Search results for: Cesar Lopez
Commenced in January 2007
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Edition: International
Paper Count: 335

Search results for: Cesar Lopez

65 The Quality of Life, Situations and Emerging Concerns of Parents of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Philippine Children's Medical Center during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Authors: Annelyn Fatima Lopez, Ermenilda Avendano, Aileen Marie Vargas, Lara Baylon, Rorilee Angeles

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 resulted in a public health emergency and quarantine measures which may negatively impact psychosocial and environmental aspects of vulnerable populations. OBJECTIVES: This study intended to determine the quality of life, situations and emerging concerns of parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. METHODOLOGY: Parents of patients seen in the PCMC Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics OPD clinic were recruited to fill out questionnaires on parent and child characteristics, survey on situations and emerging concerns during the coronavirus pandemic and WHOQOL-BREF (Filipino version) for parental quality of life. RESULTS: Data from 115 respondents showed a lower score in the environmental domain. The child characteristics that are statistically comparable with the QoL scores include sex, severity of ID and ADHD while the parent characteristics that are statistically comparable with the QoL scores include educational attainment, monthly family income, father’s employment status and family structure (P-value <0.05). Most respondents reported physical distancing (82.61%) and curfew (80.87%) as measures implemented due to the pandemic. Inability to access essential services (43.48-74.48%) were further compounded by limited financial resources (51.30%) and public transport (60%). Government responses received include quarantine pass (90.43%), food allowance or relief package (86.09%), disinfection (60.87%), DSWD-SAP (42.61%) and cash distribution (41.74%). Concerns encountered include socio-environmental issues (i.e. no available transportation, effect on the ability to earn, inadequate food/medicine rations, disruptions in basic social services) and patient concerns (i.e. access to education, medical, developmental and behavioral services, nutrition and sleep). RECOMMENDATIONS: Programs and policies should be planned accordingly to provide improvement of quality of life for both parents and the child with a neurodevelopmental disorder.

Keywords: covid-19, neurodevelopmental disorder, parental quality of life, whoqol-bref

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64 DEMs: A Multivariate Comparison Approach

Authors: Juan Francisco Reinoso Gordo, Francisco Javier Ariza-López, José Rodríguez Avi, Domingo Barrera Rosillo

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The evaluation of the quality of a data product is based on the comparison of the product with a reference of greater accuracy. In the case of MDE data products, quality assessment usually focuses on positional accuracy and few studies consider other terrain characteristics, such as slope and orientation. The proposal that is made consists of evaluating the similarity of two DEMs (a product and a reference), through the joint analysis of the distribution functions of the variables of interest, for example, elevations, slopes and orientations. This is a multivariable approach that focuses on distribution functions, not on single parameters such as mean values or dispersions (e.g. root mean squared error or variance). This is considered to be a more holistic approach. The use of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is proposed due to its non-parametric nature, since the distributions of the variables of interest cannot always be adequately modeled by parametric models (e.g. the Normal distribution model). In addition, its application to the multivariate case is carried out jointly by means of a single test on the convolution of the distribution functions of the variables considered, which avoids the use of corrections such as Bonferroni when several statistics hypothesis tests are carried out together. In this work, two DEM products have been considered, DEM02 with a resolution of 2x2 meters and DEM05 with a resolution of 5x5 meters, both generated by the National Geographic Institute of Spain. DEM02 is considered as the reference and DEM05 as the product to be evaluated. In addition, the slope and aspect derived models have been calculated by GIS operations on the two DEM datasets. Through sample simulation processes, the adequate behavior of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test has been verified when the null hypothesis is true, which allows calibrating the value of the statistic for the desired significance value (e.g. 5%). Once the process has been calibrated, the same process can be applied to compare the similarity of different DEM data sets (e.g. the DEM05 versus the DEM02). In summary, an innovative alternative for the comparison of DEM data sets based on a multinomial non-parametric perspective has been proposed by means of a single Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. This new approach could be extended to other DEM features of interest (e.g. curvature, etc.) and to more than three variables

Keywords: data quality, DEM, kolmogorov-smirnov test, multivariate DEM comparison

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63 Quercetin Nanoparticles and Their Hypoglycemic Effect in a CD1 Mouse Model with Type 2 Diabetes Induced by Streptozotocin and a High-Fat and High-Sugar Diet

Authors: Adriana Garcia-Gurrola, Carlos Adrian Peña Natividad, Ana Laura Martinez Martinez, Alberto Abraham Escobar Puentes, Estefania Ochoa Ruiz, Aracely Serrano Medina, Abraham Wall Medrano, Simon Yobanny Reyes Lopez

Abstract:

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disease characterized by elevated blood glucose levels. Quercetin is a natural flavonoid with a hypoglycemic effect, but reported data are inconsistent due mainly to the structural instability and low solubility of quercetin. Nanoencapsulation is a distinct strategy to overcome the intrinsic limitations of quercetin. Therefore, this work aims to develop a quercetin nano-formulation based on biopolymeric starch nanoparticles to enhance the release and hypoglycemic effect of quercetin in T2DM induced mice model. Starch-quercetin nanoparticles were synthesized using high-intensity ultrasonication, and structural and colloidal properties were determined by FTIR and DLS. For in vivo studies, CD1 male mice (n=25) were divided into five groups (n=5). T2DM was induced using a high-fat and high-sugar diet for 32 weeks and streptozotocin injection. Group 1 consisted of healthy mice fed with a normal diet and water ad libitum; Group 2 were diabetic mice treated with saline solution; Group 3 were diabetic mice treated with glibenclamide; Group 4 were diabetic mice treated with empty nanoparticles; and Group 5 was diabetic mice treated with quercetin nanoparticles. Quercetin nanoparticles had a hydrodynamic size of 232 ± 88.45 nm, a PDI of 0.310 ± 0.04 and a zeta potential of -4 ± 0.85 mV. The encapsulation efficiency of nanoparticles was 58 ± 3.33 %. No significant differences (p = > 0.05) were observed in biochemical parameters (lipids, insulin, and peptide C). Groups 3 and 5 showed a similar hypoglycemic effect, but quercetin nanoparticles showed a longer-lasting effect. Histopathological studies reveal that T2DM mice groups showed degenerated and fatty liver tissue; however, a treated group with quercetin nanoparticles showed liver tissue like that of the healthy mice group. These results demonstrate that quercetin nano-formulations based on starch nanoparticles are effective alternatives with hypoglycemic effects.

Keywords: quercetin, diabetes mellitus tipo 2, in vivo study, nanoparticles

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62 Counting Fishes in Aquaculture Ponds: Application of Imaging Sonars

Authors: Juan C. Gutierrez-Estrada, Inmaculada Pulido-Calvo, Ignacio De La Rosa, Antonio Peregrin, Fernando Gomez-Bravo, Samuel Lopez-Dominguez, Alejandro Garrocho-Cruz, Jairo Castro-Gutierrez

Abstract:

The semi-intensive aquaculture in traditional earth ponds is the main rearing system in Southern Spain. These fish rearing systems are approximately two thirds of aquatic production in this area which has made a significant contribution to the regional economy in recent years. In this type of rearing system, a crucial aspect is the correct quantification and control of the fish abundance in the ponds because the fish farmer knows how many fishes he puts in the ponds but doesn’t know how many fishes will harvest at the end of the rear period. This is a consequence of the mortality induced by different causes as pathogen agents as parasites, viruses and bacteria and other factors as predation of fish-eating birds and poaching. Track the fish abundance in these installations is very difficult because usually the ponds take up a large area of land and the management of the water flow is not automatized. Therefore, there is a very high degree of uncertainty on the abundance fishes which strongly hinders the management and planning of the sales. A novel and non-invasive procedure to count fishes in the ponds is by the means of imaging sonars, particularly fixed systems and/or linked to aquatic vehicles as Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). In this work, a method based on census stations procedures is proposed to evaluate the fish abundance estimation accuracy using images obtained of multibeam sonars. The results indicate that it is possible to obtain a realistic approach about the number of fishes, sizes and therefore the biomass contained in the ponds. This research is included in the framework of the KTTSeaDrones Project (‘Conocimiento y transferencia de tecnología sobre vehículos aéreos y acuáticos para el desarrollo transfronterizo de ciencias marinas y pesqueras 0622-KTTSEADRONES-5-E’) financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal Programme (POCTEP) 2014-2020.

