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A deeper understanding of what factors influence metacognition has never become more pressing than in today's digital era, in which information flows constantly and quickly. To this end, the present study explored the role of culture in mediating how individuals experience metacognitive phenomena. For this purpose, the International Group on Metacognition (IGM) developed a rigorous standard international protocol to measure metacognition in Spanish-speaking university students (N = 1,461) in 12 cultures in Latin-America and Spain, employing both a subjective measure of metacognitive awareness (the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory [MAI]) and various metrics of objective metacognitive monitoring across three domains of learning—vocabulary, probabilities (mathematical reasoning), and paper folding (visual-spatial reasoning). Data were subsequently compared across the various cultures with subjective metacognitive awareness and the raw frequencies of the four mutually exclusive cells of the 2 × 2 performance/judgment array as outcomes. Results revealed significant differences regarding both macro-level components of subjective metacognitive awareness, knowledge and regulation of cognition. Further, significant and meaningful differences emerged for the raw frequencies of the four mutually exclusive cells as a function of culture, especially for vocabulary, in which differences among cultures emerged for all four cells. Implications for metacognitive research, theory, and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is based on the influence of the addition of a pozzolanic material as a result of the activation of an industrial waste coming from the Spanish paper industry on the heating as well as hydration heat of the cement mortars made with 10 or 20% of active addition. Once the sludge has been calcined at different temperatures (700–800°C) and stays in furnace (2 and 5 h), the calcined products showed high pozzolanic activity. The maximum activity corresponded to the paper sludge calcined at 700°C for 2 h (S1). Besides, it can be proved that there was an increase both of the heating and also of the hydration heat in the first 23–25 h for both additions (10 and 20% of S1) regarding the reference cement mortar. This behaviour would be related to the influence of different effects: filler and pozzolanic during the first hours of reaction, and by the dilution effect for longer hydration times, mainly when 20% of S1 was added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the Global Conference on Wireless and Optical Communications held on 18th till 20th September, 2017 in Spain organized by University of Malaga and Mehran University of Engineering and Technology. It talks about water management Cyber Physical System, controlling actuator with the internet, monitoring sensors, the speed in the network, having an interactive physiotherapy by packaging them into virtual reality and lightning detection system.

This paper comprehends the global research scenario about incorporating cultural components in contemporary urban planning practice. Various urban cultural elements have been analysed under the umbrella of 'Urban Cultural Dynamics' (UCD). This study aims to identify hot spots and explore influential sources through a bibliometric investigation of the evolutionary patterns of cultural dynamics in urban planning research. Data was collected from the Web of Science core collection (1965-2021). The data mining tools VOSviewer, Biblioshiny, KNIME, and WordStat were used to analyse hot topics, keywords, influential journals, core papers, top authors, and cooperation networks of countries and institutions. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed in journal analysis. The analysis showed that publications on UCD increased exponentially between 2016 and 2022. Italy (32), China (26), and Spain (18) are the top countries in total publications. Technical universities of Dresden and Munich have the most significant influence on UCD's research, with 103 and 101 total citations, respectively. Landscape and Urban Planning, Journal of Cultural Heritage, and Tourism Geographies are the top three consistently influential journals. The top ten core papers were identified. The keywords and topic analysis charted out the evolution of multidisciplinary UCD research topics. The hotspot analysis revealed the significance of cultural dynamics in sustainable urban development. The results highlighted the need for intercontinental cooperation between developed countries and the third world. The future scope of research on UCD topics is discussed in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The European Ecolabel (EU Flower) has the mission to encourage cleaner production and influence consumers to promote Europe's transition to a circular economy. Nonetheless, little is known about EU Ecolabel evolution; it is not clear what the drivers that encourage its implementation are. Thus, this study aims to assess the growing acceptance of the EU Ecolabel in the European Union, and Spain more specifically, by examining product and service categories and geographical regions. Methods: The methodological approach taken in this study is a mixed methodology based on the triangulation method by consulting the EU Ecolabel scheme database, EU Ecolabel delegates from some autonomous regions, and the academic literature. Also, a geographic analysis was run in the ArcGIS Software with data about the accumulation of licenses assigned in 2016. Results and discussion: The analysis shows that most products in Spain that have been awarded the EU Ecolabel belong to the following categories: Do-It-Yourself Products (paint and varnish), Paper Products, Cleaning Up Products, and Electronic Equipment. At the same time, the study showed that this ecolabel faces significant obstacles in its diffusion, such as the competition with environmental labels launched previously in Europe and other regional labels. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate the existence of five drivers that may encourage the implementation of EU Flower in a region: (1) public management, (2) communication strategy, (3) sustainable public procurement criteria, (4) local income per capita, and (5) international trade incentives. Finally, this study provides essential recommendations for policymakers to trigger ecolabeling practices such as the need to improve the understanding of the EU ecolabel impact in different levels of activity, which means countries, regions, industrial clusters, firms, and consumers. Also, this investigation identifies areas for further research, and it expresses the need to develop business case studies about ecolabeling with the objective to visualize this phenomenon as an eco-innovation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chemical Intelligencer,1997, 3, 61–64. IH: When you returned to Spain, you were 45. Did you build up a new lab and a new research group then? JE: It was difficult because the financial resources were not in place. There were no positions, no fellowships, no instrumentation. I tried to survive by building up an extensive system of cooperation with different places in Spain, in France, and in other countries. I tried to do inexpensive but interesting chemistry. This is one of the reasons why I developed a project on the solid-state properties of heteroaromatic compounds. They are stable, cheap, and friendly, are easy to prepare, and are crystalline, not volatile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals who reside in a country without regular authorisation generally find it difficult to access public medical services beyond emergency treatment. Even in countries with universal healthcare, there is often a gap between rights on paper and their implementation. Civil society organisations (CSOs) fill this gap by providing medical services to vulnerable populations, including irregular migrants. What, if any, are the ethical dilemmas that arise for CSO staff when delivering such services in countries with universal healthcare? Under what conditions do these dilemmas arise? And what strategies do CSO staff use to mitigate them? We answer these questions using 40 semi-structured interviews with CSO staff working in two European countries with high levels of irregularity, universal healthcare provisions on paper, and significant differences in approaches and availability of public services for irregular migrants: Italy and Spain. We show that CSO staff providing medical services to irregular migrants in places with universal healthcare coverage face a fundamental dilemma between humanitarianism and equity. CSO staff respond to the humanitarian belief in the value of taking all possible steps to prevent or alleviate human suffering, thus promoting a decent quality of life that includes access to both emergency and non-emergency care. In doing