Despite the fact that autonomous driving systems are progressing in terms of their automation levels, the achievement of fully self-driving cars is still far from realization. Currently, most new ...cars accord with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Level 2 of automation, which requires the driver to be able to take control of the car when needed: for this reason, it is believed that between now and the achievement of fully automated self-driving car systems, there will be a transition, in which remote driving cars will be a reality. In addition, there are tele-operation-use cases that require remote driving for health or safety reasons. However, there is a lack of detailed design and implementation available in the public domain for remote driving cars: therefore, in this work we propose a functional framework for remote driving vehicles. We implemented a prototype, using a commercial car. The prototype was connected to a commercial 4G/5G mobile network, and empirical experiments were conducted, to validate the prototype's functions, and to evaluate its performance in real-world driving conditions. The design, implementation, and empirical evaluation provided detailed technical insights into this important research and innovation area.
In children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there are often discrepancies between direct assessment and third-party reports. We compared these children with groups with/without difficulties in ...interpersonal problem-solving skills in order to determine whether these discrepancies appear and if they could be a diagnostic indicator for ASD. There were 91 participants (ages 7–13): 28 children with ASD, 36 in a high family risk situation, and 27 typically developing children, all tested with direct measures and third-party reports. Results showed discrepancies only in the ASD group. Consequently, direct performance measures and third-party reports seem to be evaluating different constructs in children with ASD. In addition, both types of measures discriminate between groups, such that both are needed, especially in diagnostic assessments.
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•A process was carried out to obtain a liquid fuel using plastic waste.•Different operating conditions of the pyrolysis process has been studied.•For the optimization of pyrolysis ...process a statistical analysis has been carried out.
This study examines the possibility of using plastic film waste presented in municipal solid waste as a fuel. There is a large amount of this waste that is currently not treated and ends up in landfills aggravating the global problem of marine and land pollution. A pyrolysis process was performed on this plastic waste to obtain a liquid fuel. For this, an experimental design was carried out, varying the operating conditions. The physical and chemical characteristics of the fuel, such as liquid fraction yield and higher calorific value, were determined and a statistical analysis has been carried out using polynomial and neural fuzzy models. In all the adjustments an r2 greater than 0.95 was obtained and the neural fuzzy model fit the experimental data better than the polynomial model. The optimum operating conditions for the production of this oil are: a temperature of 500 °C, a residence time of 120 min, and 20 °C/min of heating rate.
The use of disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) as a control measure to avoid transmission against COVID-19 has generated a challenge to the waste management and enhances plastic pollution ...in the environment. The research aims to monitor the presence of PPE waste and other plastic debris, in a time interval where the use of face mask at specific places was still mandatory, on the coastal areas of Granada (Spain) which belongs to the Mediterranean Sea. Four beaches called La Rijana, La Charca, La Rábita and Calahonda were examined during different periods. The total amount of sampled waste was 17,558 plastic units. The abundance, characteristics and distribution of PPE and other plastic debris were determined. Results showed that the observed amount of total plastic debris were between 2.531·10−2 and 24.487·10−2 units per square meter, and up to 0.136·10−2 for PPE debris, where face masks represented the 92.22 % of the total PPE debris, being these results comparable to previous studies in other coastal areas in the world. On the other hand, total plastic debris densities were in the range from 2.457·10−2 to 92.219·10−2 g/m2 and densities were up to 0.732·10−2 for PPE debris. PPE debris supposed 0.79 % of the weight of total waste and the 0.51 % of total items. Concerning non-PPE plastic waste: cigarettes filters, food containers and styrofoam were the most abundant items (42.95, 10.19 and 16.37 % of total items, respectively). During vacation periods, total plastic debris amount increased 92.19 % compared to non-vacation periods. Regarding type of beaches, the presence of plastic debris was significantly higher on touristic/recreational than in fishing beaches. Data showed no significant differences between accessible and no-accessible beaches, but between periods with restrictive policy about mask face use and periods with non-restrictive policy data suggest significant differences between densities (g/m2) for PPE litter. The amount of PPEs debris is also correlated with the number of cigarettes filters (Person's r = 0.650), food containers (r = 0.782) and other debris (r = 0.63). Finally, although interesting results were provided in this study, further research is required to better understand the consequences of this type of pollution and to provide viable solutions to this problem.
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•First personnel protective equipment litter study in beaches of Granada, Spain•Total plastic debris were between 2.531·10−2 and 24.487·10−2 units/m2.•Personnel protective equipment debris supposed 0.79 % of the weight of total waste.•The beaches were predominantly polluted by face masks (92.22 % of personnel protective equipment).•Statistical analysis was made to compare results of different beaches and periods.
Aquaponic health is a very important in the food industry field, as currently there is a huge amount of fishing farms, and the demands are growing in the whole world. This work examines the process ...of developing an innovative aquaponics health monitoring system that incorporates high-tech back-end innovation sensors to examine fish and crop health and a data analytics framework with a low-tech front-end approach to feedback actions to farmers. The developed system improves the state-of-the-art in terms of aquaponics life cycle monitoring metrics and communication technologies, and the energy consumption has been reduced to make a sustainable system.
