Forest and rural fires are one of the main causes of environmental degradation in Mediterranean countries. Existing fire detection systems only focus on detection, but not on the verification of the fire. However, almost all of them are just simulations, and very few implementations can be found. Besides, the systems in the literature lack scalability. In this paper we show all the steps followed to perform the design, research and development of a wireless multisensor network which mixes sensors with IP cameras in a wireless network in order to detect and verify fire in rural and forest areas of Spain. We have studied how many cameras, sensors and access points are needed to cover a rural or forest area, and the scalability of the system. We have developed a multisensor and when it detects a fire, it sends a sensor alarm through the wireless network to a central server. The central server selects the closest wireless cameras to the multisensor, based on a software application, which are rotated to the sensor that raised the alarm, and sends them a message in order to receive real-time images from the zone. The camera lets the fire fighters corroborate the existence of a fire and avoid false alarms. In this paper, we show the test performance given by a test bench formed by four wireless IP cameras in several situations and the energy consumed when they are transmitting. Moreover, we study the energy consumed by each device when the system is set up. The wireless sensor network could be connected to Internet through a gateway and the images of the cameras could be seen from any part of the world.

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A wireless sensor network deployment for rural and forest fire detection and verification.

Language learning has grown beyond the boundaries of the four walls of the classroom; in fact, most language learning occurs outside and informally. Informal learning, through a medium like ICT therefore, is a significant alternative environment for language practice and use. This study attempts to investigate the students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of Facebook (FB) groups for teaching and improving writing. The authors see a need to carry out this study as it provides a platform to discover pedagogical implications that would benefit the Y-generation in terms of improving their writing skills in a Malaysian ESL context. The respondents of this research comprise 43 third year students completing their bachelor’s degree in TESL, in the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The students’ perceptions were measured through a questionnaire comprising 10 close-ended items and 3 open-ended ones. Respondents were required to participate in a Facebook group created by the researchers. The Facebook group, called ‘Write Out Loud’ was hosted by Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_193133474042344& ap=1. The findings showed that ‘Facebook groups’ is an effective tool in improving the students’ writing skills, especially in the brainstorming of ideas before the actual writing. The results of this study may be beneficial to ESL educators in incorporating ICT into their teaching repertoire. It is suggested that future research should focus on the challenges of integrating Facebook groups for teaching and improving writing, and look into the perceptions of the teachers as well. In addition, experimental research could also be done to see how FB and FB groups help in improving writing skills. Key-Words— Facebook, Facebook Groups, ICT, Writing, Learning, Perception, Social Network

The Effectiveness of Facebook Groups on Teaching and Improving Writing: Students' Perceptions

Scientific research requires the collection of data in order to study, monitor, analyze, describe, or understand a particular process or event. Data collection efforts are often a compromise: manual measurements can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, resulting in data being collected at a low frequency, while automating the data-collection process can reduce labor requirements and increase the frequency of measurements, but at the cost of added expense of electronic data-collecting instrumentation. Rapid advances in electronic technologies have resulted in a variety of new and inexpensive sensing, monitoring, and control capabilities which offer opportunities for implementation in agricultural and natural-resource research applications. An Open Source Hardware project called Arduino consists of a programmable microcontroller development platform, expansion capability through add-on boards, and a programming development environment for creating custom microcontroller software. All circuit-board and electronic component specifications, as well as the programming software, are open-source and freely available for anyone to use or modify. Inexpensive sensors and the Arduino development platform were used to develop several inexpensive, automated sensing and datalogging systems for use in agricultural and natural-resources related research projects. Systems were developed and implemented to monitor soil-moisture status of field crops for irrigation scheduling and crop-water use studies, to measure daily evaporation-pan water levels for quantifying evaporative demand, and to monitor environmental parameters under forested conditions. These studies demonstrate the usefulness of automated measurements, and offer guidance for other researchers in developing inexpensive sensing and monitoring systems to further their research.

https://file.scirp.org/pdf/MI20120200002_83441536.pdf

Open-Source Hardware Is a Low-Cost Alternative for Scientific Instrumentation and Research

Wireless sensor networks have become increasingly popular due to their wide range of applications. Energy consumption is one of the biggest constraints of the wireless sensor node and this limitation combined with a typical deployment of large number of nodes have added many challenges to the design and management of wireless sensor networks. They are typically used for remote environment monitoring in areas where providing electrical power is difficult. Therefore, the devices need to be powered by batteries and alternative energy sources. Because battery energy is limited, the use of different techniques for energy saving is one of the hottest topics in WSNs. In this work, we present a survey of power saving and energy optimization techniques for wireless sensor networks, which enhances the ones in existence and introduces the reader to the most well known available methods that can be used to save energy. They are analyzed from several points of view: Device hardware, transmission, MAC and routing protocols.

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Power Saving and Energy Optimization Techniques for Wireless Sensor Neworks (Invited Paper)

The first step to detect when a vineyard has any type of deficiency, pest or disease is to observe its stems, its grapes and/or its leaves. To place a sensor in each leaf of every vineyard is obviously not feasible in terms of cost and deployment. We should thus look for new methods to detect these symptoms precisely and economically. In this paper, we present a wireless sensor network where each sensor node takes images from the field and internally uses image processing techniques to detect any unusual status in the leaves. This symptom could be caused by a deficiency, pest, disease or other harmful agent. When it is detected, the sensor node sends a message to a sink node through the wireless sensor network in order to notify the problem to the farmer. The wireless sensor uses the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n standard, which allows connections from large distances in open air. This paper describes the wireless sensor network design, the wireless sensor deployment, how the node processes the images in order to monitor the vineyard, and the sensor network traffic obtained from a test bed performed in a flat vineyard in Spain. Although the system is not able to distinguish between deficiency, pest, disease or other harmful agents, a symptoms image database and a neuronal network could be added in order learn from the experience and provide an accurate problem diagnosis.

