Performance and durability of non-stick coatings applied to stainless steel: Subtractive vs additive manufacturing.

This study compares subtractive manufacturing (SM) and additive manufacturing (AM) techniques in the production of stainless-steel parts with non-stick coatings. While subtractive manufacturing involves the machining of rolled products, additive manufacturing employs the FFF (fused filament fabrication) technique with metal filament and sintering. The applied non-stick coatings are commercially available and are manually sprayed with a spray gun, followed by a curing process. They are an FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene)-based coating and a sol–gel ceramic coating. Key properties such as surface roughness, water droplet sliding angle, adhesion to the substrate and wear resistance were examined using abrasive blasting techniques. In the additive manufacturing process, a higher roughness of the samples was detected. In terms of sliding angle, variations were observed in the FEP-based coatings and no variations were observed in the ceramic coatings, with a slight increase for FEP in AM. In terms of adhesion to the substrate, the ceramic coatings applied in the additive process showed a superior behavior to that of subtractive manufacturing. On the other hand, FEP coatings showed comparable results for both techniques. In the wear resistance test, ceramic coatings outperformed FEP coatings for both techniques. In summary, additive manufacturing of non-stick coatings on stainless steel showed remarkable advantages in terms of roughness, adhesion and wear resistance compared to the conventional manufacturing approach. These results are of relevance in fields such as medicine, food industry, chemical industry and marine applications.Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga

A day-ahead irradiance forecasting strategy for the integration of photovoltaic systems in virtual power plants

Encouraged by the considerable cost reduction, small-scale solar power deployment has become a reality during the last decade. However, grid integration of small-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar systems still remains unresolved. High penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) results in technical challenges for grid operators. To address this, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) have been defined and developed to manage distributed energy resources with the aim of facilitating the integration of RESs. This paper introduces a hybrid irradiance forecasting approach aimed at facilitating the integration of PV systems into a VPP, especially when a historical irradiance dataset is exiguous or non-existent. This approach is based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and a novel similar hour-based selection algorithm, has been tested for a real PV installation, and has been validated also considering irradiance measurements from an aggregation of ground-based meteorological stations, which emulate the nodes of a VPP. Under a reduced historical dataset, the results show that the proposed similar hour-based method produces the best forecasts with regard to those obtained by the ANN-based approach. This is particularly true for one-month and two-month datasets minimizing the mean error by 16.32% and 9.07% respectively. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach, a comparative analysis has been carried out between the hybrid method and the most used benchmarks in the literature, namely, the persistence method and the method based on similar days. It has been demonstrated conclusively that the proposed model yields promising results regardless the length of the historical dataset.Comunidad de MadridAgencia Estatal de Investigació

The European Agricultural Crisis (1919-1931): From Nansen Management of International Humanitarian Aid during the Famine in the USSR to the Common European Agricultural Market.

The research conducted focused on the humanitarian aid link with the famine in Russia, mainly organized by Fridtjof Nansen. The international action targeted millions of lives, even though the Bolshevik Authorities limited its impact. The great famine of 1921 in Russia provoked a wide humanitarian movement in Europe and America. While Bolshevik Russia remained diplomatically isolated until 1924, the nongovernmental humanitarian organizations played a significant role in establishing contacts on both sides of the cordon sanitaire. The International Relief Committee to Russia and the “Nansen Mission,” appeared to be among the most far-reaching in their dealings with the Bolsheviks during the Bolshevik-led international relief campaigns to Russia in the early twenties. Therefore, this research focus on how Nansen achieved such success on such a delicate social and political time of instability. Finally, the proposal for a common agricultural market is analyzed as an instrument to overcome the European agrarian crisis.La investigación realizada se centró en el vínculo de la ayuda humanitaria con la hambruna en Rusia, organizada principalmente por Fridtjof Nansen. La acción internacional apuntó a millones de vidas, aunque las autoridades soviéticas limitaron su impacto. La gran hambruna de 1921 en Rusia provocó un amplio movimiento humanitario en Europa y América. Si bien la Rusia soviética permaneció aislada diplomáticamente hasta 1924, las organizaciones humanitarias no gubernamentales desempeñaron un papel importante en el establecimiento de contactos a ambos lados del cordón sanitario. El Comité Internacional de Socorro a Rusia y la “Misión Nansen” parecían estar entre los de mayor alcance en sus tratos con los bolcheviques durante las campañas de socorro internacional dirigidas por los bolcheviques a Rusia a principios de los años veinte. Por lo tanto, esta investigación se centra en cómo Nansen logró tal éxito en un momento de inestabilidad social y política tan delicado. Finalmente, se analiza la propuesta de un mercado común agrícola como instrumento para superar la crisis agraria europea

