This paper analyses six strategies for managing the MSW generated in Asturias (Spain) in terms of their environmental impacts applying the Life Cycle Analysis methodology. To this end, the effect of ...these strategies on Human Health, Ecosystem Quality, Global Warming and Resource Depletion is studied. The analysed management options include direct landfill with recovery of biogas (S-0), direct incineration with energy recovery (S-1), biomethanization of the source-separated organic fraction with direct incineration of the mixed fraction (S-2), biomethanization of the source-separated organic fraction, sorting of the mixed fraction and incineration of the rejected fraction (S-3), biomethanization of the source-separated organic fraction, sorting of the mixed fraction and incineration of the rejected fraction following aerobic stabilization of the organic fraction (S-4) and biomethanization of the source-separated organic fraction, sorting of the mixed fraction and landfill of the rejected following aerobic stabilization of the organic fraction (S-5). The Consortium for Waste Management (COGERSA) provide data regarding on transport and collection of waste and consumption of energy, water, oil and reagents at each processes. The results obtained suggest that Scenario S-3 has the least impact on the analysed damage categories while the scenarios including landfilling produces the greatest impact in all the categories analysed. Regarding involved processes in studied scenarios, the transport produces a significant impact in the environment, biomethanization contributes to reducing the impact in all the damage categories and incineration adversely affects the categories of Human Health and Climate Change, but helps to reduce damage in the Resources category.
•Six waste management scenarios were assessed by LCA methodology.•Four damage categories were considered, according to the Impact 2002+ method.•Waste landfilling is the option with greater environmental impacts.•Sorting and biomethanization processes provide savings in the studied categories.•Incineration helps to reduce damage in the Resources Depletion category.
•We studied the effect of ultrasound on methane yield in the co-digestion of waste.•Ultrasound pre-treatment allows higher energy yields per digester volume.•Up to 67% increase in methane yield at ...55°C and 31% at 37°C were found.
This paper presents a study of the effect of applying ultrasound pre-treatment in the production of methane when co-digesting mixtures of cattle manure with food waste and sludge. A series of experiments were carried out under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions in continuously stirred-tank reactors containing 70% cattle manure, 20% food waste and 10% sewage sludge. Ultrasound pre-treatment allows operating at lower HRT, achieving higher volumetric methane yields: 0.85LCH4/L day at 36°C and 0.82CH4/Lday at 55°C, when cattle manure and sewage sludge were sonicated. With respect to the non-sonicated waste, these values represent increases of up to 31% and 67% for mesophilic and thermophilic digestion, respectively.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the enhancement of biogas production from cattle manure (CM) at pilot-plant scale using: a) ultrasound pretreatment (US) (520 kJ/kg Total Solids (TS); ...409.59 kJ), b) co-digestion with crude glycerine (Gly) from the biodiesel industry (6% w/w), and c) US pretreatment (520 kJ/kg TS; 340.84 kJ), applied to the aforementioned mixture of both substrates prior to anaerobic co-digestion. The reactor used for this purpose was an Induced Bed Reactor (IBR), with a useful volume of 1250 L. Methane production from CM was enhanced by the application of low-energy ultrasound pretreatment (520 kJ/kg TS) (from 0.29 to 0.46 m3 CH4/kg Volatile Solids (VSadded)), and by co-digestion with Gly (from 0.29 to 0.44 m3 CH4/kg VSadded). The best results were obtained when the mixture of CM + Gly was pretreated by US (up to 0.59 m3 CH4/kg VSadded). Observation by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of the microstructural changes the CM underwent after pretreatment and/or co-digestion with crude glycerine enabled the discussion and justification of the results obtained in the present study.
•Biogas production from cattle manure was enhanced by prior sonication.•Adding 6% (w/w) of crude glycerine to cattle manure increased biogas production.•Sonicated cattle manure plus crude glycerine produced 54.4 m3 biogas/t waste.•Biogas production of sonicated (CM+ 6% Gly) was similar at laboratory and pilot scale.•Scanning electron microscopy enabled the discussion and justification of the results.
Smart assistants are among the most popular technological devices at home. With a built‐in voice‐based user interface, they provide access to a broad portfolio of online services and information, and ...constitute the central element of state‐of‐the‐art home automation systems. This work discusses the challenges addressed and the solutions adopted for the design and implementation of scripted conversations by means of off‐the‐shelf smart assistants. Scripted conversations play a fundamental role in many application fields, such as call center facilities, retail customer services, rapid prototyping, role‐based training or the management of neuropsychiatric disorders. To illustrate this proposal, an actual implementation of the phone version of the Montreal cognitive assessment test as an Amazon's Alexa skill is described as a proof‐of‐concept.
