Varela Aldas, José
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Varela Aldas, José
Main Affiliation
Ambato
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josevarela@uti.edu.ec
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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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Prototype of a Low Cost Turbine for the Generation of Clean Energy in the Ecuadorian Amazon

2020 , Guáitara B. , Buele, Jorge , Salazar F.W. , Varela Aldas, José

Access to electricity supply in remote areas is limited, despite having wealth of other natural resources such as water. This document presents the design and construction of a scale electric generation system, taking advantage of the hydraulic energy produced by a constant flow of water flow. For this, the turbine design is described, which is based on the principles of Francis and Kaplan. In addition, the structural design made in CAD/CAM software and the actual implementation of the system are shown. To determine the generated electric potential, the electromagnetic analysis is performed based on the Maxwell-Faraday equation and the respective calculations. The validation of this proposal is determined by conducting experimental tests with balanced, unbalanced, series and parallel coils and with their implementation in a home. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Control of a Security Door Through the Internet of Things

2022 , Toapanta J. , Miranda M. , Andaluz V.H. , Palacios-Navarro G. , Varela Aldas, José

Home security has increased in recent years with the help of technology. Even more, the appearance of the internet of things (IoT) allows it to control and monitor devices from anywhere in the world. This work develops a proposal that alerts the user about the status of a door through a mobile application using low-cost devices. For the electronic design, a magnetic contact sensor has been used that detects if the door is open. An electric lock is also used to control the door with the mobile application from anywhere in the user. The electronic system is based on an ESP32 board that has WiFi communication, this board sends the door status data to the mobile application. The electric lock can be activated in three ways: manually from the door, automatically according to a programmed routine, and remotely using the mobile app. The platform used for the IoT is Firebase, which allows the exchange of information between the local site and the remote site. The tests carried out around the prototype have responded correctly, the installed sensor continuously reports on the status of the door, and the control is executed according to the orders sent through the cloud. In addition, an acceptance test is used that guarantees the correct operation of the proposal. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Development of Behavior Profile of Users with Visual Impairment

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

The interaction of the user with visual impairment with assistive technologies, and in particular with screen readers, generates a group of actions and events during their navigation. These interactions are defined as behavioral patterns, which have a sequence that occurs at specific time slot. Understanding user behavior by analyzing their interaction with applications, in addition, details the characteristics, relationships, structures and functions of the sequence of actions in a specific application domain. The objective of this document is to find activity patterns from a set of commands used by the user, combining data mining and a Bayesian model. This model calculates the probability of the functions used with the screen reader and generates a behavior profile to improve the user experience. For this study, the screen reader JAWS version 2018, the Open Journal Systems platform version 3.0.1 and a computer with Windows 10 operating system were used. During the first phase, command history used by the user by interacting with the Open Journal Systems platform were collected. The result is that the accessibility of users with visual impairment to interact with the computer and its applications has been improved by applying this model. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

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Movement Monitoring in Commercial Areas Using Internet of Things

2023 , Varela Aldas, José , Ruales, María Belén , Bastidas G.

The Internet of Things has been a trend in the last decade and is now found in countless applications, solving problems in almost any field. Specifically, in the commercial area, there is an effort to apply this technology to facilitate the control of services or processes. This work presents the movement monitoring of commercial areas. The proposal uses the ESP32 board that, using passive infrared sensors located perpendicular to each other, covers two areas of interest for commercial premises with multiple products. The collected data travel to the ThingSpeak Platform, where there are graphs with the states of the sensors, allowing identify the active area. The results present the motion state readings in the two areas, indicating the correct functioning of the system. Finally, we use a technology acceptance model to analyze this proposal, determining an acceptance of 69.6% that is not favorable for this proposal. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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Editorial Design Based on User Experience Design

