Fractionation and fluxes of metals and radionuclides during the recycling process of phosphogypsum wastes applied to mineral CO2 sequestration

The industry of phosphoric acid produces a calcium-rich by-product known as phosphogypsum, which is usually stored in large stacks of millions of tons. Up to now, no commercial application has been widely implemented for its reuse because of the significant presence of potentially toxic contaminants. This work confirmed that up to 96% of the calcium of phosphogypsum could be recycled for CO2 mineral sequestration by a simple two-step process: alkaline dissolution and aqueous carbonation, under ambient pressure and temperature. This CO2 sequestration process based on recycling phosphogypsum wastes would help to mitigate greenhouse gasses emissions. Yet this work goes beyond the validation of the sequestration procedure; it tracks the contaminants, such as trace metals or radionuclides, during the recycling process in the phosphogypsum. Thus, most of the contaminants were transferred from raw phosphogypsum to portlandite, obtained by dissolution of the phosphogypsum in soda, and from portlandite to calcite during aqueous carbonation. These findings provide valuable information for managing phosphogypsum wastes and designing potential technological applications of the by-products of this environmentally-friendly proposal.Junta de Andalucía P10-RNM-6300, P12- RNM-226

The Succession in Firm Top Management and the Successor Origin: Moderating Variables

El objetivo de nuestro estudio es, por un lado, avanzar en el conocimiento de las causas que pueden provocar un cambio en la alta dirección de la empresa, y, por otro, conocer los factores que pueden influir en el origen del sucesor, considerando algunas de las variables que habitualmente han sido omitidas por la literatura previa: sucesión forzada o no forzada y poder del alto directivo dentro del gobierno corporativo de la empresa. Los resultados obtenidos indican que la principal variable que influye en la sucesión forzada y en el origen del sucesor, es el rendimiento previo. Esta relación, sin embargo, se encuentra moderada por el efecto interactivo o moderador que ejercen otra serie de variables indicativas del poder que dicho directivo posee dentro la empresa, como es el caso de la composición del Consejo de Administración, la participación de alto directivo en la propiedad de la empresa, su antigüedad en el cargo como directivo, el tamaño de la empresa o la edad de la empresa.The objective of our study is, on the one hand, to gain further knowledge into the causes that can bring about a change in firm top management, and, on the other, to know the factors that may have some influence on successor origin, considering some of the variables that have habitually been ignored by the previous literature: torced succession or non-forced succession and the power of the top manager inside the firm's corporative governance. The results obtained indícate that the main variable influencing the scenario of torced succession and the successor origin, is prior performance. This relation, however, is conditioned by the interactive or moderating effect exercised by another series of variables that are indicative of the power this manager has inside the firm, as is the composition ofthe board of directors, the top manager's participation in firm ownership, the number of years he has held the post, the firm size, or the age firm

Adecuación de espacios fluviales del Bajo Guadalquivir como nuevos lugares públicos de la ciudad - territorio

Los espacios abiertos para el recreo de los habitantes de la ciudad actual no deben restringirse a franjas de parques aislados en el interior de los cascos urbanos y al conjunto de plazas públicas, sino que hemos de aspirar a disfrutar del paisaje de toda una región pensado como espacio público. Para registrar el territorio compatibilizando su ordenación como parte sustancial del sistema de espacios públicos de la Ciudad - Territorio actual. En la intención de dotar de espacios públicos a la ciudad extendida en el territorio, siendo éste el objetivo de esta investigación sobre la planificación de la ciudad contemporánea indagamos sobre los posibles nuevos lugares públicos no aisladamente, sino como sistema que estructura el conjunto y esté a su escala. Es por ello que fijamos nuestra atención sobre los elementos geográficos lineales de gran continuidad espacial, en la convicción de que son los lugares con vocación para convertirse en los elementos primarios que den orden estructural y claridad a la progresiva extensión territorial de la ciudad, al mismo tiempo que se convierten en los nuevos lugares emblemáticos y representativos de la ciudadanía; como nuevos valores sociales de su progresivo desarrollo. El Bajo Guadalquivir constituye un verdadero eje geográfico y en correspondencia se convierte en “eje de vertebración política” de su territorio. Para ilustrar el extraordinario patrimonio del medio natural se analiza una colección espacios fluviales inmersos en la cuenca fluvial del Bajo Guadalquivir, al objeto de valorarlos en su conjunto y en sus singularidades dentro de sus respectivos ámbitos paisajísticos.The recreational open spaces for inhabitants of cities today should not be restricted to isolated strips of parks and public squares within urban areas - we must think of the entire region’s landscape as public space. We should reconcile its natural and productive nature with public use, understanding the whole territorial system as part of a larger City - Territory Public Space. The objective of this research on the contemporary city planning is to provide public spaces to the city that sprawls into the territory, thus we investigate possible new public places, not individually but as part of a whole system that structures the whole, making them more coherent at a large scale. That is why we focus on geographical elements with linear features and spatial continuity, as we believe that they are, not only the best suited places to become elements of structure in the territorial expansion of the city, but also new iconic and symbolic sites of its inhabitants. The Lower Guadalquivir is a true geographical axis, and it consequently becomes “axis for political structuring” of the territory. As an example of its extraordinary environmental heritage we analyze a group of “Fluvial Areas” situated in Lower Guadalquivir, to study them as a whole and separately, unveiling their uniqueness within their respective landscaped areas

COVID-XNet: a custom Deep Learning system to diagnose and locate COVID-19 in chest X-ray images

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has changed the world as we know it. An early diagnosis is crucial in order to prevent new outbreaks and control its rapid spread. Medical imaging techniques, such as X-ray or chest computed tomography, are commonly used for this purpose due to their reliability for COVID-19 diagnosis. Computer-aided diagnosis systems could play an essential role in aiding radiologists in the screening process. In this work, a novel Deep Learning-based system, called COVID-XNet, is presented for COVID-19 diagnosis in chest X-ray images. The proposed system performs a set of preprocessing algorithms to the input images for variability reduction and contrast enhancement, which are then fed to a custom Convolutional Neural Network in order to extract relevant features and perform the classification between COVID-19 and normal cases. The system is trained and validated using a 5-fold cross-validation scheme, achieving an average accuracy of 94.43% and an AUC of 0.988. The output of the system can be visualized using Class Activation Maps, highlighting the main findings for COVID-19 in X-ray images. These promising results indicate that COVID-XNet could be used as a tool to aid radiologists and contribute to the fight against COVID-19.European Regional Development Fund COFNET TEC2016-77785-PAndalusian Regional (Spain) / FEDER Project PAIDI2020Andalusian Regional /FEDER PROMETEO AT17-5410-US

Implementing a Distance Estimator for a Wildlife Tracking System Based on 802.15.4

In this work, a novel distance estimation mechanism using received signal strength indication (RSSI) signals with ZigBee modules is designed, implemented and tested in several scenarios. This estimator was used for a research project focused on a wildlife behavioral classification system deployed in Doñana’s National Park. As a supporting feature for that project, this work was implemented for locating animal’s collars acting as wireless nodes in order to find those who went outside of the coverage area of the network or that were accidentally detached from animals. This work describes the system architecture and the implementation of a mobile assistant capable of recovering devices located beyond the coverage of the network. The analytical model needed for distance estimation and the signal filtering are described, as well as the difficulties that the researchers must deal when building robust location estimators. This theoretical model was applied to three different scenarios and tested with two validation experiments.Junta de Andalucía P12-TIC-130

Sampling Frequency Evaluation on Recurrent Neural Networks Architectures for IoT Real-time Fall Detection Devices

Falls are one of the most frequent causes of injuries in elderly people. Wearable Fall Detection Systems provided a ubiquitous tool for monitoring and alert when these events happen. Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) are algorithms that demonstrates a great accuracy in some problems analyzing sequential inputs, such as temporal signal values. However, their computational complexity are an obstacle for the implementation in IoT devices. This work shows a performance analysis of a set of RNN architectures when trained with data obtained using different sampling frequencies. These architectures were trained to detect both fall and fall hazards by using accelerometers and were tested with 10-fold cross validation, using the F1-score metric. The results obtained show that sampling with a frequency of 25Hz does not affect the effectiveness, based on the F1-score, which implies a substantial increase in the performance in terms of computational cost. The architectures with two RNN layers and without a first dense layer had slightly better results than the smallest architectures. In future works, the best architectures obtained will be integrated in an IoT solution to determine the effectiveness empirically.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-

Exoesqueleto para rehabilitación de miembro superior

Múltiples lesiones neurológicas, como los Accidentes Cardíacos Vasculares (ACV), provocan una degeneración y/o atrofia de la movilidad en las extremidades. La terapia pasiva se suele usar en los procesos de recuperación tras sufrir este tipo de lesiones, pero los ejercicios de brazos y manos utilizados habitualmente se basan en la realización de actividades de alta intensidad y repetitivos, haciendo que la recuperación sea larga, necesite de mucho trabajo y de la ayuda de varios fisiotera- peutas. En este trabajo se realiza el diseño, montaje, implementación y testeo de un sistema hardware-software basado en exoesqueleto y sensores de captación de movimiento de brazo y manos para su utilización en la rehabilitación de los miembros superiores con el fin de reducir el tiempo de recuperación. El usuario dispondrá de una aplicación que le guiará en todo momento haciendo uso de técnicas activas de gamificación para aumentar la motivación

Pilas de combustible de Membrana polimérica

En este trabajo revisamos brevemente las pilas de combustible poliméricas (PEM) basadas en membranas de intercambio protónico y que constituyen la tecnología idónea de pilas de combustible de baja temperatura, y por tanto las más adecuadas para aplicación en transporte. Revisaremos los materiales que las componen pero tambíen los desarrollos necesarios para su implantación definitiva en un mercado inclemente con las tecnologías caras, por límpias que sean

Pull-over potentiation in semi-tethered swimming

BACKGROUNDː The swimming community has shown considerable interest in using dry-land warm-ups as a method of impacting performance. This study compared the effects of high-resistance pull-over and swimming warm-up in semi-tethered resisted swimming. METHODSː An incremental-load semi-tethered swimming test was individually administered in 20 national-competitive swimmers to determine the load maximizing swimming power. In different sessions, participants tested such a load 6 min after a swimming warm-up (SWU) or a dry-land warm-up (DLWU: 3 pull-over reps at 85% of the one-repetition maximum). Kinetic variables (velocity, force, acceleration, impulse, power rate of force development (RFD) and intra-cycle variation), were obtained with a linear encoder through trapezoidal integration regarding time. Kinematic variables (distance, time, stroke-rate and stroke-length), were obtained by video recordings. The differences between protocols were observed by paired-samples T-test (ANOVA). Pearson’s coefficient explored correlations between kinetics and kinematics variables; significance was set at P<0.05. RESULTSː DLWU increased RFD (34.52±16.55 vs. 31.29±13.70 N/s; Δ=9.35%) and stroke-rate (64.70±9.84 vs. 61.56 ± 7.07 Hz; Δ=5.10%) compared to SWU, but decreased velocity, force, acceleration, impulse and power. During the incremental-load test velocity and power were higher than obtained after SWU (1.21±0.14 vs. 1.17±0.12 m/s; Δ=3.06%), (51.38±14.93 vs. 49.98±15.40 W; Δ=2.72%), suggesting enhancements prompted by the test itself. Correlations between stroke-length with impulse (r=0.76) and power (r=0.75) associated kinetics with kinematics. CONCLUSIONSː Potentiation responses were present after the dry-land warm-up. However, swimmers may benefit more from submaximal prolonged conditioning activities such as resisted swimming rather than high-resistance dry-land sets to obtain performance enhancements.CTS-527: Actividad física y deportiva en el medio acuátic

Postactivation potentiation in sprint swimming performance

Introduction: In sprint swimming, every instant is critical. Nowadays, is common to see how sprint swimmers prepare for racing by activating themselves on many different ways such as doing ballistic stretching, by increasing their breathing and heart rate, or by strongly clapping their chest or limbs. Therefore, it cannot be rejected the fact that sprint swimmers need to create an extra activation on their neuromuscular system in order to race at the best of their capacities. Many of those methods have been based on post-activation potentiation (PAP). A procedure which improves muscle contractility both in strength and speed through previously applying maximal or submaximal conditioning exercises on the muscle system. The aim of this study was testing different PAP protocols on sprint swimming performance. Methods: This study received the approval of the ethics committee of the research board’s university and all the protocols accomplished with the declaration of Helsinki regarding the use of human subjects. Thirty trained swimmers volunteered to participate on this study and signed informed consent. First of all, all the swimmers were obtained the maximal repetition lifting load (RM), through strength tests consisting on an incremental load repetition test both for lower and upper limbs. In order to obtain results related to specific swimming-movements, PAP methods were extrapolated from experimental conditions and tested on a swimming start performance. Free-weight load lifting and maximal eccentric flywheel contractions simulating the movement of a swimming start were tested. Kinetic and kinematic variables of performance were obtained through a dynamometer experimental block start station and by photogrammetry. Individual’s strength index were also discussed and related to the results. Finally, conditioning exercises simulating arm strokes in swimming through free-weight and eccentric flywheel were tested on the variables of competition of a swimming race. Results: Swimming starts were able of being improved through PAP as velocity at take-off was higher, specially after eccentric warm-up protocols. These improvements would come from improvements on the vertical vectors of force/impulse developed by the lower limbs on the block. In fact, stronger athletes seemed to react better to PAP protocols, possibly because myosin phosphorylation (main PAP precursor) is more frequent on type II fibers. The first meters of a swimming race might be improved by using PAP. However, some swimming patterns as stroke length might be deteriorated along the race. Conclusion: Fatigue and potentiation co-exists as responses of PAP, therefore, it generates very individualized responses, specially in males. Positive results might be obtained from applying PAP methods on the swimming start impulse although is still needed finding a suitable intensity for the conditioning exercises applied on upper limbs. Acknowledgements: DEP2014-59707-P: SWIM: Specific Water Innovative Measurements, applied to the development of International Swimmers in Short Swimming Events (50and100m).CTS-527: Actividad física y deportiva en el medio acuátic