Mecanum wheel robotic platform for educational purposes: a cost-effective approach

This paper presents a cost-effective approach of a mecanum wheel robotic platform for educational propose on the development of an autonomous or remote controlled mobile robot with a four-wheel mecanum drive train. The main structure of the mobile robot was developed in Solidworks and it was built using additive manufacturing to validate in a real scenario. The main objective of developing this type of mobile platform was the ability to transport different types of cargo or robotic arm on industrial spaces or on rough terrain, since the implemented suspension mechanism allows the wheels contact to the floor. Another important objective is the maneuverability and the capacity to be guided in various environments, a great advantage in this type of mobile platform. An additional advantage of the developed mobile robot is the easy way to reconfigure the structure for new acquired parts.The authors acknowledge the support of RD Unit SYSTEC-Base (UIDB/00147/2020) and Programmatic (UIDP/00147/2020) funds, and also the support of Project Warehouse of the Future (WoF), with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-072638, co-funded by European RegionalDevelopment Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A pele bordada como traje de cena

Este artigo investiga a possibilidade de compreender a pele do ator como traje de cena a partir da perspectiva do bordado. Sem se propor a chegar a uma conclusão definitiva à questão, o artigo se apoia em duas noções: a de que o ator e a personagem são pessoas diferentes; e a ideia de que a nudez não representa o grau zero do traje de cena. Duas performances envolvendo modificação corporal com bordado exemplificam essas ideias, com suporte teórico em Pires, Viana e Pavis

The Vitamin D Decrease in Children with Obesity Is Associated with the Development of Insulin Resistance during Puberty: The PUBMEP Study

This work was supported by the Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica (I + D + I), Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Health Research Funding (FONDOS FEDER) (PI11/01425, PI11/02042, PI11/02059, PI16/01301, PI16/01205, PI16/00871 and PI20/00563); CIBEROBN Network (CB15/00131, CB15/00043); Redes temáticas de investigación cooperativa RETIC (Red SAMID RD12/0026/0015). The authors also acknowledge Instituto de Salud Carlos III for personal funding: Contratos i-PFIS: doctorados IIS-empresa en ciencias y tecnologías de la salud de la convocatoria 2017 de la Acción Estratégica en Salud 2013–2016 (IFI17/00048). E.M.G.-G. holds a Juan de la Cierva-Formación grant (FJCI-2017-34967) from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish Government). L.V.P. acknowledges financial support of the Visiting Professor Program from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES—Grant 88881.337237/2019-01), Brazil.Obesity and cardiometabolic risk have been associated with vitamin D levels even in children. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the association between insulin resistance (IR), cardiometabolic risk factors, and vitamin D in children from prepubertal to pubertal stages. A total of 76 children from the PUBMEP study, aged 4-12 years at baseline, were included. Children were evaluated in prepubertal and pubertal stages. Anthropometric measurements and selected cardiometabolic risk biomarkers, such as plasma glucose, blood lipids, insulin, adiponectin, leptin, and blood pressure, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) were determined. Children were categorized by obesity degree and IR status combined before and after puberty. Paired t-test and multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted. During puberty, the increase in triacylglycerols, insulin, and HOMA-IR and the decrease in QUICKI were significantly associated with the reduction in 25(OH)D (B = -0.274, p = 0.032; B = -0.219, p = 0.019; B = -0.250, p = 0.013; B = 1.574, p = 0.013, respectively) after adjustment by BMI-z, sex, and pubertal stage. Otherwise, prepubertal non-IR children with overweight/obesity that became IR during puberty showed a significant decrease in 25(OH)D and HDL-c, and an increase in waist circumference and triacylglycerol concentrations (p < 0.05 for all) over time. These results suggest that changes in IR seem to be associated with an effect on 25(OH)D levels during puberty, especially in children with overweight.Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica (I + D + I)Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Health Research Funding (FONDOS FEDER) (PI11/01425, PI11/02042, PI11/02059, PI16/01301, PI16/01205, PI16/00871 and PI20/00563)CIBEROBN Network (CB15/00131, CB15/00043)Redes temáticas de investigación cooperativa RETIC (Red SAMID RD12/0026/0015)Instituto de Salud Carlos III (IFI17/00048)Juan de la Cierva-Formación grant (FJCI-2017-34967) Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish Government)Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES—Grant 88881.337237/2019-01), Brazi

