This paper presents non-contact vital sign monitoring in neonates, based on image processing, where a standard color camera captures the plethysmographic signal and the heart and breathing rates are processed and estimated online. It is important that the measurements are taken in a non-invasive manner, which is imperceptible to the patient. Currently, many methods have been proposed for non-contact measurement. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it has not been possible to identify methods with low computational costs and a high tolerance to artifacts. With the aim of improving contactless measurement results, the proposed method based on the computer vision technique is enhanced to overcome the mentioned drawbacks. The camera is attached to an incubator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and a single area in the neonate’s diaphragm is monitored. Several factors are considered in the stages of image acquisition, as well as in the plethysmographic signal formation, pre-filtering and filtering. The pre-filter step uses numerical analysis techniques to reduce the signal offset. The proposed method decouples the breath rate from the frequency of sinus arrhythmia. This separation makes it possible to analyze independently any cardiac and respiratory dysrhythmias. Nine newborns were monitored with our proposed method. A Bland-Altman analysis of the data shows a close correlation of the heart rates measured with the two approaches (correlation coefficient of 0.94 for heart rate (HR) and 0.86 for breath rate (BR)) with an uncertainty of 4.2 bpm for HR and 4.9 for BR (k = 1). The comparison of our method and another non-contact method considered as a standard independent component analysis (ICA) showed lower central processing unit (CPU) usage for our method (75% less CPU usage).

The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is caused by the anthropic alteration of the natural environment by urban expansion, its impermeable surfaces, and anthropic activities. In addition, urban morphology can also contribute to the increase in temperature in cities. The UHI effect can be described as an urban climate that is generally characterized by higher temperatures in densely built-up areas compared to surrounding areas. This effect impacts the environmental stress of the city and directly affects the health and quality of life of its inhabitants. Therefore, it is necessary to allocate resources to understand the UHI mechanism in cities in order to propose appropriate mitigation measures that will reduce energy consumption and improve living conditions. In this context, this research was aimed at analyzing the behavior of urban heat islands by replacing asphalt with cool paving materials (concrete) in roadways. Through computer simulations, using the ENVI-met software, the thermal variations of urban heat islands were examined. The city of Cuenca (Ecuador) was selected as the study area. The day of the analysis was 22 January 2020, which was recorded as the warmest day of the year, registering an average temperature of 16 °C. The findings of this research evidenced that, by replacing asphalt pavements with concrete pavements in the analyzed zones, land surface temperature (LST) could be reduced by 8 °C and the global LST of the studied areas could be reduced by approximately 3 °C. Consequently, the mean air temperature of the study areas reflected a decrease of up to 0.83 °C.

This paper presents a method for contactless pulse oximetry measurement by photoplethysmographic images (PPGI) technique. The Kalman filter is applied to reduce the low frequencies of PPGI signals. The method has characteristics that make it an innovation in the field. The patient does not have any contact with the measurement device, and the developed algorithm has a low computational requirement. In addition, the method has a high tolerance to the artifacts. The approach analyzes plethysmographic signals collected through a standard color camera to estimate pulse oximetry. The averages of each odd and even frames create two signals. Each frame is synchronized to an illumination with a specific wavelength (640 and 950 nm respectively). The present study obtained a good estimate of the pulse oximetry from ten persons. The Bland-Altman analysis shows a strong correlation between a standard system and the PPGI measurement.

Electric vehicles are environmentally friendly and more efficient than conventional combustion vehicles. However, from the point of view of energy vectors, they may use energy produced by less efficient and more polluting means. In this paper, an applicative methodology is used to develop a charging equalizer for an electric vehicle that makes it possible to efficiently use the energy produced by a 350 W photovoltaic panel to intelligently charge the five batteries of the vehicle. In addition, using a quantitative methodology, an analysis of the different physical and electrical parameters obtained by a series of sensors installed in the vehicle is presented, and the efficiency of the system is determined. Different routes were travelled within the city of Cuenca with and without the load equalization system, which made it possible to determine an increase in vehicle efficiency of up to 27.9%, equivalent to an additional travel distance of approximately 14.35 km. This is a promising result, since with small investments in solar panels and electronic materials, the performance of low-cost electric vehicles can be significantly improved.

In this industrialized world, in which the daily consumption of fossil fuels occurs, companies seek to prioritize energy generation through renewable energy sources with minimal environmental impact to improve their energy efficiency. The research objective was to calculate CO₂ emissions for the pyrolysis process (conventional low-temperature pyrolysis) in two types of reactors, electric and traditional, where solar panels power the electric reactor. In addition, the amount of polluting gases and the energy consumption necessary to convert biomass into biochar were compared. Residual lignocellulosic biomass (RLB) from various species present in the southern region of Ecuador (eucalyptus, capuli, and acacia) was used, with three replicates per reactor. The electrical reactor (ER) consumed 82.60% less energy than the primary forest biomass fuel “traditional reactor (TR)” and distributed heat better in each pyrolytic process. The TR generated more pollution than the ER; it generated 40.48% more CO, 50% more NO₂, 66.67% more SO₂, and 79.63% more CH₄. Undoubtedly, the pyrolysis process in an ER reduces environmental pollution and creates new bioproducts that could replace fossil fuels. This study provides relevant information on the residual biomass pyrolysis of plant species. These species are traditionally grown in the southern Ecuadorian region. In addition, an analysis of polluting gases for the TR and ER is presented.