Keywords: census station procedure, fish biomass, semi-intensive aquaculture, multibeam sonars

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61 Effect of Cooking Process on the Antioxidant Activity of Different Variants of Tomato-Based Sofrito

Authors: Ana Beltran Sanahuja, A. Valdés García, Saray Lopez De Pablo Gallego, Maria Soledad Prats Moya

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Tomato consumption has greatly increased worldwide in the last few years, mostly due to a growing demand for products like sofrito. In this sense, regular consumption of tomato-based products has been consistently associated with a reduction in the incidence of chronic degenerative diseases. The sofrito is a homemade tomato sauce typical of the Mediterranean area, which contains as main ingredients: tomato, onion, garlic and olive oil. There are also sofrito’s variations by adding other spices which bring at the same time not only color, flavor, smell and or aroma; they also provide medicinal properties, due to their antioxidant power. This protective effect has mainly been attributed to the predominant bioactive compounds present in sofrito, such as lycopene and other carotenoids as well as more than 40 different polyphenols. Regarding the cooking process, it is known that it can modify the properties and the availability of nutrients in sofrito; however, there is not enough information regarding this issue. For this reason, the aim of the present work is to evaluate the cooking effect on the antioxidant capacity of different variants of tomato-based sofrito combined with other spices, through the analysis of total phenols content (TPC) and to evaluate the antioxidant capacity by using the method of free radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Based on the results obtained, it can be confirmed that the basic sofrito composed of tomato, onion, garlic and olive oil and the sofrito with 1 g of rosemary added, are the ones with the highest content of phenols presenting greater antioxidant power than other industrial sofrito, and that of other variables of sofrito with added thyme or higher amounts of garlic. Moreover, it has been observed that in the elaboration of the tomato-based sofrito, it is possible to cook until 60 minutes, since the cooking process increases the bioavailability of the carotenoids when breaking the cell walls, which weakens the binding forces between the carotenoids and increases the levels of antioxidants present, confirmed both with the TPC and DPPH methods. It can be concluded that the cooking process of different variants of tomato-based sofrito, including spices, can improve the antioxidant capacity. The synergistic effects of different antioxidants may have a greater protective effect; increasing, also, the digestibility of proteins. In addition, the antioxidants help to deactivate the free radicals of diseases such as atherosclerosis, aging, immune suppression, cancer, and diabetes.

Keywords: antioxidants, cooking process, phenols sofrito

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60 Anaerobic Co-digestion in Two-Phase TPAD System of Sewage Sludge and Fish Waste

Authors: Rocio López, Miriam Tena, Montserrat Pérez, Rosario Solera

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Biotransformation of organic waste into biogas is considered an interesting alternative for the production of clean energy from renewable sources by reducing the volume and organic content of waste Anaerobic digestion is considered one of the most efficient technologies to transform waste into fertilizer and biogas in order to obtain electrical energy or biofuel within the concept of the circular economy. Currently, three types of anaerobic processes have been developed on a commercial scale: (1) single-stage process where sludge bioconversion is completed in a single chamber, (2) two-stage process where the acidogenic and methanogenic stages are separated into two chambers and, finally, (3) temperature-phase sequencing (TPAD) process that combines a thermophilic pretreatment unit prior to mesophilic anaerobic digestion. Two-stage processes can provide hydrogen and methane with easier control of the first and second stage conditions producing higher total energy recovery and substrate degradation than single-stage processes. On the other hand, co-digestion is the simultaneous anaerobic digestion of a mixture of two or more substrates. The technology is similar to anaerobic digestion but is a more attractive option as it produces increased methane yields due to the positive synergism of the mixtures in the digestion medium thus increasing the economic viability of biogas plants. The present study focuses on the energy recovery by anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and waste from the aquaculture-fishing sector. The valorization is approached through the application of a temperature sequential phase process or TPAD technology (Temperature - Phased Anaerobic Digestion). Moreover, two-phase of microorganisms is considered. Thus, the selected process allows the development of a thermophilic acidogenic phase followed by a mesophilic methanogenic phase to obtain hydrogen (H₂) in the first stage and methane (CH₄) in the second stage. The combination of these technologies makes it possible to unify all the advantages of these anaerobic digestion processes individually. To achieve these objectives, a sequential study has been carried out in which the biochemical potential of hydrogen (BHP) is tested followed by a BMP test, which will allow checking the feasibility of the two-stage process. The best results obtained were high total and soluble COD yields (59.8% and 82.67%, respectively) as well as H₂ production rates of 12LH₂/kg SVadded and methane of 28.76 L CH₄/kg SVadded for TPAD.

Keywords: anaerobic co-digestion, TPAD, two-phase, BHP, BMP, sewage sludge, fish waste

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59 The Automatisation of Dictionary-Based Annotation in a Parallel Corpus of Old English

Authors: Ana Elvira Ojanguren Lopez, Javier Martin Arista

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The aims of this paper are to present the automatisation procedure adopted in the implementation of a parallel corpus of Old English, as well as, to assess the progress of automatisation with respect to tagging, annotation, and lemmatisation. The corpus consists of an aligned parallel text with word-for-word comparison Old English-English that provides the Old English segment with inflectional form tagging (gloss, lemma, category, and inflection) and lemma annotation (spelling, meaning, inflectional class, paradigm, word-formation and secondary sources). This parallel corpus is intended to fill a gap in the field of Old English, in which no parallel and/or lemmatised corpora are available, while the average amount of corpus annotation is low. With this background, this presentation has two main parts. The first part, which focuses on tagging and annotation, selects the layouts and fields of lexical databases that are relevant for these tasks. Most information used for the annotation of the corpus can be retrieved from the lexical and morphological database Nerthus and the database of secondary sources Freya. These are the sources of linguistic and metalinguistic information that will be used for the annotation of the lemmas of the corpus, including morphological and semantic aspects as well as the references to the secondary sources that deal with the lemmas in question. Although substantially adapted and re-interpreted, the lemmatised part of these databases draws on the standard dictionaries of Old English, including The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, and A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. The second part of this paper deals with lemmatisation. It presents the lemmatiser Norna, which has been implemented on Filemaker software. It is based on a concordance and an index to the Dictionary of Old English Corpus, which comprises around three thousand texts and three million words. In its present state, the lemmatiser Norna can assign lemma to around 80% of textual forms on an automatic basis, by searching the index and the concordance for prefixes, stems and inflectional endings. The conclusions of this presentation insist on the limits of the automatisation of dictionary-based annotation in a parallel corpus. While the tagging and annotation are largely automatic even at the present stage, the automatisation of alignment is pending for future research. Lemmatisation and morphological tagging are expected to be fully automatic in the near future, once the database of secondary sources Freya and the lemmatiser Norna have been completed.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, historical linguistics, old English, parallel corpus

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58 Hydrodynamics in Wetlands of Brazilian Savanna: Electrical Tomography and Geoprocessing

Authors: Lucas M. Furlan, Cesar A. Moreira, Jepherson F. Sales, Guilherme T. Bueno, Manuel E. Ferreira, Carla V. S. Coelho, Vania Rosolen

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Located in the western part of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, the study area consists of a savanna environment, represented by sedimentary plateau and a soil cover composed by lateritic and hydromorphic soils - in the latter, occurring the deferruginization and concentration of high-alumina clays, exploited as refractory material. In the hydromorphic topographic depressions (wetlands) the hydropedogical relationships are little known, but it is observed that in times of rainfall, the depressed region behaves like a natural seasonal reservoir - which suggests that the wetlands on the surface of the plateau are places of recharge of the aquifer. The aquifer recharge areas are extremely important for the sustainable social, economic and environmental development of societies. The understanding of hydrodynamics in relation to the functioning of the ferruginous and hydromorphic lateritic soils system in the savanna environment is a subject rarely explored in the literature, especially its understanding through the joint application of geoprocessing by UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and electrical tomography. The objective of this work is to understand the hydrogeological dynamics in a wetland (with an area of 426.064 m²), in the Brazilian savanna,as well as the understanding of the subsurface architecture of hydromorphic depressions in relation to the recharge of aquifers. The wetland was compartmentalized in three different regions, according to the geoprocessing. Hydraulic conductivity studies were performed in each of these three portions. Electrical tomography was performed on 9 lines of 80 meters in length and spaced 10 meters apart (direction N45), and a line with 80 meters perpendicular to all others. With the data, it was possible to generate a 3D cube. The integrated analysis showed that the area behaves like a natural seasonal reservoir in the months of greater precipitation (December – 289mm; January – 277,9mm; February – 213,2mm), because the hydraulic conductivity is very low in all areas. In the aerial images, geotag correction of the images was performed, that is, the correction of the coordinates of the images by means of the corrected coordinates of the Positioning by Precision Point of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE-PPP). Later, the orthomosaic and the digital surface model (DSM) were generated, which with specific geoprocessing generated the volume of water that the wetland can contain - 780,922m³ in total, 265,205m³ in the region with intermediate flooding and 49,140m³ in the central region, where a greater accumulation of water was observed. Through the electrical tomography it was possible to identify that up to the depth of 6 meters the water infiltrates vertically in the central region. From the 8 meters depth, the water encounters a more resistive layer and the infiltration begins to occur horizontally - tending to concentrate the recharge of the aquifer to the northeast and southwest of the wetland. The hydrodynamics of the area is complex and has many challenges in its understanding. The next step is to relate hydrodynamics to the evolution of the landscape, with the enrichment of high-alumina clays, and to propose a management model for the seasonal reservoir.

