University of Cordoba (Spain)

For wind turbines operating in the full load region, stabilizing the generated power at its nominal value is a key objective. Furthermore, the control of tower vibrations is a major constraint in wind turbine structures because diverse loading sources can induce fatigue damage. These goals are often conflicting, and a trade-off solution must be found. To reduce tower vibrations, an additional damping method can be implemented by ensuring coordination between the pitch and torque control scheme. This study proposes a control scheme that balances these two objectives: power generation and tower vibration reduction. The control design is based on a collective pitch combined with two active tower damping controls: one for frontal oscillations to the wind, which generates an extra pitch component, and another for lateral displacements, which produces an additional component of the generator torque. The control parameters are tuned through multi-objective optimization and multi-criteria decision methods with FAST software along with MATLAB/Simulink. The proposed control scheme was simulated according to the extreme wind direction change in the IEC 61400–1 standard. The results show that the proposed procedure achieves a notable reduction in tower vibrations, whereas the generated power is almost unaffected. To support this conclusion, a set of performance indices and the time and frequency responses are analyzed from the simulations Comparisons with other control schemes illustrate the superior performance of the proposed methodology.

Emerging data on T1 bladder cancer subcategorization (aka substaging) suggests a correlation with oncological outcomes. The International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) organized the 2022 consensus conference in Basel, Switzerland to focus on current issues in bladder cancer and tasked working group 3 to make recommendations for T1 subcategorization in transurethral bladder resections. For this purpose, the ISUP developed and circulated a survey to their membership querying approaches to T1 bladder cancer subcategorization. In particular, clinical relevance, pathological reporting, and endorsement of T1 subcategorization in the daily practice of pathology were surveyed. Of the respondents of the premeeting survey, about 40% do not routinely report T1 subcategory. We reviewed literature on bladder T1 subcategorization, and screened selected articles for clinical performance and practicality of T1 subcategorization methods. Published literature offered evidence of the clinical rationale for T1 subcategorization and at the conference consensus (83% of conference attendants) was obtained to report routinely T1 subcategorization of transurethral resections. Semiquantitative T1 subcategorization was favored (37%) over histoanatomic methods (4%). This is in line with literature findings on practicality and prognostic impact, that is, a shift of publications from histoanatomic to semiquantitative methods or by reports incorporating both methodologies is apparent over the last decade. However, 59% of participants had no preference for either methodology. They would add a comment in the report briefly stating applied method, interpretation criteria (including cutoff), and potential limitations. When queried on the terminology of T1 subcategorization, 34% and 20% of participants were in favor of T1 (microinvasive) versus T1 (extensive) or T1 (focal) versus T1 (nonfocal), respectively.

Objective To describe and analyse the initial symptoms attributable to patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA) and their association with HLA-B27 status. Methods This was an observational, cross-sectional and multicentre study with patients who fulfilled the European Spondyloarthropathy Study Group criteria for SpA from the Registry of Spondyloarthritis of Spanish Rheumatology (REGISPONSER) and Ibero-American Registry of Spondyloarthropathies (RESPONDIA) united registries. Differences in the first sign(s) or symptom(s) were compared across diagnoses and between HLA-B27 status. The diagnostic delay between patients who start the disease with musculoskeletal manifestations (MMs) and extra-MMs (EMMs) was compared. Results A total of 4067 patients were included (2208 from REGISPONSER and 1859 from RESPONDIA) (ankylosing spondylitis (AS): 68.3%, psoriatic arthritis (PsA): 19.9%, undifferentiated SpA: 11.8%). Overall, 3624 (89.1%) patients initiated the disease with MMs and 443 (10.9%) with EMMs. Low back pain (61.7%) and lower-limb arthritis (38.5%) were the most frequent initial symptoms. In AS patients, the absence of HLA-B27 seems to be related to an increase in the probability of starting the disease with cervical pain and peripheral manifestations. In PsA, the onset of arthritis and psoriasis was more prevalent in HLA-B27-negative patients, while initiation with axial manifestations was more predominant in HLA-B27-positive patients. The diagnostic delay was longer in patients with initial MMs than in those with EMMs (7.2 (34.8) vs 4.5 (7.6) years, respectively). Conclusion In this SpA population, MMs were the most prevalent initial symptoms, with differences across diagnoses and depending on the presence of the HLA-B27 antigen.

