Search results for: Fernando Bravo

Authors: Iván Castelló, Georgiana Stoica, Emilio Palomares, Fernando Bravo

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We present herein two colour encoded silica nanospheres (2nanoSi) for the fluorescence quantitative ratiometric determination of trypsin in humans. The system proved to be a faster (minutes) method, with two times higher sensitivity than the state-of-the-art biomarkers based sensors for cystic fibrosis (CF), allowing the quantification of trypsin concentrations in a wide range (0-350 mg/L). Furthermore, as trypsin is directly related to the development of cystic fibrosis, different human genotypes, i.e. healthy homozygotic (> 80 mg/L), CF homozygotic (< 50 mg/L), and heterozygotic (> 50 mg/L), respectively, can be determined using our 2nanoSi nanospheres.

Keywords: cystic fibrosis, trypsin, quantum dots, biomarker, homozygote, heterozygote

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Authors: Stephanie Hernández-Carreón, Judith Virginia Ríos-Arana

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Microplastics (MPs) are plastic particles smaller than 5 mm that has been detected in soil, air, organisms, and mostly water around the world. Most studies have focused on MPs detection in marine waters, and less so in freshwater, such is the case of Mexico, where studies about MPs in freshwaters are limited. One of the most important rivers in the country is The Rio Grande/Río Bravo, a natural border between Mexico and the United States. Its waters serve different purposes, such as fishing, habitat to endemic species, electricity generation, agriculture, and drinking water sources, among others. Despite its importance, the river’s waters have not been analyzed to determine the presence of MPs; therefore, the purpose of this research is to determine if the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande is polluted with microplastics. For doing so, three sites (Borderland, Casa de Adobe, and Guadalupe) along the El Paso-Juárez metroplex have been sampled: 30 L of water were filtered through a plankton net (64 µm) in each site and sediments-composed samples were collected. Water samples and sediments were 1) digested with a hydrogen peroxide solution (30%), 2) resuspended in a calcium chloride solution (1.5 g/cm3) to separate MPs, and 3) filtered through a 0.45 µm nitrocellulose membrane. Processed water samples were dyed with Nile Red (1 mg/ml ethanol) and analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. Two water samples have been analyzed until January 2023: Casa de Adobe and Borderland finding a concentration of 5.67 particles/L and 5.93 particles/L, respectively. Three types of particles were observed: fibers, fragments, and films, fibers being the most abundant. These data, as well as the data obtained from the rest of the samples, will be analyzed by an ANOVA (α=0.05). The concentrations and types of particles found in the Río Bravo correspond with other studies on rivers associated with urban environments and agricultural activities in China, where a range of 3.67—10.7 particles/L was reported in the Wei River. Even though we are in the early stages of the study, and three new sites will be sampled and analyzed in 2023 to provide more data about this issue in the river, this presents the first evidence of microplastic pollution in the Rio Grande.

Keywords: microplastics, fresh water, Rio Bravo, fluorescence microscopy

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Authors: João Cepeda

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In crafting their way between theory and practice, authors and artists seem to be always immersed in a never-ending process of relating epochs, objects, and images. Endless ‘affinities’ emerge from a somewhat unexplainable (and intimate) magnetic relation. It is through this ‘warburgian’ assessment that two of the most prominent twentieth-century modern architects from Japan and Portugal are put into perspective, focusing on their paths and thinking-practice, and on the research of their personal and professional archives. Moreover, this research especially aims its focus at essaying specifically on the possible ‘affinities’ between two of their most renowned architectural projects: the Kenzo Tange’s (demolished) Villa Seijo project in Tokyo (Japan) and Fernando Távora’s Tennis Pavilion design in Matosinhos (Portugal), respectively, side-by-side – through in-depth fieldwork in the sites, bibliographical and archival research, (unprecedented) material analysis, and final critical consideration.

