Optimum traffic allocation in bundled energy-efficient ethernet links

The energy demands of Ethernet links have been an active focus of research in the recent years. This work has enabled a new generation of energy-efficient Ethernet (EEE) interfaces able to adapt their power consumption to the actual traffic demands, thus yielding significant energy savings. With the energy consumption of single network connections being a solved problem, in this paper, we focus on the energy demands of link aggregates that are commonly used to increase the capacity of a network connection. We build on known energy models of single EEE links to derive the energy demands of the whole aggregate as a function on how the traffic load is spread among its powered links. We then provide a practical method to share the load that minimizes overall energy consumption with controlled packet delay and prove that it is valid for a wide range of EEE links. Finally, we validate our method with both synthetic and real traffic traces captured in Internet backbones.Xunta de Galici

SoC architecture for acquisition and processing of the EMG signal

2023 38th Conference on Design of Circuits and Integrated Systems (DCIS), 15-17 November 2023, Málaga, Spain.EMG (electromyography) is a technique used to measure the electrical activity of muscles and nerves, during contraction and relaxation, and is used in a variety of clinical and research applications. In particular, it is very useful for the diagnosis and evaluation of neuromuscular disorders and control electromechanical devices or prostheses. This signal has a low SNR and needs to undergo conditioning processes including amplification, filtering and digitisation for further processing. In order to improve the SNR of the EMG signals, this work describes a System-on-Chip (SoC) architecture for the acquisition and processing of the EMG signals, offering a modular and high performance solution. These signals could be applied to the movement of a therapeutic exoskeleton with the aim of improving active rehabilitation therapies for patients with incomplete spinal cord injury. The proposed architecture provides a modular solution that allows signal digitization, performed as close as possible to the electrode and minimizing transmission losses, signal noise and artifacts. In addition, sampling is performed at a higher sampling rate than commercial acquisition systems, while supporting significant processing throughput. The architecture uses the ADS1298R integrated circuit for multichannel acquisition and perform the correct conditioning of EMG signals, as well as integrate the communication module through Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) interface to carry out the configuration and data transfers. In this case, the acquired signal is processed using a moving average-based algorithm and its thresholding to establish the muscle activity. The identified muscle activity could be used as an active reference to activate the therapeutic exoskeleton. The results show the validation of the proposed architecture with an EMG signal with a sampling rate of 8 kSPS.Agencia Estatal de Investigació

Influencia de gelatina sobre las propiedades de membranas de nanofibras obtenidas de polímeros sintéticos

La técnica de electrohilado es una técnica emergente y relativamente fácil para preparar matrices tridimensionales de micro y nanofibras. Para lograrlo, se utilizan disoluciones acuosas de polímeros de polímeros sintéticos o naturales. De forma general, se tiende a utilizar polímeros sintéticos pues permite un mayor control de las propiedades de las fibras obtenidas, así como una mejor procesabilidad. Sin embargo, estos polímeros sintéticos se suelen combinar con polímeros naturales para mejorar el carácter hidrófilo de las membranas o asemejar las propiedades mecánicas a las óptimas para su posterior respuesta biológica. Por tanto, este estudio evalúa la influencia de un biopolímero sobre las propiedades de andamios de nanofibras obtenidos a partir de polímeros sintéticos. Como polímero natural se ha seleccionado una proteína como la gelatina debido a su biocompatibilidad y biodegradabilidad; mientras que como polímeros sintéticos se han utilizado policaprolactona (PCL) y polivinil alcohol (PVA). Para ello, se llevó a cabo un proceso de electrohilado estándar (15 kV, 0.4 ml/h y 10 cm de distancia de trabajo) para obtener las membranas de nanofibras. La influencia de la adición de gelatina se observó analizando el ángulo de contacto del agua y las imágenes obtenidas mediante microscopía electrónica de barrido.The electrospinning technique is an emerging and relatively easy technique for preparing three-dimensional membranes with micro and nanofibers. To achieve this, aqueous solutions of synthetic or natural polymers are used. In general, synthetic polymers tend to be used, since it allows greater control of the properties of the fibers obtained, as well as a better processability. However, these synthetic polymers are usually combined with natural polymers to improve the hydrophilic character of the membranes or to resemble the optimum mechanical properties for their subsequent biological treatment. Therefore, this study evaluates the influence of a biopolymer on the properties of nanofiber scaffolds obtained from synthetic polymers. As a natural polymer, a protein such as gelatin has been selected because of its biocompatibility and biodegradability; while policaprolactone (PCL) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) have been used as synthetic polymers. Thus, a standard electrospinning process (15 kV, 0.4 mL/h and 10 cm of working distance) was carried out to obtain nanofibrous membranes. The influence of the addition of gelatin was observed by analyzing the water contact angle and the images obtained by scanning electron microscopy.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (España)/ FEDER (UE) CTQ2015-71164PUniversidad de Sevilla / Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad becas predoctorales VPPI-USUniversidad de Sevilla / Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad becas predoctorales FPU17/0171

