Context-aware Assessment Using QR-codes

In this paper we present the implementation of a general mechanism to deliver tests based on mobile devices and matrix codes. The system is an extension of Siette, and has not been specifically developed for any subject matter. To evaluate the performance of the system and show some of its capabilities, we have developed a test for a second-year college course on Botany at the School of Forestry Engineering. Students were equipped with iPads and took an outdoor test on plant species identification. All students were able to take and complete the test in a reasonable time. Opinions expressed anonymously by the students in a survey about the usability of the system and the usefulness of the test were very favorable. We think that the application presented in this paper can broaden the applicability of automatic assessment techniques.The presentation of this work has been co-founded by the Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Polymerase Chain Reaction Versus Blood Culture to Detect Candida Species in High-Risk Patients with Suspected Invasive Candidiasis: The MICAFEM Study

Abdominal fluid; Blood cultures; CandidaFluid abdominal; Hemocultiu; CandidaFluido abdominal; Hemocultivo; CandidaWe evaluated the diagnostic reliability of serum polymerase chain reaction (PCR) versus blood culture, abdominal fluid or both (composite measure) in patients receiving empirical antifungal treatment for suspected invasive candidiasis. METHODS: This observational, prospective, non-interventional, multicentre study in Spain enrolled 176 critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Separate blood samples for culture and serum PCR were taken before the start of antifungal therapy. Patient assessment was performed according to each site's usual clinical practice. The primary end point was concordance between serum PCR and blood culture. Secondary end points were concordance between serum PCR and a positive abdominal fluid sample or the composite measure. Quality indices included sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive values (PPV/NPV) and kappa indices. RESULTS: Among 175 evaluable patients, rates of Candida detection were similar for serum PCR (n = 16/175, 9.1%) versus blood culture (n = 14/175, 8.0%). Quality indices for serum PCR relative to blood culture were: sensitivity 21.4%; specificity 91.9%; PPV 18.8%; NPV 93.1%; kappa index 0.125. Thirty-two abdominal fluid samples were positive. Quality indices for serum PCR versus abdominal fluid were: sensitivity 31.3%; specificity 83.0%; PPV 15.6%; NPV 92.3%; kappa index 0.100. Quality indices for serum PCR versus the composite measure were: sensitivity 15.8%; specificity 92.7%; PPV 37.5%; NPV 79.9%; kappa index 0.107. CONCLUSION: The sensitivity of serum PCR for Candida detection was low and the rate of concordance was low between serum PCR and the other diagnostic techniques used to identify Candida infections. Hospital-based diagnostic tests need optimising to improve outcomes in patients with suspected invasive candidiasis.123/Astellas Pharma Global Developmen

Automatic System for Detecting Pathologies in the Respiratory System for the Care of Patients with Bronchial Asthma Visualized by Computerized Radiography

COVID-19 is a disease that directly affects the respiratory tract, being harmful in asthmatic patients because this condition causes a lack of oxygen, even to the extent that it requires external equipment to combat drowning. Likewise, it highlights the importance of maintaining a treatment or therapy correctly to prevent your disease from worsening or being exposed to other diseases, putting your health at risk. The diseases that asthmatic patients can acquire can result from pathologies, which have been growing over the years due to lack of equipment or efficient examinations that generate complete information about respiratory conditions about asthmatic patients, therefore, by developing an advanced system, the chances of detecting pathologies prematurely increase considerably,  which is an essential tool today. According to the problem exposed, in this research an automatic system of detection of pathologies in the respiratory system was carried out for the care of the patient with bronchial asthma visualized by computerized radiography, so that any pathology can be detected by means of a premature diagnosis in the respiratory system and the doctor can perform a correct treatment on the asthmatic patient. Through the tests carried out by the system, its performance was accurate and efficient, being suitable to be implemented in various hospitals so that the doctor can treat the disease in time, since the system presented a 98.79% efficiency in the detection of pathologies

Assessment on different vaccine formulation parameters in the protection against heterologous challenge with FMDV in cattle

