Comparison of near infrared and microwave resonance sensors for at-line moisture determination in powders and tablets

In this paper we demonstrate the feasibility of replacing KF for water content testing in bulk powders and tablets with at-line near infrared (NIR) or microwave resonance (MR) methods. Accurate NIR and MR prediction models were developed with a minimalistic approach to calibration. The NIR method can accurately predict water content in bulk powders in the range of 0.5-5% w/w. Results from this method were compared to a MR method. We demonstrated excellent agreement of both NIR and MR methods for powders vs. the reference KF method. These methods are applicable to in-process control or quality control environments. One of the aims of this study was to determine if a calibration developed for a particular product could be used to predict the water content of another product (with related composition) but containing a different active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). We demonstrated that, contrary to the NIR method, a general MR method can be used to predict water content in two different types of blends. Finally, we demonstrated that a MR method can be developed for at-line moisture determination in tablets.     

Evaluation of an Adaptive Resource Allocation for LoRaWAN

Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) emerges to connect devices that require long-range and low-cost (bandwidth and power) communication services. In this context, the adoption of this technology brings new challenges due to the densification of IoT devices, which causes signal interference and affects the QoS directly. On the other hand, the LoRaWAN transmission configurations’ flexibility allows higher management to use end-device parameters, allowing better resource utilization and improve network scalability. We evaluate an adaptive solution that defines the best LoRaWAN parameter settings to reduce the channel utilization and, consequently, maximize the number of packets delivered. Additionally, to validate the method, we used a mixed-integer linear programming solution and compared the results obtained with those given by the heuristics. The results achieved by the heuristics were very close to those provided by the optimal result, demonstrating the effectiveness of the heuristics.