Phisically based modelling of induction lamps: aplication to the improvement of energy efficiency in the lighting system of a University building. Poster

To manage efforts in energy efficiency, the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) decided in 2003 to develop an ambitious project to reduce energy use intensity and costs during the period 2003-2008. To accomplish this objective in lighting end-use demand -one of the two main electrical uses together with space cooling/heating-, the UPCT joins, in July 2002, the U.E. GreenLight program as a partner. This paper describes the University experience in the second year (2003/04) of partnership in this UE initiative. The objectives were: to manage the demand, to improve the quality of lighting, working and environmental conditions, and reduce significantly energy and O&M expenses. Basically, the work developed in this year is focused in the change of conventional High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting systems in classrooms (2000 m2) through the evaluation of advantages and drawbacks of different alternatives. The most promising one, the change to a new technology -165W induction lamps-, will be analyzed in detail in the paper

Tutor-Dis: software to improve workplace adaptation for people with cognitive disabilities

[EN] The adaptation to the working environment is one of the main problems that make difficult the labor integration of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nevertheless, success stories tell that, with proper support and aids, these workers are able to perform their tasks optimally. Keeping this goal in mind, IBV and AFEM have developed TUTOR-DIS, a software tool for mobile devices that can contribute to the improvement of learning, time management, communication and, in short, the autonomy of people with intellectual disabilities in working environments.[ES] La adaptación al puesto de trabajo es uno de los principales problemas que dificultan la integración laboral de muchas personas con discapacidad intelectual y del desarrollo. La experiencia, sin embargo, demuestra que con los apoyos adecuados muchos de estos trabajadores son capaces de realizar sus tareas de manera óptima. Con este objetivo, el Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV) y la Asociación FEAPS para el empleo (AFEM) han desarrollado TUTOR- DIS, una herramienta informática para dispositivos móviles que puede contribuir a favorecer el aprendizaje, la gestión del tiempo, la comunicación y, en definitiva, la autonomía de las personas con discapacidad intelectual en el ámbito laboral.Proyecto (TSI-040500-2010-35) financiado por el Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo a través del subprograma Avanza Ciudadanía Digital en el marco del Plan Avanza.Ferreras Remesal, A.; Belda Lois, JM.; Vivas Vivas, JA.; Mena Del Horno, S.; Pizarro Gutierrez, C.; García Gabaldón, N.; Oltra Pastor, A.... (2013). TUTOR-DIS: Software para mejorar la adaptación de trabajadores con discapacidad intelectual. Revista de biomecánica. (60):39-42. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/38526S39426

Development and validation of a clinical score to estimate progression to severe or critical state in Covid-19 pneumonia hospitalized patients

The prognosis of a patient with Covid-19 pneumonia is uncertain. Our objective was to establish a predictive model of disease progression to facilitate early decision-making. A retrospective study was performed of patients admitted with Covid-19 pneumonia, classified as severe (admission to the intensive care unit, mechanic invasive ventilation, or death) or non-severe. A predictive model based on clinical, analytical, and radiological parameters was built. The probability of progression to severe disease was estimated by logistic regression analysis. Calibration and discrimination (receiver operating characteristics curves and AUC) were assessed to determine model performance. During the study period 1,152 patients presented with Covid-19 infection, of whom 229 (19.9%) were admitted for pneumonia. During hospitalization, 51 (22.3%) progressed to severe disease, of whom 26 required ICU care (11.4); 17 (7.4%) underwent invasive mechanical ventilation, and 32 (14%) died of any cause. Five predictors determined within 24 hours of admission were identified: Diabetes, Age, Lymphocyte count, SaO2, and pH (DALSH score). The prediction model showed a good clinical performance, including discrimination (AUC 0.87 CI 0.81, 0.92) and calibration (Brier score = 0.11). In total, 0%, 12%, and 50% of patients with severity risk scores ≤5%, 6-25%, and >25% exhibited disease progression, respectively. A simple risk score based on five factors predicts disease progression and facilitates early decision-making according to prognosis.Carlos III Health Institute, Spain, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SPAIN) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)Instituto de Salud Carlos II

Characterization and identification of electrical customers through the use of self-organizing maps and daily load parameters

This paper shows the capacity of modern computational techniques such as the self-organizing map (SOM) as a methodology to achieve the classification of the electrical customers in a commercial or geographical area. This approach allows to extract the pattern of customer behavior from historic load demand series. Several ways of data analysis from load curves can be used to get different input data to “feed” the neural network. In this work, we propose two methods to improve customer clustering: the use of frequency-based indices and the use of the hourly load curve. Results of a case study developed on a set of different spanish customers and a comparison between the two approachs proposed here are presented

Phisically based modelling of induction lamps: aplication to the improvement of energy efficiency in the lighting system of a University building

To manage efforts in energy efficiency, the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) decided in 2003 to develop an ambitious project to reduce energy use intensity and costs during the period 2003-2008. To accomplish this objective in lighting end-use demand -one of the two main electrical uses together with space cooling/heating-, the UPCT joins, in July 2002, the U.E. GreenLight program as a partner. This paper describes the University experience in the second year (2003/04) of partnership in this UE initiative. The objectives were: to manage the demand, to improve the quality of lighting, working and environmental conditions, and reduce significantly energy and O&M expenses. Basically, the work developed in this year is focused in the change of conventional High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting systems in classrooms (2000 m2) through the evaluation of advantages and drawbacks of different alternatives. The most promising one, the change to a new technology -165W induction lamps-, will be analyzed in detail in the paper.The authors would like to thank to the Ministerio de Eduación of Spanish Government for supporting this research under the Project DPI2001-2779-C02-01, as well to thank the European Union for their economic support