Acute Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplements on Resistance Training: A Randomized Double-Blind Crossover

The ingestion of beetroot juice (BJ) has been associated with improvements in physical performance in endurance sports, however the literature on resistance training (RT) is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the acute effects of BJ compared to a placebo (PLA) on muscular endurance and movement concentric velocity during RT. Twelve healthy men performed an incremental RT test (back squat and bench press) with three sets, at 60%, 70%, and 80% of their repetition maximum (1-RM). Movement velocity variables, total number of repetitions performed until concentric failure, blood lactate, and ratings of perceived effort post-training were measured. A higher number of repetitions were recorded with BJ compared to those with PLA (13.8 ± 14.4; p 0.05). Acute supplementation of BJ improved muscular endurance performance in RT

Musculoskeletal Risks: RULA Bibliometric Review

The objective of this study was to reveal RULA method applications in terms of the knowledge, country, year and journal categories. The search was performed using the “Web of Science Core Collection”. The period from 1993 to April 2019 was selected. Eight hundred nine results were obtained, of which 226 were used. The largest number of publications was determined to be in the fields of industry and health and social assistance, which coincides with the OWAS and Standardized Nordic Questionnaire methods. By country, the USA stands out for its greater number of research studies and categories that are encompassed. By date, 2016 was the year when more studies were carried out, again coinciding with the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire. By journal, “Work—A Journal of Prevention Assessment and Rehabilitation” is highlighted, as it is for the REBA method as well. It was concluded that RULA can be applied to workers in different fields, usually in combination with other methods, while technological advancement provides benefits for its application

Non-Intrusive Measurements to Incorporate the Air Renovations in Dynamic Models Assessing the In-Situ Thermal Performance of Buildings

This paper reports the analysis of the feasibility to characterise the air leakage and the mechanical ventilation avoiding the intrusiveness of the traditional measurement techniques of the corresponding indicators in buildings. The viability of obtaining the air renovation rate itself from measurements of the concentration of the metabolic CO2, and the possibilities to express this rate as function of other climatic variables, are studied. N2O tracer gas measurements have been taken as reference. A Test Cell and two full size buildings, with and without mechanical ventilation and with different levels of air leakage, are considered as case studies. One-month test campaigns have been used for the reference N2O tracer gas experiments. Longer periods are available for the analysis based on CO2 concentration. When the mechanical ventilation is not active, the results indicate significant correlation between the air renovation rate and the wind speed. The agreement between the N2O reference values and the evolution of the metabolic CO2 is larger for larger initial values of the CO2 concentration. When the mechanical ventilation is active, relevant variations have been observed among the N2O reference values along the test campaigns, without evidencing any correlation with the considered boundary variables

Supercritical water oxidation for energy production by hydrothermal flame as internal heat source. Experimental results and energetic study

Producción CientíficaThe cooled wall reactor has been modified by adding an additional upper outlet of products at 500–700 °C to improve energy recovery and make possible energy generation with the supercritical water oxidation of different waste. Experimental and modeling results of the performance of this new reactor configuration are presented as well as a theoretical analysis of the energy recovery of the reactor compared to other supercritical water oxidation reactors. Different flow distributions were tested to find the best elimination conditions. Total organic carbon removal over 99.99% was obtained at room injection temperatures, when the fraction of products leaving the reactor in the upper effluent is lower than 70% of feed flow. The performance of the reactor was tested with the oxidation of a recalcitrant compound such as ammonia. Removals higher than 99% of were achieved at temperatures near 700 °C. The behavior of the reactor working with feeds with up to 2.5% wt Na2SO4 could be injected in the reactor without plugging problems. Upper effluent always presented a concentration of salt lower than 30 ppm. Theoretical energetic analysis shows that the performance of this reactor is superior to other designs obtaining a maximum power efficiency of 27% (0.339 kW/kg-feed).Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad - FEDER (Proyect CTQ2013-44143-R

