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•Ionic gelling ability is a key parameter for alginate’s injectable biomaterials.•Alginate properties can be tuned by chemical modification and/or covalent bonding.•The biofabrication ...field for bone engineering is mainly based on alginate.•Organic-inorganic hybrid alginate materials are a promising alternative to study.
This review focuses on recently developed alginate injectable hydrogels and alginate composites for applications in bone tissue regeneration, and it evaluates the alternatives to overcome the problems that avoid their utilization in the field. Section 2 covers the properties of alginates that have made them useful for medical applications, in particular their ionic gelling ability for preparing injectable compositions used as delivery drugs systems. The advantages and shortcomings of these preparations are revised together with the chemical modifications assayed. Section 3 describes how it has been taken advantage of alginates into the new field of biofabrication and the developments in bone engineering. The state of the art of this field is reviewed. Finally in Section 4, new developments and approaches that in opinion of the authors can lead to a breakthrough in bone tissue engineering using alginates are introduced.
Buildings are key players when looking at end-use energy demand. It is for this reason that during the last few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been considered as a tool that could bring ...great opportunities for energy reduction via the accurate monitoring and control of a large variety of energy-related agents in buildings. However, there is a lack of IoT platforms specifically oriented towards the proper processing, management and analysis of such large and diverse data. In this context, we put forward in this paper the IoT Energy Platform (IoTEP) which attempts to provide the first holistic solution for the management of IoT energy data. The platform we show here (that has been based on FIWARE) is suitable to include several functionalities and features that are key when dealing with energy quality insurance and support for data analytics. As part of this work, we have tested the platform IoTEP with a real use case that includes data and information from three buildings totalizing hundreds of sensors. The platform has exceed expectations proving robust, plastic and versatile for the application at hand.
•IoT platform for the management of energy data in buildings.•Includes several inner features to support data analytics in the energy domain.•Based on the open IoT initiative FIWARE.•Evaluated in a real pilot with comprising several buildings.
The factors affecting the penetration of certain diseases such as COVID-19 in society are still unknown. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can play a crucial role during the time of crisis and ...they can provide a more holistic view of the reasons that govern the outbreak of a contagious disease. The understanding of COVID-19 will be enriched by the analysis of data related to the phenomena, and this data can be collected using IoT sensors. In this paper, we show an integrated solution based on IoT technologies that can serve as opportunistic health data acquisition agents for combating the pandemic of COVID-19, named CIoTVID. The platform is composed of four layers-data acquisition, data aggregation, machine intelligence and services, within the solution. To demonstrate its validity, the solution has been tested with a use case based on creating a classifier of medical conditions using real data of voice, performing successfully. The layer of data aggregation is particularly relevant in this kind of solution as the data coming from medical devices has a very different nature to that coming from electronic sensors. Due to the adaptability of the platform to heterogeneous data and volumes of data; individuals, policymakers, and clinics could benefit from it to fight the propagation of the pandemic.
Organic-inorganic hybrid materials overcome drawbacks associated with alginate hydrogels. In this work, covalently coupled silica-alginate hybrids were prepared by Schiff base formation and sol-gel ...reaction using alginate dialdehyde (ADA), (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES), and APTES/tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) precursors. The influence of the polysaccharide/inorganic ratio, the nature of the inorganic precursor and the ionic crosslinking ability are studied. Prepared hybrids were characterized by FT-IR, 13C and 29Si NMR spectroscopies, SEM, and rheology. For ADA/APTES hybrids, at higher ADA content, Schiff base formation is predominant, but at lower ADA content, the sol-gel reaction is prevalent. However, the progress of the sol-gel reactions for ADA/(APTES+TEOS), is favored with higher ADA compositions. Introducing a posterior ionic crosslinking treatment was possible, increasing the moduli in ADA/(APTES+TEOS) hybrids from 86,207 Pa for 1.5 ADA/Si to 362,171 Pa for 1.5 ADA/Si-Ca. In-situ ADA-Silica hybrid hydrogels containing both ionic and covalent crosslinking can be successfully synthesized with the proposed method.
CARBPOL-D-21-01042.
•Alginate chemical oxidation allows the synthesis of hybrid materials class II.•Synthesis of hybrids includes a competition of sol-gel and Schiff base reactions.•Hybrids properties can be designed by modifying the ADA proportion and the nature of the inorganic component.•Ionic post-crosslinking of silica-alginate hybrids is enabled.
