Exergames: propuesta de un gamepad para sensar los movimientos del jugador

Exergames are a good alternative to perform physical activity while being entertained with a video game. This paper reviews the history of exergames with walkin-place mechanisms for locomotion, and presents the development of a prototype video game controller (gamepad) with functionalities to sense the player's movements (walk, run, and jump). Then, an exergame that was implemented and integrated with the controller is described. This proposal was evaluated by users considering usability and user experience analysis. The results obtained allow affirming that the gamepad integrated with the video game were positively valued by the participants during the test sessions and allowed the realization of physical activity while maintaining entertainment through the game.Los exergames son una buena alternativa para realizar actividad física mientras se disfruta un videojuego. Este artículo revisa la historia de los exergames con mecanismos de caminata en el lugar para la locomoción, y presenta el desarrollo de un prototipo de controlador de videojuegos (gamepad) con funcionalidades para detectar los movimientos del jugador (caminar, correr y saltar). Luego, se describe un exergame que fue implementado e integrado con el controlador. Esta propuesta fue evaluada por usuarios considerando el análisis de usabilidad y experiencia del usuario. Los resultados obtenidos permiten afirmar que el gamepad integrado con el videojuego fue valorado positivamente por los participantes durante las sesiones de prueba y permitid realizar actividad física mientras el jugador se mantenía entretenido a través del juego.Facultad de Informátic

Comparative evaluation of methods for obtaining the stress-free geometry of keratoconus corneas with different levels of severity

A biomechanical model that simulates the physiological pressure load on the cornea without considering the stresses in vivo will result in an overstress or underestimation of the stress field and incorrect deformation of the corneal structure. Therefore, it is essential to propose numerical models that consider the stress-free geometry of the cornea. In this study, the Displacement and Pre-stress methods were compared to obtain the stress-free geometry (S-FG) and the physiological estimated geometry (P-EG), based on the patient-specific geometric behavior and the computational time required to reach each geometry. The same shape and contour conditions were considered in the models obtained from both methods for each of the pathological scenarios analyzed. Both methods behaved differently to obtain the free geometry, and this difference increased with the severity grade of the disease. However, they behaved in a similar way to reach the physiological estimated geometry. The Displacement method required a lower computational cost to reach the free geometry, with both methods presenting a similar computational cost to obtain the physiological geometry. The stress-free geometries obtained by both methods allowed to characterize the existing biomechanical decompensation during the progression of the diseases. In conclusion, the calculation of the stress-free corneal geometry associated to the clinically measured intraocular pressure with the Displacement and Prestress Methods in keratoconus eyes allows the development of accurate and useable models in clinical practice in real time. This displacement method shows some benefits in terms of computational cost.This publication was carried out within the framework of the project “Desarrollo y validación de un nuevo concepto de caracterización biomecánica-morfofuncional de la córnea” reference number DTS21/00103. This project has been funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and co-funded by the European Union

3D printed personalized corneal models as a tool for improving patient’s knowledge of an asymmetric disease

Additive manufacturing is a vanguard technology that is currently being used in several fields in medicine. This study aims to evaluate the viability in clinical practice of a patient-specific 3D model that helps to improve the strategies of the doctor-patient assistance. Data obtained from a corneal topographer were used to make a virtual 3D model by using CAD software, to later print this model by FDM and get an exact replica of each patient’s cornea in consultation. Used CAD and printing software were open-source, and the printing material was biodegradable and its cost was low. Clinic users gave their feedback by means of a survey about their feelings when perceiving with their senses their own printed cornea. There was 82 surveyed, 73.8% (9.74; SD: 0.45) of them considered that the model had helped them a lot to understand their disease, expressing 100% of them their intention of taking home the printed model. The majority highlighted that this new concept improves both quality and clinical service in consultation. Custom-made individualized printed models allow a new patient-oriented perspective that may improve the communication strategy from the ophthalmologist to the patient, easing patient’s understanding of their asymmetric disease and its later treatment.This publication has been carried out in the framework of the Thematic Network for Co-Operative Research in Health (RETICS), reference number RD16/0008/0012, financed by the Carlos III Health Institute–General Subdirection of Networks and Cooperative Investigation Centers (R&D&I National Plan 2013–2016) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)

A machine-learning model based on morphogeometric parameters for RETICS disease classification and GUI development