Keywords: Tange, Távora, architecture, affinities

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Authors: Fernando Miguel Campos, Fernando Jesus Aguiar Campos, Pedro Filipe Campos

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A large amount of software products offer a wide range and number of features. This is called featurities or creeping featurism and tends to rise with each release of the product. Feautiris often adds unnecessary complexity to software, leading to longer learning curves and overall confusing the users and degrading their experience. We take a look to a new design approach tendency that has been coming up, the so-called “What You Get Is What You Need” concept that argues that products should be very focused, simple and with minimalistic interfaces in order to help users conduct their tasks in distraction-free ambiances. This is not as simple to implement as it might sound and the developers need to cut down features. Our contribution illustrates and evaluates this design method through a novel distraction-free diagramming tool named Delineato Pro for Mac OS X in which the user is confronted with an empty canvas when launching the software and where tools only show up when really needed.

Keywords: diagramming, HCI, usability, user interface

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Authors: Everdeanne Javier, Kelvin Louie Abat, Alodia Rizzalynn Cabaya, Chynna Allyson Manzano, Vlasta Sai Espiritu, Raniah May Puzon, Michelle Tobler

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Teledermatology is becoming a more popular form of providing dermatologic healthcare worldwide, and it will almost certainly play a larger role in the future. As the current pandemic continues to worsen, Teledermatology is seen as the primary alternative to face-to-face dermatology consultation; therefore, it needs to be enhanced and developed to become as convenient and reliable as it can be for both patients and doctors. This research paper seeks to know the processes used in teledermatology regarding delivery modalities and proper consultation. This study's research design is a Qualitative Descriptive approach to describe further the processes used by teledermatologists. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data from Teledermatology Clinics in San Fernando City, La Union. Research showed that patients tend to embrace and be pleased with teledermatology as a way of accessing healthcare. On the other hand, clinicians have usually reported positive outcomes from teledermatology. Furthermore, it is not intended to be used instead of a face-to-face appointment with a dermatologist.

Keywords: teledermatology, online dermatology consultation, dermatology, dermatologist

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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

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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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Authors: Maria de Fátima Lambert

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Bernardo Soares is one of Fernando Pessoa' several heteronyms (and "half-heteronyms"). Perhaps the one that brought together the majority of his qualities and characters of self-identity within the famous inner-persona-alter-diversity. The Book of Disquiet by Bernardo Soares was released in 1983, consisting of ontological remarks caught by an obsessive inquiring about self-existence. The book became a highly valuable substance when focusing upon the philosophical grounds of Pessoa's aesthetics. For sure, we cannot consider a single aesthetic, admitting that each heteronym has its own particular one, developed after different principles and convictions. Regarding Bernardo Soares, his thought arises from sequenced self-clues expressing peculiar existential doubtless presented as certainties -and vice-versa. His written self-search-images are reported, molding the painful awareness of existence through the discredited tolerance of any conclusive dialogue with others. Given the nature of Soares’ [maybe] unfinished writings, it is obvious that he headed far from his self-insurance-capsule: the office, bedroom, or even the walkscapes through Lisbon. The idea of travel/journey is one of the most relevant when recognizing his profound - although undercover - anguish as melancholy and nostalgia. In Bernardo Soares, Aesthetics is taken agonizingly, grounded upon discreet poetic phraseology and terms. His poetical awareness developed compulsive titles such "Aesthetics of Indifference", "Aesthetics of Discouragement". Soares' Aesthetics emerges directly from oneself, understanding art as inner acts and living experienced issues. Art is not freed from the intellectual expression of oneself emotions. The Disquiet Book is an existential nightmare nourished by everyday life, single written thoughts, balanced by melancholia, nostalgia, and distress. One might wonder if it was dreams that guided his fictional literary persona or the narrow facts of life itself. Along with his endless disquiet writing, Pessoa’s semi-heteronymous traveled without physically going anywhere. The complexity of inner existence is fulfilled by lonely mental walks and travels, as in two texts titled The Never Accomplished Journey. Although we also can consider other fragments, these are the deepest reflections about travelling. Let’s recall that Fernando Pessoa’s ortonyms writings -poems and essays- also addressed this issue from a philosophical perspective. We believe that this theme is one of the meaningful concepts for featuring the main principles of his aesthetics. As we know, Fernando Pessoa did not travel to foreign countries (or in Portugal), except for the journey, with his family, from Lisbon to South Africa (as a child) and, some years later, the return back to Lisbon. One may wonder why the poet never undertook other journeys. Maybe due to a disbelief in moving away from his comfort zone or due to the fear of becoming addicted to endless travels and the loss of his convenient self-closeness. In The Book of Disquiet, the poet shared his internal visions of the outer world but mainly visualizing his deepest enigmas and experiences -so strongly incorporated into reality and fiction.