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•Today, 47 million people live with dementia worldwide. New tools for early diagnosis, are needed.•Serious games have a great potential as an alternative to neuropsychological ...tests.•Our approach is composed of seven games to perform a cognitive evaluation in a non-intrusive and ecological way.•A pilot study participating 74 seniors and 15 professionals confirm the usability and acceptability of Panoramix battery.•Results obtained pave the way for additional work to confirm the diagnostic validity according to clinical standards.
Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease and the most common cause of dementia. Today, 47 million people live with dementia worldwide. This number is projected to increase to more than 131 million by 2050, as populations age. Therefore, the World Health Organization considers serious cognitive deterioration a public health priority.
Advanced cognitive evaluation mechanisms are needed to help make an early diagnosis. These new mechanisms should overcome the limitations of current neuropsychological tests, including delayed detection; being perceived as intrusive; being non-ecological; being dependent on confounding factors; or their administration being expensive, among others. A promising novel approach consists of the introduction of serious games based on virtual reality and machine learning able to assess cognitive traits relevant to the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
As a result of a preliminary pilot experiment, promising evidence was obtained about the predictive power of this solution. However, for these new serious games to be effective, evidence has to be gathered on the player experience by senior adults, avoiding the limitations of traditional tests at the same time. This study addresses these aspects with the participation of 74 senior users and 15 test administrators.
Main findings confirm the usability and playability of Panoramix, a game battery designed according to the principles discussed above, its technological acceptability and its accessibility. For example, in relation to acceptability, the game battery was scored 4.39 in a 5-point scale, while its average usability score was 4.45 regardless of socio-cultural level or previous experience with digital technologies. In addition, health professionals confirm both, usability and playability, levels with an average score of 6.5 in a 7-point scale. Participants’ willingness of using this kind of systems for cognitive evaluation was also confirmed.
Promising results obtained pave the way for additional work to confirm the diagnostic validity according to clinical standards of these new cognitive assessment tools.
After biological treatment, coke wastewater contains small amounts of phenolic compounds resistant to such treatment. The removal of phenols and COD from coke wastewater subjected to biological ...treatment was studied. The adsorbents used were granular activated carbon and the resins XAD-2, AP-246 and OC-1074. Equilibrium, kinetics and column assays were carried out, fitting the equilibrium data to Langmuir and Freundlich models and the kinetic data to the Lagergren equation. The best results were obtained with GAC, which presented higher adsorption capacities. In the equilibrium assays, the adsorption capacities (
Q) found were 1.48
mg
g
−1 for GAC versus 0.07 and 0.04
mg
g
−1 for resins AP-246 and OC-1074, respectively. In the kinetic assays, the values of the Lagergren adsorption parameter,
q
e, were 1.69, 0.15 and 0.14
mg
g
−1 for GAC, AP-246 and OC-1074, respectively. In the column assays, the dynamic capacity of GAC for up to 480
bed
volumes was 1.82
mg
mL
−1. No saturation was obtained for this volume due to the asymptotic shape of the breakthrough curve, whereas for the same percolated volume, the resins AP-246 and OC-1074 were saturated. These two resins presented similar saturation capacities of around 1.1
mg
mL
−1.
ABSTRACT
We analysed the photometry of 20 038 cool stars from campaigns 12, 13, 14, and 15 of the K2 mission in order to detect, characterize, and validate new planetary candidates transiting ...low-mass stars. We present a catalogue of 25 new periodic transit-like signals in 22 stars, of which we computed the parameters of the stellar host for 19 stars and the planetary parameters for 21 signals. We acquired speckle and AO images, and also inspected archival Pan-STARRS1 images and Gaia DR2 to discard the presence of close stellar companions and to check possible transit dilutions due to nearby stars. False positive probability (FPP) was computed for 22 signals, obtaining FPP < $1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ for 17. We consider 12 of them as statistically validated planets. One signal is a false positive and the remaining 12 signals are considered as planet candidates. 20 signals have an orbital period of P$_{\rm orb} \lt 10\,\mathrm{ d}$, 2 have $10\, \mathrm{ d} \lt $ P$_{\rm orb} \lt 20\, \mathrm{ d}$, and 3 have P$_{\rm orb} \gt 20\, \mathrm{ d}$. Regarding radii, 11 candidates and validated planets have computed radius R < 2R⊕, 9 have 2R⊕ < R < 4R⊕, and 1 has R > 4R⊕. Two validated planets and two candidates are located in moderately bright stars ($\rm \mathit{ m}_{kep}\lt 13$) and two validated planets and three candidates have derived orbital radius within the habitable zone according to optimistic models. Of special interest is the validated warm super-Earth K2-323 b (EPIC 248616368 b) with T$_{\rm eq} = 318^{+24}_{-43} \, \mathrm{ K}$, S$_{\rm p} = 1.7\pm 0.2 \, \mathrm{ S}_{\oplus }$, and R$_{\rm p} = 2.1\pm 0.1 \, \mathrm{ R}_{\oplus }$, located in an m$\rm _{kep}$ = 14.13 star.