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) remains one of the major threats to animal health worldwide. Its causative agent, the FMD virus (FMDV), affects cloven-hoofed animals, including farm animals and wildlife species, inflicting severe damage to the international trade and livestock industry. FMDV antigenic variability remains one of the biggest challenges for vaccine-based control strategies. The current study analyzed the host’s adaptive immune responses in cattle immunized with different vaccine protocols and investigated its associations with the clinical outcome after infection with a heterologous strain of FMDV. The results showed that antigenic payload, multivalency, and revaccination may impact on the clinical outcome after heterologous challenge with FMDV. Protection from the experimental infection was related to qualitative traits of the elicited antibodies, such as avidity, IgG isotype composition, and specificity diversity, modulating and reflecting the vaccine-induced maturation of the humoral response. The correlation analyses of the serum avidity obtained per vaccinated individual might suggest that conventional vaccination can induce high-affinity immunoglobulins against conserved epitopes even within different FMDV serotypes. Cross-reaction among strains by these high-affinity antibodies may support further protection against a heterologous infection with FMDV.Instituto de VirologíaFil: Di Giacomo, Sebastián. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Di Giacomo, Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bucafusco, Danilo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Bucafusco, Danilo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Schammas, Juan Manuel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Schammas, Juan Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pega, Juan Franco. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Pega, Juan Franco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Miraglia, Maria Cruz. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Miraglia, Maria Cruz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Barrionuevo, Florencia Mabel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Barrionuevo, Florencia Mabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Capozzo, Alejandra. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Capozzo, Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Perez Filgueira, Daniel Mariano. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Virología e Innovaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Perez Filgueira, Daniel Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Supercritical extraction of lyophilized strawberry anthocyanins with pulsed electric fields pretreatment

Anthocyanins from LSB and with a PEF pretreatment were extracted with ethanol + SCCO2. The extraction at 200 bar, 333.15, 3.3% wt. of ethanol as cosolvent and using LSB with a PEF pretreatment of 1 kV/cm, produced an extraction yield of 0.284 % and a TAC of 0.231 (g/100 g of ethanol + SCCO2). The individual effect of 1.0 kV/cm of PEF pretreatment increases the %EY by 25 % and the TAC by 29 %. The individual effect of the cosolvent increases the %EY by 32% and that of TAC by 36.4%. However, the combined effect of 1.0 kV cm-1 and 3.3 % ethanol, produced an increase of 78.2 % and 85.3% in the %EY and TAC, respectively. Therefore, these results suggest that there is a synergistic effect, which means that both the electroporation caused by PEF in the LSB and the increase in polarity due to the addition of ethanol produce a substantial improvement over %ET and TAC. Furthermore, the process of extracting anthocyanins from LSB using a mixture of ethanol + supercritical carbon dioxide can be satisfactorily described by a solubility-based model such as the Kumar and Johnston model.The lyophilized strawberry anthocyanins were extracted using a supercritical extraction (SE) process. The effect of pulsed electric fields (PEF) as pretreatment and the influence of the addition of ethanol as a cosolvent on the percentage of extraction yield (EY) and the total anthocyanin concentration (TAC) were analyzed. The effect of PEF was evaluated at 0.5 and 1.0 kV/cm, while the effect of the cosolvent was studied in mixtures of supercritical carbon dioxide - ethanol (SCCO2 + ethanol) at 1.6 and 3.3% by weight. The best results (% EY = 0.506, TAC = 0.428 g /100 g of lyophilized strawberry) were obtained with a PEF pretreatment of 1.0 kV cm-1, 3.3%wt. ethanol at 200 bar and 333.15 K. The experimental results of solubility were suitably adjusted with the Kumar and Johnston model. The maximum solubility (0.114 g/100 g of solvent mixture) was obtained at 300 bar and 313.15 K.The authors would like to thank the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT) for the scholarship granted to the master’s student in chemical sciences Marco A. Ávila-Hernández

Diagnosis of Induction Motor Faults in the Fractional Fourier Domain

[EN] Motor current signature analysis (MCSA) is a well-established method for the diagnosis of induction motor faults. It is based on the analysis of the spectral content of a motor current, which is sampled while a motor runs in steady state, to detect the harmonic components that characterize each type of fault. The Fourier transform (FT) plays a prominent role as a tool for identifying these spectral components. Recently, MCSA has also been applied during the transient regime (TMCSA) using the whole transient speed range to create a unique stamp of each harmonic as it evolves in the time-frequency plane. This method greatly enhances the reliability of the diagnostic process compared with the traditional method, which relies on spectral analysis at a single speed. However, the FT cannot be used in this case because the fault harmonics are not stationary signals. This paper proposes the use of the fractional FT (FrFT) instead of the FT to perform TMCSA. This paper also proposes the optimization of the FrFT to generate a spectrum where the frequency-varying fault harmonics appear as single spectral lines and, therefore, facilitate the diagnostic process. A discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used as a conditioning tool to filter the motor current prior to its processing by the FrFT. Experimental results that are obtained with a 1.1-kW three-phase squirrel-cage induction motor with broken bars are presented to validate the proposed method.This work was supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007-2013 under Grant Agreement 224233 (Research Project PRODI "Power Plant Robustification Based on Fault Detection and Isolation Algorithms"). The Associate Editor coordinating the review process for this paper was Dr. Subhas Mukhopadhyay.Pineda-Sanchez, M.; Riera-Guasp, M.; Antonino-Daviu, J.; Roger-Folch, J.; Perez-Cruz, J.; Puche-Panadero, R. (2010). Diagnosis of Induction Motor Faults in the Fractional Fourier Domain. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. 59(8):2065-2075. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIM.2009.2031835S2065207559

