1,010 research outputs found
Modelling of last hypothesis of climate change impacts on water resources in Sierra de las Cabras aquifer (Southern Spain)
Having models that reflect the reality of a system operation becomes critical to the effec-tive management of water resources in a watershed, especially considering the different scenes of climate change predicted for the Mediterranean regions by the Intergovernmen-tal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The fifth Assessment Report of IPCC (AR5) esti-mates an increase in average temperatures and a precipitation decrease between 10 and 20% for Mediterranean region which could generate drought events in the study area. The present research tries to determinate the potential impacts that climate change may have on water resources. The Sacramento model has been used to model the water resources of an inertial aquifer, Sierra de las Cabras. In turn, IPCC forecasts of climate change for the study area (Mediterranean region) have been simulated taking into account the degree as-sessing of affection to the water resources opposite to eventual episodes of drought, and the social and environmental implications that will result have been also determined.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech
Modelización de los impactos del cambio climático sobre el recurso hídrico en la masa de agua subterránea Sierra de Líbar (060.044), sur de España. Implicaciones socio‐ambientales
Disponer de modelos que reflejen la realidad de funcionamiento de un sistema hídrico se
torna fundamental para la gestión eficaz de los recursos hídricos de una cuenca, máxime
teniendo en cuenta los diferentes escenarios de cambio climático pronosticados para las
regiones mediterráneas por el Grupo I de Trabajo del Equipo Intergubernamental de
expertos sobre el Cambio Climático (IPCC) en los informes AR4 (A1, A2, B1 y B2) y AR5
(RCP2,6, RCP4,5, RCP6,0 y RCP8,5), que estima un aumento de las temperaturas
medias, así como un descenso del régimen pluviométrico entre un 10 y 30%,
respectivamente, para la región mediterránea. Aunque constituye una tarea complicada,
el presente trabajo intenta determinar, de manera preliminar, los posibles impactos que
estas nuevas hipótesis de cambio climático pueden tener sobre los recursos hídricos de
la masa de agua subterránea Sierra de Líbar (060.044), perteneciente a la Demarcación
Hidrográfica de las Cuencas Mediterráneas Andaluzas, en el Sur de España. Para ello,
en primer lugar, se han comparado los resultados obtenidos, para el periodo 1976-2003,
del recurso hídrico a nivel mensual con el modelo SIMPA que, tradicionalmente, se ha
utilizado para la toma de decisiones en la Planificación Hidrológica, con los procedentes
de la simulación a partir del modelo Sacramento, cuya utilización requiere tener un
elevado conocimiento previo de la zona de estudio debido al elevado número de
parámetros que se utilizan para caracterizar el funcionamiento del sistema hídrico.
Posteriormente, se han simulado las nuevas previsiones del IPCC de cambio climático
para la zona de estudio (región mediterránea), valorando, de manera preliminar, tanto el
grado de afección al recurso hídrico frente a eventuales episodios de sequía como las
potenciales implicaciones socio-ambientales que conllevarían.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech
Deep Neural Networks for the Recognition and Classification of Heart Murmurs Using Neuromorphic Auditory Sensors
Auscultation is one of the most used techniques for
detecting cardiovascular diseases, which is one of the main causes
of death in the world. Heart murmurs are the most common abnormal
finding when a patient visits the physician for auscultation.
These heart sounds can either be innocent, which are harmless, or
abnormal, which may be a sign of a more serious heart condition.