so, however, they run the risk of substituting rather than complementing public provisions, thereby preventing governments from assuming responsibility for these services in the long term. Individuals who acknowledge the existence of this dilemma generally oppose the creation of parallel structures; that is, services specifically developed for irregular migrants outside the public system; while those who ignore it essentially subscribe to a tiered system, giving up on considerations of equity. We argue that CSOs involved in the provision of healthcare to irregular migrants do not simply provide services; they also play an inherently political role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study empirically the existence of precautionary saving in Spain at the end of the Great Recession using the micro data provided by the Spanish Survey of Household Finances. Using the panel component of these data, I construct a measure of income uncertainty for each household from the observed household real income and use it to test for the strength of precautionary saving. I find that an increase of 1% in the standard deviation of income reduces household consumption by 8.8% when using the logarithm of the household consumption as dependent variable; however, when using the ratio between consumption and average income as dependent variable, given the average normal income and consumption in the sample, consumption will decrease by 8.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Most LCAs estimate environmental impacts for a specific situation (industry, sector or location) in a generic way, without considering the specific characteristics of the product or service being evaluated. This paper outlines the relevance of the use of parameters and scenarios in environmental assessment for a daily newspaper considering multiple factors. The results of the different environmental impacts were compared with a baseline reference scenario.Methods: Different product specifications, sources of raw materials, manufacturing technologies, energy mix, locations of the printing plant, and distribution possibilities of the newspaper have been taken into account. The unit processes and the amounts allocated for each resource may vary depending on the scenarios. Inventory data were obtained directly from measured data for consumption in the printing plant located in Gran Canaria (Spain) and internal inventories and indirectly from information of existing processes and products. As functional units, both 1 kg of printed newspaper and 1 unit of printed newspaper have been used. The environmental impact assessment methodology ReCiPe has been applied in this study. Also endpoint indicators are shown as score (Pt) for different areas of protection.Results and discussion: For variations in the number of printed copies, the results show that environmental impacts are very high for small runs. For large runs, the impacts decrease between −14 and −16% with respect to the baseline scenario. The environmental impact of paper in the final product depends on several variables including the use of recycled fiber, the papermaking technology and the energy used in the paper plant. For airlifted daily newspapers, this means an increase of over 98% in the Climate Change impact if it is not printed in the same place of distribution. The electricity mix also depends on the geographical location and significantly affects the impacts, especially in the case of an isolated territory with increments of over 12% compared to interconnected systems.Conclusions: An impact assessment should take into account the suppliers and the characteristics of the raw materials the equipment, the technology, the energy mix, and all the variables that may affect the product. From the analysis of the scenarios, it is obtained that the low runs as well as the high pages and weights produce the greatest impacts. The use of recyclable paper, the shorter distance to the printing plant from the raw materials factories as well as the use of renewable energy sources considerably reduce the impacts generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Comprehensive assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (CompACT) is a 23-item questionnaire measuring psychological flexibility, a quality of life protective factor. An 18-item version was recently produced. We assessed validity and reliability of CompACT, and equivalence of paper and electronic (eCompACT) versions in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) in Italy, Germany and Spain. Methods: We used confirmatory factor analysis and assessed CompACT-23 and CompACT-18 measurement invariance between the three language versions. We assessed construct validity (Spearman's correlations) and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha). Test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC) and equivalence of paper and eCompACT (ICC and linear regression model for repeated measures) were assessed in subsamples of PwMS. Results: A total of 725 PwMS completed the study. The three-factor structure of the CompACT-23 showed poor fit (RMSEA 0.07; CFI 0.82; SRMR 0.08), while the fit of the CompACT-18 was good (RMSEA 0.05; CFI 0.93; SRMR 0.05). Configural and partial metric invariance were confirmed, as well as partial scalar invariance (reached when five items were allowed to vary freely). The CompACT-18 showed good internal consistency (all alpha ≥ 0.78); and test–retest reliability (all ICCs ≥ 0.86). Equivalence between paper and eCompACT was excellent (all ICCs ≥ 0.86), with no mode, order, or interaction effects. Conclusion: Results support using the refined CompACT-18 as a three-factor measure of psychological flexibility in PwMS. Paper and eCompACT-18 versions are equivalent. CompACT-18 can be used cross-culturally, but sub-optimal scalar invariance suggests that direct comparison between the three language versions should be interpreted with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social distancing imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the digitalisation of societies, which also influenced habits related to the consumption and dissemination of news. In this context, older individuals are often blamed for contributing to disinformation, which is associated with the echo chambers fostered by social media. Mass media, social media and personal communication tools act as mass, social or personal intermediaries when it comes to keeping up to date with the news. This paper analyses the preferred intermediaries of older online adults (aged 60 and over) for following the news and how they change over time. We analysed two waves of an online survey-based longitudinal study conducted in Canada and Spain, before Covid-19 pandemic (2016/17), and during Covid-19 (in 2020). We found that most participants exclusively use mass intermediaries or combine mass with social and personal intermediaries to keep abreast of the news. However, only 28% of respondents inform themselves exclusively through the alleged echo chambers of social and personal intermediaries. Results also show that media ecologies evolve in different directions, and, despite the forced digitalisation driven by the pandemic, digital media usage did not always increase or evolve towards newer technologies. This paper contributes to understanding the diverse intermediaries used by older adults to obtain news and how such media ecologies can contribute to contrasting different sources of information beyond the alleged echo chambers of social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of Spanish households' indebtedness and financial vulnerability over the course of this century using micro-data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. Our results show a growing debt participation of Spanish households and an increase in the stock of outstanding debt of indebted households, a trend that reversed with the end of the Great Recession. Moreover, the percentage of financially vulnerable households according to three indicators grew dramatically until the end of the downward phase of the last economic cycle and showed considerable signs of improvement during the second half of 2010s. These results, nonetheless, call attention to the number of Spanish households being unable to service their debts in the face of an economic downturn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provision of on-demand door-to-door trips within the hailing sector has experienced significant disruptions in the last years due to the advent of ride-hailing services. The evolution of the sector is ongoing and one of the latest novelties is the introduction of e-hailing, which allows the booking of conventional regulated taxis through digital applications. The regulatory and technological dimensions of taxi and ride-hailing seem to play a key role when trying to explain users' choices of hailing services. For this reason, providing travelers with an option that