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Among the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids is now the rising concern within Europe. CWD will be outlined in this chapter gathering its epidemiology, transmission, diagnosis, genetics, and control. Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the accumulation of an abnormal isoform of the prion protein (PrPc), usually designated by PrPsc or prion. CWD is a prion disease of natural transmission affecting cervids detected mainly in North America. The first European case was detected in Norway, in 2016, in a wild reindeer; until April 2018, a total of 23 cases were described. The definite diagnosis is postmortem, performed in target areas of the brain and lymph nodes. Samples are first screened using a rapid test and, if positive, confirmed by immunohistochemistry and Western immunoblotting. It is not possible to establish a culling plan based on the genotype, once affected animals appear with all genotypes. However, some polymorphisms seem to result in longer incubation periods or confer a reduced risk. The control is not easy in captive cervids and even more in the wildlife; some recommendations have been proposed in order to understand the danger and impact of CWD on animal and public health.

This chapter focuses on the analysis and characterization of the vibrations produced by switched reluctance actuators. The emphasis stands on the linear configuration of this type of machine. The complexity of the mechanical system and the materials is used to define the modal frequencies. Moreover, the power controller topology, the excitation regimes, and the switching frequency used for the actuator operation can excite the natural modes and put restrictions on its usage. The analysis considers both numerical and experimental methodologies. The numerical technique relies on the finite element method (FEM) using the 3D model of the actuator to find its natural frequencies up to 1.3 kHz. The experimental characterization counts on the operational modal responses and the acoustic noise emitted. We identify the regions of interest to measure the local accelerations and collect data for postprocessing and record the audible noise emitted for signal analysis. The popular discrete Fourier transform and the joint wavelet-Fourier analysis are used for signal analysis. The reliability and the suitability of this approach are verified comparing both the numerical and the experimental outcomes and support the identification of the switching frequencies with high potential to excite the natural modes under the regular operation of the machine and to choose the proper control strategy.

Sport is made by people and is for people, as it is a multidisciplinary process involving athletes, coaches, clinical staff, families, managers, and other institutional supporters, such as academia and industry. We have been working in sport for almost 40 years and the opportunity to be in daily contact with athletes and coaches has given us the will to study them harder in order to promote the athlete’s health and performance and to ensure the best training regimes. Fortunately, the increasing number of scientific disciplines surrounding sport, namely sports medicine, physiology, neurophysiology, psychology, sports health, nutrition, biomechanics (among others) are driving sport and athletes into safer and later sport experiences, which is in fact the added value of this book. This book presents a diversity of themes related to sports medicine and health varying from clinical issues, such as sports injuries to specific neuropsychological aspects of the athletes’ behaviour regulation and parathletes’ motivation for sport practice. The book is structured in six chapters, which combine research and clinical/exercise applications that we would like to highlight. Chapter 1 involves the study of the volitional (arbitrary) regulation of behaviour and its connections with the individual features of interhemispheric asymmetries in sports activities practice. Chapter 2 addresses the role of one important professional in sport, which is the Sport and Exercise Medicine physician, and his specific training, skills, and abilities from recreational sports to elite level and as a healthy lifestyle promoter. Chapter 3 discusses the pathophysiology of a mild traumatic brain injury or sport-related concussion sustained during sports participation and presents the scientific evidence-based acute screening and detection methods available and general guidelines for recovery and active rehabilitation. Chapter 4 is focused on the pathophysiology of the knee-dislocation and strategies to increase strength and endurance training in rehabilitation. Chapter 5 is practice-oriented to the adaptive responses inherent to exercise training on cardiac remodelling. Chapter 6 reports results on the motivation of Russian highly qualified parathletes from three different regions. This comprehensive volume is very appealing, which will be also recognised by sports and health professionals, who need further support in their daily work with athletes and coaches, in particular. It is also attractive to researchers and students interested in sport and health related areas.

Fiber bragg grating is widely used in optical fiber applications as a filter or a sensor due to its compact size and high sensitivity to physical conditions, such as temperature and strain. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the implementation and characterization of two tuning methods for optical fiber Bragg gratings, varying the temperature or the length of the fiber. Among the methods using mechanical deformation, compression of the fiber by bending a flexible sheet aggregated with the Bragg grating has shown very interesting tuning results, reaching 19.0 nm with minimum reflection bandwidth variation over the entire tuning range. Stretching the fiber has presented several drawbacks, including breaking of the fiber and a lower tuning range of 4.9 nm. Temperature tuning technique presents good linearity between tuning range and temperature variation but at the cost of a low tuning range (0.4 nm) and a permanent high current electrical source.

Climate change scenarios in Mediterranean basin point to a decrease in the amount of annual rainfall and the increased frequency of drought. In this framework of greater water scarcity, an increase in irrigation costs is expected, so its rational and efficient use is an unavoidable issue in modern irrigated agriculture. In the last 60 years in Portugal, it had a great increase in the efficiency of water use in agriculture, accompanied by a great increase in energy consumption, and the variation was 15,000 to 6000 m3/ha.year and 200 to 1500 kWh/ha, respectively. The rational application of fertilizers is a priority, to prevent the contamination of superficial and subterraneous waters, and the process of soil salinization in semi-arid conditions. The pressure of water demand by agriculture implies the use of other water sources. For example, in 2010, the volume of unconventional water resources in Spain rose to 4.540 hm3/year. Of the total used in agriculture, 450 hm3 of water comes from the reuse of treated water, and 690 hm3 comes from desalination. The use of modern/smart technologies in irrigated agriculture, like information and communication technologies, allows the rapid share of information between all the system components and can promote optimized answers at different scales.