Keywords: electrical tomography, hydropedology, unmanned aerial vehicle, water resources management

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57 Automated End of Sprint Detection for Force-Velocity-Power Analysis with GPS/GNSS Systems

Authors: Patrick Cormier, Cesar Meylan, Matt Jensen, Dana Agar-Newman, Chloe Werle, Ming-Chang Tsai, Marc Klimstra

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Sprint-derived horizontal force-velocity-power (FVP) profiles can be developed with adequate validity and reliability with satellite (GPS/GNSS) systems. However, FVP metrics are sensitive to small nuances in data processing procedures such that minor differences in defining the onset and end of the sprint could result in different FVP metric outcomes. Furthermore, in team-sports, there is a requirement for rapid analysis and feedback of results from multiple athletes, therefore developing standardized and automated methods to improve the speed, efficiency and reliability of this process are warranted. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare different methods of sprint end detection on the development of FVP profiles from 10Hz GPS/GNSS data through goodness-of-fit and intertrial reliability statistics. Seventeen national team female soccer players participated in the FVP protocol which consisted of 2x40m maximal sprints performed towards the end of a soccer specific warm-up in a training session (1020 hPa, wind = 0, temperature = 30°C) on an open grass field. Each player wore a 10Hz Catapult system unit (Vector S7, Catapult Innovations) inserted in a vest in a pouch between the scapulae. All data were analyzed following common procedures. Variables computed and assessed were the model parameters, estimated maximal sprint speed (MSS) and the acceleration constant τ, in addition to horizontal relative force (F₀), velocity at zero (V₀), and relative mechanical power (Pmax). The onset of the sprints was standardized with an acceleration threshold of 0.1 m/s². The sprint end detection methods were: 1. Time when peak velocity (MSS) was achieved (zero acceleration), 2. Time after peak velocity drops by -0.4 m/s, 3. Time after peak velocity drops by -0.6 m/s, and 4. When the integrated distance from the GPS/GNSS signal achieves 40-m. Goodness-of-fit of each sprint end detection method was determined using the residual sum of squares (RSS) to demonstrate the error of the FVP modeling with the sprint data from the GPS/GNSS system. Inter-trial reliability (from 2 trials) was assessed utilizing intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). For goodness-of-fit results, the end detection technique that used the time when peak velocity was achieved (zero acceleration) had the lowest RSS values, followed by -0.4 and -0.6 velocity decay, and 40-m end had the highest RSS values. For intertrial reliability, the end of sprint detection techniques that were defined as the time at (method 1) or shortly after (method 2 and 3) when MSS was achieved had very large to near perfect ICC and the time at the 40 m integrated distance (method 4) had large to very large ICCs. Peak velocity was reached at 29.52 ± 4.02-m. Therefore, sport scientists should implement end of sprint detection either when peak velocity is determined or shortly after to improve goodness of fit to achieve reliable between trial FVP profile metrics. Although, more robust processing and modeling procedures should be developed in future research to improve sprint model fitting. This protocol was seamlessly integrated into the usual training which shows promise for sprint monitoring in the field with this technology.

Keywords: automated, biomechanics, team-sports, sprint

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56 Numerical Analysis of the Computational Fluid Dynamics of Co-Digestion in a Large-Scale Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

Authors: Sylvana A. Vega, Cesar E. Huilinir, Carlos J. Gonzalez

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Co-digestion in anaerobic biodigesters is a technology improving hydrolysis by increasing methane generation. In the present study, the dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is numerically analyzed using Ansys Fluent software for agitation in a full-scale Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) biodigester during the co-digestion process. For this, a rheological study of the substrate is carried out, establishing rotation speeds of the stirrers depending on the microbial activity and energy ranges. The substrate is organic waste from industrial sources of sanitary water, butcher, fishmonger, and dairy. Once the rheological behavior curves have been obtained, it is obtained that it is a non-Newtonian fluid of the pseudoplastic type, with a solids rate of 12%. In the simulation, the rheological results of the fluid are considered, and the full-scale CSTR biodigester is modeled. It was coupling the second-order continuity differential equations, the three-dimensional Navier Stokes, the power-law model for non-Newtonian fluids, and three turbulence models: k-ε RNG, k-ε Realizable, and RMS (Reynolds Stress Model), for a 45° tilt vane impeller. It is simulated for three minutes since it is desired to study an intermittent mixture with a saving benefit of energy consumed. The results show that the absolute errors of the power number associated with the k-ε RNG, k-ε Realizable, and RMS models were 7.62%, 1.85%, and 5.05%, respectively, the numbers of power obtained from the analytical-experimental equation of Nagata. The results of the generalized Reynolds number show that the fluid dynamics have a transition-turbulent flow regime. Concerning the Froude number, the result indicates there is no need to implement baffles in the biodigester design, and the power number provides a steady trend close to 1.5. It is observed that the levels of design speeds within the biodigester are approximately 0.1 m/s, which are speeds suitable for the microbial community, where they can coexist and feed on the substrate in co-digestion. It is concluded that the model that more accurately predicts the behavior of fluid dynamics within the reactor is the k-ε Realizable model. The flow paths obtained are consistent with what is stated in the referenced literature, where the 45° inclination PBT impeller is the right type of agitator to keep particles in suspension and, in turn, increase the dispersion of gas in the liquid phase. If a 24/7 complete mix is considered under stirred agitation, with a plant factor of 80%, 51,840 kWh/year are estimated. On the contrary, if intermittent agitations of 3 min every 15 min are used under the same design conditions, reduce almost 80% of energy costs. It is a feasible solution to predict the energy expenditure of an anaerobic biodigester CSTR. It is recommended to use high mixing intensities, at the beginning and end of the joint phase acetogenesis/methanogenesis. This high intensity of mixing, in the beginning, produces the activation of the bacteria, and once reaching the end of the Hydraulic Retention Time period, it produces another increase in the mixing agitations, favoring the final dispersion of the biogas that may be trapped in the biodigester bottom.

Keywords: anaerobic co-digestion, computational fluid dynamics, CFD, net power, organic waste

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55 Wastewater Treatment in the Abrasives Industry via Fenton and Photo-Fenton Oxidation Processes: A Case Study from Peru

Authors: Hernan Arturo Blas López, Gustavo Henndel Lopes, Antonio Carlos Silva Costa Teixeira, Carmen Elena Flores Barreda, Patricia Araujo Pantoja

Abstract:

Phenols are toxic for life and the environment and may come from many sources. Uncured phenolic monomers present in phenolic resins used as binders in grinding wheels and emery paper can contaminate industrial wastewaters in abrasives manufacture plants. Furthermore, vestiges of resol and novolacs resins generated by wear and tear of abrasives are also possible sources of water contamination by phenolics in these facilities. Fortunately, advanced oxidation by dark Fenton and photo-Fenton techniques are capable of oxidizing phenols and their degradation products up to their mineralization into H₂O and CO₂. The maximal allowable concentrations for phenols in Peruvian waterbodies is very low, such that insufficiently treated effluents from the abrasives industry are a potential environmental noncompliance. The current case study highlights findings obtained during the lab-scale application of Fenton’s and photo-assisted Fenton’s chemistries to real industrial wastewater samples from an abrasives manufacture plant in Peru. The goal was to reduce the phenolic content and sample toxicity. For this purpose, two independent variables-reaction time and effect of ultraviolet radiation–were studied as for their impacts on the concentration of total phenols, total organic carbon (TOC), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). In this study, diluted samples (1 L) of the industrial effluent were treated with Fenton’s reagent (H₂O₂ and Fe²⁺ from FeSO₄.H₂O) during 10 min in a photochemical batch reactor (Alphatec RFS-500, Brazil) at pH 2.92. In the case of photo-Fenton tests with ultraviolet lamps of 9 W, UV-A, UV-B and UV-C lamps were evaluated. All process conditions achieved 100% of phenols degraded within 5 minutes. TOC, BOD and COD decreased by 49%, 52% and 86% respectively (all processes together). However, Fenton treatment was not capable of reducing BOD, COD and TOC below a certain value even after 10 minutes, contrarily to photo-Fenton. It was also possible to conclude that the processes here studied degrade other compounds in addition to phenols, what is an advantage. In all cases, elevated effluent dilution factors and high amounts of oxidant agent impact negatively the overall economy of the processes here investigated.

