Basque Government Research Articles

Women Architects and Social Housing in the Basque Country (1978-2008). An Approach from a Feminist Perspective

This article addresses the presence of women architects in social housing in the Basque Country between 1978 and 2008 from a feminist perspective. To this end, the first section of the paper is devoted to the figure of the architect Margarita Mendizábal, in order to display the unequal and male-dominated professional context that the Basque architect found after her graduation in 1956. In 1978, after two decades in the profession, Mendizábal designed a project to build a hundred social housing units in Madrid, in fact, the largest social housing project that she developed during her professional career. Until the early seventies there is no woman working as freelance architect in the Basque Country. In 1977, the School of Architecture of the UPV/EHU (University of the Basque Country) was created; this fact worked as an activating agent for the presence of women architects after the beginning of the nineties. In this regard, the last section of this article provides statistical data to quantify the presence of women architects in the Basque Country. This data gathers information related to women architects teaching at the School of Architecture of the UPV/EHU, in the professional sphere as freelance architects belonging to the Basque-Navarre Architects Association (COAVN) and, finally, in designing social housing developed by the Basque Government after taking over this area in 1981. The quantification of women out of total social housing developments shows that there are many fewer female than male architects working in this field. Furthermore, we provide a series of social housing cases authored or co-authored by women architects that show a relevant contribution to architecture and architectural culture in the Basque Country.

Spain as a Democratic State Governed by the Rule of Law and the Catalan Secessionist Process

AbstractThis work begins by recalling the characteristic features of the political system and model of territorial division of power established in the 1978 Spanish Constitution after a complicated but successful process of transition to democracy. Spain was constituted as a politically decentralized, social and democratic state governed by the rule of law, a compromise solution between the centralist tradition and the demands of peripheral nationalisms. Although this original formula has been progressively deployed with clearly positive results, it has come under threat from the challenge posed by the secessionist forces in Catalonia and the Basque Country, seriously endangering coexistence. In this regard, the work first analyses the Ibarretxe Plan, the confederal proposal of the president of the Basque government approved in 2004 by the Basque Parliament and rejected by the lower house of the Spanish Parliament. It then examines the most relevant sequences of the secessionist process that has unfolded in Catalonia over the last decade and which culminated in October 2017 in an illegal referendum and the unilateral declaration of independence approved by the regional parliament. It also analyses the response of Spanish institutions to attempts at constitutional rupture and its possible impact on the democratic quality of Spain and its reputation as a state governed by the rule of law.

Memories of the Spanish Civil War, exile and political repression under Franco: Basque children’s personal testimonies (1936–40)

The following interviews were conducted during the field work of my doctoral thesis, funded by the University of Reading. Interviews were conducted face to face in the summer of 2019 in Bizkaia. Both interviewees were over 90 years old when interviewed and lived through the state repression suffered under Franco’s regime following their childhood exile. The fear that they endured remained latent. These excerpts are parts of interviews relating to their personal experience of childhood exile in the context of the Spanish Civil War. When the war intensified on the northern front with the bombing of the civilian population (specifically the bombings of Otxandio in July 1936 and Gernika in April 1937), the Basque Government of the Second Spanish Republic organized the so-called ‘expediciones infantiles’ (‘childhood expeditions’) for the evacuation of children. These first-person testimonies show how these children lived their experience of exile as refugees and their subsequent integration into Franco’s Spain, a hostile space for them, as the evacuated children were considered traitors, ‘los hijos de los rojos’ (‘the children of Reds’).

A 20-year overview of fertility preservation in boys: new insights gained through a comprehensive international survey.

