Preparation, Properties and Water Dissolution Behavior of Polyethylene Oxide Mats Prepared by Solution Blow Spinning

The relationship between processing conditions, structure and morphology are key issues to understanding the final properties of materials. For instance, in the case of polymers to be used as scaffolds in tissue engineering, wound dressings and membranes, morphology tuning is essential to control mechanical and wettability behaviors. In this work, the relationship between the processing conditions of the solution blow spinning process (SBS) used to prepare nonwoven mats of polyethylene oxide (PEO), and the structure and morphology of the resulting materials are studied systematically, to account for the thermal and mechanical behaviors and dissolution in water. After finding the optimal SBS processing conditions (air pressure, feed rate, working distance and polymer concentration), the effect of the solvent composition has been considered. The structure and morphology of the blow spun fibers are studied as well as their thermal, mechanical behaviors and dissolution in water. We demonstrate that the morphology of the fibers (size and porosity) changes with the solvent composition, which is reflected in different thermal and mechanical responses and in the dissolution rates of the materials in water.This work was financially supported by AEI (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain, PID2020-112713RB-C22 and -C21]; the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Fondos de Investigación of Fco. Javier González Benito [2012/00130/004] and the strategic Action in Multifunctional Nanocomposite Materials [Code: 2011/00287/003]

Formación en especificaciones y estándares OGC

La puesta en marcha de las Infraestructuras de Datos Espaciales (IDE) a distintas escalas (internacional, nacional, regional y local) demanda el desarrollo de políticas y la creación de capacidades (Georgiadou, 2002). Desde el punto de vista técnico, se requiere la existencia de estándares comunes que garanticen la interoperabilidad entre sistemas a nivel de servicios, interfaces, formatos, etc. (OGC). En este contexto, la creación de capacidades (formación) a nivel individual (Williamson, 2004) en materia de estándares y especificaciones se convierte en una demanda real a la que hay que dar respuesta y el ámbito educativo no puede permanecer ajeno. En respuesta a esta demanda de formación en materia de especificaciones y estándares OGC el Laboratorio de Tecnologías de la Información Geográfica (LatinGEO) de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid con la colaboración del Instituto Geográfico Nacional de España ha diseñado y desarrollado un curso para ser impartido en el ámbito universitario bajo la modalidad educativa b-learning (blended learning) que comprende el desarrollo de procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje en entornos virtuales (e-learning) en combinación con aprendizaje presencial. Por otra parte, el diseño y desarrollo de las 27 lecciones que conforman el curso como Objetos de Aprendizaje (OA) permitirá su reutilización para generar nuevos cursos a partir de la combinación de lecciones, ofreciendo respuesta a demandas de formación específicas. El objetivo de esta comunicación es difundir el curso desarrollado y las posibilidades de utilización del mismo en distintos contextos de formación, así como las posibles adaptaciones de los contenidos para ser utilizados bajo distintas modalidades educativas (presencial, b-learning y e-learning). Se incluyen futuras acciones para la continua actualización y mejora de los contenidos que contribuirán a ofrecer un producto de calidad que pretende dar respuesta a las necesidades de formación en materia de especificaciones y estándares OGC

Dynamic simulation of socio-ecological systems: sustainability in Biosphere Reserves

