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The article discusses the first Early Researchers' Seminar for Science and Speculative Fiction, which took place at the University of Salamanca in Spain. The seminar featured a series of panels and discussions on various topics related to speculative fiction, including gendered geographies, posthumanism, and contemporary speculative literature. The speakers aimed to deliver accessible talks that catered to a diverse audience, from established researchers to undergraduate students. The seminar provided a welcoming and non-commodified space for the exchange of ideas and fostered discussions on topics such as feminist speculation, posthuman bodies, and the critical potentials of speculative fiction. [Extracted from the article]

In the early years of schooling, peer groups are key to fostering students' overall learning and development. Yet it has been found that around 10% of children suffer from peer rejection in the classroom, with this problem entailing negative consequences both in the short and long term. The problem proves difficult for adults to detect, which usually leads to a delay in measures being taken to intervene and prevent it. This study applies an experimental design with pre-test and post-test measurements in two groups—experimental and control—in order to address the problem of rejection in the early years of schooling. It explores aspects such as sociometric type, degree of victimisation, social and antisocial behaviour, as well as problematic situations among 637 students at six schools. We then implement an intervention programme for socioemotional competence throughout a school year in an effort to improve students' social skills and relationships, focusing specifically on preventing and reducing the rejection experienced by some of these children. The programme comprises 35 teaching activities and strategies that promote the development of competences for student inclusion (curbing aggression, encouraging teamwork, fostering self-esteem, etc.) and that seek to involve all students, teachers, and relatives by offering an array of complementary resources that enrich the initiatives applied (a programme calendar, assessment notebook, questionnaires, related website, material resources). After the intervention programme, it was found that the experimental group had reduced the percentage of students who suffered rejection from 9.9% to 7.3%, although the same was not true of the control group, which went from 9.5% of rejected students to 10.2%. The reduction in the percentage of rejected students in the experimental group after the application of the programme is an encouraging result that invites us to continue working on more comprehensive interventions to prevent and reduce this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Las actividades agropecuarias, a nivel global tienen un impacto significativo prácticamente en todas las esferas del ambiente y recursos naturales. La ganadería es uno de los sectores económicos con repercusiones más graves en el ambiente, en todos los niveles, desde el local a lo mundial. En Corrientes ésta representa una de las principales actividades. En el presente trabajo abordamos la problemática de la producción ganadera en la provincia de Corrientes y reflexionamos acerca de cómo los instrumentos jurídicos que regulan ésta actividad colaboran con mitigar el cambio climático y promover una actividad ganadera sustentable. Para el trabajo utilizamos una metodología cualitativa, exploratoria, nos basamos en la observación del fenómeno, acompañado de descripciones, mediciones de organismos públicos y análisis comparativo. Las técnicas que se utilizaron fueron la revisión y exploración histórica y contextual de las normas e instrumentos jurídicos identificados. Primero abordamos la problemática desde el ámbito nacional, para luego ceñirnos en la regulación particular provincial. Por ultimo pudimos identificar mecanismos o instrumentos normativos alternativos. Esta revisión nos permitió detectar que en el ámbito de Corrientes existen normativas específicas referidas a áreas protegidas y a bosque nativos que establecen límites a la ganadería, con el fin de compatibilizar con la protección al ambiente. Sin embargo estas regulaciones no dan respuesta definitiva y solo dan soluciones parciales a las fuertes presiones que la legislación internacional demanda. Por otro lado los programas de promoción de la ganadería integrada y la certificación privada revalorizan la inclusión del recurso árbol en sistemas agro-ecológicos con énfasis en la captura de carbono, pero no quedan libres de cuestionamientos.