Bioethanol production from autohydrolyzed Sargassum muticum

Currently, the high demand of energy has led to the seek of new renewable sources, cutting down with fossil fuels. An interesting and novel way may be the use of macoralgae as raw material to obtain third generation bioethanol. Sargassum muticum is an invasive seaweed highly spread in Asia, Europe and America, which has not been commercially used yet. It has an abundant quantity of polysaccharides which can be used in the production of biofuels. In order to employ them, it is necessary to pretreat the material, and the hydrothermal treatments (as autohydrolysis) have demonstrated to be highly effective, simple, environmentally friendly and economic. In this work, the study of the autohydrolysis of Sargassum muticum has been studied. Consequently, Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation took place, using different industrial strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and two type of experiments: i) using only the autohydrolyzed solid phase, ii) using the liquid and solid phase from the autohydrolysis procedure.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Innovative regression-based methodology to assess the techno-economic performance of photovoltaic installations in urban areas

[EN] Households present a significant contribution in the national energy consumption, and photovoltaics (PV) has become an economically feasible technology that can play an important role to lower this consumption and the associated emissions. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between too in-depth technical models for detailed studies and what urban energy planners need, which are simpler, yet reliable techno-economical tools to select which roofs of city buildings are the best candidates for PV production. In order to face this gap, a multiple linear regression (MLR) model has been developed to determine the economic payback using dimensionless parameters. The methodology has been adopted in the city of Valencia (Spain) for a large sample of multi-storey buildings, which are the most common typology. The approach has a high replicability since it can be applied for different countries. The MLR model provides a payback root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.48 years in comparison with a complex techno-economic model which was previously developed and validated with the software System Advisor Model (SAM). The variables which have a bigger weight in the payback are the shadow losses and the power unit cost due to the economy of scale. With the current Spanish regulation, PV installations on multi-storey buildings can reach paybacks of around 7-15 years and the best option is to have large economies of scales together with a low energy surplus.This study was developed owing to the support provided by the Chair of Urban Energy Transition of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and the foundation Las Naves. Additionally, this work was supported by The Energy Office of Valencia and the Statistics Office of the Valencia City Council, who collaborated by providing the data of the PV facility for the validation and their recommendations on the statistical analysis.Fuster-Palop, E.; Prades-Gil, C.; Masip, X.; Viana-Fons, JD.; Payá-Herrero, J. (2021). Innovative regression-based methodology to assess the techno-economic performance of photovoltaic installations in urban areas. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 149:1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111357S11514

Enhancement of the enzymatic hydrolysis of Paulownia wood using non-ionic surfactant

The abundance of lignocellulosic biomass from various industries provides a great potential feedstock for the production of value-added products. This lignocellulosic materials can be enzymatically hydrolyzed into sugars for the production of biofuels and biomaterials. However, the presence of lignin is inhibitory, becoming a major obstacle for enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials conducted in high solid loading. This is because the lignin acts as a protective barrier for cellulose and, thus, restricts the accessibility of the enzyme to the cellulose. Addition of surfactants, polymers, and noncatalytic proteins can improve the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials by blocking the exposed lignin surfaces. In this work, the optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis of Paulownia wood was tested, evaluating the influence of: i) autohydrolysis pretreatment under non-isothermal conditions (TMAX: 210ºC, 220ºC and 230ºC), ii) solid loading (Consistency: 10, 13 and 16 %), iii) enzyme substrate ratio (ESR: 8, 12 and 16 UPF/g Paulownia), and iv) the addition of nonionic surfactant Tween 20 (0, 1.5 and 3 g/L). The enzyme employed was Cellic CTec2 (Novozymes) with an enzyme activity of 160 UFP/mL. This work suggested that autohydrolysis pretreatment could improve the enzymatic hydrolysis significantly and the addition of Tween 20 could reduce the hydrolysis time and enzyme dosage.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Post-COVID-19 syndrome and diabetes mellitus: a propensity-matched analysis of the International HOPE-II COVID-19 Registry

