The present paper reviews, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the most recent advances in research concerning two popular devices used for foot motion analysis and health monitoring: smart socks and in-shoe systems. The first one is representative of textile-based systems, whereas the second one is one of the most used pressure sensitive insole (PSI) systems that is used as an alternative to smart socks. The proposed methods are reviewed for smart sock use in special medical applications, for gait and foot pressure analysis. The Pedar system is also shown, together with studies of validation and repeatability for Pedar and other in-shoe systems. Then, the applications of Pedar are presented, mainly in medicine and sports. Our purpose was to offer the researchers in this field a useful means to overview and select relevant information. Moreover, our review can be a starting point for new, relevant research towards improving the design and functionality of the systems, as well as extending the research towards other areas of applications using sensors in smart textiles and in-shoe systems.

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept has met requirements for security and reliability in domains like automotive industry, food industry, as well as precision agriculture. Furthermore, System of Systems (SoS) expands the use of local clouds for the evolution of integration and communication technologies. SoS devices need to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities including service-oriented management and different QoS characteristics monitoring. Smart applications depend on information quality since they are driven by processes which require communication robustness and enough bandwidth. Interconnectivity and interoperability facilities among different smart devices can be achieved using Arrowhead Framework technology via its core systems and services. Arrowhead Framework is targeting smart IoT devices with wide applicability areas including smart building, smart energy, smart cities, smart agriculture, etc. The advantages of Arrowhead Framework can be underlined by parameters such as transmission speed, latency, security, etc. This paper presents a survey of Arrowhead Framework in IoT/SoS dedicated architectures for smart cities and smart agriculture developed around smart cities, aiming to outline its significant impact on the global performances. The advantages of Arrowhead Framework technology are emphasized by analysis of several smart cities use-cases and a novel architecture for a telemetry system that will enable the use of Arrowhead technology in smart agriculture area is introduced and detailed by authors.

Vitis vinifera, known as the common grape vine, represents one of the most important fruit crops in the world. Romania is a wine-producing country with a rich and long tradition in viticulture. In the last decade, increasing reports of damage caused by grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) have raised concerns in all wine producing countries. Up to now, no study was performed regarding the GTDs situation in Romania, an important grapevine grower in Europe. In this study, we aim, after a comprehensive presentation of the fungal GTDs worldwide, to review the scientific information related to these diseases in Romania in order to open a national platform in an international framework. In order to achieve this, we consulted over 500 references from different scientific databases and cited 309 of them. Our review concludes that, in Romania, there is little amount of available literature on this matter. Three out of six fungal GTDs are reported and well documented in all of the Romanian viticultural zones (except for viticultural zone 4). These are Eutypa dieback, Phomopsis dieback, and Esca disease. Of the fungal pathogens considered responsible Eutypa lata, Phomopsis viticola and Stereum hirsutum are the most studied and well documented in Romania. Management measures are quite limited, and they mostly include preventive measures to stop the GTDs spread and the removal of affected grapevines.

Known for its dry and semi-dry white wine, the Târnave vineyard located in central Transylvania is challenged by the current climate change, which has resulted in an increase of the period of active vegetation by approximately 15–20 days, the average annual temperature by 1–1.5 °C and also the amount of useful temperatures (useful thermal balance for the grapevine). Furthermore, the frost periods have been reduced. Transylvania is an important Romanian region for grapevine cultivation. In this context, one can use the climatic changes to expand their wine assortment by cultivating an autochthonous grapevine variety called Amurg. Amurg is a red grape cultivar homologated at SCDVV Blaj, which also homologated 7 cultivars and 11 clones. Because viticulture depends on the stability of meteorological and hydrological parameters of the growing area, its foundations are challenged by climate change. Grapevine production is a long time investment, taking at least five years before the freshly planted vines produce the desired quality berries. We propose the implementation of a climate change-based precision viticulture turn-key solution for environmental monitoring in the Târnave vineyard. This solution aims to evaluate the grapevine’s micro-climate to extend the sustainable cultivation of the Amurg red grapes cultivar in Transylvania with the final goal of obtaining Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) rosé and red wines from this region. Worldwide, the changing conditions from the existing climate (a 30-year average), used in the past hundred years to dictate local standards, such as new and erratic trends of temperature and humidity regimes, late spring freezes, early fall frosts, storms, heatwaves, droughts, area wildfires, and insect infestations, would create dynamic problems for all farmers to thrive. These conditions will make it challenging to predict shifts in each of the components of seasonal weather conditions. Our proposed system also aims to give a solution that can be adapted to other vineyards as well.

Real-time monitoring, data-driven decisions, and energy consumption optimization have reached a new level with IoT advancement. However, a significant challenge faced by intelligent nodes and IoT applications resides in their energy requirements in the long term, especially in the case of gas or water smart meters. This article proposes an algorithm for smart meters’ energy consumption optimization based on IoT, LoRaWAN, and NB-IoT using microcontroller-based development boards, PZEM004T energy meters, Dragino LoRaWAN shield, or BG96 NB-IoT modules. The algorithm adjusts the transmission time based on the change in data in real-time. According to the experimental results, the energy consumption and the number of packets transmitted significantly decreased using LoRaWAN or NB-IoT, saving up to 76.11% and 86.81% of the transmitted packets, respectively. Additionally, the outcome highlights a notable percentage reduction in the energy consumption spike frequency, with NB-IoT achieving an 87.3% reduction and LoRaWAN slightly higher at 88.5%. This study shows that adaptive algorithms are very effective in extending the lifetime of IoT nodes, thereby providing a solid baseline for scalable, lightweight, energy-monitoring IoT applications. The results could help shape the development of smart energy metering systems and sustainable IoT.