Keywords: aesthetic principles, Bernardo Soares, Fernando Pessoa , melancholia, nostalgia, non-accomplished travel, The Book of Disquiet

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Authors: Alessandro Andre Leme

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To analyze three Brazilian think tanks: a) Fernando Henrique Foundation; b) Celso Furtado International Center; c) Millennium Institute and how they dispute interpretations about the type of development and State that should be adopted in Brazil. We will make use of Network and content analysis of the sites. The analyzes show a dispute that goes from a defense of ultraliberalism to developmentalism, going through a hybrid between State and Market voiced in each of the Think Tanks.

Keywords: sociopolitical and economic thinking, development, strategies, intellectuals, state

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Authors: Jose Ramon Sanabria Navarro, Yahilina Silveira Perez, Valentin Molina Moreno, Digna Dionisia Perez Bravo

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The general objective of this research is to conceive a model of strategic direction for Latin American high-performance sports centers for the improvement of their results. The sample is 62 managers, 187 trainers, 2930 athletes and 62 expert researchers from centers in Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina, for 3241. The measurement instrument includes 12 key variables in the process of management strategies which are consolidated with the factorial analysis and the ANOVA of a factor through the SPSS 24.0. The reliability of the scale obtained an alpha higher than 0.7 in each sample. In this sense, a model is obtained that taxes the deficiencies detected in the diagnosis, based on the needs of the members of these organizations, considering criteria and theories of the strategic direction in the improvement of the organizational results. The validation of the model for high performance sports centers of the countries analyzed aims to develop joint strategies to generate synergies in their operational mode, which leads to enhance the sports organization.

Keywords: sports organization, information management, decision making, control

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Authors: Iván García-Magariño, Javier Bravo-Agapito, Marta López-Fernández

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Online judges have proven their utility in partial auto-evaluation of programming short exercises in the last decades. UnitJudge online judge has the advantage of facilitating the evaluation of separate units to provide more segregate and meaningful feedback to students in complex exercises and practices. This paper discusses the use of UnitUdge in advanced Java object-oriented programming exercises and web development practices. This later usage has been proposed by means of the Selenium Java library and classes to provide the web address. Consequently, UnitJudge is an online judge system that can be applied in several subjects, and therefore, many other students would take advantage of self-testing their exercises. This paper presents the experiments with a Java programming exercise for learning Java object-oriented classes with a generic type. Considering 10 students who voluntarily used UnitJudge, 80% successfully learned this concept, passing the judge exercise with correct results.

Keywords: online judges, programming skills, computer science education, auto-evaluation

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Authors: Rafael Feldmann Farias, Fernando Tobal Berssaneti

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Since its emergence in 1998, ISO 10014 has been developed as a response to the need to demonstrate the economic and financial benefits that an organization can obtain from the implementation of a quality management system. With the publication of the new edition in 2021, this article aims to identify how this standard has been addressed through a literature review. Among the results, it was found that, of the 282 documents identified, only 0.7% of the publications used the standard and 1.4% of the publications cited it. This low adherence seems to be linked to the highly technical nature of the content of the standard.

Keywords: quality management system, ISO 10014, economical benefits, financial benefits

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Authors: Javier Donoso-Bravo, Camila Cortés-Zambrano

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In this paper, we analyze socioterritorial inequalities in the region of Valparaiso (Chile) using secondary data to account for these inequalities drawing on economic, social, educational, and environmental dimensions regarding the thirty-six municipalities of the region. We looked over a wide-ranging set of secondary data from public sources regarding economic activities, poverty, employment, income, years of education, post-secondary education access, green areas, access to potable water, and others. We found sharp socioterritorial inequalities especially based on the economic performance in each territory. Analysis show, on the one hand, the existence of a dual and unorganized development model in some territories with a strong economic activity -especially in the areas of finance, real estate, mining, and vineyards- but, at the same time, with poor social indicators. On the other hand, most of the territories show a dispersed model with very little dynamic economic activities and very poor social development. Finally, we discuss how socioterritorial inequalities in the region of Valparaiso reflect the level of globalization of the economic activities carried on in every territory.

Keywords: socioterritorial inequalities, development model, Chile, secondary data, Region of Valparaiso

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Authors: Ramón Cruzat, Sergio F. Ochoa, Ignacio Casas, Luis A. Guerrero, José Bravo

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Patients under health treatments that involve long stays at a hospital or health centre (e.g. cancer, organ transplants and severe burns), tend to get bored or depressed because of the lack of social interaction with family and friends. Such a situation also affects the evolution and effectiveness of their treatments. In many cases, the solution to this problem involves extra challenges, since many patients need to rest quietly (or remain in bed) to their being contagious. Considering the weak health condition in which usually are these kinds, keeping them motivated and quiet represents an important challenge for nurses and caregivers. This article presents a mobile ubiquitous game called MagicRace, which allows hospitalized kinds to interact socially with one another without putting to risk their sensitive health conditions. The game does not require a communication infrastructure at the hospital, but instead, it uses a mobile ad hoc network composed of the handheld devices used by the kids to play. The usability and performance of this application was tested in two different sessions. The preliminary results show that users experienced positive feelings from this experience.

Keywords: ubiquitous game, children's emotional support, social isolation, mobile collaborative interactions

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Authors: Fernando Martín-Espejo, Christophe Crombez

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This paper presents a political-economic analysis of the reforms introduced during the coronavirus crisis at the EU level with a special emphasis on the recovery fund Next Generation EU (NGEU). It also introduces a spatial model to evaluate whether the governmental features of the recovery fund can be framed inside the community method. Particularly, by evaluating the brake clause in the NGEU legislation, this paper analyses theoretically the political and legislative implications of the introduction of flexibility clauses in the EU decision-making process.

Keywords: EU, legislative procedures, spatial model, coronavirus

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Authors: Sylvia Villarreal, Edna Bravo

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Knowledge management focuses on coordinating technologies, people, processes, and structures to generate a competitive advantage and considering that networks are perceived as mechanisms for knowledge creation and transfer, this research presents the stages and practices related to the creation of knowledge networks. The methodology started with a literature review adapted from the systematic literature review (SLR). The descriptive analysis includes variables such as approach (conceptual or practical), industry, knowledge management processes and mythologies (qualitative or quantitative), etc. The content analysis includes identification of reference cases. These cases were characterized based on variables as scope, creation goal, years, network approach, actors and creation methodology. It was possible to do a comparative analysis to determinate similarities and differences in these cases documented in knowledge network scientific literature. Consequently, it was shown that even the need and impact of knowledge networks in organizations, the initial guidelines for their creation are not documented, so there is not a guide of good practices and lessons learned. The reference cases are from industries as energy, education, creative, automotive and textile. Their common points are the human approach; it is oriented to interactions to facilitate the appropriation of knowledge, explicit and tacit. The stages of every case are analyzed to propose the main successful elements.

