Contribuciones del gemelo digital y la inteligencia artificial en la industria de la automoción

[ES] Factores como la electrificación y la pandemia del Covid-19 están ocasionando tiempos difíciles en la industria del automóvil, obligando a las fábricas a ser más eficientes y flexibles que nunca para hacer frente a la incertidumbre resultante. Ante este panorama, conceptos bajo el paraguas de la Industria 4.0 como el del Gemelo Digital (GD) junto a técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial (IA) se muestran como facilitadores para lograr ambos factores. Con el fin de demostrar su potencial, este trabajo presenta la aplicación de dos técnicas de IA destinadas a mejorar el proceso de llenado del circuito de aire acondicionado (A/C) de los vehículos producidos en la fábrica de Mercedes-Benz de Vitoria-Gasteiz, estando ambas enmarcadas dentro de un proyecto orientado al desarrollo de un GD de dicho proceso.[EN] Factors like electrification and the Covid-19 pandemic are leading to hard times in the automotive industry, making necessary for factories to be more efficient and flexible than ever to cope with the resulting uncertainty. Against this background, concepts under the umbrella of the Industry 4.0 such as the Digital Twin (DT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques appear as enablers for achieving these two factors. As proof of their potential, this paper presents the application of two AI techniques oriented to the improvement of the air conditioning (A/C) circuit filling process of the vehicles produced in the Mercedes-Benz Vitoria-Gasteiz factory, both being framed within a DT development project of the said process

Differential modulation of cancellous and cortical distal femur by fructose and natural mineral-rich water consumption in ovariectomized female sprague dawley rats

Bone mineral density (BMD) and microstructure depend on estrogens and diet. We assessed the impact of natural mineral-rich water ingestion on distal femur of fructose-fed estrogen-deficient female Sprague Dawley rats. Ovariectomized rats drank tap or mineral-rich waters, with or without 10%-fructose, for 10 weeks. A sham-operated group drinking tap water was included (n = 6/group). Cancellous and cortical bone compartments were analyzed by microcomputed tomography. Circulating bone metabolism markers were measured by enzyme immunoassay/enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or multiplex bead assay. Ovariectomy significantly worsened cancellous but not cortical bone, significantly increased circulating degradation products from C-terminal telopeptides of type I collagen and receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL), and significantly decreased circulating osteoprotegerin and osteoprotegerin/RANKL ratio. In ovariectomized rats, in cancellous bone, significant water effect was observed for all microstructural properties, except for the degree of anisotropy, and BMD (neither a significant fructose effect nor a significant interaction between water and fructose ingestion effects were observed). In cortical bone, it was observed a significant (a) water effect for medullary volume and cortical endosteal perimeter; (b) fructose effect for cortical thickness, medullary volume, cross-sectional thickness and cortical endosteal and periosteal perimeters; and (c) interaction effect for mean eccentricity. In blood, significant fructose and interaction effects were found for osteoprotegerin (no significant water effect was seen). For the first time in ovariectomized rats, the positive modulation of cortical but not of cancellous bone by fructose ingestion and of both bone locations by natural mineral-rich water ingestion is described.This work was supported by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (through NORTE 2020 Programa Operacional Regional do Norte—NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000012), Unicer Bebidas, S.A., Portugal and by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (SFRH/BDE/33798/2009 to CP; SFRH/BD/71149/2010 to EP; SFRH/BD/79716/2011 to NS and UID/BIM/04293/2013 to Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (Projeto Estratégico)). When considering the funding by Unicer Bebidas, S.A., it should be mentioned that the study here presented was developed, in its full extent, both in scientific terms and research equipment conditions, independently of the beverage company

Scaling-Up Digital Follow-Up Care Services: Collaborative Development and Implementation of Remote Patient Monitoring Pilot Initiatives to Increase Access to Follow-Up Care

