Rose Bengal test: diagnostic yield and use for the rapid diagnosis of human brucellosis in emergency departments in endemic areas

ABSTRACTThe aim of the present study was to analyse the diagnostic yield of the rose Bengal test for the rapid diagnosis of human brucellosis in an emergency department in an area where the disease is endemic. The study included 711 patients diagnosed initially with brucellosis and 270 controls. Brucellosis patients were divided into three groups: group I, individuals with no regular exposure to or history of brucellosis; group II, individuals exposed repeatedly to Brucella infection; and group III, individuals infected with Brucella who had received appropriate treatment during the previous 12 months. Blood cultures were positive for 445 (62.6%) brucellosis patients, while the remaining 266 (37.4%) patients were diagnosed according to clinical and serological criteria. The overall sensitivity of the rose Bengal test was 92.9%. The specificities for groups I, II and III were 94.3%, 91.7% and 76.9%, respectively, with positive likelihood ratios of 16.5, 10.4 and 4.2, respectively. The diagnostic gain after the performance of the rose Bengal test was good or very good in patients with no previous exposure to Brucella or history of brucellosis, but poor in patients who were exposed repeatedly to Brucella or had a history of brucellosis and a low pre-test probability. Use of the rose Bengal test as the sole technique for the diagnosis of brucellosis in endemic areas should be considered very carefully in the context of patients who are exposed repeatedly to Brucella or have a history of brucellosis

Steel bar counting from images with machine learning

Counting has become a fundamental task for data processing in areas such as micro-biology, medicine, agriculture and astrophysics. The proposed SA-CNN-DC (Scale Adaptive— Convolutional Neural Network—Distance Clustering) methodology in this paper is designed for automated counting of steel bars from images. Its design consists of two Machine Learning techniques: Neural Networks and Clustering. The system has been trained to count round and squared steel bars, obtaining an average detection accuracy of 98.81% and 98.57%, respectively. In the steel industry, counting steel bars is a time consuming task which highly relies on human labour and is prone to errors. Reduction of counting time and resources, safety and productivity of employees and high confidence of the inventory are some of the advantages of the proposed methodology in a steel warehouse

Aplicación de técnicas SIG en el estudio de evaluación de degradación de suelos. Mazarrón (Murcia)

El objetivo general de este estudio ha sido evaluar el estado actual y los cambios que se han producido en algunas características edáficas del área de Mazarrón (Murcia) en un periodo de 20 años, en relación con los procesos de degradación. Para ello se han utilizado los resultados de dos muestreos de suelos realizados en un intervalo de veinte años (1988 y 2008). Se han analizado algunas de las características edáficas que más relación tienen con la vulnerabilidad de los suelos a la erosión (Textura, Materia orgánica y Pedregosidad) y de las cuales se disponía de datos en los dos muestreos. Para la creación y análisis de la información espacial se han empleado dos Sistemas de Información Geográfica de software libre. Uno de ellos ha sido GvSIG, desarrollado por la Generalitat Valenciana y el programa GRASS. La metodología SIG empleada ha sido una herramienta fundamental para obtener la serie de capas de variables edáficas para los años 1988 y 2008. Los resultados muestran como el área de estudio es bastante vulnerable a los procesos erosivos, sobre todo por erosión hidrica y antrópica, debido a las características de sus suelos. Riesgo que se incrementaría si en futuro se abandonaran los cultivos.The main objetive of these study is to evaluate the current situation and the changes ocurred in some edaphic characteristics of the soils in the Mazarrón area (Murcia) in a twenty years period, in relation with the degradation processes. For these propose we have used the results of two soils samples carried out in a twenty years intervale (1988 and 2008). The caracteristics more related with the vulnerability of the soil erosion (texture, organic matter and stoniness) of wich we had data of the two samples were evaluated. Two Geografical Information System of free software have been used for the creation and analisis of the espacial information. One of these was GvSIG, developed by Generalitat Valenciana and GRASS programme. The GIS methodology carried out was a fundamental tool to obtain edaphic variables layers for the years 1988 and 2008. The results show how the study area is very sensible to the erosive processes, specialy by hidric and antropic erosion, because soil caracteristics. This hazard would increase in a future if the land was abandoned