One of the major consequences of the digital revolution has been the increase in the use of electronic devices in health services. Despite their remarkable advantages, though, the use of computers ...and other visual display terminals for a prolonged time may have negative effects on vision, leading to a greater risk of Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) among their users. In this study, the importance of ocular and visual symptoms related to CVS was evaluated, and the factors associated with CVS were studied, with the help of an algorithm based on regression trees and genetic algorithms. The performance of this proposed model was also tested to check its ability to predict how prone a worker is to suffering from CVS. The findings of the present research confirm a high prevalence of CVS in healthcare workers, and associate CVS with a longer duration of occupation and higher daily computer usage.
Trypanosomosis is a tropical disease caused by various protozoan haemoparasites, which affects wild and domestic animals, the latter ones related to worldwide livestock production systems. Species ...such as
Trypanosoma vivax
and
Trypanosoma evansi
have been described using serological and molecular tools in several countries from South and Central America. However, Ecuador presents a relevant knowledge gap in the associated general epidemiology and risk factors of the disease. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of trypanosomosis in cattle from different regions of Ecuador. 745 serum samples from 7 Coastal and 3 Amazon provinces were screened for IgG anti-
Trypanosoma
spp. antibodies, using an in-house indirect ELISA. The seropositivity was explored and associated with several variables such as sex, age, breed, region, management, and province, using statistical tools. The general seroprevalence of trypanosomosis was 19.1% (95% CI: 16.30–22.1%). The Amazonian provinces of Sucumbíos and Napo and the Coastal province of Esmeraldas presented the highest seroprevalence values of 36.7% (95% CI: 27.67–46.47%), 23.64% (95% CI: 16.06–32.68%) and 25% (95% CI: 15.99–35.94%), respectively. Statistical significance was found for the region, province, and management variables, indicating as relevant risk factors the extensive management and Amazon location of the cattle analyzed. Specific actions should be taken to identify the exact species on reservoirs and susceptible hosts, evaluate the implication of farm management and cattle movement as risk factors, and implement surveillance and treatment plans for affected herds.
To determine whether smart conversational agents can be used for detection of neuropsychiatric disorders. Therefore, we reviewed the technologies used, targeted mental disorders and validation ...procedures of relevant proposals in this field.
We searched Scopus, PubMed, Pro-Quest, IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library using a predefined search strategy. Studies were included if they focused on neuropsychiatric disorders and involved conversational data for detection and diagnosis. They were assessed for eligibility by independent reviewers and ultimately included if a consensus was reached about their relevance.
2356 references were initially retrieved. Eventually, 17 articles – referring 9 smart conversational agents – met the inclusion criteria. Out of the selected studies, 7 are targeted at neurocognitive disorders, 7 at depression and 3 at other conditions. They apply diverse technological solutions and analysis techniques (82.4% use Artificial Intelligence), and they usually rely on gold standard tests for criterion validity assessment. Acceptability, reliability and other aspects of validity were rarely addressed.
The use of smart conversational agents for the detection of neuropsychiatric disorders is an emerging and promising field of research, with a broad coverage of mental disorders and extended use of AI. However, the few published studies did not undergo robust psychometric validation processes. Future research in this field would benefit from more rigorous validation mechanisms and standardized software and hardware platforms.
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•Smart conversational agents can potentially detect neuropsychiatric diseases.•The scientific literature was reviewed using the PRISMA methodology.•The coverage of mental disorders is broad, and the use of AI is widespread.•Emerging and promising field, with lack of robust psychometric validation.
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