Twenty years after the inception of the first fertility preservation programme for pre-pubertal boys, what are the current international practices with regard to cryopreservation of immature testicular tissue? Worldwide, testicular tissue has been cryopreserved from over 3000 boys under the age of 18 years for a variety of malignant and non-malignant indications; there is variability in practices related to eligibility, clinical assessment, storage, and funding. For male patients receiving gonadotoxic treatment prior to puberty, testicular tissue cryopreservation may provide a method of fertility preservation. While this technique remains experimental, an increasing number of centres worldwide are cryopreserving immature testicular tissue and are approaching clinical application of methods to use this stored tissue to restore fertility. As such, standards for quality assurance and clinical care in preserving immature testicular tissue should be established. A detailed survey was sent to 17 centres within the recently established ORCHID-NET consortium, which offer testicular tissue cryopreservation to patients under the age of 18 years. The study encompassed 60 questions and remained open from 1 July to 1 November 2022. Of the 17 invited centres, 16 completed the survey, with representation from Europe, Australia, and the USA. Collectively, these centres have cryopreserved testicular tissue from patients under the age of 18 years. Data are presented using descriptive analysis. Since the establishment of the first formal fertility preservation programme for pre-pubertal males in 2002, these 16 centres have cryopreserved tissue from 3118 patients under the age of 18 years, with both malignant (60.4%) and non-malignant (39.6%) diagnoses. All centres perform unilateral biopsies, while 6/16 sometimes perform bilateral biopsies. When cryopreserving tissue, 9/16 centres preserve fragments sized ≤5 mm3 with the remainder preserving fragments sized 6-20 mm3. Dimethylsulphoxide is commonly used as a cryoprotectant, with medium supplements varying across centres. There are variations in funding source, storage duration, and follow-up practice. Research, with consent, is conducted on stored tissue in 13/16 centres. While this is a multi-national study, it will not encompass every centre worldwide that is cryopreserving testicular tissue from males under 18 years of age. As such, it is likely that the actual number of patients is even higher than we report. Whilst the study is likely to reflect global practice overall, it will not provide a complete picture of practices in every centre. Given the research advances, it is reasonable to suggest that cryopreserved immature testicular tissue will in the future be used clinically to restore fertility. The growing number of patients undergoing this procedure necessitates collaboration between centres to better harmonize clinical and research protocols evaluating tissue function and clinical outcomes in these patients. K.D. is supported by a CRUK grant (C157/A25193). R.T.M. is supported by an UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S017151/1). The MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh is supported by MRC (MR/N022556/1). C.L.M. is funded by Kika86 and ZonMW TAS 116003002. A.M.M.v.P. is supported by ZonMW TAS 116003002. E.G. was supported by the Research Program of the Research Foundation-Flanders (G.0109.18N), Kom op tegen Kanker, the Strategic Research Program (VUB_SRP89), and the Scientific Fund Willy Gepts. J.-B.S. is supported by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (TJ2020-0026). The work of NORDFERTIL is supported by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (PR2019-0123; PR2022-0115), the Swedish Research Council (2018-03094; 2021-02107), and the Birgitta and Carl-Axel Rydbeck's Research Grant for Paediatric Research (2020-00348; 2021-00073; 2022-00317; 2023-00353). C.E is supported by the Health Department of the Basque Government (Grants 2019111068 and 2022111067) and Inocente Inocente Foundation (FII22/001). M.P.R. is funded by a Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health Grant No: MR/N022556/1. A.F. and N.R. received support from a French national research grant PHRC No. 2008/071/HP obtained by the French Institute of Cancer and the French Healthcare Organization. K.E.O. is funded by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the US National Institutes of Health HD100197. V.B-L is supported by the French National Institute of Cancer (Grant Seq21-026). Y.J. is supported by the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation and a Medical Research Future Fund MRFAR000308. E.G., N.N., S.S., C.L.M., A.M.M.v.P., C.E., R.T.M., K.D., M.P.R. are members of COST Action CA20119 (ANDRONET) supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The Danish Child Cancer Foundation is also thanked for financial support (C.Y.A.). The authors declare no competing interests. N/A.

ENHANCING CARTILAGE TISSUE FORMATION IN GELMA/ALGINATE-TYRAMINE INTERPENETRATED NETWORKS (IPNS) WITH LOW INTENSITY PULSE ULTRASOUND STIMULATION (LIPUS)

