Remote patient monitoring based on ZigBee: lessons from a real-world deployment

This work presents detailed experimental performance results, from tests executed in the hospital environment, for HM4All, a remote vital signs monitoring system based on a ZigBee body sensor network (BSN). Tests involved the use of six electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors operating in two different modes: the ECG mode involved the transmission of ECG waveform data and heart rate (HR) values to the ZigBee coordinator; whereas the HR mode included only the transmission of HR values. In the absence of hidden nodes, a nonbeacon-enabled star network comprised of sensing devices working on ECG mode kept the delivery ratio (DR) at 100%. When the network topology was changed to a 2-hop tree, the performance degraded slightly, resulting in an average DR of 98.56%. Although these performance outcomes may seem satisfactory, further investigation demonstrated that individual sensing devices went through transitory periods with low DR. Other tests have shown that ZigBee BSNs are highly susceptible to collisions due to hidden nodes. Nevertheless, these tests have also shown that these networks can achieve high reliability if the amount of traffic is kept low. Contrary to which is typically shown in scientific papers and in manufacturers’ documentation, the test outcomes presented in this paper include temporal graphs of the DR achieved by each wireless sensor device. The test procedure and the approach used to represent its outcomes, which allow the identification of undesirable transitory periods of low reliability due to contention between devices, constitute the main contribution of this work.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). Grupo AMI – Assistência Médica Integral (Casa de Saúde Guimarães, SA), Portugal

Una aproximación a las representaciones del alumnado sobre el Universo

This study explains how the children from secondary school (age 14-18) represent the structure of the universe and the way it may be useful in daily teaching. The results obtained describe the same conceptualization difficulties that the younger students already have, as well as the need for studying deeply the process for learning of those students as far as, having dealt with those contents before, they have not reached the expected scientific knowledge concerning the topic

Contenidos, metodología y alumnado : una valoración crítica de la enseñanza en BUP y COU

The aim of this study was to compare the interest of the students in Natural Science in front of three other subjects such as Mathematics, Literature and Geography & History. The selected items of the contents of every subject, and the importance of teaching as an influential factor on students were also studied. The results showed that both the selection of the contents and the methods should have been modified

Predicting the distribution of canine leishmaniasis in western Europe based on environmental variables.

The domestic dog is the reservoir host of Leishmania infantum, the causative agent of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis endemic in Mediterranean Europe. Targeted control requires predictive risk maps of canine leishmaniasis (CanL), which are now explored. We databased 2187 published and unpublished surveys of CanL in southern Europe. A total of 947 western surveys met inclusion criteria for analysis, including serological identification of infection (504, 369 dogs tested 1971-2006). Seroprevalence was 23 2% overall (median 10%). Logistic regression models within a GIS framework identified the main environmental predictors of CanL seroprevalence in Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, or in France alone. A 10-fold cross-validation approach determined model capacity to predict point-values of seroprevalence and the correct seroprevalence class (20%). Both the four-country and France-only models performed reasonably well for predicting correctly the 20% seroprevalence classes (AUC >0 70). However, the France-only model performed much better for France than the four-country model. The four-country model adequately predicted regions of CanL emergence in northern Italy (<5% seroprevalence). Both models poorly predicted intermediate point seroprevalences (5-20%) within regional foci, because surveys were biased towards known rural foci and Mediterranean bioclimates. Our recommendations for standardizing surveys would permit higher-resolution risk mapping

Performance evaluation of bluetooth low energy for high data rate body area networks

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a promising wireless network technology, in the context of body area network (BAN) applications, to provide the required quality of service (QoS) support concerning the communication between sensor nodes placed on a user’s body and a personal device, such as a smartphone. Most previous BLE performance studies in the literature have focused primarily in networks with a single slave (point-to-point link) or traffic scenarios with relatively low data rate. However, many BAN sensors generate high data rate traffic, and several sensor nodes (slaves) may be actively sending data in the same BAN. Therefore, this work focuses on the evaluation of the suitability of BLE mainly under these conditions. Results show that, for the same traffic, the BLE protocol presents lower energy consumption and supports more sensor nodes than an alternative IEEE 802.15.4-based protocol. This study also identifies and characterizes some implementation constraints on the tested platforms that impose limits on the achievable performance.This work has been supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) in the scope of the projects UID/EEA/04436/2013 and UID/CTM/50025/2013, and by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 Programme

LA ENSEÑANZA UNIVERSITARIA Y LA FORMACION PARA EL TRABAJO. Un análisis desde la opinión de los estudiantes.

Uno de los grandes retos que tiene planteada la Universidad actual es lograr una mayorconexión entre la formación y el desarrollo profesional del alumnado. Se viene insistiendodesde diferentes frentes en que los nuevos títulos que surjan en el marco del Espacio Europeode Educación Superior deben estar en consonancia con la demanda social y potenciar eldesarrollo de la profesionalidad de los egresados, de modo que se tracen puentes para latransición desde la formación a la ocupación. Dado que actualmente en la Universidad de LaLaguna (Tenerife, España) se está en un proceso de concreción y diseño de los nuevos títulos,hemos querido conocer qué opina el alumnado sobre la formación que están recibiendo y siconsideran que les capacita para su incorporación a la vida social y laboral. Los resultadosrevelan que la formación que se ofrece actualmente carece de la suficiente preparaciónpráctica que permita a los estudiantes tener una visión real de la aplicación de losconocimientos en la práctica y del trabajo que realizan los profesionales en el campodirectamente relacionado con la formación. Esta información puede ser un referente de interéspara plasmar en las nuevas titulaciones medidas que estrechen la conexión entre la enseñanzay el desempeño profesional.Palabras clave: enseñanza universitaria y competencias, orientación universitaria, formación alo largo de la vida, formación para el empleo.UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR WORK:AN ANALYSIS FROM THE OPINION OF THE STUDENTSAbstractOne of the major challenges facing the University today is to achieve a closer link betweentraining and professional development of students. It comes from different fronts, insisting thatthe new titles that arise under the European Higher Education Area should be in line withsocial demands and enhance the professional development of graduates, so they draw bridgefor the transition from the formation to the occupation. Since it is currently at the University ofLa Laguna (Tenerife, Spain) in a process of specification and design of new titles, we wantedto know your opinion about students who are receiving training and if you consider that theyare able to join social life and work. The results reveal that training is currently available lacks sufficient practical training to enable students to have a real vision of the application ofknowledge in practice and the work done by professionals in the field directly related totraining. This information may be an interesting referent to translate in the new titles necessarymeasures to strengthen the evidence linking between education and performance.Key Words: university education and skills, college guidance, training throughout life,employment trainin

Experimental and theoretical study of α–Eu2(MoO4)3 under compression

The compression process in the α-phase of europium trimolybdate was revised employing several experimental techniques. X-ray diffraction (using synchrotron and laboratory radiation sources), Raman scattering and photoluminescence experiments were performed up to a maximum pressure of 21 GPa. In addition, the crystal structure and Raman mode frequencies have been studied by means of first-principles density functional based methods. Results suggest that the compression process of α-Eu2(MoO4)3 can be described by three stages. Below 8 GPa, the α-phase suffers an isotropic contraction of the crystal structure. Between 8 and 12 GPa, the compound undergoes an anisotropic compression due to distortion and rotation of the MoO4 tetrahedra. At pressures above 12 GPa, the amorphization process starts without any previous occurrence of a crystalline-crystalline phase transition in the whole range of pressure. This behavior clearly differs from the process of compression and amorphization in trimolybdates with β′-phase and tritungstates with α-phase.We thank Diamond Light Source for access to beamline I15 (EE1746) that contributed to the results presented here. Part of the diffraction measurements were performed at the 'Servicio Integrado de Difraccion de Rayos X (SIDIX)' of University of La Laguna. This work has been supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain (MINECO) for the research projects through the National Program of Materials (MAT2010-21270-C04-01/02/03/04, MAT2013-46649-C41/2/3/4-P and MAT2013-43319-P), the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 MALTA (CSD2007-00045), the project of Generalitat Valenciana (GVA-ACOMP/2014/243) and by the European Union FEDER funds. C Guzman-Afonso wishes to thank ACIISI and FSE for a fellowship. J A Sans thanks the FPI and 'Juan de la Cierva' programs for fellowships.Guzmán-Afonso, C.; León-Luis, S.; Sans-Tresserras, JÁ.; González -Silgo, C.; Rodríguez-Hernández, P.; Radescu, S.;  muñoz, A.... (2015). Experimental and theoretical study of α–Eu2(MoO4)3 under compression. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. 27(46):465401-1-465401-11. https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/27/46/465401S465401-1465401-11274

Izaña Atmospheric Research Center. Activity Report 2015-2016

This report is a summary of the many activities at the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center to the broader community. The combination of operational activities, research and development in state-of-the-art measurement techniques, calibration and validation and international cooperation encompass the vision of WMO to provide world leadership in expertise and international cooperation in weather, climate, hydrology and related environmental issues