Communication system for a tooth-mounted RF sensor used for continuous monitoring of nutrient intake

In this Thesis, the communication system of a wearable device that monitors the user’s diet is studied. Based in a novel RF metamaterial-based mouth sensor, different decisions have to be made concerning the system’s technologies, such as the power source options for the device, the wireless technology used for communications and the method to obtain data from the sensor. These issues, along with other safety rules and regulations, are reviewed, as the first stage of development of the Food-Intake Monitoring projectOutgoin

A graph-based framework for optimal semantic web service composition

Web services are self-described, loosely coupled software components that are network-accessible through standardized web protocols, whose characteristics are described in XML. One of the key promises of Web services is to provide better interoperability and to enable a faster integration between systems. In order to generate robust service oriented architectures, automatic composition algorithms are required in order to combine the functionality of many single services into composite services that are able to respond to demanding user requests, even when there is no single service capable of performing such task. Service composition consists of a combination of single services into composite services that are executed in sequence or in a different order, imposed by a set of control constructions that can be specified using standard languages such as OWL-s or BPEL4WS. In the last years several papers have dealt with composition of web services. Some approaches treat the service composition as a planning problem, where a sequence of actions lead from a initial state to a goal state. However, most of these proposals have some drawbacks: high complexity, high computational cost and inability to maximize the parallel execution of web services. Other approaches consider the problem as a graph search problem, where search algorithms are applied over a web service dependency graph in order to find a solution for a particular request. These proposals are simpler than their counterparts and also many can exploit the parallel execution of web services. However, most of these approaches rely on very complex dependency graphs that have not been optimized to remove data redundancy, which may negatively affect the overall performance and scalability of these techniques in large service registries. Therefore, it is necessary to identify, characterize and optimize the different tasks involved in the automatic service composition process in order to develop better strategies to efficiently obtain optimal solutions. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop a graph-based framework for automatic service composition that generate optimal input-output based compositions not only in terms of complexity of the solutions, but also in terms of overall quality of service solutions. More specifically, the objectives of this thesis are: (1) Analysis of the characteristics of services and compositions. The aim of this objective is to characterize and identify the main steps that are part for the service composition process. (2) Framework for automatic graph-based composition. This objective will focus on developing a framework that enables the efficient input-output based service composition, exploring the integration with other tasks that are part of the composition process, such as service discovery. (3) Development of optimal algorithms for automatic service composition. This objective focuses on the development of a set of algorithms and optimization techniques for the generation of optimal compositions, optimizing the complexity of the solutions and the overall Quality-of- Service. (4) Validation of the algorithms with standard datasets so they can be compared with other proposals

An Integrated Semantic Web Service Discovery and Composition Framework

In this paper we present a theoretical analysis of graph-based service composition in terms of its dependency with service discovery. Driven by this analysis we define a composition framework by means of integration with fine-grained I/O service discovery that enables the generation of a graph-based composition which contains the set of services that are semantically relevant for an input-output request. The proposed framework also includes an optimal composition search algorithm to extract the best composition from the graph minimising the length and the number of services, and different graph optimisations to improve the scalability of the system. A practical implementation used for the empirical analysis is also provided. This analysis proves the scalability and flexibility of our proposal and provides insights on how integrated composition systems can be designed in order to achieve good performance in real scenarios for the Web.Comment: Accepted to appear in IEEE Transactions on Services Computing 201

Glutamine codon usage and polyQ evolution in primates depend on the Q stretch length

Amino acid usage in a proteome depends mostly on its taxonomy, as it does the codon usage in transcriptomes. Here, we explore the level of variation in the codon usage of a specific amino acid, glutamine, in relation to the number of consecutive glutamine residues. We show that CAG triplets are consistently more abundant in short glutamine homorepeats (polyQ, four to eight residues) than in shorter glutamine stretches (one to three residues), leading to the evolutionary growth of the repeat region in a CAG-dependent manner. The length of orthologous polyQ regions is mostly stable in primates, particularly the short ones. Interestingly, given a short polyQ the CAG usage is higher in unstable-in-length orthologous polyQ regions. This indicates that CAG triplets produce the necessary instability for a glutamine stretch to grow. Proteins related to polyQ-associated diseases behave in a more extreme way, with longer glutamine stretches in human and evolutionarily closer nonhuman primates, and an overall higher CAG usage. In the light of our results, we suggest an evolutionary model to explain the glutamine codon usage in polyQ regions

Proteome-wide comparison between the amino acid composition of domains and linkers