The aim of the present research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a care-giver training programme that trains professional care-givers in cognitive stimulation strategies for functional ...maintenance in care-dependent older adults. The sample contained 69 older adults (37 in the treatment group, 32 control group) assessed with the Barthel Index, the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clifton Assessment Procedure for the Elderly (Cognitive Scale). Participants in the treatment group were treated by professional care-givers who were trained with the programme CUIDA-2 in communication and cognitive stimulation strategies. The results from the Barthel Index showed significant differences in the post-intervention assessment and in the follow-up assessment, where the treatment group obtained higher scores, and there were significant differences within the treatment group between the initial assessment and the post-treatment assessment, as well as between the initial assessment and the follow-up. The data obtained reflect that a training programme to train professional care-givers produced functional benefits in the older adults, and these improvements persisted over time. Moreover, the care-givers saw themselves as more competent and more satisfied with their work.
(1) Introduction: With older adults, cognitive intervention programs are most often used for preventing or reversing a decline in cognitive functions, but it has been recently noted that there are ...insufficient high-quality research studies that report the effects of cognitive intervention on the cognitive functioning of older adults. (2) Objective: To analyze the available evidence concerning the effect of cognitive interventions for improving or maintaining the general cognitive status of older adults who present different cognitive levels. (3) Method: a review of studies published between 2010 and 2019 using the following databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, Cochrane, Google Scholar, ProQuest and Medline. (4) Results: We selected 13 systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses. The results showed that the cognitive intervention programs improved general cognitive functioning and specific cognitive functions regardless of the initial cognitive level; that cognitive decline was slowed in older persons with dementia; and there was improvement in activities of daily living. Regarding duration of the results, benefits were maintained for periods of 2 months to 5 years. (5) Conclusion: Cognitive interventions have proven effective for maintaining and/or improving cognitive functioning in older adults regardless of their initial cognitive status. Even so, there are few studies that follow up these results to see whether they are maintained in the long term and whether there is transfer to other skills of daily life. However, we were able to observe in the present review how the participants' cognitive level varied according to sociodemographic differences, and to identify which components of cognitive programs make them more effective. Based on the results found, we highlight the importance of designing cognitive intervention programs that meet these effectiveness criteria, in order to maximize the positive effects of such programs when working with a population of older adults.
Despite the latest research efforts to foster mobility and roaming in heterogeneous Low Power Wide Area Networks (LP-WANs) networks, handover roaming of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is not a ...success mainly due to fragmentation and difficulties to establish trust across different network domains as well as the lack of interoperability of different LP-WANs wireless protocols. To cope with this issue, this paper proposes a novel handover roaming mechanism for Low Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocol that relies on the trusted 5G network to perform IoT device's authentication and key management, thereby extending the mobility and roaming capabilities of LoRaWAN to global scale. The proposal enables interoperability between 5G network and LoRaWAN, whereby multi Radio Access Technologies IoT (multi-RAT IoT) devices can exploit both technologies interchangeably, thereby fostering novel IoT mobility and roaming use cases for LP-WANs not experimented so far. Two integration approaches for LoRaWAN and 5G have been proposed, either assuming 5G spectrum connectivity with standard 5G authentication or performing 5G authentication over the LoRaWAN network. The solution has been deployed, implemented and validated in a real and integrated 5G-LoRaWAN testbed, showing its feasibility and security viability.
This study analyzes the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test-Learning Potential (WCST-LP) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) versus children with typical development (TD). Its main aim was to ...assess: the test’s construct validity; the effect of IQ on its pretest and LP scores; and whether the WCST-LP held any relationship to cognitive/EF and social abilities. Participants were 105 children (43 with ASD/62 with TD). Results showed evidence of construct validity in an ASD population (improvements from pretest to posttest), that full IQ influenced pretest performance but did not affect LP, and that a relationship between LP and verbal and social abilities existed only in children with ASD. Conclusions indicate the appropriateness of the WCST-LP in ASD prognosis assessment.
Lachryphagous males of Phortica variegata (Fallén, 1823) are gaining increasing attention in Europe, as they act as vectors of the nematode Thelazia callipaeda Railliet & Henry, 1910, causal agent of ...thelaziosis, an emergent zoonotic disease. Currently, there are no effective control strategies against the vector, and surveillance and monitoring rely on time-consuming and nonselective sampling methods. Our aim was to improve the knowledge about the population dynamics and the chemical ecology of the species. A total of 5,726 P. variegata flies (96.4% males and 3.6% females, mostly gravid) were collected in field experiments during June–September of 2020 in an oak forest in northern Spain. Our results indicate that 1) by means of sweep netting a significantly higher number of captures were found both around the collector's body and in the air than at ground level; 2) a positive relationship was detected between the abundance of Phortica flies and temperature, with two significant peaks of abundance at 24 and 33°C; 3) the blend of red wine and cider vinegar was the most attractive bait; 4) yellow traps captured fewer flies compared to black and transparent traps; and 5) a significant reduction toward vinegar and wine was detected in presence of the phenolic monoterpenoid carvacrol. In addition, all the males (n = 690) analyzed by both molecular detection and dissection resulted negative for the presence of T. callipaeda larvae. Overall, these findings provide a better understanding of the vector in terms of monitoring and management strategies.
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