Keywords: creation, knowledge management, network, stages

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Authors: Cris Bravo

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Social entrepreneurship is a new and exciting topic that holds a great promise in helping alleviate the social problems of the world. As a new subject, the meaning of the term is too broad and this is counterproductive in trying to build understanding around the concept. The purpose of this study is to identify and compare the elements of social entrepreneurship as defined by seven international organizations leading social entrepreneurship projects: Ashoka Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Schwab Foundation and Yunus Center; as well as from three other institutions fostering social entrepreneurship: Global Social Benefit Institute, BRAC University, and Socialab. The study used document analysis from Skoll Foundation, Schwab Foundation, Yunus Center and Ashoka Foundation; and open ended interview to experts from the Global Social Benefit Institute at Santa Clara University in United States, BRAC University from Bangladesh, and Socialab from Argentina. The study identified three clearly differentiated schools of thought, based on their views on revenue, scalability, replicability and geographic location. While this study is by no means exhaustive, it provides an indication of the patterns of ideas fostered by important players in the field. By clearly identifying the similarities and differences in the concept of social entrepreneurship, research and practitioners are better equipped to build on the subject, and to promote more adequate and accurate social policies to foster the development of social entrepreneurship.

Keywords: replicability, revenue, scalability, schools of thought, social entrepreneurship

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Authors: Rodrigo Montufar-Chaveznava, Fernando Brambila-Paz, Ivette Caldelas

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In this paper, we present the advances corresponding to the denoising processing of magnetotelluric signals using several filters. In particular, we use the most common spatial domain filters such as median and mean, but we are also using the Fourier and wavelet transform for frequency domain filtering. We employ three datasets obtained at the different sampling rate (128, 4096 and 8192 bps) and evaluate the mean square error, signal-to-noise relation, and peak signal-to-noise relation to compare the kernels and determine the most suitable for each case. The magnetotelluric signals correspond to earth exploration when water is searched. The object is to find a denoising strategy different to the one included in the commercial equipment that is employed in this task.

Keywords: denoising, filtering, magnetotelluric signals, wavelet transform

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Authors: Maria João Mimoso, Bárbara Magalhães Bravo

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This study aims to analyse the phenomenon of arbitration as a paradigm in solving emerging controversies of foreign investment. We will present their benefits and demonstrate their contribution to greater legal certainty in economic relations. This article explores the legal relevant concepts under a strictly conceptual methodology, preparing future research to be developed under more developed comparative law methodologies. The review of national and international literature and jurisprudence will reveal the importance of arbitration in the field of international economic relations, presenting it as an alternative dispute resolution. Globalization imposes new forms of investment protection and appeals to other forms of dispute settlement, primarily to prevent, among other problems, the possible bias of the recipient country's investment tribunals. Characterization of foreign investment, its regulatory sources, their characteristics and the need for intervention of an entity capable of resolving disputes between the parties involved: State investor reception; Investor (of a nationality other than the latter); State of the investor's nationality, and sometimes a ‘subsidiary’ local foreign investor. The ICSID (International Settlement of Investment Disputes) arbitration as a means of resolving investment litigations covered by bilateral treaties (BIT) and investment contracts calls for a delimitation of these two figures in order to clarify the scope of the arbitration under the aegis of the World Bank and to make it more secure in the view of the sovereign power of the States.

Keywords: arbitration, contract, foreign, investment, disputes

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Authors: Sandoval H. Leyla Angélica, Casani Fernando

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The objective of this study is to analyse how enterprises in developed countries use cooperation agreements to expand into developing countries. Starting from the literature review, seven theoretical prepositions were derived. The qualitative methodology used includes case study, through interviews conducted with eight enterprises from Spain and Colombia. Results show that the cooperation agreements have provided a quick and solid connection that facilitates internationalization, bearing in mind aspects such as: strategic factors, partners, network, technology, experience, communication methods, social benefit and the connection between these aspects and allied enterprises.