Objective: Amino acid composition is a sequence feature that has been extensively used to characterize proteomes of many species and protein families. Yet the analysis of amino acid composition of protein domains and the linkers connecting them has received less attention. Here, we perform both a comprehensive full-proteome amino acid composition analysis and a similar analysis focusing on domains and linkers, to uncover domain- or linker-specific differential amino acid usage patterns. Results: The amino acid composition in the 38 proteomes studied showcase the greater variability found in archaea and bacteria species compared to eukaryotes. When focusing on domains and linkers, we describe the preferential use of polar residues in linkers and hydrophobic residues in domains. To let any user perform this analysis on a given domain (or set of them), we developed a dedicated R script called RACCOON, which can be easily used and can provide interesting insights into the compositional differences between a domain and its surrounding linkers

Diseño y construcción de una troqueladora para el corte de placas de aluminio, a ser empleadas en la bodega del laboratorio de máquinas herramientas de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana

The objective of this project is the creation of a machine that can cut an aluminum plate to perform tests in the laboratory of the “Universidad Politécnica Salesiana”, for which a previous investigation was execute with the purpose of defining the most efficient method for the cutting of this type of plates, which will be taken as a starting point Through the selected methodology, it starts with the study of the steps to follow that require a machine at the moment of cutting of aluminum plate, it verifies which are the fundamental parts of the machine and proceeds to select the appropriate systems The analysis of alternatives is carried out, taking three alternatives that meet the proposed objectives, comparing them among themselves in order to specify which is the most efficient for this project. In order to proceed with the design, a description of the formulation theory that will be used to find the fundamental characteristics of the machine prior to its construction is given Once the research and calculations are completed, the machine is built in a workshop, in this workshop cutting, rectified, lathe, tempering and finishing the machine is done Finally, we perform the relevant tests to verify if the objectives have been reached.El presente proyecto tiene como objetivo la creación de una máquina que pueda efectuar el corte de una placa de aluminio para realizar fichas a ser utilizadas en el laboratorio de la “Universidad Politécnica Salesiana”, para esto se realizó una investigación previa con la finalidad de averiguar cuál es el método más eficiente para el corte de este tipo de placas, el cual será tomado como punto de partida. Mediante la metodología seleccionada, se comienza con el estudio de los pasos que necesita una máquina al momento del corte a una placa, se verifica cuáles son las partes fundamentales de la máquina y se procede a seleccionar los sistemas adecuados. Se realiza el análisis de alternativas, tomando tres alternativas que cumplan con los objetivos planteados, comparándolas entre sí para poder especificar cuál es la más eficiente para este proyecto. Para poder proseguir con el diseño, se da una descripción de la teoría de formulación que se utilizara para encontrar las características fundamentales de la máquina previa su construcción Una vez finalizado la investigación y cálculos se procede con la construcción de la máquina, se realiza trabajos de corte, torneado, rectificado, templado, método de electro - erosión en la matriz y finalmente se da el acabado. Por último se realiza las pruebas pertinentes para verificar si se ha llegado a los objetivos planteados

Innovación y competitividad en los restaurantes en tiempos de pandemia en la provincia de Imbabura.

Determinar qué innovaciones se han realizado en los restaurantes de Ibarra en la pandemia y cómo se relacionan con la competitividad de estos.Por la pandemia del COVID – 19. El sector de la restauración ha sido uno de los más perjudicados a nivel mundial, grandes restaurantes se han visto obligados a cerrar sus puertas definitivamente y en la ciudad de Ibarra - Ecuador no ha sido la excepción, pero así mismo muchos restaurantes han logrado sobrellevar esta situación y permanecen aún en vigencia, el objetivo de esta investigación exploratoria, no experimental, es determinar qué innovaciones se han realizado en los restaurantes de Ibarra en la pandemia y cómo se relacionan con la competitividad de estos. Se realizó una investigación de enfoque cualitativo, en la cual se analizaron las variables; Innovación, Competitividad y Mercado, del cual se obtuvo conceptos como; Innovación y su tipología, ventaja competitiva, calidad, y participación en el mercado, para posteriormente realizar un instrumento de investigación, en este caso una entrevista como medio para obtener varios datos como; cuáles fueron las innovaciones realizadas, y así mismo si estas influyen en la competitividad de los restaurantes y cómo han logrado permanecer en actividad dentro del mercado pese a las restricciones; Dicha entrevista se realizó en 10 restaurantes catalogados dentro del catastro de Ibarra como de 1ra a 3ra categoría o entre 3 a 5 tenedores, finalmente se analizaron los datos obtenidos, se interpretaron y se obtuvieron los resultados de la investigación, los cuales demuestra una clara tendencia en los restaurantes que más innovaciones han realizado, son los que han obtenido resultados positivos al momento de enfrentar los efectos negativos de la pandemia en la economía.Licenciatur