Producción científica y académica

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Twitter data mining for the diagnosis of leaks in drinking water distribution networks

Jiménez-Cabas, Javier | 2023-03-14

This article presents a methodology for using data from social networks, specifically from Twitter, to diagnose leaks in drinking water distribution networks. The methodology involves the collection of tweets from citizens reporting leaks, the extraction of information from the tweets, and the processing of such information to run the diagnosis. To demonstrate the viability of this methodology, 358 Twitter leak reports were collected and analyzed in Mexico City from 1 May to 31 December 2022. From these reports, leak density and probability were calculated, which are metrics that can be used to develop forecasting algorithms, identify root causes, and program repairs. The calculated metrics were compared with those calculated through telephone reports provided by SACMEX, the entity that manages water in Mexico City. Results show that metrics obtained from Twitter and phone reports were highly comparable, indicating the usefulness and reliability of social media data for diagnosing leaks.

Privacy preserving blockchain with energy aware clustering scheme for iot healthcare systems

Escorcia-Gutierrez, José | 2023

Due to advancements in information technology, the healthcare sector becomes beneficial and provides distinct methods of managing medical data and enhancing the quality of medical services. The advanced e-healthcare applications are mainly based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing platforms. In IoT enabled healthcare sector, the IoT devices usually record the patient data and transfer it to the cloud for further processing. Energy efficiency and security are treated as critical problems in designing IoT networks in the healthcare environment. As IoT devices are limited to energy, designing an effective technique to reduce energy utilization is needed. At the same time, secure transmission of medical data also poses a major challenging design issue. This paper presents a novel artificial intelligence with a blockchain scheme for IoT healthcare systems named AIBS-IoTHS. The AIBS-IoTH model aims to achieve secure and energy-efficient data transmission in IoT networks. The IoT devices are primarily used to collect patients’ medical data. The AIBS- IoTH model involves a metaheuristic-based modified sunflower optimization-based clustering (MSFOC) technique to achieve energy efficiency. Then, the blockchain empowered secure medical data transmission process is carried out for both inter-cluster and intra-cluster communication. At last, the Classification Enhancement Generative Adversarial Networks (CEGAN) model performs the diagnostic process on the secured medical data to determine the existence of the diseases. The design of MSFOC and CEGAN techniques shows the novelty of the work. An extensive experimental analysis of the benchmark dataset pointed out the superior performance of the proposed AIBS-IoTH model over the other compared methods.

Corticobasal syndrome as a focal variant of Alzheimer’s disease

Mariani, Francesca | 2022

We present a 60-year-old woman with a 2-year history of progressive anterograde memory deficit, that evolved with a typical corticobasal syndrome with extrapyramidal signs and left superior limb dystonia. 18F-FDG and 11C-PIB PET/CT studies supported the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease associating a corticobasal syndrome.

Teleneuropsychological assessment in South America: a perspective from patients and neuropsychologists

Arruabarrena, Micaela-María | 2022

Teleneuropsychology (teleNP) in Argentina was promoted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This investigation aimed to evaluate patients’ and neuropsychologists’ satisfaction with teleNP and to identify the advantages and disadvantages of its use. 41 patients with mild cognitive impairment and 35 neuropsychologists from Argentina were surveyed. Both groups were sent a questionnaire by e-mail to evaluate their satisfaction and preferences regarding teleNP. Patients were sent the survey after being cognitively evaluated by teleNP. Outcomes reflected a 91% degree of satisfaction with teleNP, with no differences between patients and specialists (p = 0.112). Regarding patients, 50% had no predilection regarding evaluation modality, and 35.7% preferred teleNP. The main benefits identified were accessibility to remote areas (72.4%), and comfort of performing the assessment at home (57.14%). Moreover, 74.3% of practitioners reported that the principal difficulty was the patient’s lack of familiarity with the technology, and 60% a deficiency in environmental control. TeleNP cognitive evaluation has a high degree of acceptability for practitioners and patients. The main obstacles identified are network connection problems and the lack of familiarity with technology. The principal advantages come from accessing isolated areas. This suggests that this practice will remain relevant beyond the pandemic context.