Keywords: internationalisation, firms, cooperation agreement, case study, Spain, Colombia

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Authors: Gabriela V. Angeles Perez, Jose Castillejos Lopez, Araceli L. Reyes Cabello, Emilio Bravo Grajales, Adriana Perez Espinosa, Jose L. Quiroz Fabian

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Road traffic accidents are among the principal causes of traffic congestion, causing human losses, damages to health and the environment, economic losses and material damages. Studies about traditional road traffic accidents in urban zones represents very high inversion of time and money, additionally, the result are not current. However, nowadays in many countries, the crowdsourced GPS based traffic and navigation apps have emerged as an important source of information to low cost to studies of road traffic accidents and urban congestion caused by them. In this article we identified the zones, roads and specific time in the CDMX in which the largest number of road traffic accidents are concentrated during 2016. We built a database compiling information obtained from the social network known as Waze. The methodology employed was Discovery of knowledge in the database (KDD) for the discovery of patterns in the accidents reports. Furthermore, using data mining techniques with the help of Weka. The selected algorithms was the Maximization of Expectations (EM) to obtain the number ideal of clusters for the data and k-means as a grouping method. Finally, the results were visualized with the Geographic Information System QGIS.

Keywords: data mining, k-means, road traffic accidents, Waze, Weka

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Authors: Bárbara Magalhães Bravo, Cláudia Figueiras

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The economical globalization through the liberalization of the markets and capitals boosted the economical development of the nations and the needs for sorting out the disputes arising from the foreign investment. The arbitration, for all the inherent advantages, such as swiftness, arbitrators’ specialise skills and impartiality sets a pacifier tool for the interest in account. Safeguarded the public interest, we face the problem of the confidentiality in the arbitration. The urgent development of impelling mechanisms concerning transparency, guaranty and protection of the interest in account, reveals itself urgent. Through a bibliography review, we will dense the state of art, by going through the several solutions concerning, and pointing out the most suitable. Through the jurisprudential analysis we will point out the solution for the conflict confidentiality/public interest. The transparency, inextricable from the public interest, imposes the arbitration process can be open to all citizens. Transparency rules have been considered at the UNCITRAL in attempting to conciliate the necessity of publicity and the public interest, however still insufficient. The arbitration of foreign investment carries consequences to the citizens of the State. Articulating mechanisms between the arbitral procedures secrecy and the public interest should be adopted. The arbitration of foreign investment, being a tertius genius between the international arbitration and the administrative arbitration would claim its own regulation in each and every States where the confidentiality rules and its exceptions could be identified. One should enquiry where the limit of the citizens’ individual rights protection and the public interest should give way to the principle of transparency

Keywords: arbitration, foreign investment, transparency, confidenciality, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes UNCITRAL

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Authors: Fernando Ojedo, Alejandro Alvarez, Pedro Macizo

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In the present study, we explored electrophysiological correlates of Arabic digits naming to determine semantic processing of numbers. Participants named Arabic digits grouped by category or intermixed with exemplars of other semantic categories while the N400 event-related potential was examined. Around 350-450 ms after the presentation of Arabic digits, brain waves were more positive in anterior regions and more negative in posterior regions when stimuli were grouped by category relative to the mixed condition. Contrary to what was found in other studies, electrophysiological results suggested that the production of numerals involved semantic mediation.

Keywords: Arabic digit naming, event-related potentials, semantic processing, number production

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Authors: Pablo Martin, Jorge Olivares, Fernando Maass

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The use of fractional derivatives to different problems in Engineering and Physics has been increasing in the last decade. For this reason, we have here considered partial derivatives when the integral is a spherical Bessel function of the first kind in both regular and modified ones simple initial conditions have been also considered. In this way, the solution has been found as a combination of hypergeometric functions. The case of a general rational value for α of the fractional derivative α has been solved in a general way for alpha between zero and two. The modified spherical Bessel functions of the first kind have been also considered and how to go from the regular case to the modified one will be also shown.

