183 research outputs found
Smart and Portable Air-Quality Monitoring IoT Low-Cost Devices in Ibarra City, Ecuador
Nowadays, increasing air-pollution levels are a public health concern that affects all living
beings, with the most polluting gases being present in urban environments. For this reason, this
research presents portable Internet of Things (IoT) environmental monitoring devices that can be
installed in vehicles and that send message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) messages to a server,
with a time series database allocated in edge computing. The visualization stage is performed in
cloud computing to determine the city air-pollution concentration using three different labels: low,
normal, and high. To determine the environmental conditions in Ibarra, Ecuador, a data analysis
scheme is used with outlier detection and supervised classification stages. In terms of relevant results,
the performance percentage of the IoT nodes used to infer air quality was greater than 90%. In
addition, the memory consumption was 14 Kbytes in a flash and 3 Kbytes in a RAM, reducing the
power consumption and bandwidth needed in traditional air-pollution measuring stations.Novo Nordisk Foundation NNF20OC0064411Corporacion Ecuatoriana para el Desarrollo de la Investigacion y la Academia (CEDIA), Ecuador CEPRA XII-2018-13Universidad de Las Americas (UDLA), Quito, Ecuador IEA.WHP.21.0
Psychometric properties of the Brief-COPE for the evaluation of coping strategies in the Chilean population
The Brief-COPE is an abbreviated version of the COPE (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced) Inventory, a self-report questionnaire developed to assess a broad range of coping responses. Currently, it is one of the best validated and most frequently used measures of coping strategies. The aim of this study was to validate a culturally appropriate Chilean version of the Brief-COPE, assess its psychometric properties and construct and congruent validity. The Spanish version of the Brief-COPE was administrated in a community sample of 1847 Chilean adult (60.4% women) exposed to a variety of stressful experiences. The factorial structure of the inventory was examined by comparing four different models found in previous studies in Latin American population. The results of confirmatory factor analyses revealed, as in the original studies, a 14-factor structure of the Brief-COPE. These dimensions showed adequate internal structure and consistency. The factorial invariance comparing women and men confirmed strict invariance. Additionally, the results showed significant correlation between some Brief-COPE scales, such as denial and substance use, with perceived stress and emotional support and active coping with subjective well-being. Overall, the present work offers a valid and reliable tool for assessing coping strategies in the Chilean population.This study was funded by CONICYT/FONDECYT (grant number 1180134) awarded to Felipe E. Garcia
Mesohabitat Associations Of The Devil Tryonia, Tryonia Diaboli (Gastropoda: Truncatelloidea: Cochliopidae)
The Cochliopidae of Texas include both stygobitic species, those that occupy only underground habitats, and epigean species, those living only in aboveground habitats. The devil tryonia, Tryonia diaboli, was described from the Devils River of Texas from river wrack, without additional habitat information. This species has been largely ignored since its description, so details of its habitat and ecology are obscure. In Dolan Springs and Finegan Springs, flowing into the Devils River, we sampled macroinvertebrates at five sites that form a gradient from the aquifer to the mainstem Devils River. We found the highest abundances of T. diaboli in aquifer samples, decreasing sharply downstream from the spring orifice. Our findings indicate that T. diaboli is stygophilic, occupying a transitional area including the aquifer as well as aboveground portions of springs
Ultra-pure digital sideband separation at sub-millimeter wavelengths
Deep spectral-line surveys in the mm and sub-mm range can detect thousands of
lines per band uncovering the rich chemistry of molecular clouds, star forming
regions and circumstellar envelopes, among others objects. The ability to study
the faintest features of spectroscopic observation is, nevertheless, limited by
a number of factors. The most important are the source complexity (line
density), limited spectral resolution and insufficient sideband (image)
rejection (SRR). Dual Sideband (2SB) millimeter receivers separate upper and
lower sideband rejecting the unwanted image by about 15 dB, but they are
difficult to build and, until now, only feasible up to about 500 GHz
(equivalent to ALMA Band 8). For example ALMA Bands 9 (602-720 GHz) and 10
(787-950 GHz) are currently DSB receivers. Aims: This article reports the
implementation of an ALMA Band 9 2SB prototype receiver that makes use of a new
technique called calibrated digital sideband separation. The new method
promises to ease the manufacturing of 2SB receivers, dramatically increase
sideband rejection and allow 2SB instruments at the high frequencies currently
covered only by Double Sideband (DSB) or bolometric detectors. Methods: We made
use of a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and fast Analog to Digital
Converters (ADCs) to measure and calibrate the receiver's front end phase and
amplitude imbalances to achieve sideband separation beyond the possibilities of
purely analog receivers. The technique could in principle allow the operation
of 2SB receivers even when only imbalanced front ends can be built,
particularly at very high frequencies. Results: This digital 2SB receiver shows
an average sideband rejection of 45.9 dB while small portions of the band drop
below 40 dB. The performance is 27 dB (a factor of 500) better than the average
performance of the proof-of-concept Band 9 purely-analog 2SB prototype
receiver.Comment: 5 page
The impact of a change on the size of the smoke compartment in the evacuation of health care facilities
