Varela Aldas, José
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Varela Aldas, José
Main Affiliation
Ambato
Email
josevarela@uti.edu.ec
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Scopus Author ID
57192546163

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Effects of a dual intervention (motor and virtual reality-based cognitive) on cognition in patients with mild cognitive impairment: a single-blind, randomized controlled trial

2024 , Buele, Jorge , Avilés-Castillo, Fátima , Carolina Del-Valle-Soto , Varela Aldas, José , Guillermo Palacios-Navarro

Abstract Background The increase in cases of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) underlines the urgency of finding effective methods to slow its progression. Given the limited effectiveness of current pharmacological options to prevent or treat the early stages of this deterioration, non-pharmacological alternatives are especially relevant. Objective To assess the effectiveness of a cognitive-motor intervention based on immersive virtual reality (VR) that simulates an activity of daily living (ADL) on cognitive functions and its impact on depression and the ability to perform such activities in patients with MCI. Methods Thirty-four older adults (men, women) with MCI were randomized to the experimental group (n = 17; 75.41 ± 5.76) or control (n = 17; 77.35 ± 6.75) group. Both groups received motor training, through aerobic, balance and resistance activities in group. Subsequently, the experimental group received cognitive training based on VR, while the control group received traditional cognitive training. Cognitive functions, depression, and the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) were assessed using the Spanish versions of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-S), the Short Geriatric Depression Scale (SGDS-S), and the of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL-S) before and after 6-week intervention (a total of twelve 40-minutes sessions). Results Between groups comparison did not reveal significant differences in either cognitive function or geriatric depression. The intragroup effect of cognitive function and geriatric depression was significant in both groups (p < 0.001), with large effect sizes. There was no statistically significant improvement in any of the groups when evaluating their performance in ADLs (control, p = 0.28; experimental, p = 0.46) as expected. The completion rate in the experimental group was higher (82.35%) compared to the control group (70.59%). Likewise, participants in the experimental group reached a higher level of difficulty in the application and needed less time to complete the task at each level. Conclusions The application of a dual intervention, through motor training prior to a cognitive task based on Immersive VR was shown to be a beneficial non-pharmacological strategy to improve cognitive functions and reduce depression in patients with MCI. Similarly, the control group benefited from such dual intervention with statistically significant improvements. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06313931; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06313931.

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Twitter Mining for Multiclass Classification Events of Traffic and Pollution

2020 , Chamorro V. , Rivera R. , Varela Aldas, José , Castillo Salazar, David Ricardo , Borja Galeas, Carlos , Guevara Maldonado, César Byron , Arias Flores, Hugo Patricio , Fierro-Saltos W. , Hidalgo-Guijarro J. , Yandún-Velasteguí M.

During the last decade social media have generated tons of data, that is the primal information resource for multiple applications. Analyzing this information let us to discover almost immediately unusual situations, such as traffic jumps, traffic accidents, state of the roads, etc. This research proposes an approach for classifying pollution and traffic tweets automatically. Taking advantage of the information in tweets, it evaluates several machine learning supervised algorithms for text classification, where it determines that the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm achieves the highest accuracy value of 85,8% classifying events of traffic and not traffic. Furthermore, to determine the events that correspond to traffic or pollution we perform a multiclass classification. Where we obtain an accuracy of 78.9%. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

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Immersive virtual reality app for mild cognitive impairment

2019 , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios-Navarro G. , García-Magariño I.

A characteristic symptom of neurodegenerative diseases is the deterioration of the memory. These problems usually worsen with the progression of the disease, being the cognitive rehabilitation an important tool in order to slow down the progress of the disease in the patient. This work presents the development of a mobile virtual reality application through a serious game to boost the memory by solving mazes in three levels of difficulty. The application uses the Gear VR glasses to provide the user with an immersive experience. The results present the proposed application, showing the components of the virtual environment. © 2019, Associacao Iberica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informacao. All rights reserved.

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A comparison in the teaching of programming for development kits with IoT

2022 , Varela Aldas, José , Miranda M. , Palacios-Navarro G.

Education 4.0 promotes programming at all training levels, making block programming a compatible alternative, including developing applications with hardware. This paper compares UIFLOW and Arduino IDE in programming the M5Stack Core2 development kit for education. The designed task allows students to read, locally view, send, and remotely view the inertial sensor data integrated into the device. The programming in UIFLOW application uses block programming; this software is for the M5stack kits. To program in C code using Arduino IDE is need to install the necessary libraries for compatibility with M5Stack. Students of computer science engineering implement the program using both programming languages. The compared data are development times and acceptance of the participants. The results show the coding times of the program and the scores obtained in the acceptance test, determining faster times in the case of block programming and a better acceptance rate that demonstrates the advantages of using this language in programming education. © 2022 IEEE.

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Control of an Arm-Hand Prosthesis by Mental Commands and Blinking

2020 , Varela Aldas, José , Castillo Salazar, David Ricardo , Borja Galeas, Carlos , Guevara Maldonado, César Byron , Arias Flores, Hugo Patricio , Fierro-Saltos, W. , Rivera, R. , Hidalgo-Guijarro, J. , Yandún-Velasteguí, M.