Keywords: caputo fractional derivatives, hypergeometric functions, linear differential equations, spherical Bessel functions

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Authors: María Del Carmen Pardo Ferreira, Fernando Rodriguez Cortes, Juan Carlos Rubio Romero

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According to the International Labor Organization, every day there is more presence of women in the labor market although inequality between women and men persists in world labor markets. In order to try to reduce this gender inequality in the work environment, the present study is proposed, which aims to analyze the occupational accidents suffered by women and occurred in Spain between 2015 and 2018. For this, the methodology used was based on a statistical analysis of the data provided by the Government of Spain. The results will allow to know in which jobs women suffer accidents, in what type of companies and the severity of the accident. Based on these results, specific intervention policies may be defined according to the needs detected in each sector.

Keywords: Injured women, Gender perspective, Occupational accidents, Occupational health and safety

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Authors: Daniel Vargas-Herrera, Ivette Caldelas, Fernando Brambila-Paz, Rodrigo Montufar-Chaveznava

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In this paper, we present a virtual reality application for neurorehabilitation. This application was developed using the Unity SDK integrating the Oculus Rift and Leap Motion devices. Essentially, it consists of three stages according to the kind of rehabilitation to carry on: ocular rehabilitation, head/neck rehabilitation, and eye-hand coordination. We build three scenes for each task; for ocular and head/neck rehabilitation, there are different objects moving in the field of view and extended field of view of the user according to some patterns relative to the therapy. In the third stage the user must try to touch with the hand some objects guided by its view. We report the primer results of the use of the application with healthy people.

Keywords: virtual reality, interactive technologies, video games, neurorehabilitation

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Authors: África Vicario, Fernando J. Álvarez, Felipe Parralejo, Fernando Aranda

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The irrigation systems of traditional agriculture, such as gravity-fed irrigation, produce a great waste of water because, generally, there is no control over the amount of water supplied in relation to the water needed. The AIRON Project tries to solve this problem by implementing an IoT-based system to sensor the irrigation plots so that the state of the crops and the amount of water used for irrigation can be known remotely. The IoT system consists of a sensor network that measures the humidity of the soil, the weather conditions (temperature, relative humidity, wind and solar radiation) and the irrigation water flow. The communication between this network and a central gateway is conducted by means of long-range wireless communication that depends on the characteristics of the irrigation plot. The main objective of the AIRON project is to deploy an IoT sensor network in two different plots of the irrigation community of Aranjuez in the Spanish region of Madrid. The first plot is 2 km away from the central gateway, so LoRa has been used as the base communication technology. The problem with this plot is the absence of mains electric power, so devices with energy-saving modes have had to be used to maximize the external batteries' use time. An ESP32 SOC board with a LoRa module is employed in this case to gather data from the sensor network and send them to a gateway consisting of a Raspberry Pi with a LoRa hat. The second plot is located 18 km away from the gateway, a range that hampers the use of LoRa technology. In order to establish reliable communication in this case, the long-term evolution (LTE) standard is used, which makes it possible to reach much greater distances by using the cellular network. As mains electric power is available in this plot, a Raspberry Pi has been used instead of the ESP32 board to collect sensor data. All data received from the two plots are stored on a proprietary server located at the irrigation management company's headquarters. The analysis of these data by means of machine learning algorithms that are currently under development should allow a short-term prediction of the irrigation water demand that would significantly reduce the waste of this increasingly valuable natural resource. The major finding of this work is the real possibility of deploying a remote sensing system for irrigated plots by using Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices, easily scalable and adaptable to design requirements such as the distance to the control center or the availability of mains electrical power at the site.

Keywords: internet of things, irrigation water control, LoRa, LTE, smart farming

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Authors: Daniel Icaza, Federico Córdova, Chiristian Castro, Fernando Icaza, Juan Portoviejo

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In this article, the mathematical model is presented, and simulations were carried out using specialized software such as MATLAB before the construction of a 900-W wind turbine. The present study was conducted with the intention of taking advantage of the rotation of the blades of the wind generator after going through a process of amplification of speed by means of a system of gears to finally mechanically couple two electric generators of similar characteristics. This coupling allows generating a maximum voltage of 6 V in DC for each generator and putting in series the 12 V DC is achieved, which is later stored in batteries and used when the user requires it. Laboratory tests were made to verify the level of power generation produced based on the wind speed at the entrance of the blades.