SARS-CoV-2; Reinfection; Respiratory complicationsSARS-CoV-2; Reinfección; Complicaciones respiratoriasSARS-CoV-2; Reinfecció; Complicacions respiratòriesBackground: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most frequent comorbidities in patients suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with a higher rate of severe course of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, data about post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) in patients with DM are limited. Methods: This multicenter, propensity score-matched study compared long-term follow-up data about cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and other symptoms in 8,719 patients with DM to those without DM. The 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) according to age and sex resulted in 1,548 matched pairs. Results: Diabetics and nondiabetics had a mean age of 72.6 ± 12.7 years old. At follow-up, cardiovascular symptoms such as dyspnea and increased resting heart rate occurred less in patients with DM (13.2% vs. 16.4%; p = 0.01) than those without DM (2.8% vs. 5.6%; p = 0.05), respectively. The incidence of newly diagnosed arterial hypertension was slightly lower in DM patients as compared to non-DM patients (0.5% vs. 1.6%; p = 0.18). Abnormal spirometry was observed more in patients with DM than those without DM (18.8% vs. 13; p = 0.24). Paranoia was diagnosed more frequently in patients with DM than in non-DM patients at follow-up time (4% vs. 1.2%; p = 0.009). The incidence of newly diagnosed renal insufficiency was higher in patients suffering from DM as compared to patients without DM (4.8% vs. 2.6%; p = 0.09). The rate of readmission was comparable in patients with and without DM (19.7% vs. 18.3%; p = 0.61). The reinfection rate with COVID-19 was comparable in both groups (2.9% in diabetics vs. 2.3% in nondiabetics; p = 0.55). Long-term mortality was higher in DM patients than in non-DM patients (33.9% vs. 29.1%; p = 0.005). Conclusions: The mortality rate was higher in patients with DM type II as compared to those without DM. Readmission and reinfection rates with COVID-19 were comparable in both groups. The incidence of cardiovascular symptoms was higher in patients without DM

The work design contribution to educational workers' sustainable wellbeing and performance patterns

Brazilian education faces difficulties relating to performance and illness, suggesting that the characteristics of the work can affect both variables. This study aims to describe the work characteristics that increase the odds of having happy–productive patterns in education workers. A total of 4,598 employees of the Secretariat of Education of the Federal District (SEEDF) participated in the research, answering questionnaires about work design (Brazilian version, with 18 factors), wellbeing (containing three factors), and performance. The results showed that task, social, and contextual characteristics increase the probability of being in the happy–productive pattern, and specifically, Social Support, Feedback from Others, Task Significance, Task Identity, and Autonomy, in this order, should be considered for intervention purposes

Post-COVID-19 Symptoms and Heart Disease: Incidence, Prognostic Factors, Outcomes and Vaccination: Results from a Multi-Center International Prospective Registry (HOPE 2)

COVID-19; Heart disease; PersistentCOVID 19; Malaltia cardíaca; PersistentCOVID-19; Enfermedad cardíaca; PersistenteBackground: Heart disease is linked to worse acute outcomes after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), although long-term outcomes and prognostic factor data are lacking. We aim to characterize the outcomes and the impact of underlying heart diseases after surviving COVID-19 hospitalization. Methods: We conducted an analysis of the prospective registry HOPE-2 (Health Outcome Predictive Evaluation for COVID-19-2, NCT04778020). We selected patients discharged alive and considered the primary end-point all-cause mortality during follow-up. As secondary main end-points, we included any readmission or any post-COVID-19 symptom. Clinical features and follow-up events are compared between those with and without cardiovascular disease. Factors with p < 0.05 in the univariate analysis were entered into the multivariate analysis to determine independent prognostic factors. Results: HOPE-2 closed on 31 December 2021, with 9299 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, and 1805 died during this acute phase. Finally, 7014 patients with heart disease data were included in the present analysis, from 56 centers in 8 countries. Heart disease (+) patients were older (73 vs. 58 years old), more frequently male (63 vs. 56%), had more comorbidities than their counterparts, and suffered more frequently from post-COVID-19 complications and higher mortality (OR heart disease: 2.63, 95% CI: 1.81–3.84). Vaccination was found to be an independent protector factor (HR all-cause death: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.04–0.19). Conclusions: After surviving the acute phase, patients with underlying heart disease continue to present a more complex clinical profile and worse outcomes including increased mortality. The COVID-19 vaccine could benefit survival in patients with heart disease during follow-up.Non-conditioned grant (Fundación Interhospitalaria para la Investigación cardiovascular, FIC. Madrid, Spain). This nonprofit institution had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; nor in the decision to submit the paper for publication