Fighting inequalities in times of pandemic: The role of politicized identities and interdependent self-construal in coping with economic threat

During the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions encouraged social isolation and non-interaction with other people to prevent contagion. Still, the response to an impending economic crisis must be through the collective organization. In this set of pre-registered studies, we analyse two possible mechanisms of coping with collective economic threats: shared social identity and interdependent self-construction. We conducted three correlational studies during the pandemic in May–October 2020 (Study 1, N = 363; Study 2, N = 250; Study 3, N = 416). Results show that shared identity at two levels of politicization (i.e., working-class and 99% identities) and interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship between collective economic threat, intolerance towards economic inequality and collective actions to reduce it. The results highlight that the collective economic threat can reinforce the sense of community—either through the activation of a politicized collective identity, such as the working class or the 99% or through the activation of an interdependent self—which in turn can trigger greater involvement in the fight against economic inequality. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación: MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Grant/Award Number: PID2019-111549GB-I00FEDER/Junta de Andalucía-Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Grant/Award Number: A-SEJ-72-UGR20Universidad de Granada / CBU

Nurse and Nursing Students' Opinions and Perceptions of Enteral Nutrition by Nasogastric Tube in Palliative Care

It is widely accepted that nursing staff play a key role in palliative care (PC). The use of Nasogastric tubes (NG tubes) for Enteral Nutrition (EN) administration is still controversial in patients who receive PC. The aim of this study was to describe nurses' and nursing students ' opinions and perceptions about EN using NG tubes in adult patients in palliative care. To achieve this goal, a cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out. A self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire intended for nurses and nursing students was used. Data was descriptively and inferentially analyzed using a chi-square test to determine the differential frequency of responses. In addition, a multivariate logistic regression model was also conducted. A total of 511 participants completed the questionnaire. Among them, nursing staff represented 74.9% (n = 383) whereas nursing students were 25.1% (n = 128). When life expectancy was above six months, 90.0% (n = 460) reported that EN using NG should be implemented. In contrast, when life expectancy is less than a month, 57.5% (n = 294) discouraged it. Significant differences within groups were found when life expectancy was <1 month (p = 0.044). It was also found that 491 participants (96.1%) reported that patient ' s autonomy must be carefully respected for deciding whether continuing EN by NG tube or not. Finally, it was concluded for both nurses and nursing students that life expectancy should be the mean reason for implementing and withdrawing EN by NG tube. Major differences were found regarding when it should be ceased, suggesting perceptions may change as nurses graduate and move into their professional roles

Optimal designs for compartmental models with correlated observations

El objetivo del estudio es proveer óptimos tiempos para realizar bioensayos cuando ha habido una entrada accidental de radioactividad.The flow of internally deposited radioisotope particles inside the body of people exposed to inhalation, ingestion, injection or other ways is usually evaluated using compartmental models (see Sánchez and López-Fidalgo, (2003, and López-Fidalgo and Sánchez, 2005). The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP, 1994) describes the model of the human respiratory tract, represented by two main regions. One of these, the thoracic region (lungs) is divided into different compartments. The retention in the lungs is given by a large combination of ratios of exponential sums depending on time. The aim of this work is to provide optimal times for making bioassays when there has been an accidental radioactivity intake and there is interest in estimating it. In this paper, a large two parameter model is studied and a simplified model is proposed in order to obtain optimal designs in a more suitable way. Local c-optimal designs for the main parameters are obtained using the results of López-Fidalgo and Rodríguez-Díaz, 2004). Efficiencies for all the computed designs are provided and compared

Ibero-american integration processes from Spain’s perspective within the framework of the European Union (EU): the cases of SICA and MERCOSUR

Con este trabajo pretendemos acercarnos a los procesos de integración iberoamericanos en marcha desde la perspectiva de España en el marco de la Unión Europea (UE) con especial atención a los casos del Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR) y del Sistema de Integración Centroamericano (SICA). Desde su ingreso en las Comunidades Europeas, España no dejó de tender puentes entre ambos hemisferios para establecer unos Acuerdos de Asociación (AdA) necesarios entre la UE y los diversos sistemas de integración iberoamericanos, proceso que finalmente fructificó con el SICA y el MERCOSUR.With this research we intend to approach the Ibero-American integration processes under way from the Spanish perspective and within the framework of the European Union (EU), paying special attention to the cases of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) and the Central American Integration System (SICA). Since its entry into the European Communities, Spain has not ceased to build bridges between the two hemispheres in order to establish the necessary Association Agreements (AA) between the EU and the various Ibero-American integration systems, a process that finally succeeded with SICA and MERCOSUR.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionale