Desarrollo de una plataforma multiusuario en tiempo real

Este proyecto nace de la necesidad de crear un servidor que soporte aplicaciones en tiempo real multiusuario. Dado que en el mercado actual existen diversas soluciones a esta necesidad, en una primera parte del proyecto estudiamos dichas soluciones y marcamos unos objetivos concretos. El siguiente paso es estudiar las tecnologías que usamos en el desarrollo de la aplicación, así como los propios programas de desarrollo. Posteriormente diseñamos un protocolo de comunicaciones que establezca las pautas para el intercambio de información. Seguidamente pasamos a diseñar e implementar el propio servidor de aplicaciones. De la creación de este servidor se deriva la necesidad de crear dos aplicaciones cliente que pretenden ser una guía que permita a futuros programadores desarrollar nuevas aplicaciones cliente así como configurar exitosamente el servidor. El siguiente paso es analizar el rendimiento y la capacidad de carga del servidor, comprobando que cumple con las expectativas fijadas. Por último, documentamos el proyecto en forma de esta memoria. El conjunto formado por el servidor, el protocolo de comunicaciones y las dos aplicaciones cliente conforman toda una plataforma robusta y escalable

Influence of Body Composition on Arterial Stiffness in Middle-Aged Adults: Healthy UAL Cross-Sectional Study

Background and objectives: Several anthropometric and body composition parameters have been linked to arterial stiffness (AS) as a biomarker of cardiovascular disease. However, little is known about which of these closely related factors is more strongly associated with AS. The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship of different anthropometric and body composition parameters with AS in middle-aged adults. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 186 middle-aged participants (85 women, 101 men; age = 42.8 ± 12.6 years) evaluated as part of the Healthy UAL study, a population study conducted at the University of Almería with the main purpose of analyzing the etiology and risk factors associated with cardio-metabolic diseases. Anthropometric measures included neck, waist, and hip circumferences, as well as the waist-to-height ratio (WHtr). Bioimpedance-derived parameters included fat-free mass index (FFMI), fat mass index (FMI), and percent of body fat (%BF). AS was measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV). The relationships of interest were examined through stepwise regression analyses in which age and sex were also introduced as potential confounders. Results: Neck circumference (in the anthropometric model; R2: 0.889; β: age = 0.855, neck = 0.204) and FFMI (in the bio-impedance model; R2: 0.891; β: age = 0.906, FFMI = 0.199) emerged as significant cross-sectional predictors of AS. When all parameters were included together (both anthropometry and bio-impedance), both neck circumference and FFMI appeared again as being significantly associated with AS (R2: 0.894; β: age = 0.882, FFMI = 0.126, neck = 0.093). Conclusion: It was concluded that FFMI and neck circumference are correlated with AS regardless of potential confounders and other anthropometric and bioimpedance-derived parameters in middle-aged adults