La aplicación de una perspectiva sistémica en la gestión de las Reservas de la Biosfera es importante a la hora de abordar la estrecha relación entre los procesos ambientales y socioeconómicos, así como los potenciales factores limitantes, particularmente evidentes en el caso de sistemas insulares áridos como la Reserva de la Biosfera de Fuerteventura (RBF), Islas Canarias. El desarrollo turístico de la isla ha favorecido la ocupación del territorio por usos antropogénicos, lo que está incrementando la vulnerabilidad del sistema hacia procesos como el sobrepastoreo y la degradación de hábitats naturales que albergan numerosas especies amenazadas. Con el objetivo de elaborar una herramienta que contribuya a un desarrollo más equilibrado y multifuncional de las reservas de la biosfera insulares, se ha desarrollado un modelo dinámico para la RBF, estructurado en 5 sectores: usos del territorio, conservación de la biodiversidad, recursos hídricos, calidad ambiental y socioturístico. El modelo, calibrado con datos del periodo 1996-2011, integra un conjunto de 30 indicadores de sostenibilidad con el fin de evaluar su evolución e interacciones en la RBF a lo largo del tiempo. Los resultados de la comparación de los valores observados con los simulados, así como de las pruebas de verificación aplicadas, señalan que el modelo es capaz de reproducir el comportamiento de este sistema socio-ecológico. Esta herramienta permite realizar un análisis de los cambios recientes y los conflictos entre los principales factores e indicadores, y así convertirse en una herramienta para favorecer una gestión orientada a minimizar esos conflictos y a reforzar políticas de desarrollo sostenible en la Reserva.The application of a systemic perspective on the management of Biosphere Reserves is important to address the close relationships between the environmental and socio-economic processes and to take into account potential limiting factors, particularly evident in the case of insular arid systems as the Fuerteventura Biosphere Reserve (FBR), (Canary Islands). The tourist development on the island is leading to increasing land dedicated to anthropogenic uses, which is emphasizing the vulnerability of this system to other processes such as overgrazing and degradation of natural habitats that host numerous endangered species. In order to elaborate a tool which contributes to a more balanced and multifunctional development of the insular biosphere reserves, a dynamic model for FBR has been developed, structured in 5 model sectors: land use, biodiversity conservation, water resources, environmental quality and socio-touristic. The model, calibrated with data of the 1996–2011 period, integrates a set of 30 sustainability indicators to monitor their changes and interactions in the FBR over time. Results regarding comparison between observed and simulated values and the verification tests applied showed that the model is able to match the behaviour of this socio-ecological system. This decision-support tool allows analyzing the recent changes and trade-offs between the main environmental factors and indicators, thereby facilitating a management aimed to minimize those trade-offs and reinforce sustainable development policies in the Reserve.Este trabajo se ha desarrollado en parte dentro del proyecto: “Herramienta avanzada para la gestión sostenible y el desarrollo de un sistema de información y participación en las Reservas de la Biosfera” financiado por el Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio, dentro del Subprograma: Avanza Competitividad I+D+i 2010-2012. Ha contado igualmente con el apoyo del proyecto “IDIGEO: Plataforma para la Investigación y Desarrollo de Sistemas de Información Geomática”, MICINN, Convocatoria ACTEPARQ 2009

Academic Success Assessment through Version Control Systems

[EN] Version control systems’ usage is a highly demanded skill in information and communication technology professionals. Thus, their usage should be encouraged by educational institutions. This work demonstrates that it is possible to assess if a student can pass a computer science-related subject by monitoring its interaction with a version control system. This paper proposes a methodology that compares the performance of several machine learning models so as to select the appropriate predicting model for the assessment of the students’ achievements. To fit predicting models, three subjects of the Degree in Computer Science at the University of León are considered to obtain the dataset: computer organization, computer programming, and operating systems extension. The common aspect of these subjects is their assignments, which are based on developing one or several programs with programming languages such as C or Java. To monitor the practical assignments and individual performance, a Git repository is employed allowing students to store source code, documentation, and supporting control versions. According to the presented experience, there is a huge correlation between the level of interaction for each student and the achieved grades.SIUniversidad de León (Support Plan for Teaching Innovation Groups (PAGID))European Commission ( Grant 2018-1-ES01-KA201-050939: ROBOSTEAM–Integrating Steam and Computational Thinking development by using Robotics and Physical Devices

Stricter Adherence to Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and Its Association with Lower Blood Pressure, Visceral Fat, and Waist Circumference in University Students

We are grateful to the university students for their participation in this study.How diet affects blood pressure (BP) in young adults has not been studied in sufficient depth. For this purpose, we analyzed adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) dietary pattern and BP in Spanish university students. The sample population of our cross-sectional study consisted of 244 subjects (18–31 years old), who were in good health. Measurements were taken of their systolic and diastolic BP. A food frequency questionnaire and 72 h food record were used to assess their dietary intake in the previous year. The resulting DASH score was based on foodstuffs that were emphasized or minimized in the DASH diet. Analysis of covariance adjusted for potential confounding factors showed that the mean values for systolic BP, visceral fat rating, and waist circumference (WC) of the subjects in the upper third of the DASH score were significantly lower than those of the subjects in the lower third (for systolic BP: mean difference −4.36 mmHg, p = 0.004; for visceral fat rating: mean difference −0.4, p = 0.024; for waist circumference: mean difference −3.2, p = 0.019). Stricter adherence to the DASH dietary pattern led to a lower BP, visceral fat rating, and WC values in these university students. Nevertheless, further prospective studies are needed to confirm these results.This study was funded by the Programme Contract (2015–2017) of the Faculty of Nursing of Melilla (University of Granada), specifically the research line “Lifestyles and health care in a multicultural population”

