Effect of storage and preparation methods of Moringa oleifera seeds during the coagulation process

Many developing countries around the world are now facing a water deficit crisis that worsens with climate change variations. In the particular case of Colombia, water deficit is a major concern in the whole territory, but it gets worse in rural areas. Since 70s, water purification in Colombia is based on conventional physicochemical processes, in which the most common coagulant used is aluminum sulfate (Alum). This study focuses on the behavior of color and turbidity removal of different extraction methodologies of a natural coagulant, Moringa oleifera. Results showed that turbidity removal efficiency was not affected by oil extraction. However, oil extraction increases the complexity of the process. Salt addition during coagulant solution preparation increases turbidity and color efficiency removal. No significant difference (p < 0.05) on turbidity and color removal was found between coagulant solution storage at 24°C (room temperature) and 4°C. Coagulant solution of M. oleifera was found to be very efficient on polluted waters with high concentration of color. © 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved

Adoption of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) as an opportunity for improving public health in Latin America

Over the past 50 years, public health in Latin America has walked through significant changes on social and economic aspects. Since the 90's, governments from the region have performed different health reforms to improve equity, effectiveness and geographical coverage. Although, positive results have been achieved historically, strong and sustainable public health strategies are still needed to guarantee quality service. In that sense, integration of novel devices for monitoring and alerting patients about their physical health stands as a promising option for improving Latin American healthcare systems by upgrading facilities to be able to attend patients remotely, avoid care units overcrowding, guarantee real-time supervision, operational cost reduction, rapid patient attention, and lower investment on expansion of existing areas. Healthcare wearable technology acceptance and adoption barriers were investigated. It was found that most wearables are developed and promoted in developed countries with no headquarters in Latin America. This situation decreasing interest for its adoption by Latin American governments due to poor technical support, high prices, and few distribution channels. Four main barriers for wearable technology adoption were identified as: i) critical data management, security and privacy issues, ii) unreliable results accuracy, iii) unaffordable technology for low-income groups, and iv) lack of clear regulations. Based on the adoption barriers, healthcare wearable technology challenges were identified and presented. The main challenges found were: access to health service, training and distribution of human resources in health, inequalities in health, and financial schemes for health systems. It can be concluded that smart wearables in the healthcare sector could be considered as part of the solution to guarantee proper quality service and coverage in remote areas where no service is currently offered. © 2018 AISTI

A software-based predictive model for greenhouse gas mitigation: Towards environmental sustainability

In the last years research-based programs relevant to sustainability have been developed. Some technological research programs are focused on the design of systems and processes that can be useful for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions as CO2. To diminish the negative impact caused by CO2 for global warming, its chemical transformation in Dimethyl Carbonate is a promising technology. Dimethyl Carbonate is a solvent with low toxicity and due to oxidative capacity can be used as fuel additive. In this work, the membrane reactor technology to improve the Dymethyl Carbonate production is explored from the perspective of modelling and simulation. As a result, a software-based model is implemented, in order to develop and couple different models for describing the membrane reactor. Simulation results showed that the membrane reactor, compared with conventional reactor, increase the reaction conversion and Dymethyl Carbonate production up to 67% and 78%, respectively. Finally, it can be seen that the solution obtained from software-based model allows to conclude that membrane reactor is a promising technology to mitigate CO2 emissions, allowing to achieve environmental sustainability. © 2018 AISTI

Internet of things baseline method to improve health sterilization in hospitals: An approach from electronic instrumentation and processing of steam quality

Sterilization in hospitals is performed due to the need of attacking and killing bacteria that can be dangerous for patients when intervened with medical instrumentation. In that sense, sterilization autoclaves are used, and controlling both temperature and pressure, bacteria are killed. Nonetheless, in some cases the level of humidity in the internal atmosphere is highly relevant to guarantee the success of the process. This variable is controlled by knowing the steam quality, however, it is not monitored online, but sampling is performed a few times a year, so pertinent adjustments are carried out into the boiler when needed. This periodic maintenance does not guarantee that the process is effective. On the other hand, instruments for monitoring steam quality are expensive, and cannot be afforded by many hospitals. As a result, a cheaper determination of steam quality is carried out by using chemical instruments like test tubes, adding critical errors in the measurements. In this paper a cost-effective measuring and processing method by implementing Internet of Things - IoT-techniques is proposed, based on strangulation calorimeter. All the calculations are performed in a Single Board Computer which is connected to an IoT platform for logging data, supervise in pseudo real time and use statistical tools to inference or predict. As a result, the IoT node can achieve measurement errors up to 0.25% FS, against 5.6% FS of traditional method. Furthermore, the inclusion of pseudo real time monitoring, allows maintenance staff to fix problems even in a predictive way. © 2018 AISTI

