Juan Carlos Ríos-Fernández

Professional education asks learners to act under consequential uncertainty while judgment and professional identity are still developing. Scholarship on emotion, identity formation, reflection, psychological safety, ethics, and agency has expanded, yet these literatures seldom explain how affectively charged experience becomes accountable professional action. This critical integrative review develops INTEGRAL (INTegrated Emotional Growth for Responsible Agency and Leadership), a cross-professional framework for health sciences and engineering education. A purposive, theory-led synthesis of 47 peer-reviewed sources was assembled through targeted searches, citation tracing, abductive construct comparison, negative-case analysis, and contrastive examination of two consequential professional fields; the retained corpus comprised 25 health-sciences sources, 13 engineering sources, and 9 cross-disciplinary, general-education, or methodological sources. Because the iterative search was not an exhaustive database export, no valid total-hit denominator was generated, and this reporting boundary is stated explicitly. INTEGRAL distinguishes event-in-context exposure (D1) from learner appraisal and identity-relevant processing (D2). Structured curricular scaffolding (D3) is specified as a multilevel configuration that shapes the exposure learners encounter, influences early processing, and moderates whether D2 becomes observable, reason-giving, accountable action under constraint (D4). Leadership and stewardship (D5) are repositioned as a conditional long-term extension rather than a mandatory stage. The framework is theoretical, identifies rival explanations and disconfirmation conditions, and derives testable propositions and multi-source indicators without treating adversity as inherently beneficial or emotional display as competence.

Sustaining student motivation and engagement in technically oriented engineering subjects remains a persistent challenge in higher education, particularly when instruction relies primarily on traditional lecture‐based approaches. Digital and computer‐supported learning tools offer new opportunities to promote active learning and conceptual understanding in engineering education. This pilot study presents the design and evaluation of a technology‐enhanced instructional approach that integrates interactive digital comics, gamification dynamics, multimodal interactive lessons implemented using a web‐based authoring platform (Genially), and three‐dimensional visualizations to support learning in engineering courses. The intervention was implemented with undergraduate and master's students enrolled in Civil Engineering, Mining and Energy Resources Engineering, and Energy Engineering programs at a public Spanish university, including the full population of students registered in the participating courses. A mixed‐methods research design was employed, combining pre‐ and post‐intervention conceptual understanding assessments, learning analytics and digital interaction metrics, and qualitative analysis of student perceptions. The results indicate statistically significant improvements in conceptual understanding, academic engagement, and perceived usability of the digital learning environment. Interaction data revealed differentiated engagement patterns across activities, while qualitative feedback highlighted the contribution of narrative structure, visual design, and interactivity to student motivation and comprehension. These findings suggest that the integration of computer‐based gamification and interactive digital comics constitutes a pedagogically sound and contextually valid approach in engineering education. By working with the entire cohort of enrolled students, the study provides ecologically valid evidence of the effectiveness of digital narrative and interactive visualization tools, and establishes a solid foundation for future large‐scale implementations in engineering teaching contexts.

Lithium-ion batteries are extensively used for energy storage in renewable, electronic, and automotive applications. However, once their electrical capacity is exhausted, they become hazardous waste that requires energy-intensive recycling processes. This study investigates the thermodynamic and exergetic behavior of LiMn₂O₄-based lithium-ion batteries subjected to controlled electrical overvoltage from renewable energy sources, aiming to quantify their potential for thermal energy generation and recovery. A detailed mathematical model was developed to describe the coupled heat transfer and electrochemical phenomena occurring during overvoltage conditions, and experimental validation was performed under various voltage levels and charging states. Energy and exergy analyses were applied to determine the configuration yielding the highest conversion efficiency for both new and aged cells. The maximum thermal energy efficiency reached 81% for new batteries and 4% for used batteries, while the corresponding exergetic efficiencies were 5% and 1.6%, respectively. Although this study does not propose the immediate large-scale reuse of spent batteries as thermal devices, the results provide quantitative insight into irreversible energy conversion processes and highlight their potential contribution to waste heat recovery and energy optimization strategies in sustainable industrial systems. This thermodynamic framework offers a novel approach for valorizing end-of-life batteries within circular energy models, reducing environmental impact, and advancing the integration of renewable energy-driven heat recovery technologies.

This article presents a methodology for calculating the potential for water savings when replacing the Rankine cycle with the hygroscopic cycle in power plants. The savings were analyzed in thermal power plants with different generating units (diesel, gas, steam, and combined cycle), different cooling systems (seawater open cycle, adiabatic cooling, and cooling tower), and in different climatic zones. The results indicated a maximum average saving of 1.83 m³/MWh. The considerable water savings serve to reinforce the case for the implementation of HCT, particularly in regions characterized by arid climates and water scarcity. A reduction in water consumption, coupled with the prevention of the return of hot water to sensitive ecosystems, can serve as effective mitigation strategies for environmental problems. Moreover, the minimal water consumption required for this process makes it feasible to construct thermal power plants and generate electricity in regions with limited water resources. The HCT approach facilitates the generation of energy in regions previously deemed unsuitable for thermal power plants, thereby representing a significant advancement in economic and developmental terms for these areas.

The integrated waste energy recovery system (IWERS) is a thermal system that recovers waste heat from steam generated in bakery ovens to produce hot water. This reduces energy and water consumption in shopping centers. This article analyzes the technical improvement of incorporating renewable solar thermal energy into the system. It introduces the new solar‐powered IWERS (SPIWERS) for the first time. The exergetic efficiency of IWERS and SPIWERS was measured over 1 year in real supermarkets located in different climatic zones to determine their performance variables. This paper presents precise data for future improvements in the energy efficiency of waste heat recovery systems, making it an innovative contribution to the field. The exergetic efficiency of IWERS was found to be lower in subtropical climates, but no significant variation was observed in other climates studied. Additionally, the exergetic efficiency of IWERS components decreases with ambient temperature, particularly in warm months. Regarding SPIWERS, the highest exergetic efficiency values were obtained in oceanic climates. IWERS employs electric boilers, whereas SPIWERS system utilizes solar collectors. Although IWERS exhibited superior overall exergy efficiency, particularly in cold climates, SPIWERS distinguished itself with a reduced environmental impact, wholly supplanting electric power with solar thermal energy and a swift economic return on investment within a period of less than 4 years, a duration that is half that of IWERS. A detailed examination of the individual components of each system will facilitate the identification of potential avenues for enhancement, ensuring the system’s capacity for adaptation to specific climatic conditions and seasonal variations. Thus, the exergy efficiency of the DWH tank in IWERS remains constant across all climatic zones and throughout the year. This exergy efficiency is approximately 65%. In contrast, a notable variation is observed in the case of SPIWERS, which is more pronounced in more favorable weather conditions. On the other hand, the exergy efficiency of electric water boilers is greater in colder climates and times of the year, with a range of 30%–40%. Additionally, the exergy efficiency of the solar collector is greater in months and areas with cool ambient temperatures, optimal solar radiation, and moderate fluid temperatures within the collector, with a range of 5%–11%.