Development and tests of a paediatric and neonatal immobilizer for ambulance transfers.

There are many stretcher models able to adequately achieve the spinal immobilization of adult patients during emergency transports but do not work well with children. A paediatric and neonatal immobilizer has been designed, constructed and tested. It is simple, radio-transparent, able to be adequately fastened to an ambulance, adaptable to a wide range of paediatric patient's size, providing a correct spinal immobilization without an excessive immobilization of the rest of the body, without impairing the aperture of an aerial way or the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and without reducing the accessibility of the medical personnel to the paediatric patient. It is able to be adapted to the size and injuries of the patient instead of adapting the position of the patient to the characteristics of the immobilizer. It can also be effectively fastened to the bed of an emergency helicopter, allowing the aerial transport of the paediatric patients.

Evaluation of mechanical tomato harvesting using wireless sensors.

The harvesting of processing tomatoes is fully mechanised and it is well known that during harvest, fruits are subjected to mechanical stress causing physical injuries, including skin punctures, pulp and cell rupture. Some wireless sensors have been used for research during recent years with the main purpose of reducing the quality loss of tomato fruits by diminishing the number and intensity of impacts. In this study the IRD (impact recorder device) sensor was used to evaluate several tomato harvesters. The specific objectives were to evaluate the impacts during mechanical harvest using a wireless sensor, to determine the critical points at which damage occurs, and to assess the damage levels. Samples were taken to determine the influence of mechanical harvest on texture, or on other quality characteristics including percentage of damages. From the obtained data it has been possible to identify the critical points where the damages were produced for each one of the five harvester models examined. The highest risk of damage was in zone 1 of the combine--from the cutting system to the colour selector--because the impacts were of higher intensity and hit less absorbing surfaces than in zone 2--from colour selector to discharge. The shaker and exit from the shaker are two of the harvester elements that registered the highest intensity impacts. By adjusting, in a specific way each harvester model, using the results from this research, it has been possible to reduce the tomato damage percentage from 20 to 29% to less than 10%.