Development and Evaluation of Fuzzy Logic Controllers for Improving Performance of Wind Turbines on Semi-Submersible Platforms under Different Wind Scenarios

Among renewable energy technologies, wind energy features one of the best possibilities for large-scale integration into power systems. However, there are specific restrictions regarding the installation areas for this technology, thus resulting in a growing, yet restricted, rate of penetration of the technology because of the limited viable sites onshore or in shallow waters. In this context, the use of offshore semi-submersible platforms appears as a promising option, which additionally enables the incorporation of other elements, such as wave energy converters or aquaculture. Nevertheless, this kind of offshore facility involves interactions between platform movements and the wind turbine, increasing the complexity of the system, causing traditional control techniques to not be able to fully cope with the dynamics of the system, and thus limiting the efficiency of energy extraction. On the contrary, the use of intelligent control techniques is an interesting option to take full account of the said interactions and to improve energy capture efficiency through the control of the pitch of the blades, especially under turbulent, above-rated wind profiles. This work presents an original fuzzy logic controller that has been validated by comparing it with previously validated controllers, following a developed methodology that allows comparison of controllers for wind turbines in semi-submersible platforms using performance indexes.This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Government of Spain) and European Union (RTC-2016-5712-3); by the European Union, CDTI (Spain) and BEISS (UK) through the call H2020 ERA-NET DEMOWIND (WIP10+ project); by the Regional Government of Andalusia and European Union (UMA-CEIATECH-18); and finally, by partial funding for open access charge from the Universidad de Málaga. Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag

A User-Centered Chatbot (Wakamola) to Collect Linked Data in Population Networks to Support Studies of Overweight and Obesity Causes: Design and Pilot Study

[EN] Background: Obesity and overweight are a serious health problem worldwide with multiple and connected causes. Simultaneously, chatbots are becoming increasingly popular as a way to interact with users in mobile health apps. Objective: This study reports the user-centered design and feasibility study of a chatbot to collect linked data to support the study of individual and social overweight and obesity causes in populations. Methods: We first studied the users' needs and gathered users' graphical preferences through an open survey on 52 wireframes designed by 150 design students; it also included questions about sociodemographics, diet and activity habits, the need for overweight and obesity apps, and desired functionality. We also interviewed an expert panel. We then designed and developed a chatbot. Finally, we conducted a pilot study to test feasibility. Results: We collected 452 answers to the survey and interviewed 4 specialists. Based on this research, we developed a Telegram chatbot named Wakamola structured in six sections: personal, diet, physical activity, social network, user's status score, and project information. We defined a user's status score as a normalized sum (0-100) of scores about diet (frequency of eating 50 foods), physical activity, BMI, and social network. We performed a pilot to evaluate the chatbot implementation among 85 healthy volunteers. Of 74 participants who completed all sections, we found 8 underweight people (11%), 5 overweight people (7%), and no obesity cases. The mean BMI was 21.4 kg/m(2) (normal weight). The most consumed foods were olive oil, milk and derivatives, cereals, vegetables, and fruits. People walked 10 minutes on 5.8 days per week, slept 7.02 hours per day, and were sitting 30.57 hours per week. Moreover, we were able to create a social network with 74 users, 178 relations, and 12 communities. Conclusions: The Telegram chatbot Wakamola is a feasible tool to collect data from a population about sociodemographics, diet patterns, physical activity, BMI, and specific diseases. Besides, the chatbot allows the connection of users in a social network to study overweight and obesity causes from both individual and social perspectives.Moreover, the authors acknowledge the funding support for this study provided by the CrowdHealth Project (Collective Wisdom Driving Public Health Policies, 727560).Asensio-Cuesta, S.; Blanes-Selva, V.; Conejero, JA.; Frigola, A.; Portolés, MG.; Merino-Torres, JF.; Rubio Almanza, M.... (2021). A User-Centered Chatbot (Wakamola) to Collect Linked Data in Population Networks to Support Studies of Overweight and Obesity Causes: Design and Pilot Study. JMIR Medical Informatics. 9(4):1-14. https://doi.org/10.2196/17503S1149

Oncologist’s knowledge and implementation of guidelines for breakthrough cancer pain in Spain: CONOCE study