Super-resolution is an area of Computer Vision comprising various techniques to recover a high-resolution image from a low-resolution counterpart. These techniques can also be used to enhance a low-resolution input image without a native high-resolution original. Single Image Super-Resolution (SISR) techniques aim to do this in a picture-by-picture fashion. In recent years, deep learning models have achieved the best performance, using neural networks to find a mapping between an input low-resolution image and its high-resolution analogous. This work will compare three approaches based on some of the most notable works in neural-network based super-resolution: SRCNN, FSRCNN, and ESRGAN. These methods will be used to enhance 3D computer-generated low-resolution pictures obtained from popular video games and will be evaluated with respect to the quality of the enhanced picture and the required computation time. From our study, we can attest to the superiority of neural network-based methods on the SISR problem and the benefits of taking a perceptual approach when the quality of the resulting images.

Automatic and accurate analysis of medical images is a subject of great importance in our current society. In particular, this work focuses on gastrointestinal endoscopy images, as the study of these images helps to detect possible health conditions in those regions. Published works on this topic mainly used traditional classification methods (e.g., Support Vector Machines) or more modern techniques, such as Convolutional Neural Networks. However, little attention has been paid to more recent approaches such as Transformers or, in general, Attention-based Deep Neural Networks. This work aims to evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art attention-based models on the problem of classification of gastrointestinal endoscopy images. The experimental results on the challenging Hyper-Kvasir dataset indicate that attention-based models achieve performance equal to or better than that obtained by previous models, needing fewer parameters. In addition, a new state of the art on Hyper-Kvasir (i.e., 0.636 F1-Macro) is obtained by the fusion of two MobileViT models with only 20M parameters. The source code will be published here: https://github.com/richardesp/Attention-based-models-for-Hyper-Kvasir/.

This paper focuses on something not previously addressed by the literature, labour inspection in Spain in the first decades of the Franco dictatorship. Despite the Franco dictatorship's fascist-style approach of regulatory interventionism, this research shows a relapse into an abstentionist conception of labour inspection that led to worker vulnerability. The study has not only found, as was already known, normative similarities with the contemporaneous Italian and German dictatorships, but also similar (although more severe) limitations to the functioning of the inspection service. The slight improvement registered from 1947 onwards and the effort to achieve a limited equivalence with Western democracies also failed to notably improve working conditions, occupational safety and worker protection. The Labour Inspectorate suffered from understaffing and a lack of resources up to the very end of the dictatorship, something which the incipient democracy then inherited. These human and material resource shortages continue to be a problem and are currently debated in Spain.

Legume-based cropping systems are regaining interest due to the environmental services and the variety of food and feed uses they provide, this having special interest in agroecological systems. There are many legume crops that can be adopted but focused breeding is needed to better meet the specific requirements of each system, especially in the situation of changing climate and often stressful environments. Standard breeding methods remain valid, from classical selection, to genomic assisted-breeding, profiting from the modern biotechnological and genomic approaches which are rapidly developing for most legume crops. Rather than focusing on the tools, emphasis is needed on the breeding targets, which might be different from those of high input agriculture such as improved response to symbiosis, nutrient and water use efficiency and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses becoming priorities. Breeding for these traits requires the infusion of genetic diversity from landraces or wild relatives by pre-breeding. Prospects and constraints are discussed.

