Applying Prolog to Develop Distributed Systems

Development of distributed systems is a difficult task. Declarative programming techniques hold a promising potential for effectively supporting programmer in this challenge. While Datalog-based languages have been actively explored for programming distributed systems, Prolog received relatively little attention in this application area so far. In this paper we present a Prolog-based programming system, called DAHL, for the declarative development of distributed systems. DAHL extends Prolog with an event-driven control mechanism and built-in networking procedures. Our experimental evaluation using a distributed hash-table data structure, a protocol for achieving Byzantine fault tolerance, and a distributed software model checker - all implemented in DAHL - indicates the viability of the approach

A simheuristic algorithm for time-dependent waste collection management with stochastic travel times

A major operational task in city logistics is related to waste collection. Due to large problem sizes and numerous constraints, the optimization of real-life waste collection problems on a daily basis requires the use of metaheuristic solving frameworks to generate near-optimal collection routes in low computation times. This paper presents a simheuristic algorithm for the time-dependent waste collection problem with stochastic travel times. By combining Monte Carlo simulation with a biased randomized iterated local search metaheuristic, time-varying and stochastic travel speeds between different network nodes are accounted for. The algorithm is tested using real instances in a medium-sized city in Spain

Practical Characterization of Cell-Electrode Electrical Models in Bio-Impedance Assays

This paper presents the fitting process followed to adjust the parameters of the electrical model associated to a cell-electrode system in Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) technique, to the experimental results from cell-culture assays. A new parameter matching procedure is proposed, under the basis of both, mismatching between electrodes and time-evolution observed in the system response, as consequence of electrode fabrication processes and electrochemical performance of electrode-solution interface, respectively. The obtained results agree with experimental performance, and enable the evaluation of the cell number in a culture, by using the electrical measurements observed at the oscillation parameters in the test circuits employed.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2013-46242-C3-1-

Kinetics of Drying Medicinal Plants by Hybridization of Solar Technologies

Historically, medicinal plants have always had an important place in medicine. Medicinal plants processing represents a great challenge, due to their compounds sensitive to the environmental conditions that surround and degrade them. Mostly of these plants require to be dry to preserve its safety and medicinal properties; therefore, for proper drying, it is necessary to use sustainable devices that protect the desirable characteristics of plants from direct radiation. In this work, the kinetics of dehydration of three medicinal plants are presented in an indirect solar dryer. In addition, the experimental results were adjusted to nine mostly used models, to estimate the drying conditions required to achieve a desired final moisture content. Modified Page and Page were the models with better fit to experimental results. Furthermore, a computational simulation of temperature evolution and distribution inside the dryer is presented. These results agree with those obtained experimentally

Fast Decision Algorithms in Low-Power Embedded Processors for Quality-of-Service Based Connectivity of Mobile Sensors in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

When a mobile wireless sensor is moving along heterogeneous wireless sensor networks, it can be under the coverage of more than one network many times. In these situations, the Vertical Handoff process can happen, where the mobile sensor decides to change its connection from a network to the best network among the available ones according to their quality of service characteristics. A fitness function is used for the handoff decision, being desirable to minimize it. This is an optimization problem which consists of the adjustment of a set of weights for the quality of service. Solving this problem efficiently is relevant to heterogeneous wireless sensor networks in many advanced applications. Numerous works can be found in the literature dealing with the vertical handoff decision, although they all suffer from the same shortfall: a non-comparable efficiency. Therefore, the aim of this work is twofold: first, to develop a fast decision algorithm that explores the entire space of possible combinations of weights, searching that one that minimizes the fitness function; and second, to design and implement a system on chip architecture based on reconfigurable hardware and embedded processors to achieve several goals necessary for competitive mobile terminals: good performance, low power consumption, low economic cost, and small area integration

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Urban Acoustic Environments with Binaural Psycho-Acoustical Considerations for IoT-based Applications

Sound pleasantness or annoyance perceived in urban soundscapes is a major concern in environmental acoustics. Binaural psychoacoustic parameters are helpful to describe generic acoustic environments, as it is stated within the ISO 12913 framework. In this paper, the application of a Wireless Acoustic Sensor Network (WASN) to evaluate the spatial distribution and the evolution of urban acoustic environments is described. Two experiments are presented using an indoor and an outdoor deployment of a WASN with several nodes using an Internet of Things (IoT) environment to collect audio data and calculate meaningful parameters such as the sound pressure level, binaural loudness and binaural sharpness. A chunk of audio is recorded in each node periodically with a microphone array and the binaural rendering is conducted by exploiting the estimated directional characteristics of the incoming sound by means of DOA estimation. Each node computes the parameters in a different location and sends the values to a cloud-based broker structure that allows spatial statistical analysis through Kriging techniques. A cross-validation analysis is also performed to confirm the usefulness of the proposed system.Ingeniería, Industria y Construcció

Identificación de contextos con contenidos científico-económicos y su aplicación al aula

Depto. de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales , Sociales y MatemáticasFac. de EducaciónFALSEsubmitte