Enantiodeterminación de catinonas en orina mediante electroforesis capilar

En els últims anys ha augmentat el consum dels derivats sintètics de la catinona, un alcaloide que es troba de forma natural en les fulles del khat, ja que representen una alternativa més assequible i accessible respecte a altres drogues il·lícites més conegudes com les amfetamines. Després de ser consumits, aquests compostos es poden trobar en l'organisme ja sigui metabolitzats o en la seva forma pura a baixes concentracions. Per tant, solen ser necessaris mètodes altament sensibles per determinar aquestes substàncies en mostres biològiques com sang, cabell, saliva o, més comunament, orina. Les catinones presenten un centre quiral i, per tant, es poden trobar en dues formes enantiomèriques (R i S). Cada enantiòmer pot presentar un comportament farmacocinètic i farmacodinàmic diferent i, per tant, tenir diferents efectes en l'organisme. En conseqüència, la enantioseparació de les catinones sintètiques pot ser de gran utilitat. En aquest sentit, l'electroforesi capil·lar és una tècnica molt adequada per a aquest propòsit, ja que la enantioseparació es pot aconseguir simplement afegint un selector quiral a l'electròlit de separació.En los últimos años ha aumentado el consumo de derivados sintéticos de la catinona, un alcaloide que se encuentra de forma natural en las hojas del khat, puesto que representan una alternativa más asequible y accesible respecto a otras drogas ilícitas más conocidas como las anfetaminas. Después de ser consumidos, estos compuestos se pueden encontrar en el organismo ya sea metabolizados o en su forma pura a bajas concentraciones. Por lo tanto, suelen ser necesarios métodos altamente sensibles para determinar estas sustancias en muestras biológicas como sangre, cabello, saliva o, más comúnmente, orina. Las catinonas presentan un centro quiral y, por tanto, se pueden encontrar en dos formas enantioméricas (R y S). Cada enantiómero puede presentar un comportamiento farmacocinético y farmacodinámico diferente y, por consiguiente, tener diferentes efectos en el organismo. En consecuencia, la enantioseparación de las catinonas sintéticas puede ser de gran utilidad. En este sentido, la electroforesis capilar es una técnica muy adecuada para este propósito, puesto que la enantioseparación se puede lograr simplemente agregando un selector quiral al electrolito de separaciónIn recent years, the consumption of synthetic derivatives of cathinone, an alkaloid naturally found in the leaves of the khat plant, has increased as they represent a more affordable and accessible alternative to other well-known illicit drugs such as amphetamines. After their consumption, these compounds can be found in the organism either metabolized or in their pure form at low concentrations. Therefore, highly sensitive methods are usually necessary to determine these substances in biological samples such as blood, hair, oral fluids, or, more commonly, urine. Cathinones present a chiral centre, so they can be found in two enantiomeric forms (R and S). Each enantiomer can present different pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic behaviour and have different effects on the organism. Consequently, the enantioseparation of synthetic cathinones can be very useful. In these sense, capillary electrophoresis represents an excellent technique for this purpose, since enantioseparation can be achieved simply by adding a chiral selector to the background electrolyte. However, despite of this and other well-known advantages of this analytical technique, one of its main limitations is its poor sensitivit

Design, construction, and operation of the first industrial salinity-gradient solar pond in Europe: An efficiency analysis perspective

A 500 m2 industrial salinity-gradient solar pond (SGSP) was constructed in a mineral processing plant (Solvay Minerales) in Granada (Spain). This renewable energy technology was designed to supply a low-temperature heat (up to 60 °C) to achieve the temperature requirements of the flotation mineral purification stage. The low-temperature source was integrated to partially replace the fuel oil boiler used to heat the water used in the flotation stage. Theoretical calculations based on solar radiation indicated that the use of the SGSP would reduce the annual fuel consumption by more than 50%, thus providing a significant improvement at both economic and environmental levels. Two months after the SGSP was established, in August 2014, the temperature in the storage zone of the SGSP reached approximately 90 °C. The overall performance was evaluated in two periods (2014 and 2015) in terms of the retrofitting of mining facility with a solar pond and a new method to assess the thermal efficiency of the solar pond in a long-term perspective has been proposed. The overall efficiencies obtained after the first and second operation periods were 10 and 12%, respectively, with maximum values of 28 and 24% obtained during the first operation months. Regarding the economic savings, the fuel oil cost of the flotation unit was reduced by a higher percentage than the fuel oil consumption, due to the decreasing tendency of fuel oil prices during 2014 and 2015. Reductions of 52 and 68% were obtained in the first and second periods of operation, respectively, when compared to 2013. In addition, not only does the SGSP have considerably reduced operating costs but also the environmental costs are clearly reduced when considering the reduction of CO2 emissions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Notes on Dependent Attributes in TOPSIS