combines traditional regulated services with the advantages of digital applications promises significant changes in users' preferences. This paper aims to understand the preferences of hailing users taking Spain as case study because of the controversy after the advent of competition in the hailing market. To that end, a Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM) has been built to simultaneously study the influence of socioeconomic characteristics, latent psychological constructs, and mobility habits on individuals' frequency of use of hailing services and their probability to belong to a specific hailing user profile. The results show that the adoption of ride-hailing and e-hailing is mainly influenced by psychological constructs. Individuals who wish to enjoy a high quality of service, but are not so liberal from the economic perspective, are more likely to have used e-hailing. Furthermore, the frequency of use of hailing services is affected by psychological constructs as much as by socio-economic variables and mobility habits. Finally, the effect of the openness to competition in the hailing market is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: What constitutes innovation in health technologies can be defined and measured in a number of ways and it has been widely researched and published about. However, while many countries mention it as a criterion for pricing or reimbursement of health technologies, countries differ widely in how they define and operationalise it. Methods: We performed a literature review, using a snowballing search. In this paper, we explore how innovation has been defined in the literature in relation to health technology assessment. We also describe how a selection of countries (England, France, Italy, Spain and Japan) take account of innovation in their health technology assessment frameworks and explore the key methodologies that can capture it as a dimension of value in a new health technology. We propose a way of coming to, and incorporating into health technology assessment systems, a definition of innovation for health technologies that is independent of other dimensions of value that they already account for in their systems, such as clinical benefit. We use Spain as an illustrative example of how innovation might be operationalised as a criterion for decision making in health technology assessment. Results: The countries analysed here can be divided into 2 groups with respect to how they define innovation. France, Japan and Italy use features such as severity, unmet need and therapeutic added value as indicators of the degree of innovation of a health technology, while England, Spain consider the degree of innovation as a separate and additional criterion from others. In the case of Spain, a notion of innovation might be constructed around concepts of 'step-change', 'convenience', 'strength of evidence base' and 'impact on future research & development'. Conclusions: If innovation is to be used as operational criteria for adoption, pricing and reimbursement of health technologies, the concept must be clearly defined, and it ought to be independent from other value dimensions already captured in their health technology assessment systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of increasing political polarization, its analysis becomes crucial for the understanding of democratic dynamics. This paper presents a comprehensive research on measuring political polarization on X (Twitter) during election cycles in Spain, from 2011 to 2019. A wide comparative analysis is performed on algorithms used to identify and measure polarization or controversy on microblogging platforms. This analysis is specifically tailored towards publications made by official political party accounts during pre-campaign, campaign, election day, and the week post-election. Guided by the findings of this comparative evaluation, we propose a novel algorithm better suited to capture polarization in the context of political events, which is validated with real data. As a consequence, our research contributes a significant advancement in the field of political science, social network analysis, and overall computational social science, by providing a realistic method to capture polarization from online political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iberian Peninsula constitutes a diversity hotspot with a high number of endemisms, where the land snail genus Iberus is likely the best example. Despite this, its species diversity is still debated as it holds several cryptic species. In the present paper, we use molecular evidence (mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I) to clarify the position of I. ortizi and three new cryptic species that are described herein: I. giennensis, I. axarciensis and I. antikarianus spp. nov. For this, we sampled 281 sampling points to delimitate a comprehensive geographic mapping of these species. Moreover, we carried out a comprehensive morphometric analysis based on 3205 shells. Our findings show that, morphologically, the three described species overlap in the form of their shells, their morphologies being very similar to other close species with nearby distributions (I. ortizi, I. angustatus and I. marmoratus loxanus). Still, all these species are well-defined by genetic distances, but display allopatric distributions, suggesting that they evolved by allopatric speciation as a consequence of biogeographic isolation. Hence, our findings show insights into the evolution of land snails in southeastern Spain, with implications for their conservation, given that our exhaustive sampling shows that the three species described here have very limited distribution ranges, especially I. antikarianus sp. nov. Our study, moreover, implies an integrated approach to the study of the evolution of land snails, including the sampling of the complete geographic area occupied by the genus, genetic analysis to delimit the actual species range, as well as morphometric analyses to understand the phenotypic differentiation and adaptations of the three new species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, important advances have taken place to improve game accessibility for all types of players. However, audio description (AD), the access service that translates images into words, is yet to be widely implemented in mainstream games. This paper presents part of the results of the Researching Audio Description Project: Translation, Delivery and New Scenarios (RAD). One of the main objectives of the project is to investigate the potential inclusion of AD in video games in order to improve their accessibility and to contribute to a more enjoyable experience for persons with visual disabilities. First, the evolution of game accessibility is discussed, including the latest developments in the field, both from the industry and research perspectives. Secondly, the RAD Project is presented. Thirdly, the data collected from a survey addressed to blind and low vision persons in Spain is described, for which 106 valid answers were received. Survey topics include the game accessibility barriers encountered by participants, their desired solutions, and their interest in the potential application of AD. Finally, results are discussed regarding similar studies, limitations, and future research. Survey participants are interested in including AD in video games, particularly in non-interactive sections such as cutscenes. Other pressing issues for the game industry regarding accessibility are improving screen reader compatibility, enhancing sounds, and exploring the technical feasibility of game AD in real-time action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Previous research has shown that team sports are perceived as spaces conducive to homonegativism or as havens where female athletes can explore their sexuality. This paper aims to analyze the role of team sports in the discovery, acceptance, and respectful lived experiences of lesbian sexuality among competitive female athletes. Methods: A qualitative methodology was used. Five focus groups organized by sport and the age of the athletes were conducted. Forty-five female athletes participated in the study. Data were collected from May 2017 to February 2018. Grounded theory was employed for the analysis. Results: The athletes' narratives suggest that the visibility of non-heterosexual persons, time spent together, emotional closeness, and similar lifestyles are features of team sports which allow lesbian female athletes to explore and establish affective-sexual relationships. These athletes participate in team sports because of their personal interest in the sport and not their sexual orientation. Conclusions: Sports teams have a protective and liberating role in female athletes' sexual exploration and the free and respectful experience of same-sex relationships in the Spanish sporting environment. Policy Implications. Although