Durante las últimas tres décadas, el reportaje, uno de los géneros periodísticos más ricos y mejor adaptados al mundo sonoro, ha ido quedando orillado en las parrillas de programación de las radios ...generalistas españolas por muy diversas razones. Sin embargo, el rápido desarrollo del podcasting podría suponer el final de este aletargamiento. Justamente, la propuesta periodística de Podium Podcast, la red global de pódcast nativo en español promovida por la división de radio del Grupo PRISA, estaría desempeñando un papel destacado en este cambio de tendencia. Así, en este trabajo se estudia hasta qué punto la emergencia de este nuevo formato de audio estaría influyendo en la recuperación del reportaje sonoro, a la vez que evalúa la oferta de esta plataforma en lo que a este género se refiere. Para ello, se ha empleado una metodología mixta, cuantitativa-cualitativa, con un extenso análisis de la propuesta de reportajes de Podium Podcast y una entrevista en profundidad con su principal responsable. Fruto de esa investigación se han obtenido resultados de interés, tanto en lo que se refiere a la recuperación de este género periodístico, como a su renovación, puesto que estaría mutando, al incorporar técnicas y características propias de la ficción sonora o del ámbito audiovisual (cine y televisión). Además, también se ha conseguido información de interés acerca de las técnicas de distribución y las vías de monetización más frecuentes en este tipo de producciones.
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•Catalyst/water/inorganic precursor ratios are crucial to tune the final hybrid properties.•Alginate concentration strongly influences the growth of the silica network.•Using ...TEOS/APTES precursors generate high connectivity and mechanical stability in the silica-alginate hybrids.•Higher alginate proportions increase the storage modulus of hybrids.•Ionic post-crosslinking of silica-alginate hybrids modulate their mechanical stability.
The preparation of silica-alginate hybrid hydrogels by a sol-gel route is proposed in this work. The in-situ synthesis of silica networks from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) precursors in an alginate matrix is assayed. The experimental parameters were analyzed in three consecutive stages to obtain hybrid materials with specific properties. Stage 1: effect of water and catalyst ratios. Stage 2: effect of the inorganic precursor’s ratio. Stage 3: effect of concentration of the alginate solution. The hydrolysis-condensation reactions of the silica precursors were regulated by the alginate concentration, the silica precursor nature, and the HCl/inorganic/H2O ratio. Hybrids prepared with both silica precursors generate longer silica chains. High alginate amounts increase the storage modulus of synthesized hybrids, and high catalyst ratios reduce their stability. Compositions with alginate content of 5 and 8 (wt/v)%, TEOS/APTES weight ratio of 74/26, and without catalyst are suitable to evaluation for their application in tissue engineering.
Considering that the largest part of end-use energy consumption worldwide is associated with the buildings sector, there is an inherent need for the conceptualization, specification, implementation, ...and instantiation of novel solutions in smart buildings, able to achieve significant reductions in energy consumption through the adoption of energy efficient techniques and the active engagement of the occupants. Towards the design of such solutions, the identification of the main energy consuming factors, trends, and patterns, along with the appropriate modeling and understanding of the occupants' behavior and the potential for the adoption of environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes have to be realized. In the current article, an innovative energy-aware information technology (IT) ecosystem is presented, aiming to support the design and development of novel personalized energy management and awareness services that can lead to occupants' behavioral change towards actions that can have a positive impact on energy efficiency. Novel information and communication technologies (ICT) are exploited towards this direction, related mainly to the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT), data modeling, management and fusion, big data analytics, and personalized recommendation mechanisms. The combination of such technologies has resulted in an open and extensible architectural approach able to exploit in a homogeneous, efficient and scalable way the vast amount of energy, environmental, and behavioral data collected in energy efficiency campaigns and lead to the design of energy management and awareness services targeted to the occupants' lifestyles. The overall layered architectural approach is detailed, including design and instantiation aspects based on the selection of set of available technologies and tools. Initial results from the usage of the proposed energy aware IT ecosystem in a pilot site at the University of Murcia are presented along with a set of identified open issues for future research.
This article presents the results of research that seeks to analyze the ability of minors to identify the advertising messages received through the most used social networks by this audience (YouTube ...and Instagram). Children's aptitude to recognize persuasive intent was measured in a selection of examples taken for this study, as well as the perception that parents or guardians had about the minor's ability to recognize advertising on the platforms analyzed. Results were obtained from a survey applied to dyads in 501 homes in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago de Chile, to children aged 10 to 14 and to one of their parents or guardians. Main results include the notion that more than 50% of children were not able to detect advertising in examples containing ads. Lower recognition percentages were obtained in cases that combined persuasive content and entertainment and were not classified as advertising. For their part, adults perceived that their children recognize persuasive intent to a lesser extent than indicated by the children themselves. An explicit and clear signaling of advertising messages, as well as advertising literacy according to the age of minors could help them discern the content they consume on social networks.
The current cost that energy represents is crucial in a field like climate control which has high energy demands, therefore its reduction must be prioritized. The expansion of ICT and IoT come with ...an extensive deployment of sensors and computation infrastructure creating an opportunity to analyze and optimize energy management. Data on building internal and external conditions is essential for developing efficient control strategies in order to minimize energy consumption while maintaining users' comfort inside. We here present a dataset that provides key features that could be useful for a wide range of applications in the context of modeling temperature and consumption via Artificial Intelligence algorithms. The data gathering has taken place for almost 1 year in the Pleiades building of the University of Murcia, which is a pilot building of the European project PHOENIX aiming to improve building energy efficiency.
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