Evacuation in health-care facilities is complex due to the physical impairment of the patients. This kind of evacuation usually requires the assistance of the workforce members. A proposed change of NFPA 101, Life Safety Code, would increase the maximum allowable size of a smoke compartment (a space within the building enclosed by smoke barriers on all sides that restricts the movement of smoke) in health-care occupancies from 2090 m2 to 3700 m2, almost double the size. This study aims to analyse the impact of this change in the required time for evacuating patients during a fire in order to understand the consequences of that potential change. This paper is focused on the area where the patient?s rooms are located. The evacuation scenario is a floor plan comprised of four smoke compartments. To analyse the proposed change, the smoke barriers between two adjacent compartments were removed in a floor plan and three ratios of number of patients per one staff member were considered (4:1, 3:1 and 2:1). A computational methodology was conducted to calibrate the model STEPS for simulating assisted evacuation processes. In addition, Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) was used to simulate the fire and smoke spread in a table and a PC to compare fire and evacuation results The evacuation results show that the change of the smoke compartment size increases the mean evacuation time by 23%; however, the fire results show that the available safe egress time is 16 min for both smaller and large smoke compartment. The ratio of the number of patients per staff member is also a strong factor that increases the evacuation up to 82% when comparing the ratios of 2 patients per staff member and 4 patients per staff member
Range extension to Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas province and revised distribution of Platyrrhinus chocoensis (Phyllostomidae: Chiroptera) in western Ecuador
We report the first record of the Choco broad-nosed bat (Plathyrrhinus chocoensis Alberico & Velazco, 1991) in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas province in northwestern Ecuador. This voucher specimen represents the southernmost record of the species and expands its distribution ca. 120 km south. The animal was caught at a farm, specifically in a live fence consisting of several tree species. Preservation of bat species occurring in agricultural landscapes requires local policies and environmental education
Dynamics of Weyl Scale Invariant non-BPS p=3 Branes
In this paper a Weyl scale invariant brane scenario is introduced, with
the brane embedded in a higher dimensional bulk space with
Super--Weyl symmetry. Its action, which describes its long wave oscillation
modes into the ambient superspace and breaks the target symmetry down to the
lower dimensional Weyl W(1,3) symmetry, is constructed by the approach of coset
method.Comment: 12 pages, modified versio
Nonlinear Realization of N=2 Superconformal Symmetry and Brane Effective Actions
Due to the incompatibility of the nonlinear realization of superconformal
symmetry and dilatation symmetry with the dilaton as the compensator field, in
the present paper it shows an alternative mechanism of spontaneous breaking the
N=2 superconformal symmetry to the N=0 case. By using the approach of nonlinear
transformations it is found that it leads to a space-filling brane theory with
Weyl scale W(1,3) symmetry. The dynamics of the resulting Weyl scale invariant
brane, along with that of other Nambu-Goldstone fields, is derived in terms of
the building blocks of the vierbein and the covariant derivative from the
Maurer-Cartan oneforms. A general coupling of the matter fields localized on
the brane world volume to these NG fields is also constructed.Comment: 22 pages, more references and comments are adde
Targeting IRE1 with small molecules counteracts progression of atherosclerosis
Metaflammation, an atypical, metabolically induced, chronic lowgrade inflammation, plays an important role in the development of obesity, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. An important primer for metaflammation is the persistent metabolic overloading of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), leading to its functional impairment. Activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR), a homeostatic regulatory network that responds to ER stress, is a hallmark of all stages of atherosclerotic plaque formation. The most conserved ERresident UPR regulator, the kinase/endoribonuclease inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1), is activated in lipid-laden macrophages that infiltrate the atherosclerotic lesions. Using RNA sequencing in macrophages, we discovered that IRE1 regulates the expression of many proatherogenic genes, including several important cytokines and chemokines. We show that IRE1 inhibitors uncouple lipid-induced ER stress from inflammasome activation in both mouse and human macrophages. In vivo, these IRE1 inhibitors led to a significant decrease in hyperlipidemia-induced IL-1β and IL-18 production, lowered T-helper type-1 immune responses, and reduced atherosclerotic plaque size without altering the plasma lipid profiles in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. These results show that pharmacologic modulation of IRE1 counteracts metaflammation and alleviates atherosclerosis
Thermography as a method of acquiring competences in Physiology. Application case for hand blood flow control
5 p.The present work proposes a methodological structure as part of the learning of the circulatory system. For this, the application of thermal stress is used, by immersing the hands in cold water to visualize the reperfusion of the hands. Learning, based on the visualization and analysis of thermographic images, allows the acquisition of specific competences at the university level. In graduate studies such as physiotherapy and nursing, the use of virtual tools and materials that allow the acquisition of skills and technical knowledge is essential for the job performance of future professionals. The application of this methodology is proposed in practical sessions of subjects in the area of knowledge of Physiology, to demonstrate and facilitate the understanding of the circulatory system. This approach is framed within the discipline of virtual laboratories since the virtual materials generated can be used for the acquisition of skills and practical competencies, as well as for the evaluation of competencies in e-learning courses. In this way, by recording a pedagogical video that shows a short practice, 5 minutes long, it is possible to establish the necessary knowledge bases to expand them later. This material is easily implementable in any learning management system.S
- …