Using case-based reasoning to detect risk scenarios of elderly people living alone at home

In today's ageing societies, the proportion of elderly people living alone in their own homes is dramatically increasing. Smart homes provide the appropriate environment for keeping them independent and, therefore, enhancing their quality of life. One of the most important re-\ud quirements of these systems is that they have to provide a pervasive environment without disrupting elderly people's daily activities. The present paper introduces a CBR agent used within a commercial Smart Home system, designed for detecting domestic accidents that may lead to serious complications if the elderly resident is not attended quickly. The approach is based on cases composed of event sequences. Each event sequence represents the different locations visited by the resident during his/her daily activities. Using this approach, the system can decide\ud whether the current sequence represent an unsafe scenario or not. It does so by comparing the current sequence with previously stored sequences. Several experiments have been conducted with different CBR agent con-\ud figurations in order to test this approach. Results from these experiments show that the proposed approach is able to detect unsafe scenarios

Viabilidade da irrigação do meloeiro com águas salinas em diferentes fases fenológicas Feasibility of irrigation of musk melon with salinity water in different phenological stages

Com o objetivo de estudar os efeitos da aplicação de águas de irrigação de diferentes salinidades no rendimento do melão irrigado por gotejamento e de associar a produção obtida com o custo da água utilizada, desenvolveu-se este trabalho em Mossoró-RN. Águas de diferentes salinidades (S1=0,6, S2=1,9, S3=3,2 e S4=4,5dS m-1), utilizadas de forma incremental em três estádios de desenvolvimento ou sem variar durante o ciclo da cultura, formaram dez tratamentos arranjados em blocos inteiramente casualizados com quatro repetições. O uso de águas salinas por longos períodos afetou a produção de melão. Substituições tardias na salinidade da água tenderam a não exercer efeito significativo sobre a produção do meloeiro. O tratamento irrigado com a água de menor salinidade durante todo ciclo apresentou, simultaneamente, o maior custo com água de irrigação e o maior lucro na produção de melão.<br>This study was carried out in Mossoró, RN, Brazil, to evaluate the effects of different irrigation water salinity levels on yield of drip irrigated melon, and to relate yield with the cost of water. The waters of different salinities (S1=0.6, S2=1.9, S3=3.2 e S4=4.5dS m-1) were used both in incremental way in three different phenological stages and without replacement during the crop cycle totalizing ten treatments arranged in a completely randomized block design with four repetitions. The use of saline waters without substitutions affected melon production. The treatments irrigated with low salinity water presented simultaneously the higher cost of irrigation water and higher profits of melon cultivation

Finding genetically-supported drug targets for Parkinson’s disease using Mendelian randomization of the druggable genome

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative movement disorder that currently has no disease-modifying treatment, partly owing to inefficiencies in drug target identification and validation. We use Mendelian randomization to investigate over 3,000 genes that encode druggable proteins and predict their efficacy as drug targets for Parkinson’s disease. We use expression and protein quantitative trait loci to mimic exposure to medications, and we examine the causal effect on Parkinson’s disease risk (in two large cohorts), age at onset and progression. We propose 23 drug-targeting mechanisms for Parkinson’s disease, including four possible drug repurposing opportunities and two drugs which may increase Parkinson’s disease risk. Of these, we put forward six drug targets with the strongest Mendelian randomization evidence. There is remarkably little overlap between our drug targets to reduce Parkinson’s disease risk versus progression, suggesting different molecular mechanisms. Drugs with genetic support are considerably more likely to succeed in clinical trials, and we provide compelling genetic evidence and an analysis pipeline to prioritise Parkinson’s disease drug development

Las plantas medicinales en el inventario español sobre los conocimientos Tradicionales relativos al patrimonio natural y a la biodiversidad

En las últimas décadas las organizaciones internacionales han puesto de manifiesto la importancia de los conocimientos ecológicos tradicionales para la conservación y el uso sostenible de la diversidad biológica, como se refleja en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CBD 1992). En España, el marco jurídico que recoge las normas y recomendaciones de esta estrategia es la Ley de Patrimonio Natural y Biodiveresidad 42/2007 que establece la creación del Inventario Español de Conocimientos Tradicionales (IECT) relevantes para la conservación y el uso sostenible de la biodiversidad y geodiversidad. Desde hace más de un año un equipo de más de 60 investigadores, incluyendo botánicos, zoólogos, antropólogos, ecólogos y geólogos de más de 20 centros de investigación y universidades del estado español, están trabajando en el IEDT, con el objetivo de recopilar y difundir la información publicada sobre los conocimientos tradicionales relativos a la flora, fauna, geodiversidad y el manejo de los ecosistemas