Fleni Coglioma: batería para la detección de compromiso cognitivo en pacientes con Glioma de bajo grado

Keller, Greta | 2022

Los nuevos procedimientos quirúrgicos han beneficiado a los pacientes con Gliomas de Bajo Grado (GBG), quienes tienen una mayor esperanza de vida. Por este motivo existe un creciente interés en proteger la cognición y mejorar su calidad de vida. Los objetivos del estudio fueron: (1) Construir y administrar una batería neuropsicológica que permita examinar el perfil cognitivo prequirúrgico en pacientes con GBG y determinar los efectos posquirúrgicos. (2) Diseñar una intervención intraquirúrgica para pacientes con lesiones en el hemisferio izquierdo a fin de minimizar posibles déficits posteriores. Se evaluaron 19 pacientes con una batería prequirúrgica que evalúa los distintos dominios cognitivos: memoria, lenguaje, atención, funciones ejecutivas, habilidades visuoespaciales, cognición social, praxias y gnosias. Asimismo, los pacientes completaron cuestionarios neuropsiquiátricos con el fin de valorar funcionalidad, estado anímico y calidad de vida. Los pacientes presentaron déficit en múltiples dominios cognitivos en la evaluación prequirúrgica, al comparar su rendimiento con valores normativos ajustados por edad, sexo y educación. Los resultados del presente estudio demuestran la importancia de la administración de la batería neuropsicológica específicamente diseñada para pacientes con GBG y la evaluación de los dominios cognitivos para lograr la detección y el seguimiento de posibles trastornos cognitivos.

Relación entre resiliencia y bienestar psicológico en adolescentes que viven en un contexto violento de una ciudad del Caribe colombiano

Pérez-Correa, Kethy-Luz | 2022

Objetivo: Identificar la relación entre los niveles de resiliencia y bienestar psicológico en adolescentes que viven en un contexto violento de una ciudad del caribe colombiano. Métodología: Se trabajó con un grupo de 300 adolescentes que viven en un contexto violento de una ciudad del caribe colombiano con edades comprendidas entre los 12 y 18 años, seleccionados de manera aleatoria. Los participantes se distribuyeron en que el 52.0% de estos fueron mujeres y el 38.0% fueron hombres. Se utilizaron tres instrumentos los cuales fueron el Cuestionario sociodemográfico, la Escala de resiliencia Sv-Res y la Escala de Bienestar psicología para Jóvenes (BIEPS-J). Resultado­s: Muestran una correlación estadísticamente significativa con el bienestar psicológico. Conclusiones: A medida que los adolescentes tuvieron mayores niveles de identidad, autonomía, satisfacción, pragmatismo, vínculos, redes, modelos a seguir, metas a corto y largo plazo, afectividad, autoeficacia, aprendizaje y generatividad, mayor era el bienestar psicológico de cada participante.

Neuroscience of consciousness: cognition, physics and philosophy of decoding the human brain

Maciejewicz, Berenika | 2022

The biophysical roots of consciousness have been the subject of an ongoing debate for centuries. In order to understand the data, create novel experimental methodologies, and increase our ability to investigate this phenomenon of interest, the proposed theories must lead to empirical, repeatable, and testifiable studies. Contemporary theories of consciousness often do not relate to one another, and none of them has been distinguished as complete or proven empirically so far. The aim of this study is an investigation into some of the possible approaches that could merge neuronal brain activity with the laws of physics and some philosophical principles that may be associated with the emergence of consciousness in the first place. As a result, the relationship between consciousness and attention, working memory, access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness is evaluated. The contrast between conscious and unconscious perception, perceived visual inputs and subliminal ones is investigated to facilitate a discussion about the neural correlates of self-awareness. Consciousness as a global broadcast of information to integrated brain modules is being considered, as well as viewing a brain as a parallel information processor linked to attention inputs. Relationship between consciousness and attention is explored, as well as attention without consciousness and vice versa. Implications and shortcomings of the proposed approaches based on brain science, philosophy and quantum physics are also covered to shed some more light on this ever present experience of being conscious that everyone seems to self-witness but no one manages to adequately explain.

Latin America has been under-represented in dementia clinical trials, we must turn the corner…

Allegri, Ricardo Francisco | 2022

The world’s population is aging, life expectancy is increasing in the past century as result of the improvements in healthcare and the people arrive to live longer and healthier. However, this has also resulted in increase the number of people with age-related diseases like most of dementia etiologies (fundamentally Alzheimer and Vascular dementia). The growth of people with dementia in the next 20 years will be exponential around the world but even more in those countries with Low and Medium Incomes (LMIC) due to the recently and future improve in health care and quality of life.