An intelligent surveillance platform for large metropolitan areas with dense sensor deployment

Producción CientíficaThis paper presents an intelligent surveillance platform based on the usage of large numbers of inexpensive sensors designed and developed inside the European Eureka Celtic project HuSIMS. With the aim of maximizing the number of deployable units while keeping monetary and resource/bandwidth costs at a minimum, the surveillance platform is based on the usage of inexpensive visual sensors which apply efficient motion detection and tracking algorithms to transform the video signal in a set of motion parameters. In order to automate the analysis of the myriad of data streams generated by the visual sensors, the platform’s control center includes an alarm detection engine which comprises three components applying three different Artificial Intelligence strategies in parallel. These strategies are generic, domain-independent approaches which are able to operate in several domains (traffic surveillance, vandalism prevention, perimeter security, etc.). The architecture is completed with a versatile communication network which facilitates data collection from the visual sensors and alarm and video stream distribution towards the emergency teams. The resulting surveillance system is extremely suitable for its deployment in metropolitan areas, smart cities, and large facilities, mainly because cheap visual sensors and autonomous alarm detection facilitate dense sensor network deployments for wide and detailed coveraMinisterio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio and the Fondo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Israeli Chief Scientist Research Grant 43660 inside the European Eureka Celtic project HuSIMS (TSI-020400-2010-102)

Identification of three new cis-regulatory IRF5 polymorphisms: in vitro studies

Background Polymorphisms in the interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) gene are associated with susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases through independent risk and protective haplotypes. Several functional polymorphisms are already known, but they do not account for the protective haplotypes that are tagged by the minor allele of rs729302. Methods Polymorphisms in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with rs729302 or particularly associated with IRF5 expression were selected for functional screening, which involved electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) and reporter gene assays. Results A total of 54 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the 5' region of IRF5 were genotyped. Twenty-four of them were selected for functional screening because of their high LD with rs729302 or protective haplotypes. In addition, two polymorphisms were selected for their prominent association with IRF5 expression. Seven of these twenty-six polymorphisms showed reproducible allele differences in EMSA. The seven were subsequently analyzed in gene reporter assays, and three of them showed significant differences between their two alleles: rs729302, rs13245639 and rs11269962. Haplotypes including the cis-regulatory polymorphisms correlated very well with IRF5 mRNA expression in an analysis based on previous data. Conclusion We have found that three polymorphisms in LD with the protective haplotypes of IRF5 have differential allele effects in EMSA and in reporter gene assays. Identification of these cis-regulatory polymorphisms will allow more accurate analysis of transcriptional regulation of IRF5 expression, more powerful genetic association studies and deeper insight into the role of IRF5 in disease susceptibility.This project was supported by grants PI08/0744 and PI11/01048 and by a RETICS Program grant (RD08/0075 (RIER)) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain), which are partially financed by the European Regional Development Fund program of the European UnionS

Premis, càstigs i educació

Els autors defensen que el costum i la llei confi guren la legalitat i la moralitat socials i determinen el nostre comportament, alhora que qüestionen els resultats 'esperats' de l'aplicació mecànica dels premis i càstigs en educació. Distingeixen el control extern 'supervisió' i l'intern 'motivació' en l'esdevenir dels comportaments analitzats, en relació a l'aplicació d'aquelles sancions i tot seguit aborden l'estudi monogràfi c des del conductisme, des del cognitivisme i des de la perspectiva moral. Ara aborden la complexitat contextual de la intervenció pedagògica i les alternatives possibles des dels plantejaments actitudinals dels subjectes, per concloure que els premis tenen la fi nalitat general de reforçar una situació que es considera desitjable, apel·lant 'també' a la dimensió afectiva i destacant les bases psicològiques de l'educació: la motivació i la reconducció de situacions no desitjables, sempre amb afecte, sense rancúnia i amb sentit optimitzador