Search results for: J. V. Gonzalez Fernandez

Authors: Jessica A. Soto-Bear, Virginia González-Vélez, Norma Castañeda-Villa, Amparo Gil

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Glutamate release of the cochlear inner hair cell (IHC) ribbon synapse is a fundamental step in transferring sound information in the auditory pathway. Otoferlin is the calcium sensor in the IHC and its activity has been related to many auditory disorders. In order to simulate secretion dynamics occurring in the IHC in a few milliseconds timescale and with high spatial resolution, we proposed an active-zone model solved with Monte Carlo algorithms. We included models for calcium buffered diffusion, calcium-binding schemes for vesicle fusion, and L-type voltage-gated calcium channels. Our results indicate that calcium influx and calcium binding is managing IHC secretion as a function of voltage depolarization, which in turn mean that IHC response depends on sound intensity.

Keywords: inner hair cells, Monte Carlo algorithm, Otoferlin, secretion

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Authors: Raúl González Muñoz, Essam Shehab, Martin Weinitzke, Chris Fowler, Paul Baguley

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Software applications have become crucial for the aerospace industry, providing a wide range of functionalities and capabilities. However, due to the considerable time difference between aircraft and software life cycles, obsolescence has turned into a major challenge for industry in last decades. This paper aims to provide a view on the different causes of software obsolescence within aerospace industry, as well as a perception on the importance of each of them. The key research question addressed is what drives software obsolescence in the aerospace industry, managing large software application portfolios. This question has been addressed by conducting firstly an in depth review of current literature and secondly by arranging an industry workshop with professionals from aerospace and consulting companies. The result is a set of drivers of software obsolescence, distributed among three different environments and several domains. By incorporating monitoring methodologies to assess those software obsolescence drivers, benefits in maintenance efforts and operations disruption avoidance are expected.

Keywords: aerospace industry, obsolescence drivers, software lifecycle, software obsolescence

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Authors: Margarita Zavala, Julio Rolón, Gabriel Chavira, José González, Jorge Orozco, Roberto Pichardo

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Adolescence is a neuralgic stage in the formation of every human being, generally at this stage is when the middle school level is studied. In 2006 in Mexico incorporated “mentoring" space to assist students in their integration and participation in life. In public middle schools, is sometimes difficult to be aware of situations that affect students because of the number of them and traditional records management. Whit this they lose the opportunity to provide timely support as a preventive way. In order to provide this support, it is required to know the students by detecting the relevant information that has greater impact on their learning process. This research is looking to check if it is possible to identify student’s relevant information to detect when it is at risk, and then to propose a model to manage in a proper way such information.

Keywords: adolescence, mentoring, middle school students, mentoring system support

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Authors: Mario Pérez-Won, Vilbett Briones L., Guido Trautmann, María José Bugueño, Gipsy Tabilo-Munizaga, Luis Gonzalez-Cavieres

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The fishing industry generates a significant amount of shrimp byproducts, which often result in environmental contamination. Protein extraction from these by-products is a potential solution to minimize waste and revalue the by-products. To improve the extraction of proteins (by chemical method) from shrimp (Pleuroncodes monodon) by-products, the emerging technologies of ohmic heating (OH), microwaves (MW) and pulsed electric fields (PEF) were used. The results show that microwaves, electrical pulses, and ohmic heating improved performance by 28.19%, 19.25%, and 3.65%, respectively. Furthermore, conformational changes were studied by DSC and FTIR. Subsequently, the use of these proteins in electrospinning technology was evaluated. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the application of emerging technologies, can significantly improve the extraction yield of proteins from shrimp by-products.

