Propuesta de un programa para el control de exposición a estrés térmico por calor y radiación solar de los trabajadores que laboran a la intemperie en la Municipalidad de Santo Domingo de Heredia

Proyecto de Graduación (Licenciatura en Ingeniería en Seguridad Laboral e Higiene Ambiental) Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Escuela de Ingeniería en Seguridad Laboral e Higiene Ambiental, 2019El presente proyecto está dirigido al tema de exposición ocupacional a estrés térmico por calor y radiación solar de los trabajadores que laboran a la intemperie en la Municipalidad de Santo Domingo. El objetivo es proponer un programa de control de exposición a estrés térmico por calor y radiación solar. Se realizó una valoración de riesgos y un análisis de la gestión actual, lo cual sirvió como base para el diseño de controles técnico-ingenieriles y administrativos. La valoración de la exposición se estimó por medio del índice TGBH, el consumo metabólico, el tiempo máximo de exposición a radiación solar y la irradiancia media; y la gestión actual se estudió a través de la Nota Técnica de Prevención 308 del INSHT de España y un análisis FODA. De la valoración de la exposición se obtuvo que todos los trabajadores tienen cargas metabólicas altas (133-284 W/m2) y se encontró evidencia de sobreexposición a calor. También se determinó que los tres tipos de piel más sensibles, según el IMN, son los predominantes y que la zona tiene el IUV más alto del país, concluyendo que cuatro de los cinco grupos de trabajadores corren el riesgo de sufrir estrés térmico; y que todos los trabajadores están sobreexpuestos a radiación solar. En el análisis de la gestión actual se encontraron deficiencias principalmente en la información y participación, concluyendo que la gestión es aceptable, pero no satisfactoria. Dentro del programa se establecieron diferentes medidas de prevención y protección las cuales son eficientes cuando se trabajan en conjunto. Además, se establecieron metodologías para la evaluación, mejora y seguimiento del programa, procesos dentro de los cuales se involucran a los diferentes trabajadores. Se recomienda realizar estudios similares a otros grupos que podrían estarse viendo afectados, promover la prevención ante la exposición a radiación solar y adquirir equipos para garantizar la exactitud de las evaluaciones. Tanto los apartados del programa, como las medidas establecidas cumplen con la normativa vigente.This project is aimed at the issue of occupational exposure to thermal stress by heat and solar radiation of the workers who work outdoors in the Municipality of Santo Domingo. The objective is to propose a program to control exposure to thermal stress by heat and solar radiation. To achieve the objective, it was necessary to carry out a risk assessment and an analysis of the current management, which served as the basis for the design of technical-engineering and administrative controls. The exposure assessment was estimated by means of the WBGT index, the metabolic consumption, the maximum exposure time to solar radiation and the average irradiance; and the current management was studied through TPS 308 and a SWOT analysis. The exposure assessment shows that all workers have high metabolic loads and evidence of overexposure to heat is found. It was also determined that the three most sensitive skin types, according to the IMN, are predominant and that the area has the highest UV in the country, concluding that four of the five groups are at risk of thermal stress; and that all workers are overexposed to solar radiation. In the analysis of current management, deficiencies were found mainly in terms of information and participation, concluding that management is acceptable, but not satisfactory. Within the program different prevention and protection measures were established which are efficient when working together. In addition, methodologies were established for the evaluation, improvement and monitoring of the program, processes within which the different workers are involved. Similar studies are recommended to other groups that may be affected, promote prevention against exposure to solar radiation and acquire equipment to ensure the accuracy of the evaluations. Both, the sections of the program and the established controls comply with current regulations

