An over-the-distance wireless battery charger based on RF energy harvesting

An RF powered receiver silicon IC (integrated circuit) for RF energy harvesting is presented as wireless battery charger. This includes an RF-to-DC energy converter specifically designed with a sensitivity of -18.8 dBm and an energy conversion efficiency of ∼45% at 900 MHz with a transmitting power of 0.5 W in free space. Experimental results concerned with remotely battery charging using a complete prototype working in realistic scenarios will be shown.

A Battery-Free Smart Sensor Powered with RF Energy

The development of Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure and applications is stimulating advanced and innovative ideas and solutions, some of which are pushing the limits of state-of-the-art technology. The increasing demand for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that must be capable of collecting and sharing data wirelessly while often positioned in places hard to reach and service, motivates engineers to look for innovative energy harvesting and wireless power transfer solutions to implement battery-free sensor nodes. Due to the pervasiveness of RF (Radio Frequency) energy, RF harvesting that can reach out-of-sight places could be a key technology to wirelessly power IoT sensor devices, whic…

Collecting and preserving plant DNA for huanglongbing diagnosis in citrus samples from China

Accurate and sensitive detection of Citrus Huanglongbing associated ‘Ca. Liberibacter’species, not currently reported in the European and Mediterranean area, is an imperative need to define certification programs, to prevent introduction of the bacteria and/or their vectors in the unaffected areas, and to delineate efficient management strategies in those areas where the disease has spread. In this study, we compared different citrus sample preparation procedures for PCR based detection methods of ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’, in order to find out the best a way to transport and preserve samples of Shatangju mandarin and fingered citron obtained during a survey in citrus orchards in …

An Energy Autonomous and Battery-Free Measurement System for Ambient Light Power with Time Domain Readout Measurement

Internet of Things (IoT) provides more and more adequate infrastructures for many applications and advanced services. This context promotes the ability to satisfy the growing demand for innovative measuring systems, in- creasingly popular with intelligent nodes, totally wireless, easy to install that require the least possible maintenance. This paper aims to contribute to the state-of-the-art with an energy-autonomous and battery-free measurement platform designed to measure the ambient light power when its level exceeds the Limit of Detection (LoD) threshold. The proposed system consists of a single photovoltaic transducer to harvest energy and simultaneously detect ambient light. The resu…

A circularly polarized wideband high gain patch antenna for wireless power transfer

This article deals with a microstrip patch antenna working at 868 MHz, suitable for the radio frequency wireless power transfer and energy harvesting applications. The proposed monolithic antenna is compact, lightweight and it is printed on a thick substrate in order to maximize the total gain in the broadside direction. The antenna radiates at 868 MHz with a fractional impedance bandwidth of 5% and it shows a gain of 4.14 dB.

Mixed infection of Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. Carotovorum and P. carotovorum subsp. Brasiliensis in tomato stem rot in Italy

Grafted tomato plants grown in a soilless culture system in heated greenhouses in Sicily were affected by stem rot disease. Symptoms consisted of dark brown longitudinal discoloration of the basal part of the stem and petioles. Longitudinal sections of the stem revealed brown watersoaked or soft-rotted pith tissue and internal vascular discoloration. Bacterial isolates with two different colony morphologies were obtained from symptomatic tissues. Isolates were identified as Pectobacterium spp. on the basis of biochemical and molecular analyses. The analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence and of the concatenated sequences of the housekeeping genes rpoS and pgi revealed that the isolates of th…

Association of kidney disease measures with risk of renal function worsening in patients with type 1 diabetes

Background Albuminuria has been classically considered a marker of kidney damage progression in diabetic patients and it is routinely assessed to monitor kidney function. However, the role of a mild GFR reduction on the development of stage ≥3 CKD has been less explored in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic role of kidney disease measures, namely albuminuria and reduced GFR, on the development of stage ≥3 CKD in a large cohort of patients affected by T1DM. Methods A total of 4284 patients affected by T1DM followed-up at 76 diabetes centers participating to the Italian Association of Clinical Diabetologists (Associazione Medici D…

Gli Agrumi, Virus e viroidi

Clonal populations of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp michiganensis are responsible for the outbreaks of bacterial canker in greenhouse tomatoes in Italy

Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm) strains, collected in greenhouses from 17 farms during tomato bacterial canker outbreaks occurring between 2005 and 2008 in Sicily, were analysed by a multiphasic approach. Population studies were conducted to investigate the possible sources of inocula. Cmm strains were characterized by PCR assays targeting virulence genes, fingerprinting techniques, metabolic profiles and virulence. These strains were comparatively analysed with Cmm strains isolated in other parts of Italy over a period of 15 years. Chromosomal genes encoding virulence determinants tomA, ppaA, chpC, and the plasmid-encoded genes pat-1 and celA were detected by PCR in al…

CHARACTERIZATION OF ATYPICAL CLAVIBACTER MICHIGANENSIS subsp. MICHIGANENSIS POPULATIONS IN GREENHOUSE TOMATOES IN ITALY

The quarantine bacterium Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm) is the agent of tomato bacterial canker (TBC), one of the most destructive bacterial diseases of this crop, that causes severe economic losses worldwide. During a recent outbreak of TBC in Sicily (insular Italy), it was impossible to amplify the pat-1 gene by PCR with CMM5/CMM6 primers from affected greenhouse-grown plants from three farms, although Cmm-like colonies were consistently isolated. Microlog metabolic profile, 16S rDNA sequencing and the positive amplification of other Cmm DNA targets supported the identification of the strains as Cmm, suggesting the occurrence of a population lacking the virulence gen…