Background: COVID-19 increased the demand for Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) services as a rapid solution for safe patient follow-up in a lockdown context. Time and resource constraints resulted in unplanned scaled-up RPM pilot initiatives posing risks to the access and quality of care. Scalability and rapid implementation of RPM services require social change and active collaboration between stakeholders. Therefore, a participatory action research (PAR) approach is needed to support the collaborative development of the technological component while simultaneously implementing and evaluating the RPM service through critical action-reflection cycles. Objective: This study aims to demonstrate how PAR can be used to guide the scalability design of RPM pilot initiatives and the implementation of RPM-based follow-up services. Methods: Using a case study strategy, we described the PAR team's (nurses, physicians, developers, and researchers) activities within and across the four phases of the research process (problem definition, planning, action, and reflection). Team meetings were analyzed through content analysis and descriptive statistics. The PAR team selected ex-ante pilot initiatives to reflect upon features feedback and participatory level assessment. Pilot initiatives were investigated using semi-structured interviews transcribed and coded into themes following the principles of grounded theory and pilot meetings minutes and reports through content analysis. The PAR team used the MoSCoW prioritization method to define the set of features and descriptive statistics to reflect on the performance of the PAR approach. Results: The approach involved two action-reflection cycles. From the 15 features identified, the team classified 11 as must-haves in the scaled-up version. The participation was similar among researchers (52.9%), developers (47.5%), and physicians (46.7%), who focused on suggesting and planning actions. Nurses with the lowest participation (5.8%) focused on knowledge sharing and generation. The top three meeting outcomes were: improved research and development system (35.0%), socio-technical-economic constraints characterization (25.2%), and understanding of end-user technology utilization (22.0%). Conclusion: The scalability and implementation of RPM services must consider contextual factors, such as individuals' and organizations' interests and needs. The PAR approach supports simultaneously designing, developing, testing, and evaluating the RPM technological features, in a real-world context, with the participation of healthcare professionals, developers, and researchers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diet and food strategies in a southern al-Andalusian urban environment during Caliphal period, ecija, Sevilla

The Iberian medieval period is unique in European history due to the widespread socio-cultural changes that took place after the arrival of Arabs, Berbers and Islam in 711 AD. Recently, isotopic research has been insightful on dietary shifts, status, resource availability and the impact of environment. However, there is no published isotopic research exploring these factors in southern Iberian populations, and as the history of this area differs to the northern regions, this leaves a significant lacuna in our knowledge. This research fills this gap via isotopic analysis of human (n = 66) and faunal (n = 13) samples from the 9th to the 13th century Écija, a town renowned for high temperatures and salinity. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes were assessed from rib collagen, while carbon (δ13C) values were derived from enamel apatite. Human diet is consistent with C3 plant consumption with a very minor contribution of C4 plants, an interesting feature considering the suitability of Écija to C4 cereal production. δ15N values vary among adults, which may suggest variable animal protein consumption or isotopic variation within animal species due to differences in foddering. Consideration of δ13C collagen and apatite values together may indicate sugarcane consumption, while moderate δ15N values do not suggest a strong aridity or salinity effect. Comparison with other Iberian groups shows similarities relating to time and location rather than by religion, although more multi-isotopic studies combined with zooarchaeology and botany may reveal subtle differences unobservable in carbon and nitrogen collagen studies alone.OLC is funded by Plan Galego I2C mod.B (ED481D 2017/014). The research was partially funded by the projects “Galician Paleodiet” and by Consiliencia network (ED 431D2017/08) Xunta de GaliciaS

Expansion cone for the 3-inch PMTs of the KM3NeT optical modules

[EN] Detection of high-energy neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources will open a new window on the Universe. The detection principle exploits the measurement of Cherenkov light emitted by charged particles resulting from neutrino interactions in the matter containing the telescope. A novel multi-PMT digital optical module (DOM) was developed to contain 31 3-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). In order to maximize the detector sensitivity, each PMT will be surrounded by an expansion cone which collects photons that would otherwise miss the photocathode. Results for various angles of incidence with respect to the PMT surface indicate an increase in collection efficiency by 30% on average for angles up to 45 degrees with respect to the perpendicular. Ray-tracing calculations could reproduce the measurements, allowing to estimate an increase in the overall photocathode sensitivity, integrated over all angles of incidence, by 27% (for a single PMT). Prototype DOMs, being built by the KM3NeT consortium, will be equipped with these expansion cones.This work is supported through the EU, FP6 Contract no. 011937, FP7 grant agreement no. 212252, and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.Adrián Martínez, S.; Ageron, M.; Aguilar, JA.; Aharonian, F.; Aiello, S.; Albert, A.; Alexandri, M.... (2013). Expansion cone for the 3-inch PMTs of the KM3NeT optical modules. Journal of Instrumentation. 8(3):1-19. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/8/03/T03006S1198