Sobolev orthogonal polynomials and spectral methods in boundary value problems

The work by FM has been supported by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Spain, grant PID2021-122154NB-I00, and the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with UC3M in the line of Excellence of University Professors, grant EPUC3M23 in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Program of Research and Technological Innovation). LF, TEP and MAP thanks Grant FQM-246-UGR20 funded by Consejería de Universidad, Investigación e Innovación and by European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR; and Grant CEX2020-001105-M funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Funding for APC: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Agreement CRUE-Madroño 2023).In the variational formulation of a boundary value problem for the harmonic oscillator, Sobolev inner products appear in a natural way. First, we study the sequences of Sobolev orthogonal polynomials with respect to such an inner product. Second, their representations in terms of a sequence of Gegenbauer polynomials are deduced as well as an algorithm to generate them in a recursive way is stated. The outer relative asymptotics between the Sobolev orthogonal polynomials and classical Legendre polynomials is obtained. Next we analyze the solution of the boundary value problem in terms of a Fourier-Sobolev projector. Finally, we provide numerical tests concerning the reliability and accuracy of the Sobolev spectral method.FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Spain PID2021-122154NB-I00Madrid Government EPUC3M23Consejería de Universidad, Investigación e Innovación FQM-246-UGR20European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTRMCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033: CEX2020-001105-MUniversidad Carlos III de Madrid CRUE-Madroño 202

Haptic Zoom: An Interaction Model for Desktop Haptic Devices with Limited Workspace

[EN] Haptic devices can be used to feel through the sense of touch what the user is watching in a virtual scene. Force feedback devices provide kinesthetic information enabling the user to touch virtual objects. However, the most reasonably priced devices of this type are the desktop ones, which have a limited workspace that does not allow a natural and convenient interaction with virtual scenes due to the difference in size between them and the workspace. In this paper, a brand-new interaction model addressing this problem is proposed. It is called Haptic Zoom and it is based on performing visual and haptic amplifications of regions of interest. These amplifications allow the user to decide whether s/he wants more freedom in movements or an accurate interaction with a specific element inside the scene. An evaluation has been carried out comparing this technique and two well-known desktop haptic device techniques. Preliminary results showed that haptic zoom can be more useful than other techniques at accuracy tasks.SIA. G. acknowledges a FPU fellowship provided by the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte of Spain

Driver drowsiness detection based on respiratory signal analysis

Drowsy driving is a prevalent and serious public health issue that deserves attention. Recent studies estimate around 20% of car crashes have been caused by drowsy drivers. Nowadays, one of the main goals in the development of new advanced driver assistance systems is the trustworthy drowsiness detection. In this paper, a drowsiness detection method based on changes in the respiratory signal is proposed. The respiratory signal, which has been obtained using an inductive plethysmography belt, has been processed in real-time in order to classify the driver’s state of alertness as drowsy or awake. The proposed algorithm is based on the analysis of the respiratory rate variability (RRV) in order to detect the fight against to fall asleep. Moreover, a method to provide a quality level of the respiratory signal is also proposed. Both methods have been combined to reduce false alarms due to changes of measured RRV associated not to drowsiness but body movements. A driving simulator cabin has been used to perform the validation tests and external observers have rated the drivers’ state of alertness in order to evaluate the algorithm performance. It has been achieved a specificity of 96.6%, sensitivity of 90.3% and Cohen’s Kappa agreement score of 0.75 on average across all subjects through a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. A novel algorithm for driver’s state of alertness monitoring through the identification of the fight against to fall asleep has been validated. The proposed algorithm may be a valuable vehicle safety system to alert drowsiness while drivingPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A probabilistic topic approach for context-aware visual attention modeling

Proceedings of: 2016 14th International Workshop on Content-Based Multimedia Indexing (CBMI)The modeling of visual attention has gained much interest during the last few years since it allows to efficiently drive complex visual processes to particular areas of images or video frames. Although the literature concerning bottom-up saliency models is vast, we still lack of generic approaches modeling top-down task and context-driven visual attention. Indeed, many top-down models simply modulate the weights associated to low-level descriptors to learn more accurate representations of visual attention than those ones of the generic fusion schemes in bottom-up techniques. In this paper we propose a hierarchical generic probabilistic framework that decomposes the complex process of context-driven visual attention into a mixture of latent subtasks, each of them being in turn modeled as a combination of specific distributions of low-level descriptors. The inclusion of this intermediate level bridges the gap between low-level features and visual attention and enables more comprehensive representations of the later. Our experiments on a dataset in which videos are organized by genre demonstrate that, by learning specific distributions for each video category, we can notably enhance the system performance

A new and fast index for the quantification of short range self-similarity in RR time series

We propose a new and very fast index (the frequency of sign changes of the mirrored differences or fscmd) with good correlation with the short range scaling exponent ( Ｒ) estimated among scales 4 to 16 of the DFA. fscmd computes the relative number of sign changes of the difference of the RR time series minus their corresponding reversed RR time series after a moving average detrending procedure is applied using a window of 30 samples. Linear regression results with simulated time series with Fractional Brownian Noise and with actual time series using the Fantasia (FT), Normal Sinus Rhythm RR time series (NSR) and Congestive Heart Failure RR interval (CHF) databases after artifact correction show good agreement between fscmd and Ｒ. Finally, Mann-Whitney Rank Sum tests applied to Ｒ and fscmd when comparing NSR and CHF databases show very significant differences (p<0.001) between groups for both indices.Postprint (published version