Brief history of the development of cognitive neuroscience applied to education in the Dominican Republic 2009-2022

Gautreaux Betancourt, Rosalba Eliana | 2022

Cognitive Neuroscience Applied to Education has experienced constant development in the Dominican Republic since 2009. The knowledge provided by neuroscience to understand the role of cognitive functions and emotions in learning has revolutionized teachers throughout the country.in an increasing way. However, a creative and innovative vision of education that prioritizes inclusion, respect for diversity, collaboration, social responsibility, critical thinking, and scientific evidence; needs an innovative proposal for teacher training at all levels of the educational system. From 2009 to 2022, not only were crucial topics of Cognitive Neuroscience Applied to Education in the Dominican Republic deepened, but also the levels of dissemination and understanding of the profound need for transformation of the Dominican educational system so that it can respond to the Neuroeducation proposals.

World Health Organization have just launched a Blueprint for Dementia Research Inglés. Some notes to boost dementia research in Latin America…

Allegri, Ricardo Francisco | 2022

Dementia is the most important cause of disability and dependency in older adults and currently affects more than 55 million people, 60% of whom live in Low- and Middle-­Income Countries (LMIC). The number of people with dementia with increasing life expectancy will grow globally in the coming years, but even more in LMIC such as the Latin American (LA) countries.

Reversible cognitive impairment and parkinsonism with leukoencephalopathy due to cranial dural arteriovenous fistula

Sanchez, Melanie Lara | 2022

Parkinsonism and rapid cognitive impairment may have many causes, but only a few have specific treatment. Cranial dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) represents 10%-15% of intracranial arteriovenous malformations. Clinical manifestations depend on location and venous drainage. It is common the presence of pulsatile tinnitus, bruits and headache or headache and papilledema. Progressive cognitive decline is an unusual presentation due to bilateral thalamic edema or cortical venous hypertension. Endovascular or surgical treatment can reverse disease symptoms. We present a 74-year old man with rapidly progressive cognitive impairment and parkinsonism and a subsequent diagnosis of dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF). Brain MRI revealed diffuse leukoencephalopathy probably attributable to elevated venous pressure. He was treated with partial embolization with Onix and left transverse sinus angioplasty. Following the procedure, there was a substantial reduction of venous pressure signs and remarkable clinical and imaging improvement, persisting at two years follow-up. This case represents an unusual presentation of DAVF. It is important to suspect the diagnosis of DAVF in cases with rapidly evolving cognitive impairment, parkinsonism and leukoencephalopathy as it can be reversible with early treatment.

Delay of gratification in costa rican preschoolers: effect of trust in the experimenter and the socio-economic status

Chaverri Chaves, Pablo | 2022

This study analyzed the effect of confidence in the experimenter on the performance of a group of Costa Rican preschoolers on self-control. In addition, the effect of socioeconomic status on performance on the marshmallow task was analyzed by a comparison of children from both different schools (public vs private) and different socioeconomic contexts within each school. The sample of participants was 67 children (26 girls, M of age = 63 months, SD = 6.03). Effects were found, both of the confidence in the experimenter and of the socio-economic status in self-control. The implications of this study for future studies with children and families are discussed.

Consecuencias neurológicas y psiquiátricas a largo plazo (6 meses) en pacientes con COVID leve de la comunidad

Román, Fabián | 2022

Las complicaciones neurológicas a largo plazo de la infección por coronavirus han sido descriptas en los pacientes hospitalizados en el episodio agudo. De ellos, 63% presentaron fatiga y debilidad muscular, 26% trastornos del sueño; 24% trastornos en la marcha y 23% ansiedad y depresión. A mayor severidad del episodio agudo mayor probabilidad de sintomatología neurológica a largo plazo. El objetivo de este trabajo fue estudiar la prevalencia de síntomas neurológicos y psiquiátricos a los 6 meses en una cohorte de pacientes adultos, principalmente ambulatorios. Fueron evaluados mediante una entrevista telefónica 96 sujetos con una media de edad de 48 años, 54% mujeres, y 86 % ambulatorios leves. A los 6 meses el 32% de la población presentaba aun síntomas neurológicos o psiquiátricos. Ansiedad (31%), fatiga (26%), niebla mental (24%), insomnio (22%), depresión (21%), y cefalea (19%) entre otros. En el presente trabajo con sujetos que sufrieron COVID leve, los síntomas neurológicos y psiquiátricos post COVID continuaron prominentes como lo reportado en otros trabajos en las formas agudas más graves.

