A Multiinstitutional Spanish Master’s Program in Ecosystem Restoration: Vision and Four-Year Experience

Since 2006, an innovative, multiinstitutional Spanish Master in Ecosystem Restoration (MER) is jointly offered by four major public universities in Madrid. In view of the high student demand—about 900 applications this academic year for only 30 places, a remarkable 75% rate of professional poststudy employment in a period of economic crisis, and the high number (> 40) of prestigious organizations involved in the program, we consider the MER program, although still young, to be very promising for the long term. We explain the process to create the MER and achieve the results obtained thus far. We describe its organization, report its vital statistics in terms of students, and identify some strengths and weaknesses observed to date. The MER program has evolved as a network of knowledge and experience that links universities, lecturers, researchers, students, private and public companies, NGOs, and administration centers. Our aim is to help other groups that may want to launch similar graduate-level ecological restoration degree programs

Femtosecond time-resolved phase-change microscopy and ablation threshold calculations to understand ultrafast laser ablation

El trabajo recoge experimentos realizados en una configuración sonda-prueba haciendo uso de un láser de femtosegundos, con el objetivo de comprender los fenómenos de ablación de materiales sólidos ras irradiación con láseres de pulso ultracorto.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Coordinating heterogeneous IoT devices by means of the centralized vision of the SDN controller

The IoT (Internet of Things) has become a reality during recent years. The desire of having everything connected to the Internet results in clearly identified benefits that will impact on socio economic development. However, the exponential growth in the number of IoT devices and their heterogeneity open new challenges that must be carefully studied. Coordination among devices to adapt them to their users' context usually requires high volumes of data to be exchanged with the cloud. In order to reduce unnecessary communications and network overhead, this paper proposes a novel network architecture based on the Software-Defined Networking paradigm that allows IoT devices coordinate and adapt them within the scope of a particular context.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A Wireless Sensor Network Deployment for Soil Moisture Monitoring in Precision Agriculture

[EN] The use of precision agriculture is becoming more and more necessary to provide food for the world's growing population, as well as to reduce environmental impact and enhance the usage of limited natural resources. One of the main drawbacks that hinder the use of precision agriculture is the cost of technological immersion in the sector. For farmers, it is necessary to provide low-cost and robust systems as well as reliability. Toward this end, this paper presents a wireless sensor network of low-cost sensor nodes for soil moisture that can help farmers optimize the irrigation processes in precision agriculture. Each wireless node is composed of four soil moisture sensors that are able to measure the moisture at different depths. Each sensor is composed of two coils wound onto a plastic pipe. The sensor operation is based on mutual induction between coils that allow monitoring the percentage of water content in the soil. Several prototypes with different features have been tested. The prototype that has offered better results has a winding ratio of 1:2 with 15 and 30 spires working at 93 kHz. We also have developed a specific communication protocol to improve the performance of the whole system. Finally, the wireless network was tested, in a real, cultivated plot of citrus trees, in terms of coverage and received signal strength indicator (RSSI) to check losses due to vegetation.This work has been partially supported by the European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) project ERANETMED3227 SMARTWATIR, by the "Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, en el marco del Plan Estatal de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica y de Innovacion 2017-2020" (Project code: PID2020-114467RR-C33) and by "proyectos de innovacion de interes general por grupos operativos de la Asociacion Europea para la Innovacion en materia de productividad y sostenibilidad agricolas (AEI-Agri)" in the framework "Programa Nacional de Desarrollo Rural 2014-2020", GO TECNOGAR. This work has also been partially funded by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through the post-doctoral PAID-10-20 program.Lloret, J.; Sendra, S.; García-García, L.; Jimenez, JM. (2021). A Wireless Sensor Network Deployment for Soil Moisture Monitoring in Precision Agriculture. Sensors. 21(21):1-24. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21217243124212