El control interno en la gestión de tesorería del Programa Nacional Aurora, 2020

El presente estudio, tuvo como objetivo identificar la relación del control interno con la gestión de tesorería en el Programa Nacional Aurora, 2020. Asimismo, la población de estudio fue a 82 personas que trabajan en las áreas relacionadas a la gestión de tesorería del Programa Nacional Aurora, y por ser una población pequeña se consideró como población muestral a todas las 82 personas, quienes contestaron las preguntas del instrumento llamado cuestionario se midieron las variables control interno y gestión de tesorería. La investigación utilizó un enfoque cuantitativo de tipo básica, así también, tuvo un diseño no experimental de nivel correlacional y de corte transversal; de esta manera, se aplicó el cuestionario como instrumento de recolección de datos, a la población en un solo momento, el mismo que estuvo conformado por 54 preguntas, 27 para la variable control interno y 27 para la variable gestión de tesorería con preguntas a la escala de Likert donde las 82 personas de las áreas relacionadas a la gestión de tesorería en el Programa Nacional Aurora, contestaron las preguntas que se utilizaron para la interpretación de los resultados con los gráficos, tablas cruzadas y de correlación entre las variables control interno y gestión de tesorería. Por lo tanto, se concluyó que existe una relación directa y significativa entre el control interno y la gestión de tesorería en el Programa Nacional Aurora, 2020, conforme el coeficiente de correlación de Rho Spearman es de 0.674 y la sig. bilateral del p valor = 0,000 < 0,05 rechazando la hipótesis nula y aceptando la hipótesis alterna, precisando en este sentido que existe una relación de magnitud alta, del cual se interpretó que, a mayor control interno, mayor gestión de tesorería

Estimated Covid-19 burden in Spain: ARCH underreported non-stationary time series

Background The problem of dealing with misreported data is very common in a wide range of contexts for different reasons. The current situation caused by the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic is a clear example, where the data provided by official sources were not always reliable due to data collection issues and to the high proportion of asymptomatic cases. In this work, a flexible framework is proposed, with the objective of quantifying the severity of misreporting in a time series and reconstructing the most likely evolution of the process. Methods The performance of Bayesian Synthetic Likelihood to estimate the parameters of a model based on AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedastic time series capable of dealing with misreported information and to reconstruct the most likely evolution of the phenomenon is assessed through a comprehensive simulation study and illustrated by reconstructing the weekly Covid-19 incidence in each Spanish Autonomous Community. Results Only around 51% of the Covid-19 cases in the period 2020/02/23–2022/02/27 were reported in Spain, showing relevant differences in the severity of underreporting across the regions. Conclusions The proposed methodology provides public health decision-makers with a valuable tool in order to improve the assessment of a disease evolution under different scenarios.Research funded by Fundación MAPFRE. This work was partially supported by grant RTI2018-096072-B-I00 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and by the Spanish State Research Agency, through the Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu Program for Centers and Units of Excellence in R&D (CEX2020–001084-M). A.F-F acknowledges Agencia Estatal de Investigación for the financial support IJC2020-045188I/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. AC was partially financed by PID2021-123733NB-I00 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain). AC and AA were partially supported by Project “EcoDep” CY-AAP2020-0000000013 (“Investissements d’Avenir” ANR-16-IDEX-0008, France).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Data model management, with the use of artificial intelligence, for a geographic information system in the energetic sector

A Geographic Information System (GIS), named SIGOBE v 3.0, for the electric sector is development. The Integral Management System of the ECIE (SIGECIE) and the Integrated Network Management System (SIGERE) databases are taxed alfanumeric information. Studies determined the need for a model for data management, contributing to the GIS development, on a conceptual schema domain capable of responding to different user requests, through automatic query as support decision making. To provide the GIS with a conceptual basis an ontology is determined, which will be expressed by logical descriptive, to generate the traits of a case-based reasoning that allows automation of consultations. The final quality of GIS was verified according to the quality standards of the ISO-9126:2002 standard. The proposed model and its functionality contributes to: facilitate decision-making at different levels, perform risk analysis to have the defects of electrical installations, reduce the time of failure to the key areas of the country, organize the travel of trucks more efficiently and locate electrical faults more accurately