However, the accuracy rate of primary care physicians and expert
cardiologists when auscultating is not good enough to avoid most
of both type-I (healthy patients are sent for echocardiogram) and
type-II (pathological patients are sent home without medication or
treatment) errors made. In this paper, the authors present a novel
convolutional neural network based tool for classifying between
healthy people and pathological patients using a neuromorphic
auditory sensor for FPGA that is able to decompose the audio into
frequency bands in real time. For this purpose, different networks
have been trained with the heart murmur information contained in
heart sound recordings obtained from nine different heart sound
databases sourced from multiple research groups. These samples
are segmented and preprocessed using the neuromorphic auditory
sensor to decompose their audio information into frequency
bands and, after that, sonogram images with the same size are
generated. These images have been used to train and test different
convolutional neural network architectures. The best results
have been obtained with a modified version of the AlexNet model,
achieving 97% accuracy (specificity: 95.12%, sensitivity: 93.20%,
PhysioNet/CinC Challenge 2016 score: 0.9416). This tool could aid
cardiologists and primary care physicians in the auscultation process,
improving the decision making task and reducing type-I and
type-II errors.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-
NAVIS: Neuromorphic Auditory VISualizer Tool
This software presents diverse utilities to perform the first post-processing layer taking the neuromorphic auditory sensors (NAS) information. The used NAS implements in FPGA a cascade filters architecture, imitating the behavior of the basilar membrane and inner hair cells and working with the sound information decomposed into its frequency components as spike streams. The well-known neuromorphic hardware interface Address-Event-Representation (AER) is used to propagate auditory information out of the NAS, emulating the auditory vestibular nerve. Using the information packetized into aedat files, which are generated through the jAER software plus an AER to USB computer interface, NAVIS implements a set of graphs that allows to represent the auditory information as cochleograms, histograms, sonograms, etc. It can also split the auditory information into different sets depending on the activity level of the spike streams. The main contribution of this software tool is that it allows complex audio post-processing treatments and representations, which is a novelty for spike-based systems in the neuromorphic community and it will help neuromorphic engineers to build sets for training spiking neural networks (SNN).Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-0
Efectos del cambio climático sobre los recursos disponibles en sistemas carbonáticos del sur de España. Importancia de su conocimiento en la cuenca del río Zaza (Cuba)
Disponer de modelos que reflejen la realidad de funcionamiento de un sistema hídrico se torna fundamental para la gestión eficaz de los recursos hídricos de una cuenca, máxime teniendo en cuenta los diferentes escenarios de cambio climático pronosticados por el Panel Intergubernamental de Cambio Climático (IPCC) en el informe AR5, que estima un aumento de las
temperaturas medias, así como un descenso del régimen pluviométrico entre un 10 y 30% para la
región mediterránea. El presente trabajo intenta determinar, de manera preliminar, los posibles
impactos que estos escenarios pueden tener sobre los recursos hídricos de dos sistemas acuíferos
que presentan diferentes comportamientos hidrogeológicos. Los resultados obtenidos en el Sur de
España, así como la necesidad de abordar la gestión integrada de los recursos hídricos de la Cuenca
Hidrográfica del río Zaza, ponen de manifiesto la obligación de modelizar las respuestas de los
acuíferos carbonáticos que forman parte de esta cuenca hidrográfica, valorando tanto el grado de
afección al recurso hídrico frente a eventuales episodios de sequía como las potenciales
implicaciones socio-ambientales que conllevarían.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech
Stereo Matching in Address-Event-Representation (AER) Bio-Inspired Binocular Systems in a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
In stereo-vision processing, the image-matching step is essential for results, although it
involves a very high computational cost. Moreover, the more information is processed, the more time
is spent by the matching algorithm, and the more ine cient it is. Spike-based processing is a relatively
new approach that implements processing methods by manipulating spikes one by one at the time
they are transmitted, like a human brain. The mammal nervous system can solve much more complex
problems, such as visual recognition by manipulating neuron spikes. The spike-based philosophy
for visual information processing based on the neuro-inspired address-event-representation (AER)
is currently achieving very high performance. The aim of this work was to study the viability of a
matching mechanism in stereo-vision systems, using AER codification and its implementation in
a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Some studies have been done before in an AER system
with monitored data using a computer; however, this kind of mechanism has not been implemented
directly on hardware. To this end, an epipolar geometry basis applied to AER systems was studied
and implemented, with other restrictions, in order to achieve good results in a real-time scenario.