[Purpose]: Breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) has been shown to be a prevalent and poor prognostic factor for oncologic patients, which remain under diagnosed and undertreated. In 2012, the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) published a clinical practice guideline (CPG) for the treatment of cancer pain which specifically addressed the management of BTcP.[Methods]: Fundación ECO designed a qualitative study using an Internet-based survey to investigate the attitudes toward, compliance with, and use of SEOM Guideline.[Results]: A total of 83 oncologists with a mean experience of 13 years responded. Overall, 82% were aware of different guidelines to manage BTcP. Notably, attitudes toward guidelines were highly positive and there was nearly unanimous agreement that CPG provided the best scientific evidence available (99%), on the minimum information to be gathered for the medical history (100%), on the need for a specific treatment for BTcP (100%), and fentanyl as the first-choice drug (99%). Interestingly, there were discrepancies between what oncologists agreed with and what they do in clinical practice. In fact, 87.6% declare full compliance with SEOM guideline, although adherence to registration of BTcP data in medical records ranged from 30.1 to 91.6% (mean 64.5%); therapeutic management compliance was higher ranging from 75.9 to 91.6%. Main barriers identified were time pressure together with vague statements and limited dissemination of the guidelines.[Conclusion]: Despite oncologist’s clinical practice is increasingly guided by GPC, it suffers from limited compliance, at least in part due to suboptimal statements. Improved dissemination and education are needed to enhance guideline implementation.This study was funded by Kyowa Kirin Farmacéutica S. L.U. through Fundación ECO

CONTACTO: A Social Networking Site for Supported-Employment Interventions for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

The main objective of this work is to determine whether social networks can be used to improve self-management skills in people with Intellectual or Developmental Disability (IDD) given the high rate of acceptance of such tools among them. The proposed methodology applies an employment-based intervention to evaluate whether social network services help improve self-management skills. A fit-for-purpose social networking service is built, and different evaluation mechanisms are applied to determine the degree to which users with IDD could use the tool without assistance. The working hypothesis is that in order to ensure the usability of the implemented tool, users (with and without IDD) should be involved throughout the whole software development cycle, following a co-design methodological approach. Results demonstrate that this methodological approach leads to high satisfaction and motivation rates. In terms of effectiveness and efficiency, results demonstrate that the tool is useful and usable for people with IDD. It can therefore be concluded that social network services built having users with IDD at its center will help improve their self-management skills. The main implication of this research is that when using social network services as a tool to support interventions, special attention should be paid to previously evaluating the usability and motivation rate as a measure of how autonomously the person with IDD can use the tool. Nevertheless, further research is needed to determine the impact that such tools can have on other types of intervention.El objetivo principal de este trabajo es determinar si las redes sociales pueden ser utilizadas para mejorar las habilidades de autogestión en personas con Discapacidad Intelectual o del Desarrollo (DDI) dado el alto índice de aceptación de este tipo de herramientas entre ellas. La metodología propuesta aplica una intervención basada en el empleo para evaluar si los servicios de redes sociales ayudan a mejorar las habilidades de autogestión. Se crea un servicio de red social adecuado para el propósito y se aplican diferentes mecanismos de evaluación para determinar el grado en que los usuarios con DDI podrían usar la herramienta sin ayuda. La hipótesis de trabajo es que para asegurar la usabilidad de la herramienta implementada, los usuarios (con y sin DDI) deben estar involucrados durante todo el ciclo de desarrollo del software, siguiendo un enfoque metodológico de codiseño. Los resultados demuestran que este enfoque metodológico conduce a altos índices de satisfacción y motivación. En términos de efectividad y eficiencia, los resultados demuestran que la herramienta es útil y usable para personas con DID. Por lo tanto, se puede concluir que los servicios de redes sociales construidos con usuarios con DDI en su centro ayudarán a mejorar sus habilidades de autogestión. La principal implicación de esta investigación es que a la hora de utilizar los servicios de redes sociales como herramienta de apoyo a las intervenciones, se debe prestar especial atención a evaluar previamente el índice de usabilidad y motivación como medida de la autonomía con la que la persona con DDI puede utilizar la herramienta. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para determinar el impacto que tales herramientas pueden tener en otros tipos de intervención. En términos de efectividad y eficiencia, los resultados demuestran que la herramienta es útil y usable para personas con DID. Por lo tanto, se puede concluir que los servicios de redes sociales construidos con usuarios con DDI en su centro ayudarán a mejorar sus habilidades de autogestión. La principal implicación de esta investigación es que a la hora de utilizar los servicios de redes sociales como herramienta de apoyo a las intervenciones, se debe prestar especial atención a evaluar previamente el índice de usabilidad y motivación como medida de la autonomía con la que la persona con DDI puede utilizar la herramienta. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para determinar el impacto que tales herramientas pueden tener en otros tipos de intervención. En términos de efectividad y eficiencia, los resultados demuestran que la herramienta es útil y usable para personas con DID. Por lo tanto, se puede concluir que los servicios de redes sociales construidos con usuarios con DDI en su centro ayudarán a mejorar sus habilidades de autogestión. La principal implicación de esta investigación es que a la hora de utilizar los servicios de redes sociales como herramienta de apoyo a las intervenciones, se debe prestar especial atención a evaluar previamente el índice de usabilidad y motivación como medida de la autonomía con la que la persona con DDI puede utilizar la herramienta. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para determinar el impacto que tales herramientas pueden tener en otros tipos de intervención. Por lo tanto, se puede concluir que los servicios de redes sociales construidos con usuarios con DDI en su centro ayudarán a mejorar sus habilidades de autogestión. La principal implicación de esta investigación es que a la hora de utilizar los servicios de redes sociales como herramienta de apoyo a las intervenciones, se debe prestar especial atención a evaluar previamente el índice de usabilidad y motivación como medida de la autonomía con la que la persona con DDI puede utilizar la herramienta. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para determinar el impacto que tales herramientas pueden tener en otros tipos de intervención. Por lo tanto, se puede concluir que los servicios de redes sociales construidos con usuarios con DDI en su centro ayudarán a mejorar sus habilidades de autogestión. La principal implicación de esta investigación es que a la hora de utilizar los servicios de redes sociales como herramienta de apoyo a las intervenciones, se debe prestar especial atención a evaluar previamente el índice de usabilidad y motivación como medida de la autonomía con la que la persona con DDI puede utilizar la herramienta. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para determinar el impacto que tales herramientas pueden tener en otros tipos de intervención. se debe prestar especial atención a evaluar previamente el índice de usabilidad y motivación como medida de la autonomía con la que la persona con DDI puede utilizar la herramienta. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para determinar el impacto que tales herramientas pueden tener en otros tipos de intervención. se debe prestar especial atención a evaluar previamente el índice de usabilidad y motivación como medida de la autonomía con la que la persona con DDI puede utilizar la herramienta. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para determinar el impacto que tales herramientas pueden tener en otros tipos de intervención

