Since the first TICACOS study, 3 additional studies have been published comparing a medical nutrition therapy guided by indirect calorimetry to a regimen prescribed on the basis of predictive equations. A recent guidelines document included a meta-analysis including these 4 papers and found a trend for improvement (OR 0.98-1.48) in favor of medical nutrition therapy guided by indirect calorimetry in terms of survival. The aim of our study was to perform a multicenter prospective, randomized, controlled non blinded study in critically patients to assess the added value for measuring daily resting energy expenditure as a guide for nutritional support. The primary objective was to decrease infectious rate of these critically ill patients. Material and methods: This phase III, multi-center, randomized, controlled non blinded study was planned to include 580 newly-admitted, adult ventilated ICU patients that were planned to stay more than 48 h in the ICU departments. The nutritional support was aimed to meet 80-100% of energy requirement measured by indirect calorimetry. The calorie needs were determined by IC in the Study group and by an equation (20-25 kcal/kg ideal body weight/day) in the Control Group. The ICU staff was trained to strive to supply 80-100% of a patient's energy requirements through artificial nutrition, preferably enteral feeding. Primary endpoint was infection rate and secondary endpoints included other morbidities and mortality during ICU, at 90 and 180 days. Comparison between the study and the control group was performed using T test for equality of means (independent samples test). Correlations were performed using the Pearson correlation test. A p level of 0.05 or below was considered as significant. Cross tabs procedure used Chi-square test for testing differences in complication rates, length of stay and length of ventilation. Correlations between energy balances and complications was also be tested using one way analysis as well as ANOVA analysis between groups and within groups. Kaplan Meir curves assessed the proportion of surviving patients in the 2 groups. Results: Seven centers with a calorimeter available participated to the study. Due to slow inclusion rate, the study was stopped after 6 years and after inclusion of 417 patients only. From the 417 intended to treat patients, 339 followed the protocol. There was no differences between control and study groups in terms of age, sex BMI, SOFA (7.1 +/- 3.1 vs 7.4 +/- 3.3) and APACHE II scores (22.4 +/- 7.9 vs 22.2 +/- 7.4). The rate of infection (40 vs 31), including pneumonia rate, need for surgery, dialysis requirement, length of ventilation, ICU length of stay, and hospital length of stay were not different between groups. Mortality (30 in the control vs 21 in the study group) was not significantly different between groups. The decreased mortality observed in the study group when added to previous studies may have a positive effect on the meta-analysis previously published. Conclusion: Tight Calorie Control guided by indirect calorimetry decreased the rate of infection and mortality but not significantly. This may be explained by the not relatively small sample size. There results together with the previous 4 prospective randomized studies, may improve the results of the meta-analysis exploring the effects of IC guided nutrition on mortality. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.

Visual impairment is defined as the condition that directly affects the perception of images in whole or in part, in the world there are approximately 1.3 billion people who have some type of visual impairment. Currently there are new technological developments or methodologies that support people with this disability to develop activities of daily life such as: physically moving in the environment, identifying colors, among others; The activity of interest for this paper is: the purchase of physical products in supermarkets for blind people. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to find out what has been done to enable blind people to shop independently in closed spaces. For the documentation search, we defined search strings with keywords related to the research, this allowed us to find a total of 1002 studies found in 5 databases. The results of this study show that it is possible to use less invasive technological developments to assist people during the different steps of the buying process in closed spaces and to identify that there is a tendency to use smartphone-based tool technologies.

The processing of cardiac signals becomes more important and necessary every day, given the incidence of diseases that affect this vital organ worldwide. In this sense, this research work is summarized in the remote processing of cardiac signals, under the principles of telemedicine. This seeks to support the health sector in the medical diagnosis of heart disease in patients specifically in rural areas of Peru, where it is very difficult to count on the professional services of specialists. In this work, the technologies associated with the IoT are applied, in whose Internet network the processes of transmission, reception and processing of the cardiac signal are facilitated. It is important to point out that the processing of the signal is fundamental, due to the influence of external disturbances that can affect the cardiac signal, which must be presented without noise, in the process of remote diagnosis, and to achieve this purpose the Matlab platform, through console programming and there are many other platforms to achieve this end. We hope that this contribution will serve to carry out future complementary research that seeks to reduce the incidence of heart disease.

Implementation of industrial robots worldwide -not only typical caged robots, manipulating heavy machinery and performing repetitive tasks, but also collaborative robots-, comes with the challenge of guaranteeing the safety of human operators, whether they work aside from the robot or in its vicinity. The UNE-EN ISO10218 safety standards for industrial robots set that robots and people can work in common spaces if robots have safety devices or are supported by them, to avoid hurt human operators. This paper introduces an approach that allows estimating the orientation and movement trend of a person in the vicinity of a robotized industrial task, aiming to avoid the collision between human and robot. As a previous requirement of the approach, a PointNet architecture was trained with the point clouds obtained from Depth images of a proprietary RGB-D image dataset. This task, in turn, required detecting people in the corresponding RGB images, through the application of a pre-trained saliency algorithm. To estimate the orientation of the detected person, a modified Biternion network was trained with the resized images from the same proprietary database. At evaluating the system, depth images captured by a Kinect sensor were used as inputs, then, for a set of four iterations (four frames), the movement trend was calculated since the orientation of the person was known for every frame. The prediction capability of the proposed approach was evaluated with three groups of images and resulted in a general precision greater than 0.5.

IntroducciónEl reconocimiento de síntomas de alarma de accidente cerebrovascular (ACV) es el primer eslabón de la cadena de supervivencia del ACV, pero no es suficiente para reconocer la urgencia, sino que debe acompañarse de una conducta activa mediante el llamado al Servicio de Emergencia. En nuestra provincia no se conocen publicaciones que permitan estimar la problemática regional.ObjetivoIdentificar los síntomas que la población interpreta como un probable ACV, su relación con el nivel de educación y la respuesta global ante los mismos.Pacientes y métodosEstudio descriptivo de corte transversal. Se aplicó un cuestionario estructurado, cerrado, autoadministrado, anónimo y voluntario. Se incluyeron personas mayores 16 años de edad, residentes de la provincia de Mendoza que asistieron a la Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia 2019.ResultadosLa muestra incluyó a 1.115 personas. Los síntomas más frecuentemente identificados fueron dificultad para hablar (85%), debilidad/asimetría facial (78%), dificultad/debilidad para levantar un brazo (78%). El poseer estudios terciarios o universitario se relacionó de forma significativa con una OR: 1,78 (IC 95%: 1,28-2,49; p=0,0006) de llamar al 911. El sexo femenino tiene mayor probabilidad de detectar síntomas de ACV, mientras que el sexo masculino llama significativamente más al 911 ante la presencia de síntomas como dificultad para hablar (OR 2,25 [IC 95%: 1,12-4,53; p=0,023]) y debilidad/asimetría facial (OR 2,4 [IC 95% 1,21-4,75; p=0,01]).ConclusionesEs el primer estudio de este tipo en la provincia de Mendoza y uno de los pocos en Argentina. La población estudiada posee conocimiento dual sobre ACV de acuerdo al género, y en relación directa con nivel educativo, que debería ser tenida en cuenta a la hora de desarrollar campañas poblacionales.

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with worldwide distribution caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp. Pathogenic Leptospira spp. are shed in urine of infected hosts and transmitted via ingestion of contaminated food or water, inoculation, inhalation of aerosolized urine, and absorption through mucous membranes. Leptospirosis is of particular concern in tropical and subtropical regions such as Barranquilla, Colombia. Recent reports indicate that in Barranquilla, rodents, dogs, and humans have a high leptospiral seroprevalence; and amongst zoo mammals, nonhuman primates have a high prevalence of Leptospira spp. infection. We therefore sought to determine whether primates in captivity at the Barranquilla Zoo were exposed to Leptospira spp. and whether there was a probable causal transmission link between the primates and peridomestic rodents. Samples were collected from 29 captive nonhuman primates, 15 free-ranging rats (Rattus rattus), and 10 free-ranging squirrels (Sciurus granatensis). Serum samples from primates, rats, and squirrels were evaluated via microagglutination test (MAT) vs 24 reference Leptospira serovars. Blood and urine from the primates and kidney tissue from the rats and squirrels were cultured in Ellinghausen-McCullough-Johnson-Harris (EMJH) medium and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of lipL32 was performed to determine whether active infection was present. Leptospiral seroprevalence was found to be 66.7% (10/15) in rats, 60% (6/10) in squirrels, and 6.9% (2/29) in neotropical primates. Ateles hybridus and Ateles fusciceps had positive titers to serogroups Cynopteri and Ictohaemorrhagiae, respectively. Of the rodents that had antibodies against Leptospira spp., 90% of the rats and 66.7% of the squirrels corresponded to the serovar australis. Interestingly, all animals were culture and PCR negative, indicating Leptospira spp. exposure in the absence of current infection. While their status as maintenance hosts needs to be investigated further, this is the first study to show leptospiral seropositivity in red-tailed squirrels (S. granatensis).