Cumulated burden of Covid-19 in Spain from a Bayesian perspective

Background The main goal of this work is to estimate the actual number of cases of Covid-19 in Spain in the period 01-31-2020/06-01-2020 by Autonomous Communities. Based on these estimates, this work allows us to accurately re-estimate the lethality of the disease in Spain, taking into account unreported cases. Methods A hierarchical Bayesian model recently proposed in the literature has been adapted to model the actual number of Covid-19 cases in Spain. Results The results of this work show that the real load of Covid-19 in Spain in the period considered is well above the data registered by the public health system. Specifically, the model estimates show that, cumulatively until June 1st, 2020, there were 2 425 930 cases of Covid-19 in Spain with characteristics similar to those reported (95% credibility interval: 2 148 261 2 813 864), from which were actually registered only 518 664. Conclusions Considering the results obtained from the second wave of the Spanish seroprevalence study, which estimates 2 350 324 cases of Covid-19 produced in Spain, in the period of time considered, it can be seen that the estimates provided by the model are quite good. This work clearly shows the key importance of having good quality data to optimize decision-making in the critical context of dealing with a pandemic.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DEL CONOCIMIENTO EN LOS PROCESOS DE TRANSMISIÓN Y DISTRIBUCIÓN DE ENERGÍA ELÉCTRICA

La electricidad juega un rol importante en la satisfacción de las necesidades de las personas y constituye un medio para elevar nivel de vida de la población; su obtención se requiere de una complicada infraestructura. Las empresas eléctricas necesitan métodos eficaces de visualizar información necesaria en su gestión. El objetivo de esta investigación es desarrollar una ontología que aporte la base conceptual del conocimiento en el desarrollo de un Sistema de Información Geográfica para los procesos de transmisión y distribución de la energía eléctrica en Cuba. Para ello se desarrolló una ontología ligera, donde se definen los conceptos y taxonomías, para los procesos de transmisión y distribución de energía eléctrica. La metodología utilizada para el desarrollo de la ontología fue Methontology por ser de los más difundidos, maduros y técnicos para el proceso de desarrollo. La conceptualización se realiza con la herramienta Protégé 3.4.4, que incluye el OWL (Ontology Web Language) y el OWL-DL (basado en lógicas descriptivas). La calidad final del SIG es verificada de acuerdo a los estándares de calidad de la norma ISO9126:2002. Este sistema tiene un carácter nacional y es aplicable a las distintas áreas que dividen las empresas eléctricas.PALABRAS CLAVE: Ontología; Energía eléctrica; Sistema de información geográficaTHE KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION IN THE TRANSMITION AND DISTRIBUTION PROCCESS OF THE ELECTRIC ENERGYABSTRACTThe Electricity have an important role in meeting the needs of people and is a means to raise the standard of living of the population; obtaining it requires a complicated infrastructure. Power companies need effective methods of visualizing information necessary in their management. The objective of this research is to develop an ontology that provides the conceptual basis of knowledge for the development of a Geographic Information System for the processes of transmission and distribution of electrical energy in Cuba. For this, a light ontology was developed, where the concepts and taxonomies are defined, for the processes of transmission and distribution of electric energy. The methodology used for the development of ontology was Methontology for being the most widespread, mature and technical for the development process. Conceptualization is done with the Protégé 3.4.4 tool, which includes OWL (Ontology Web Language) and OWL-DL (based on descriptive logics). The final quality of the GIS is verified according to the quality standards of ISO-9126: 2002. This system has a national character and is applicable to the different areas that divide electric companies.KEYWORDS: Ontology; Electric energy; Geographic information system

