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Mussel platforms are big floating structures made of wood (normally about 20 m × 20 m or even a bit larger) that are used for aquaculture. They are used for supporting the growth of mussels in suitable marine waters. These structures are very common near the Galician coastline. For their maintenance and tracking, it is quite convenient to be able to produce a periodic census of these structures, including their current count and position. Images from Earth observation satellites are, a priori, a convenient choice for this purpose. This paper describes an application capable of automatically supporting such a census using optical images taken at different wavelength intervals. The images are captured by the two Sentinel 2 satellites (Sentinel 2A and Sentinel 2B, both from the Copernicus Project). The Copernicus satellites are run by the European Space Agency, and the produced images are freely distributed on the Internet. Sentinel 2 images include thirteen frequency bands and are updated every five days. In our proposal, remote-sensing normalized (differential) indexes are used, and machine-learning techniques are applied to multiband data. Different methods are described and tested. The results obtained in this paper are satisfactory and prove the approach is suitable for the intended purpose. In conclusion, it is worth noting that artificial neural networks turn out to be particularly good for this problem, even with a moderate level of complexity in their design. The developed methodology can be easily re-used and adapted for similar marine environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a business process model and notation (BPMN) extension that includes new elements designed to improve its expressiveness. In previous works, different shortcomings concerning the BPMN language were detected. As a result, a set of requirements to overcome these issues was collected and used to guide this work. The proposed extension supports the representation of information commonly used by experts in the hazard analysis and critical control points domain, usually expressed in natural language, in a machine-understandable fashion. To take full advantage of the features introduced in this BPMN extension, tools such as ProM can be easily upgraded with appropriate plugins to support the new elements. In this line, an advanced conformance checking plugin was developed for process mining on BPMN models. A real-world example of use showing the benefits of applying the new elements is also discussed. This proposal paves the way for novel advanced analysis mechanisms for traceability systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent years, we have witnessed the development of mobile and wearable technologies to collect data from human vital signs and activities. Nowadays, wrist wearables including sensors (e.g., heart rate, accelerometer, pedometer) that provide valuable data are common in market. We are working on the analytic exploitation of this kind of data towards the support of learners and teachers in educational contexts. More precisely, sleep and stress indicators are defined to assist teachers and learners on the regulation of their activities. During this development, we have identified interoperability challenges related to the collection and processing of data from wearable devices. Different vendors adopt specific approaches about the way data can be collected from wearables into third-party systems. This hinders such developments as the one that we are carrying out. This paper contributes to identifying key interoperability issues in this kind of scenario and proposes guidelines to solve them. Taking into account these topics, this work is situated in the context of the standardization activities being carried out in the Internet of Things and Machine to Machine domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

QR codes opens up the possibility to develop simple-to-use, cost-effective-cost, and functional systems based on the optical recognition of inexpensive tags attached to physical objects. These systems, combined with Web platforms, can provide us with advanced services that are already currently broadly used on many contexts of the common life. Due to its philosophy, based on the automatic recognition of messages embedded on simple graphics by means of common devices such as mobile phones, QR codes are very convenient for the average user. Regretfully, its potential has not yet been fully exploited in the domains of food science and nutrition. This paper points out some applications to make the most of this technology for these domains in a straightforward manner. For its characteristics, we are addressing systems with low barriers to entry and high scalability for its deployment. Therefore, its launching among professional and final users is quite simple. The paper also provides high-level indications for the evaluation of the technological frame required to implement the identified possibilities of use. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]