How does the choice of DEMs affect catchment hydrological modeling?

The digital elevation models (DEMs) are the primary and most important spatial inputs for a wide range of hydrological applications. However, their availability from multiple sources and at various spatial resolutions poses a challenge in watershed modeling as they influence hydrological feature delineation and model simulations. In this study, we evaluated the effect of DEM choice on stream and catchment delineation and streamflow simulation using the SWAT model in four distinct geographic regions with diverse terrain surfaces. Performance evaluation metrics, including Willmott's index of agreement, and nRMSE combined with visual comparisons were employed to assess each DEM's performance. Our results revealed that the choice of DEM has a significant impact on the accuracy of stream and catchment delineation, while its influence on streamflow simulation within the same catchment was relatively minor. Among the evaluated DEMs, AW3D30 and COP30 performed the best, closely followed by MERIT, whereas TanDEM-X and HydroSHEDS exhibited poorer performance. All DEMs displayed better accuracy in mountainous and larger catchments compared to smaller and flatter catchments. Forest cover also played a role in accuracy, mainly due to its association with steep slopes. Our findings provide valuable insights for making informed data selection decisions in watershed modeling, considering the specific characteristics of the catchment and the desired level of accuracy.

Data mining methodology for obtaining epidemiological data in the context of road transport systems.

Millions of people use public transport systems daily, hence their interest for the epidemiology of respiratory infectious diseases, both from a scientific and a health control point of view. This article presents a methodology for obtaining epidemiological information on these types of diseases in the context of a public road transport system. This epidemiological information is based on an estimation of interactions with risk of infection between users of the public transport system. The methodology is novel in its aim since, to the best of our knowledge, there is no previous study in the context of epidemiology and public transport systems that addresses this challenge. The information is obtained by mining the data generated from trips made by transport users who use contactless cards as a means of payment. Data mining therefore underpins the methodology. One achievement of the methodology is that it is a comprehensive approach, since, starting from a formalisation of the problem based on epidemiological concepts and the transport activity itself, all the necessary steps to obtain the required epidemiological knowledge are described and implemented. This includes the estimation of data that are generally unknown in the context of public transport systems, but that are required to generate the desired results. The outcome is useful epidemiological data based on a complete and reliable description of all estimated potentially infectious interactions between users of the transport system. The methodology can be implemented using a variety of initial specifications: epidemiological, temporal, geographic, inter alia. Another feature of the methodology is that with the information it provides, epidemiological studies can be carried out involving a large number of people, producing large samples of interactions obtained over long periods of time, thereby making it possible to carry out comparative studies. Moreover, a real use case is described, in which the methodology is applied to a road transport system that annually moves around 20 million passengers, in a period that predates the COVID-19 pandemic. The results have made it possible to identify the group of users most exposed to infection, although they are not the largest group. Finally, it is estimated that the application of a seat allocation strategy that minimises the risk of infection reduces the risk by 50%.

Invaginación apendicular como manifestación infrecuente de endometriosis / No disponible

No disponible

Appendicular invagination as a rare manifestation of endometriosis.

Appendicular invagination is a rare situation, with an incidence of 0.01 %. The clinical presentation can be variable from acute appendicitis to chronic abdominal pain, intestinal obstruction by intussusception or simply appear as a radiologic or intraoperative finding. Endometriosis is the underlying cause of appendicular invagination in one-third of cases but the possibility of neoplastic pathology should always be considered in these cases.

A Very High-Speed Validation Scheme Based on Template Matching for Segmented Character Expiration Codes on Beverage Cans.

This paper expands upon a previous publication and is the natural continuation of an earlier study which presented an industrial validator of expiration codes printed on aluminium or tin cans, called MONICOD. MONICOD is distinguished by its high operating speed, running at 200 frames per second and validating up to 35 cans per second. This paper adds further detail to this description by describing the final stage of the MONICOD industrial validator: the process of effectively validating the characters. In this process we compare the acquired shapes, segmented during the prior stages, with expected character shapes. To do this, we use a template matching scheme (here called "morphologies") based on bitwise operations. Two learning algorithms for building the valid morphology databases are also presented. The results of the study presented here show that in the acquisition of 9885 frames containing 465 cans to be validated, there was only one false positive (0.21% of the total). Another notable feature is that it is at least 20% faster in validation time with error rates similar to those of classifiers such as support vector machines (SVM), radial base functions (RBF), multi-layer perceptron with backpropagation (MLP) and k-nearest neighbours (KNN).