Development of new tools to promote a more effective consumer participation in short-term electricity markets

This paper summarizes the research work performed to show the capability of a combination of tools based on Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Physically Based Load Models (PBLM) to classify and extract pat-terns from distributor, aggregator and customer electrical demand databases (the objective known as data mining). This approach basically uses low cost information avail-able for almost all supply side agents: historic load curves of several kinds of customers. The first objective is to find a correlation between demand and the evolution of energy prices in short-term energy markets. A SOM was trained that should allow to select the most suitable customer clusters whose demand modification would benefit cus-tomer and supply-side agents through, for example, energy efficiency, distributed generation or demand response. After a previous evaluation through PBLM of different possible strategies to reduce demand during consumption peaks, a SOM was trained to detect opportunities among users with high reduction capabilities during periods when day-ahead prices are lower than shorter-term prices. The results obtained clearly show the suitability of SOM ap-proach to find easily coherent clusters between electrical users with high demand or available response capacity, and therefore a possible way to promote customer partici-pation in electrical energy markets is opened

Tutor-Dis: software para mejorar la adaptación de trabajadores con discapacidad intelectual

The adaptation to the working environment is one of the main problems that make difficult the labor integration of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nevertheless, success stories tell that, with proper support and aids, these workers are able to perform their tasks optimally. Keeping this goal in mind, IBV and AFEM have developed TUTOR-DIS, a software tool for mobile devices that can contribute to the improvement of learning, time management, communication and, in short, the autonomy of people with intellectual disabilities in working environments.La adaptación al puesto de trabajo es uno de los principales problemas que dificultan la integración laboral de muchas personas con discapacidad intelectual y del desarrollo. La experiencia, sin embargo, demuestra que con los apoyos adecuados muchos de estos trabajadores son capaces de realizar sus tareas de manera óptima. Con este objetivo, el Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV) y la Asociación FEAPS para el empleo (AFEM) han desarrollado TUTOR- DIS, una herramienta informática para dispositivos móviles que puede contribuir a favorecer el aprendizaje, la gestión del tiempo, la comunicación y, en definitiva, la autonomía de las personas con discapacidad intelectual en el ámbito laboral

A pulmonary rehabilitation program reduces hospitalizations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients: A cost-effectiveness study

BACKGROUND: Although pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is recommended in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is a scarcity of data demonstrating the cost-effectiveness and effectiveness of PR in reducing exacerbations. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study in 200 patients with COPD was conducted to determine the number of exacerbations 1 year before and after their participation in a PR program. Quality of life was measured using the COPD assessment test and EuroQol-5D. The costs of the program and exacerbations were assessed the year before and after participation in the PR program. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was estimated in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). RESULTS: The number of admissions, length of hospital stay, and admissions to the emergency department decreased after participation in the PR program by 48.2%, 46.6%, and 42.5%, respectively (P < 0.001 for all). Results on quality of life tests improved significantly (P < 0.001 for the two tests). The cost of PR per patient and the cost of pre-PR and post-PR exacerbations were €1867.7 and €7895.2 and €4201.9, respectively. The PR resulted in a cost saving of €1826 (total, €365,200) per patient/year, and the gain in QALYs was+0.107. ICER was −€17,056. The total cost was <€20,000/QALY in 78% of patients. Conclusions: PR contributes to reducing the number of exacerbations in patients with COPD, thereby slowing clinical deterioration. In addition, it is cost-effective in terms of QALYs

Genome and transcriptome analysis of the Mesoamerican common bean and the role of gene duplications in establishing tissue and temporal specialization of genes

Legumes are the third largest family of angiosperms and the second most important crop class. Legume genomes have been shaped by extensive large-scale gene duplications, including an approximately 58 million year old whole genome duplication shared by most crop legumes. We report the genome and the transcription atlas of coding and non-coding genes of a Mesoamerican genotype of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L., BAT93). Using a comprehensive phylogenomics analysis, we assessed the past and recent evolution of common bean, and traced the diversification of patterns of gene expression following duplication. We find that successive rounds of gene duplications in legumes have shaped tissue and developmental expression, leading to increased levels of specialization in larger gene families. We also find that many long non-coding RNAs are preferentially expressed in germ-line-related tissues (pods and seeds), suggesting that they play a significant role in fruit development. Our results also suggest that most bean-specific gene family expansions, including resistance gene clusters, predate the split of the Mesoamerican and Andean gene pools. The genome and transcriptome data herein generated for a Mesoamerican genotype represent a counterpart to the genomic resources already available for the Andean gene pool. Altogether, this information will allow the genetic dissection of the characters involved in the domestication and adaptation of the crop, and their further implementation in breeding strategies for this important crop. The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13059-016-0883-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Additional file 4: of Genome and transcriptome analysis of the Mesoamerican common bean and the role of gene duplications in establishing tissue and temporal specialization of genes

Supplementary datasets S8–S11. (XLS 395 kb