An Affective-computing Approach to Provide Enhanced Learning Analytics

Detecting emotions in a learning environment can make the student-learning process more efficient, avoiding stressful situations that might eventually lead to failure, frustation and demotivation. The work presented here describes a perceptive desktop devised to capture the sensations of any person facing learning activities. To this end, we propose a perceptive environment enhanced with capabilities to perform an analysis of electroen cephalography, facial expression, eye tracking and particularly a very distinctive indicator of stress as it is the galvanic response of the skin. This work focuses on the galvanic response of the skin, comparing the performance of two devices in the context of the perceptive desktop. One of the devices was very attractive to our environment as it was a mouse that fit very well to our computer-based desktop, equipped with low-cost sensors to detect the galvanic response. The other device is more tedious to place and more expensive but we use it as a reference to know if the mouse is accurate. Four people were exposed to an experiment with the two devices connected, and observing the results it can be concluded that there is no correlation between the captures of both devices. Therefore, we could not select the mouse for our environment even though at first it looks like a very promising device.Detectar las emociones en un entorno de aprendizaje puede hacer que el proceso de aprendizaje de los alumnos sea más eficiente, evitando situaciones estresantes que puedan llevar al fracaso, la frustración y la desmotivación. El trabajo que aquí se presenta describe un escritorio perceptivo ideado para captar las sensaciones de cualquier persona que se enfrente a actividades de aprendizaje. Para ello, se propone un entorno perceptivo potenciado con capacidades para realizar un análisis de electroencefalografía, expresión facial, seguimiento ocular y particularmente un indicador muy distintivo de estrés como es la respuesta galvánica de la piel. Este trabajo se centra en la respuesta galvánica de la piel, comparando el rendimiento de dos dispositivos en el contexto del escritorio perceptivo. Uno de los dispositivos resultaba muy atractivo para nuestro entorno, ya que se trataba de un ratón que se adaptaba muy bien a nuestro escritorio informático, equipado con sensores de bajo coste para detectar la respuesta galvánica. El otro dispositivo es más tedioso de colocar y más caro, pero lo utilizamos como referencia para saber si el ratón es preciso. Se expuso a cuatro personas a un experimento con los dos dispositivos conectados, y observando los resultados se puede concluir que no hay correlación entre las capturas de ambos dispositivos. Por lo tanto, no pudimos seleccionar el ratón para nuestro entorno a pesar de que en principio parece un dispositivo muy prometedor

Long-lived charged states of single porphyrin-tape junctions under ambient conditions

The ability to control the charge state of individual molecules wired in two-terminal single-molecule junctions is a key challenge in molecular electronics, particularly in relation to the development of molecular memory and other computational componentry. Here we demonstrate that single porphyrin molecular junctions can be reversibly charged and discharged at elevated biases under ambient conditions due to the presence of a localised molecular eigenstate close to the Fermi edge of the electrodes. In particular, we can observe long-lived charge-states with lifetimes upwards of 1–10 seconds after returning to low bias and large changes in conductance, in excess of 100-fold at low bias. Our theoretical analysis finds charge-state lifetimes within the same time range as the experiments. The ambient operation demonstrates that special conditions such as low temperatures or ultra-high vacuum are not essential to observe hysteresis and stable charged molecular junctions