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A Wireless Sensor Network for Vineyard Monitoring That Uses Image Processing

This paper analyzes several features of virtual learning environments. These tools are basic for new models of education because their basic idea is to reduce the number of hours face-to-face in the classroom and to promote remote individual work. This is the main purpose of the new European models given by the Bologna process. Four studies have been made. First of them, shows level of popularity of each environment according number of entrances in two web searchers. From this previous study, we have chosen the most popular environments and we will give the details of their features and main differences between them. We are going analyze existing environments to create online learning communities and so, promoting online learning. Next, we will show a study this type of educational social software. This study involves a questionnaire to some lecturers of our university, Polytechnic University of Valencia. Our analysis presents most important results. Then, we have studied the virtual learning environments used in the Spanish universities. It will show us which of them are more used in Spain. Finally in the last part of the paper, we will show a performance evaluation of the two main environments.

A Study of Virtual Learning Environments

Characterisation of the tensile behaviour of UHPFRC remains a challenge for researchers, and an agreement on the standard test set-up and advisability of notch is yet to be reached. Bending tests are easier to conduct if compared to direct tensile tests, but require a sophisticated post-process to obtain the uniaxial tensile behaviour of specimens. Unlike notched tests, unnotched tests allow the determination of strain-hardening behaviour, which characterises UHPFRC tensile behaviour. However, post-cracking behaviour is more difficult to analyse. This work focuses on the development of a new simplified inverse analysis method applied to unnotched four-point bending tests which improves current simplified methods, but maintains the accuracy of more complex ones. For this purpose, an analytical model based on a quadrilinear assumption of tensile behaviour in tension was assumed. A statistical analysis of theoretical flexural strength vs. displacement on mid-span analytical curves was conducted to link the assumed tensile behaviour to the analytical flexural behaviour that derived from it. After this process, a simplified method to obtain not only the stress–strain behaviour prior to crack localisation, but also the stress–crack opening relationship after that point is proposed. The new method is based on the determination of only five key points in experimental bending strength vs. displacement at mid-span curves and in the application of a back-of-the-envelope calculation. The analytical basis on which the method is based, justification of key point selection, and the process followed to achieve the simplified formulation, which allows dispensing with the use of a computer, are presented. An application example on a UHPFRC unnotched four-point bending test specimen, and its comparison with a point-by-point inverse analysis, are included.

A simplified five-point inverse analysis method to determine the tensile properties of UHPFRC from unnotched four-point bending tests

This work has been developed under both "FIBAC" and "FISNE" research projects, with references BIA2009-12722 and BIA2012-35776, supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Support for this project is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank Generalitat Valenciana and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport for its FPU scholarship program.

First Ultra-High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concrete Footbridge in Spain: Design and Construction

A regular subject of a degree course can be split into 4 main parts: Lecturing classes, hands-on skills, homework exercises and in-class exercises. There are many researches on lecturing classes and hands-on skills and, although there are many related with homework and in-class exercises, they are focused on the methodology more than of the type of media used to perform them. Homework and in-class exercises have the objective of the reinforcement of the knowledge learned in lecture classes. Generally, these problems or exercises are presented written in a paper or, sometimes, in an electronic format using a word processor or pdf. Despite of the type of exercise or problems proposed for the students, we suggest the use of multimedia activities as a medium to propose these exercises. In this paper we will show different kind of multimedia activities that can be used for homework and in-class exercises. This classification will allow us to choose the type of multimedia activity depending on the type of knowledge that it is wanted to transfer to the student. These multimedia activities have been used in the subjects "Redes de Area Local" and "Integracion de Redes" that are lectured in the third course of the Telecommunications Technical Engineering in the higher Polytechnic School of Gandia of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. We will show the measurements taken from a questionnaire presented to the students and we will discuss their results obtained. We will also compare the marks of the students in both subjects in the last two course years.

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Using Multimedia Activities for Homework and in-Class Exercises to improve the results of university students

Many wireless sensor network developers have adopted Bluetooth and Zigbee technologies for sensor communication. However, it has a big problem: the radio coverage is very short; so many sensors are needed to cover wide areas and sensors are expensive. On the other hand, these technologies lack a high bandwidth. IEEE 802.11a/b/g technologies have higher coverage areas and higher bandwidth, but their energy consumption is significantly higher. This paper discusses the energy consumption analytically and gives the considerations that should be taken into account in developing a wireless local area sensor network. Then, we propose a new protocol based on group collaboration to be implemented in these types of networks in order to decrease the energy consumption and save the energy wasted by the whole system. Finally, the protocol proposed is simulated and compared with other protocols available in the Ns2 simulator in order to prove that our solution is better.

Hugo Coll

Papers

A Study of Virtual Learning Environments

A simplified five-point inverse analysis method to determine the tensile properties of UHPFRC from unnotched four-point bending tests

First Ultra-High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concrete Footbridge in Spain: Design and Construction

Using Multimedia Activities for Homework and in-Class Exercises to improve the results of university students

Saving Energy in Wireless Local Area Sensor Networks