Highlights: Mean chlorophyll under 0.5–1 μgChla/L becomes robust and resilient in a salt lagoon. Both nitrogen and phosphorus loads contribute to eutrophication in a Mediterranean salt lagoon. Key factors in the Mar Menor (MM): phosphorus water–sediment relationship and deep water plants. Recovery nitrate-polluted aquifer makes the MM more robust and resilient. High risk of massive mortalities when mean chlorophyll is higher than 5 μgChla/L. Eutrophication is a significant threat to aquatic ecosystems worldwide, and the Mar Menor hypersaline lagoon exemplifies a coastal lagoon at risk of algal blooms due to excessive nutrient loads, nitrogen, and phosphorus. These nutrients originate from various sources within the lagoon's catchment area, including urban, agricultural, and livestock activities. Regular and occasional loads—during flood events—produce algal blooms that can significantly reduce the water oxygen content and cause massive mortalities, as observed in recent years. A daily algal growth model (Mmag) was developed to better understand the processes and determine key elements such as the phosphorus water–sediment interchange and deep water plants that effect the entire ecosystem and algal growth. The analysis developed can be applied in other wetlands around the world facing similar challenges. In the Mar Menor, both nitrogen and phosphorus have high relevance depending on the period of the year and the phosphorus legacy in the sediments. Floods are the main phosphorus input to the lagoon (80–90%), which goes to the sediment and is released after during the warm months in the following years. At the end of summer, phosphorus released from the sediment and the regular nitrate inputs to the lagoon increase the algal bloom risk. The good status of deep water plants, which reduces the phosphorus release in summer, is a key element to reduce the algal bloom risk. An integrated set of measures is required to reduce the mean chlorophyll to levels under 1 or 0.5 µgChla/L that can make the Mar Menor more robust and resilient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pain neuroscience education combined with exercise (PNE 1 exercise) is an effective treatment for patients with chronic spinal pain. Yet, however, little is known about its underlying therapeutic mechanisms. Thus, this study aimed to provide the first insights by performing a novel mediation analysis approach in a published randomized controlled trial in primary care where PNE 1 exercise was compared with standard physiotherapy. Four mediators (catastrophizing, kinesiophobia, central sensitization-related distress, and pain intensity) measured at postintervention and 3 outcomes (disability, health-related quality of life, and pain medication intake) measured at 6-month follow-up were included into the analysis. The postintervention measure of each outcome was also introduced as a competing candidate mediator in each respective model. In addition, we repeated the analysis by including all pairwise mediator-mediator interactions to allow the effect of each mediator to differ based on the other mediators' values. Postintervention improvements in disability, medication intake, and health-related quality of life strongly mediated PNE 1 exercise effects on each of these outcomes at 6-month follow-up, respectively. Reductions in disability and medication intake were also mediated by reductions in kinesiophobia and central sensitization-related distress. Reductions in kinesiophobia also mediated gains in the quality of life. Changes in catastrophizing and pain intensity did not mediate improvements in any outcome. The mediation analyses with mediator-mediator interactions suggested a potential effect modification rather than causal independence among the mediators. The current results, therefore, support the PNE framework to some extent as well as highlight the need for implementing the recent approaches for mediation analysis to accommodate dependencies among the mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to carry out a systematic review of the most recent research on performance analysis in padel. An electronic search was made in four sport science databases: Web of Science, Pubmed, Scopus and Google Scholar. Systematic review principles were used to identify and select studies following inclusion and exclusion criteria. From a total of 261 articles identified in the initial search, 27 articles were included in analysis, all dating from after 2018. The articles were classified according to four study variables: temporal aspects, game actions, on-court movements and match score studies, ordered in turn according to the year of publication. The results show differences in the four study variables according to the gender or the level of players, the side or the zone of play and the duration of the match. In conclusion, the results define the relevant aspects of the game with the aim of being used at a technical, tactical and physical level, as well as contributing to the development of scientific knowledge in padel, allowing future research to address less studied topics and carry out more complete and specific studies and interventions for a greater understanding of the needs of padel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence demonstrate that the electron transfer chain plays a critical role in controlling the effector functions of macrophages. In this work, we have generated a Ndufs4−/− murine macrophage cell lines. The Ndufs4 gene, which encodes a supernumerary subunit of complex I, is a mutational hotspot in Leigh syndrome patients. Ndufs4−/− macrophages showed decreased complex I activity, altered complex I assembly, and lower levels of maximal respiration and ATP production. These mitochondrial respiration alterations were associated with a shift towards a pro-inflammatory cytokine profile after lipopolysaccharide challenge and improved ability to phagocytose Gram-negative bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunnel construction is one of the areas of civil engineering where automation systems can increase both safety and productivity. That is why, to promote a continuous improvement and optimization of construction processes, the implementation of intelligent transport systems and, specifically, autonomous vehicles has been proposed as a catalyst for public works construction activity, including tunnels, reducing personnel, and operation costs, as well as improving safety. Under this scope, this paper presents the development of the automation system for a 25‐ton hauler truck, focusing on the task of removing debris from public works, including tunnels. This automation system has been designed, developed, and tested under real conditions in the facilities of two companies dedicated to civil engineering works, including vehicle guidance with and without gobal positioning system, obstacle detection, and