Spondyloarthropathies in autoimmune diseases and vice versa

Polyautoimmunity is one of the major clinical characteristics of autoimmune diseases (ADs). The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of ADs in spondyloarthropathies (SpAs) and vice versa. This was a two-phase cross-sectional study. First, we examined the presence of ADs in a cohort of patients with SpAs (). Second, we searched for the presence of SpAs in a well-defined group of patients with ADs () including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and Sjögren’s syndrome (SS). Among patients with SpAs, ankylosing spondylitis was observed in the majority of them (55.6%). There were two patients presenting with SS in the SpA group (1.4%) and 5 patients with autoimmune thyroiditis (3.5%). The global prevalence of ADs in SpAs was 4.86%. In the ADs group, there were 5 patients with SpAs (0.46%). Our results suggest a lack of association between SpAs and ADs. Accordingly, SpAs might correspond more to autoinflammatory diseases rather than to ADs

INCAMP: Master's Degree In The Carbon Neutral Management of Sport Marinas.

INCAMP project is developing an International Master’s Degree in the Carbon Neutral Management of sport marinas. In this article we present a draft on the distribution of the Master, with main learning materials that will be taught. The content has been divided into paths, modules and subjects, as following: 6 Fundamental modules; 18 Subjects; Practical and a Dissertation. Subjects of the Master has been selected to give the appropriate knowledge to the future students interested in Carbon Neutral Management of sport marinas. INCAMP has been created to meet future skills needs and to enhance the opportunities for cooperation between Higher Education, Vocational Educational Training and Industry, providing opportunities for cooperation among stakeholders as well as the exchange and transfer of knowledge to increase know-how. Throughout the master, students will be taught to understand and investigate the major processes and change drivers which contribute to climate conditions in the earth system at different scales, among them, the understanding of the interdependencies between the grand cycles (water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) in the Sport Marinas Management System. Furthermore, they will analyse the roles played by the biosphere in global and local environmental change: how is it affected by environmental change and how can changes in the biosphere affect global change? A macro-scale view of global biosphere function in Earth history and the global impact of humanity, putting contemporary environmental change into wider context. Human systems of knowledge, values, organization, technology, and behaviour will be examined in relation to environmental change in an evolutionary and social development context. What is the utility of viewing human societies as systems? How do the complexity, diversity, stratification, and resource management strategies of human societies shape their contributions and responses to critical environmental parameters and challenges? The module introduces relevant cognitive, social, economic, and human ecological concepts and theory to understand historical developments in social-ecological systems and address contemporary issues of sustainability and wellbeing in an increasingly populous and globalised society. Specifically, the students will investigate the role of energy systems in causing and mitigating climate change for carbon neutral management of sport marinas. Debates and major trends in the role of technologies, economics, human behaviour, social change and governance in avoiding dangerous anthropogenic climate change

Propuesta didáctica para el desarrollo de las competencias comunicativas en estudiantes del cuarto grado del nivel primaria en una institución educativa pública de Barranca, Datem del Marañón, Loreto

A continuación, se presenta el trabajo de suficiencia profesional que tiene como objetivo diseñar una propuesta de competencias comunicativas en estudiantes del cuarto grado del nivel de primaria en una institución educativa pública de Barranca, Datem del Marañón, Loreto. Por consiguiente, esta propuesta se basa en el Paradigma Sociocognitivo Humanista de: Jean Piaget (teoría de los estadios de desarrollo cognitivo), Lev Vygotsky (aprendizaje sociocultural) y David Ausubel (aprendizaje significativo y funcional). De este modo, el estudiante logra desarrollar competencias, capacidades y desempeños de acuerdo a lo establecido en el Currículo Nacional. Ante ello, esta propuesta contiene, en el primer capítulo, el marco situacional; en el segundo capítulo, el marco teórico; en el tercer capítulo, la programación curricularJuu takat waimaktasa weagamu iwainaji, nuigtu ajawai anentaimsa tabaun kakanjatin chichamu uchi emtamuji sup mijan ayamtai pujamuji Barranca, Datem del Marañon. Loreto.Nua dui, juu anentaibauwa juka mamikiaji iwainamu dekamu ii batsatkamunum aetnstii unuimamu tawa dui, Jean Piaget etsejbau (dekamu nuumpaja weaku yachameamu), Lev Vygotsky (unuimamu batsatkamunmayan) antsan David Ausubel jintiauwai (mamiksa ajamuji unuimamu). Nua dui, uchi yachameawai, kakanjatig,unuimantatabau. Chicham umikbaunum Curriculo Nacional. Dita emtin, juu mamikiamu ajawai, nagkamak agajbau, unuimagtin pataetusa diisa emamu, jimagnum agajbau etsejui, unuimagtinun aujmattsau aidau, kampatuma nui agajbaunum etsejui, takastin umiktinun