Developing a Secure Low-Cost Radon Monitoring System

[Abstract] Radon gas has been declared a human carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Several studies carried out in Spain highlighted the high radon concentrations in several regions, with Galicia (northwestern Spain) being one of the regions with the highest radon concentrations. The objective of this work was to create a safe and low-cost radon monitoring and alert system, based on open source technologies. To achieve this objective, the system uses devices, a collection of sensors with a processing unit and a communication module, and a backend, responsible for managing all the information, predicting radon levels and issuing alerts using open source technologies. Security is one of the largest challenges for the internet of things, and it is utterly important in the current scenario, given that high radon concentrations pose a health risk. For this reason, this work focuses on securing the entire end-to-end communication path to avoid data forging. The results of this work indicate that the development of a low-cost, yet secured, radon monitoring system is feasible, allowing one to create a network of sensors that can help mitigate the health hazards that high radon concentrations pose.This project was funded by the Consolidation and Structuring of Competitive Research Units-Competitive Reference Groups (ED431C 2018/49) and Accreditation, Structuring, and Improvement of Consolidated Research Units and Singular Centers (ED431G/01), funded by the Ministry of Education, University and Vocational Training of the Xunta de Galicia endowed with EU FEDER funds. This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, R & D National Plan, via the project BIA2017-86738-R. This research and the APC were also supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, grant number PI17/01826 (Collaborative Project in Genomic Data Integration (CICLOGEN) funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III from the Spanish National plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013–2016 and the European Regional Development Funds (FEDER)—“A way to build Europe.”. This project was also supported by the General Directorate of Culture, Education and University Management of Xunta de Galicia ED431D 2017/16 and “Drug Discovery Galician Network” Ref. ED431G/01 and the “Galician Network for Colorectal Cancer Research” (Ref. ED431D 2017/23), and finally by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the funding of the unique installation BIOCAI (UNLC08-1E-002, UNLC13-13-3503) and the European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) by the European UnionXunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/49Xunta de Galicia; ED431D 2017/16Xunta de Galicia; ED431D 2017/2

Obtendo información útil para a mellora dunha materia a partir dos resultados dos exames de resposta múltiple

[Resumo] Os procesos de avaliación, deben aplicarse ós docentes e mesmo á materia en si, non só ós alumnos. Con esta finalidade formúlase unha análise dos resultados acadados polo alumnado durante a proba de avaliación empregada na materia de Marcos de Desenvolvemento (Grao en Enxeñaría Informática – Facultade de Informática). O exame é de resposta múltiple (4 opcións por pregunta, só unha válida e restando puntos as respostas erróneas). Os exames analízanse en dúas ramas: por unha banda, estúdanse as taxas de acerto/fallo/en branco de cada unha das preguntas; por outra, a porcentaxe de opcións (a,b,c,d, branco) en cada pregunta. Este sinxelo estudo, automatizado mediante o emprego dunha folla de cálculo, permite, non obstante, obter interesantes conclusións: • Detecta ambigüidades ou erros na formulación das preguntas que, polo xeral, se derivan nunha elevada porcentaxe de respostas en branco. • Detecta lagoas de coñecemento nalgunha das áreas da materia, que orixinan preguntas cunha elevada taxa de erros. Cada pregunta está asociada a un bloque teórico, polo que se podes establecer en qué aspectos os alumnos presentan máis ou menos coñecementos. Ambos aspectos poden ser empregados para detectar erros na formulación da materia e/ou exame e facer posible así a definición de plans de mellora de cara ós vindeiros cursos académicos

Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis Image Registration Using Block-Matching Techniques and Deformation Models

[Abstract] Block-matching techniques have been widely used in the task of estimating displacement in medical images, and they represent the best approach in scenes with deformable structures such as tissues, fluids, and gels. In this article, a new iterative block-matching technique—based on successive deformation, search, fitting, filtering, and interpolation stages—is proposed to measure elastic displacements in two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D–PAGE) images. The proposed technique uses different deformation models in the task of correlating proteins in real 2D electrophoresis gel images, obtaining an accuracy of 96.6% and improving the results obtained with other techniques. This technique represents a general solution, being easy to adapt to different 2D deformable cases and providing an experimental reference for block-matching algorithms.Galicia. Consellería de Economía e Industria; 10MDS014CTGalicia. Consellería de Economía e Industria; 10SIN105004PRInstituto de Salud Carlos III; PI13/0028

Interspecific acoustic recognition in two European bat communities

Echolocating bats emit echolocation calls for spatial orientation and foraging. These calls are often species-specific and are emitted at high intensity and repetition rate. Therefore, these calls could potentially function in intra- and/or inter-specific bat communication. For example, bats in the field approach playbacks of conspecific feeding buzzes, probably because feeding buzzes indicate an available foraging patch. In captivity, some species of bats recognize and distinguish the echolocation calls of different sympatric species. However, it is still unknown if and how acoustic species-recognition mediates interspecific interactions in the field. Here we aim to understand eavesdropping on bat echolocation calls within and across species boundaries in wild bats. We presented playbacks of conspecific and heterospecific search calls and feeding buzzes to four bat species with different foraging ecologies. The bats were generally more attracted by feeding buzzes than search calls and more by the calls of conspecifics than their heterospecifics. Furthermore, bats showed differential reaction to the calls of the heterospecifics. In particular, Myotis capaccinii reacted equally to the feeding buzzes of conspecifics and to ecologically more similar heterospecifics. Our results confirm eavesdropping on feeding buzzes at the intraspecific level in wild bats and provide the first experimental quantification of potential eavesdropping in European bats at the interspecific level. Our data support the hypothesis that bat echolocation calls have a communicative potential that allows interspecific, and potentially intraspecific, eavesdropping in the wild

Approach of Genetic Algorithms With Grouping Into Species Optimized With Predator-Prey Method for Solving Multimodal Problems

[Abstract] Over recent years, Genetic Algorithms have proven to be an appropriate tool for solving certain problems. However, it does not matter if the search space has several valid solutions, as their classic approach is insufficient. To this end, the idea of dividing the individuals into species has been successfully raised. However, this solution is not free of drawbacks, such as the emergence of redundant species, overlapping or performance degradation by significantly increasing the number of individuals to be evaluated. This paper presents the implementation of a method based on the predator-prey technique, with the aim of providing a solution to the problem, as well as a number of examples to prove its effectiveness

SGI como instrumento complementar na avaliação do impacto ambiental da agricultura.

Divulga a metodologia, desenvolvida pelo Núcleo, de caracterização e avaliação do impacto ambiental da agricultura, baseada no uso de SGI. O projeto foi executado sobre conjuntos de pequenas propriedades com diferentes sistemas de produção. Na escala municipal articulou espacialmente, via SGI, o uso das terras e os coeficientes técnicos dos sistemas de produção aferentes. Foram geradas 32 cartas de impacto ambiental da atividade agrícola, por recursos e insumos

Machine Learning-Based Radon Monitoring System

[Abstract] Radon (Rn) is a biological threat to cells due to its radioactivity. It is capable of penetrating the human body and damaging cellular DNA, causing mutations and interfering with cellular dynamics. Human exposure to high concentrations of Rn should, therefore, be minimized. The concentration of radon in a room depends on numerous factors, such as room temperature, humidity level, existence of air currents, natural grounds of the buildings, building structure, etc. It is not always possible to change these factors. In this paper we propose a corrective measure for reducing indoor radon concentrations by introducing clean air into the room through forced ventilation. This cannot be maintained continuously because it generates excessive noise (and costs). Therefore, a system for predicting radon concentrations based on Machine Learning has been developed. Its output activates the fan control system when certain thresholds are reached.This work is supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, grant number PI17/01826 Collaborative Project in Genomic Data Integration (CICLOGEN) funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III from the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013–2016 and the European Regional Development Funds (FEDER)— “A way to build Europe.” This project was also supported by the General Directorate of Culture, Education and University Management of the Xunta de Galicia ED431D 2017/16, the “Drug Discovery Galician Network” Ref. ED431G/01, and the “Galician Network for Colorectal Cancer Research” (Ref. ED431D 2017/23). This work was also funded by the grant for the consolidation and structuring of competitive research units (ED431C 2018/49) from the General Directorate of Culture, Education and University Management of the Xunta de Galicia, and the CYTED network (PCI2018 093284) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science. This project was also supported by the General Directorate of Culture, Education and University Management of the Xunta de Galicia “PRACTICUM DIRECT” Ref. IN845D-2020/03Xunta de Galicia; ED431D 2017/16Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Xunta de Galicia; ED431D 2017/23Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2018/49Xunta de Galicia; IN845D-2020/0