Keywords: smart grids, wind turbine, modeling, renewable energy, robust control

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Authors: Matheus Fernando Pereira, Varese Salvador Timoteo

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In this work, we have solved the two-dimensional advection-diffusion equation numerically for a spatially dependent solute dispersion along non-uniform flow with a pulse type source in order to make a systematic study on the influence of medium heterogeneity, initial flow velocity, and initial dispersion coefficient parameters on the solutions of the equation. The behavior of the solutions is then investigated as we change the three parameters independently. Our results show that even though the parameters represent different physical features of the system, the effect on their variation is very similar. We also observe that the effects caused by the parameters on the concentration depend on the distance from the source. Finally, our numerical results are in good agreement with the exact solutions for all values of the parameters we used in our analysis.

Keywords: advection-diffusion equation, dispersion, numerical methods, pulse-type source

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Authors: J. Bravo, F. Cabrera Suárez, B. Vega, L. Román, M. Martel, F. Acosta

Abstract:

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is the most common non-bacterial intoxication in the world caused by ingestion of fish with bio-accumulated ciguatoxins (CTXs). It is typical in tropical and subtropical areas, mainly affecting the Caribbean Sea, Polynesia and other areas in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Interest in Europe by the CFP is increasing in recent years as more and more cases in European hospitals are appearing, usually by people who have consumed ciguatoxin imported fish or have travelled to areas of risk for this poisoning. Since 2004 a series of poisonings raised the question of a possible occurrence of ciguatoxin in Europe, especially in the area of Macaronesia in the East Atlantic temperate zone. Furthermore, some studies have identified the presence of Gambierdiscus spp. in waters surrounding the Canary Islands and Madeira, a toxic dinoflagellate related to this poisoning. The toxin accumulates and concentrates through the food chain and affects to the end of the chain, the human consumer. Fish were collected from the Canary Islands waters and the toxin has been extracted and purified by using acetone and liquid/liquid partition in order to eliminate the excess of fatty acids that may interfere with the detection of the toxin. The fish extracts were inoculated in Neuroblastoma (neuro-2a) cells. After 24-h cell viability was used as an endpoint for cytotoxic effects measurement. Since 2011 our laboratory is collecting data for species such Seriola spp., Epinephelus spp., Makaira spp., Pomatomus spp., Xiphias spp., and Acantocybium spp., from all islands and including the sports fishing and professional activities, we obtained a 8% of fish that have ciguatoxin in their muscle. With these results, we conclude that the island where fishing and fish size affects the probability of catching a fish with the ciguatoxin.

Keywords: Canary Islands, ciguatera fish poisoning, ciguatoxin, Europe

Procedia PDF Downloads 311

Authors: Daniel Vargas-Herrera, Ivette Caldelas, Fernando Brambila-Paz, Rodrigo Montufar-Chaveznava

Abstract:

In this paper, we present the advances corresponding to the implementation of a set of educational materials based on video games technologies. Essentially these materials correspond to projects developed and under development as bachelor thesis of some Computer Engineering students of the Engineering School. All materials are based on the Unity SDK; integrating some devices such as kinect, leap motion, oculus rift, data gloves and Google cardboard. In detail, we present a virtual reality application for neurosciences students (suitable for neural rehabilitation), and virtual scenes for the Google cardboard, which will be used by the psychology students for phobias treatment. The objective is these materials will be located at a server to be available for all students, in the classroom or in the cloud, considering the use of smartphones has been widely extended between students.

Keywords: virtual reality, interactive technologies, video games, educational materials

Procedia PDF Downloads 620