Main text This report presents the results of a comparison in the context of an international collaboration that gives confidence in the relative humidity measurements carried out by several Latin-American institutes within the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) of the International Committee on Weights and Measures (CIPM). This interlaboratory comparison of humidity standards, the first one in Latin-America and one of the few of this type in the world, was organized in two rounds and carried out by the following National Metrology Institutes: INMETRO (Brazil), IBMETRO (Bolivia), INEN (Ecuador), INM (Colombia), CENAMEP AIP (Panama), ENAER (Chile), INTI (Argentina), LATU (Uruguay) and INTN (Paraguay). The interlaboratory comparison was performed in the scope of relative humidity in the range from 30 %rh to 90 %rh at temperatures of 20 °C and 40 °C. In this comparison, INMETRO was the reference laboratory, and acted as coordinator together with IBMETRO. Two thermohygrometers with capacitive humidity sensors were used as transfer standards, which were calibrated three times by the reference laboratory during the course of the interlaboratory comparison. A technical protocol prepared by INMETRO and IBMETRO circulated among the participants for comments. To sum up, the participants used their own calibration procedures for calibrating the transfer standards together with some instructions given in the technical protocol. Besides, the participants had to submit with the measurement results the respective uncertainties estimated according to their internal procedures and the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM). The performance of each participating laboratory was evaluated by comparing its measurements results with those of the reference laboratory by means of the normalized error, according to ISO/IEC 17043:2010, and by the degree of equivalence. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database https://www.bipm.org/kcdb/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCT, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).

This study is aimed to prove how Virtual Environments (VE) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be used as a tool to verify professional competencies. The incursion of virtual environments in education has shown that there is much potential in distance learning development. To find out how it influences the achievement of competencies, there was made an experimental study with a post-test design and control group. Students were divided into two groups; each of them was submitted to a different test. The results demonstrate that with the implementation of VE using ICT, the students who used the VE had a better performance than students who used the traditional evaluations. Confirmed with the 83% of the sample who achieved the highest levels (50% got strategical professional competencies, and 33% got autonomous professional competencies). Considering the study, the authors could notice that students do develop professional competencies along virtual environments, reflected not only in the level of competence achieved by the ones tested on the virtual environment but also in the average time they spend to do the test. Therefore, virtual environments have positives effects in the education field.

We present a quantitative analysis using the concepts of Normalized Gain and Least Squares in a process of Physics Teaching. This paper presents the results of the strategy based in The Construction of Prototypes (TCP) and Project Based Learning (PrBL) which was applied in a course of Mechanics in Bogotá-Colombia. The strategy focuses on three topics of Rotational Dynamics Teaching (RDT) specifically at centripetal force, Inertia moment and theorem de parallel axes and angular momentum conservation. We present results and analysis of employed method.

We present a robust Global Registration technique focused on environment survey applications using laser range-finders. Our approach works under the assumption that places can be recognized by analyzing the projection of the observed points along the gravity direction. Candidate 3D matches are estimated by aligning the 2D projective representations of the acquired scans, and benefiting from the corresponding dimensional reduction. Each single candidate match is then validated exploiting the implicit empty space information associated to scans. The global reconstruction problem is modeled as a directed graph, where scan poses (nodes) are connected through matches (edges). This is exploited to compute local matches (instead of global ones) between pairs of scans that are in the same reference frame. As a consequence, both performance and recall ratio increase w.r.t. using only global matches. Additionally, the graph structure allows formulating a sparse global optimization problem that optimizes scan poses, considering simultaneously all accepted matches. Our approach is being used in production systems and has been successfully evaluated on several real datasets.

