Detección automática de planos de rueda de ferrocarril mediante tratamiento digital de imágenes empleando la Transformada de Hilbert

El presente artículo muestra una técnica basada en el tratamiento digital de imágenes, para diagnosticar planos de rueda de ferrocarril, para ello: se han extraido todos los picos de la señal; se ha hecho uso del concepto de señal analítica cuya parte real es la propia señal, es decir cada pico de la señal adquirida, y su parte imaginaria es la transformada de Hilbert de la señal original; se ha efectuado la representación de Lissajous de la señal analítica, de esa representación se ha obtenido una imagen a la que se aplican técnicas para la extracción de características de forma y contenido de regiones de pixeles; la selección de estas se ha llevado a cabo mediante búsqueda heurística empleando una función de evaluación basada en matrices de dispersión y su clasificación se ha realizado mediante aprendizaje supervisado empleando una Máquina de Vectores Soporte (MVS), utilizando la validación cruzada para la obtención de sus parámetros óptimos

Antimicrobial Resistance among Respiratory Pathogens in Spain: Latest Data and Changes over 11 Years (1996-1997 to 2006-2007)▿

A nationwide multicenter susceptibility surveillance study (Susceptibility to the Antimicrobials Used in the Community in España [SAUCE] project), SAUCE-4, including 2,559 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 2,287 Streptococcus pyogenes, and 2,736 Haemophilus influenzae isolates was carried out from May 2006 to June 2007 in 34 Spanish hospitals. Then, the results from SAUCE-4 were compared to those from all three previous SAUCE studies carried out in 1996-1997, 1998-1999, and 2001-2002 to assess the temporal trends in resistance and the phenotypes of resistance over the 11-year period. In SAUCE-4, on the basis of the CLSI breakpoints, penicillin (parenteral, nonmeningitis breakpoint) and cefotaxime were the antimicrobials that were the most active against S. pneumoniae (99.8% and 99.6%, respectively). Only 0.9% of isolates had a penicillin MIC of ≥2 μg/ml. In S. pyogenes, nonsusceptibility to erythromycin was observed in 19.4% of isolates. Among the H. influenzae isolates, a β-lactamase-positive prevalence of 15.7% was found. A statistically significant temporal decreasing trend over the 11-year period was observed for nonsusceptibility (from 60.0% to 22.9%) and resistance (from 36.5% to 0.9%) to penicillin and for the proportion of erythromycin-resistant isolates of S. pneumoniae of the macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLSB) phenotype (from 98.4% to 81.3%). A similar trend was observed for the prevalence of ampicillin resistance (from 37.6% to 16.1%), β-lactamase production (from 25.7% to 15.7%), and β-lactamase-negative ampicillin resistance (BLNAR) in H. influenzae (from 13.5% to 0.7%). Among erythromycin-resistant isolates of S. pyogenes, a significant increasing trend in the prevalence of MLSB was observed (from 7.0% to 35.5%). SAUCE-4 confirms a generalized decline in the resistance of the main respiratory pathogens to the antimicrobials as well as a shift in their resistance phenotypes

UAVEMI project: numerical and experimental EM immunity assessment of UAV for HIRF and lightning indirect effects

The UAVEMI project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, gathers a consortium formed by several research and development institutions and one industrial partner. The main goal is to develop innovative experimental and numerical approaches for the assessment of the electromagnetic compatibility of unmanned air vehicles, under high intensity radiated fields, lightning indirect effects and non-nuclear electromagnetic pulses. This contribution describes the capabilities currently being developed under the projectPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Microbial resistance: what is to be done? Information from the panel of experts

This document represents the recommendations of a panel of Spanish experts on antibiotic use and resistance. In a Task Force, under the auspices of the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs that took place in 1994 in Madrid, the members were gravely concerned about the national increase in antibiotic resistance. They analysed the development, evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance among community-acquired human bacterial pathogens in Spain, its relation with antibiotic consumption, and they proposed future surveillance strategies for monitoring the patterns of antibiotic use and consumption. Success will require a collective action among the producers (pharmaceutical industry), prescribers (doctors, veterinarians), dispensers (pharmacists), and consumers (patients). Two similar documents have been recently published by the American Society of Microbiology and the World Health Organization showing the global concern about this topic. Este documento analiza la situación española de la resis- tencia bacteriana a los antibióticos, principalmente de los pató- genos que causan infecciones comunitarias en humanos, y también revisa este problema en poblaciones animales. Evalúa igualmente el consumo de los antibióticos y su uso en los cam- pos médico y veterinario, así como el papel que en este tema tienen los farmacéuticos. la industria farmacéutica y la admi- nistración sanitaria. Tras la parte de revisicín global. se propo- nen estrategias de vigilancia epidemiológica y’ medidas con- cretas recomendadas a las distintas partes implicadas. El au- mento de la resistencia a los antibióticos constituye un problema mundial que preocupa cada vez más, habiéndose pu- blicado recientemente documentos de la Organización Mun- dial de la Salud y de la Sociedad Americana de Microbiología sobre el tema. Bajo el auspicio del Ministerto de Sanidad ce constituyó en 1994 un panel de expertos que ha elaborado este documento de consenso con recomendaciones específicas que abordan de una manera sistemática este importante problema de Salud Pública