tele‐operation for load/unload tasks. The main novelty of the system is the capacity of easy integration into the production system of the works, with a capacity to switch between manual, tele‐operation, or autonomous driving modes, and with specific sensors and control systems for combining indoor and outdoor navigation. The presented work includes the description of the automation of the vehicle, the general architecture, the environment perception, and the tele‐operation capacity, including indoor navigation and obstacle detection algorithms. The proposed system has been implemented and tested in real conditions, demonstrating the performance of the system and the benefit of the automation for this application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of renewable energy sources and water production technologies is a must when facing water scarcity problems in semiarid regions, such as Mediterranean regions. The use of additional water resources and production methods, such as reclaimed water and, more specifically, desalinated water, means present and necessary water resources to introduce in the water balances to attend to water demands within a global warming and droughting scenario. These solutions have the inconvenience of energy/power needs and costs. However, the development of renewable energies like photovoltaic solar energy, with lower and lower costs and greater efficiency, makes these economically feasible facilities, reaching competitive production costs for marine or sea desalinated water by around 50% of reduction in energy costs and 20–30% of savings in final water production cost. This paper presents a practical project or action focused on the integration of renewable energies and new water resources by introducing a Photovoltaic Energy Plant (PVEP) as an energy source to feed a Seawater Desalination Treatment Plant (SWDTP). The PV facility is designed to cover all the energy demanded using the SWDTP during the day, and even studying the possibility of selling the energy production exceeds and injecting them into the energy supply network, covering the needs of buying energy needed during the high period where there is no photovoltaic energy production. Thus, savings related to energy costs and even incomes coming from energy sales mean an important reduction in operation costs or expenditures (OPEX), which makes economically feasible and sustainable the investment and the final price of water produced within the Mutxamel SWDTP. The final reduction cost in water desalination reaches 25% on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An online questionnaire on the subjective response to noise was created to collect national experiences from households during the first COVID-19 wave (from 14 March to 21 June). In this study, different noise sources (general noise, but also noise from neighbors, common areas, facilities, premises, and traffic) and self-declared health effects (stress, lack of concentration, sleep disturbance, anxiety, irritability, or their absence) reported from 582 participants were analyzed (before and during quarantine). A descriptive and statistical analysis between variables was established to observe relational trends for the two periods. The results associated stress and sleep disturbance with most of the noise sources before the pandemic. Sleep disturbance was not significant in confinement, maybe due to habit changes and staying home. Uncertainty linked to the pandemic could explain why stress showed significance during quarantine. Irritability showed an inverse relation with noise sources since their values were greater for declared noise sources and more annoying before the pandemic in all cases. Finally, anxiety showed an association with fewer noise sources, maybe also conditioned by other factors. However, the extreme situation and the uncertainty generated, the presence of cohabitants at home, and building factors (such as acoustic insulation) conditioned the households' experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi by vectors is confined to the Americas, and the infection circulates in at least two broadly defined transmission cycles occurring in domestic and sylvatic habitats. This study sought to detect and characterize infection by T. cruzi and other trypanosomes using PCR strategies in blood samples from free-ranging howler monkeys, Alouatta caraya, in the northeastern Argentina. Blood samples were collected at four sites with variable levels of habitat modification by human activity. PCR was conducted using primers for kinetoplast DNA, satellite DNA and ribosomal DNA of the trypanosomatid parasites. Ribosomal and satellite DNA fragments were sequenced to identify the trypanosomatid species and to characterize the discrete typing units (DTUs) of T. cruzi. Overall, 46% (50/109) of the howlers were positive according to the kDNA-PCR assay, but only 7 of the howlers were positive according to the SatDNA-PCR protocol. We sequenced the amplicons of the satellite DNA obtained from five specimens, and the sequences were 99% and 100% similar to T. cruzi. A sequence typical of DTU T. cruzi I was found in one howler monkey from the “remote” site, while sequences compatible with DTUs II, V, and VI were found in howlers from the “remote”, “rural” and “village” sites. We detected 96% positive samples for RibDNA-PCR, 9 of which were sequenced and displayed 99% identity with Trypanosoma minasense, while none showed identity with T. cruzi. The results demonstrated the presence of T. cruzi and a species closely related to T. minasense in blood samples from free-ranging A. caraya, belonging to different T. cruzi DTUs circulating in these howler monkey populations. The results obtained in this study could help evaluate the role of A. caraya as a reservoir of T. cruzi in regions where Chagas disease is hyper-endemic and where the human-wildlife interface is increasing.

Se presenta una revisión de distintos estudios que emplearon la técnica de AgNOR en el campo de las neurociencias del comportamiento. AgNOR es una técnica histológica que permite estudiar la activación cerebral de una región específica. Esta técnica ha sido utilizada en distintos grupos zoo lógicos que comprenden desde peces y anfibios hasta mamíferos, incluyendo actividad neural tanto en procesos normales como patológicos. En conjunto, la técnica de AgNOR tiene tres notables ventajas con respecto a otras técnicas histológicas como las inmunohistoquímicas. En primer lugar, su bajo costo. En segundo lugar, su robustez. Fi nalmente, la posibilidad de ser aplicada con faci lidad a cualquier especie animal, siendo esto úl timo particularmente relevante en el campo de la Psicología Comparada . Paradójicamente a pesar de estas ventajas, es una técnica poco conocida y empleada. El propósito de este artículo es contri buir a su difusión dentro de la comunidad de científicos del comportamiento.