Análisis exploratorio de los grandes descensos en las valoraciones docentes del profesorado en la educación superior

We present an exploratory study of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) surveys that focused on analyzing the major dropdowns that sometimes occur in SET scores of those university teachers who teach the same subject for at least two consecutive years. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to identify those SET survey items associated with major dropdowns in teacher evaluations. The sample comprised SET surveys ratings from one Spanish University over five years, for a total of 2,284 different teacher-subject pairs under analysis. The 5% percentile of the differences between the teacher and subject SET ratings in two consecutive years was used as the cut-off point to identify major dropdowns. Frequency tables were used for analysis. The results highlighted SET survey items related to teaching methodology as those most associated with major dropdowns in teachers’ ratings. In particular, the item concerning teachers’ compliance with class schedules showed the highest frequency of occurrence. Beyond the specific scores obtained or the specific items in which major dropdowns may take place, in this study we discuss the importance of incorporating major dropdowns analysis to SET surveys reports in the future.Presentamos un estudio exploratorio de las valoraciones docentes del profesorado enfocado al análisis de los grandes descensos que en ocasiones se producen en las puntuaciones que obtienen los profesores universitarios que imparten una misma asignatura en al menos dos cursos consecutivos. Específicamente, el propósito fue identificar aquellos ítems de las encuestas de valoración docente asociados a los grandes descensos de puntuación. Compusieron la muestra las encuestas de valoración docente de una universidad española durante 5 años, con 2.284 pares de profesor-asignatura diferentes. Se empleó el percentil 5% de las diferencias entre las puntuaciones de las encuestas de un profesor y asignatura en dos años consecutivos como punto de corte para identificar los descensos más pronunciados. Se emplearon tablas de frecuencias para el análisis. Los resultados destacaron los ítems relacionados con la metodología docente como los más asociados a los grandes descensos de puntuación. El ítem relativo al cumplimiento de los horarios de clase presentó la mayor frecuencia de ocurrencia Más allá de las puntuaciones específicas obtenidas o de los ítems específicos en los que pueden ocurrir los mayores descensos, discutimos la importancia de incorporar su análisis a los informes de las encuestas de valoración docente del profesorado universitario

Innovation Efficiency in the Spanish Service Sectors, and Open Innovation

This paper analyzes the relationship between efficiency and innovation activity in Spanish industrial and service sectors by introducing a new methodology framework. A new model combining principal component analysis (PCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied in order to obtain an efficiency score. To achieve a more comprehensive evaluation, a large dataset is included, but a large number of variables compared with the number of decision-making units (DMUs) may diminish the discriminatory power of DEA. To avoid this effect, we first apply PCA to separately obtain the input and output main factors. We then apply DEA to the new variables. The PCA–DEA model allows us to identify 5 efficient sectors out of 42. If only DEA were applied, 16 sectors would turn out to be efficient. This shows that the model improves the discriminatory capability of DEA. Methodologically, this work contributes to the literature by proposing an efficiency measurement using a large number of inputs and outputs that could be applied in different fields. Likewise, this analysis allows for the evaluation and interpretation of innovation activity in the different sectors, which can be taken into account in the management and allocation of resources by institutions

Understanding the relation between energy consumption and development during the Global Financial Crisis in Europe

The 28 states of the European Union are addressing considerable effort to reduce their current national energy consumption levels. A new environmental and socially low impact energy system, based on energy consumption reductions, an increase in energy efficiency and reductions of emissions shifting to renewable energy generation are established in all European countries ́ National Energy Efficiency Action Plans. The main goal of country policies to reduce energy consumption, while still increasing the national development level. Within this context, the Global Financial Crisis that especially impacted the European Union in 2009, a new opportunity emerged to analyse the relation between Human Development Index and the energy consumption of a country. In this study, the capacity of the European countries to reduce their energy consumption and the capacity to maintain their development standards have been analysed, based on the Total Primary Energy Supply as well as on the Total Primary Energy Footprint. The former has been provided by the International Energy Agency and the later has been calculated by using Global Multi-Regional Input-Output methodology. The results provide relevant insights towards understanding how a crisis context could be an opportunity in terms of becoming less energy intensive while still maintaining an upward trend for the development indicators of the country