In the native articular cartilage microenvironment, chondrocytes are constantly subjected to dynamic physical stimuli that maintains tissue homeostasis. They produce extra cellular matrix (ECM) components such as collagens (type II mainly, 50-75%), proteoglycans (10-30%) and other type of proteins1 . While collagen offers a large resistance in tension, proteoglycans are the responsible of the viscoelastic response under compression due to the negative charge they confer to the ECM allowing it to entrap a large amount of interstitial fluid. In pathologic states (e.g. osteoarthritis), this ECM is degenerated and the negative charge becomes unbalanced, losing the chondroprotective properties and resulting on an overloaded chondrocytes that further degenerate the matrix.Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound Stimulation (LIPUS) has been used to generate acoustic (pressure) waves that create bubbles that collapse with cells, inducing a stimulus that can modulate cell response2. This mechanical stimulation promotes the expression of type II collagen, type X collagen, aggrecan and TGF-β, appearing as a great strategy to regenerate cartilage. However, current strategies make use of extrinsic forces to stimulate cartilage formation overlooking the physico-chemical properties of the degenerated cartilage, resulting in an excessive load-transfer to chondrocytes and the consequent hypertrophy and degeneration.Here, interpenetrated networks (IPNs) with different compositions were created using methacrylated gelatin (GelMA), to mimic the collagen, and alginate functionalized with tyramine (Alg-tyr) to mimic glycosaminoglycans and to introduce a negative charge in the model. Within the matrix chondrocytes where encapsulated and stimulated under different conditions to identify the ultrasound parameters that enhance tissue formation. Samples with and without stimulation were compared analysing the expression and deposition of collagen II, aggrecan, collagen X and TGF-β. The results suggested that the chondrogenic marker expression of the samples stimulated for 10 minutes per day for 28 days, was two times higher overall in all of the cases, which was correlated to the tissue formation detected.Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Basque Government for the “Predoctoral Training Program for Non-Doctoral Research Staff 2021-2022” (Grant ref.: PRE_2021_1_0403). This work was supported by the RETOS grant PID2020-114901RA-I00 of the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN).

Does Basal Metabolism Really Influence the Prognosis of Childhood Obesity?

Childhood obesity is one of the greatest social and health problems of the 21st century. Exogenous obesity consists in the pathological increase in body mass due to the imbalance between caloric intake and expenditure. Different studies and preventive protocols have been carried out with the aim of solving this health problem. Likewise, different etiopathogenic factors such as metabolism and various diagnostic methods such as bioelectrical impedance, have been described. The hypothesis is based on the assumption that a low basal metabolic rate in the context of a caloric imbalance could lead to an increase in the incidence of exogenous or primary obesity with an increase in fat mass. The objectives of the study are to carry out an epidemiological description of the variables of the database obtained on childhood obesity from the clinic. To investigate whether there is an inversely proportional relationship between basal metabolism and a patient’s fat mass. To check if there are differences between sex and age of the patients with respect to the variables under study (basal metabolism and fat mass). To analyse whether there is a directly proportional relationship between basal metabolism and lean mass. To investigate whether there are differences in basal metabolic rate between patients according to sex and whether there are differences in fat mass between patients according to sex. To determine whether there are differences in basal metabolism between patients according to age (7-10 years and 11-14 years) and whether there are differences in fat mass between patients according to age (7-10 years and 11-14 years). To stipulate whether patients with early detection (age range: 7-10 years) and late detection (age range: 11-14 years) of childhood obesity can have a better evolution in fat mass. Material and methods: A total of 19 articles were used as bibliographic references, obtained from different digital sources such as ScienceDirect, CNN, La Vanguardia, SciELO and Pubmed, and from organizations such as the Basque Government and the University of Cantabria Library. In addition, the certificate of authorization for the epidemiological exploitation of the OSI Araba database (code 01/2019) has been obtained. Excel and SPSS Stadistics 29.0.2.0 were used to perform the statistical analysis. Conclusion: An epidemiological description of the variables of the database obtained on childhood obesity from the clinic has been carried out. An inversely proportional relationship between basal metabolism and fat mass in a patient has not been found. There is no directly proportional relationship between basal metabolism and lean mass. Differences in basal metabolism between patients according to sex are described. There are no differences in fat mass between patients according to sex. There are differences in basal metabolism between patients according to age (7-10 years and 11-14 years). No differences in fat mass between patients according to age (7-10 years and 11-14 years) were described. Patients with early detection (age range: 7-10 years) and late detection (age range: 11-14 years) of childhood obesity have a better evolution in fat mass.

The right to accompaniment by a person of the victim‘s choice as a key right to avoid secondary victimisation: Exploratory qualitative research in Spain

This paper explores the right of any victim of crime to be accompanied by any person of her choice from the first contact with the authorities. This right was formally acknowledged by the Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA (2012/29/ EU Directive), and transposed to the 2015 Law 4/2015 of 27 April 2015 on the standing of victims of crime (2015 Law 4/2015), subject to exceptions on reasoned grounds. The rationale for this right is the persistent secondary victimisation of victims in the criminal justice system and the need for a procedural justice approach. This article draws on qualitative exploratory research conducted during September, October and November 2019 in the Basque Country (Spain), based on information collected from fieldwork observation, photos, questionnaires and interviews with victims and legal professionals, as well as secondary data on a Basque Government program that offers more comprehensive professional companionship to women victims of intimate partner violence. It analyses some aspects that emerge from the implementation of this right in Spain. Finally, it concludes that, even if relevant, the specific legal inclusion of this right in the Directive should be complemented with a more responsive perspective of human rights.