Keywords: fenton oxidation, wastewater treatment, phenols, abrasives industry

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54 Jurisdictional Federalism and Formal Federalism: Levels of Political Centralization on American and Brazilian Models

Authors: Henrique Rangel, Alexandre Fadel, Igor De Lazari, Bianca Neri, Carlos Bolonha

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This paper promotes a comparative analysis of American and Brazilian models of federalism assuming their levels of political centralization as main criterion. The central problem faced herein is the Brazilian approach of Unitarian regime. Although the hegemony of federative form after 1989, Brazil had a historical frame of political centralization that remains under the 1988 constitutional regime. Meanwhile, United States framed a federalism in which States absorb significant authorities. The hypothesis holds that the amount of alternative criteria of federalization – which can generate political centralization –, and the way they are upheld on judicial review, are crucial to understand the levels of political centralization achieved in each model. To test this hypothesis, the research is conducted by a methodology temporally delimited to 1994-2014 period. Three paradigmatic precedents of U.S. Supreme Court were selected: United States vs. Morrison (2000), on gender-motivated violence, Gonzales vs. Raich (2005), on medical use of marijuana, and United States vs. Lopez (1995), on firearm possession on scholar zones. These most relevant cases over federalism in the recent activity of Supreme Court indicates a determinant parameter of deliberation: the commerce clause. After observe the criterion used to permit or prohibit the political centralization in America, the Brazilian normative context is presented. In this sense, it is possible to identify the eventual legal treatment these controversies could receive in this Country. The decision-making reveals some deliberative parameters, which characterizes each federative model. At the end of research, the precedents of Rehnquist Court promote a broad revival of federalism debate, establishing the commerce clause as a secure criterion to uphold or not the necessity of centralization – even with decisions considered conservative. Otherwise, the Brazilian federalism solves them controversies upon in a formalist fashion, within numerous and comprehensive – sometimes casuistic too – normative devices, oriented to make an intense centralization. The aim of this work is indicate how jurisdictional federalism found in United States can preserve a consistent model with States robustly autonomous, while Brazil gives preference to normative mechanisms designed to starts from centralization.

Keywords: constitutional design, federalism, U.S. Supreme Court, legislative authority

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53 Modeling the Acquisition of Expertise in a Sequential Decision-Making Task

Authors: Cristóbal Moënne-Loccoz, Rodrigo C. Vergara, Vladimir López, Domingo Mery, Diego Cosmelli

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Our daily interaction with computational interfaces is plagued of situations in which we go from inexperienced users to experts through self-motivated exploration of the same task. In many of these interactions, we must learn to find our way through a sequence of decisions and actions before obtaining the desired result. For instance, when drawing cash from an ATM machine, choices are presented in a step-by-step fashion so that a specific sequence of actions must be performed in order to produce the expected outcome. But, as they become experts in the use of such interfaces, do users adopt specific search and learning strategies? Moreover, if so, can we use this information to follow the process of expertise development and, eventually, predict future actions? This would be a critical step towards building truly adaptive interfaces that can facilitate interaction at different moments of the learning curve. Furthermore, it could provide a window into potential mechanisms underlying decision-making behavior in real world scenarios. Here we tackle this question using a simple game interface that instantiates a 4-level binary decision tree (BDT) sequential decision-making task. Participants have to explore the interface and discover an underlying concept-icon mapping in order to complete the game. We develop a Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based approach whereby a set of stereotyped, hierarchically related search behaviors act as hidden states. Using this model, we are able to track the decision-making process as participants explore, learn and develop expertise in the use of the interface. Our results show that partitioning the problem space into such stereotyped strategies is sufficient to capture a host of exploratory and learning behaviors. Moreover, using the modular architecture of stereotyped strategies as a Mixture of Experts, we are able to simultaneously ask the experts about the user's most probable future actions. We show that for those participants that learn the task, it becomes possible to predict their next decision, above chance, approximately halfway through the game. Our long-term goal is, on the basis of a better understanding of real-world decision-making processes, to inform the construction of interfaces that can establish dynamic conversations with their users in order to facilitate the development of expertise.

Keywords: behavioral modeling, expertise acquisition, hidden markov models, sequential decision-making

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52 Potential Applications of Biosurfactants from Corn Steep Liquor in Cosmetic

Authors: J. M. Cruz, X. Vecıno, L. Rodrıguez-López, J. M. Dominguez, A. B. Moldes

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The cosmetic and personal care industry are the fields where biosurfactants could have more possibilities of success because in this kind of products the replacement of synthetic detergents by natural surfactants will provide an additional added value to the product, at the same time that the harmful effects produced by some synthetic surfactants could be avoided or reduced. Therefore, nowadays, consumers are disposed to pay and additional cost if they obtain more natural products. In this work we provide data about the potential of biosurfactants in the cosmetic and personal care industry. Biosurfactants from corn steep liquor, that is a fermented and condensed stream, have showed good surface-active properties, reducing substantially the surface tension of water. The bacteria that usually growth in corn steep liquor comprises Lactobacillus species, generally recognize as safe. The biosurfactant extracted from CSL consists of a lipopeptide, composed by fatty acids, which can reduce the surface tension of water in more than 30 units. It is a yellow and viscous liquid with a density of 1.053 mg/mL and pH=4. By these properties, they could be introduced in the formulation of cosmetic creams, hair conditioners or shampoos. Moreover this biosurfactant extracted from corn steep liquor, have showed a potent antimicrobial effect on different strains of Streptococcus. Some species of Streptococcus are commonly found weakly living in the human respiratory and genitourinary systems, producing several diseases in humans, including skin diseases. For instance, Streptococcus pyogenes produces many toxins and enzymes that help to stabilize skin infections; probably biosurfactants from corn steep liquor can inhibit the mechanisms of the S. pyogenes enzymes. S. pyogenes is an important cause of pharyngitis, impetigo, cellulitis and necrotizing fasciitis. In this work it was observed that 50 mg/L of biosurfactant extract obtained from corn steep liquor is able to inhibit more than 50% the growth of S. pyogenes. Thus, cosmetic and personal care products, formulated with biosurfactants from corn steep liquor, could have prebiotic properties. The natural biosurfactant presented in this work and obtained from corn milling industry streams, have showed a high potential to provide an interesting and sustainable alternative to those, antibacterial and surfactant ingredients used in cosmetic and personal care manufacture, obtained by chemical synthesis, which can cause irritation, and often only show short time effects.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity, biosurfactants, cosmetic, personal care

Procedia PDF Downloads 257
51 The Emergence of Memory at the Nanoscale

Authors: Victor Lopez-Richard, Rafael Schio Wengenroth Silva, Fabian Hartmann

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Memcomputing is a computational paradigm that combines information processing and storage on the same physical platform. Key elements for this topic are devices with an inherent memory, such as memristors, memcapacitors, and meminductors. Despite the widespread emergence of memory effects in various solid systems, a clear understanding of the basic microscopic mechanisms that trigger them is still a puzzling task. We report basic ingredients of the theory of solid-state transport, intrinsic to a wide range of mechanisms, as sufficient conditions for a memristive response that points to the natural emergence of memory. This emergence should be discernible under an adequate set of driving inputs, as highlighted by our theoretical prediction and general common trends can be thus listed that become a rule and not the exception, with contrasting signatures according to symmetry constraints, either built-in or induced by external factors at the microscopic level. Explicit analytical figures of merit for the memory modulation of the conductance are presented, unveiling very concise and accessible correlations between general intrinsic microscopic parameters such as relaxation times, activation energies, and efficiencies (encountered throughout various fields in Physics) with external drives: voltage pulses, temperature, illumination, etc. These building blocks of memory can be extended to a vast universe of materials and devices, with combinations of parallel and independent transport channels, providing an efficient and unified physical explanation for a wide class of resistive memory devices that have emerged in recent years. Its simplicity and practicality have also allowed a direct correlation with reported experimental observations with the potential of pointing out the optimal driving configurations. The main methodological tools used to combine three quantum transport approaches, Drude-like model, Landauer-Buttiker formalism, and field-effect transistor emulators, with the microscopic characterization of nonequilibrium dynamics. Both qualitative and quantitative agreements with available experimental responses are provided for validating the main hypothesis. This analysis also shades light on the basic universality of complex natural impedances of systems out of equilibrium and might help pave the way for new trends in the area of memory formation as well as in its technological applications.

Keywords: memories, memdevices, memristors, nonequilibrium states

Procedia PDF Downloads 99
50 Terrestrial Laser Scans to Assess Aerial LiDAR Data

Authors: J. F. Reinoso-Gordo, F. J. Ariza-López, A. Mozas-Calvache, J. L. García-Balboa, S. Eddargani

Abstract:

The DEMs quality may depend on several factors such as data source, capture method, processing type used to derive them, or the cell size of the DEM. The two most important capture methods to produce regional-sized DEMs are photogrammetry and LiDAR; DEMs covering entire countries have been obtained with these methods. The quality of these DEMs has traditionally been evaluated by the national cartographic agencies through punctual sampling that focused on its vertical component. For this type of evaluation there are standards such as NMAS and ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data. However, it seems more appropriate to carry out this evaluation by means of a method that takes into account the superficial nature of the DEM and, therefore, its sampling is superficial and not punctual. This work is part of the Research Project "Functional Quality of Digital Elevation Models in Engineering" where it is necessary to control the quality of a DEM whose data source is an experimental LiDAR flight with a density of 14 points per square meter to which we call Point Cloud Product (PCpro). In the present work it is described the capture data on the ground and the postprocessing tasks until getting the point cloud that will be used as reference (PCref) to evaluate the PCpro quality. Each PCref consists of a patch 50x50 m size coming from a registration of 4 different scan stations. The area studied was the Spanish region of Navarra that covers an area of 10,391 km2; 30 patches homogeneously distributed were necessary to sample the entire surface. The patches have been captured using a Leica BLK360 terrestrial laser scanner mounted on a pole that reached heights of up to 7 meters; the position of the scanner was inverted so that the characteristic shadow circle does not exist when the scanner is in direct position. To ensure that the accuracy of the PCref is greater than that of the PCpro, the georeferencing of the PCref has been carried out with real-time GNSS, and its accuracy positioning was better than 4 cm; this accuracy is much better than the altimetric mean square error estimated for the PCpro (<15 cm); The kind of DEM of interest is the corresponding to the bare earth, so that it was necessary to apply a filter to eliminate vegetation and auxiliary elements such as poles, tripods, etc. After the postprocessing tasks the PCref is ready to be compared with the PCpro using different techniques: cloud to cloud or after a resampling process DEM to DEM.

Keywords: data quality, DEM, LiDAR, terrestrial laser scanner, accuracy

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49 Analysis in Mexico on Workers Performing Highly Repetitive Movements with Sensory Thermography in the Surface of the Wrist and Elbows

Authors: Sandra K. Enriquez, Claudia Camargo, Jesús E. Olguín, Juan A. López, German Galindo

Abstract:

Currently companies have increased the number of disorders of cumulative trauma (CTDs), these are increasing significantly due to the Highly Repetitive Movements (HRM) performed in workstations, which causes economic losses to businesses, due to temporary and permanent disabilities of workers. This analysis focuses on the prevention of disorders caused by: repeatability, duration and effort; And focuses on reducing cumulative trauma disorders such as occupational diseases using sensory thermography as a noninvasive method, the above is to evaluate the injuries could have workers to perform repetitive motions. Objectives: The aim is to define rest periods or job rotation before they generate a CTD, this sensory thermography by analyzing changes in temperature patterns on wrists and elbows when the worker is performing HRM over a period of time 2 hours and 30 minutes. Information on non-work variables such as wrist and elbow injuries, weight, gender, age, among others, and work variables such as temperature workspace, repetitiveness and duration also met. Methodology: The analysis to 4 industrial designers, 2 men and 2 women to be specific was conducted in a business in normal health for a period of 12 days, using the following time ranges: the first day for every 90 minutes continuous work were asked to rest 5 minutes, the second day for every 90 minutes of continuous work were asked to rest 10 minutes, the same to work 60 and 30 minutes straight. Each worker was tested with 6 different ranges at least twice. This analysis was performed in a controlled room temperature between 20 and 25 ° C, and a time to stabilize the temperature of the wrists and elbows than 20 minutes at the beginning and end of the analysis. Results: The range time of 90 minutes working continuous and a rest of 5 minutes of activity is where the maximum temperature (Tmax) was registered in the wrists and elbows in the office, we found the Tmax was 35.79 ° C with a difference of 2.79 ° C between the initial and final temperature of the left elbow presented at the individual 4 during the 86 minutes, in of range in 90 minutes continuously working and rested for 5 minutes of your activity. Conclusions: It is possible with this alternative technology is sensory thermography predict ranges of rotation or rest for the prevention of CTD to perform HRM work activities, obtaining with this reduce occupational disease, quotas by health agencies and increasing the quality of life of workers, taking this technology a cost-benefit acceptable in the future.

Keywords: sensory thermography, temperature, cumulative trauma disorder (CTD), highly repetitive movement (HRM)

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48 Optimized Renewable Energy Mix for Energy Saving in Waste Water Treatment Plants

Authors: J. D. García Espinel, Paula Pérez Sánchez, Carlos Egea Ruiz, Carlos Lardín Mifsut, Andrés López-Aranguren Oliver

Abstract:

This paper shortly describes three main actuations over a Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) for reducing its energy consumption: Optimization of the biological reactor in the aeration stage by including new control algorithms and introducing new efficient equipment, the installation of an innovative hybrid system with zero Grid injection (formed by 100kW of PV energy and 5 kW of mini-wind energy generation) and an intelligent management system for load consumption and energy generation control in the most optimum way. This project called RENEWAT, involved in the European Commission call LIFE 2013, has the main objective of reducing the energy consumptions through different actions on the processes which take place in a WWTP and introducing renewable energies on these treatment plants, with the purpose of promoting the usage of treated waste water for irrigation and decreasing the C02 gas emissions. WWTP is always required before waste water can be reused for irrigation or discharged in water bodies. However, the energetic demand of the treatment process is high enough for making the price of treated water to exceed the one for drinkable water. This makes any policy very difficult to encourage the re-use of treated water, with a great impact on the water cycle, particularly in those areas suffering hydric stress or deficiency. The cost of treating waste water involves another climate-change related burden: the energy necessary for the process is obtained mainly from the electric network, which is, in most of the cases in Europe, energy obtained from the burning of fossil fuels. The innovative part of this project is based on the implementation, adaptation and integration of solutions for this problem, together with a new concept of the integration of energy input and operative energy demand. Moreover, there is an important qualitative jump between the technologies used and the alleged technologies to use in the project which give it an innovative character, due to the fact that there are no similar previous experiences of a WWTP including an intelligent discrimination of energy sources, integrating renewable ones (PV and Wind) and the grid.

Keywords: aeration system, biological reactor, CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, hybrid systems, LIFE 2013 call, process optimization, renewable energy sources, wasted water treatment plants

Procedia PDF Downloads 352
47 Integration Process and Analytic Interface of different Environmental Open Data Sets with Java/Oracle and R

Authors: Pavel H. Llamocca, Victoria Lopez

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The main objective of our work is the comparative analysis of environmental data from Open Data bases, belonging to different governments. This means that you have to integrate data from various different sources. Nowadays, many governments have the intention of publishing thousands of data sets for people and organizations to use them. In this way, the quantity of applications based on Open Data is increasing. However each government has its own procedures to publish its data, and it causes a variety of formats of data sets because there are no international standards to specify the formats of the data sets from Open Data bases. Due to this variety of formats, we must build a data integration process that is able to put together all kind of formats. There are some software tools developed in order to give support to the integration process, e.g. Data Tamer, Data Wrangler. The problem with these tools is that they need data scientist interaction to take part in the integration process as a final step. In our case we don’t want to depend on a data scientist, because environmental data are usually similar and these processes can be automated by programming. The main idea of our tool is to build Hadoop procedures adapted to data sources per each government in order to achieve an automated integration. Our work focus in environment data like temperature, energy consumption, air quality, solar radiation, speeds of wind, etc. Since 2 years, the government of Madrid is publishing its Open Data bases relative to environment indicators in real time. In the same way, other governments have published Open Data sets relative to the environment (like Andalucia or Bilbao). But all of those data sets have different formats and our solution is able to integrate all of them, furthermore it allows the user to make and visualize some analysis over the real-time data. Once the integration task is done, all the data from any government has the same format and the analysis process can be initiated in a computational better way. So the tool presented in this work has two goals: 1. Integration process; and 2. Graphic and analytic interface. As a first approach, the integration process was developed using Java and Oracle and the graphic and analytic interface with Java (jsp). However, in order to open our software tool, as second approach, we also developed an implementation with R language as mature open source technology. R is a really powerful open source programming language that allows us to process and analyze a huge amount of data with high performance. There are also some R libraries for the building of a graphic interface like shiny. A performance comparison between both implementations was made and no significant differences were found. In addition, our work provides with an Official Real-Time Integrated Data Set about Environment Data in Spain to any developer in order that they can build their own applications.

Keywords: open data, R language, data integration, environmental data

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46 Contribution of the Corn Milling Industry to a Global and Circular Economy

Authors: A. B. Moldes, X. Vecino, L. Rodriguez-López, J. M. Dominguez, J. M. Cruz

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The concept of the circular economy is focus on the importance of providing goods and services sustainably. Thus, in a future it will be necessary to respond to the environmental contamination and to the use of renewables substrates by moving to a more restorative economic system that drives towards the utilization and revalorization of residues to obtain valuable products. During its evolution our industrial economy has hardly moved through one major characteristic, established in the early days of industrialization, based on a linear model of resource consumption. However, this industrial consumption system will not be maintained during long time. On the other hand, there are many industries, like the corn milling industry, that although does not consume high amount of non renewable substrates, they produce valuable streams that treated accurately, they could provide additional, economical and environmental, benefits by the extraction of interesting commercial renewable products, that can replace some of the substances obtained by chemical synthesis, using non renewable substrates. From this point of view, the use of streams from corn milling industry to obtain surface-active compounds will decrease the utilization of non-renewables sources for obtaining this kind of compounds, contributing to a circular and global economy. However, the success of the circular economy depends on the interest of the industrial sectors in the revalorization of their streams by developing relevant and new business models. Thus, it is necessary to invest in the research of new alternatives that reduce the consumption of non-renewable substrates. In this study is proposed the utilization of a corn milling industry stream to obtain an extract with surfactant capacity. Once the biosurfactant is extracted, the corn milling stream can be commercialized as nutritional media in biotechnological process or as animal feed supplement. Usually this stream is combined with other ingredients obtaining a product namely corn gluten feed or may be sold separately as a liquid protein source for beef and dairy feeding, or as a nutritional pellet binder. Following the productive scheme proposed in this work, the corn milling industry will obtain a biosurfactant extract that could be incorporated in its productive process replacing those chemical detergents, used in some point of its productive chain, or it could be commercialized as a new product of the corn manufacture. The biosurfactants obtained from corn milling industry could replace the chemical surfactants in many formulations, and uses, and it supposes an example of the potential that many industrial streams could offer for obtaining valuable products when they are manage properly.

Keywords: biosurfactantes, circular economy, corn, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 263
45 Soil Composition in Different Agricultural Crops under Application of Swine Wastewater

Authors: Ana Paula Almeida Castaldelli Maciel, Gabriela Medeiros, Amanda de Souza Machado, Maria Clara Pilatti, Ralpho Rinaldo dos Reis, Silvio Cesar Sampaio

Abstract:

Sustainable agricultural systems are crucial to ensuring global food security and the long-term production of nutritious food. Comprehensive soil and water management practices, including nutrient management, balanced fertilizer use, and appropriate waste management, are essential for sustainable agriculture. Swine wastewater (SWW) treatment has become a significant focus due to environmental concerns related to heavy metals, antibiotics, resistant pathogens, and nutrients. In South America, small farms use soil to dispose of animal waste, a practice that is expected to increase with global pork production. The potential of SWW as a nutrient source is promising, contributing to global food security, nutrient cycling, and mineral fertilizer reduction. Short- and long-term studies evaluated the effects of SWW on soil and plant parameters, such as nutrients, heavy metals, organic matter (OM), cation exchange capacity (CEC), and pH. Although promising results have been observed in short- and medium-term applications, long-term applications require more attention due to heavy metal concentrations. Organic soil amendment strategies, due to their economic and ecological benefits, are commonly used to reduce the bioavailability of heavy metals. However, the rate of degradation and initial levels of OM must be monitored to avoid changes in soil pH and release of metals. The study aimed to evaluate the long-term effects of SWW application on soil fertility parameters, focusing on calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K), in addition to CEC and OM. Experiments were conducted at the Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná, Brazil, using 24 drainage lysimeters for nine years, with different application rates of SWW and mineral fertilization. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was then conducted to summarize the composite variables, known as principal components (PC), and limit the dimensionality to be evaluated. The retained PCs were then correlated with the original variables to identify the level of association between each variable and each PC. Data were interpreted using Analysis of Variance - ANOVA for general linear models (GLM). As OM was not measured in the 2007 soybean experiment, it was assessed separately from PCA to avoid loss of information. PCA and ANOVA indicated that crop type, SWW, and mineral fertilization significantly influenced soil nutrient levels. Soybeans presented higher concentrations of Ca, Mg, and CEC. The application of SWW influenced K levels, with higher concentrations observed in SWW from biodigesters and higher doses of swine manure. Variability in nutrient concentrations in SWW due to factors such as animal age and feed composition makes standard recommendations challenging. OM levels increased in SWW-treated soils, improving soil fertility and structure. In conclusion, the application of SWW can increase soil fertility and crop productivity, reducing environmental risks. However, careful management and long-term monitoring are essential to optimize benefits and minimize adverse effects.

Keywords: contamination, water research, biodigester, nutrients

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44 i2kit: A Tool for Immutable Infrastructure Deployments

Authors: Pablo Chico De Guzman, Cesar Sanchez

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Microservice architectures are increasingly in distributed cloud applications due to the advantages on the software composition, development speed, release cycle frequency and the business logic time to market. On the other hand, these architectures also introduce some challenges on the testing and release phases of applications. Container technology solves some of these issues by providing reproducible environments, easy of software distribution and isolation of processes. However, there are other issues that remain unsolved in current container technology when dealing with multiple machines, such as networking for multi-host communication, service discovery, load balancing or data persistency (even though some of these challenges are already solved by traditional cloud vendors in a very mature and widespread manner). Container cluster management tools, such as Kubernetes, Mesos or Docker Swarm, attempt to solve these problems by introducing a new control layer where the unit of deployment is the container (or the pod — a set of strongly related containers that must be deployed on the same machine). These tools are complex to configure and manage and they do not follow a pure immutable infrastructure approach since servers are reused between deployments. Indeed, these tools introduce dependencies at execution time for solving networking or service discovery problems. If an error on the control layer occurs, which would affect running applications, specific expertise is required to perform ad-hoc troubleshooting. As a consequence, it is not surprising that container cluster support is becoming a source of revenue for consulting services. This paper presents i2kit, a deployment tool based on the immutable infrastructure pattern, where the virtual machine is the unit of deployment. The input for i2kit is a declarative definition of a set of microservices, where each microservice is defined as a pod of containers. Microservices are built into machine images using linuxkit —- a tool for creating minimal linux distributions specialized in running containers. These machine images are then deployed to one or more virtual machines, which are exposed through a cloud vendor load balancer. Finally, the load balancer endpoint is set into other microservices using an environment variable, providing service discovery. The toolkit i2kit reuses the best ideas from container technology to solve problems like reproducible environments, process isolation, and software distribution, and at the same time relies on mature, proven cloud vendor technology for networking, load balancing and persistency. The result is a more robust system with no learning curve for troubleshooting running applications. We have implemented an open source prototype that transforms i2kit definitions into AWS cloud formation templates, where each microservice AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is created on the fly using linuxkit. Even though container cluster management tools have more flexibility for resource allocation optimization, we defend that adding a new control layer implies more important disadvantages. Resource allocation is greatly improved by using linuxkit, which introduces a very small footprint (around 35MB). Also, the system is more secure since linuxkit installs the minimum set of dependencies to run containers. The toolkit i2kit is currently under development at the IMDEA Software Institute.

Keywords: container, deployment, immutable infrastructure, microservice

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43 Optimization of Artisanal Fishing Waste Fermentation for Volatile Fatty Acids Production

Authors: Luz Stella Cadavid-Rodriguez, Viviana E. Castro-Lopez

Abstract:

Fish waste (FW) has a high content of potentially biodegradable components, so it is amenable to be digested anaerobically. In this line, anaerobic digestion (AD) of FW has been studied for biogas production. Nevertheless, intermediate products such as volatile fatty acids (VFA), generated during the acidogenic stage, have been scarce investigated, even though they have a high potential as a renewable source of carbon. In the literature, there are few studies about the Inoculum-Substrate (I/S) ratio on acidogenesis. On the other hand, it is well known that pH is a critical factor in the production of VFA. The optimum pH for the production of VFA seems to change depending on the substrate and can vary in a range between 5.25 and 11. Nonetheless, the literature about VFA production from protein-rich waste, such as FW, is scarce. In this context, it is necessary to deepen on the determination of the optimal operating conditions of acidogenic fermentation for VFA production from protein-rich waste. Therefore, the aim of this research was to optimize the volatile fatty acid production from artisanal fishing waste, studying the effect of pH and the I/S ratio on the acidogenic process. For this research, the inoculum used was a methanogenic sludge (MS) obtained from a UASB reactor treating wastewater of a slaughterhouse plant, and the FW was collected in the port of Tumaco (Colombia) from the local artisanal fishers. The acidogenic fermentation experiments were conducted in batch mode, in 500 mL glass bottles as anaerobic reactors, equipped with rubber stoppers provided with a valve to release biogas. The effective volume used was 300 mL. The experiments were carried out for 15 days at a mesophilic temperature of 37± 2 °C and constant agitation of 200 rpm. The effect of 3 pH levels: 5, 7, 9, coupled with five I/S ratios, corresponding to 0.20, 0.15, 0.10, 0.05, 0.00 was evaluated taking as a response variable the production of VFA. A complete randomized block design was selected for the experiments in a 5x3 factorial arrangement, with two repetitions per treatment. At the beginning and during the process, pH in the experimental reactors was adjusted to the corresponding values of 5, 7, and 9 using 1M NaOH or 1M H2SO4, as was appropriated. In addition, once the optimum I/S ratio was determined, the process was evaluated at this condition without pH control. The results indicated that pH is the main factor in the production of VFA, obtaining the highest concentration with neutral pH. By reducing the I/S ratio, as low as 0.05, it was possible to maximize VFA production. Thus, the optimum conditions found were natural pH (6.6-7.7) and I/S ratio of 0.05, with which it was possible to reach a maximum total VFA concentration of 70.3 g Ac/L, whose major components were acetic acid (35%) and butyric acid (32%). The findings showed that the acidogenic fermentation of FW is an efficient way of producing VFA and that the operating conditions can be simple and economical.

Keywords: acidogenesis, artisanal fishing waste, inoculum to substrate ratio, volatile fatty acids

Procedia PDF Downloads 126
42 Pelvic Floor Training in Elite Athletes: Fact or Fiction

Authors: Maria Barbano Acevedo-Gomez, Elena Sonsoles Rodriguez-Lopez, Sofia Olivia Calvo-Moreno, Angel Basas-Garcia, Cristophe Ramirez

Abstract:

Introduction: Urinary incontinence (UI) is defined as the involuntary leakage of urine. In persons who practice sport, its prevalence is 36.1% (95% CI 26.5%-46.8%) and varies as it seems to depend on the intensity of exercise, movements, and impact on the ground. Such high impact sports are likely to generate higher intra-abdominal pressures and leading to pelvic floor muscle weakness. Even though the emphasis of this research is on female athletes, all women should perform pelvic floor muscle exercises as a part of their general physical exercise. Pelvic floor exercises are generally considered the first treatment against urinary incontinence. Objective: The main objective of the present study was to determine the knowledge of the pelvic floor and of the UI in elite athletes and know if they incorporate pelvic floor strengthening in their training. Methods: This was an observational study conducted on 754 elite athletes. After collecting questions about the pelvic floor, UI, and sport-related data, participants completed the questionnaire International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-UI Short-Form (ICIQ-SF). Results: 57.3% of the athletes reflect not having knowledge of their pelvic floor, 48.3% do not know what strengthening exercises are, and around 90% have never practiced them. 78.1% (n=589) of all elite athletes do not include pelvic floor exercises in their training. Of the elite athletes surveyed, 33% had UI according to ICIQ-SF (mean age 23.75 ± 7.74 years). In response to the question 'Do you think you have or have had UI?', Only 9% of the 754 elite athletes admitted they presently had UI, and 13.3% indicated they had had UI at some time. However, 22.7% (n=171) reported they had experienced urine leakage while training. Of the athletes who indicated they did not have UI in the ICIQ-SF, 25.7% stated they did experience urine leakage during training (χ² [1] = 265.56; p < 0.001). Further, 12.3% of the athletes who considered they did not have UI and 60% of those who admitted they had had UI on some occasion stated they had suffered some urine leakage in the past 3 months (χ² [1] = 287.59; p < 0.001). Conclusions: There is a lack of knowledge about UI in sport. Through the use of validated questionnaires, we observed a UI prevalence of 33%, and 22.7% reported they experienced urine leakage while training. These figures contrast with only 9% of athletes who reported they had or had in the past had UI. This discrepancy could reflect the great lack of knowledge about UI in sports and that sometimes an athlete may consider that urine leakage is normal and a consequence of the demands of training. These data support the idea that coaches, physiotherapists, and other professionals involved in maximizing the performance of athletes should include pelvic floor muscle exercises in their training programs. Measures such as this could help to prevent UI during training and could be a starting point for future studies designed to develop adequate prevention and treatment strategies for this embarrassing problem affecting young athletes, both male and female.

Keywords: athletes, pelvic floor, performance, prevalence, sport, training, urinary incontinence

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41 Impact of the Dog-Technic for D1-D4 and Longitudinal Stroke Technique for Diaphragm on Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) in Asthmatic Patients

Authors: Victoria Eugenia Garnacho-Garnacho, Elena Sonsoles Rodriguez-Lopez, Raquel Delgado-Delgado, Alvaro Otero-Campos, Jesus Guodemar-Perez, Angelo Michelle Vagali, Juan Pablo Hervas-Perez

Abstract:

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease which has always had a drug treatment. Osteopathic treatment that we propose is aimed, seen through a dorsal manipulation (Dog Technic D1-D4) and a technique for diaphragm (Longitudinal Stroke) forced expiratory flow in spirometry changes there are in particular that there is an increase in the volumes of the Peak Flow and Post intervention and effort and that the application of these two techniques together is more powerful if we applied only a Longitudinal (Stroke). Also rating if this type of treatment will have repercussions on breathlessness, a very common symptom in asthma. And finally to investigate if provided vertebra pain decreased after a manipulation. Methods—Participants were recruited between students and professors of the University, aged 18-65, patients (n = 18) were assigned randomly to one of the two groups, group 1 (longitudinal Stroke and manipulation dorsal Dog Technic) and group 2 (diaphragmatic technique, Longitudinal Stroke). The statistical analysis is characterized by the comparison of the main indicator of obstruction of via area PEF (peak expiratory flow) in various situations through the peak flow meter Datospir Peak-10. The measurements were carried out in four phases: at rest, after the stress test, after the treatment, after treatment and the stress test. After each stress test was evaluated, through the Borg scale, the level of Dyspnea on each patient, regardless of the group. In Group 1 in addition to these parameters was calculated using an algometer spinous pain before and after the manipulation. All data were taken at the minute. Results—12 Group 1 (Dog Technic and Longitudinal Stroke) patients responded positively to treatment, there was an increase of 5.1% and 6.1% of the post-treatment PEF and post-treatment, and effort. The results of the scale of Borg by which we measure the level of Dyspnea were positive, a 54.95%, patients noted an improvement in breathing. In addition was confirmed through the means of both groups group 1 in which two techniques were applied was 34.05% more effective than group 2 in which applied only a. After handling pain fell by 38% of the cases. Conclusions—The impact of the technique of Dog-Technic for D1-D4 and the Longitudinal Stroke technique for diaphragm in the volumes of peak expiratory flow (PEF) in asthmatic patients were positive, there was a change of the PEF Post intervention and post-treatment, and effort and showed the most effective group in which only a technique was applied. Furthermore this type of treatment decreased facilitated vertebrae pain and was efficient in the improvement of Dyspnea and the general well-being of the patient.

Keywords: ANS, asthma, manipulation, manual therapy, osteopathic

Procedia PDF Downloads 288
40 Secondary Prisonization and Mental Health: A Comparative Study with Elderly Parents of Prisoners Incarcerated in Remote Jails

Authors: Luixa Reizabal, Inaki Garcia, Eneko Sansinenea, Ainize Sarrionandia, Karmele Lopez De Ipina, Elsa Fernandez

Abstract:

Although the effects of incarceration in prisons close to prisoners’ and their families’ residences have been studied, little is known about the effects of remote incarceration. The present study shows the impact of secondary prisonization on mental health of elderly parents of Basque prisoners who are incarcerated in prisons located far away from prisoners’ and their families’ residences. Secondary prisonization refers to the effects that imprisonment of a family member has on relatives. In the study, psychological effects are analyzed by means of comparative methodology. Specifically, levels of psychopathology (depression, anxiety, and stress) and positive mental health (psychological, social, and emotional well-being) are studied in a sample of parents over 65 years old of prisoners incarcerated in prisons located a long distance away (concretely, some of them in a distance of less than 400 km, while others farther than 400 km) from the Basque Country. The dataset consists of data collected through a questionnaire and from a spontaneous speech recording. The statistical and automatic analyses show that levels of psychopathology and positive mental health of elderly parents of prisoners incarcerated in remote jails are affected by the incarceration of their sons or daughters. Concretely, these parents show higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress and lower levels of emotional (but not psychological or social) wellbeing than parents with no imprisoned daughters or sons. These findings suggest that parents with imprisoned sons or daughters suffer the impact of secondary prisonization on their mental health. When comparing parents with sons or daughters incarcerated within 400 kilometers from home and parents whose sons or daughters are incarcerated farther than 400 kilometers from home, the latter present higher levels of psychopathology, but also higher levels of positive mental health (although the difference between the two groups is not statistically significant). These findings might be explained by resilience. In fact, in traumatic situations, people can develop a force to cope with the situation, and even present a posttraumatic growth. Bearing in mind all these findings, it could be concluded that secondary prisonization implies for elderly parents with sons or daughters incarcerated in remote jails suffering and, in consequence, that changes in the penitentiary policy applied to Basque prisoners are required in order to finish this suffering.