The results and conclusions are shown, and the viability of its implementation is proven.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-
Caracterización hidrológica e hidrogeológica de diversas áreas limítrofes con las presas del Guadalhorce (provincia de Málaga)
Las presas Conde de Guadalhorce y Guadalhorce-Guadalteba constituyen el Sistema de explotación Presas del Guadalhorce cuyo principal objetivo es garantizar el suministro de agua a la ciudad de Málaga y las dotaciones para el regadío de unas 9.600 hectáreas en el valle del Guadalhorce. Desde la puesta en servicio de la presa de Guadalhorce-Guadalteba, en el año 1973, se detectaron una serie de surgencias de carácter salino, aguas abajo de ésta, que llegaron a suponer un grave problema para la gestión del Sistema. El problema, de cara a la calidad del agua bruta suministrada al abastecimiento de Málaga, se ha minimizado a partir de la entrada en servicio de la planta desalobradora de El Atabal, en el año 2005. No obstante, se mantiene en cuanto al agua destinada al regadío del valle del Guadalhorce y, por ello, entre enero de 2010 y mayo de 2011, se ha llevado a cabo un control hidrodinámico e hidroquímico de los principales puntos identificados de descarga de agua salinizada, a lo largo del tramo comprendido entre el pie de las Presas del Guadalhorce y el contraembalse de La Encantada. Estos controles se han apoyado además en los datos históricos recopilados por el Servicio encargado de la explotación del Sistema.
Los resultados de este primer análisis ponen de manifiesto que los puntos de descarga situados en la margen izquierda del río Guadalhorce muestran una clara conexión con las aguas del vaso de Guadalhorce, de carácter salino, mientras que las situadas en la margen derecha deben su salinidad a contactos naturales entre materiales de naturaleza salina (facies Keuper) y calizas jurásicas que afloran en la región
A Protocol Generator Tool for Automatic In-Vitro HPV Robotic Analysis
Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) could develop precancerous
lesions and invasive cancer, as it is the main cause of nearly all cases
of cervical cancer. There are many strains of HPV and current vaccines
can only protect against some of them. This makes the detection and
genotyping of HPV a research area of utmost importance. Several biomedical
systems can detect HPV in DNA samples; however, most of
them do not have a procedure as fast, automatic or precise as it is actually
needed in this field. This manuscript presents a novel XML-based
hierarchical protocol architecture for biomedical robots to describe each
protocol step and execute it sequentially, along with a robust and automatic
robotic system for HPV DNA detection capable of processing from
1 to 24 samples simultaneously in a fast (from 45 to 162 min), efficient
(100% markers effectiveness) and precise (able to detect 36 different HPV
genotypes) way. It includes an efficient artificial vision process as the last
step of the diagnostic.FIDETIA P055-12/E03Ministerio de Economía y Competitivida TEC2016-77785-
Live Demonstration: neuromorphic robotics, from audio to locomotion through spiking CPG on SpiNNaker.
This live demonstration presents an audio-guided
neuromorphic robot: from a Neuromorphic Auditory Sensor
(NAS) to locomotion using Spiking Central Pattern Generators
(sCPGs). Several gaits are generated by sCPGs implemented
on a SpiNNaker board. The output of these sCPGs is sent
in a real-time manner to an Field Programmable Gate Array
(FPGA) board using an AER-to-SpiNN interface. The control
of the hexapod robot joints is performed by the FPGA board.
The robot behavior can be changed in real-time by means of
the NAS. The audio information is sent to the SpiNNaker board
which classifies it using a Spiking Neural Network (SNN). Thus,
the input sound will activate a specific gait pattern which will
eventually modify the behavior of the robot.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-
Sedentary Time Accumulated in Bouts is Positively Associated with Disease Severity in Fibromyalgia: The Al-andalus Project
To examine the associations of prolonged sedentary time (ST) with disease severity in women with fibromyalgia, and to analyse the combined association of total ST and prolonged ST with the disease severity in this population. Women (n = 451; 51.3 +/- 7.6 years old) with fibromyalgia participated. Sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured using triaxial accelerometry and ST was processed into 30- and 60-min bouts. Dimensions of fibromyalgia (function, overall, symptoms) and the overall disease impact were assessed with the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR). Body fat percentage was assessed using a bio-impedance analyser, and physical fitness was assessed with the Senior Fitness Tests Battery. Greater percentage of ST in 30-min bouts and 60-min bouts were associated with worse function, overall, symptoms and the overall impact of the disease (all, P 60-min bouts) presented lower overall impact compared to participants with high levels of total ST and prolonged ST (mean difference = 6.56; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.83 to 11.29, P = 0.002). Greater percentage of ST accumulated in 30- and 60-min bouts and a combination of high levels of total and prolonged ST are related to worse disease severity. Although unable to conclude on causality, results suggest it might be advisable to motivate women with fibromyalgia to break prolonged ST and reduce their total daily ST
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