AbstractTOPSIS is a multicriteria decision making technique based on the minimization of geometric distances that allows the ordering of compared alternatives in accordance with their distances from the ideal and anti-ideal solutions. The technique, that usually measures distances in the Euclidean norm, implicitly supposes that the contemplated attributes are independent. However, as this rarely occurs in practice, it is necessary to adapt the technique to the new situation. Using the Mahalanobis distance to incorporate the correlations among the attributes, this paper proposes a TOPSIS extension that captures the dependencies among them, but, in contrast to the Euclidean distance, does not require the normalization of the data. Results obtained by the new proposal have been compared by means of the three Minkowski norms most commonly employed for the calculation of distance: (i) the Manhattan distance (p=1); (ii) the Euclidean distance (p=2); and (iii) the Tchebycheff distance (p=∞). Furthermore, simulation techniques are used to analyse the connection between the TOPSIS results traditionally obtained with the Euclidean distance and those obtained with the Mahalanobis distance

Design, validation and administration of an observation tool for assessing water psychomotor skills in pre-school education

[Resumen] Esta investigación ha pretendido crear una nueva hoja de observación que permita evaluar la psicomotricidad acuática así como conocer los niveles actuales de desarrollo de ésta mediante su aplicación. Para ello, 8 jueces expertos (maestros de Educación Física y monitores de natación todos ellos), han analizado la Hojade Observación para la Evaluación de la Psicomotricidad Acuática (HOEPA), compuesta por 5 factores (familiarización con el medio, equilibrio, desplazamientos, manipulaciones y relaciones sociales) obteniendo unos resultados satisfactorios. Además, se estudió el desarrollo psicomotor en el medio acuático de 58 niños de entre 3 y 6 años de edad destacando los factores desplazamientos y manipulaciones como los de puntuaciones más altas y relaciones sociales como el de puntuación más baja. Asimismo, el grupo de niños de 5-6 años mostró unos niveles de desarrollo significativamente superiores al grupo de 3-4 años.[Abstract] This research has aimed to create a new observation tool that lets the assessment of water psychomotor skills as well as the knowledge of its current state of development through its administration. In order to that, 8 experts (Physical Education teachers and swimming monitors all of them), have analyzed the Observation Tool for Assessing Water Psychomotor skills, composed by 5 factors (familiarization with the context, balance, displacement, handling and social relationships) reporting satisfactory results. Furthermore, the water psychomotor development of 58 children aged between 3 and 6 years old was studied. Displacement and handling factors got the highest values meanwhile social relationships got the lowest value. Likewise, 5-6 years old group showed significant higher levels of water psychomotor development than 3-4 years old group

Diseño, validación y aplicación de una Hoja de Observación para la Evaluación de la Psicomotricidad Acuática (HOEPA) en edad infantil

This research has aimed to create a new observation tool that lets the assessment of water psychomotor skills as well as the knowledge of its current state of development through its administration. In order to that, 8 experts (Physical Education teachers and swimming monitors all of them), have analyzed the Observation Tool for Assessing Water Psychomotor skills, composed by 5 factors (familiarization with the context, balance, displacement, handling and social relationships) reporting satisfactory results. Furthermore, the water psychomotor development of 58 children aged between 3 and 6 years old was studied. Displacement and handling factors got the highest values meanwhile social relationships got the lowest value. Likewise, 5-6 years old group showed significant higher levels of water psychomotor development than 3-4 years old group.Esta investigación ha pretendido crear una nueva hoja de observación que permita evaluar la psicomotricidad acuática así como conocer los niveles actuales de desarrollo de ésta mediante su aplicación. Para ello, 8 jueces expertos (maestros de Educación Física y monitores de natación todos ellos), han analizado la Hojade Observación para la Evaluación de la Psicomotricidad Acuática (HOEPA), compuesta por 5 factores (familiarización con el medio, equilibrio, desplazamientos, manipulaciones y relaciones sociales) obteniendo unos resultados satisfactorios. Además, se estudió el desarrollo psicomotor en el medio acuático de 58 niños de entre 3 y 6 años de edad destacando los factores desplazamientos y manipulaciones como los de puntuaciones más altas y relaciones sociales como el de puntuación más baja. Asimismo, el grupo de niños de 5-6 años mostró unos niveles de desarrollo significativamente superiores al grupo de 3-4 años

Insatisfacción y distorsión de la imagen corporal en adolescentes de doce a diecisiete años de edad

