Energy-efficient Internet of Things monitoring with low-capacity devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) allows users to gather data from the physical environment. While sensors in public spaces are already widely used, users are reluctant to deploy sensors for shared data at their homes. The deployment of IoT nodes at the users premises presents privacy issues regarding who can access to their data once it is sent to the Cloud which the users cannot control. In this paper we present an energy-efficient and low cost solution for environmental monitoring at the users home. Our system is built completely with open source components and is easy to reproduce. We leverage the infrastructure and trust of a community network to store and control the access to the monitored data. We tested our solution during several months on different low-capacity single board computers (SBC) and it showed to be stable. Our results suggest that this solution could become a permanently running service in SBCs at the users homes.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Energy return on investment of major energy carriers: Review and harmonization

Net energy, that is, the energy remaining after accounting for the energy “cost” of extraction and processing, is the “profit” energy used to support modern society. Energy Return on Investment (EROI) is a popular metric to assess the profitability of energy extraction processes, with EROI > 1 indicating that more energy is delivered to society than is used in the extraction process. Over the past decade, EROI analysis in particular has grown in popularity, resulting in an increase in publications in recent years. The lack of methodological consistency, however, among these papers has led to a situation where inappropriate comparisons are being made across technologies. In this paper we provide both a literature review and harmonization of EROI values to provide accurate comparisons of EROIs across both thermal fuels and electricity producing technologies. Most importantly, the authors advocate for the use of point-of-use EROIs rather than point-of-extraction EROIs as the energy “cost” of the processes to get most thermal fuels from extraction to point of use drastically lowers their EROI. The main results indicate that PV, wind and hydropower have EROIs at or above ten while the EROIs for thermal fuels vary significantly, with that for petroleum oil notably below ten

Eduardo Pondal. Rumores de los pinos. Gravado á fotoaugaforte

Proyecto de investigación desarrollado por José Fuentes Esteve en torno al fotoaguafuerte sobre cobre

The evolution of the ventilatory ratio is a prognostic factor in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 ARDS patients

Background: Mortality due to COVID-19 is high, especially in patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The purpose of the study is to investigate associations between mortality and variables measured during the first three days of mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19 intubated at ICU admission. Methods: Multicenter, observational, cohort study includes consecutive patients with COVID-19 admitted to 44 Spanish ICUs between February 25 and July 31, 2020, who required intubation at ICU admission and mechanical ventilation for more than three days. We collected demographic and clinical data prior to admission; information about clinical evolution at days 1 and 3 of mechanical ventilation; and outcomes. Results: Of the 2,095 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the ICU, 1,118 (53.3%) were intubated at day 1 and remained under mechanical ventilation at day three. From days 1 to 3, PaO2/FiO2 increased from 115.6 [80.0-171.2] to 180.0 [135.4-227.9] mmHg and the ventilatory ratio from 1.73 [1.33-2.25] to 1.96 [1.61-2.40]. In-hospital mortality was 38.7%. A higher increase between ICU admission and day 3 in the ventilatory ratio (OR 1.04 [CI 1.01-1.07], p = 0.030) and creatinine levels (OR 1.05 [CI 1.01-1.09], p = 0.005) and a lower increase in platelet counts (OR 0.96 [CI 0.93-1.00], p = 0.037) were independently associated with a higher risk of death. No association between mortality and the PaO2/FiO2 variation was observed (OR 0.99 [CI 0.95 to 1.02], p = 0.47). Conclusions: Higher ventilatory ratio and its increase at day 3 is associated with mortality in patients with COVID-19 receiving mechanical ventilation at ICU admission. No association was found in the PaO2/FiO2 variation

Integración de una red de sensores inalámbricos a un sistema de instrumentación convencional de reactores nucleares de investigación.