Beacon-Related Parameters of Bluetooth Low Energy: Development of a Semi-Automatic System to Study Their Impact on Indoor Positioning Systems.

Indoor positioning systems (IPS) are used to locate people or objects in environments where the global positioning system (GPS) fails. The commitment to make bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology the leader in IPS and their applications is clear: Since 2009, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has released several improved versions. BLE offers many advantages for IPS, e.g., their emitters or beacons are easily deployable, have low power consumption, give a high positioning accuracy and can provide advanced services to users. Fingerprinting is a popular indoor positioning algorithm that is based on the received signal strength (RSS); however, its main drawbacks are that data collection is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process and its main challenge is that positioning accuracy is affected by various factors. The purpose of this work was to develop a semi-automatic data collection support system in a BLE fingerprinting-based IPS to: (1) Streamline and shorten the data collection process, (2) carry out impact studies by protocol and channel on the static positioning accuracy related to configuration parameters of the beacons, such as transmission power (Tx) and the advertising interval (A), and their number and geometric distribution. With two types of systems-on-chip (SoCs) integrated in Bluetooth 5 beacons and in two different environments, our results showed that on average in the three BLE advertising channels, the configuration of the highest Tx (+4 dBm) in the beacons produced the best accuracy results. However, the lowest Tx (-20 dBm) did not worsen them excessively (only 11.8%). In addition, in both scenarios, when lowering the density of beacons by around 42.7%-50%, the error increase was only around 8%-9.2%.

Bus Travel Time Prediction Model Based on Profile Similarity.

In road-based mass transit systems, travel time is a key factor in providing quality of service. This article proposes a method of predicting travel time for this type of transport system. This method estimates travel time by taking into account its historical behaviour, represented by historical profiles, and the current behaviour recorded on the public transport vehicle for which the prediction is to be made. The model uses the k-medoids clustering algorithm to obtain historical travel time profiles. A relevant feature of the model is that it does not require recent travel time data from other vehicles. For this reason, the proposed model may be used in intercity transport contexts in which service planning is carried out according to timetables. The proposed model has been tested with two real cases of intercity public transport routes and from the results obtained we may conclude that, in general, the average error of the predictions is around 13% compared to the observed travel time values.

Applying Time-Dependent Attributes to Represent Demand in Road Mass Transit Systems.

The development of efficient mass transit systems that provide quality of service is a major challenge for modern societies. To meet this challenge, it is essential to understand user demand. This article proposes using new time-dependent attributes to represent demand, attributes that differ from those that have traditionally been used in the design and planning of this type of transit system. Data mining was used to obtain these new attributes; they were created using clustering techniques, and their quality evaluated with the Shannon entropy function and with neural networks. The methodology was implemented on an intercity public transport company and the results demonstrate that the attributes obtained offer a more precise understanding of demand and enable predictions to be made with acceptable precision.

System Proposal for Mass Transit Service Quality Control Based on GPS Data.

Quality is an essential aspect of public transport. In the case of regular public passenger transport by road, punctuality and regularity are criteria used to assess quality of service. Calculating metrics related to these criteria continuously over time and comprehensively across the entire transport network requires the handling of large amounts of data. This article describes a system for continuously and comprehensively monitoring punctuality and regularity. The system uses location data acquired continuously in the vehicles and automatically transferred for analysis. These data are processed intelligently by elements that are commonly used by transport operators: GPS-based tracking system, onboard computer and wireless networks for mobile data communications. The system was tested on a transport company, for which we measured the punctuality of one of the routes that it operates; the results are presented in this article.

Study on an Indoor Positioning System for Harsh Environments Based on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy.

This paper presents a study of positioning system that provides advanced information services based on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technologies. It uses Wi-Fi for rough positioning and BLE for fine positioning. It is designed for use in public transportation system stations and terminals where the conditions are "hostile" or unfavourable due to signal noise produced by the continuous movement of passengers and buses, data collection conducted in the constant presence thereof, multipath fading, non-line of sight (NLOS) conditions, the fact that part of the wireless communication infrastructure has already been deployed and positioned in a way that may not be optimal for positioning purposes, variable humidity conditions, etc. The ultimate goal is to provide a service that may be used to assist people with special needs. We present experimental results based on scene analysis; the main distance metric used was the Euclidean distance but the Mahalanobis distance was also used in one case. The algorithm employed to compare fingerprints was the weighted k-nearest neighbor one. For Wi-Fi, with only three visible access points, accuracy ranged from 3.94 to 4.82 m, and precision from 5.21 to 7.0 m 90% of the time. With respect to BLE, with a low beacon density (1 beacon per 45.7 m²), accuracy ranged from 1.47 to 2.15 m, and precision from 1.81 to 3.58 m 90% of the time. Taking into account the fact that this system is designed to work in real situations in a scenario with high environmental fluctuations, and comparing the results with others obtained in laboratory scenarios, our results are promising and demonstrate that the system would be able to position users with these reasonable values of accuracy and precision.

Systematic Development of Intelligent Systems for Public Road Transport.

This paper presents an architecture model for the development of intelligent systems for public passenger transport by road. The main objective of our proposal is to provide a framework for the systematic development and deployment of telematics systems to improve various aspects of this type of transport, such as efficiency, accessibility and safety. The architecture model presented herein is based on international standards on intelligent transport system architectures, ubiquitous computing and service-oriented architecture for distributed systems. To illustrate the utility of the model, we also present a use case of a monitoring system for stops on a public passenger road transport network.

An Intelligent Parking Management System for Urban Areas.

In this article we describe a low-cost, minimally-intrusive system for the efficient management of parking spaces on both public roads and controlled zones. This system is based on wireless networks of photoelectric sensors that are deployed on the access roads into and out of these areas. The sensors detect the passage of vehicles on these roads and communicate this information to a data centre, thus making it possible to know the number of vehicles in the controlled zone and the occupancy levels in real-time. This information may be communicated to drivers to facilitate their search for a parking space and to authorities so that they may take steps to control traffic when congestion is detected.

A Character Segmentation Proposal for High-Speed Visual Monitoring of Expiration Codes on Beverage Cans.

Expiration date labels are ubiquitous in the food industry. With the passage of time, almost any food becomes unhealthy, even when well preserved. The expiration date is estimated based on the type and manufacture/packaging time of that particular food unit. This date is then printed on the container so it is available to the end user at the time of consumption. MONICOD (MONItoring of CODes); an industrial validator of expiration codes; allows the expiration code printed on a drink can to be read. This verification occurs immediately after printing. MONICOD faces difficulties due to the high printing rate (35 cans per second) and problematic lighting caused by the metallic surface on which the code is printed. This article describes a solution that allows MONICOD to extract shapes and presents quantitative results for the speed and quality.

An Intelligent System Proposal for Improving the Safety and Accessibility of Public Transit by Highway.

The development of public transit systems that are accessible and safe for everyone, including people with special needs, is an objective that is justified from the civic and economic points of view. Unfortunately, public transit services are conceived for people who do not have reduced physical or cognitive abilities. In this paper, we present an intelligent public transit system by highway with the goal of facilitating access and improving the safety of public transit for persons with special needs. The system is deployed using components that are commonly available in transport infrastructure, e.g., sensors, mobile communications systems, and positioning systems. In addition, the system can operate in non-urban transport contexts, e.g., isolated rural areas, where the availability of basic infrastructure, such as electricity and communications infrastructures, is not always guaranteed. To construct the system, the principles and techniques of Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence have been employed. To illustrate the utility of the system, two cases of services rendered by the system are described: the first case involves a surveillance system to guarantee accessibility at bus stops; the second case involves a route assistant for blind people.

Using massive vehicle positioning data to improve control and planning of public road transport.

This study describes a system for the automatic recording of positioning data for public transport vehicles used on roads. With the data provided by this system, transportation-regulatory authorities can control, verify and improve the routes that vehicles use, while also providing new data to improve the representation of the transportation network and providing new services in the context of intelligent metropolitan areas. The system is executed autonomously in the vehicles, by recording their massive positioning data and transferring them to remote data banks for subsequent processing. To illustrate the utility of the system, we present a case of application that consists of identifying the points at which vehicles stop systematically, which may be points of scheduled stops or points at which traffic signals or road topology force the vehicle to stop. This identification is performed using pattern recognition techniques. The system has been applied under real operating conditions, providing the results discussed in the present study.

Photooxidation mechanism of levomepromazine in different solvents.

Unwanted photoinduced responses are well-known adverse effects of most promazine drugs, including levomepromazine (LPZ, Levoprome(®) or Nozinan(®)). This drug is indicated in psychiatry primarily for the treatment of schizophrenia and other schizoaffective disorders. Levomepromazine's particular sedative properties make it especially fit for use in psychiatric intensive care. Nevertheless, it is photolabile under UV-A and UV-B light in aerobic conditions resulting in the formation of its sulfoxide. The LPZ photochemistry in acetonitrile (MeCN) is completely different from that in methanol (MeOH) and phosphate buffer solutions (PBS, pH = 7.4). The major photoproduct in PBS and MeOH under aerobic conditions is levomepromazine sulfoxide (LPZSO), although the amount is considerably higher in the aqueous environment. The corresponding main photoproduct in MeCN could not be characterized. The destruction quantum yields of LPZ in PBS, MeOH and MeCN are 0.13, 0.02 and <10(-3), respectively. It is further demonstrated that LPZSO does not form by the reaction of singlet oxygen with ground-state LPZ. This oxidation product is actually produced by the reaction of the cation radical of LPZ (LPZ·(+)) with molecular oxygen. This cation radical in turn, is produced by an electron transfer process between the (3) LPZ* and ground-state molecular oxygen.

Architecture of a framework for providing information services for public transport.

This paper presents OnRoute, a framework for developing and running ubiquitous software that provides information services to passengers of public transportation, including payment systems and on-route guidance services. To achieve a high level of interoperability, accessibility and context awareness, OnRoute uses the ubiquitous computing paradigm. To guarantee the quality of the software produced, the reliable software principles used in critical contexts, such as automotive systems, are also considered by the framework. The main components of its architecture (run-time, system services, software components and development discipline) and how they are deployed in the transportation network (stations and vehicles) are described in this paper. Finally, to illustrate the use of OnRoute, the development of a guidance service for travellers is explained.

Synthesis and stability of new spiroaminoborate esters.

New spiroaminoborate esters derived from 1,1-diphenylprolinol, ephedrine and dihydroquinine with different alkoxy substituents were prepared as stable crystalline compounds and characterized by spectroscopical analysis and specific rotation. The structure of the spiroborate 4 derived from 1,1-diphenylprolinol and dicyclohexyl-1,1'-diol was confirmed by X-ray analysis.

Solvent dependence of the photophysical properties of 2-chlorothioxanthone, the principal photoproduct of chlorprothixene.

2-chlorothioxanthone (CTX) is used as photoinitiator for the reticulation of synthetic resins and for the preparation of pharmaceuticals. It was previously determined that CTX is the primary photoproduct of z-chlorprothixene (CPTX) when irradiated at 313 nm and is formed in an autocatalyzed reaction through an energy-transfer mechanism (Piñero et al. [2009] Photochem. Photobiol., 85, 895-900). In this work, the photophysical properties of CTX were measured in acetonitrile/water solutions to determine if their magnitude can affect the side effects of CPTX. The results show that CTX has higher absorption coefficients in the visible region (400-420 nm) and higher triplet quantum yields than its parent compound. Similar to TX, both properties strongly depend on the solvent polarity/hydroxylicity. The quantum yield of the triplet intermediate is very close to the value of the phenothiazine triplets. The phenothiazines are the most phototoxic antidepressants. Therefore, given the appropriate microenvironment, the photosensitization side effects of CPTX can be intensified on the production of CTX.

Quenching enhancement of the singlet excited state of pheophorbide-a by DNA in the presence of the quinone carboquone.

Changes in the emission fluorescence intensity of pheophorbide-a (PHEO) in the presence of carboquone (CARBOQ) were used to obtain the association constant, the number of CARBOQ molecules interacting with PHEO, and the fluorescence quantum yield of the complex. Excitation spectra of mixtures of PHEO and CARBOQ in ethanol (EtOH) show an unresolved doublet in the red-most excitation band of PHEO, indicating the formation of a loose ground-state complex. The 1:1 CARBOQ-PHEO complex shows a higher fluorescence quantum yield in EtOH (0.41 ± 0.02) than in buffer solution (0.089 ± 0.002), which is also higher than that of the PHEO monomer (0.28). Quenching of the PHEO fluorescence by DNA nucleosides and double-stranded oligonucleotides was also observed and the bimolecular quenching rate constants were determined. The quenching rate constant increase as the oxidation potential of the DNA nucleoside increases. Larger quenching constants were obtained in the presence of CARBOQ suggesting that CARBOQ enhances DNA photo-oxidation, presumably by inhibiting the back-electron-transfer reaction from the photoreduced PHEO to the oxidized base. Thus, the enhanced DNA-base photosensitized oxidation by PHEO in the presence of CARBOQ may be related to the large extent by which this quinone covalently binds to DNA, as previously reported.