Keywords: electrospinning, emerging technologies, improving extraction, shrimp by-products

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Authors: Anna Guitart Atienza, Ana Fernández del Río, Madhav Nekkar, Jelena Ljubicic, África Periáñez, Eura Shin, Lauren Bellhouse

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The use of digital devices in healthcare or mobile health (mHealth) has increased in recent years due to the advances in digital technology, making it possible to nudge healthy behaviors through individual interventions. In addition, mHealth is becoming essential in poor-resource settings due to the widespread use of smartphones in areas where access to professional healthcare is limited. In this work, we evaluate mHealth interventions in low-income countries with a focus on causal inference. Counterfactuals estimation and other causal computations are key to determining intervention success and assisting in empirical decision-making. Our main purpose is to personalize treatment recommendations and triage patients at the individual level in order to maximize the entire intervention's impact on the desired outcome. For this study, collected data includes mHealth individual logs from front-line healthcare workers, electronic health records (EHR), and external variables data such as environmental, demographic, and geolocation information.

Keywords: causal inference, mHealth, intervention, personalization

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Authors: Karen K. Perez-Ramirez, Genevieve Dupont, Virginia Gonzalez-Velez

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Pancreatic alpha-cells participate on glucose regulation together with beta cells. They release glucagon hormone when glucose level is low to stimulate gluconeogenesis from the liver. As other excitable cells, alpha cells generate Ca2+ and metabolic oscillations when they are stimulated. It is known that the glucose level can trigger or silence this activity although it is not clear how this occurs in normal and diabetic people. In this work, we propose an electric-metabolic mathematical model implemented in Matlab to study the effect of different glucose levels on the electrical response and Ca2+ oscillations of an alpha cell. Our results show that Ca2+ oscillations appear in opposite phase with metabolic oscillations in a window of glucose values. The model also predicts a direct relationship between the level of glucose and the intracellular adenine nucleotides showing a self-regulating pathway for the alpha cell.

Keywords: Ca2+ oscillations, mathematical model, metabolic oscillations, pancreatic alpha cell

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Authors: Mst Nazmunnahar, Juan del Val, Alena Vimmrova, Blanca Hernando, Julian González

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We report the microstructural and magnetic properties of Ni50Mn39Sn11 and Ni50Mn36Sn14 ribbon Heusler alloys. Experimental results were obtained by differential scanning calorymetry, X-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques. The Ni-Mn-Sn system undergoes a martensitic structural transformation in a wide temperature range. For example, for Ni50Mn39Sn11 the start and finish temperatures of the martensitic and austenite phase transformation for ribbon alloy were Ms = 336K , Mf = 328K, As = 335K and Af = 343K whereas no structural transformation is observed for Ni50Mn36Sn14 alloys. Magnetic measurements show the typical ferromagnetic behavior with Curie temperature 207K at low applied field of 50 Oe. The complex behavior exhibited by these Heusler alloys should be ascribed to the strong coupling between magnetism and structure, being their magnetic behavior determined by the distance between Mn atoms.

Keywords: as-cast ribbon, Heusler alloys, magnetic properties, structural transformation

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Authors: Laura V. Gonzalez, Juan B. Duarte, Luis A. Palacio

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Decision making can be conditioned by factors such as the environments, circumstances, behavioral biases, emotions, beliefs and preferences of the participants. The objective of this paper is to analyze the effect ‘amount of information’ and ‘number of options’, on the behavior of competitors under a bilateral negotiation context. For the above, it has been designed an experiment as a classroom game where they negotiate goods, under the condition that none of the players knows exactly the real value of the asset. The game is designed under the concept of zero-sum (non-cooperative game) and focuses on the fact that agents must anticipate the strategies of their opponent to improve their chances of winning in the negotiation. The empirical results show that, contrary to the traditional view of expected utility theory, players prefer to obtain low profits and losses, when faced with a higher expectation of losses, using sub-optimal strategies not in accordance with game theory.

Keywords: bilateral negotiation, classroom game, decision making, game theory

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Authors: Carlos Gonzalez-Flores, Ernesto Liñan-García

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A simple and robust approach for developing secure software. A Four Phase methodology consists in developing the non-secure software in phase one, and for the next three phases, one phase for each of the secure developing types (i.e. self-protected software, secure code transformation, and the secure shield). Our methodology requires first the determination and understanding of the type of security level needed for the software. The methodology proposes the use of several teams to accomplish this task. One Software Engineering Developing Team, a Compiler Team, a Specification and Requirements Testing Team, and for each of the secure software developing types: three teams of Secure Software Developing, three teams of Code Breakers, and three teams of Intrusion Analysis. These teams will interact among each other and make decisions to provide a secure software code protected against a required level of intruder.

Keywords: secure software, four phases methodology, software engineering, code breakers, intrusion analysis

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Authors: Claudia Marcela Munoz Gonzalez, Diego Fernando Hernandez Losada, Hugo Alberto Herrera Fonseca

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The project owner's role in the public-private investment consists of controlling and verifying the correct execution of the project's objectives and resources. Likewise, it is a discipline little explored in the academic field, whereby this work wishes to contribute with a model of good practices based on the project management methodology proposed by the Project Management Body of Knowledge® Guide. In the same way, highlight what are the controls that an integral project owner should take into account in its exercise and application, through the stages in which its contract runs. This proposal aims to structure its practice and integrate its functions according to a project management methodology. In addition, these practices will be applied in a case study of projects in the agricultural sector, particularly in the construction of irrigation district in Cundinamarca, Colombia.

Keywords: controls, construction of irrigation district, PMBOK®, project owner

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Authors: Luis González-Cavieres, Mario Perez-Won, Anais Palma-Acevedo, Gipsy Tabilo-Munizaga, Erick Jara-Quijada, Roberto Lemus-Mondaca

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In this study, pulsed electric field (PEF: 2.0 kV/cm) was used as pretreatment in drying methods, vacuum microwave (VMD); freeze-drying (FD); and hot air (HAD), in Chilean abalone mollusk. Drying parameters, quality, energy consumption, and Sustainability parameters were evaluated. PEF+VMD showed better values than the other drying systems, with drying times 67% and 83% lower than PEF+FD and FD. In the quality parameters, PEF+FD showed a significantly lower value for hardness (250 N), and a lower change of color value (ΔE = 12). In the case of HAD, the PEF application did not significantly influence its processing. In energy parameters, VMD and PEF+VMD reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

Keywords: PEF technology, vacuum microwave drying, energy consumption, CO2 emissions

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Authors: Janella Salamania, Marcedon Fernandez, Matthew Villanueva Henry Ramos

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Titanium nitrite (TiN) a popular functional and decorative coating because of its golden yellow color, high hardness and superior wear resistance. It is also being studied as a diffusion barrier in integrated circuits due to its known chemical stability and low resistivity. While there have been numerous deposition methods done for TiN, most required the heating of substrates at high temperatures. In this work, TiN films are deposited on silicon (111) and (100) substrates without substrate heating using a patented magnetized sheet plasma source. Films were successfully deposited without substrate heating at various target bias, while maintaining a constant 25% N2 to Ar ratio, and deposition of time of 30 minutes. The resulting films exhibited a golden yellow color which is characteristic of TiN. X-ray diffraction patterns show the formation of TiN predominantly oriented in the (111) direction regardless of substrate used. EDX data also confirms the 1:1 stoichiometry of titanium an nitrogen. Ellipsometry measurements estimate the thickness to range from 28 nm to 33 nm. SEM images were also taken to observe the morphology of the film.

Keywords: coatings, nitrides, coatings, reactive magnetron sputtering, thin films

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Authors: Alexandre Gonzalez, Zohra Benfodda, David Bénimélis, Jean-Xavier Fontaine, Roland Molinié, Patrick Meffre

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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by flowers play an important role in plant ecology. However, the Tillandsia genus has been scarcely studied according to the VOCs emitted by flowers. Tillandsia are epiphytic flowering plants belonging to the Bromeliaceae family. The VOCs composition of twelve unscented and two faint-scented Tillandsia species was studied. The headspace solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry method was used to explore the chemical diversity of the VOCs. This study allowed the identification of 65 VOCs among the fourteen species, and between six to twenty-five compounds were identified in each of the species.