Center of pressure displacements in individual swith Down syndrome during a bipedal position

Objetivo:Valorar el equilibrio de adultos con síndrome de Down a través del estudio del desplazamiento del centro depresiones. Método: Estudio transversal de casos y controles. Doce sujetos con síndrome de Down y 12 sin síndrome de Down formaron parte del estudio. Todos los participantes realizaron 2 pruebas sobre plataforma dinamométrica: i)estática con ojos abiertos y ii) estática con ojos cerrados. Las señales del centro de presiones fueron analizadas en el dominio temporal. Se utilizaron contrastes no paramétricos para el análisis estadístico de los datos Resultados:Los resultados mostraron diferencias significativas entre- grupos en las variables rango ante-roposterior, fuerza anteroposterior y fuerzamedio-lateral(p<0.05). Las comparaciones intragrupos mostraron peores resultados en las pruebas con ojos cerrados en ambos grupos. Conclusión:En el presente trabajo las personas con síndrome de Down presentaron un control del equilibrio mermado al compararlo con sujetos sin síndrome de Down. Los datos obtenidos no son concluyentes para determinar cuál de los sistemas involucrados en el control del equilibrio es el responsable de estos resultados.Objective: To evaluate body balance of adults with Down syndrome based on the analysis of their centre of pressure behaviour. Method: Cross-sectional case control-study. Twelve individuals with Down syndrome and twelve without Down syndrome took part in the study. All the participants were tested under two conditions on a force plate: i) static with eyes open and ii) static with eyes closed. Centre of pressure signals were analyzed in time domain. Non-parametric contrasts were used for statistical analysis. Results: Statistical differences between groups were found in anteroposterior range, anterior-posterior force and medio-lateral force (p < 0.05). Within-groups comparisons showed poorer results in eyes closed conditions for both groups. Conclusion: Individuals with Down syndrome involved in the present study showed deficits in balance control when compared with people without Down syndrome. The obtained data are not conclusive. The participation of the different systems which control balance in people with Down syndrome remains unknownObjetivo: Avaliar o equilíbrio de adultos com síndrome de Down através do estudo do desprendimento do centro de pressão. Método: Estudo transversal de caso e controlos. Doze sujeitos com SD e 12 sem Síndrome de Down fizeram parte do estudo. Todos os participantes realizaram 2 provas sobre plataforma dinamométrica: i) estática com olhos abertos e ii) estática com olhos fechados. Os sinais dos centros de pressões foram analisados em domínio temporal. Foram utilizados testes não paramétricos para a análise estatística dos dados. Resultados: Os resultados mostraram diferenc¸ as significativas entre grupos nas variáveis de intervalo ântero-posterior, forc¸ a ântero-posterior e forc¸ a médio-lateral (p < 0.05). As comparac¸ ões intragrupos mostram piores resultados nas provas de equilíbrio com olhos fechados para ambos os grupos. Conclusão: No presente estudo, as pessoas com Síndrome de Down apresentaram um controlo de equilíbrio diminuído em comparac¸ ão a sujeitos sem Síndrome de Down. Os dados obtidos não são conclusivos paradeterminar qualdos sistemas envolvidosno controlodo equilíbrio é responsávelpor estes resultado

IoTsafe, Decoupling Security from Applications for a Safer IoT

The use of robust security solutions is a must for the Internet of Things (IoT) devices and their applications: regulators in different countries are creating frameworks for certifying those devices with an acceptable security level. However, even for already certified devices, security protocols have to be updated when a breach is found or a certain version becomes obsolete. Many approaches for securing IoT applications are nowadays based on the integration of a security layer [e.g., using transport layer security, (TLS)], but this may result in difficulties when upgrading the security algorithms, as the whole application has to be updated. This fact may shorten the life of IoT devices. As a way to overcome these difficulties, this paper presents IoTsafe, a novel approach relying on secure socket shell (SSH), a feasible alternative to secure communications in IoT applications based on hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP and HTTP/2). In order to illustrate its advantages, a comparison between the traditional approach (HTTP with TLS) and our scheme (HTTP with SSH) is performed over low-power wireless personal area networks (6loWPAN) through 802.15.4 interfaces. The results show that the proposed approach not only provides a more robust and easy-To-update solution, but it also brings an improvement to the overall performance in terms of goodput and energy consumption. Core server stress tests are also presented, and the server performance is also analyzed in terms of RAM consumption and escalation strategies