This article presents a general methodology of state estimation by interval analysis in a dynamic system modeled by difference equations. The methodology is applied to a pineapple osmotic dehydration process, in order to predict the behavior of the process within a range of allowed perturbation. The paper presents simulations and validations.

this research analyzes a three-phase bridge rectifier, switches in series with the load switched symmetric angle, helping the effective current rates, active, reactive, apparent and distortion and power factor. The goal is to apply the switched rectifier with symmetrical angle for power factor improvement in micro hydroelectric power stations operating in isolated system, and changing the frequency regulating the power dissipated in the ballast loads alternating current AC converters. Interestingly, the power factor at the input terminals of the three-phase rectifier is slightly smaller than when converters CA-CA is used and despite this the rectifier improving the power factor of the network. In addition the power factor at the generator terminals in scheme uses the AC-AC converter is higher than in the converters and the load by separate users, this is because the active power consumed by users and by converters is greater than the total reactive power and distortion introduced by the converters. The three-phase rectifier bridge, with a series switch on the ballast switched symmetric angle load improves the power factor of the power system μCH, a result corroborated by simulation and calculation, which is an improvement over the current circuit, AC-AC converter. Indexterms: Rectifier; symmetrical switching; CA-CA converter; power factor; frequency control. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 02-08-2017 Date of acceptance: 17-08-2017 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obesity has grown worldwide over the last few decades. In its different degrees, obesity is accompanied by many clinical and biochemical alterations reflecting the pathological condition of various body tissues. Among the mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of obesity and associated complications, oxidative stress (OS) may be playing an important role. In the present study, we have characterized at systemic level the degree of OS status in a group of morbid obese patients (BMI > 40 kg/m(2)) at basal sate and its modulation during one year after bariatric surgery using the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) technique. As compared with normal weight subjects matched in age, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMc) of obese patients present a significant reduction of the antioxidant enzyme activities superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) as well as a significant increase of the oxidized/reduced glutathione ratio (GSSG/GSH) in these cells. Lipid peroxidation is significantly increased in the patient group as shown by the increased levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) in PBMc and the amount of F2-Isoprostanes (F2-IsoPs) released in urine. In addition, the DNA damage product 8-oxo-7,8-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) was also observed to be increased in serum and urine of morbid obese patients as compared with the control group. After LSG, an improvement of their ponderal and metabolic profile was accompanied by a progressive recovery of antioxidant enzyme activities and the decline of oxidative byproducts both in PBMc and biological fluids. The observed changes of urinary 8-oxod-G levels correlate positively with its serum concentration, the lipid peroxidation products MDA and F2-IsoPs, triglycerides, glucose, insulin, HOMA index and body weight and negatively with the percentage of weight and BMI loss and antioxidant activities. We conclude that the analysis of urinary 8-oxo-dG could be validated as a useful marker for the monitoring of ponderal and metabolic status of morbid obese patients.

At present, internet and social networks are most used by teenagers. New on-line conduct and preferences have been generated by positive and negative content and easily accessed in the web without any parenting control. The purpose of this paper is to recall most common risks for teenagers like inappropriate content, pornography, websites with malicious software, contact avoidance with unknown people and excessive use of Internet. Therefore, it is important to propose security mechanisms and technological tools that will allow controlling internet access. A design and development of web browser software is proposed that controls from a single computer access, browsing schedules, adult content page restriction, blocking pop-ups, use of online proxies, software download and advertisements. In this way equipment security is optimized reducing teenager hood risks.

Se presenta un nuevo concepto de ecualización adaptiva multi-rate para comunicaciones serie de alta velocidad. Ha sido comprobado su correcto funcionamiento en transmisión por fibra óptica plástica (POF) de hasta 50 m para datos de entrada desde 400 Mbps hasta 1.25 Gbps. El circuito puede operar con una tensión de alimentación de sólo 1 V y un consumo menor a 39 mW.

Within the context of a new capitalistic phase of development, some South American countries undertook until recently a search process of an alternative path of development to neoliberalism, or “neo-developmentalism” experiences. In neo-developmentalist countries, the states' inner action was complemented with the use, at the supranational scale, of the states' external power to further a geoeconomic and political realignment with China, Russia, the BRICS and the Global South, and, thus, a distancing from US and its hegemonic system of states. Centered on state action, to which we provide a set of theoretical foundations related to capitalistic phases of development from a Gramscian perspective, we explore neo-developmentalism experiences (particularly Brazil's and Argentina's), their supranational realignment and the possible consequences to multi-polarity, including the recent setbacks suffered by the progressive governments. We conclude that those trends won't avoid China, the BRICS and the Global South to continue reconfiguring South America, but another push like the one recently seen might have to wait until the next expansive phase of the commodity price cycle.