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Sensors, communication systems and geo-reference units are required to achieve an optimized management of agricultural inputs with respect to the economic and environmental aspects of olive groves. In this study, three commercial olive harvesters were tracked during two harvesting seasons in Spain and Chile using remote and autonomous equipment that was developed to determine their time efficiency and effective based on canopy shaking for fruit detachment. These harvesters work in intensive/high-density (HD) and super-high-density (SHD) olive orchards. A GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) device was installed to track these harvesters. The GNSS receiver did not affect the driver's work schedule. Time elements methodology was adapted to the remote data acquisition system. The effective field capacity and field efficiency were investigated. In addition, the field shape, row length, angle between headland alley and row, and row alley width were measured to determinate the optimum orchard design parameters value. The SHD olive harvester showed significant lower effective field capacity values when alley width was less than 4 m. In addition, a yield monitor was developed and installed on a traditional olive harvester to obtain a yield map from the harvested area. The hedge straddle harvester stood out for its highly effective field capacity; nevertheless, a higher field efficiency was provided by a non-integral lateral canopy shaker. All of the measured orchard parameters have influenced machinery yields, whether effective field capacity or field efficiency. A saving of 40% in effective field capacity was achieved with a reduction from 4 m or higher to 3.5 m in alley width for SHD olive harvester. A yield map was plotted using data that were acquired by a yield monitor, reflecting the yield gradient in spite of the larger differences between tree yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The growing need to classify the origin of honey in a simple way is leading to the development of affordable analytical equipment that is in-line and manageable, enabling rapid on-site screening. The aim of this work was therefore to evaluate whether an electronic tongue (made of four metallic electrodes: Ir, Rh, Pt, Au), based on potential multistep pulse voltammetry with electrochemical polishing, is able to differentiate between honey samples from Spain, Honduras, and Mozambique., Results: It was demonstrated, for the first time, that automatic pulse voltammetry, in combination with principal component analysis (PCA) statistical analysis, was able to differentiate honey samples from these three countries. A partial least squares (PLS) analysis predicted the level of certain physicochemical parameters, the best results being for conductivity and moisture with correlation coefficients of 0.948 and 0.879, whereas the weakest correlation was for the sugars., Conclusion: The tool proposed in this study could be applied to identify the country origin of the three types of multifloral honey considered here. It also offers promising perspectives for expanding knowledge of the provenance of honey. All of this could be achieved when a comprehensive database with the information generated by this electronic tongue has been created. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Concurring with the move to a new facility at the end of 2008, alcohol-based hand rub (AHR) dispensers were allocated in all anterooms of operating theatres in a tertiary care hospital in Madrid, Spain. Routine educational sessions on surgical hand disinfection (SHD) were performed by infection control personnel, emphasizing the preferred method of AHR. Our aim was to evaluate the knowledge about SHD, as well as the performance of SHD and perceptions concerning the use of AHR or antiseptic soap hand scrub (ASHS) by surgeons and operating room nurses (ORNs). An anonymous survey on SHD was circulated to the surgeons, resident surgeons and nurses who perform SHD in our hospital. In all, 70 surveys were completed, corresponding to 27 ORNs (38.6%), 20 resident surgeons (29%), and 23 staff surgeons (33%), 41 (59%) of them being females. Forty percent of them perform mostly disinfectant soap hand scrub (DSHS) and 19% mostly hand rubs; 41% perform both methods. AHR rub is believed to be more efficacious than DSHS in reducing hand contamination (mean 6.5 vs 5.6; P > 0.001). Almost half of the personnel (49%) perform AHR >50% of the time (AHR users). AHR use is associated with ORNs (odds ratio: 3.4; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-9.3; P = 0.018) but not with resident surgeons (odds ratio: 4.1; 95% CI 1.3-13.2; P = 0.017). When comparing both methods of SHD, personnel favour AHR for its colour (P > 0.01) and speed of drying (P > 0.01). Compared with surgeons, ORNs scored DSHS as more skin-irritating (4.1 vs 5.2; P = 0.013), more associated with skin dryness (3.2 vs 4.7; P > 0.001), and inferior overall score (4.7 vs 5.6; P > 0.005). Most of the personnel agree that AHR (85%) improves compliance with SHD. Nevertheless ASHS is the method preferred for surgeons (63%) whereas AHR is the method preferred by nurses (70%; P< 0.001). According to auto-evaluation of hand skin after use, AHR has better outcomes in terms of lack of dryness (5.3 vs 4.6; P > 0.05). In addition, nurses scored ASHS lower than did surgeons in terms of skin redness (4.7 vs 6.0; P > 0.001), lack of skin integrity (4.8 vs 5.9; P = 0.004), skin dryness (3.6 vs 5.4; P > 0.001), and overall score (4.0 vs 5.2; P > 0.002). Change of perceptions and behaviours about SHD can be accomplished, and the AHR method is better adhered to by nursing personnel., (Copyright © 2013 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)