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Abattoir surveillance: Identifying risk factors associated with bovine tuberculosis lesion detection in a low prevalence region
No full textCRediT authorship contribution statement
Julio Alvarez: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Beatriz Romero: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Resources. Jorge Mourelo: Writing – review & editing, Resources. Marta Alvarez-Fidalgo: Writing – review & editing, Resources, Data curation. Marta Muñoz-Mendoza: Writing – review & editing, Resources, Data curation. Pilar Pozo: Writing – review & editing, Methodology, Investigation. Roxana Triguero-Ocaña: Writing – review & editing, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Alberto Gomez-Buendia: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation.Abattoir surveillance is a key component in control and eradication programs against bovine tuberculosis (bTB). In low-prevalence or officially tuberculosis-free (OTF) regions in which active surveillance is typically limited or non-existent, postmortem inspection at the abattoir constitutes one of the main diagnostic tool to guarantee the absence of disease transmission. Here, we evaluated the performance of abattoir postmortem inspection in Galicia, a low-prevalence region in Spain (now OTF). Between 2014 and 2019, 1,784,261 animals were culled in 41 abattoirs, of which a small proportion (0.74 %, n = 13,200) were reactors in bTB antemortem tests. Two mixed-effects logistic regression models assessed the risk of detecting bTB-compatible lesions adjusting for potential confounding factors (age, sex, breed, production type, herd size, location, year and season of slaughter, and antemortem bTB test results) while accounting for the lack of independence between animals from the same herd/slaughtered in the same abattoir. Lesions were detected in 0.013 % (n = 223 animals) and 2.3 % (n = 301 animals) of all the non-reactor and reactor slaughtered animals, respectively, and were confirmed through culture in 9.0 % and 29.9 % of the bTB-lesioned non-reactor and reactor animals. Probability of bTB-like lesion detection varied considerably between abattoirs and was influenced by several animal and farm-level factors: in non-reactors older beef cattle slaughtered in certain years were at higher risk, while in reactors beef cattle from certain provinces and years with a high skin fold thickness increase had a higher probability. These results provide important baseline data on the performance of passive surveillance in low-prevalence settings and offer valuable insights for enhancing bTB surveillance and control strategiesMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y UniversidadesMinisterio de Agricultura, Pesca y AlimentaciónDepto. de Sanidad AnimalCentro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET)TRUEpu
Talking to machines: how communication style shapes student engagement with AI tutors
No full textAs artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots become integral to higher education, this qualitative study explores how undergraduate students interact with them during business strategy tasks. Grounded in the Value-Based Adoption Model and utilizing ATLAS.ti for content and co-occurrence analysis, this study analyzes emotional tone and cognitive strategies in 15 student–AI conversations. Students who used a relational tone and followed up with questions demonstrated deeper critical thinking, whereas those who employed neutral tones and passive inquiries showed lower engagement. Co-occurrence analysis highlighted key patterns, such as neutral tone and simple inquiries. Findings suggest that socio-affective alignment in human–AI interaction fosters higher-order thinking, providing pedagogical insights into how AI integration can enhance both cognitive depth and emotional engagement in learning environments.Depto. de Organización de EmpresasFac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesTRUEpu
Probabilistic evaluation for early wind turbine yaw misalignment detection
No full textNowadays, one of the biggest challenges for wind turbines is to reduce operation and maintenance costs. Therefore, it is essential to develop predictive maintenance, anticipating failures early and thus avoiding unnecessary actions on the wind turbine. In this way, the uptime and performance of the turbine are maximized, and its useful life is extended. This work describes a general methodology for fault detection based on probabilistic models and its evaluation. This methodology combines a fault detection method based on the Fisher Test and the development of probabilistic models of wind turbine power curves. Several probabilistic models of power curves have been evaluated: Gaussian mixture model (GMM), Frank copula model, Gaussian mixture copula model (GMCM), Gaussian process regression (GPR) and epsilon-insensitive loss function support vector regression (ε-SVR). The results indicate that the Gaussian mixture copula model is the most efficient in terms of accuracy and computational cost. The detection of a wind turbine orientation misalignment error has been tested as a use case. It is shown how with this probabilistic approach it is possible to detect the fault in a short period of time from its appearance, 10–30 times faster than other techniques found in the literature with which it has been compared.MCI/AEI/FEDER project number PID2021–123543OB-C21.Depto. de Arquitectura de Computadores y AutomáticaInstituto de Tecnología del Conocimiento (ITC)TRUEpu
Non-uniformly and totally polarized beams propagating through chiral media
No full text© 2025 Elsevier Ltd.Non-uniformly and totally polarized (NUTP) beams propagating through chiral media are investigated. These beams have been proven to be useful in fields like polarimetry for the determination of the Mueller matrix of a sample, particle manipulation, etc. In this work, we consider the effects of a chiral medium (i.e., a medium exhibiting circular birefringence and circular dichroism) on the propagation of such beams, and we study the evolution of the transverse irradiance and polarization patterns, both inside the sample and in the free space after the sample, in connection with the optical properties of the medium. In particular, we focus on a class of NUTP beams that preserve their transverse irradiance and polarization pattern during paraxial propagation, in free space or through ABCD optical systems, and the advantages of using them. Conditions are established such that beams remain polarization-invariant after exiting the chiral medium, and simple procedures are presented to gain information about the optical properties of a chiral sample through a suitable choice of the input beam and irradiance measurements across the section of the output beam. These findings highlight the potential of NUTP beams as a versatile tool for investigating optical activity in several fields, such as pharmacology, medicine, and biology.European CommissionMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)European CommissionDepto. de ÓpticaFac. de Ciencias FísicasTRUEpu
Hepatitis E virus in pigs at the moment of slaughter in Spain, 2015 and 2017
No full textCredit authorship contribution statement
Nerea García: Writing – review & editing, Project administration, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Marta Hernandez: ´ Investigation. Jorge Santamaría-Palacios: Investigation. Irene Martínez: Investiga tion. Alejandro Navarro: Conceptualization. Milagros Munoz-Chi ˜ meno: Investigation. Franco Escobar: Investigation. Gislaine Fongaro: Investigation. Nadine Yeramian: Investigation. Monika Trząskowska: Investigation. Ana Avellon: ´ Methodology, Investigation. Jose María Eiros: Investigation. Lucas Domínguez: Conceptualization, Investigation. Antonio Valero: Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis. Joaquín Goyache: Writing – review & editing, Project administration, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. David Rodríguez-Lazaro: ´ Writing – review & editing, Writing – orig inal draft, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Data curation, ConceptualizationWe investigated the presence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in pigs at the moment of slaughter in Spain in years 2015 and 2017. A total of 1786 caecal content, liver, and serum samples from animals at slaughterhouses were tested by reverse transcription real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and anti-HEV antibodies were evaluated in 623 serum samples by an ELISA test. The overall seroprevalence obtained was 70.9 %. A total of 398 RT-qPCR positive samples were identified in caecal content (26.8 %; 156/583), serum (21.8 %; 136/623) and liver (18.3 %; 106/580). A total of 32 RT-qPCR positive samples were genotyped; 3f (84.4 %) and the 3c (9.4 %) being the most prevalent subgenotypes. This is the first report on detection of HEV in pigs at the moment of slaughter with a Spain nation-wide representation. The data show a large high seroprevalence (70.9 %) in pigs, while the presence of the virus (HEV RNA) was significantly lower. HEV RNA detection varied markedly between matrices, with caecal samples showing higher positivity (30–50 %) than serum (5–25 %); both simple and interaction GEE models confirmed strong effects of sample type and its interaction with year on prevalence estimates. However, the percentage of positive liver samples (18.3 %) and the concurrence between the HEV 3 subtypes identified (3f, 3m and 3c) and those identified in human patients in Spain, underscores the possibility of foodborne zoonosis. It can represent a real risk for consumers if pork products are not cooked adequately. A holistic One-Health approach, including a better understanding of HEV prevalence in the swine population, would allow implementation of control measures in the meat chain to mitigate the main transmission routes for humans.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)Junta de Castilla y LeónDepto. de Sanidad AnimalFac. de VeterinariaTRUEpu
Solving the task scheduling and GPU reconfiguration problem on MIG devices via deep reinforcement learning
No full text© 2025 The Author(s).Recent advances in dynamic GPU partitioning, such as NVIDIA's Multi-Instance GPU (MIG) technology, have enhanced resource utilization by enabling task co-execution without contention. However, existing MIG schedulers remain limited to static or task-agnostic methods that sacrifice optimality for tractability. This paper presents a Deep Reinforcement Learning framework that seeks to minimize the completion time of a task queue by holistically addressing the dimensions of the problem: task molding, GPU reconfiguration and execution order. To manage the vast solution space, we apply optimizations such as discrete and canonical representation of states, unification of equivalent configurations, action masking, or promoting the exploration of reconfigurations; this offers insights for similar resource management scenarios. The proposed models are extensively evaluated with widely used benchmarks of the Rodinia and Altis suites, and synthetic workloads generated to emulate a wide range of plausible real situations. The final model improves to the state-of-the-art, especially in workloads that clearly contradict the assumptions of previous proposals, achieving a difference of less than 20% to the optimum. Additionally, two different approaches to the problem are faced (offline vs. online), discussing their theoretical advantages and disadvantages, and evaluating them experimentally for the final model.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciónEuropean CommissionDepto. de Arquitectura de Computadores y AutomáticaFac. de Ciencias FísicasFac. de InformáticaTRUEpu
Exploring melatonin as a therapeutic approach for mustard vesicants
No full textSulfur mustard and nitrogen mustard (NM) are highly toxic chemical agents that inflict severe damage to the lungs, skin, eyes, and other tissues through mechanisms involving oxidative stress, DNA alkylation, and inflammation. Despite extensive research, no definitive antidote exists, highlighting the need for innovative therapeutic strategies. Melatonin, a pleiotropic molecule with potent antioxidant, antiinflammatory, and DNA-protective properties, has shown promise as a therapeutic agent against mustard-induced toxicity. Melatonin’s ability to scavenge reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, including peroxynitrite (ONOO−), reduces oxidative and nitrosative stress, mitigating lipid peroxidation and protein and DNA damage. Furthermore, melatonin enhances endogenous antioxidant defenses by upregulating superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione, thereby bolstering cellular resilience. Its antiinflammatory effects are mediated through inhibition of NF-κB signaling and modulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, reducing cytokine release and immune activation. Experimental evidence demonstrates melatonin’s efficacy in animal models, including its ability to reduce lung damage, improve respiratory function, and prevent oxidative DNA damage. It also protects against injury caused by NM analogs and supports DNA repair by stabilizing cellular homeostasis. Melatonin’s safety profile, affordability, and availability make it a viable candidate for mitigating both acute and long-term effects of mustard exposure. These findings establish melatonin as a promising therapeutic intervention for mustard vesicants, warranting further research to optimize dosing, delivery, and application in both military and civilian scenarios. © 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Depto. de Farmacología y ToxicologíaDepto. de Medicina Legal, Psiquiatría y PatologíaDepto. de Biología CelularFac. de VeterinariaFac. de MedicinaTRUEpu
Las perífrasis verbales en el marco de la auxiliaridad. Estudio lingüístico y análisis contrastivo y de errores de producción de alumnos lusohablantes de español
No full textTesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filología, leída el 12/06/2024Las perífrasis verbales constituyen unidades derivadas por definición, al estar articuladas en torno a una estructura que precisa de un verbo construido en posición auxiliar y de una forma verbal auxiliada. A pesar de ello, en la tradición gramatical hispánica han sido habitualmente consideradas como unidades primitivas y eminentemente gramaticales. En el seno de un estudio más amplio sobre la ‘auxiliaridad’ verbal, el examen de las propiedades de las perífrasis y la revisión de la bibliografía previa muestran que se debe fortalecer el estudio de sus verbos auxiliares en tanto que elementos centrales de estas construcciones; y que de su comportamiento gramatical debe dar cuenta tanto la gramática como la lexicología, bajo una perspectiva léxico-sintáctica de interfaz...Verbal periphrases are – by definition – derived units, since they are articulated around a structure that needs a verb placed in auxiliary position and an auxiliary verbal form. In spite of this, in the Hispanic grammatical tradition, verbal periphrases have been usually considered as primitive units and eminently grammatical. In the context of a wider study of verbal ‘auxiliarity, the examination of the properties of periphrases and the revision of existing bibliography show the need to strengthen the study of their auxiliary verbs as central elements of those constructions; and that their grammatical behaviour must be accounted for by both grammar and lexicology, from a perspective of lexical-syntactic interface...Fac. de FilologíaTRUEunpu
Exploring the impact of healthcare capacity and time delays in SIR epidemic model
No full textIn this paper, we analyze a compartmental model for the spread of COVID-19 that incorporates the capacity of the healthcare system. The model is governed by a set of delayed differential equations, with a focus on a healthcare capacity function inversely proportional to the size of the infectious compartment. While the properties of the model with constant healthcare capacity have been studied before in Krawczyk et al., (2022), we extend this analysis to the dynamic case. We establish conditions for the global asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium using a Lyapunov functional and investigate how the system’s trajectories depend on various time delay values. Additionally, we fit the model’s infectious compartment dynamics to Polish governmental data from autumn 2021.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)Depto. de Economía Financiera y Actuarial y EstadísticaFac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesInstituto de Matemática Interdisciplinar (IMI)TRUEpu
Epigenetic modulation by melatonin: clinical implications and therapeutic prospects
No full textThe existence of nonadditive primary interactions between genes and the environment is a nearly axiomatic concept in current biomedicine for the origin of diseases. Thus, the classic interaction between inheritance and environmental factors becomes crucial for understanding the etiology of common multifactorial disorders, which strongly depend on nongenetic factors, as well as the phenotypic discrepancies observed in cases of closer genotype-phenotype relationships between individuals with identical genetic profiles. The fundamental premise is that inherited variants predispose individuals to complex phenotypic traits, such as susceptibility to cancer or the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. However, cross-associative interactions with the physical environment and lifestyle ultimately determine the onset and severity of the disease. The interface for cross-communication between genotype and phenotype consists of a collection of chemical switches imprinted on the genome, capable of reversibly activating or deactivating genes in response to environmental (or endogenous) conditions. Known as the epigenome, recent research has revealed the decisive role that epigenetic marks play in cell/tissue differentiation and in the plasticity of gene expression patterns.Depto. de Farmacología y ToxicologíaDepto. de Medicina Legal, Psiquiatría y PatologíaFac. de MedicinaTRUEpu