Developing a Secure Low-Cost Radon Monitoring System.

Radon gas has been declared a human carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Several studies carried out in Spain highlighted the high radon concentrations in several regions, with Galicia (northwestern Spain) being one of the regions with the highest radon concentrations. The objective of this work was to create a safe and low-cost radon monitoring and alert system, based on open source technologies. To achieve this objective, the system uses devices, a collection of sensors with a processing unit and a communication module, and a backend, responsible for managing all the information, predicting radon levels and issuing alerts using open source technologies. Security is one of the largest challenges for the internet of things, and it is utterly important in the current scenario, given that high radon concentrations pose a health risk. For this reason, this work focuses on securing the entire end-to-end communication path to avoid data forging. The results of this work indicate that the development of a low-cost, yet secured, radon monitoring system is feasible, allowing one to create a network of sensors that can help mitigate the health hazards that high radon concentrations pose.

Artificial astrocytes improve neural network performance.

Compelling evidence indicates the existence of bidirectional communication between astrocytes and neurons. Astrocytes, a type of glial cells classically considered to be passive supportive cells, have been recently demonstrated to be actively involved in the processing and regulation of synaptic information, suggesting that brain function arises from the activity of neuron-glia networks. However, the actual impact of astrocytes in neural network function is largely unknown and its application in artificial intelligence remains untested. We have investigated the consequences of including artificial astrocytes, which present the biologically defined properties involved in astrocyte-neuron communication, on artificial neural network performance. Using connectionist systems and evolutionary algorithms, we have compared the performance of artificial neural networks (NN) and artificial neuron-glia networks (NGN) to solve classification problems. We show that the degree of success of NGN is superior to NN. Analysis of performances of NN with different number of neurons or different architectures indicate that the effects of NGN cannot be accounted for an increased number of network elements, but rather they are specifically due to astrocytes. Furthermore, the relative efficacy of NGN vs. NN increases as the complexity of the network increases. These results indicate that artificial astrocytes improve neural network performance, and established the concept of Artificial Neuron-Glia Networks, which represents a novel concept in Artificial Intelligence with implications in computational science as well as in the understanding of brain function.

La enfermedad que nos llega del aire / Airborne infections: protective respiratory devices for nurses and other sanitary workers

La protección respiratoria es un aspecto que cada día preocupa más a los profesionales de enfermería que atienden a pacientes susceptibles de transmitir microorganismos por vía aérea. Dicha protección abarca desde la utilización de mascarillas quirúrgicas o higiénicas para las enfermedades de transmisión por gotas hasta el empleo de mascarillas de alta eficacia o respiradores frente a las enfermedades de transmisión aérea, como en el caso de la tuberculosis y el recientemente aparecido S.R.A.S. Una adecuada elección del dispositivo y su correcta utilización son fundamentales para lograr una protección eficaz del personal expuesto. Se revisan los principales dispositivos de protección respiratoria empleados en trabajadores sanitarios, sus características y su grado de eficacia y las circunstancias e indicaciones de utilización de cada uno de ellos (AU)

[Air-borne disease]. / La enfermedad que nos llega del aire.

Respiratory protection is a factor which worries nursing professionals who take care of patients susceptible of transmitting microorganisms through the air more as every day passes. This type of protection covers the use of surgical or hygienic masks against the transmission of infection by airborne drops to the use of highly effective masks or respirators against the transmission of airborne diseases such as tuberculosis or SARS, a recently discovered disease. The adequate choice of this protective device and its correct use are fundamental in order to have an effective protection for exposed personnel. The authors summarize the main protective respiratory devices used by health workers, their characteristics and degree of effectiveness, as well as the circumstances under which each device is indicated for use.