Prognostic tomographic variables of death in ischemic stroke

Introducción: el ictus clásicamente se ha caracterizado por un déficit neurológico atribuido a una lesión focal aguda del sistema nervioso central por una causa vascular, incluyendo el infarto cerebral, hemorragia intracerebral y hemorragia subaracnoidea. Objetivo: identificar las variables tomográficas que influyen en el pronóstico de muerte a corto plazo en el ictus isquémico.Método: se realizó un estudio analítico, de cohorte única que incluyó 185 pacientes ingresados por infarto cerebral agudo de etiología isquémica confirmado por TAC, en el Hospital “Carlos Manuel de Céspedes” en Bayamo, desde Septiembre del 2016 hasta Septiembre del  2018. Las variables utilizadas en el estudio fueron edad, topografía, presencia de edema cerebral, efecto de masa, coexistencia de lesiones antiguas, transformación hemorrágica del infarto y pérdida de diferenciación entre sustancia gris y blanca. Las variables predictoras independientes fueron obtenidas como resultado de la estrategia multivariada que se basó en el ajuste de un modelo de regresión logística binaria. Resultados: el edema cerebral, el efecto de masa y el diámetro mayor superior a 5,5cm demostraron influencia directa en el pronóstico.Conclusiones: en pacientes con infarto cerebral agudo de etiología isquémica, el edema cerebral, el  efecto de masa y el diámetro mayor superior a 5,5cm poseen influencia directa en el pronóstico de muerte  incrementando significativamente  el riesgo de morir antes de los 30 días.It was carried out an analytic research. A single cohort was conducted including 185 patients with the diagnosis of acute cerebral infarct confirmed by CT scan, admitted to "Carlos Manuel de Cespedes" Hospital from September 2016 to September 2018. The aim of the investigation was to identify the tomographyc variables with influence in short-term death of patients after an acute cerebral infarct. The variables utilized in the study were age, topography, presence of cerebral edema, effect of mass, coexistence of ancient injuries, hemorrhagic transformation of the infarct and loss of differentiation between gray and white substance. The independent predictive variables were obtained as a result  of the multi-varied strategy that was based on the adjustment of a model of logistic binary regression. The cerebral edema, the effect of mass and the larger diameter over 5,5cm demonstrated direct influence in the prognosis

Changes in leaf functional traits with leaf age: when do leaves decrease their photosynthetic capacity in Amazonian trees?

Most leaf functional trait studies in the Amazon basin do not consider ontogenetic variations (leaf age), which may influence ecosystem productivity throughout the year. When leaf age is taken into account, it is generally considered discontinuous, and leaves are classified into age categories based on qualitative observations. Here, we quantified age-dependent changes in leaf functional traits such as the maximum carboxylation rate of ribulose-1,5-biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) (Vcmax), stomatal control (Cgs%), leaf dry mass per area and leaf macronutrient concentrations for nine naturally growing Amazon tropical trees with variable phenological strategies. Leaf ages were assessed by monthly censuses of branch-level leaf demography; we also performed leaf trait measurements accounting for leaf chronological age based on days elapsed since the first inclusion in the leaf demography, not predetermined age classes. At the tree community scale, a nonlinear relationship between Vcmax and leaf age existed: young, developing leaves showed the lowest mean photosynthetic capacity, increasing to a maximum at 45 days and then decreasing gradually with age in both continuous and categorical age group analyses. Maturation times among species and phenological habits differed substantially, from 8 ± 30 to 238 ± 30 days, and the rate of decline of Vcmax varied from −0.003 to −0.065 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 day−1. Stomatal control increased significantly in young leaves but remained constant after peaking. Mass-based phosphorus and potassium concentrations displayed negative relationships with leaf age, whereas nitrogen did not vary temporally. Differences in life strategies, leaf nutrient concentrations and phenological types, not the leaf age effect alone, may thus be important factors for understanding observed photosynthesis seasonality in Amazonian forests. Furthermore, assigning leaf age categories in diverse tree communities may not be the recommended method for studying carbon uptake seasonality in the Amazon, since the relationship between Vcmax and leaf age could not be confirmed for all trees

In situ short-term responses of Amazonian understory plants to elevated CO₂

The response of plants to increasing atmospheric CO2 depends on the ecological context where the plants are found. Several experiments with elevated CO2 (eCO2) have been done worldwide, but the Amazonian forest understory has been neglected. As the central Amazon is limited by light and phosphorus, understanding how understory responds to eCO2 is important for foreseeing how the forest will function in the future. In the understory of a natural forest in the Central Amazon, we installed four open-top chambers as control replicates and another four under eCO2 (+250 ppm above ambient levels). Under eCO2, we observed increases in carbon assimilation rate (67%), maximum electron transport rate (19%), quantum yield (56%), and water use efficiency (78%). We also detected an increase in leaf area (51%) and stem diameter increment (65%). Central Amazon understory responded positively to eCO2 by increasing their ability to capture and use light and the extra primary productivity was allocated to supporting more leaf and conducting tissues. The increment in leaf area while maintaining transpiration rates suggests that the understory will increase its contribution to evapotranspiration. Therefore, this forest might be less resistant in the future to extreme drought, as no reduction in transpiration rates were detected.</p