Study of weight and body mass index on graft loss after transplant over 5 years of evolution

Antonio Liñán González conceived paper, oversaw data collection, conducted data analysis, wrote manuscript and approved final version. Raquel García Pérez participated in study design, data analysis and interpretation, critically revised manuscript and approved final version. Juan Bravo Soto participated in study design, data analysis, and interpretation of data and revision of manuscript and approved final version. Rafael Fernández Castillo participated in study design, interpretation of data and revision of manuscript and approved final version.Patients frequently experience a weight gain after organ transplantation. This increase in weight is the result of multiple factors, and is usually intensified by glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive drugs. It can also delay graft function and cause serious health problems. The objective of this study was to study the obesity as well as its causes and consequences in kidney transplant patients. The sample population consisted of 282 renal transplant patients, 170 men and 112 women, 18-74 years of age, who were monitored over a period of five years. For the purposes of our research, the patients were divided into two groups: (1) normal weight 18.5 ≤ BMI <25; (2) overweight 25 ≤ BMI ≤30. The association between BMI as an independent variable and graft survival was determined by means of a Cox regression analysis. Overweight patients were characterized by a higher comorbidity prevalence. In the Cox multivariate analysis, the initial BMI, evaluated as a continuous variable continued to be an independent predictor of delayed graft function and chronic nephropathy. This study evaluated the BMI as a continuous value instead of a categorical value. In conclusion, our results suggest that an increase in BMI without categorical variation can be an independent risk factor for graft loss. Consequently, obesity prevention for renal transplant patients should include dietary counseling and management, moderate physical activity, and steroid minimization

Sign Communication for People with Disabilities Using Kinect Technology at Home

Communication with other people and their environment, is an essential skill for people with special needs. In this study we present a communicator which interprets a series of commands by means of corporal expressions. These body expressions are learned by a gesture recognition system according to the requirements and disability of the user. Each of the commands adapt themselves to daily tasks. The system learn gestures and associates them with concrete actions that the user wants to do or needs at that moment

Development and Implementation of a Hybrid Wireless Sensor Network of Low Power and Long Range for Urban Environments

The urban population, worldwide, is growing exponentially and with it the demand for information on pollution levels, vehicle traffic, or available parking, giving rise to citizens connected to their environment. This article presents an experimental long range (LoRa) and low power consumption network, with a combination of static and mobile wireless sensors (hybrid architecture) to tune and validate concentrator placement, to obtain a large coverage in an urban environment. A mobile node has been used, carrying a gateway and various sensors. The Activation By Personalization (ABP) mode has been used, justified for urban applications requiring multicasting. This allows to compare the coverage of each static gateway, being able to make practical decisions about its location. With this methodology, it has been possible to provide service to the city of Malaga, through a single concentrator node. The information acquired is synchronized in an external database, to monitor the data in real time, being able to geolocate the dataframes through web mapping services. This work presents the development and implementation of a hybrid wireless sensor network of long range and low power, configured and tuned to achieve efficient performance in a mid-size city, and tested in experiments in a real urban environment.Spanish project RTI2018-093421-B-I0

Realistic deployment of hybrid wireless sensor networks based on ZigBee and LoRa for search and rescue applications

Search and Rescue operations in emergency response to natural or human catastrophes have the main objective of locating and rescuing potential victims as fast as possible, thus quick response and accurate actions are mandatory. While standard communications may be affected, a Wireless Sensor Network can be deployed to support the rescue team. This kind of network allows data acquisition close to events and enables persistence over time, among other advantages. However, enhancements must be made to improve the adaptation to this kind of scenario. This work presents two Hybrid Wireless Sensor Networks, based on ZigBee and LoRa, developed to address some of the challenges that Search and Rescue operations pose to the use of Wireless Sensor Networks, and tested in realistic scenarios in cooperation with first responders. Likewise, several software developments that increase the performance of the networks are described. Finally, the conclusions presented, and the lessons learnt are supported by a high amount of data, gathered in realistic exercises in cooperation with civilian and military first responders.Spanish Project RTI2018-093421-B-I0

Mathematical competencies of graduate computer engineers: a descriptive study

Recepción: 23 de junio de 2016Revisión: 30 de junio de 2016Aceptado: 11 julio de 2016Correspondencia: [email protected] enfoque competencial de la enseñanza es una de las principales novedades que incluye el Espacio Europeo de la Educación Superior (EEES). De acuerdo con esta perspectiva, resulta interesante determinar qué competencias ponen en práctica los egresados de cualquier titulación en su trabajo. En este artículo presentamos los resultados de una investigación descriptiva en la que analizamos las competencias matemáticas que usan los ingenieros informáticos en el ejercicio de su profesión. Para ello, se seleccionó una muestra incidental formada por 414 sujetos egresados de diferentes universidades españolas. La metodología utilizada es cuantitativa y ha constado de las siguientes fases: diseño de la encuesta, validación de la misma a través de una prueba piloto y por parte de expertos, distribución de la encuesta entre los egresados y análisis de los resultados. Los datos analizados muestran que los ingenieros informáticos egresados utilizan las competencias matemáticas en su labor profesional siendo la competencia algebraica la más usada y la competencia numérica la que consideran que necesitarían más formación académica que la recibida en sus estudios universitarios para desempeñar de manera eficiente su labor profesional. Este hecho nos revela la importancia que tiene el desarrollo de la citada competencia en su formación académica.The competence approach of teaching is one of the main new features included in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). According to this perspective, it is interesting to determine what competencies implement any degree graduates in their work. This paper presents the results of a descriptive research that analyzed the math competencies used by computer engineers in their profession. To do this, an incidental sample of 414 graduate subjects from different Spanish universities was selected. The methodology is quantitative and has consisted of the following phases: survey design, validation thereof through a pilot test and by experts, survey distribution among graduates and analysis of results. The data analyzed show that graduate computer engineers use mathematical competencies in their professional job and algebraic competence is the most used and numerical competence the one they need more education than received in university to perform their professional job efficiently. This reveals the importance of the development of that competence in their education.Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Psicología Social. Proyecto de Innovación Docente ReiDoCre