A novel energy-efficient machine to compress inorganic residues in eco-bricks as a sustainable construction strategy for low-cost housing

UNESCO has set the Sustainable Developing Goals (SDG) to promote good practices in different areas. The construction industry has evolving to the use of alternative and eco-friendly materials, enhancing the sustainable growth of the cities. One of the main social problems in developing countries arises on the lack of housing at affordable prices, this is reflected as a result of a situation of poverty and exclusion of low-income communities. The present work describes the development of a novel device for the compression of plastic waste in PET bottles, also denominated eco-bricks. The device allows the compaction of plastic laminates and sachets inside bottles of different sizes. Based on a social context, the compactor device was designed for manual operation without the use of electric power, portability, ease of usage and safe operation. Another outcome of this technology is the educational strategy based on the manufacturing of eco-bricks that promotes environmental responsibility that aims at reducing pollution and the indiscriminate and non-responsible use of non-renewable resources in urban and rural environments. The device was submitted for its consideration as an invention patent and therefore granted. © 2019 AISTI

IlluminApp: Educational support tool for sustainable indoor illumination system reconversion for household applications

The illumination household represents an important percentage of electricity consumption in developing countries. The electricity consumption derived from residential illumination is strongly reduced by assuming cleaner and more efficient technologies. One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) considers responsible consumption and production of goods and services, in which the authors have focused this study on lighting loads on households. For this matter, IlluminApp has been developed. It is an educational tool, which allows to identify the benefits of the illumination technology conversion to residential users, as well as, an estimation on energy savings and the retrofit cost reduction by using different light bulbs technologies. The application uses a simple cost and energetic model to estimate: payback time, CO2emissions reduction, money, and energetic savings. This software is available in English and Spanish. The objective of this paper is to discuss in detail the interfaces of this application and its main functionalities. © 2019 AISTI

Internet of things electromechanical method and device for new or installed gas stoves: Making home safier

Electronic devices have been dabbled into houses to perform automatic tasks and fulfill different needs such as illumination, cooking, air conditioning, surveillance, among others. Furthermore, those elements can collect data from the environment in order to be processed and give better products and services, so, Internet of Things capabilities arises to home, highly cohesive with domotics. However, for developing countries, smart appliances are expensive, and old fridges, washing machines, etc., are still operative, so they must not to be discarded. Other very used appliances are stoves, which work with heating methods like electrical resistances, electrical induction or natural gas. The last one is the most used in a plenty of countries, due to its advantages regarding cost, for instance. Nonetheless, bad manipulation can cause gas leakages, and furthermore, injuries to people and conflagrations, affecting human lives and assets. Thus, a need has been identified regarding gas safety of gas stoves, conserving the installed base. This work shows the results of the main research and design considerations of a new cutting-edge technology that protects people of bad manipulation of already installed or new gas stoves, including the Internet of Things in order to monitor in real-time possible gas leakages and take actions. © 2019 AISTI

Comparative study between M. oleifera and aluminum sulfate for water treatment: case study Colombia

The world has a water deficit, mostly located in developing countries. For example, in Colombia, water deficit is a major concern and it increases in rural areas, where the rate of accessibility to drinking water is of 33.26 % in 2005. Since the 1970s, the most used technology for water purification is the conventional physicochemical process. The most common coagulant used in this process is aluminum sulfate (alum). This study focuses on a comparison between Moringa oleifera seeds and alum for water treatment in different natural waters. Results showed that M. oleifera removed 90 % turbidity and alum 96 % from water samples from the tested natural brook. However, color removal for M. oleifera was 95 and 80.3 % for alum. For water-polluted samples, both coagulants have shown high efficiency (100 %) in color and turbidity removal. Usage of natural coagulants (i.e., M. oleifera) instead of chemical ones (i.e., alum) are more convenient in rural areas where the economic situation and accessibility of those products are key elements to maintain fresh water treatment standards. Additionally, results demonstrated that high dosages M. oleifera did not affect the optimal value in terms of color and turbidity removal. In rural and developing countries, this is important because it does not require a sophisticated dosing equipment