6. SISTEMA DE LLENADO VOLUMÉTRICO AUTOMATIZADO PARA LÍQUIDOS EN LA INDUSTRIA ALIMENTARIA

La automatización de los procesos ha permitido mejorar e incrementar la producción de las empresas, sin embargo, pasar de un proceso manual a uno automatizado demanda una importante inversión económica, por lo cual automatizar sus procesos puede que para las pequeñas y medianas empresas sea algo difícil de lograr a corto plazo. El sistema de llenado volumétrico automatizado que desarrollamos permitirá que las pequeñas y medianas empresas puedan automatizar el proceso de producción sin hacer una gran inversión. Para la creación de este sistema de llenado volumétrico automatizado para líquidos en la industria alimentaria, investigamos los sistemas de llenado que se utilizan actualmente y que elementos de control podemos utilizar para desarrollar un sistema económico y fiable accesible a estas pequeñas y medianas empresas. Al integrar un sensor de peso o celda de carga encargada de pesar la sustancia que se desea dosificar y para medir su volumen utilizamos un medidor de flujo o caudalímetro, actualmente obtuvimos resultados precisos con una desviación Max de 5,12, el sistema posee actuadores, sensores y el sistema de control se desarrolló con microcontrolador de Microchip

Configuration Complexities of Hydrogenic Atoms

The Fisher-Shannon and Cramer-Rao information measures, and the LMC-like or shape complexity (i.e., the disequilibrium times the Shannon entropic power) of hydrogenic stationary states are investigated in both position and momentum spaces. First, it is shown that not only the Fisher information and the variance (then, the Cramer-Rao measure) but also the disequilibrium associated to the quantum-mechanical probability density can be explicitly expressed in terms of the three quantum numbers (n, l, m) of the corresponding state. Second, the three composite measures mentioned above are analytically, numerically and physically discussed for both ground and excited states. It is observed, in particular, that these configuration complexities do not depend on the nuclear charge Z. Moreover, the Fisher-Shannon measure is shown to quadratically depend on the principal quantum number n. Finally, sharp upper bounds to the Fisher-Shannon measure and the shape complexity of a general hydrogenic orbital are given in terms of the quantum numbers.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, accepted i

Formulations of the 3+1 evolution equations in curvilinear coordinates

Following Brown, in this paper we give an overview of how to modify standard hyperbolic formulations of the 3+1 evolution equations of General Relativity in such a way that all auxiliary quantities are true tensors, thus allowing for these formulations to be used with curvilinear sets of coordinates such as spherical or cylindrical coordinates. After considering the general case for both the Nagy-Ortiz-Reula (NOR) and the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) formulations, we specialize to the case of spherical symmetry and also discuss the issue of regularity at the origin. Finally, we show some numerical examples of the modified BSSN formulation at work in spherical symmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure

Analysis of the drinks that contribute to the hydration of andalusian sportspeople

AbstractObjectivesTo estimate the water balance in a healthy population of sportspeople from Southern Spain and determine the sources of their fluid intake, evaluating the contribution of different types of drink and comparing the results by sex and province of residence.MethodsThree hundred eighty-six sportspeople (231 males, 152 females) were enrolled in the study. A questionnaire was administered to calculate nutrient intake through diet and physical activity, and anthropometric measures were taken according to ISAK standards. SPSS-15 was used for data analyses.ResultsFruit juice, tap water, bottled water, processed fruit juice, carbonated drinks, and isotonic drinks comprised 96% of the total water intake. Simple sugar consumption represented 4.44% of daily calorie intake. Significant differences were found between sexes and between professionals and amateurs. The amount of drinks consumed varied as a function of the quality of the drinking water, which significantly differed among the eight Andalusian provinces.ConclusionThis study population did not fully meet fluid intake recommendations, compliance with hydration recommendations varied as a function of the sex and the amateur or professional status of these sportspeople. The pattern of drinks consumption also differed according to their place of residence