Modeling the Municipal Waste Collection Using Genetic Algorithms

Calculating adequate vehicle routes for collecting municipal waste is still an unsolved issue, even though many solutions for this process can be found in the literature. A gap still exists between academics and practitioners in the field. One of the apparent reasons why this rift exists is that academic tools often are not easy to handle and maintain by actual users. In this work, the problem of municipal waste collection is modeled using a simple but efficient and especially easy to maintain solution. Real data have been used, and it has been solved using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). Computations have been done in two different ways: using a complete random initial population, and including a seed in this initial population. In order to guarantee that the solution is efficient, the performance of the genetic algorithm has been compared with another well-performing algorithm, the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS). Three problems of different sizes have been solved and, in all cases, a significant improvement has been obtained. A total reduction of 40% of itineraries is attained with the subsequent reduction of emissions and costs.This research was funded by Fundación BBK, partner of the Deusto Digital Industry Chair

La gobernanza del envejecimiento activo en Bizkaia

351 p.Se realiza un análisis de la gobernanza del envejecimiento activo para una persona ciudadana del Territorio Histórico de Bizkaia. Para ello, además del marco lógico, se procede a la elaboración de una propuesta de análisis de gobernanza del fenómeno del envejecimiento activo y un vaciado de políticas públicas al respecto. Además se han realizado entrevistas a determinados responsables públicos y sociales desde 1978 hasta la actualidad.Se analiza la propuesta que ofrece el paradigma del envejecimiento activo, la evolución demográfica y la teoría de la transición demográfica, el imaginario social de las personas de edad a lo largo de la historia dividida en tres fases (hasta la Revolución Francesa, hasta la creación de la ONU, hasta la actualidad), teorías meta-narrativas de la vejez, estructuras institucionales actoras en la gobernanza del envejecimiento activo (Naciones Unidas, Unión Europea, Estado español, ámbito de la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca, ámbito de Bizkaia y ámbito municipal), marco legal-normativo, y vaciado de políticas y programas en materia de envejecimiento activo

La gobernanza del envejecimiento activo en Bizkaia

351 p.Se realiza un análisis de la gobernanza del envejecimiento activo para una persona ciudadana del Territorio Histórico de Bizkaia. Para ello, además del marco lógico, se procede a la elaboración de una propuesta de análisis de gobernanza del fenómeno del envejecimiento activo y un vaciado de políticas públicas al respecto. Además se han realizado entrevistas a determinados responsables públicos y sociales desde 1978 hasta la actualidad.Se analiza la propuesta que ofrece el paradigma del envejecimiento activo, la evolución demográfica y la teoría de la transición demográfica, el imaginario social de las personas de edad a lo largo de la historia dividida en tres fases (hasta la Revolución Francesa, hasta la creación de la ONU, hasta la actualidad), teorías meta-narrativas de la vejez, estructuras institucionales actoras en la gobernanza del envejecimiento activo (Naciones Unidas, Unión Europea, Estado español, ámbito de la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca, ámbito de Bizkaia y ámbito municipal), marco legal-normativo, y vaciado de políticas y programas en materia de envejecimiento activo

Optical Fiber Sensors Based on Nanoparticle-Embedded Coatings

The use of nanoparticles (NPs) in scientific applications has attracted the attention of many researchers in the last few years. The use of NPs can help researchers to tune the physical characteristics of the sensing coating (thickness, roughness, specific area, refractive index, etc.) leading to enhanced sensors with response time or sensitivity better than traditional sensing coatings. Additionally, NPs also offer other special properties that depend on their nanometric size, and this is also a source of new sensing applications. This review focuses on the current status of research in the use of NPs within coatings in optical fiber sensing. Most used sensing principles in fiber optics are briefly described and classified into several groups: absorbance-based sensors, interferometric sensors, fluorescence-based sensors, fiber grating sensors, and resonance-based sensors, among others. For each sensor group, specific examples of the utilization of NP-embedded coatings in their sensing structure are reported