Patients who lack upper and lower extremities have difficulties in carrying out their daily activities. The new technological advances have allowed the development of robotic applications to support people with disabilities, also, portable electroencephalographic (EEG) sensors are increasingly accessible and allow the development of new proposals which involve the mental control of electronic systems. This work presents the control by mental orders of an arm-hand prosthesis using low-cost devices, the objective is to command the arm using the user’s attention and blinking, where the components are a brain signal sensor, a prosthesis, an Arduino board, six servomotors, and a computer. The developed program in Matlab allows controlling the arm by means of an attention level y blinking. The results show the functioning of the system through experimental tests and a usability test is applied, finally, the conclusions establish adequate coordination in the movements of the prosthesis and the patient indicate satisfaction with the proposal. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

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Construction of a WBGT index meter using low cost devices

2020 , Varela Aldas, José , Fuentes, E.M. , Ruales, María Belén , Ichina, C.

Appropriate working conditions can improve the working performance of an employee on a company, one of the main concerns nowadays is the thermal stress, due to the affection not only to the productivity of an employee but also for the risk of affections to his health, in this sense, WBGT (Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature) index is widely proved to define thermal discomfort and thermal stress but in some cases is out of reach due to its cost or availability on a certain region of the world, so this work explains the construction of a low cost device WBGT meter built by an Arduino pro mini, three lm35 temperature sensors and an LCD to install the electronic system; Globe temperature and wet bulb temperature was achieved using a matte black sphere and moistened fabric, respectively. After testing the dispositive, the collected information was sent to a computer through serial communication for further analysis which showed acceptable errors on the measurement of the WBGT index taken indoors and outdoors thru the device and compared to the data obtained by a commercial WBGT meter. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

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Teleoperation of a mobile manipulator with feedback forces for evasion of obstacles [Teleoperación de un manipulador móvil con retroalimentación de fuerzas para evasión de obstáculos]

2019 , Andaluz V.H. , Varela Aldas, José , Chicaiza F.A. , Quevedo W.X. , Ruales, María Belén

This work develops the teleoperation of a mobile manipulator using a kinematic and dynamic control. In addition, the operator receives feedback forces through a haptic device to evade obstacles. The experiments were performed in a local wireless communication network and using the AKASHA robot. The results show an adequate following of the references of control, speed errors are corrected with minimum communication delays. © 2019, Associacao Iberica de Sistemas e Tecnologias de Informacao. All rights reserved.

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Virtual environment application that complements the treatment of dyslexia (VEATD) in children

2020 , Buele, Jorge , López, V.M. , Varela Aldas, José , Soria, A. , Palacios-Navarro, G.

The educational disorders that children present at an early age can cause them to not fully develop throughout their lives. In this research work a 3D virtual system that allows the child who has been diagnosed with dyslexia to complement the exercises performed in a conventional therapy is described. To achieve this an application was developed, the app consists of two games (each with three levels of difficulty), and that are part of the rehabilitation program. In each of these games virtual objects are combined with auditory messages to provide the user with an immersive experience, and to train more than one sense at a time. In the first game task, the activity asks the children to correctly locate the syllables that compose a word and for the second activity the children will listen to a word, after the games asks the children to select the correct word. This tool has been tested by a group of children (eight), with ages ranging from 8 to 12 years old, whose development can be supervised at home by their parents, since it is an intuitive and easy to use interface. The results obtained are stored in a database and in this way the medical specialist can monitor the progress of the child throughout his treatment. For the validation of this proposal the SUS usability test was used. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

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Body Temperature Control Using a Robotic Arm

2021 , Varela Aldas, José , Moreira A. , Criollo P. , Ruales, María Belén

At the end of 2019, a highly contagious virus appears, changing the form of interaction between humans, this has implied the use of technology as a support tool to counteract the effects of the new disease (COVID-19). Although many technologies have been successfully adapted, applied robotics promises to reduce or even eliminate the need for person-to-person contact. This article presents the control of the body temperature of the clients of a commercial premises through the implementation of a system that includes a robotic arm, two sensors and a mobile device. The robotic arm is constructed using 3D printing and a low-cost electronic circuitry, body temperature is obtained using an infrared sensor, and a mobile device displays, alerts, and stores the information. The developed code allows remote control of the robot positions or a pre-programmed sequence is automatically activated that includes temperature measurement and hand disinfection. The results show the robot in operation and the data acquired by the system, observing adequate temperatures in most of the users and a single alert during the tests carried out. The conclusions establish the importance of the system in the real application and highlight the multiple benefits of this proposal. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Salty Taste Intensity Classifier Through Multivariate Analysis

2022 , Fuentes E.M. , Varela Aldas, José , Verdú S. , Grau Meló R. , Barat J.M. , Alcañiz M.

Voltammetric electronic Tongues (VET) are widely used on the industry, especially when focused on sample classification, adulteration recognizement and quality control, a VET equipment developed by the Interuniversity Institute of Molecular Recognition and Technological Development of the UPV-UV (IDM) was employed to develop the study, the results of each test were 7920 data, and different Chloride of Sodium concentrations such as 1.25 mM, 2.5 mM, 5 mM and 10 mM were tested. This is a part of a series of studies related with basic flavor recognize though VET, so the aim of this work was to study the capability of the VET to recognize different intensity of salt concentrations, supported on multivariate analysis. The results showed a concordance of more than 70.31% in the separation of samples, allowing to conclude as acceptable the performance of the classifier and the data acquired through the voltammetric electronic tongues. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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