the democratization of sexuality in Spain has been positive for women in sport, further research is needed to determine whether gay men can participate in sport with full social protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Shortages of mechanical ventilation have become a constant problem in Emergency Departments (EDs), thereby affecting the timely deployment of medical interventions that counteract the severe health complications experienced during respiratory disease seasons. It is then necessary to count on agile and robust methodological approaches predicting the expected demand loads to EDs while supporting the timely allocation of ventilators. In this paper, we propose an integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Discrete-event Simulation (DES) to design effective interventions ensuring the high availability of ventilators for patients needing these devices. Methods: First, we applied Random Forest (RF) to estimate the mechanical ventilation probability of respiratory-affected patients entering the emergency wards. Second, we introduced the RF predictions into a DES model to diagnose the response of EDs in terms of mechanical ventilator availability. Lately, we pretested two different interventions suggested by decision-makers to address the scarcity of this resource. A case study in a European hospital group was used to validate the proposed methodology. Results: The number of patients in the training cohort was 734, while the test group comprised 315. The sensitivity of the AI model was 93.08% (95% confidence interval, [88.46 − 96.26%]), whilst the specificity was 85.45% [77.45 − 91.45%]. On the other hand, the positive and negative predictive values were 91.62% (86.75 − 95.13%) and 87.85% (80.12 − 93.36%). Also, the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve plot was 95.00% (89.25 − 100%). Finally, the median waiting time for mechanical ventilation was decreased by 17.48% after implementing a new resource capacity strategy. Conclusions: Combining AI and DES helps healthcare decision-makers to elucidate interventions shortening the waiting times for mechanical ventilators in EDs during respiratory disease epidemics and pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the use of case law by Spanish administrative courts. Based on a database of 2964 sentences, a content analysis captures the integration of case law into the legal basis of court rulings. Even though case law is not listed as a source of law in the Spanish legal system, courts follow case law from either the same sentencing court (self-referential pattern) or higher courts (hierarchical pattern). The results of a logistic regression analysis point to a higher level of regulatory complexity and the configuration of the appellate procedures as incentives to integrate higher courts' case law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is literature on the willingness to share visual data in the frame of web surveys and the actual participation when asked to do so, no research has investigated the skills of the participants to create and share visual data and the availability of such data, along with the willingness to share them. Furthermore, information on the burden associated with answering conventional questions and performing visual data-related tasks is also scarce. Our paper aims to fill those gaps, considering images and videos, smartphones and PCs, and visual data created before and during the survey. Results from a survey conducted among internet users in Spain (N = 857) show that most respondents know how to perform the studied tasks on their smartphone, while a lower proportion knows how to do them on their PC. Also, respondents mainly store images of landscapes and activities on their smartphone, and their availability to create visual data during the survey is high when answering from home. Furthermore, more than half of the participants are willing to share visual data. When analyzing the three dimensions together, the highest expected participation is observed for visual data created during the survey with the smartphone, which also results in a lower perception of burden. Moreover, older and lower educated respondents are less likely to capture and share visual data. Overall, asking for visual data seems feasible especially when collected during the survey with the smartphone. However, researchers should reflect on whether the expected benefits outweigh the expected drawbacks on a case-by-case basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on a conference Jornadas de Análisis Instrumental (JAI), held in November 2002, at Barcelona, Spain. The meeting of JAI describes a very interesting approach to the extraction, purification and characterization of synthetic crudes of peptide hormones of therapeutical interest. The rigorous and useful methodology proposed is characteristic of analytical proteomics and it is being imported to trace element speciation investigations. It could be said that nowadays the JAI in Spain is playing a role which is reminiscent of that played in the U.S. by the well known Pittsburgh Conference: it is a great occasion for manufacturers to show the latest instruments and methodologies of modern analytical science in the instrument exhibition to scientists and users attending the JAI scientific meeting.

The Mediterranean Basin is one of the World's plant diversity hotspots and a region prone to several anthropic pressures, besides being one of the World's areas most susceptible to climate change. In this region, which hosts a high percentage of threatened species, there has been a large increase in practical conservation actions to prevent the extinction of many plants or improve their conservation status. In this framework, plant translocations have become increasingly important. To obtain a picture of the status and to depict possible directions, data on plant translocations was collected through the available databases, national experts, and the grey literature available online. Overall, a list of 836 translocations relating to 572 plant species was found. These actions are mainly concentrated in Spain, France, and Italy (c. 87%) and, except for some pioneering actions, translocations have strongly increased starting from 2010. A subsequent in-depth bibliographic search of the scientific databases was conducted to determine how much information about plant translocations was documented in the scientific literature. This search resulted in a list of 133 peer-reviewed papers, of which only 17 describing one or more translocations and, as a whole, reporting 101 experiences carried out on 56 plant species. Our research highlighted a great discrepancy between the scarce scientific documentation in comparison to the large number of practical conservation actions carried out. The great experience gained in these translocations constitutes an enormous heritage potentially available to implement the necessary conservation actions to preserve the plant diversity of the Mediterranean Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses time series of job search queries from Google Trends to predict the unemployment in Spain. Within this framework, we study the effect of the so-called digital divide, by age and gender, from the predictions obtained with the Google Trends tool. Regarding males, our results evidence a digital divide effect in favor of the youngest unemployed. Conversely, the forecasts obtained for female and total unemployment clearly reject such effect. More interestingly, Google Trends queries turn out to be much better predictors for female than male unemployment, being this result robust to age groups. Additionally, the number of good predictors identified from the job search queries is also higher for women, suggesting that they are more likely to expand their job search through different queries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves deeply into the creative pedagogies which support cutting edge digital STEAM practice across primary and secondary school settings. It contextualises the research within current STEAM agendas including transdisciplinarity, and STEAM and technology and goes on to offer insight from the novel context of ocean learning to develop and extend a theorisation of creative pedagogies as entwining both creative teaching and teaching for creativity as embodied, democratic, dialogic and material processes. Intra-action between theory, praxis, nature, culture, the digital and humans enables an emergent perspective about changing the dynamics of power to develop ocean or environmental learning and related activism. Derived from research into an ocean education project, which aimed to develop students' ocean literacy through the combined educative principles of creative pedagogies and digital technologies (Augmented and Virtual Realities), the research draws on data from six projects across primary and secondary school settings in Denmark, Spain and England. It used a 'diffractive' analytic technique, inspired by new materialist theory, to explore the messy mixtures of natural, cultural and technological environments that were being learned through. This involved the development of four material-dialogic assemblages each including diffractive switches. Each is presented first through a 'piece' which demonstrates each assemblage's connection to the core question, followed by 'ripples', which briefly articulate the new learning and questions arising from that assemblage. The four assemblages cover the irresistibility of making kin, the relationships between lively bodies and virtual environments, the importance of spacetimematter in environmental edu-activism and trajectories between transience, stability and dialogic space. The paper leaves the reader/engager with a selection of prompts to highlight the research's contribution to current STEAM agendas related to changing power dynamics, and to provoke reader/engagers' own practices. These can include new pedagogies and activisms, as well as theoretical developments to the combined educative principles of creative pedagogies and digital technologies within STEAM education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioeconomy includes the sectors that use renewable biological resources to produce value added products, such as food, feed, energy, and bio-based products. Its importance has been demonstrated by its inclusion as a priority in specific and related policies such as the bioeconomy strategy, the Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Deal, and the Next Generation recovery plan. Spain has not lagged behind and considers the bioeconomy as a priority in its policy strategies to achieve a more sustainable economy. Despite its importance, the analysis of the potential of the bioeconomy sectors in Spain is limited. To carry out policy-relevant impact assessment in support of bioeconomy development, specific databases describing bio-based products are required. Hence, this work based on the Bio Social Accounting Matrix (BioSAM) for Spain for the year 2010 with a high disaggregation of bio products to perform a structural analysis based on two different and complementary methods: the traditional and the Hypothetical Extraction approach. The structural analysis results reveal promising products as key wealth generators and growth promoters and allow to identify the most suitable to be stimulated with policies to promote the development of the Spanish bioeconomy. Therefore, this paper provides some proposed avenues that should be considered by policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time series analysis and prediction techniques are highly valued in many application fields, such as economy, medicine and biology, environmental sciences or meteorology, among others. In the last years, there is a growing interest in the sustainable and optimal management of a resource as scarce as essential: the water. Forecasting techniques for water management can be used for different time horizons from the planning of constructions that can respond to long-term needs, to the detection of anomalies in the operation of facilities or the optimization of the operation in the short and medium term. In this paper, a deep neural network is specifically designed to predict water consumption in the short-term. Results are reported using the time series of water consumption for a year and a half measured with 10-min frequency in the city of Murcia, the seventh largest city in Spain by number of inhabitants. The results are compared with K Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest, Extreme Gradient Boosting, Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average and two persistence models as naive methods, showing the proposed deep learning model the most accurate results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a survey conducted among people walking the pilgrimage route to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela. The aim of the research was to investigate how a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago among a married couple or family affects marital or familial relationships, whether walking the trail to Compostela together influences the behaviour of family members towards each other and whether it forms positive attitudes and behaviour. The empirical basis of the study is the results of a survey among respondents who made the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, as well as in-depth interviews conducted with 24 spouses of pilgrims along the Way of St James. The study revealed that doing the pilgrimage as a married couple or family had a positive impact on intra-family relationships. According to the interviewees, going on the pilgrimage together helped to strengthen marital bonds and trust, improve communication and mutual connection, show care and affection and improve contact with children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The big data revolution has made it possible to collect, transmit and exploit huge amounts of data. The potential this offer for data analysis, however, clashes with the limitations imposed by laws on protection of personal data. This paper details a new database (DEMOSPA0521) made after processing and summarising more than 868 million demographic records from Spain, corresponding to a period of seventeen years (2005–2021). DEMOSPA0521 is composed of fifteen files: a group of (monthly and daily moving averages) datasets derived from population stocks and a collection of (daily, monthly and quarterly) datasets obtained from population, death, migration and birth statistics. The intra-annual distributions were calculated by exploiting both the temporal dimensions of age and calendar. DEMOSPA0521 also includes eleven R-Code files that enables the summary datasets to be derived from the raw microdata. DEMOSPA0521 can be used to confirm established results and employed to answer new research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A global disaster, such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic, affects every aspect of our lives and there is a need to investigate these highly complex phenomena if one aims to diminish their impact in the health of the population, as well as their socio-economic stability. In this paper we present an attempt to understand the role of the governmental authorities and the response of the rest of the population facing such emergencies. We present a mathematical model that takes into account the epidemiological features of the pandemic and also the actions of people responding to it, focusing only on three aspects of the system, namely, the fear of catching this serious disease, the impact on the economic activities and the compliance of the people to the mitigating measures adopted by the authorities. We apply the model to the specific case of Spain, since there are accurate data available about these three features. We focused on tourism as an example of the economic activity, since this sector of economy is one of the most likely to be affected by the restrictions imposed by the authorities, and because it represents an important part of Spanish economy. The results of numerical calculations agree with the empirical data in such a way that we can acquire a better insight of the different processes at play in such a complex situation, and also in other different circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing economic sectors. This has piqued increasing interest in the evaluation of the performance of the sector. This paper joins this line of research by providing a potential framework for measuring efficiency in the context of a country such as Spain, where sun-and-sand tourism, usually associated with mass tourism, predominates. Tourist areas located on the coast provide the units of reference. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied to determine the efficiency score and a Tobit-type model is employed to analyse the factors that determine efficiency. The results show that the impact of mass tourism on labour efficiency is geographically unequal, with the most efficient of the tourist areas located on the peninsular archipelagos. The analysis of the contribution of each input to the efficiency score reveals the pre-eminent role of tourism infrastructure as a lure for sun-and-sand tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers some reflections on the effectiveness of the insolvency law measures adopted in Spain during the Covid crisis and on the provision of public funding during this crisis and the repayment of the corresponding claims. The analysis shows that the insolvency measures were inherently ill-suited for achieving the policy goal of preserving businesses, and that there was a good case for the provision of public funding. However, in the Spanish case this funding came too late, and there are now significant challenges associated with restructuring these funds where they were extended by way of loan or guarantee rather than as grant. With regard to the recovery of these funds, the paper concludes that there are no good reasons to insulate the State from the restructuring of debtors' liabilities in the context of a crisis with the characteristics of the pandemic crisis. On the contrary, credit risk should also be transferred to the State—as to other creditors—, and the State will then have to assume the role of loss absorber of last resort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decades, the study of how learners and teachers of mathematics use the resource of language has contributed to our understanding of mathematics teaching and learning in a variety of classrooms and cultures. Developmental work with mathematics teachers on the particular resource of mathematics teaching talk is more recent. In order to explore responses related to the importance of this talk, in this paper we consider three sites of practice in mathematics education—research, professional development and teaching—and illustrations of data from or about them, including studies from the literature, and work with secondary school mathematics teachers in Catalonia-Spain and Malawi around the teaching of angles. We argue that tensions permeate these sites of practice when a focus is placed on word use, specifically the practices of naming and explaining, in mathematics teaching talk. We conclude that the importance of mathematics teaching talk is construed through tensions with other resources in language and teaching. Tensions specifically appear in the realisation of mathematics teaching talk as mediational in the work with mathematics teachers on their classroom teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the current situation and the historical development of Austrian Economics in Madrid. We will analyse the formation of this School as the result of the thesis defended by Joaquín Reig Albiol in the late fifties and the current economic debate surrounding the fractional reserve and other complex issues. In this half-century tour, we will explore three different generations of Austrian economists in Spain, whilst demonstrating that a distinct branch of the Austrian School is today live and well in Madrid. Eventually, we will discover how the Spanish Austrian economists have applied praxeology to contemporary political and economic problems and conclude that a vigorous and growing economic school of thought exists in Madrid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impacts of water pricing as a demand management policy, at a regional level (or basin-sector). To this aim, a hydro-economic model for the Guadalquivir River basin (southern Spain) is proposed here. This basin constitutes a perfect example of a Mediterranean basin subject to frequent and long drought periods, where challenges related to water scarcity are increasing, leading to social conflicts among water users. Moreover, this basin is characterised by a closure state meaning that all available water resources are already allocated among users. In this context, water pricing policy may act as an effective tool to reduce water demand by encouraging changes of behaviour in water users. In particular, those who perform irrigation practices in the agricultural sector. This paper focuses on the irrigation sector since it is the main water user in the basin (87%). Additionally, alternative water-availability scenarios have been used to test the effect of water pricing under drought conditions. The hydro-economic model presented here has been sectorized into four basin sectors with common characteristics (hydro and economic). This enables the analysis of alternative price scenarios in the agricultural sector, in terms of water used, crop patterns and gross margin. Results show that water pricing policy should consider the regional characteristics at the basin-sector scale to gain effectiveness and equity at the river basin scale. Moreover, it has been found that both water availability and the crop pattern at the basin-sector scale have an effect on the reduction of water used (and therefore in gross margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illuminated manuscripts are relatively well studied, but the available publications greatly focus on religious manuscripts of a geographically limited area. In contrast, technical examinations of illuminated legal documents have received far less attention, e.g., Spanish cartas ejecutorias de hidalguía (executory certificates of nobility). These documents are suitable case studies to deepen current knowledge of manuscript-making in Spain for two reasons: First, they are dated (late fifteenth to early eighteenth centuries); and second, they are unusual and understudied from both the textual and materials analysis standpoints. Cartas contain judicial proceedings whereby a family gained or was re-assigned hidalguía (lower nobility). A key exhibit to achieving this status was proving their "blood purity" which implied they were faithful Catholics, so finding religious representations within the document is common. In addition, families embedded their faith and links to monarchs in their coat of arms through symbols like crowned eagles, trees, and towers. The deliberate choice of heraldic and religious elements is as important as the materials used to produce them. Interested in better understanding illumination in Spain we are studying these unique documents from the historical, materials, and iconographic points of view. Herein, we present the earliest results of an ongoing survey, detailing two case studies: Davila and Nuñez D. Armesto cartas. This research uses a combination of: (a) instrumental techniques (X-ray fluorescence, reflectance, and infrared spectroscopies; peptide mass fingerprinting; and gas chromatography); and (b) historical research using both the manuscript's contents as primary sources, and published research. The preliminary results are enabling us to shed light onto Spanish (legal) illuminated manuscript-making, and the symbolic role materials played, e.g., use of precious metals adorning monarchical elements, presence of ultramarine mixed with azurite on both coats of arms, and on Virgin Mary's gown, etc. This survey intends to simultaneously learn more about illumination practices in Spain, inform conservation decisions, and hopefully better understand problems connected to historic ideologies that were legalized in beautiful albeit disturbing documents, e.g., persecution of non-Catholics at the time in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study of the flood's dynamics with the use of new formulations based on how rivers change landscapes through incision as modelled by Daniel Garcia-Castellanos and his colleagues in Barcelona, Spain. It mentions the influence of the underlying tectonic process that keeps water in place. It highlights the land bridge between Europe and Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

The EU legislature, through the approval of the Non-financial Information Directive, has made a decisive step towards a mandatory regime for Sustainability Reporting as an essential condition to promote sustainable behavior across European countries. This paper aims at examing the impact of managers' beliefs and attitudes on NFI mandatory reporting practices through the Theory of Planned Behavior. We test whether managers' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control impact the quality of sustainability reports in Spain and Italy. We built a reflective-formative hierarchical component PLS-SEM model, tested in a survey of 104 Italian (56.73%) and Spanish (43.27%) managers, that combines different latent variables and their relationships, which confirms all our hypotheses. This cross-country analysis is motivated by some differences between Italy and Spain in their cultural orientation and in the area non-financial reporting. To measure Non-financial Information, we crafted a Sustainability Reporting Quality Index for the same companies of the surveyed managers, that combines several reporting features of disclosure quality. We also consider whether other external factors, such as governance characteristics, social influence, and sustainable education, affect managers' intention to engage in Sustainability Reporting. The results reveal that our model, along with sustainable education and social influence explain more than 56% of the intention to engage in Sustainability Reporting. This indicates that the latter latent variable is well predicted, confirming the relevance of managers' beliefs in driving quality Sustainability Reporting practices. Our findings may specifically help business managers and decision-makers to identify the factors that are likely to influence sustainability reporting in Italy and Spain and contribute to develop efficient sustainable reporting strategies by decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper updates the available evidence on the public–private wage gap in Spain, which dates back to 2012. Through microdata drawn from the last three waves of the Wage Structure Survey (2010, 2014 and 2018), we study how this gap and its distribution by gender and education have evolved during and after the Great Recession. Conventional Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions are used to divide the raw wage gap into a component explained by differences in characteristics and another one capturing differences in returns and endogenous selection. The main findings are: (i) a strong wage compression by skills, and (ii) a wage premium for less-skilled women in the public sector. Both empirical results can be rationalised by a monopoly union wage-setting model with monopsonistic features and the presence of female statistical discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In this paper, we explore the possible consequences of the criminalization of sex work in Spain through an analysis of the measures adopted during the COVID-19 lockdown, which were tantamount to a prohibition of prostitution. Methods: We interviewed 69 female sex workers (19 of them trafficking victims) from the lowest stratum and six escorts from the upper stratum of prostitution, during the period from March 2020 to May 2021. We also conducted an ethnographic study in a hotel operating in the middle to upper stratum of commercial sex work. Results: The months of home confinement showed that the prohibition of sex work affected women in more precarious and vulnerable situations more adversely, worsening their living and working conditions compared to before the pandemic, whereas the impact on the escorts was far less. Conclusion: If commercial sex work in Spain were totally or partially criminalized, sex work would not stop taking place, and nor would the demand for paid sex cease to exist. Rather, they would be driven underground, worsening the quality of life, and both health and working conditions in the practice of commercial sex work for women. On top of that, the implementation of such a policy would reduce or eliminate sex workers' relationships or collaborations with the police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The debate about prostitution within Spain's feminist movement has recently, and recurrently, been transferred to the social and political sphere, but without arriving at a clear and shared position. The aim of this research is to verify the characteristics of those who are in favor of banning prostitution in Spain and to what extent there are differences between men and women. Methods: To do so, we will use our own collected data during 2022 through a prestigious social research company, 40 dB, and by applying advanced statistical techniques—Logit model. Results: The analysis illustrates three types of profile. The first one depicts the prohibitionist's supporter profile in general terms. The second and the third ones demonstrate how women and men share similarities but also underlying differences, showing how women are more inclined than men to the prohibitionist approach. Conclusions: This paper comes to validate, once again, most of the previous theoretical supported evidences, but not the religious element as a defining variable for being a banning supporter. The data also shows the possible consensus of those surveyed on this issue across different political parties. Policy Implications: The implications of all kinds that arise around prostitution generate different public perceptions about its existence and practice, with its prohibition being one of the most important issues on the Spanish public agenda in recent months. This article depicts how the Spanish society positions itself in this policy agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overrepresentation of foreigners in prisons is a well-established fact in Spain. However, there is a lack of empirical studies exploring the causes of this overrepresentation. Based on focal concerns theory, this paper aims to explore one of the possible causes of this overrepresentation: sentencing disparities between Spanish and foreign citizens. For this purpose, two subsets of court records are used to study disparities in the odds of incarceration (n = 2310) and differences in the length of prison sentence (n = 1162). Due to alleged limitations of standard regression models to analyse disparities in sentencing when differences between groups are large, entropy re-weighting was used to achieve balance between group observations with regard to control variables. The analyses reveal, on the one hand that, even when controlling for relevant legal and other extra-legal factors, citizens from Africa have higher odds than Spanish citizens to be sentenced to prison. On the other hand, no differences in the length of the conviction have been found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nature and extent of conflict in Late Neolithic Europe based on expanded skeletal evidence for violence from the San Juan ante Portam Latinam rockshelter in present-day Spain (ca. 3380–3000 cal. BC). The systematic osteological re-examination has identified 65 unhealed and 89 healed traumas—of which 77 were previously undocumented—consistent with aggression. They affect 23.1% of the 338 individuals represented. Adolescent and adult males are particularly affected (44.9% of the 107 identified), comprising 97.6% of unhealed trauma and 81.7% of healed trauma recorded in individuals whose sex could be estimated and showing higher frequencies of injuries per individual than other demographic subgroups. Results suggest that many individuals, essentially men, were exposed to violence and eventually killed in battle and raids, since warriorship is mainly restricted to this demographic in many societies. The proportion of casualties is likely to have been far greater than indicated by the 10.1% individuals exhibiting unhealed trauma, given the presence of isolated cases of unhealed postcranial trauma and of arrowheads potentially having impacted into soft tissues. This, together with skeletal indicators of poor health and the possible socioeconomic outcomes evidenced in the region, suggest wider social impacts, which may relate to a more sophisticated and formalized way of warfare than previously appreciated in the European Neolithic record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public institutions find an open window and greater transparency towards citizens in the digital sphere. So much so that the websites of local corporations can be considered an instrument of democratic inclusion and overall well-being. However, web accessibility continues to be a pending issue in order to encourage any person, regardless of their physical, mental or age capabilities, to interact without any kind of barrier. This paper analyses the web accessibility of 18 provincial capital city councils in Spain, comparing two periods to detect compliance with the requirements of adaptation to citizenship by applying the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The results show that accessibility to the websites of local corporations is still an unresolved issue. The commitment to web accessibility is not related to the size of cities or their budgetary level. It is necessary to undertake the appropriate improvements if they want, in their commitment to all citizens, to not leave out two key groups: people with functional diversity and the elderly. The contribution of this work goes beyond the need to use a type of analysis model to evaluate the democratisation of websites as digital public services and, consequently, it raises a series of practical implications relevant to the political decision-making bodies of local councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to propose formulas based on indicators to develop the transcendent happiness of employees in the tourism industry. Specifically, three factors are proposed as determinants of transcendence happiness (THP): corporate culture (CO), internal communication (IC), and employee-centered personnel management (EPM). To this end, a model proposes to help guide employees in the tourism industry toward happiness. From a sample of 443 employees in tourist accommodations in Spain, we explore the feasibility of an SEM-PLS model based on already validated scales. Our results show, on the one hand, the critical role of organisational culture in the pursuit of employee happiness and, on the other hand, the mediating effect of internal communication between personnel management and transcendent happiness. This ground-breaking study fills two gaps in the current happiness management literature. The first is considering transcendent happiness as an innovative key to corporate governance. It requires a corporate culture that fosters all human capital's personal growth and work-related well-being. In addition, secondly, to demonstrate that the variables of internal communication and passion at work positively influence the transcendental happiness of internal customers in rural establishments. Between internal communication and personnel management based on the employee's growth, the organisational culture has the most significant impact not only on personnel management but also on the achievement of the happiness of private employees. To this end, rural accommodations should design organisational patterns based on codes of conduct in the social relations between employees and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study two singular maps, the Modern Map of Spain, attributed to Cardinal Margarit, and Spagna con le distantie de li loci; made in northern Italy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Like the British Gough map, both already show communication networks with expressed distances. Using formal analysis, statistical methodology, and computer processing, we present the cartographic characteristics of each one and relate them to their historical context, updating the scarce information available until now. We explain their relationship as two milestones of the same cartographic process. At the same time, we study the routes represented, finding out the units of measurement used and the communication networks that both maps show us in the context of the Revolution of Communications that the Renaissance represented in Europe. The research has allowed us to attribute a new dating to them, question the traditional authorship, and advance a theory on the transport networks' functionality, demonstrating that both maps are part of a cartographic and historical process at the European level. All these updates to the vision on the first maps of communications in Western Europe established new contributions to the relationship between maps and itineraries. It contributes to filling a void occupied in solitary, until now, by the map of Gough of Great Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify the drivers and barriers of on-farm adoption of renewable energy systems (RES) in Spain and to determine how the existing mix of policies (subsidies, regulation and communication) affected the decisions of the farmers. The analysis is based on the results of a national survey that was completed by 719 farmers, representing the main types of farms and production regions. Statistically significant correlations have been observed between the probability of on-farm RES adoption and variables such as the use of contract farming, interest in new technologies and risk tolerance. Findings suggest that the diffusion of on-farm RES was at an early stage. Farmers are hesitant to adopt RES because the level of economic and regulatory uncertainty is perceived as too high in relation to the return and payback time typical of RES investments. Tailored business models and financing solutions should be implemented and promoted to overcome the described issues. Furthermore, relevant and reliable information should be available within farmers' most common professional networks such as cooperatives and farmers' associations. These aspects should be combined or even prioritized over providing direct economic incentives when producing on-farm RES supporting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a long-term analysis of ambient PM10 concentrations measured at a background station in Spain, using backward trajectories generated with the HYSPLIT model, together with the identification of synoptic patterns and a fuzzy clustering analysis, to identify the sources present and evaluate their relationship with meteorological variables such as wind speed and direction, temperature, and atmospheric pressure. Ambient PM10 presented maximum values during the summer with mean concentrations of approximately 14 µg m−3 for August, and minimum values during the winter with concentrations of 6 µg m−3 for January. The daily cycle presented two peaks—one in the morning and another in the afternoon—with this variability being associated with transport emissions. African air masses reached the study site extending vertically at least up to 2500 m.a.g.l, with a frequency of 43.5%, and are associated to a mean ground PM10 concentration of 41.3 µg m−3. During the episodes of Saharan intrusions, high pressures with unclassified synoptic patterns (U) prevailed over the Iberian Peninsula. Local, European, maritime and intermittent contributions were the four main sources of pollutants identified through fuzzy clustering analysis. These intermittent contributions are associated with Saharan dust intrusions, with a long-term average PM10 concentration of 1.7 µg m−3, which represents an important contribution of 11.2%. These sources affect seasonal variations of PM10 background concentrations, and reach their maximum when the greatest contributions of desert dust occur—mainly during the spring–summer months. These results provide useful information for future comparisons and environmental monitoring of PM10 levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choices that researchers make while conducting a statistical analysis usually have a notable impact on the results. This fact has become evident in the ongoing research of the association between the environment and the evolution of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in light of the hundreds of contradictory studies that have already been published on this issue in just a few months. In this paper, a COVID-19 dataset containing the number of daily cases registered in the regions of Catalonia (Spain) since the start of the pandemic to the end of August 2020 is analysed using statistical models of diverse levels of complexity. Specifically, the possible effect of several environmental variables (solar exposure, mean temperature, and wind speed) on the number of cases is assessed. Thus, the first objective of the paper is to show how the choice of a certain type of statistical model to conduct the analysis can have a severe impact on the associations that are inferred between the covariates and the response variable. Secondly, it is shown how the use of spatio-temporal models accounting for the nature of the data allows understanding the evolution of the pandemic in space and time. The results suggest that even though the models fitted to the data correctly capture the evolution of COVID-19 in space and time, determining whether there is an association between the spread of the pandemic and certain environmental conditions is complex, as it is severely affected by the choice of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind energy, as one of the renewable energies with the most potential for development, has been widely concerned by many countries. However, due to the great volatility and uncertainty of natural wind, wind power also fluctuates, seriously affecting the reliability of wind power system and bringing challenges to large-scale grid connection of wind power. Wind speed prediction is very important to ensure the safety and stability of wind power generation system. In this paper, a new wind speed prediction scheme is proposed. First, improved hybrid mode decomposition is used to decompose the wind speed data into the trend part and the fluctuation part, and the noise is decomposed twice. Then wavelet analysis is used to decompose the trend part and the fluctuation part for the third time. The decomposed data are classified. The long- and short-term memory neural network optimized by the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to train the nonlinear sequence and noise sequence, and the autoregressive moving average model is used to train the linear sequence. Finally, the final prediction results were reconstructed. This paper uses this system to predict the wind speed data of China's Changma wind farm and Spain's Sotavento wind farm. By experimenting with the real data from two different wind farms and comparing with other predictive models, we found that (1) by improving the mode number selection in the variational mode decomposition, the characteristics of wind speed data can be better extracted. (2) According to the different characteristics of component data, the combination method is selected to predict modal components, which makes full use of the advantages of different algorithms and has good prediction effect. (3) The optimization algorithm is used to optimize the neural network, which solves the problem of parameter setting when establishing the prediction model. (4) The combination forecasting model proposed in this paper has clear structure and accurate prediction results. The research work in this paper will help to promote the development of wind energy prediction field, help wind farms formulate wind power regulation strategies, and further promote the construction of green energy structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]