Introduction: The present study aimed to validate the Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL), vocal self-assessment questionnaire for Spanish.
Methods: The validation and psychometric properties were developed according to the criteria of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Medical Outcomes Trust (SAC). The Spanish translation for linguistic and cultural adaptation of the V-RQOL was used.
Forests are suffering water stress due to climate change; in some parts of the globe, forests are being exposed to the highest temperatures historically recorded. Machine learning techniques combined with robotic platforms and artificial vision systems have been used to provide remote monitoring of the health of the forest, including moisture content, chlorophyll, and nitrogen estimation, forest canopy, and forest degradation, among others. However, artificial intelligence techniques evolve fast associated with the computational resources; data acquisition, and processing change accordingly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe introduction of functional groups at high coverage levels can have significant impacts on the band structures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) clusters. The HOMO-LUMO gaps are highly sensitive to the type and distribution of functional groups. An in-house method is proposed to build PAH (naphthalene, pyrene, coronene, and ovalene) clusters with surface functionalization of -OH, -COOH and -CHO groups using the DFT method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoot temperature measurements in laminar flames are often performed through two-color broadband emission pyrometry (BEMI) or modulated absorption/emission (BMAE) techniques, using models to relate the ratio between flame intensities at two different wavelengths with soot temperature. To benefit from wider spectral range and increase the accuracy of experimental estimation of soot temperature, this work proposes a new approach that uses three-color broadband images captured with a basic color camera. The methodology is first validated through simulations using numerically generated flames from the CoFlame code and then used to retrieve soot temperature in an experimental campaign.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe vegetation indices derived from spectral reflectance have served as an indicator of vegetation's biophysical and biochemical parameters. Some of these indices are capable of characterizing more than one parameter at a time. This study examines the feasibility of retrieving several spectral vegetation indices from a single index under the assumption that all these indices are correlated with water content.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoot emissions from flaming combustion are relevant as a significant source of atmospheric pollution and as a source of nanomaterials. Candles are interesting targets for soot characterization studies since they burn complex fuels with a large number of carbon atoms, and yield stable and repeatable flames. We characterized the soot particle size distributions in a candle flame using the planar two-color time-resolved laser induced incandescence (2D-2C TiRe-LII) technique, which has been successfully applied to different combustion applications, but never before on a candle flame.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCaenorhabditis elegans and its cognate bacterial diet comprise a reliable, widespread model to study diet and microbiota effects on host physiology. Nonetheless, how diet influences the rate at which neurons die remains largely unknown. A number of models have been used in C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe study is aimed at investigating the radiative properties of soot aggregates at determined morphological features using both experimental and numerical methods. Soot aggregates collected from air monitoring stations in different locations were examined. The locations were divided into three groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespiratory diseases are ranked in the top ten group of the most frequent illness in the globe. Emergency admissions are proof of this issue, especially in the winter season. For this study, the city of Santiago de Chile was chosen because of the high variability of the time series for admissions, the quality of data collected in the governmental repository DEIS (selected period: 2014-2018), and the poor ventilation conditions of the city, which in winter contributes to increase the pollution level, and therefore, respiratory emergency admissions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFuel moisture content (FMC) proved to be one of the most relevant parameters for controlling fire behavior and risk, particularly at the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Data relating FMC to spectral indexes for different species are an important requirement identified by the wildfire safety community. In Valparaíso, the WUI is mainly composed of and -commonly found in Mediterranean WUI areas-which represent the 97.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndustrial combustion processes are an important source of particulate matter, causing significant pollution problems that affect human health, and are a major contributor to global warming. The most common method for analyzing the soot emission propensity in flames is the Smoke Point Height (SPH) analysis, which relates the fuel flow rate to a critical flame height at which soot particles begin to leave the reactive zone through the tip of the flame. The SPH and is marked by morphological changes on the flame tip.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper discusses the overall design and implementation of a video sensor for the detection of risky behaviors of car drivers near previously identified and georeferenced black spots. The main goal is to provide the driver with a visual audio alert that informs of the proximity of an area of high incidence of highway accidents only if their driving behavior could result in a risky situation. It proposes a video sensor for detecting and supervising driver behavior, its main objective being manual distractions, so hand driver supervision is performed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA remote scanning retrieval method was developed to investigate the soot layer produced by a laminar diffusion flame established over a flat plate burner in microgravity. Experiments were conducted during parabolic flights. This original application of an inverse problem leads to the three-dimensional recomposition by layers of the absorption field inside the flame.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF