Search Results (537)

In this paper, we analyse drought variability in Spain (1950–2024) using the Standardised Precipitation–Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) at 6-, 12-, and 24-month scales. Using 43 long-record meteorological observatories (AEMET), we compute SPEI from quality-controlled (QC), homogenised series, and derive coherent drought regions via clustering and assess trends in the frequency, duration, and intensity of dry episodes (SPEI ≤ −1.5), including seasonality and statistical significance (p < 0.05). Short-term behaviour (SPEI-6) has become more complex in recent decades, with the emergence of a “Catalonia” type and stronger June–October deficits across the northern interior; Mediterranean coasts show smaller or non-significant changes. Long-term behaviour (SPEI-24) is more structural, with increasing persistence and duration over the north-eastern interior and Andalusia–La Mancha, consistent with multi-year drought. Overall, short and long scales converge on rising drought severity and persistence across interior Spain, supporting multi-scale monitoring and region-specific adaptation in agriculture, water resources, and forest management. Key figures are as follows: at 6 months—frequency 0.09/0.08 per decade (Centre–León/Catalonia), duration 0.59/0.50 months per decade, intensity −0.12 to −0.10 SPEI per decade; at 24 months—frequency 0.5 per decade (Cantabrian/NE interior), duration 0.8/0.7/0.4 months per decade (Andalusia–La Mancha/NE interior/Cabo de Gata–Almería), intensity −0.06 SPEI per decade; Mediterranean changes are smaller or non-significant. Full article

This study presents an operational and robust method for detecting and dating cereal harvest events using temporal stacks of Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery and crop and fields border information from ancillary records. The proposed approach is exempt from training data, thereby enabling its application across diverse geographical contexts. The method was used to generate 10 m resolution maps of harvest dates for all wheat and barley fields in 2021, 2022, and 2023 in Castilla y León, a major cereal-producing region of Spain. This work also investigates the use of a reference dataset derived from real time kinematic records (RTK) in agricultural machinery as an alternative source of large-scale in situ data reference as for Earth observation-based agricultural products. The initial comparison of annual harvest date maps with the RTK-based reference datasets revealed that the temporal lag in the detection of harvest events between Earth observation-derived maps and reference harvest dates was less than 10 days for 65.7% of fields, while the temporal lag was between 10 and 30 days for 26.1% of the fields. The 3-year average root mean square error of the lag between harvest dates in the reference dataset and maps was 16.1 days. An in-depth visual analysis of the Sentinel-2 temporal series was carried out to understand and evaluate the potential and limitations of the RTK-based reference dataset. The visual inspection of a representative sample of 668 fields with large temporal lags revealed that the date of harvest of 41.11% of these fields had been correctly identified in the Sentinel-2 based maps and 16.43% of them had been incorrectly identified. The visual inspection could not find evidence of harvest in 10.52% of the analyzed fields. Monte Carlo simulations were parameterized using the findings of the visual inspection to build a series of synthetic reference datasets. Accuracy metrics calculated from synthetic datasets revealed that the quality of the harvest maps was higher than what the initial comparison against the RTK-based reference dataset suggested. The date of harvest was registered within 10 days in both the maps and the synthetic reference datasets for 90.5% of the fields, the root mean squared error of the comparison was 9.5 days, and harvest dates were registered in the Sentinel-2 based maps 2 days (median) after the dates registered in the reference dataset. These results highlight the feasibility of mapping harvest dates in cereal fields with time series of high-resolution satellite imagery and expose the potential use of alternative sources of calibration and validation datasets for Earth observation products. More generally, these results contribute to defining plausible targets for monitoring of agricultural practices with Earth observation data. Full article

The end of the conflict in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 2002 provided an important context for exploring the role of peace education in restoring governance, rebuilding institutions, and promoting socio-economic development. Following the civil war, a variety of externally designed peace education programmes were introduced across the country. These included formal programmes integrated into the school curriculum and non-formal initiatives led by stakeholders. This study evaluated these programmes by examining their goals, implementation approaches, and effectiveness in fostering sustainable peace alongside development. The evaluation employed a social constructionist framework, recognising that understandings of peace and education are shaped by historical, social, and cultural factors. Data were gathered through the analysis of documentary sources and semi-structured online interviews with 12 key informants involved in peace education. The findings reveal important insights regarding both the potential of peace education as a developmental tool and its limitations in achieving lasting peace. Key lessons emphasise the critical role of local ownership, cultural relevance, and ongoing support for post-conflict educational interventions. These insights offer valuable guidance for enhancing future peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts in Sierra Leone and other similar post-conflict settings. Full article

Water consumption in adults usually reaches lower levels than the recommendations, and evidence of the beverage consumption habits of women in the stages around menopause is scarce. The aim of this study was to assess the consumption of beverages and to determine how physical, psychological, and environmental factors modify the hydration habits of reproductive-age and postmenopausal women in the northeast of Mexico. We carried out a cross-sectional study of 40–65-year-old female (n = 690) residents in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Nuevo León state, Mexico, who were classified as reproductive (n = 263) and postmenopausal (n = 427). Anthropometrics, including body composition, beverage consumption, physical activity, and physical, psychological, and environmental factors, were assessed. There were no differences between the BMI and waist-to-height ratio of reproductive-age and postmenopausal women. The total daily beverage consumption did not differ between reproductive-age and postmenopausal women, with an average beverage consumption of 2723–2915 g/day. A third of the women studied consumed less than 1.5 L/day, and another third—mainly the younger participants—consumed between 1.5 and 2.0 L/day. The most consumed beverage was plain water, followed by regular soda, flavored beverages, coffee, and diet soda. Consumption of regular soda, flavored beverages, and milk was higher among reproductive-age women. The postmenopausal women indicated a higher consumption of plain water and juices. Similar effects of physical and psychological factors and environmental temperature on the beverage consumption of reproductive and postmenopausal women were observed. Physical activity, maximum daily temperature, and body composition were the factors that conditioned beverage intake. Full article

The acceptance of generalized distributions has significantly improved over the past two decades. In this paper, we introduce a new generalized distribution: Topp–Leone odd Weibull flexible-G family of distributions (FoD). The new FoD is a combination of two FOD; the Topp–Leone-G and odd Weibull-flexible-G families. The proposed FoD possesses more flexibility compared to the two individual FoD when considered separately. Some selected statistical properties of this new model are derived. Three special cases from the proposed family are considered. The new model exhibits symmetry and long or short tails, and it also addresses various levels of kurtosis. Monte Carlo simulation studies were conducted to verify the consistency of the maximum likelihood estimators. Two real data examples were used as illustrations on the flexibility of the new model in comparison to other competing models. The developed model proved to perform better than all the selected competing models. Full article

Background: Although the safety of COVID-19 vaccines has been demonstrated in clinical trials, real-world pharmacovigilance remains essential to detect rare or unexpected adverse events following immunization (AEFI). In Mexico, the national AEFI surveillance system is in place, yet there is limited analysis of state-level data. Objective: To characterize AEFI related to five COVID-19 vaccines and identify factors associated with AEFI type and seriousness in Nuevo León, Mexico. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the State of Nuevo León AEFI database was conducted, including all AEFI reports between December 2020 and June 2022 (n = 2213). Data included patient sex, age, vaccine type (Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Moderna, CanSino), number of doses (1 or ≥2), symptom categories, and AEFI seriousness. Symptoms were classified as local or systemic and grouped by organ systems. Descriptive analysis and binary multivariate logistic regression were used to examine associations between demographic and vaccine-related factors with AEFI type and severity. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated. Results: Most AEFI reports involved females aged 19–59 years and occurred after the first vaccine dose. The most frequently reported unexpected adverse events (UAEs) were mild to moderate, including injection-site reactions, headache, chills, fatigue, nausea, fever, dizziness, weakness, myalgia, and tachycardia. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was associated with higher odds of arm pain and lower odds of hemorrhagic events. Receiving ≥2 doses increased the odds of arm pain and systemic symptoms. Less than 3% of AEFIs were classified as serious. Older adults (≥65 years) and second vaccine doses were associated with increased odds of a serious AEFI, while female sex and receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were associated with reduced odds. Conclusions: In Nuevo León, most AEFIs related to COVID-19 vaccination were mild to moderate and resolved without complications. Serious AEFIs were uncommon, with older age and second doses associated with higher risk, and female sex and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination associated with lower risk. These findings provide a local perspective on vaccine safety that complements national and international evidence. Full article

As part of this study, we design a reliability acceptance sampling plan under the assumption that the lifetime of a product follows the Topp–Leone generated Weibull (TLGW) distribution, a model that exhibits structural symmetry in its hazard rate behavior and distributional form. The fundamental procedures for constructing such a plan are described. We compute and tabulate the minimum sample sizes required for given risk criteria using both binomial and Poisson models for the number of failures. We also provide the operating characteristic (OC) values for the proposed sampling plans, and determine the minimum ratios of true mean life to specified mean life needed to satisfy a given producer’s risk. The role of symmetry in the TLGW distribution is highlighted in its balanced tail properties and shape characteristics, which influence the performance of the acceptance sampling plan. Finally, we illustrate the applicability of the proposed plan with real-world data. Full article

This paper presents a comprehensive register transfer-level (RTL) fault injection study targeting the program counter (PC) of the LEON3 processor, a SPARC V8-compliant core widely used in safety-critical and radiation-prone embedded applications. Using the enhanced NETFI+ framework, over four million faults, including single-event upsets (SEUs), multiple-bit upsets (MBUs), and single-event transients (SETs), were systematically injected into the PC across all pipeline stages. The analysis reveals that early stages, particularly Fetch (FE), Decode (DE), Register Access (RA), and Execute (EX), are highly sensitive to SEU and MBU faults. The propagation of errors detected in the two early stages of the pipeline (FE and DE) is classified with an important percentage of halt execution and timeout traps. Intermediate stages, such as RA and EX, exhibited a higher incidence of silent data corruption and halt execution, while the Memory (ME) and Exception (XC) stages demonstrated greater resilience through fault masking. SET faults were mostly transient and masked, though they occasionally resulted in control flow anomalies. In addition to error classification, detailed trap and exception analysis was performed to characterize fault-induced failure mechanisms. The findings underscore the need for pipeline-stage-specific hardening strategies and highlight the value of simulation-based fault injection for early design validation in safety-critical embedded processors. Full article

Sierra Leone possesses distinct educational, economic, and social characteristics. Public universities in the country, funded by the government, are mandated to promote sustainable development, ethical conduct, and social welfare, aligning with national development strategies such as the Midterm National Development Plan and the Education Sector Plan, which emphasize leadership, diversity, and ethical standards to advance sustainable development practices. This study applies Transformational Leadership Theory to investigate the influence of transformational leadership on corporate social responsibility, exploring the mediating role of innovative work behavior and the moderating effect of organizational culture on this relationship. Using a stratified sampling technique, data were collected from 367 employees across six public universities in Sierra Leone and analyzed with SMART PLS software 4.1.1.2. The findings revealed that transformational leadership positively and significantly impacts corporate social responsibility and innovative work behavior, with innovative work behavior partially mediating the relationship between transformational leadership and corporate social responsibility, while organizational culture positively and significantly moderates this relationship. Based on these findings, the study recommends that public universities in Sierra Leone integrate transformational leadership principles into their institutional frameworks to improve organizational outcomes and leadership effectiveness. This can be achieved through leadership development programs emphasizing transformational attributes such as inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and vision-sharing, alongside mentorship programs for leaders at all levels to strengthen leadership skills and foster an organizational culture aligned with institutional goals. Full article

Some of Spain’s greatest humanists—Juan Luis Vives, Antonio de Nebrija, Juan de Ávila, Luis de León, and Benito Arias Montano—were from a converso background. Recent scholarship suggests that two of the three most influential religious movements in sixteenth-century Spain—Juan de Ávila’s evangelical movement and Teresa of Ávila’s Barefoot Carmelites—were founded by conversos and presented converso membership, whose winds of religious innovation to tame Christian Orthodoxy and Counter-Reformation Spanish society, through the influence of Italian Humanism and reform, prioritized spiritual practice, social toleration, and religious concord. Indeed, Santa Teresa de Ávila, a major innovator within the Spanish Church, was herself from a converso family with Jewish ancestry. She became a key female theologist who transcended as an identity marker of the Spanish Baroque, conceived as quintessential of the Spanish Golden Age. Coopted in different periods, she “reappeared” in the 1930s as Patron of the Sección Femenina de la Falange y de las JONS, the women’s branch of the new radical right, turning into a role model of femininity for highly conservative religious women. Consecrated as “Santa de la Raza”, she became the undisputable womanized icon of the so-called “Spanish Crusade”, the slogan which General F. Franco implemented, with the approval of the Spanish Catholic Church, to re-cast in a pseudo-theological narrative the rebellion against the Spanish Second Republic in July 1936. This article examines different appropriations of the figure of Teresa de Ávila as a pillar of “Hispanidad”, in the last centuries within the changing sociopolitical contexts and theological debates in which this instrumentalization appeared. By highlighting the plasticity of this converso figure, the article suggests possible lines of research regarding the Jewish origins of some national icons in Spain. Full article

Historically, DENV-4 has been rarely associated with epidemics and has been less well-studied than DENV-1 to -3. Epidemic dengue struck several South and Central American countries in 2022, with Nicaragua reporting the highest incidence. In an acute febrile illness (AFI) cohort enrolled from June to September 2022, 58 (34%) of 172 patients had PCR-confirmed dengue, of which 46 (79%) were serotyped as DENV-4. In this cohort, acute dengue, as a proportion of AFI, increased from 8% in June to a peak of 58% in August. Genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis identified a lineage of DENV-4 Genotype IIb (GIIb) with six amino acid substitutions on the surface-exposed regions of the envelope (E) protein as compared to a reference sequence from 2005. Indeed, two of these mutations appear to be novel and located at G172E or near N174K, an antigenic epitope on domain I. Most (90%, 43/48) DENV-4 patients had pre-existing DENV IgG (secondary dengue), at the acute phase. Secondary dengue was associated with the male sex (prevalence ratio (PR)), 6.88) and being younger than 11 years of age (PR, 8.38). Further analysis showed no association between past Zika exposure and DENV-4 acute illness in older subjects (≥12 years of age). In conclusion, our study describes an epidemic of DENV-4 in León, Nicaragua, associated with a novel lineage of genotype GIIb, which contains two amino acid changes not observed in DENV-4 before 2022. Full article

Bats have decreasing population trends around the world, and knowledge on the causes for this decline is the first step to improving conservation and management strategies to restore their populations. An important source of data for the study of the causes of bat mortality is the admissions to rescue centres. The aim of this work was to identify the different causes of bat admissions to rescue centres in Castilla y León (Spain) over more than 30 years, analyzing the importance of the threats for different species, as well as the tendency of anthropogenic causes over the years, such as the increase in industrial wind-power facilities. The dataset included 791 bats (568 dead and 223 injured). The species with the largest number of entries was Pipistrellus pipistrellus at 451, followed by 82 Hypsugo savii, 64 Plecotus sp., 63 Tadarida teniotis, 42 Eptesicus serotinus and 24 Nyctalus lasiopterus. The most important known causes of entry for these selected species were collisions with wind turbines (n = 160); immaturity-related causes (e.g., orphan individuals with insufficient foraging and flight skills prone to injury or starvation) (n = 93); weakness due to starvation (n = 75); trauma: blow of unknown origin (n = 69); shooting: vandalism with a gun (n = 15); carnivore bite: predation (n = 8); road kill: road accident (n = 3); and disease: sickness (n = 3). In addition, there were many admissions which lacked a known cause (n = 294). The species with the most carcasses for collisions with wind turbines was Pipistrellus pipistrellus at 100, followed by 40 Hypsugo savii and 15 Nyctalus lasiopterus. As expected, the number of bats that collided with wind turbines showed a significant temporal correlation with the number of wind farms deployed in the territory, and they mainly occurred in September and October, as has also been found in other studies. Full article

Bigeye grunt (Brachydeuterus auritus) is a dominant fish species and mostly a major target species in both artisanal and industrial fisheries in the coastal waters of Sierra Leone. It was listed as near threatened in 2015 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Although this species has been repeatedly assessed as overexploited by the Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF) in the majority of its range in the Eastern Central Atlantic, there have never been studies of stock assessment in the coastal waters of Sierra Leone. We conducted a study on the population dynamics of bigeye grunt in the coastal waters of Sierra Leone, which is crucial for completing the resource status of this species in the Eastern Central Atlantic. The results showed that the bigeye grunt had a wide distribution in the coastal waters of Sierra Leone, with significant spatiotemporal variation characteristics in biomass and abundance. The growth parameters of bigeye grunt varied across different months, but all E values were below 0.5, indicating that no overfishing occurred. These findings were further corroborated by the results of the Length-Based Bayesian Biomass Estimation method (LBB). The results of the Generalized Additive Model (GAM) show that there is a certain nonlinear relationship between the resource abundance of the bigeye grunt and both environmental factors and geographical locations, among which the influence of latitude is the greatest. This study posits that the bigeye grunt in Sierra Leone’s coastal waters exhibits moderate exploitation potential. The findings are anticipated to provide a scientific framework for informing evidence-based management strategies for this fishery resource. Full article

The petrochemical industry emits large amounts of nitrogen oxides (NOx). It is the second source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which, through photochemical reactions, can form tropospheric ozone (O₃) and, together with geographic and meteorological conditions, influence the spatial and temporal behavior of pollution. The objective of this study is to assess the influence of air pollutants NOx, NO₂, and NO, as well as meteorological factors on O₃ concentration levels in the city of Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon, which is characterized by its petrochemical industry as part of the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico. The data were analyzed using the Spearman’s correlation coefficient, identifying a weak-to-moderate negative association between NOx and NO₂ with O₃ in the spring season and a null relationship in the summer. However, the autumn and winter seasons observed a moderate to strong negative relationship. Subsequently, a multiple linear regression analysis determined the influence of air pollutants NOx, NO₂, and NO, as well as meteorological factors on O₃ concentration levels. In this sense, when the concentration levels of NOx and NO₂ decrease, the concentration of O₃ will increase proportionally according to the season of the year. The prediction model obtains a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.60 and a root-mean-square error (RMSE) value of 0.0096 ppm. In the prediction model, all variables presented a significant effect on the interpretation of the dependent variable. The independent variables that provided the most significant variation in the concentration levels of O₃ were NOx and NO₂. Full article

Currently, the role of a university in promoting the development of rural areas has been emphasized. However, an increase in academic training can lead to a growth in rural migration due to the lack of job opportunities for university graduates. Given the scarcity of studies on the impact of higher education institutions in areas at risk of depopulation, a research study has been conducted with university students residing in Castilla y León (Spain) in order to understand their insights on the benefits that university education can bring to rural areas, as well as to comprehend the reasons that would motivate the migration of university students or even the interest of institutions in addressing the issue of depopulation. The results achieved suggest that an increase in education could help slow down this process, with the proximity of the university being a decisive factor for population settlement. Additionally, while the shortage of job opportunities would be the main cause of migration, there would also be other factors contributing to depopulation, such as lack of leisure or services, despite a will to stay. Finally, the survey respondents expressed skepticism about the institutions’ interest in addressing this problem. Full article