Low-cost vehicle driver assistance system for fatigue and distraction detection

In recent years, the automotive industry is equipping vehicles with sophisticated, and often, expensive systems for driving assistance. However, this vehicular technology is more focused on facilitating the driving and not in monitoring the driver. This paper presents a low-cost vehicle driver assistance system for monitoring the drivers activity that intends to prevent an accident. The system consists of 4 sensors that monitor physical parameters and driver position. From these values, the system generates a series of acoustic signals to alert the vehicle driver and avoiding an accident. Finally the system is tested to verify its proper operation.This work has been partially supported by the “Programa para la Formación de Personal Investigador–(FPI-2015-S2-884)” by the “Universitat Politècnica de València”.Sendra, S.; García-García, L.; Jimenez, JM.; Lloret, J. (2017). Low-cost vehicle driver assistance system for fatigue and distraction detection. En Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering. Springer Verlag. 69-78. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51207-5_7S6978Mapfre Foundation. (Online Article) Seguridad activa y pasiva. www.seguridadvialenlaempresa.com/seguridad-empresas/actualidad/noticias/seguridad-vial-activa-y-pasiva-2.jsp . Accessed 25 Aug 2016Dirección general de tráfico, Ministerio del Interior, Spanish Government. (Online Article) Las principales cifras de la siniestralidad vial. España 2014, p. 21 (2014). http://www.dgt.es/es/seguridad-vial/estadisticas-e-indicadores/publicaciones/ . Accessed 25 Aug 2016Fukuhara, H.: Vehicle collision alert system. US Patent 5355118 A, 11 Oct 1994Dirección general de tráfico, Ministerio del Interior, Spanish Government. (Online Article) Anuario estadístico de accidentes 2014, p. 10 (2014). http://www.dgt.es/es/seguridad-vial/estadisticas-e-indicadores/publicaciones/anuario-estadistico-general/ . Accessed 25 Aug 2016Dirección general de tráfico, Ministerio del Interior, Spanish Government. (Online Article) Otros factores de riesgo: La fatiga. http://www.dgt.es/PEVI/documentos/catalogo_recursos/didacticos/did_adultas/fatiga.pdf . Accessed 25 Aug 2016Seeing machines web page. https://www.seeingmachines.com/ . Accessed 25 Aug 2016Sigari, M.H., Pourshahabi, M.R., Soryani, M., Fathy, M.: A review on driver face monitoring systems for fatigue and distraction detection. Int. J. Adv. Sci. Technol. 64, 73–100 (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijast.2014.64.07Kutila, M., Jokela, M., Markkula, G., Romera Rue, M.: Driver distraction detection with a camera vision system. In: 14th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP 2007), San Antonio, TX, USA, 16–19 September 2007. doi: 10.1109/ICIP.2007.4379556Rezaei, M., Klette, R.: 3D cascade of classifiers for open and closed eye detection in driver distraction monitoring. In: Real, P., Diaz-Pernil, D., Molina-Abril, H., Berciano, A., Kropatsch, W. (eds.) CAIP 2011. LNCS, vol. 6855, pp. 171–179. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-23678-5_19Mbouna, R.O., Kong, S.G., Chun, M.G.: Visual analysis of eye state and head pose for driver alertness monitoring. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 14(3), 1462–1469 (2013). doi: 10.1109/TITS.2013.2262098Wahlstrom, E., Masoud, O., Papanikolopoulos, N.: Vision-based methods for driver monitoring. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 2, pp. 903–908 (2003)Cherrat, L., Ezziyyani, M., El Mouden, A., Hassar, M.: Security and surveillance system for drivers based on user profile and learning systems for face recognition. Netw. Protoc. Algorithms 7(1), 98–118 (2015). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/npa.v7i1.7151Dong, Y., Hu, Z., Uchimura, K., Murayama, N.: Driver inattention monitoring system for intelligent vehicles: a review. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 12(2), 596–614 (2011). doi: 10.1109/TITS.2010.2092770Force Sensitive Resistor features. http://www.trossenrobotics.com/productdocs/2010-10-26-DataSheet-FSR402-Layout2.pdf . Accessed 25 Aug 2016Louiza, M., Samira, M.: A new framework for request-driven data harvesting in vehicular sensor networks. Netw. Protoc. Algorithms 5(4), 1–18 (2013)Yao, H., Si, P., Yang, R., Zhang, Y.: Dynamic spectrum management with movement prediction in vehicular ad hoc networks. Ad Hoc Sens. Wirel. Netw. 32(1), 79–97 (2016

Integration and Operational Experience in CMS Monte Carlo Production in LCG

This note describes integration and operational aspects of the CMS Monte Carlo production in the LHC Computing Grid (LCG). In 2005 the McRunjob MC production system was ported to LCG-2 in order to make use of the distributed computing and storage resources available in LCG for CMS. The full production chain (generation, simulation, digitization with pile-up, reconstruction, injection in the data transfer system and publication for analysis) was implemented. Experience gained during the implementation and operation of the production system in LCG has been used to build ProdAgent, the new MC production system. ProdAgent takes also advantage of the new CMS event data model, event processing framework and data management services. Integration and operational experience with ProdAgent is also described in this note

Analysis of data fusion architectures and techniques in the development of an A-SMGCS Surveillance prototype

8 pages, 16 figures.-- Contributed to: 7th International Conference on Information Fusion (Stockholm, Sweden, Jun 28-Jul 1, 2004).The work presented here addresses a key aspect of the data fusion process carried out by A-SMGCS Surveillance, needed to take maximum advantage from the simultaneous use of diverse detection and measurement technologies with complementary characteristics. The core function, Surveillance, must collect and fuse information from available sensors and information systems. The accuracy, coverage and refreshment rate in all-weather conditions must be high enough to satisfy the requirements. In a real application, this function will be constrained to deal with the specifications of output sensor data, formats, accuracies, etc. for the available sensors in the airport. In this work, we present a comparative analysis of data fusion architectures and some alternative algorithms to develop a real system deployed in Spanish airports, analyzing the capabilities and problems of different types of solutions.This work has been funded by the Spanish CICYT contracts: TIC2002-04491-C01/02 and CAM (07T/0034/2003 1).Publicad

Flipped classroom based on objective structured clinical examinations analysis by undergraduate students of Pharmacology course from the Podiatry Degree improve their learning and assessment communication skills about medicines