Keywords: automatic spontaneous speech analysis, elderly parents, machine learning, positive mental health, psychopathology, remote incarceration, secondary prisonization

Procedia PDF Downloads 291
39 Urinary Incontinence and Performance in Elite Athletes

Authors: María Barbaño Acevedo Gómez, Elena Sonsoles Rodríguez López, Sofía Olivia Calvo Moreno, Ángel Basas García, Christophe RamíRez Parenteau

Abstract:

Introduction: Urinary incontinence (UI) is defined as the involuntary leakage of urine. In persons who practice sport, its prevalence is 36.1% (95% CI 26.5% –46.8%) and varies as it seems to depend on the intensity of exercise, movements and impact on the ground. Such high impact sports are likely to generate higher intra-abdominal pressures and leading to pelvic floor muscle weakness. Although physical exercise reduces the risk of suffering from many diseases the mentality of an elite athlete is not to optimize their health, achieving their goals can put their health at risk. Furthermore, feeling or suffering from any discomfort during training seems to be normal within the elite sport demands. Objective: The main objective of the present study was to know the effects of UI in sports performance in athletes. Methods: This was an observational study conducted in 754 elite athletes. After collecting questions about pelvic floor, UI and sport-related data, participants completed the questionnaire International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-UI Short- Form (ICIQ-SF) and ISI (index of incontinence severity). Results: 48.8% of the athletes declare having losses also in rest, preseason and / or competition (χ2 [3] = 3.64; p = 0.302), being the competition period (29.1%) the most frequent where suffer from urine leakage. Of the elite athletes surveyed, 33% had UI according ICIQ-SF (mean age 23.75 ± 7.74 years). Elite athletes with UI (5.31 ± 1.07 days) dedicate significantly more days per week to training [M = 0.28; 95% CI = 0.08-0.48; t (752) = 2.78; p = 0.005] than those without UI. Regarding frequency, 59.7% lose urine once a week, 25.6% lose urine more than 3 times a week, and 14.7% daily. Based on the amount, approximately 15% claim to lose a moderate and abundant. Athletes with the highest number of urine leaks during their training, the UI affects them more in their daily life (r = 0.259; p = 0.001), they present a greater number of losses in their day to day (r = 0.341; p <0.001 ) and greater severity of UI (r = 0.341; p <0.001). Conclusions: Athletes consider that UI affects them negatively in their daily routine, 30.9% affirm having a severity between moderate and severe in their daily routine, and 29.1% loss urine in competition period. An interesting fact is that more than half of the samples collected were elite athletes who compete at the highest level (Olympic Games, World and European Championship), the dedication to sport occupies a big piece in their life. The most frequent period where athletes suffers urine leakage is in competition and there are many emotions that athletes manage to get their best performance, if we add urine losses in that moments it is possible that their performance could be affected.

Keywords: athletes, performance, prevalence, sport, training, urinary incontinence

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38 Evaluation of the Energy Performance and Emissions of an Aircraft Engine: J69 Using Fuel Blends of Jet A1 and Biodiesel

Authors: Gabriel Fernando Talero Rojas, Vladimir Silva Leal, Camilo Bayona-Roa, Juan Pava, Mauricio Lopez Gomez

Abstract:

The substitution of conventional aviation fuels with biomass-derived alternative fuels is an emerging field of study in the aviation transport, mainly due to its energy consumption, the contribution to the global Greenhouse Gas - GHG emissions and the fossil fuel price fluctuations. Nevertheless, several challenges remain as the biofuel production cost and its degradative effect over the fuel systems that alter the operating safety. Moreover, experimentation on full-scale aeronautic turbines are expensive and complex, leading to most of the research to the testing of small-size turbojets with a major absence of information regarding the effects in the energy performance and the emissions. The main purpose of the current study is to present the results of experimentation in a full-scale military turbojet engine J69-T-25A (presented in Fig. 1) with 640 kW of power rating and using blends of Jet A1 with oil palm biodiesel. The main findings are related to the thrust specific fuel consumption – TSFC, the engine global efficiency – η, the air/fuel ratio – AFR and the volume fractions of O2, CO2, CO, and HC. Two fuels are used in the present study: a commercial Jet A1 and a Colombian palm oil biodiesel. The experimental plan is conducted using the biodiesel volume contents - w_BD from 0 % (B0) to 50 % (B50). The engine operating regimes are set to Idle, Cruise, and Take-off conditions. The turbojet engine J69 is used by the Colombian Air Force and it is installed in a testing bench with the instrumentation that corresponds to the technical manual of the engine. The increment of w_BD from 0 % to 50 % reduces the η near 3,3 % and the thrust force in a 26,6 % at Idle regime. These variations are related to the reduction of the 〖HHV〗_ad of the fuel blend. The evolved CO and HC tend to be reduced in all the operating conditions when increasing w_BD. Furthermore, a reduction of the atomization angle is presented in Fig. 2, indicating a poor atomization in the fuel nozzle injectors when using a higher biodiesel content as the viscosity of fuel blend increases. An evolution of cloudiness is also observed during the shutdown procedure as presented in Fig. 3a, particularly after 20 % of biodiesel content in the fuel blend. This promotes the contamination of some components of the combustion chamber of the J69 engine with soot and unburned matter (Fig. 3). Thus, the substitution of biodiesel content above 20 % is not recommended in order to avoid a significant decrease of η and the thrust force. A more detail examination of the mechanical wearing of the main components of the engine is advised in further studies.

Keywords: aviation, air to fuel ratio, biodiesel, energy performance, fuel atomization, gas turbine

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37 Variation of Carbon Isotope Ratio (δ13C) and Leaf-Productivity Traits in Aquilaria Species (Thymelaeceae)

Authors: Arlene López-Sampson, Tony Page, Betsy Jackes

Abstract:

Aquilaria genus produces a highly valuable fragrant oleoresin known as agarwood. Agarwood forms in a few trees in the wild as a response to injure or pathogen attack. The resin is used in perfume and incense industry and medicine. Cultivation of Aquilaria species as a sustainable source of the resin is now a common strategy. Physiological traits are frequently used as a proxy of crop and tree productivity. Aquilaria species growing in Queensland, Australia were studied to investigate relationship between leaf-productivity traits with tree growth. Specifically, 28 trees, representing 12 plus trees and 16 trees from yield plots, were selected to conduct carbon isotope analysis (δ13C) and monitor six leaf attributes. Trees were grouped on four diametric classes (diameter at 150 mm above ground level) ensuring the variability in growth of the whole population was sampled. Model averaging technique based on the Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) was computed to identify whether leaf traits could assist in diameter prediction. Carbon isotope values were correlated with height classes and leaf traits to determine any relationship. In average four leaves per shoot were recorded. Approximately one new leaf per week is produced by a shoot. Rate of leaf expansion was estimated in 1.45 mm day-1. There were no statistical differences between diametric classes and leaf expansion rate and number of new leaves per week (p > 0.05). Range of δ13C values in leaves of Aquilaria species was from -25.5 ‰ to -31 ‰ with an average of -28.4 ‰ (± 1.5 ‰). Only 39% of the variability in height can be explained by δ13C in leaf. Leaf δ13C and nitrogen content values were positively correlated. This relationship implies that leaves with higher photosynthetic capacities also had lower intercellular carbon dioxide concentrations (ci/ca) and less depleted values of 13C. Most of the predictor variables have a weak correlation with diameter (D). However, analysis of the 95% confidence of best-ranked regression models indicated that the predictors that could likely explain growth in Aquilaria species are petiole length (PeLen), values of δ13C (true13C) and δ15N (true15N), leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA) and number of new leaf produced per week (NL.week). The model constructed with PeLen, true13C, true15N, LA, SLA and NL.week could explain 45% (R2 0.4573) of the variability in D. The leaf traits studied gave a better understanding of the leaf attributes that could assist in the selection of high-productivity trees in Aquilaria.

Keywords: 13C, petiole length, specific leaf area, tree growth

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36 Challenge in Teaching Physics during the Pandemic: Another Way of Teaching and Learning

Authors: Edson Pierre, Gustavo de Jesus Lopez Nunez

Abstract:

The objective of this work is to analyze how physics can be taught remotely through the use of platforms and software to attract the attention of 2nd-year high school students at Colégio Cívico Militar Professor Carmelita Souza Dias and point out how remote teaching can be a teaching-learning strategy during the period of social distancing. Teaching physics has been a challenge for teachers and students, permeating common sense with the great difficulty of teaching and learning the subject. The challenge increased in 2020 and 2021 with the impact caused by the new coronavirus pandemic (Sars-Cov-2) and its variants that have affected the entire world. With these changes, a new teaching modality emerged: remote teaching. It brought new challenges and one of them was promoting distance research experiences, especially in physics teaching, since there are learning difficulties and it is often impossible for the student to relate the theory observed in class with the reality that surrounds them. Teaching physics in schools faces some difficulties, which makes it increasingly less attractive for young people to choose this profession. Bearing in mind that the study of physics is very important, as it puts students in front of concrete and real situations, situations that physical principles can respond to, helping to understand nature, nourishing and nurturing a taste for science. The use of new platforms and software, such as PhET Interactive Simulations from the University of Colorado at Boulder, is a virtual laboratory that has numerous simulations of scientific experiments, which serve to improve the understanding of the content taught practically, facilitating student learning and absorption of content, being a simple, practical and free simulation tool, attracts more attention from students, causing them to acquire greater knowledge about the subject studied, or even a quiz, bringing certain healthy competitiveness to students, generating knowledge and interest in the themes used. The present study takes the Theory of Social Representations as a theoretical reference, examining the content and process of constructing the representations of teachers, subjects of our investigation, on the evaluation of teaching and learning processes, through a methodology of qualitative. The result of this work has shown that remote teaching was really a very important strategy for the process of teaching and learning physics in the 2nd year of high school. It provided greater interaction between the teacher and the student. Therefore, the teacher also plays a fundamental role since technology is increasingly present in the educational environment, and he is the main protagonist of this process.

Keywords: physics teaching, technologies, remote learning, pandemic

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