Graphical tools for helping firefighters in victim rescues. Assessment during a live fire training program

This study compares three different methods to communicate the features of a building to firefighters, before starting a victim rescue during a live fire training program. Participants in this study did not previously know the hotel used for developing the activities. The effective number of participants was 144, all professional firefighters. One of the exercises in this training program was thoroughly designed not only for training purposes, but also to test different guide versions. The innovative guides were based on two different technologies (simple stapled sheets of paper and digital content displayed on a tablet) and were developed using several graphical tools (conventional pictures, aerial images captured with drone, 3D models, 360° pictures, etc.). With the intention of facilitating firefighters’ activity during a victim rescue, results obtained using these tools were compared with a conventional communication method. The assessment methodology applied in this study included the use of an anonym questionnaire, as well as the analysis of the videos captured with action cameras, attached with a harness to the chest of two of the four firefighters in every team, during the training activities. Thanks to these videos, it was possible to compare the time required for rescuing the victim and to observe followed paths, visited rooms and substantial information about the tested tools, including valuable participants’ comments. For in emergency situations, the tools described in this paper were preferred to the already existent self-protection plans, usually considered too extensive for fast communication, a matter of special importance in victim rescues

WEDM Manufacturing Method for Noncircular Gears, Using CAD/CAM Software

Noncircular gears are used in several technological applications in order to enhance the performance of different mechanical instruments (flow meters, bikes, internal combustion engines, etc.), in order to unify speed in assembly lines and in research. Noncircular gears are typically manufactured by shaving: milling each tooth or by generation. This requires controlling the geometric and kinematic variables in the process. In this research, a method to manufacture elliptical and oval gears using wire electro-discharge machining (WEDM) is presented. This is a continuous procedure, and its performance is not inferior to the previously mentioned methods. Mathematical models for manufacturing elliptical and oval gears are presented, simulations are carried out, and this method is implemented in a WEDM machine, obtaining two pairs of elliptical and oval gears. This method could be useful in the manufacturing of injection moulds or custom-made metallic gears. Finally, a discussion using bibliographic references is presented about the surface finish and the consequences of using WEDM in comparison to other shaving methods which do not involve a material phase change

Low-temperature specific heat and thermal conductivity of glycerol

We have measured the thermal conductivity of glassy glycerol between 1.5 K and 100 K, as well as the specific heat of both glassy and crystalline phases of glycerol between 0.5 K and 25 K. We discuss both low-temperature properties of this typical molecular glass in terms of the soft-potential model. Our finding of an excellent agreement between its predictions and experimental data for these two independent measurements constitutes a robust proof of the capabilities of the soft-potential model to account for the low-temperature properties of glasses in a wide temperature range.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev. B (2002

FERTI.CFH: Nuevo recurso para el cálculo de la fertilización y fertirriego

Ferti.cfh permite elaborar planes de abonado o de fertirrigación de una manera eficiente, ajustando las cantidades de fertilizantes en función de las necesidades del cultivo, de su estado nutritivo y de los aportes que se realizan por suelo y agua, con lo que se pueden obtener unos rendimientos óptimos preservando el medio ambiente a un mínimo coste. La aplicación permite la configuración de datos predeterminados reduciendo su tiempo de realización, y dispone de una base de datos en la que se almacena todos los parámetros que intervienen en la elaboración del plan. Con esta herramienta, el usuario tiene la posibilidad de llevar a cabo un seguimiento histórico de todas las recomendaciones de abonado y de riego, realizadas en diferentes campañas

Chloride Nutrition Regulates development, Water Balance and Drought Resistance in Plants

6 páginas.-- 5 figuras.-- 9 referencias.-- Poster presentado en el XII Luso-Spanish Symposium on Plant Water Relations – Water to Feed the World. 30th of September – 3rd of October (Evora) PortugalCl- is a strange micronutrient since actual Cl- concentration in plants is about two orders of magnitude higher than the content required as essential micronutrient. This accumulation requires a high cost of energy, and since Cl- is a major osmotically active solute in the vacuole, we propose that Cl- plays a role in the regulation of water balance in plants. We show here that, when accumulated to macronutrient levels, Cl- specifically regulates leaf cell elongation and water balance parameters, improving water relations at both the leaf tissue and the whole plant levels, increasing drought resistance in higher plants.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation-FEDER grant AGL2009-08339/AGR.Peer Reviewe

Elucidating mechanisms underlying organ abscission.

Abscission consists in the detachment of entire vegetative and reproductive organs due to cell separation processes occurring at the abscission zones (AZs) at specific positions of the plant body. From an evolutionary point of view, abscission is a highly advantageous process resulting into fruit and seed dispersal as well as the shedding of no longer useful organs. In an agricultural context, however, abscission may become a major limiting factor for crop productivity. Domestication of major crops included the selection of plants that did not naturally shed ripe fruits or seeds. The understanding of abscission is of great importance to control seed and fruit production and to improve breeding and harvesting practices. Thus, advances made on model plants and crops are of major importance since they may provide potential candidate genes for further biotechnological applications. Here, we review the current knowledge of the physiological, genetic and genomic aspects related to abscission including the most recently disclosed putative regulators that appear to be implicated in the development and/or activation of the AZs

Functional genomic approaches to understanding abscission activation in citrus

Abscission events in citrus allow the detachment of entire organs, both vegetative (buds, leaves) and reproductive (flowers, ovaries, fruitlets, mature fruits). This is achieved by the modification of cellular adhesion in a discrete group of specialized cells differentiated in predictable positions, known as abscission zones (AZs). Thus, abscission facilitates several key processes for citrus biology that, in an agricultural context, represent a major limiting factor for crop yield. In this regard, understanding the regulation of abscission is an important item for the citrus fruit industry. Several functional genomic approaches are currently being used to gain insights into the regulation of citrus abscission and to provide potential candidate genes for further biotechnological applications. These include: (a) the development of an expressed sequence tag (EST) dataset from abscission activated AZs and the analysis of ESTs distribution in organs to reveal AZ-preferential gene expression during abscission activation, (b) comparative transcriptomic analysis using cDNA microarrays and laser microdissected tissues (AZ cells, petiole and fruit rind cells flanking AZs), and (c) functional characterization of putative abscission-associated citrus genes in Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa)