volume, color and aspect inspection. The original system described in this work relies on a simple but effective method of integrated food monitoring, right at the client home, suitable for user prepared vacuum-packed foods. It builds upon the IoT concept and is able to create a network of interconnected devices. By using this approach, we are able to combine actuators and sensing devices also providing a common operating picture (COP) by sharing information over the platforms. More precisely, our system consists of gas, temperature and humidity sensors, which provide the essential information needed for evaluating the quality of the packed product. This information is transmitted wirelessly to a computer system providing an interface where the user can observe the evolution of the product quality over time.

In this research, we proposed a novel 14-layered deep convolutional neural network (14-DCNN) to detect plant leaf diseases using leaf images. A new dataset was created using various open datasets. Data augmentation techniques were used to balance the individual class sizes of the dataset. Three image augmentation techniques were used: basic image manipulation (BIM), deep convolutional generative adversarial network (DCGAN) and neural style transfer (NST). The dataset consists of 147,500 images of 58 different healthy and diseased plant leaf classes and one no-leaf class. The proposed DCNN model was trained in the multi-graphics processing units (MGPUs) environment for 1000 epochs. The random search with the coarse-to-fine searching technique was used to select the most suitable hyperparameter values to improve the training performance of the proposed DCNN model. On the 8850 test images, the proposed DCNN model achieved 99.9655% overall classification accuracy, 99.7999% weighted average precision, 99.7966% weighted average recall, and 99.7968% weighted average F1 score. Additionally, the overall performance of the proposed DCNN model was better than the existing transfer learning approaches.

This study aimed to develop an autonomous design system for recognizing the subject by gait posture. Gait posture is a type of non-verbal communication characteristic of each person, and can be considered a signature used in identification. This system can be used for diagnosis. The system helps aging or disabled subjects to identify incorrect posture to recover the gait. Gait posture gives information for subject identification using leg movements and step distance as characteristic parameters. In the current study, the inertial measurement units (IMUs) located in a mobile phone were used to provide information about the movement of the upper and lower leg parts. A resistive flex sensor (RFS) was used to obtain information about the foot contact with the ground. The data were collected from a target group comprising subjects of different age, height, and mass. A comparative study was undertaken to identify the subject after the gait posture. Statistical analysis and a machine learning algorithm were used for data processing. The errors obtained after training data are presented at the end of the paper and the obtained results are encouraging. This article proposes a method of acquiring data available to anyone by using indispensable devices purchased by all users such as mobile phones.

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The electric discharge generated between the electrodes of a classic spark plug could not assure a fast and total combustion of the air – hydrocarbon mixture. To be able to improve the quality of the combustion process through the ignition system improvement it is necessary to have a complete diagnostic of the discharge produced by a spark plug, from physical and chemical point of view. This work presents a comparative study of the reduced electric field and the vibrational temperature for a classic spark produced in air at atmospheric pressure, as functions of pulses widths applied by the power supply. The reduced electric field was calculated by using the rotational temperature values established by a previous study, considering them as temperature plasma gas temperatures. The vibrational temperature was determined by using the N2second positive molecular emission spectra. The spark plug was supplied with trains of pulses containing one or two pulses having variable widths provided by a special power supply. The results obtained for the vibrational temperature of nitrogen molecules are close to these obtained for the rotational temperature calculated by using a spectroscopic diagnostic method based on the OH UV molecular band spectra (between 2000 and 3500 K). The electron temperature values, imposed by the reduced electric field (up to 2000 Td), are superior to 10000 K. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)