Beyond the classroom leadership experience in the IKD GAZtE project

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es dar a conocer la experiencia de liderazgo llevado a cabo dentro del proyecto IKD GAZtE en la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU). Para ello, se dará a conocer en qué consiste este proyecto detallando sus características y el papel que desempeña el grupo motor dentro del mismo. El grupo motor está formado por los y las estudiantes de distintos grados de la misma universidad, los y las cuales auto gestionan el proyecto, llevando a cabo las distintas líneas de trabajo que conforman IKD GAZtE. La principal línea de trabajo es el módulo llamado “Ideas que construyen proyectos” el cual también se explicará en este artículo. Finalmente, se resumirán las competencias que se adquieren mediante este proceso de aprendizaje transversal, siendo las más importantes el liderazgo, la autogestión y el aprendizaje a través de la experiencia, justificando la importancia de estas competencias tanto en el mundo académico, profesional y personalThe main purpose of this paper is to show the accomplished leadership experience with the project IKD GAZtE at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). In order to do so, the characteristics and role of the leader group will be described. The leader group is formed by students of different degrees of the University of Basque Country. They all selfmanage the project and work on the different research lines of IKD GAZtE. The principal workstream is the module called “Ideas que construyenproyectos”, which will also be explained in this article. Finally, the abilities acquired by this project of transversal learning will be summarized, being leadership, self-management and the learning process through the experience the most important features of the project and, similarly, showing the importance of these abilities on the academic, professional and personal worl

An antibacterial coating based on a polymer/sol-gel hybrid matrix loaded with silver nanoparticles

In this work a novel antibacterial surface composed of an organic-inorganic hybrid matrix of tetraorthosilicate and a polyelectrolyte is presented. A precursor solution of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and poly(acrylic acid sodium salt) (PAA) was prepared and subsequently thin films were fabricated by the dip-coating technique using glass slides as substrates. This hybrid matrix coating is further loaded with silver nanoparticles using an in situ synthesis route. The morphology and composition of the coatings have been studied using UV-VIS spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) was also used to confirm the presence of the resulting silver nanoparticles within the thin films. Finally the coatings have been tested in bacterial cultures of genus Lactobacillus plantarum to observe their antibacterial properties. It has been experimentally demonstrated that these silver loaded organic-inorganic hybrid films have a very good antimicrobial behavior against this type of bacteria

Simultaneous measurement of humidity and temperature based on a partially coated optical fiber long period grating

A humidity and temperature optical fiber sensor based on a long-period grating (LPG), which can provide simultaneous response to both magnitudes, is proposed and demonstrated via experiments. Previously, the LPG was fully coated with humidity sensitive nanostructured polymeric thin films by the Layer-by-Layer (LbL) nano assembly technique. Hence the surrounding refractive index was changed, so provoking wavelength shifts of the attenuation bands of the transmission spectrum. This fully coated LPG was exposed to relative humidity (RH) and temperature tests, varying from 20% to 80% RH and from 25 to 85ºC, respectively. Then, half of the LPG coating was chemically removed and this results in the splitting of the main attenuation band into two different contributions. When this semi-coated LPG was also exposed to RH and temperature tests, the new two attenuation bands presented different behaviors for humidity and temperature. This novel dual-wavelength based sensing method enables the simultaneous measurement of RH and temperature using only one LPG.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness - through the projects CICYT-FEDER TEC2013-43679-R and TEC2014-60378-C2-1-R. It was also supported by a UPNA pre-doctoral research grant, by the Program of International Excellence Campus VLC/Campus, by the grant of program SANTIAGO GRISOLIA, and by the Research Excellency Award Program GVA PROMETEO 2013/012.Urrutia, A.; Goicoechea, J.; Ricchiuti, AL.; Barrera Vilar, D.; Sales Maicas, S.; Arregui, FJ. (2016). Simultaneous measurement of humidity and temperature based on a partially coated optical fiber long period grating. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical. 227(5):135-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2015.12.031S135141227