Channel sounding and indoor radio channel characteristics in the W-band

This work presents directional radio channel measurements in the W-band using a commercial versatile channel sounder based on a vector network analyzer (VNA), capable of measuring scattering parameters from 75 to 500 GHz with frequency converters. The commercial setup has been modified by increasing the distance for one of the converters using precision coaxial cables and avoiding the use of amplifiers. Firstly, initial distance-dependent single-input single-output (SISO) measurements of indoor radio channels are presented to assess the validity of the setup in the 75 110 GHz frequency band with highly directive horn antennas. Then, single-input multiple-output (SIMO) radio channels were measured at 94 GHz using one directional and one omnidirectional antenna mounted on two positioners. Initial channel characterization is presented comprising root mean square (rms) delay spread, rms angular spread, K-factor, and path loss in an indoor environment at 94 GHz.This work was supported by MINECO, Spain (TEC2013-47360-C3-2-P TEC2013-47360-C3-3-P) and by European FEDER funds.Martínez Inglés, M.; Gaillot, D.; Pascual-García, J.; Molina-García-Pardo, JM.; Rodriguez Rodriguez, JV.; Rubio Arjona, L.; Juan Llacer, L. (2016). Channel sounding and indoor radio channel characteristics in the W-band. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking. 30:1-8. doi:10.1186/s13638-016-0530-7S1830D Zico, Ultra-wideband and 60 GHz communications for biomedical applications. Springer. http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4614-8896-5 .L Jofre, J Romeu, S Capdevila, J Abril, E Nova, M Alonso, The “challenging” world of Terahertz radiation and imaging. Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP), 2011, pp. 3470–3475M Kawase, “Non-destructive evaluation method of pharmaceutical tablet by terahertz-time-domain spectroscopy: application to sound-alike medicines”, J. Infrared Millimeter Terahertz Waves, 34(9), 566–571KD Anderson, 94 GHz propagation in the evaporation duct. IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. 38(5), 746–753 (1990)K Aydin, Y-M Lure, Millimeter wave scattering and propagation in rain: a computational study at 94 and 140 GHz for oblate spheroidal and spherical raindrops. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 29(1), 593–601 (1991)C Gloaguen, An experiment for propagation studies at 94 GHz. Eighth Int. Conf. Antennas Propagation 1, 406–409 (1993)A Kajiwara, “Indoor propagation measurements at 94 GHz,” personal, indoor and mobile radio communications, 1995. Sixth IEEE Int. Symp PIMRC’95. Wireless Merging Inf. Superhighway 3, 1026 (1995)J Helminger, J Detlefsen, H Groll, Propagation properties of an indoor-channel at 94 GHz. Int. Conf. Microw Millimeter Wave Technol.Proc 98, 9–14 (1998)R Piesiewicz, R Geise, M Jacob, J Jemai, T Kurner, “Indoor channel measurements of point-to-point ultra broadband short range links between 75 GHz and 110 GHz”, in International Symposium Antennas and Propagation Society, 2008, pp. 1–4A Brizzi, A Pellegrini, Y Hao, “Experimental characterization of the propagation on the human torso at W band”, in Radio Science Meeting (Joint with AP-S Symposium), USNC-URSI, 2013, p. 39K Haneda, J Järveläinen, A Karttunen, M Kyro, J Putkonen, Indoor short-range radio propagation measurements At 60 and 70 GHz, in EuCAP 2014, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2014, pp. 1–4S Promwong, J Takada, Free space link budget estimation scheme for ultra wideband impulse radio with imperfect antennas. IEICE Electronics Express 1(7), 188–192 (2004)NL Johnson, S Kotz, N Balakrishnan, Continuous univariate distributions, vol. 1 (Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken, 1993)A Richter, Estimation of radio channel parameters: models and algorithms (Dr.-Ing. dissertation, TU Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany, 2005

Molecular Structure-(Thermo)electric Property Relationships in Single-Molecule Junctions and Comparisons with Single- and Multiple-Parameter Models

The most probable single-molecule conductance of each member of a series of 12 conjugated molecular wires, 6 of which contain either a ruthenium or platinum center centrally placed within the backbone, has been determined. The measurement of a small, positive Seebeck coefficient has established that transmission through these molecules takes place by tunneling through the tail of the HOMO resonance near the middle of the HOMO–LUMO gap in each case. Despite the general similarities in the molecular lengths and frontier-orbital compositions, experimental and computationally determined trends in molecular conductance values across this series cannot be satisfactorily explained in terms of commonly discussed “single-parameter” models of junction conductance. Rather, the trends in molecular conductance are better rationalized from consideration of the complete molecular junction, with conductance values well described by transport calculations carried out at the DFT level of theory, on the basis of the Landauer–Büttiker model