Preparing teachers for responsible plurilingual/pluricultural foreign language education is a challenging task. Despite the availability of extensive literature on intercultural teaching, there are very few comprehensive open educational, digital resources devoted specifically to plurilingualism/pluriculturalism that could be applicable in various educational systems as well as on various levels of teacher education. In this contribution we describe a successful attempt to alleviate this problem by an international team (Erasmus+ Project “TEACUP: Teacher – Culture – Pluri”) composed of researchers, policy makers and teacher educators from four European countries (Spain, Poland, Hungary and Germany) and the USA, who have jointly developed a large set of comprehensive open educational resources that are intended to provide a theoretical foundation and practical materials for plurilingual and pluricultural foreign language teaching and assessment. We focus on the application of the developed open educational resources dealing with key concepts around pluriculturalism and plurilingualism in an international workshop for both pre- and in-service teachers of English as a foreign language. Upon discussing the underlying structure of the materials, we report on their perceived quality and the shortcomings of their application in this concrete educational setting. We round off the discussion with comments and implications for foreign language teacher education programs.

Background Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are the most widely used diagnostic tools in bovine paratuberculosis (bPTB) control. However, their diagnostic accuracy may be compromised by bovine tuberculosis (bTB) infection, as both diseases share diagnostic targets. Methods The bPTB and bTB infection status of 228 animals was determined using microbiological tissue culture as a reference test. The diagnostic performance (sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios and predictive values) of the bPTB‐ELISA on blood serum samples, taking into account the bPTB animal‐level prevalence of the area and the bTB status of the animals, was evaluated. Results A sensitivity of 40.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 27.5%–53.9%) and a specificity of 94.7% (95% CI: 91.4%–98.0%) were obtained for bPTB‐ELISA in all animals. A bPTB‐ELISA‐positive animal would have a post‐test probability of 70% or more of being infected in areas with a bPTB prevalence of 23% or more. A negative bPTB‐ELISA result, in areas with a bPTB prevalence of 41% or less, would rule out the disease with more than 70% certainty. In bTB‐positive animals, sensitivity increased (94.4% [95% CI: 81.4%–100%] vs. 25.1% [95% CI: 11.8%–38.4%]) and specificity decreased (82.6% [95% CI: 71.8%–93.4%] vs. 99.4% [95% CI: 98.0%–99.9%]). The bPTB‐ELISA is a good tool to rule out bPTB co‐infection in bTB‐positive animals, while in bTB‐negative animals, it allows confirmation of disease with more than 70% probability if disease prevalence is 6% or more. Limitations The observed differences could be enhanced by the effect of frequent application of the intradermal tuberculin test, which was unknown in the animals studied. Conclusions These results provide useful guidance for the application and interpretation of ELISA as a tool for bPTB disease control.

Predicting students’ performance in distance courses is a very relevant task to help teachers identify students who need reinforcement or extension activities. Nevertheless, identifying the student’s progress is highly complicated due to the large number of students and the lack of direct interaction. Artificial intelligence algorithms contribute to overcoming this problem by automatically analyzing the features and interactions of each student with the e-learning platform. The main limitations of the previous proposals are that they do not consider a ranking between the different marks obtained by students and the most accurate models are usually black boxes without comprehensibility. This paper proposes to use an optimized ordinal classification algorithm, FlexNSLVOrd, that performs a prediction of student’s performance in four ranking classes (Withdrawn < Fail < Pass < Distinction) by generating highly understandable models. The experimental study uses the OULA dataset and compares 10 state-of-the-art methods on 7 different courses and 3 classical classification metrics. The results, validated with statistical analysis, show that FlexNSLVOrd has higher performance than the other models and achieves significant differences with the rest of the proposals. In addition, the interpretability of FlexNSLVOrd is compared with other rule-based models, and simpler and more representative rules are obtained.

Sieving is an important operation for sorting solid particles both in industry and the laboratory. Although sorting is necessary for almost every process or energy conversion applied to biomass materials, sieving has not received enough scientific attention. The aim of this study was to obtain experimental data on the sieving performance of biomass materials. Three different biomasses – two wood pellets from the same species but each one obtained from a different process, plus a poplar sawdust residue – were sieved using a laboratory sieve shaker before milling with a hammer mill. Samples with three different levels of moisture were also studied: non‐dried, dried for 1.5 h at 75 °C, and dried for 3 h at 75 °C. The results were unexpected because the three samples showed quite different behaviors. A slight drying before sieving significantly enhanced the sieving performance of one of the wood pellets but its effect on the poplar sawdust was just the opposite; in the case of the other type of wood pellets, the effect was intermediate, because it improved the sieving performance but only for a short time and for the finest fraction. These results suggest the importance of conducting a preliminary study of the material to be sieved to save energy, time, and effort. Further research in this area is still necessary to understand the influence of variables in order to reduce blinding during biomass sieving.