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

This research deals with editorial design based on user experience design. The traditional editorial design has had to adapt to the new digital media composition, where multimedia audiovisual elements unthinkable a few years ago need to be integrated. The participation of the reader, as an external observer who only receives information through texts and images, now has new scenarios in which he can actively participate and decide what will come to his hands. In this study, a work methodology based on UxD User Experience Design is presented, in which will generate the editorial design of an educational book on environmental issues, which includes augmented reality for children from 6 to 8 years of age. The aim of this study is to know if an editorial product with augmented reality and developed from the user experience design can improve meaningful learning in a playful and active way. For its development, a composition model based on the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio will be used. Additionally, its graphic composition will be guided by the Massimo Vignelli canon and will be complemented by the reticular model of Beth Tondreau. The augmented reality markers position will also be based on the composition model previously mentioned, which will allow keeping the attention of the reader in the printed document and in the augmented reality animations. The user experience design will be applied with teachers, parents and students from 4 schools in Quito and Ambato. Once the production is completed, the impact on teaching-learning process will be evaluated with a control and a test group, and the methodology with which they will work in the classroom with the educational material developed will be defined. At the end of the study, copies of the book will be delivered to the participating schools of this research for its implementation. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.

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An analysis of IoT technology education based on UIFLOW

2023 , Varela Aldas, José , Junta-Andagana C. , Bran C.

The importance of education in new technologies today drives us to continue exploring available options to introduce students to STEAM competencies. This article presents an analysis of satisfaction in the practical education of IoT technology using a block-based programming language. In this case, the UIFlow development environment, compatible with M5Stack kits, is utilized. A graphical interface for the M5Stack Core2 AWS module's screen is designed to enable data transmission to the Thingspeak platform via the MQTT protocol with a 1-second delay. This analysis was conducted during a practical session with a group of 11 industrial engineering students. The collected data includes session runtimes and a satisfaction assessment using the Post-Study System Usability Questionnaire, specifically adapted for this case. The results indicate an overall satisfaction level of 84.7% within the group. The lowest-scoring aspect pertains to the information provided by UIFlow for problem-solving. © 2023 IEEE.

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Temperature control system with hysteresis for drying oven using IoT

2023 , Bucay-Valdiviezo J. , Veronica-Ocana Parra S. , Saa F. , Varela Aldas, José

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) spread to the whole world, improving all kinds of industrial processes. Thus, temperature control and monitoring of ovens through the Internet of Things (IoT) is part of this technology, especially in the automotive industry. In this work, the temperature control with hysteresis of a drying oven is carried out incorporating the IoT, with the objective of maintaining the temperature within a certain range in the drying process inside an oven. For this, a thermocouple, heat lamps, couplers and an electronic board are used. The temperature data from the drying oven is sent to the internet via WiFi using a router. The oven temperature data is recorded in the cloud for its respective subsequent analysis using the ThingSpeak services. For the results, the temperature is configured in the range of 50 ° C to 70 ° C that is monitored through a mobile application developed in App Inventor. The tests carried out demonstrate the proper functioning of the system and the high usability of the application. © 2023 IEEE.

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Fog computing for assisting and tracking elder patients with neurodegenerative diseases

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

U.S. hospitals transmit and manage great amounts of information with the avenue of Internet of things. This work departs from a real need detected by healthcare centers and hospitals in U.S., Spain and Ecuador. This work focuses on the application of fog computing for obtaining an app rich in visual content that will not overload U.S. hospital infrastructures even if it was used massively. The simulation results showed that the proposed fog-based approach could support a regular use (one day out of three on average) by 1% of patients of one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in 14 states in U.S (i.e. 36,400 patients in total) with only a traffic of 528 KB per day on average when using one hospital per state. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

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Influence of inherent parameters within virtual systems on cognitive rehabilitation

2022 , Santamaría-Villacís M. , Varela Aldas, José , Palacios G.

The study is based on a theoretical review of the current literature in the field of virtual systems applied to cognitive rehabilitation, focusing on the influence of different parameters such as immersion, presence, cues, and distractors. To this end, it is proposed to design applications with adjustable features that allow different levels of inherent parameters to be evaluated. For experimental purposes, it is initially proposed to use the application with healthy patients and then continue with patients with a neurodegenerative disease. © 2022 IEEE.

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