Non-linguistic neuropsychological profile of primary progressive aphasia: a systematic review

lastre meza, karina | 2022

El propósito de este estudio es establecer el perfil neuropsicológico no lingüístico de las variantes de la Afasia Progresiva Primaria, mediante una revisión sistemática de la literatura de los últimos 5 años. La búsqueda sistemática y manual avanzada se llevó a cabo en las bases de datos Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science y Google Académico para identificar los estudios que describieran el perfil neuropsicológico no lingüístico de las variantes de la Afasia Progresiva Primaria (APP), se establecieron criterios de inclusión y exclusión para la selección de los artículos, se evaluó su calidad y pertinencia. La revisión sistemática arrojó 7084 artículos, de los cuales 131 fueron preseleccionados de acuerdo a lo informado en el resumen y 26 validados para lectura completa. Para la síntesis narrativa se utilizaron 19 artículos. Las variantes de APP cursan con déficits neurocognitivos fuera del dominio del lenguaje, particulares a cada variante. Esto resalta la importancia de una evaluación neuropsicológica integral que aporte información adicional a los criterios de consenso ya establecidos para la evaluación de la APP.

Technologies for the preservation of cultural heritage—a systematic review of the literature

Diaz Mendoza, Maria Antonia | 2023

first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessReview Technologies for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage—A Systematic Review of the Literature by María Antonia Diaz Mendoza 1,*ORCID,Emiro De La Hoz Franco 1ORCID andJorge Eliecer Gómez Gómez 2ORCID 1 Department of Computer Science and Electronics, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de la Costa CUC, Barranquilla 080002, Colombia 2 Department of Systems Engineering and Telecommunications, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de Córdoba, Montería 230002, Colombia * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1059; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021059 Received: 17 November 2022 / Revised: 28 December 2022 / Accepted: 3 January 2023 / Published: 6 January 2023 (This article belongs to the Section Tourism, Culture, and Heritage) Download Browse Figures Review Reports Versions Notes Abstract This work establishes the technological elements that have enabled the preservation, promotion, and dissemination of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the period from 2018 to 2022. For this, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted in the scientific databases Scopus, Science Direct, IEEE and Web of Science, which facilitated the identification of 146 articles related to the topic. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the journals, authors and topics was carried out, detailing the important variables required to establish the sought-out elements; for this purpose, the following were quantified in the papers: type, topic, categorization, country, and language; in the publications, the type of heritage chosen, the place of the heritage and the type of intervention were investigated. The number of publications reporting the use of some type of technology was also identified, finding that 70% of them show a technological approach to preserve cultural heritage, while 30% refer to other types of interventions. The technologies reported to be used the most are 3D digital technologies (44% of those showing technological applications), augmented reality or virtual reality, henceforth AR/VR (15%).

On the relation between monocultures and ecosystem services in the Global South: a review

Suarez, Andrés | 2023

The countries of the global south are characterized by high levels of biodiversity. In addition, these countries have suffered -and will suffer- even more ecological pressures due to agricultural production, mainly monocultures. When considering areas of high biodiversity with highly intensive agricultural systems, the scientific literature highlights the role provided by Ecosystem Services (ES) both to monocultures and from monocultures to their contexts. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to provide a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to understand the relationship between monocultures and ES in the global south. Furthermore, in this research we provide a context analysis to broaden the understanding of the implications of monocultures in this region. We provide correlations between trends in monocultures harvested areas and forest cover in the countries identified through the SLR. Our SLR identified information from 15 countries and 11 monocultures. We found several negative correlations between harvested area and forest cover, mainly in megadiverse countries. In addition, we depicted trade-offs and synergies related to monocultures. We conclude that more research is needed in this regard, especially since there is great interest in monocultures for economic development in the global south, and this area will support world food production in the future.

On the influence of drained cyclic preloadings on the cyclic behaviour of Zbraslav sand

Duque, J. | 2023

This article experimentally evaluates the influence of directional drained cyclic preloadings on the subsequent undrained monotonic and cyclic response of Zbraslav sand. The cyclic tests were performed on dense samples and under triaxial conditions. The experiments considered several different preloading directions, magnitude of the maximum deviatoric stress reached during the drained preloading stage and deviatoric stress amplitudes during the undrained shearing stage. The experimental results suggested that the rate of strains and pore water pressure accumulation, and therefore, the number of cycles to reach initial liquefaction or failure conditions are remarkably affected by the direction of the drained preloading history. In addition, the preloading direction plays a major role on the contractive/dilative response during the subsequent undrained monotonic loading. In particular, directional drained cyclic preloadings toward positive deviatoric stresses at constant mean effective stress and isotropic compression led to more dilative responses. Contrary, preloadings toward negative deviatoric stresses at constant mean effective stress led to more contractive responses. The results suggest that these major variations cannot be associated to the rather small changes in the relative density of the samples but likely due to fabric changes and induced anisotropy caused by the drained preloading history.

Influence of ambient temperature in the city of Portoviejo, Ecuador on the energy performance of photovoltaic modules

EPENI-TOMBO, GENIAL BELVINEL | 2023

The research analyzes the influence of the average temperature on the performance of specific photovoltaic solar modules under the environmental conditions of the city of Portoviejo, province of Manabí, Ecuador. The research is carried out using the qualitative methodology. Its main objective is to determine the influence of temperature on the energy performance of photovoltaic modules under the region's environmental conditions. Two electrical diagrams with different configurations were designed, which were analyzed and simulated using the MATLAB Simulink software. The results obtained show the direct relationship between the electrical parameters of voltage, current intensity, and power with the temperature value on the surface of the modules. It is concluded that the modules generate a higher value of voltage, electric current intensity, and electric power at a lower temperature, regardless of the level of solar irradiation they receive.

Green building's heat loss reduction analysis through two novel hybrid approaches

Moayedi, Hossein | 2023

One of the key reasons for the performance discrepancy between a building's intended usage and the actual operation is Heat Loss, which describes a building's envelope efficiency during in-use circumstances. In this setting, the ANN models’ use for energy analysis of green buildings has become more established. This research aims to anticipate the heat loss of green buildings utilizing two artificial neural network-based methodologies (ANN). In particular, TLBO and BBO are used and contrasted. Additionally, RMSE, MAE, and R2 are used to calculate an absolute error for predicting heat loss to gauge the accuracy of the findings. The suggested TLBO-MLP standard is a reliable method with a positive outcome (RMSE = 0.01012 and 0.05216, and R2 = 0.99536 and 0.9651). Also, according to the training error ranges of [−0.0006078, 0.01133] and [−0.00040708, 0.010181] and testing error ranges of [0.0004724, 0.068666] and [0.0021984, 0.057688] for BBO-MLP and TLBO-MLP, respectively, shows that the TLBO-MLP reaches the lower range of error and can predict the heat loss with higher accuracy and it could properly forecast the heat loss of building technologies. Even so, the BBO-MLP standard provides this research with satisfactory performance (R2 = 0.9943 and 0.95175, and RMSE = 0.01122 and 0.06112). To increase the precision of calculating the heat loss of buildings, specifically integrating them with optimization algorithms, further study is required.

Exploitation of Bauhinia forficata residual fruit powder for the adsorption of cationic dyes

lotfi, sellaoui | 2023

This paper analyzes the adsorption of two potential toxic dyes, i.e. methylene blue (MB) and crystal violet (CV) onto Bauhinia forficata residual fruit powder (BFRFP) as a new promising adsorbent. The experiments aimed at retrievement of adsorption data are carried out at T = 298–328 K and are coupled with an adsorbent characterization to better highlight the MB and CV dyes adsorption mechanism. MB adsorption capacity at saturation (ACS) varies from 181.48 to 201 mg.g−1, while for CV dye, it ranges from 263.06 to 282.61 mg.g−1. This difference is not very significant but reflects that the BFRFP has a higher affinity to remove CV dye. Comparing with some alternative adsorbents, the BFRFP adsorbent shows to be a competitive material for the removal of MB and CV dyes from polluted water. A model assuming that MB and CV dyes are removed via a formation of two layers on BFRFP is chosen as the one that, from a physical point of view, better interpret their adsorption mechanisms. The prediction of the number of dyes adsorbed on BFRFP is approximately equal to 1 for both the dyes, testifying that they are removed without an aggregation process and with slanted position. The physical model generates two energies to describe the interactive effects between both dyes and BFRFP adsorbent (dye- BFRFP) and between dyes (dye-dye). Results show that physical interactions occur during the adsorption process.