Background: The shortage of available transplant organs has made it necessary to search for alternatives, one of which is xenotransplantation. However, the use of animal organs could face rejection from society and the personnel involved in its implementation. Objectives: (a) to analyze the attitudes of Veterinary Degree students in six Spanish Universities towards xenotransplantation; and (b) to determine the factors that affect its acceptance. Methods: Of the 2815 students surveyed in the degree program, 2683 valid surveys were obtained. Attitudes towards organ xenotransplantation were evaluated using a validated questionnaire of organ donation. Results: If xenotransplantation was confirmed as a clinical reality, 93% (n = 2493) of those surveyed would accept a xenotransplanted organ, whilst 7% would not. If the results of xenotransplantation were worse than those obtained with human donors and it entailed more risk, 12% (n = 318) would be in favor. 56% (n = 1497) of the students would accept a xenotransplantation provisionally pending the arrival of a human organ. Attitudes towards xenotransplantation were affected by the academic year in which a student was studying, with more favorable attitudes among students in the last year (88% in first year vs. 95% in fifth year; p < .001). More favorable attitudes are also observed depending on the attitude they have towards organ transplantation, with those students being more in favor of donating their organs when they die (94% vs. 88%; p < .001). Conclusion: Veterinary students would have a very favorable attitude toward xenotransplantation if these animal organs functioned as well as human organs. Therefore, these students could play an important role in the future promotion of this technique.

Despite substantial advances in the use of proteomic technologies, their widespread application in fruit tissues of non-model and recalcitrant species remains limited. This hampers the understanding of critical molecular events during the postharvest period of fleshy tropical fruits. Therefore, we evaluated label-free quantitation (LFQ) and TMT-SPS-MS3 (TMT) approaches to analyse changes in the protein profile of mango peels during postharvest period. We compared two extraction methods (phenol and chloroform/methanol) and two peptide fractionation schemes (SCX and HPRP). We accurately identified 3065 proteins, of which, 1492 were differentially accumulated over at 6 days after harvesting (DAH). Both LFQ and TMT approaches share 210 differential proteins including cell wall proteins associated with fruit softening, as well as aroma and flavour-related proteins, which were increased during postharvest period. The phenolic protein extraction and the high-pH reverse-phase peptide frac-tionation was the most effective pipeline for relative quantification. Nevertheless, the information provided by the other tested strategies was significantly complementary. Besides, LFQ spectra allowed us to track down intact N-glycopeptides corroborating N-glycosylations on the surface of a desiccation-related protein. This work represents the largest proteomic comparison of mango peels during postharvest period made so far, shedding light on the molecular foundation of edible fruit during ripening.

2-Methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) is a highly mobile herbicide that is frequently detected in global potable water sources. One potential mitigation strategy is the sorption on biochar to limit harm to unidentified targets. However, irreversible sorption could restrict bioefficacy thereby compromising its usefulness as a vital crop herbicide. This research evaluated the effect of pyrolysis temperatures (350, 500 and 800°C) on three feedstocks; poultry manure, rice hulls and wood pellets, particularly to examine effects on the magnitude and reversibility of MCPA sorption. Sorption increased with pyrolysis temperature from 350 to 800°C. Sorption and desorption coefficients were strongly corelated with each other (R2 = 0.99; P < .05). Poultry manure and rice hulls pyrolyzed at 800°C exhibited irreversible sorption while for wood pellets at 800°C desorption was concentration dependent. At higher concentrations some desorption was observed (36% at 50 ppm) but was reduced at lower concentrations (1-3% at < 5 ppm). Desorption decreased with increasing pyrolysis temperature. Sorption data were analyzed with Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich and Temkin isotherm models. Freundlich isotherms were better predictors of MCPA sorption (R2 ranging from 0.78 to 0.99). Poultry manure and rice hulls when pyrolyzed at higher temperatures (500 and 800°C) could be used for remediation efforts (such as spills or water filtration), due to the lack of desorption observed. On the other hand, un-pyrolyzed feedstocks or biochars created at 350°C could perform superior for direct field applications to limit indirect losses including runoff and leaching, since these materials also possess the ability to release MCPA subsequently to potentially allow herbicidal action.

