Measuring residents' perceptions of corporate social responsibility at small and medium-sized sports events

Due to the increase of sports events in local communities, it has become essential to organize such events in a socially responsible way at the environmental, social, and economic levels. The aim of this research was to develop a measurement tool to help determine the degree of social responsibility perceived by residents at small-medium scale sports events, to guide sports managers towards the design of socially responsible sports events. From the elaboration of a questionnaire developed ad-hoc, the perception of the residents was analyzed (n = 516). The psychometric properties of the tool, composed of 35 items, were analyzed by means of an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. As main conclusions, we were able to contrast the validity and reliability of the questionnaire on the perception of corporate social responsibility in small-scale sports events, around the dimensions of Sustainable Sports Activity, Social Cohesion, and Well-Being. As a consequence, it allowed us to identify three strategic management areas towards which the organizers of these events should focus special attention if they want to progress towards the achievement of socially responsible sports event

Coils and power supplies design for the SMART tokamak

Agredano-Torres, M., et al.A new spherical tokamak, the SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART), is currently being designed at the University of Seville. The goal of the machine is to achieve a toroidal field of 1 T, a plasma current of 500 kA and a pulse length of 500 ms for a plasma with a major radius of 0.4 m and minor radius of 0.25 m. This contribution presents the design of the coils and power supplies of the machine. The design foresees a central solenoid, 12 toroidal field coils and 8 poloidal field coils. Taking the current waveforms for these set of coils as starting point, each of them has been designed to withstand the Joule heating during the tokamak operation time. An analytical thermal model is employed to obtain the cross sections of each coil and, finally, their dimensions and parameters. The design of flexible and modular power supplies, based on IGBTs and supercapacitors, is presented. The topologies and control strategy of the power supplies are explained, together with a model in MATLAB Simulink to simulate the power supplies performance, proving their feasibility before the construction of the system.This work received funding from the Fondo Europeo de Desarollo Regional (FEDER) by the European Commission under grant agreement numbers IE17-5670 and US-15570. Furthermore, it has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 and 2019–2020 under grant agreement no. 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission

Magnetic equilibrium design for the SMART tokamak

The SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) device is a new compact (plasma major radius R≥0.40 m, minor radius a≥0.20 m, aspect ratio A≥1.7) spherical tokamak, currently in development at the University of Seville. The SMART device has been designed to achieve a magnetic field at the plasma center of up to B=1.0 T with plasma currents up to I=500 kA and a pulse length up to τ=500 ms. A wide range of plasma shaping configurations are envisaged, including triangularities between −0.50≤δ≤0.50 and elongations of κ≤2.25. Control of plasma shaping is achieved through four axially variable poloidal field coils (PF), and four fixed divertor (Div) coils, nominally allowing operation in lower-single null, upper-single null and double-null configurations. This work examines phase 2 of the SMART device, presenting a baseline reference equilibrium and two highly-shaped triangular equilibria. The relevant PF and Div coil current waveforms are also presented. Equilibria are obtained via an axisymmetric Grad-Shafranov force balance solver (Fiesta), in combination with a circuit equation rigid current displacement model (RZIp) to obtain time-resolved vessel and plasma currents.The authors would like to thank the VEST team for their technical and engineering support. This work received funding from the Fondo Europeo de Desarollo Regional (FEDER) by the European Commission under grant agreement numbers IE17-5670 and US-15570. In addition support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 805162) is gratefully acknowledged

Clinical Audits in Outpatient Clinics for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Methodological Considerations and Workflow

Objectives: Previous clinical audits for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have provided valuable information on the clinical care delivered to patients admitted to medical wards because of COPD exacerbations. However, clinical audits of COPD in an outpatient setting are scarce and no methodological guidelines are currently available. Based on our previous experience, herein we describe a clinical audit for COPD patients in specialized outpatient clinics with the overall goal of establishing a potential methodological workflow.Methods: A pilot clinical audit of COPD patients referred to respiratory outpatient clinics in the region of Andalusia, Spain (over 8 million inhabitants), was performed. The audit took place between October 2013 and September 2014, and 10 centers (20% of all public hospitals) were invited to participate. Cases with an established diagnosis of COPD based on risk factors, clinical symptoms, and a post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio of less than 0.70 were deemed eligible. The usefulness of formally scheduled regular follow-up visits was assessed. Two different databases (resources and clinical database) were constructed. Assessments were planned over a year divided by 4 three-month periods, with the goal of determining seasonal-related changes. Exacerbations and survival served as the main endpoints.Conclusions: This paper describes a methodological framework for conducting a clinical audit of COPD patients in an outpatient setting. Results from such audits can guide health information systems development and implementation in real-world settings.This study was financially supported by an unrestricted grant from Laboratorios Menarini, SA (Barcelona, Spain)

What contributions can social work make in the 21st century? Perspectives from the USA and Spain

