Educating Future Agricultural Engineers at the University of Burgos, Spain, through a Service-Learning Project on Rural Depopulation and Its Social Consequences

A Service-Learning Project (S-LP) is a teaching experience through which the concepts covered during an educational course can practically be applied to address a given social problem. It is therefore a useful teaching methodology to bring courses closer to the real world. An S-LP experience is reported in this paper that was conducted with students of agricultural engineering to address the problem of rural depopulation, through the design of agri-food buildings for industries, and economic activities that help to maintain a stable population. After the S-LP, a survey was administered to both students and teachers, to assess the success of this teaching experience. The responses of the students showed not only an awareness of the social problem that was addressed, but also a critical spirit that led them to seek the best possible answer, and a global vision of the issue. It helped them to reflect on all of its facets to arrive at a way of engaging with the social problem. Importantly, the students were able to reflect upon how engineers can also serve society through their technical knowledge. The teachers indicated that the S-LP motivated the students on the course, while enabling them to successfully learn the concepts, and to develop independent study skills searching for information. In general, an S-LP is an experience that the teachers in this study would recommend and that could be especially relevant for universities assuming a role as a social entity to heighten the visibility of social problems and needs.This research was funded by The University of Burgos through the funding program “III Convocatoria de Proyectos de Innovación Docente y Transformación Social en Aprendizaje y Servicio (ApS) para el Curso Académico 2021–2022”. Furthermore, Javier Manso-Morato was funded by the Spanish Ministry MCIU, AEI and ERDF, grant FPU21/04364

Zepa beltzezko hormigoi armatuz fabrikatutako habeen makurdura-esfortzuaren aurreko analisia

Bizi garen mundua zaintzeko erronka dugu aurrean. Garapen jasangarrirako helburuak 2030 Agendan bildu dira, eta, 12. erronkari begira, "Kontsumo- eta ekoizpen-modalitate jasangarriak bermatzea", funtsezkoa da hondakinen kudeaketa lantzea. Altzairugintza-industria garrantzitsua da Euskal Herrian, ezinbestekoa ekonomiaren garapenerako. Horregatik, sektore horrek sortzen dituen hondakinei bizitza berri bat bilatzeko beharra dago. Hondakin nagusiak zepa beltzak dira eta eraikuntza-sektorean erabiltzen dira batik bat. Urte askotan, masa-hormigoietan agregakin bezala aztertu izan da zepa beltzaren portaera, eta oso emaitza onak lortu dira. Horregatik, lan honetan pauso bat aurrerago emango da, eta hormigoi armatuzko egiturak eraikitzeko aztertuko da zepa beltzaren erabilera. Laborategiko lan txikiak alde batera utzita, 600 l-ko bolumena egingo da, eraikuntza-prozedura arrunt batean edozein sendotasuneko zepa beltzez eginiko hormigoia nola fabrika daitekeen baieztatzeko. Lan honen erronka 4 m-ko hormigoi armatuzko habeak fabrikatzea da, makurduraren aurreko portaera aztertzeko. Erabiliko diren hormigoiak autotrinkotzaileak izango dira. Lortutako balio esperimentalak araudietan oinarritutako balio analitikoekin alderatu dira, eta emaitza onak lortu dira.; We are facing the challenge of preserving the world where we live. The sustainable development goals have been collected in agenda 2030. Taking into account the 12 goal “Assessing the modalities of sustainable consumption and production”, waste management is a process in which is mandatory to worked out. Iron and steel industry is an important industry in the Basque Country, necessary for the development of the economy. That 's why it 's important to look for a new life for the waste produced by this sector. For many years, the behavior of electric arc furnace slag has been studied as an aggregate in mass concrete. The results were very good. Therefore, a step further in this work will be taken, and the use of the electric arc furnace slag will be considered in the construction of reinforced concrete structures. Aside from small laboratory work, 600l mass will be made. To confirm how electric arc furnace slag concrete can be manufactured in a common construction procedure. The challenge with this work was to get self compacting concrete. On the other hand, 4m long reinforced concrete beams will be manufactured to analyze its bending behavior. The experimental values obtained have been compared to the analytical values, in accordance with the standards and the obtained results have been good

Decision aid system founded on nonlinear valuation, dispersion-based weighting and correlative aggregation for wire rope selection in slope stability cable nets

This paper presents a decision aid system to address hierarchically structured decision-making problems based on the determination of the satisfaction provided by a group of alternatives in relation to multiple conflicting subcriteria grouped into criteria. The system combines the action of three new methods related to the following concepts: nonlinear valuation, dispersion-based weighting and correlative aggregation. The first includes five value functions that allow the conversion of the ratings of the alternatives regarding the subcriteria into the satisfaction they produce in a versatile and simple manner through the Beta Cumulative Distribution Function. The use of measures of dispersion to weight the subcriteria by giving more importance to those factors that can make a difference due to their heterogeneity is revised to validate it when the values are not normally distributed. Dependencies between subcriteria are taken into account through the determination of their correlation coefficients, whose incorporation adjusts the results provided by the system to favour those alternatives having a balanced behaviour with respect to conflicting aspects. The overall satisfaction provided by each alternative is determined using a prioritisation operator to avoid compensation between criteria when aggregating the subcriteria. The system was tested through a novel field of application such as the selection of wire rope to form slope stability cable nets.The authors wish to express their gratitude to the IP department of INCHALAM S.A., whose collaboration and support made this paper possible

A review of application of multi-criteria decision making methods in construction

Construction is an area of study wherein making decisions adequately can mean the difference between success and failure. Moreover, most of the activities belonging to this sector involve taking into account a large number of conflicting aspects, which hinders their management as a whole. Multi-criteria decision making analysis arose to model complex problems like these. This paper reviews the application of 22 different methods belonging to this discipline in various areas of the construction industry clustered in 11 categories. The most significant methods are briefly discussed, pointing out their principal strengths and limitations. Furthermore, the data gathered while performing the paper are statistically analysed to identify different trends concerning the use of these techniques. The review shows their usefulness in characterizing very different decision making environments, highlighting the reliability acquired by the most pragmatic and widespread methods and the emergent tendency to use some of them in combination

Reward-system effect (BAS rating), left hemispheric “unbalance” (alpha band oscillations) and decisional impairments in drug addiction

The current research explored the impact of cortical frontal asymmetry (left-lateralization effect) and Behavioral Activation System (BAS) on Substance Use Disorder (SUD) in decisional processes using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Forty SUD participants and forty-two controls (CG) were tested using the IGT. Behavioral responses (gain/loss options), BIS/BAS scores and lateralized alpha band modulation (LTA) were considered. The SUD group increased the tendency to opt in favor of the immediate reward (loss strategy) more than the long-term option (win strategy) compared to the CG. Secondly, higher reward-subscale scores were observed in SUD. Thirdly, SUD showed an increase in left-hemisphere activation in response to losing (with immediate reward) choices in comparison with the CG. An imbalanced left hemispheric effect related to higher BAS trait could explain this “reward bias,” because these components were found to explain (through the regression analysis) the main behavioral deficit