The first method for the direct conversion of carboxylic acids into ureas has been developed. The classical procedures described above for the formation of ureas from carboxylic acids require two steps, preparation of the isocyanate followed by its aminolysis. In this work, arylcarboxylic and arylalkylcarboxylic acids have been transformed into symmetric ureas in a single step using DPPA or sodium azide as nitrogen source. The addition of water (method A) or the presence of solvent water (method B) was essential for the formation of symmetrical ureas from the corresponding carboxylic acids. The corresponding ureas have been obtained in good to excellent yields of 46 to 100%. This procedure was compatible with differ-ent substituents present in the starting carboxylic acid.

Carta florentina(2018) is the most recent poetry collection published by Guillermo Carnero. Carta Florentina creates and exalts the beloved you, the same female subject referred to in his previous book Verano inglés, published two decades earlier. The poetic voice is the creator of a world consecrated to this muse: it creates for her a text full of images and rescues her through the exercise of writing. This paper analyzes the evolution in the formal treatment of the female figure in Guillermo Carnero’s poetry from Verano inglés to Carta florentina. This work explores how the representation of the beloved subject is structured, how the author engages with the classical tradition in this period, and also analyzes other cultural references in Carta Florentina.

Aims: The aim of the present work was to characterize Lactiplantibacillus sp. LP5 strain, isolated from pork production, and identify bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances produced by this strain. Methods and results: In this study, LP5 was identified by specie-specific PCR and 16S rDNA sequencing. Additionally, bacterial growth kinetics, antimicrobial activity, detection of the genes related to plantaricins production and genetic expression of plantaricins, were determined. Lactiplantibacillus sp. LP5 was identified as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum. The well-diffusion test using cell-free supernatants (CFS), neutralized CFS, CFS treated with catalase and CFS treated with proteinase K showed that inhibitory effects on a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) strain were produced by bacteriocins. The PCR technique allowed the detection of genes encoding E/F plantaricins, as well as J/K and whole genome sequencing and bacteriocin mining analysis allowed us to confirm the presence of these plantaricins. Conclusions: We can conclude that the inhibitory effect of L. plantarum LP5 isolated from pigs against STEC EDL933 strain could be associated with the bacteriocins production and represents a potential use as a probiotic strain.

The aim of this study is to contribute to the evidence regarding variables related to emotional symptom severity and to use them to exemplify the potential usefulness of logistic regression for clinical assessment at primary care, where most of these disorders are treated. Cross-sectional data related to depression and anxiety symptoms, sociodemographic characteristics, quality of life (QoL), and emotion-regulation processes were collected from 1,704 primary care patients. Correlation and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were conducted to identify those variables associated with both depression and anxiety. Participants were then divided into severe and nonsevere emotional symptoms, and binomial logistic regression was used to identify the variables that contributed the most to classify the severity. The final adjusted model included psychological QoL (p < .001, odds ratio [OR] = .426, 95% CI [.318, .569]), negative metacognitions (p < .001, OR = 1.083, 95% CI [1.045, 1.122]), physical QoL (p < .001, OR = .870, 95% CI [.841, .900]), brooding rumination (p < .001, OR = 1.087, 95% CI [1.042, 1.133]), worry (p < .001, OR = 1.047, 95% CI [1.025, 1.070]), and employment status (p = .022, OR [.397, 2.039]) as independent variables, ρ 2 = .326, area under the curve (AUC) = .857. Moreover, rumination and psychological QoL emerged as the best predictors to form a simplified equation to determine the emotional symptom severity (ρ² = .259, AUC = .822). The use of statistical models like this could accelerate the assessment and treatment-decision process, depending less on the subjective point of view of clinicians and optimizing health care resources.