La presente investigación ha analizado la satisfacción con la apariencia física y el nivel de distorsión entre la imagen real y la imagen autoconcebida. Para ello se ha administrado el cuestionario BODY SHAPE (self-perceived) a 195 alumnos con edades comprendidas entre los doce y los diecisiete años, recogiendo además sus datos de peso y talla reales. Los resultados alcanzados reflejan que los hombres se encuentran más insatisfechos en este sentido, teniendo además una mayor distorsión de su imagen que las mujeres. Del mismo modo, a medida que aumenta la edad se observa una disminución de la distorsión, así como un aumento de los niveles de satisfacción. No obstante, los valores son alarmantes por lo que toda la comunidad educativa debe concienciarse de esta situación y aunar esfuerzos para revertirlaThis research has assessed physical appearance satisfaction and distortion level between real image and self perceived image. In order to do that, BODY SHAPE (self-perceived) questionnaire has been administrated to 195 students whose ages vary from twelve to seventeen years old, as well as having measured their real weight and height. The achieved results show that boys are more dissatisfied in this way, furthermore they also have bigger distortion levels than girls. Analogously, while the age increases, a decrease of distortion is recorded, as well as a satisfaction level increase. However, the values are so alarming that the entire school community must be aware of this situation and join efforts to reverse it

Comparative Study of Convolutional Neural Networks for ECG Quality Assessment

[EN] In the last years, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have become popular in ECG analysis, since they do not require pre-processing stages, nor specific pre-training. However, their ability for ECG quality assessment has still not been thoroughly assessed. Hence, this work introduces a comparison about the ability of several CNN algorithms to classify between high and low-quality ECGs. Taking advantage of the concept of transfer learning, five common pre-trained CNNs were analyzed, such as AlexNet, GoogLeNet, VGG16, ResNet18 and InceptionV3. They were fed with 2-D images obtained by turning 5 second-length ECG segments into scalograms through a continuous Wavelet transform. To train and validate the algorithms, 1,168 noisy ECG intervals, along with other 1,200 ECG excerpts with sufficient quality for their further interpretation, were extracted from a public database. The obtained results showed that all CNNs provided mean values of accuracy between 89 and 91%, but notable difference in terms of computational load were noticed. Thus, AlexNet was the fastest algorithm, requiring notably less CPU usage and memory than the remaining methods. Consequently, this CNN exhibited the best trade-off between high-quality ECG identification accuracy and computational load, and it could be considered as the most convenient algorithm for ECG quality assessment.This research has been supported by the grants DPI2017-83952-C3 from MINECO/AEI/FEDER EU, SBPLY/17/180501/000411 from Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha and AICO/2019/036 from Generalitat Valenciana.Huerta, A.; Martinez-Rodrigo, A.; Puchol, A.; Pachon, MI.; Rieta, JJ.; Alcaraz, R. (2020). Comparative Study of Convolutional Neural Networks for ECG Quality Assessment. IEEE. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.22489/CinC.2020.370S1

A new synthesis procedure for TOPSIS based on AHP

Vega et al. [1] analyzed the influence of the attributes’ dependence when ranking a set of alternatives in a multicriteria decision making problem with TOPSIS. They also proposed the use of the Mahalanobis distance to incorporate the correlations among the attributes in TOPSIS. Even in those situations for which dependence among attributes is very slight, the results obtained for the Mahalanobis distance are significantly different from those obtained with the Euclidean distance, traditionally used in TOPSIS, and also from results obtained using any other distance of the Minkowsky family. This raises serious doubts regarding the selection of the distance that should be employed in each case. To deal with the problem of the attributes’ dependence and the question of the selection of the most appropriate distance measure, this paper proposes to use a new method for synthesizing the distances to the ideal and the anti-ideal in TOPSIS. The new procedure is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process and is able to capture the relative importance of both distances in the context given by the measure that is considered; it also provides rankings, which are closer to the distances employed in TOPSIS, regardless of the dependence among the attributes. The new technique has been applied to the illustrative example employed in Vega et al. [1]