Keywords: tillandsia, headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), scentless flowers, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), PCA analysis, heatmap

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Authors: Jose Gonzalez, Fai Cheng, Ivy Fan

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Shipping has a mature and ever expanding worldwide market. The future of the marine industry itself is not only irrevocably linked with the global economic, social, and political landscape; it is also subject to the technological developments in different fields. Some of them may have never been linked to the marine industry before. Companies in the marine sector are getting more dependent on technologies to achieve competitive advantage in an increasing open market. Technologies can be fused across different business functions and geopolitical influences. A successful marine business should be prepared to embrace such potential changes that lie ahead. The present paper intends to articulate long-term marine technology strategies from an industrial perspective. Methodology and current development are introduced. The paper will also provide insight into future technological trends demand for major commercial ship types. It may also assist different stakeholders in tailoring their long-term strategies to achieve a Sea Change and to uncap opportunity.

Keywords: commercial sector, marine, trends, technology

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Authors: Marta Fernández Olmos, Jorge Fleta, Talia Gómez

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This article shares the results of a temporal analysis of the literature on imports of intermediate inputs based on review techniques. The aim of this paper is to identify the main lines of research, their trends, topics, and the research agenda. The internationalization field has attracted considerable scholars and practitioners’ attention in recent years and has grown, rapidly, resulting in a large body of knowledge scattered in different areas of specialization. However, there are no studies that are entirely restricted to imports, intermediate inputs and innovation performance. The performance analysis provided an updated overview of the evolution of the importing literature from 1970 to 2022 and quantitatively identified the most productive and influential journals, articles, authors, and countries. The results show that the current topics are mainly based on modes of importing, innovation performance of importing intermediate imports and collaborations. Future lines of research are identified from topics with lower co-occurrence, such as artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and alternative business models such as multinational enterprises (MNEs) versus non-MNEs.

Keywords: imports, intermediate inputs, innovation performance, review

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Authors: Aida Alemany, Laura Ballester, Ana González-Urteaga

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From 2007 subprime crisis to the recent Eurozone debt crisis the European banking industry has experienced a terrible financial instability situation with increasing levels of CDS spreads (used as a proxy of credit risk). This paper investigates whether volatility transmission channels in European banking markets have changed after three significant crises’ events during the period January 2006 to March 2013. The global financial crisis is characterized by a unidirectional volatility shocks spillovers effect in credit risk from inside to outside the Eurozone. By contrast, the Eurozone debt crisis is revealed to be local in nature with the euro as the key element suggesting a market fragmentation between distressed peripheral and non-distressed core Eurozone countries, whereas retaining the local currency have acted as a firewall. With these findings we are able to shed light on the impact of the different crises on the European banking credit risk dynamics.

Keywords: CDS spreads, credit risk, volatility spillovers, financial crisis

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Authors: Iván García-Magariño, Javier Bravo-Agapito, Marta López-Fernández

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Online judges have proven their utility in partial auto-evaluation of programming short exercises in the last decades. UnitJudge online judge has the advantage of facilitating the evaluation of separate units to provide more segregate and meaningful feedback to students in complex exercises and practices. This paper discusses the use of UnitUdge in advanced Java object-oriented programming exercises and web development practices. This later usage has been proposed by means of the Selenium Java library and classes to provide the web address. Consequently, UnitJudge is an online judge system that can be applied in several subjects, and therefore, many other students would take advantage of self-testing their exercises. This paper presents the experiments with a Java programming exercise for learning Java object-oriented classes with a generic type. Considering 10 students who voluntarily used UnitJudge, 80% successfully learned this concept, passing the judge exercise with correct results.