This work pursues two objectives: defining a new concept of risk probability associated with su_ering early-stage keratoconus, classifying disease severity according to the RETICS (Thematic Network for Co-Operative Research in Health) scale. It recruited 169 individuals, 62 healthy and 107 keratoconus diseased, grouped according to the RETICS classification: 44 grade I; 18 grade II; 15 grade III; 15 grade IV; 15 grade V. Di_erent demographic, optical, pachymetric and eometrical parameters were measured. The collected data were used for training two machine-learning models: a multivariate logistic regression model for early keratoconus detection and an ordinal logistic regression model for RETICS grade assessments. The early keratoconus detection model showed very good sensitivity, specificity and area under ROC curve, with around 95% for training and 85% for validation. The variables that made the most significant contributions were gender, coma-like, central thickness, high-order aberrations and temporal thickness. The RETICS grade assessment also showed high-performance figures, albeit lower, with a global accuracy of 0.698 and a 95% confidence interval of 0.623–0.766. The most significant variables were CDVA, central thickness and temporal thickness. The developed web application allows the fast, objective and quantitative assessment of keratoconus in early diagnosis and RETICS grading terms.This publication has been carried out as part of the Thematic Network for Co-Operative Research in Health (RETICS), reference number RD16/0008/0012, financed by the Carlos III Health Institute-General Subdirection of Networks and Cooperative Investigation Centers (R&D&I National Plan 2013-2016), European Regional Development Funds (FEDER), and the Results Valorization Program financed by the Technical University of Cartagena (PROVALOR-UPCT)

A virtual learning environment development. Some experiences at the University of La Plata

E-learning is a new and rapidly evolving discipline. Particularly, e-learning environments have become a topic of research and study. This paper presents an investigation related to e-learning and the development of virtual learning environment (WebINFO) made by an interdisciplinary team at the University of La Plata. Some experienceswithin university scope using this kind of technology are also presented.Facultad de Informátic

Bases para recuperação do centro histórico de Avis, Largo Cândido dos Reis

Nos dias de hoje deparamos com uma grave situação nos Centros Históricos e nos Espaços Públicos em Portugal. Existe uma tendência para sua desertificação e envelhecimento populacional, o que origina a sua degradação e desadequação. Esta situação resulta dos Centros Históricos não conseguirem dar resposta às suas necessidades inerentes ao atual modo de vida. Depararam-se com a realidade e ficaram incapazes de acompanhar a evolução temporal, o que origina a sua deterioração e desqualificação, quer no seu edificado quer no Espaço Público. Atualmente, um novo protagonismo assume a necessidade de conservação e revitalização dos nossos Centros Históricos, devolvendo-lhe assim todas as suas qualidades. O Centro Histórico de Avis é mais uma vítima da incapacidade de acompanhar a evolução temporal com o seu Espaço Público desadequado aos novos estilos de vida, não favorecendo a segurança e conforto dos seus utilizadores com presença abusiva do automóvel, o património edificado degradado e o mobiliário urbano desadequado, tudo situações negativas que contribuem para a desvalorização do seu património. Face ao exposto proponho-me, nesta dissertação, promover levantamentos e estudos que possibilitem a recuperação e dinamização do Largo Cândidos dos Reis, promovendo intervenção neste Espaço, devolvendo aos seus utilizadores uma qualidade e conforto na sua utilização.in Portugal. A trend to desertification and an ageing population have constituted the foundations for their deterioration and exhaustion. Such situation is the result of a lack of solutions to answer to the people’s present time needs in terms of a city centre life should be. This is the reality that was not thought in due time and that consequently, resulted in the disqualification, of the already built area, as well as of the public places. At the present time, the leading role should be on the necessity of preservation and innovation of our historical urban city centres, restoring their quality. The centre of Avis is another victim of the already stated incapacity of appropriateness to the new cosmopolitan life styles, where people’s security and comfort have been forgotten. The massive presence of automobiles, the degradation of the built areas, the inappropriate street furniture have all led to its patrimony to be devalued. The purpose of this research is to promote surveys and studies that can lead to the rehabilitation and innovation of the Largo Cândido dos Reis encouraging intervention in the public space.Orientação: Vasco Maria Tavela de Santos Santos Pinheir

Espacios de Hardy y Bergman en el disco.

El presente trabajo es un estudio sobre los espacios de Hilbert de núcleo reproductivo (RKHS) y dos de los espacios de funciones analíticas más importantes, que a su vez también son RKHS, los espacios de Hardy y los espacios de Bergman. En ambos casos, dicho estudio va a realizarse en el disco unidad D.En el primer capítulo del trabajo, se va a realizar una introducción, a base de definiciones, lemas, proposiciones y teoremas que debemos conocer para después introducir los RKHS y sus núcleos reproductivos. También se presentan una serie de ejemplos básicos y ejemplos de teoría de funciones, el espacio de Hardy y el de Bergman. El segundo capítulo se divide en dos secciones. La primera de ellas, es una colección de propiedades de los RKHS. Se introduce el concepto de marco de Parseval, que extiende el de base ortonormal y se demuestra un resultado muy importante, el teorema de Papadakis. La segunda sección es una caracterización de los núcleos reproductivos, se introduce la función núcleo y se prueba un resultadofundamental, el teorema de Moore.El último capítulo se centra en el espacio de Hardy en el disco unidad. Primero, se estudian los operadoresde composición en el espacio de Hardy, para una aplicación ϕ que deberá cumplir algunascondiciones, y a través del teorema del Principio de Subordinación de Littlewood se ve que, con ciertas restricciones, preservan el espacio de Hardy continuamente. Para finalizar, se estudia el adjunto de un operador de composición y las condiciones bajo las cuales son operadores de composición en el espacio de Hardy.<br /

Assessment of the association between In vivo corneal morphogeometrical changes and keratoconus eyes with severe visual limitation

Assessing changes suffered by the cornea as keratoconus progresses has proven to be vital for this disease diagnosis and treatment. 'is study determines the corneal biometric profile in eyes considered as affected by keratoconus (KC) showing severe visual limitation, by means of in vivo 3D modelling techniques. 'is observational case series study evaluated new objective indices in 50 healthy and 30 KC corneas, following a validated protocol created by our research group, which has been previously used for diagnosis and characterization of KC in asymptomatic (preclinical) and mild visually impaired eyes. Results show a statistically significant reduction of corneal volume and an increase of total corneal area in the severe KC group, being anterior and posterior corneal surfaces minimum thickness points the best correlated parameters, although with no discrimination between groups. Receiving operator curves were used to determine sensitivity and specificity of selected indices, being anterior and posterior apex deviations the ones which reached the highest area under the curve, both with very high sensitivity (96.7% and 90%, respectively) and specificity (94.0% and 99.9%, respectively). 'e results suggest that once severe visual loss appears, anterior corneal topography should be considered for a more accurate diagnosis of clinical KC, being anterior apex deviation the key metric discriminant. 'is study can be a useful tool for KC classification, helping doctors in diagnosing severe cases of the disease, and can help to characterize corneal changes that appear when severe KC is developed and how they relate with vision deterioration.This publication has been carried out in the framework of the Thematic Network for Cooperative Research in Health (RETICS) reference number RD16/0008/0012 financed by the Carlos III Health Institute-General Subdirection of Networks and Cooperative Investigation Centers (R&D&I National Plan 2013–2016) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)

Efficacy of morpho-geometrical analysis of the corneal surfaces in keratoconus disease according to moderate visual limitation

The cornea is a complex hemispheric structure, made of collagen fibres that provide it a homogenous and stable geometry. During keratoconus disease, a loss of tenacity takes place in the collagen fibres that form the corneal structure, producing an alteration of its geometry, this is, a change of its curvature, and therefore, a loss of visual quality of patients. The geometric characterization of the hemispheric structure by means of biometric parameters is a very solid technique of diagnosis, based in a virtual 3D model, which has already been validated for several degrees of severity of keratoconus pathology. In this prospective comparative study, 93 corneas (50 healthy subjects and 43 patients with keratoconus with moderate visual limitation) were geometrically modelled. The results obtained in this work suggest that the best predictive biometric parameters are anterior corneal surface area and posterior apex deviation, and that the strongest correlation is produced between sagittal plane apex area in minimum thickness point and sagittal plane apex area. The studied biometric parameters have shown significant differences between groups. Therefore, the analysis of the biometric parameters that register the geometric decompensation that locally appear in a corneal region, as a response to the asymmetry produced during the development of keratoconus disease with a moderate visual impairment, is a new approach that may lead to a better understanding of the disease with this degree of optical limitation.This publication has been carried out in the framework of the Thematic Network for Co-Operative Research in Health (RETICS) reference number RD16/0008/0012 financed by the Carlos III Health Institute-General Subdirection of Networks and Cooperative Investigation Centres (R&D&I National Plan 2013-2016) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)

El teorema de Müntz-Szász y algunas de sus extensiones en Análisis Matemático

A finales del siglo XIX, Weierstrass demostró que el conjunto de los polinomios definidos en un intervalo compacto es denso en el conjunto de las funciones continuas con ese mismo dominio. Es natural preguntarse qué sucederá si, en lugar de polinomios al uso, con exponentes naturales, se consideran “polinomios” con exponentes en un conjunto infinito numerable cualquiera de números positivos. En este trabajo se caracteriza cuándo el conjunto de tales “polinomios” definidos en [0, 1] es denso en el de las funciones continuas con ese mismo dominio en términos de la divergencia de determinadas series asociadas a los exponentes (teorema de Müntz-Szász), suponiendo primero que el conjunto de los exponentes forma una sucesión estrictamente creciente y suprimiendo esa hipótesis después. También se dan resultados análogos sobre densidad de “polinomios” definidos en [0, 1] en los correspondientes espacios Lᵖ.<br /