Effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle promotion program as adjunctive teletherapy for treatment-resistant major depression during COVID 19 pandemic: A randomized clinical trial protocol

INTRODUCTION: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has a high prevalence and can be exacerbated by poor physical health and economic hardships, which have become common stressors during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The therapeutic approaches used to treat these patients are not always available, may be not be accepted by some patients, and often require face-to-face interactions. OBJECTIVE: The main aim of this study will be to evaluate the effectiveness of an Internet-based adjuvant lifestyle-based intervention for patients with TRD. METHODS: This will be a parallel, randomized, and controlled clinical trial. A total of 180 patients with TRD will be randomly allocated (1:1:1) to 1 of 3 groups: treatment prescribed by the mental health team and written suggestions for lifestyle changes (placebo control group); treatment prescribed by the mental health team, written suggestions for lifestyle changes, and an 8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy program (active control group); or treatment prescribed by the mental health team, written suggestions for lifestyle changes, and an 8-week lifestyle change promotion program (intervention group). We will perform this study during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will administer interventions by teletherapy, and contact participants by telephone calls, text messages, and/or teleconferences. We will collect patient data using questionnaires administered at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and after 6 and 12 months. The primary outcome will be score on the Beck Depression Inventory-II. The secondary outcomes will be score on the Clinical Global Impressions Scale (used to quantify and track patient progress and treatment response over time) and health-related quality of life measured using the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions Questionnaire. DISCUSSION: Patients with TRD are especially vulnerable when face-to-face psychotherapy is unavailable. The main strength of the proposed study is the novelty of the intervention to be used as an adjuvant therapy. Our results may provide guidance for treatment of patients with TRD in future situations that require lockdown measures. CLINICALTRIALS REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04428099

Clasificadora inteligente de tomates de alta velocidad por color, tamaño y peso

At present most horticultural products are classified and marketed according to quality standards, which provide a common language for growers, packers, buyers and consumers. The standardisation of both product and packaging enables greater speed and efficiency in management and marketing. Of all the vegetables grown in greenhouses, tomatoes are predominant in both surface area and tons produced. This paper will present the development and evaluation of a low investment classification system of tomatoes with these objectives: to put it at the service of producing farms and to classify for trading standards. An intelligent classifier of tomatoes has been developed by weight, diameter and colour. This system has optimised the necessary algorithms for data processing in the case of tomatoes, so that productivity is greatly increased, with the use of less expensive and lower performance electronics. The prototype is able to achieve very high speed classification, 12.5 ratings per second, using accessible and low cost commercial equipment for this. It decreases fourfold the manual sorting time and is not sensitive to the variety of tomato classified. This system facilitates the processes of standardisation and quality control, increases the competitiveness of tomato farms and impacts positively on profitability. The automatic classification system described in this work represents a contribution from the economic point of view, as it is profitable for a farm in the short term (less than six months), while the existing systems, can only be used in large trading centers.En la actualidad la mayoría de los productos hortofrutícolas son clasificados y comercializados según unos estándares de calidad, que proporcionan un lenguaje común para productores, empacadores, compradores y consumidores. De todas las hortalizas cultivadas en invernadero, el tomate es el que más presencia tiene en superficie y toneladas producidas. En este trabajo se desarrolla y evalúa un sistema de clasificación de tomates de bajo coste con dos objetivos: que sirva a los productores de tomate y que sea capaz de clasificar según los estándares establecidos. En este trabajo se desarrolla un clasificador inteligente de tomates según su peso, diámetro y color. Este sistema optimiza los algoritmos de análisis para el caso específico del tomate, con la ventaja del uso de electrónica de bajo coste. El prototipo es capaz de conseguir la clasificación a velocidad muy elevada, 12.5 clasificaciones por segundo, y utilizando para ello equipos comerciales accesibles y de bajo coste. Se consigue disminuir 4 veces el tiempo de la clasificación manual y no es sensible a la variedad de tomate clasificado. Este sistema facilita los procesos de estandarización y control de calidad, permitiendo aumentar la competitividad de las explotaciones agrícolas de tomate, repercutiendo positivamente en su rentabilidad. El sistema de clasificación automática descrito en este trabajo es una contribución desde el punto de vista económico, ya que se puede amortizar a corto plazo, menos de seis meses, mientras que los sistemas comerciales actuales solo lo hacen en grandes centros de manipulación

Reader Arquitecture Characterization for Chipless Wireless Sensors Applications.

The main goal of this project is to design, implement and characterize a portable chipless reader for resonator chipless tags by comparing it with a non-portable chipless reader. In laboratory settings, test equipment such as Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs), Signal Analyzers and Digital Storage Oscilloscopes (DSO) are used. However, it is not economical to use these expensive and heavy laboratory pieces of equipment for the real-world applications of chipless RFID systems. Therefore, apart from reducing the cost by using chipless technologies, it is essential to develop a low-cost reader device that makes the system even more inexpensive. This is basically done by replacing the large and bulky equipment with some commercial components that make the device light and portable. Concretely, the design of the reader presented in this document, implements a Wideband Synthesizer with Integrated VCO in order to replace the Signal Generator. The most challenging task is the correct synchronization of the new device with the rest of the elements of the reader. This is achieved by a new computer software specifically programmed to control the whole reader, which is based on a previous version. The system’s performance is tested with several chipless tags; resonators with different resonance frequencies. The obtained results are compared to the measurements taken with a VNA and with a previous version of the reader composed by laboratory instruments. The measurements are made with a gain/phase detector that sends its data to an Arduino. Moreover, the information is processed by a Visual Studio project written in C Language that also contains the software with the user interface to control the synthesizer from the computer and all the data processing and visualization algorithms. The aim of the project is to describe the characterization of a reader based on frequency domain detection techniques and obtain the most accurate and effective performance of it to improve the previous version of the system and approach to an applicable device