En los últimos años ha existido un importante desarrollo de una nueva clase de elementos, conocidos como nodos sensores o Motas. Estos integran detección, comunicación por radio de corto alcance y capacidad de procesamiento, brindando nueva potencialidad al monitoreo de variables ambientales con un bajo costo. Estos nodos pueden formar parte de una Red de Sensores inalámbricos, en ingles Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). Al formar parte de una WSN son atractivos para sistemas de monitoreo ambientales tanto dentro de un Reactor Nuclear de Investigación como en los alrededores de los mismos. Al tener la WSN montada, esta puede integrarse a un sistema de instrumentacion convencional a través de protocolos industriales de conectividad abierta como OPC. Estos permiten interactuar con equipos de diferentes proveedores intercambiando información de manera homogénea con vistas a permitir una mayor facilidad de sensado. El objetivo de tener la WSN midiendo parámetros ambientales es, por un lado, ofrecer un sistema soporte de medición en sala de control para los operadores del reactor. Por otro lado para tener la información accesible desde cualquier computadora a través de la web para ser mostrada a la población de ser solicitado. Se ha desarrollado un prototipo de WSN montado en instalaciones del reactor de Investigacion RA-6 haciendo medición de un subconjunto de variables ambientales que puede ser usado como alimentador de mediciones. La medición de parámetros como radiación y depresión en el edificio del reactor son importantes para su operación. Otra gran parte de este trabajo se basa en el desarrollo de un sensor de radiación basado en tubos Geiger-Muller (GM) integrados a una Mota. Este dispositivo polariza al GM con alta tensión pero es de bajo consumo alimentado con pilas siendo propicio para las WSN. Otro trabajo importante fue la programación para un pre procesamiento interesante a la hora de un mantenimiento predictivo midiendo vibraciones. También se trabajo con otros tipos de sensores para medir presión, temperatura, humedad y luz. Para analizar el trabajo se muestran pasos a seguir para la implementación de una WSN en instalaciones nucleares. Ademas cuidados a tener en cuenta en consideración a interferencia, confiabilidad y seguridad. También se muestran casos exitosos de despliegue de WSN en Reactores Nucleares de Potencia. Este trabajo es la continuación de la Tesis de la carrera de Especialización en Aplicaciones Tecnológicas de la Energía Nuclear (CEATEN) realizada en 2010 con beca otorgada por la UBA. Ademas este trabajo es el complemento de la beca de perfeccionamiento tipo A1 otorgada por la CNEA desde 2011

Comparing Apples to Apples: Why the Net Energy Analysis Community Needs to Adopt the Life-Cycle Analysis Framework

How do we know which energy technologies or resources are worth pursuing and which aren’t? One way to answer that question is to compare the energy return of a certain technology—i.e., how much energy is remaining after accounting for the amount of energy expended in the production and delivery process. Such energy return ratios (the most famous of which is energy return on investment (EROI)) fall within the field of net energy analysis (NEA), and provide an easy way to determine which technology is “better”; i.e., higher Energy Return Ratios (ERRs) are, certeris paribus, better than lower ERRs. Although useful as a broad measure of energy profitability, comparisons can also be misleading, particularly if the units being compared are different. For example, the energy content of electricity produced from a photovoltaic cell is different than the energy content of coal at the mine-mouth, yet these are often compared directly within the literature. These types of inconsistencies are common within the NEA literature. In this paper, we offer life cycle assessment (LCA) and the LCA methodology as a possible solution to the persistent methodological issues within the NEA community, and urge all NEA practitioners to adopt this methodology in the future

Disease Risk & Landscape Attributes of Tick-Borne Borrelia Pathogens in the San Francisco Bay Area, California

Habitat heterogeneity influences pathogen ecology by affecting vector abundance and the reservoir host communities. We investigated spatial patterns of disease risk for two human pathogens in the Borrelia genus–B. burgdorferi and B. miyamotoi–that are transmitted by the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus. We collected ticks (349 nymphs, 273 adults) at 20 sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA. Tick abundance, pathogen prevalence and density of infected nymphs varied widely across sites and habitat type, though nymphal western black-legged ticks were more frequently found, and were more abundant in coast live oak forest and desert/semi-desert scrub (dominated by California sagebrush) habitats. We observed Borrelia infections in ticks at all sites where we able to collect >10 ticks. The recently recognized human pathogen, B. miyamotoi, was observed at a higher prevalence (13/349 nymphs = 3.7%, 95% CI = 2.0–6.3; 5/273 adults = 1.8%, 95% CI = 0.6–4.2) than recent studies from nearby locations (Alameda County, east of the San Francisco Bay), demonstrating that tick-borne disease risk and ecology can vary substantially at small geographic scales, with consequences for public health and disease diagnosis

F.: Description-Driven Generation of 3D Humanoids within Authoring 744

This paper presents a new trend within the Authoring744 research initiative: the creation of 3D humanoids. Authoring744 proposes the creation of content using descriptions that drive content synthesis. Here we present the first steps towards the generation of 3D humanoids and their future animation within the Authoring744 framework, which proposes to use the MPEG-7 and MPEG-4 standards for, respectively, semantically describing and representing content. One of the main objectives is the creation of more intuitive and easier to use 3D content authoring tools.

Energy-efficient Internet of Things monitoring with low-capacity devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) allows users to gather data from the physical environment. While sensors in public spaces are already widely used, users are reluctant to deploy sensors for shared data at their homes. The deployment of IoT nodes at the users premises presents privacy issues regarding who can access to their data once it is sent to the Cloud which the users cannot control. In this paper we present an energy-efficient and low cost solution for environmental monitoring at the users home. Our system is built completely with open source components and is easy to reproduce. We leverage the infrastructure and trust of a community network to store and control the access to the monitored data. We tested our solution during several months on different low-capacity single board computers (SBC) and it showed to be stable. Our results suggest that this solution could become a permanently running service in SBCs at the users homes.Peer Reviewe