Embedded bleeding detector into a PMMA applicator for electron intraoperative radiotherapy

Purpose: The aim of this work is to present a ready to industrialize low-cost and easy-to-install bleeding detector for use in intraoperative electron radiation therapy (IOERT). The detector works in stand-alone mode and is embedded into a translucent polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) applicator avoiding any contact with the patient, which represent a novelty compared to previous designs. The use of this detector will prevent dose misadministration during irradiation in the event of accumulation of fluids in the applicator. Methods: The detector is based on capacitive sensor and wireless power-supply electronics. Both sensor and electronics have been embedded in the applicator, so that any contact with the patient would be avoided. Since access to the tumor can be done through different trajectories, the detector has been calibrated for different tilting angles. Results: The result of the calibration provides us with a fit curve that allows the interpolation of the results at any angle. Comparison of estimated fluid height vs real height gives an error of 1 mm for tilting angles less than 10º and 2 mm for tilting angles greater than 15º. This accuracy is better than the one required by clinic. Conclusions: The performance of the bleeding detector was evaluated in situ. No interference was observed between the detector and the beam. In addition, a user-friendly mobile application has been developed to help the surgical team making decisions before and during irradiation. The measurement provided by the mobile application was stable during the irradiation process

Actual aeolian sand drift power in the Valdevaqueros dune system (Tarifa)

La duna de Valdevaqueros está situada en uno de los puntos más ventosos de Europa. Su elevada movilidad y la frecuente aparición de vientos de levante de gran intensidad han provocado un serio problema de invasión masiva y continua de arena sobre la carretera autonómica, que lleva a la población de Punta Paloma (Tarifa). En el cálculo de transporte eólico de sedimentos, se suelen utilizar varias formulaciones, pero que parecen no ajustarse a la situación real de Valdevaqueros. Por ello, se han colocado una torre de anemómetros y una trampa de arena de fabricación propia, capaz de recoger arena a distintas alturas o niveles. La tasa media de transporte in situ para un viento de intensidad moderada ha sido de hasta 3 veces superior a la obtenida teóricamente. Los resultados granulométricos obtenidos han sido de gran ayuda para la comprensión de la distribución de los granos de arena a diferentes alturas.Valdevaqueros dune is located in one of the windiest points of Europe. The high dune mobility and the frequent occurrence of strong east winds have caused a serious problem of a massive and continuous sand invasion over a regional road towards the village of Punta Paloma (Tarifa). Despite the existence of various formulations to compute aeolian sand drift power, they seem not to fit with the actual situation of Valdevaqueros. To determine real transport rates in Valdevaqueros dune system, an anemometer tower and a hand-made sand trap have been placed to retain the drift sands at different heights or levels. The in-situ average transport rate for moderate wind power has been up to3 times higher than the theoretical computation. Grain-size results have been of great help for the understanding of the sand grain distribution at different heights.VII Jornadas de Geomorfología Litoral - Julio 2013 - Geotemas, 14, pp. 91-9

Study of sand density variation to achieve beach nourishment optimization

Para reducir la erosión costera, las regeneraciones de playas han desempeñado un papel fundamental en la protección de la costa a nivel mundial. Muchos países invierten grandes cantidades de dinero en este tipo de actuaciones pese a las consecuencias económicas, sociales y ambientales. A pesar de las numerosas investigaciones realizadas respecto a la eficiencia de las regeneraciones de playa, existen aspectos técnicos que aún no han sido investigados. Con el fin de estudiar la variación de volumen de arena tras una regeneración de playa, en este estudio, se describe una técnica rápida y novedosa para medir in situ la densidad de la arena mediante un densímetro nuclear. Junto a estas medidas, se han desarrollado análisis granulométricos y levantamientos topográficos en diferentes playas de la provincia de Cádiz. Tras las regeneraciones, se han apreciado importantes diferencias de nivel del terreno debidas, en parte, a la variación de la densidad y porosidad de la arena. Desde un punto de vista técnico y económico, la metodología descrita y los resultados expuestos pueden ser útiles para estimar el volumen de arena preciso en regeneraciones de playas similares.In order to reduce coastal erosion, beach nourishment plays an important role in coastal protection around the world. Many countries spend a lot of money in relation to these activities in spite of economical, social and environmental consequences. Despite existing researches on nourishment efficiency, there are some technical aspects that have not been still researched. With the aim of studying the sand volume variation after beach nourishment works, a fast and novel application has been described herein in order to measure sand beach density in-situ through a nuclear densimeter. In the same way, grain size analysis and topographic levelling have been performed at different beaches in the province of Cadiz (SW of Spain). After the nourishment activities, significant differences of levelling have been registered due in part to density and porosity sand variations. From a technical and economical point of view, the applicability of the methods and results published in this paper can be very useful to estimate an accurate sand volume for other similar beach nourishment projects.VII Jornadas de Geomorfología Litoral. Julio 2013. Geo-Temas, 14, pp. 203-20