Keywords: online judges, programming skills, computer science education, auto-evaluation

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Authors: Arturo J. Anci Alméstar, Jose D. Fernandez Huapaya, David Mauricio

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Companies make erroneous decisions by not evaluating the inherent difficulties of entering electronic commerce without a prior review of current digital and alternate means of payment. For this reason, it is very important for businesses to have reliable, complete and integrated information on the means of current digital and alternate payments that allow decisions to be made about which of these to use. However, there is no such consolidated information or criteria that companies use to make decisions about the means of payment according to their needs. In this paper, we propose a decision tree model based on a taxonomy that presents us with a categorization of digital and alternative means of payment, as well as the visualization of the flow of information at a high level from the company to obtain a recommendation. This will allow the company to make the most appropriate decision about the implementation of the digital means of payment or alternative ideal for their needs, which allows a reduction in costs and complexity of the payment process. Likewise, the efficiency of the proposed model was evaluated through a satisfaction survey presented to company personnel, confirming the satisfactory quality level of the recommendations obtained by the model.

Keywords: digital payment medium, decision tree, decision making, digital payments taxonomy

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Authors: Amanda Coleman, Estefanía Gonzalez

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Empathy is considered an essential skill for engaging with social work clients. Drawing from developments in medical education, researchers will conduct and evaluate a three-part pilot theatre workshop with master level social work students (n ≈ 30) to evaluate the workshop's ability to enhance empathy among participants. Outcomes will be measured using semi-structured post-intervention interviews with a subset of participants (n ≈ 10) as well post-intervention written reflections and pre-and-post intervention quantitative evaluation of empathy using King and Holosko’s 2011 Empathy Scale for Social Workers. The content of the workshop will differ from traditional role plays, which are common in social work education, in that it will draw from role theory and research on creative empathy to emphasize role reversal with clients. Workshops will be held February and March of 2017 with preliminary findings available by April.

Keywords: education, empathy, social work, theatre

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Authors: Santiago Moll Lopez, Erica Vega Fleitas, Dolors Rosello Ferragud, Luis Manuel Sanchez Ruiz, Jose Antonio Moraño Fernandez

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Game-based learning (GBL) is becoming popular in education. Learning through games offers students a motivating experience related to the social aspect of games. Among the significant positive outcomes are promoting positive emotions and collaboration, improving the assimilation of concepts, and creating an attractive and dynamic environment standout. This work presents a study of the design and implementation of games created with RPG Maker MZ software with a Sci-Fi storytelling environment for developing specific and transversal skills in a Mathematics subject at the Beng in Aerospace Engineering. Games were applied during regular classes and as a part of a Flip-Teaching methodology to increase the motivation and the assimilation of mathematical concepts in an engaging way. The key features of the games were the introduction of avatar design and the promotion of collaboration among students. Students' opinions and grades obtained in the activities and exams showed increased motivation and a significant improvement in their performance compared with other groups or past students' performances.

Keywords: game-based learning, rol games, mathematics, science fiction

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Authors: J. L. Andrade-Pineda, J.M. León-Blanco, M. Calle, P. L. González-R

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The enrollment in current Master's degree programs usually pursues gaining the expertise required in real-life workplaces. The experience we present here concerns the learning process of "Project Management Methodology (PMM)", around a cooperative/collaborative mechanism aimed at affording students measurable learning goals and providing the teacher with the ability of focusing on the weaknesses detected. We have designed a mixed summative/formative evaluation, which assures curriculum engage while enriches the comprehension of PMM key concepts. In this experience we converted the students into active actors in the evaluation process itself and we endowed ourselves as teachers with a flexible process in which along with qualifications (score), other attitudinal feedback arises. Despite the high level of self-affirmation on their discussion within the interactive assessment sessions, they ultimately have exhibited a great ability to review and correct the wrong reasoning when that was the case.

Keywords: cooperative-collaborative learning, educational management, formative-summative assessment, leadership training

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Authors: Antonella Regueiro Fernandez

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This paper examines the issue of period poverty and the innovative approaches – or lack thereof – that national systems are using to tackle the issue. Through a systems-thinking and economical approach, the paper analyzes the intricate relationship between proper systemic change and sustainable innovations for this global problem. The first part of the research introduces period poverty and the lack of sustainable options currently in place to resolve the issue. The second part delves into a comparison of existing technologies – single-use and reusable period products -- and their benefits and deficiencies. It also provides a comparison of two countries and their existing solutions landscape (Scotland and the United States), arguing that while Scotland has provided an innovative national solution to the problem, it still lacks a proper assessment of the issue of sustainability, while the United States continues to lag in offering any holistic solution at all. The last part provides a conclusion to the research and affirms the importance of holistic policymaking approaches to issues of period poverty, which have the potential to truly benefit half of the world’s population while also encouraging environmental preservation.