Tropospheric water vapour and relative humidity profiles from lidar and microwave radiometry

In this paper, we outline an iterative method to calibrate the water vapour mixing ratio profiles retrieved from Raman lidar measurements. Simultaneous and co-located radiosonde data are used for this purpose and the calibration results obtained during a radiosonde campaign in summer and autumn 2011 are presented. The water vapour profiles measured during night-time by the Raman lidar and radiosondes are compared and the differences between the methodologies are discussed. Then, a new approach to obtain relative humidity profiles by combination of simultaneous profiles of temperature (retrieved from a microwave radiometer) and water vapour mixing ratio (from a Raman lidar) is addressed. In the last part of this work, a statistical analysis of water vapour mixing ratio and relative humidity profiles obtained during 1 year of simultaneous measurements is presented.This work was supported by the Andalusian Regional Government through projects P12-RNM-2409 and P10-RNM-6299, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through projects CGL2010-18782, CSD2007-00067, CGL2011-13580-E/CLI and CGL2011-16124-E; and by the EU through the ACTRIS project (EU INFRA-2010-1.1.16-262254)

Scattering of 9Li on 208Pb at energies around the coulomb barrier

5th International Conference FUSION11In order to study the dynamics of 11Li and 9Li beams in a strong electric field at energies around the Coulomb barrier, we measured at the ISACII-TRIUMF Facility the angular distribution of elastic and inelastic scattering of 11Li+208Pb at 24.2 and 29.7 MeV and 9Li+208Pb at 24, 29.5 and 33 MeV laboratory energies. We present here the first determination of the angular distribution of the cross section of 9Li+208Pb. The results are compared with theoretical calculations using the double-folding São Paulo Potential (SPP) for the real part and a for the imaginary part a Woods-Saxon potential. A good overall agreement is obtainedConsejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2009-07387Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2009-08848Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2010-22131-C02-01Consejo Interinstitucional de Ciencia y Tecnología FPA2009-0765

Field report on experimental comparison of a WiFi mesh network against commercial 5G in an underground disaster environment.

Mobile robots in disaster scenarios such as tunnels, mines, or collapsed structures face communication challenges for reliable video streaming to remote control centers. Commercial fifth-generation (5G) networks provide low latency and high bandwidth, especially in urban areas, but ad hoc WiFi networks with static and robotic nodes can provide a solution to attenuation in occluded areas. This paper offers a field experiment report from a search and rescue (SAR) exercise where we tested a WiFi mesh network against commercial 5G in tunnels 184 m long, 6 m wide, and 4 m high. Two operator streamed video to the Internet through a mesh that consisted of two static nodes and two mobile nodes on unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). Latency was measured for both operators for different video resolutions, as well as for a 5G customer-premises equipment (CPE) on-board a scout-UGV. The paper discusses experimental results and lessons learned.This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Gobierno de España, project PID2021-122944OB-I00, and by the Maori project (grant agreement number TSI-063000-2021-53) funded by the European Union-NextGenerationEU

Probing proton halo effects in the 8B+64Zn collision around the Coulomb barrier

Proton halo effects in the 8B+64Zn reaction at an energy around 1.5 times the Coulomb barrier have been studied at HIE-ISOLDE CERN using, for the first time, the only existing postaccelerated 8B beam. This, together with the use of a high granularity and large solid angle detection system, allowed for a careful mapping of the elastic angular distribution, especially in the Coulomb-nuclear interference region. Contrary to what is observed for the one-neutron halo nucleus 11Be on the same target in a similar energy range, the analysis of the elastic scattering angular distribution shows only a modest suppression of the Coulomb-nuclear interference peak, with no remarkable enhancement of the total reaction cross-section. Inclusive angular and energy distributions of 7Be produced in direct reaction processes have also been measured. The comparison of these data with the results of theoretical calculations for the elastic and non-elastic breakup contributions indicate that both processes are important. Overall, the experimental data suggest a 8B collision dynamics at the barrier very different from the one of neutron halo nuclei, showing only modest effects of coupling to continuum. This behaviour can be interpreted as due to the presence of the additional Coulomb interactions halo-core and halo-target together with the presence of the centrifugal barrier felt by the valence proton of 8B.UE ENSAR2 Subvención nº 654002Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Italia, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Reino Unido y la Agencia Española de Financiación “ELEGANT” PGC2018-095640-B-100, FIS2017-88410-P, PDI2019- 104390GB-100, FPA2016-77689-C2-1-R, PGC2018-096994-B-C21, PGC2018-096994-B-C22 y RTI2018-098868-B-I0