Comunicación cartel con defensa oralWe aim to evaluate the impact of the individual and in-group analysis of OSCEs (filmed by other students) looking for correct and incorrect behaviours and contents in their learning of pharmacology. Summary of work and outcomes: A 5-year prospective study in which students of Pharmacology course from the Podiatry Degree analysed filmed OSCEs individually and in a group in a flipped classroom. Each group (max 5 students) analysed along 1 week a filmed OSCE, prepare a summary of correct and incorrect items related to clinical events, medicines uses, and people behaviours. The students presented their analysis results to the rest of the class. After each presentation, the other students of the class were encouraged to ask questions and after that, the students voluntarily answered a satisfaction survey. Result and Discussion: 405 students, 65.2% female, 20±5.3 years old were included. Students spend 13.4±5.4 h on making the filmed-OSCE analysis. The percentage of students satisfied with this way of studying pharmacology was 96.5%. OSCEs analysis by students increased their percentage of success in the final assessment in both OSCEs-related and OSCEs-non-related questions (+18.5% and +10.1%). Conclusion: Filmed Objective Structured Clinical Examinations analysis by undergraduate students on the Pharmacology course of Podiatry Degree improved their knowledge about medicines use and their communication skills during the assessment.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Nuevos datos sobre los acridoidea (Insecta: Orthoptera) del Pirineo y Prepirineo catalano-aragones

Hom presenta els resultats de les campanyes de recol•lecció realitzades el juliol de 1985 i 1986 a les zones pirenenca i pre-pirenenca de Girona, Osca i Lleida, que constitueixen la primera aportació al coneixement de l'acridofauna de la zona. Hom cita per segona vegada Omocestus antigai i 0. navasi.New data on the distribution of Acridoidea in Pyrenean and prepyrenean zones of Gerona, Huesca and Lerida provinces are presented. The material has been collected along july 1985 and july 1986. This paper is the first summarized work on acridological faune for the studied area. The presence of Omocestus antigai and 0. navasi is confirmed.Se presentan los resultados de las campanas acridológicas realizadas en julio de 1985 y 1986 en las zonas pirenaica y prepirenaica de las provincias de Gerona, Huesca y Lerida. Estos resultados constituyen la primera aportación de conjunto para el conocimiento de la acridofauna de la zona considerada. Se dan las segundas citas conocidas de las especies Omocestus antigai y 0. navasi

Prilog istraživanju promjena na škrgama zebrice (Danio rerio) prilikom izloženosti dioksinu

This study determined cell changes in the gills of zebrafish (Danio rerio, Hamilton, 1822) as a result of a dietary supply of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). 50 zebrafish were divided into five groups, one control group and four experimental ones. The experimental groups were supplied 10, 40, 100 and 270 ng/day/fish TCDD, respectively. Structural, ultrastructural and morphometric studies of the fish gill were carried out, indicating that, in low concentrations, fish gills presented hyperemia with progressive erosion of the endothelium of the capillaries resulting in edema and microhaemorrhages. In the non-respiratory gill, in those groups with low concentrations, it could be observed that the chloride cells presented hypertrophy as a result of dilatation of the intracellular canal and swelling of the microvilli, losing their activity in the degradation of chemical substances (according to some authors) in those groups with a higher concentration. Mucous cells presented hyperplasia and hypertrophy. The sensory buds were not directly affected, but, due to the presence of interstitial edema, swelling of the supporting cells occurred without the involvement of the neurosensory cells. We concluded that dioxins affect the gills to a greater or lesser extent depending on their concentration in the fish’s diet, which alters their functionality.Ovim istraživanjem utvrđene su promjene na stanicama škrga zebrice (Danio rerio, Hamilton, 1822) kao rezultat hranjena 2,3,7,8 tetraklorodibenzo p-dioksinom (TCDD). Pedeset jedinki zebrice podijeljeno je u pet grupa, jednu kontrolnu grupu i četiri eksperimentalne. Eksperimentalnim grupama davano je 10, 40, 100 i 270 ng/riba/dan TCDD. Provedena su strukturalna, ultrastrukturalna i morfološka istraživanja škrga ribe, ukazujući da su škrge riba pokazivale hiperemiju s progresivnom erozijom endotel kapilara koja je rezultirala edemima i mikrokrvarenjima. Kod grupa kojima je dana manja koncentracija, u škrgama koje ne služe za disanje može se primijetiti da kloridne stanice pokazuju hipertrofiju kao posljedicu dilatacije međustaničnog kanala i oticanje mikroresica kojima se smanjuje aktivnost tijekom razgradnje kemijskih tvari (prema mišljenjima nekih autora) u onim grupama koje su bile izložene većim koncentracijama. Mukozne stanice pokazuju hiperplaziju i hipertrofiju. Osjetni pupoljci nisu bili izravno pogođeni, ali, zbog prisutnosti intersticijskog edema, oticanja potpornih stanica bez uključivanja neurosenzornih stanica. Zaključak je da dioksini utječu na škrge u većoj ili manjoj mjeri ovisno o njihovoj koncentraciji u ishrani ribe, što mijenja njihovu funkcionalnost