In this article, we discuss the major challenges facing our societies, and the role social work can play as a scientific discipline and a helping profession, with particular attention to the situation in Spain and the United States

Process optimization of polyphenol extraction from carob (Ceratonia siliqua) kibbles using microwave-assisted technique

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) method was investigated to recover phenolic compounds from carob kibbles and validated using response surface methodology. The study parameters were microwave power (170–900 W), ethanol concentration (30–90%), and solvent-to-sample ratio (10–30 mL/g) in terms of total phenolic content (TPC) and condensed tannins. Among optimized parameters (340 W, 45%, 30 mL/g), microwave power and ethanol concentration were found more influential parameters to get higher yields of TPC and condensed tannins. Moreover, the results of TPC (70.11 mg GAE g-1 DM), condensed tannins (4.11 mg CE g-1 DM), free radical scavenging activity (94.42%), ferric ion reducing potential (22.67 mg Fe+3 100 g-1 DM), and gallic acid (1.576 mg/g DM) obtained from optimal MAE conditions were found comparable to ultrasound-assisted extraction method. The newly developed MAE method illustrates its potential to recover phenolic compounds from plant sources in a short duration. Practical applications: Based on the results presented in this work, it is proposed that carob kibble could be considered as interesting raw material to get extracts rich in antioxidant properties. This extract could be used as an alternative to synthetic antioxidants in bio-food products as natural preservative. Therefore, carob kibbles could be recommended for production of extracts rich in antioxidants, instead of being discarded from gum factory as by-product. In addition, microwave-assisted extraction method could be employed to increase time efficiency of the process

Recent advances in supported ionic liquid membrane technology

Novel processes based on supported liquid membranes have been proposed as effective methods for the selective separation of different chemical species in dilute streams, such as metal ions, organic compounds or biologically important compounds and gas mixtures. However, the industrial use of supported liquid membranes based on conventional liquids is limited by their relative instability and short lifetime. The use of ionic liquids as a liquid membrane phase could overcome these inconveniences due to their negligible vapour pressure and the possibility of minimizing their solubility in the surrounding phases by adequate selection of the cation and anion. The possibility of designing suitable ionic liquids for specific separation problems has also opened up new potential fields of industrial application of supported ionic liquid membranes. In this review an overview is given of recent advances in supported membranes based on ionic liquids, including issues such as methods of preparation, transport mechanisms, configurations, stability, fields of application and process intensification using supported ionic liquid membranes. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.Peer Reviewe

On the use of imidazolium and ammonium-based ionic liquids as green solvents for the selective recovery of Zn(II), Cd(II), Cu(II) and Fe(III) from hydrochloride aqueous solutions

This work analysed the extraction of Zn(II), Cd(II), Cu(II) and Fe(III) from hydrochloride aqueous solutions using imidazolium and ammonium-based ionic liquids as sole extraction agents. The selective separation of the different species is desired for potential valorization of aqueous effluents in which these ions are involved, for example, in zinc refineries. The influence of parameters affecting the extraction of the target metal ions, such as the ionic liquid composition, metal ion concentrations and hydrochloric acid concentration in the aqueous phase was analysed. It was found that the ionic liquid methyltrioctylammonium chloride [MTOA +][Cl -] allowed almost the complete removal of Zn(II), Cd(II) and Fe(III) from the aqueous solutions while the use of 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [omim +][BF4-] allowed the selective separation of Zn(II) and Cd(II) over Fe(III) and Cu(II). An increase in metal ion concentration decreases the extraction percentage of the assayed metal ions. The initial HCl concentration has also an important effect on the efficiency of the extraction process, founding that an increase in HCl concentration involves a significant increase in the extraction percentages for Zn(II), Cd(II) and Fe(III). This work demonstrates the exciting potential of ionic liquids for use as green extraction agents in liquid/liquid extraction of heavy metal ions.Peer Reviewe

Design and development of the magnetic diagnostic systems for the first operational phase of the SMART tokamak

A set of magnetic diagnostics has been designed, manufactured, and calibrated for the first operational phase of the small aspect ratio tokamak. The sensor suite comprises of Rogowski coils; 2D magnetic probes; and poloidal, saddle, and diamagnetic flux loops. A set of continuous Rogowski coils has been manufactured for the measurement of plasma current and induced eddy currents in conductive elements. A set of flux loops and magnetic probes will be used as input for the reconstruction of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium. The quantity and position of these sensors have been verified to be sufficient with synthetic equilibrium reconstructions using the equilibrium fitting code and baseline scenarios computed with the Fiesta code. These sensors will also be used as input for the real-time control system, and magnetic probes will be used for the detection of plasma instabilities. The calibration procedure for the magnetic probes is described, and the results are shown. The signal conditioning and data acquisition systems are described.European Research Council (ERC) 805162US Department of Energy DE-AC02-09CH1146