Keywords: gender equity, sustainability, period poverty, SDGs, sustainable development

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Authors: Catarina Ferreira Rebelo, Luis Madeira de Carvalho, Fernando González González

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The order Passeridae corresponds to the richest and most abundant group of birds, with approximately 6500 species, making it possible to assert that two out of every three bird species are passerines. They are globally distributed and exhibit remarkable morphological and ecological variability. While numerous species of parasites have been identified and described in wild birds, there has been little focus on passeriformes. Seventeen passerines admitted to GREFA, a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, throughout the months of October, November and December 2022 were analyzed. The species included Aegithalos caudatus, Anthus pratensis, Carduelis chloris, Certhia brachydactyla, Erithacus rubecula, Fringilla coelebs, Parus ater, Passer domesticus, Sturnus unicolor, Sylvia atricapilla, Turdus merula and Turdus philomelos. Data regarding past history was collected, and necropsies were conducted to identify the cause of death and body condition and determine the presence of parasites. Additionally, samples of intestinal content were collected for direct/fecal smear, flotation and sedimentation techniques. Sixteen (94.1%) passerines were considered positive for the presence of parasitic forms in at least one of the techniques used, including parasites detected in necropsy. Adult specimens of both sexes and tritonymphs of Monojoubertia microhylla and ectoparasites of the genus Ornithonyssus were identified. Macroscopic adult endoparasitic forms were also found during necropsies, including Diplotriaena sp., Serratospiculum sp. and Porrocaecum sp.. Parasitism by coccidia was observed with no sporulation. Additionally, eggs of nematodes from various genera were detected, such as Diplotriaena sp., Capillaria sp., Porrocaecum sp., Syngamus sp. and Strongyloides sp., eggs of trematodes, specifically the genus Brachylecithum and cestode oncospheres, whose genera were not identified. To our knowledge, the respiratory nematode Serratospiculum sp. found in this study is being reported for the first time in passerines in the Iberian Peninsula, along with the application of common coprological techniques for the identification of eggs in the intestinal content. The majority of parasites identified utilize intermediary hosts present in the diet of the passerines sampled. Furthermore, the discovery of certain parasites with a direct life cycle could potentially exert greater influence, particularly in specific scenarios such as within nests or during the rehabilitation process in wildlife centers. These parasites may impact intraspecific competition, increase susceptibility to predators or lead to death. However, their cost to wild birds is often not clear, as individuals can endure various parasites without significant harm. Furthermore, wild birds serve as important sources of parasites across different animal groups, including humans and other mammals. This study provides invaluable insights into the parasitic fauna of these birds, not only serving as a cornerstone for future epidemiological investigations but also enhancing our comprehension of these avian species.

Keywords: birds, parasites, passerines, wild, spain

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Authors: David Aveiga, Carlos Gonzalez

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Thermoforming of pre-impregnated composites (prepreg) is the most employed process to build high-performance composite structures due to their visible advantage over alternative manufacturing techniques. This method allows easy shape moulding with a simple manufacturing system and a more refined outcome. The achievement of complex geometries can be exposed to undesired defects such as wrinkles. It is known that interply and ply-mould sliding behavior governs this defect generation. This work analyses interply and ply-mould friction coefficients for UD AS4/8552 Carbon/Epoxy prepreg. Friction coefficients are determined by a pull-out test method considering actual velocity, pressure and temperature conditions employed in a thermoforming process of an aeronautical composite component. A Stribeck curve is then constructed to find a mathematical expression that relates all the friction coefficients with the test variables through the Hersey number parameter. Two expressions are proposed to model ply-ply and ply-tool friction behaviors.

Keywords: friction, prepreg composite, stribeck curve, thermoforming.

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Authors: Eduardo Martínez González, Mousumi Dey, Pekka Peljo

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Transitioning to a renewable energy model is inevitable owing to the effects of climate change. These energies are aimed at sustainability and a positive impact on the environment, but they are intermittent energies; their connection to the electrical grid depends on creating long-term, efficient, and low-cost energy storage devices. Redox flow batteries are attractive technologies to address this problem, as they store energy in solution through external tanks known as posolyte (solution to storage positive charge) and negolyte (solution to storage negative charge). During the charging process of the device, the posolyte and negolyte solutions are pumped into an electrochemical cell (which has the anode and cathode separated by an ionic membrane), where they undergo oxidation and reduction reactions at electrodes, respectively. The electrogenerated species should be stable and diffuse into the bulk solution. It has been possible to connect gigantic redox flow batteries to the electrical grid. However, the devices created do not fit with the sustainability criteria since their electroactive material consists of vanadium (material scarce and expensive) solutions dissolved in an acidic medium (e.g., 9 mol L-1 of H₂SO₄) that is highly corrosive; so, work is being done on the design of organic-electroactive electrolytes (posolytes and nogolytes) for their operation at different pH values, including neutral medium. As a main characteristic, negolyte species should have low reduction potential values, while the reverse is true for the oxidation process of posolytes. A wide variety of negolytes that store 1 and up to 2 electrons per molecule (in aqueous medium) have been publised. Gallocyanine compound was recently introduced as an electroactive material for developing alkaline flow battery negolytes. The system can storage two electrons per molecule, but its unexpectedly low water solubility was improved with an amino sulphonic acid additive. The cycling stability of and improved gallocyanine electrolyte was demonstrated by operating a flow battery cell (pairing the system to a posolyte composed of ferri/ferrocyanide solution) outside a glovebox. We also discovered that the additive improves the solubility of gallocyanine, but there is a kinetic price to pay for this advantage. Therefore, in this work, the effect of different amino sulphonic acid derivatives on the kinetics and solubility of gallocyanine compound was studied at alkaline solutions. The additive providing a faster electron transfer rate and high solubility was tested in a flow battery cell. An aqueous organic flow battery electrolyte working outside a glovebox with 15 mAhL-1 will be discussed. Acknowledgments: To Bi3BoostFlowBat Project (2021-2025), funded by the European Research Concil. For support with infrastructure, reagents, and a postdoctoral fellowship to Dr. Martínez-González.

Keywords: alkaline flow battery, gallocyanine electroactive material, amine-sulphonic acid additives, improved solubility

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Authors: Néstor Álvarez-Díaz, Pino Caballero-Gil, Héctor Reboso-Morales, Francisco Martín-Fernández

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The recent tendency of "Internet of Things" (IoT) has developed in the last years, causing the emergence of innovative communication methods among multiple devices. The appearance of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has allowed a push to IoT in relation to smartphones. In this moment, a set of new applications related to several topics like entertainment and advertisement has begun to be developed but not much has been done till now to take advantage of the potential that these technologies can offer on many business areas and in everyday tasks. In the present work, the application of BLE technology and smartphones is proposed on some business areas related to the optimization of resource allocation in huge facilities like airports. An indoor location system has been developed through triangulation methods with the use of BLE beacons. The described system can be used to locate all employees inside the building in such a way that any task can be automatically assigned to a group of employees. It should be noted that this system cannot only be used to link needs with employees according to distances, but it also takes into account other factors like occupation level or category. In addition, it has been endowed with a security system to manage business and personnel sensitive data. The efficiency of communications is another essential characteristic that has been taken into account in this work.

Keywords: bluetooth low energy, indoor location, resource assignment, smartphones

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Authors: A. Alvaredo , R. Guzman De Villoria, P. Castell, Juan P. Fernandez-Blazquez

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Since graphene was discovered in 2004, has been considered as superb material, due to its outstanding mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. Graphene has been incorporated as reinforcement in several high performance polymers in order to obtain a good balance of properties and to get new properties as thermal or electric conductivity. As well known, the properties of semicrystalline polymer and its composites depends heavily on degree of crystallinity. In this context, our research group has studied the crystallization behavior from amorphous state of PEEK/GNP composites. The monitoring of cold crystallization processes studied by time-resolved simultaneous wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). These techniques allowed to get an extremely relevant information about the evolution of the morphology of the PEEK/GNP composites. In addition, the thermal evolution of cold crystallization was followed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as well. The experimental results showed changes in crystallization kinetics and c parameter unit cell when adding graphene. The main aim of this work is to produce PEEK/GNP composites and characterize their morphology, unit cell parameters and crystallization kinetic.

Keywords: PEEK, graphene, synchrotron, cold crystallization

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Authors: Celina Pestano-Gabino, Concepcion Gonzalez-Concepcion, M. Candelaria Gil-Fariña

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Some estimation methods for VARMA models, and Multivariate Time Series Models in general, rely on the use of a Hankel matrix. It is known that if the data sample is populous enough and the dimension of the Hankel matrix is unnecessarily large, this may result in an unnecessary number of computations as well as in numerical problems. In this sense, the aim of this paper is two-fold. First, we provide some theoretical results for these matrices which translate into a lower dimension for the matrices normally used in the algorithms. This contribution thus serves to improve those methods from a numerical and, presumably, statistical point of view. Second, we have chosen an estimation algorithm to illustrate in practice our improvements. The results we obtained in a simulation of VARMA models show that an increase in the size of the Hankel matrix beyond the theoretical bound proposed as valid does not necessarily lead to improved practical results. Therefore, for future research, we propose conducting similar studies using any of the linear system estimation methods that depend on Hankel matrices.

Keywords: covariances Hankel matrices, Kronecker indices, system identification, VARMA models

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Authors: Covadonga Mallada Fernández

Abstract:

Economic development and globalization of international markets have created a favourable atmosphere for the emergence of new forms of crime such as money laundering or financing of terrorism, which may contribute to destabilized and damage economic systems. In particular, money laundering have acquired great importance since the 11S attacks, what has caused on the one hand, the establishment and development of preventive measures and, on the other hand, a progressive hardening of penal measures. Since then, the regulations imposed to fight against money laundering have been viewed as key components also in the fight against terrorist financing. Terrorism, at the beginning, was a “national” crime connected with internal problems of the State (for instance the RAF in Germany or ETA in Spain) but in the last 20 years has started to be an international problem that is connected with the defence and security of the States. Therefore, the new strategic concept for the defense and security of NATO has a comprehensive list of security threats to the Alliance, such as terrorism, international instability, money laundering or attacks on cyberspace, among others. With this new concept, money laundering and terrorism has become a priority in the national defense. In this work we will analyze the methods to combat these new threats to the national security. We will study the preventive legislations to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism, the UIF that exchange information between States, and the hawala-Banking.

Keywords: control of financial flows, money laundering, terrorism, financing of terrorism

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Authors: Israel Becerril Rosales, Manuel González De La Rosa, Gerardo Villa Sánchez

Abstract:

In this work, the effects that produce not having a good inventory management is analyzed, in addition of the way that how it affects the storage costs. The research began conducting the historical analysis about stored products, its storage capacity, and distribution. The results were not optimal, since in all its raw materials (RM) have overstocking, the warehouse capacity is only used by 61%, does not have a specific place for each of its RM, causing that the delivery times increases and makes difficult a cyclical inventory. These shortcomings allowed to view and select as design alternatives the inventory ABC, so that depending on the consumption of each RM would be redistributed by using economic amount requested. Also, the Delphi method to ensure the practical applicability of the proposed tool was used, taking in account comments and suggestions of the involved experts, as well as the compliance of NOM-059-SSA1-2015 good manufacturing practices of drug. With the actions implemented, the utilization rate drops of 61% to 32% capacity, it shows that the warehouse was not designed properly due to there is not an industrial engineering area.

Keywords: lead time, improve delivery, storage costs, inventory management

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