Design and Validation of an Optimal Mechanical Enclosure for LowCost Real-Time Gluten Detection Using NIR Sensor in a Portable Device

Food allergy, specifically gluten intolerance, is a significant global health issue affecting approximately 7% of the population, with the only effective treatment being lifelong adherence to a gluten-free diet. Despite the need, no rapid, low-cost, non-invasive testing device is available for patients with this disease. This research, conducted within the TECAM project funded by the Basque Government and in collaboration with Leartiker and CEIT, aims to design and implement a technological solution for celiac individuals to query gluten contamination of food samples in real time using a low- cost device based on a near infrared (NIR) sensor (DLP NIRscan Nano), with a focus on the mechanical design and validation of the sensor’s integration for optimal NIR spectroscopy. Evaluations of environmental impacts on sample acquisition highlighted the significance of various disturbances like sensor height, light exposure, device temperature, and sample preparation, with tests using the SparkFun AS7263 sensor showing the importance of minimizing sensor height and external turbulence. This necessitated a closed, opaque enclosure, designed with CAD tools and 3D printed, with its efficacy validated using the "Software Usability Scale" (SUS) and "USE Questionnaire". Twenty prototypes were created during this iterative process, and the final design successfully integrates the DLP NIR scan Nano sensor, aligning with the design 4 all philosophy and ensuring optimal sensor functionality. Conclusively, this study offers a low-cost, portable design for a NIR sensor integration to detect gluten, emphasizing the need to minimize environmental disturbances and incorporating user feedback to produce a practical tool for celiacs to non-invasively assess gluten contamination quickly

Blockchain-driven digital nomadism in the Basque e-Diaspora

ABSTRACT E-diasporas are communities of diaspora members utilizing digital technologies and data platforms to establish connections among themselves and with their homelands. In response to the pandemic, governments worldwide have intensified efforts to reinforce e-diasporas. However, these endeavours often rely on social media extractivist Big Tech platforms, which are referred to as ‘hyperconnected diasporas’ in this article. This trend potentially poses a threat to institutional trust and data privacy. This article introduces HanHemen (ThereHere in Basque language, Euskera), an ongoing action research-driven e-diaspora platform facilitated by the Basque Government. HanHemen aims to ensure data privacy through experimentation with blockchain technologies and co-production with end-users via DAOs. This article reveals findings from an online survey completed by 419 Basque diasporic citizens (N = 1,385), who demonstrated support for digital nomadism (62%) and expressed concerns about data privacy (84%). These findings highlight the need to overcome the mainstream ‘hyperconnected diaspora’ trend through HanHemen.

Terrorism and politically motivated violence in the recent history of the Basque Country. Descriptive study of what teachers in training know

ABSTRACT Ever since ETA declared that it would no longer carry out acts of violence, the Basque Country has been involved in a peace process. As part of this process, the Basque government has promoted – through its Adi-adian Educational Module – the experience of listening to victims’ testimonies in order to inform young persons about an important chapter of our recent history. Reflecting an awareness of the importance of addressing socially relevant topics, the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) began to implement the Adi-adian model in a number of its bachelor’s and master’s degrees in teacher training. With a view towards improving the implementation of Adi-adian, a statistical-descriptive study was carried out with a quantitative methodological approach. Using a 25-item questionnaire, the purpose was to measure knowledge of recent historical events, determine the sources of information concerning those events, and gauge the satisfaction of participants as regards the information that they have received about the violent episodes of their recent history. The statistical analysis of the data obtained in this study was conducted using the SPSS Statistics 27 software. Generally speaking, the participating students were found to possess an average to low knowledge of the events that took place during the recent history of the Basque Country. As for the sources of information cited, the family, the media and the school are the most frequently mentioned, while respondents express a generalised dissatisfaction with the information received in this regard.

Discovering the mechanism of action of drugs with a sparse explainable network

Although Deep Neural Networks (DDNs) have been successful in predicting the efficacy of cancer drugs, the lack of explainability in their decision-making process is a significant challenge. Previous research proposed mimicking the Gene Ontology structure to allow for interpretation of each neuron in the network. However, these previous approaches require huge amount of GPU resources and hinder its extension to genome-wide models. We developed SparseGO, a sparse and interpretable neural network, for predicting drug response in cancer cell lines and their Mechanism of Action (MoA). To ensure model generalization, we trained it on multiple datasets and evaluated its performance using three cross-validation schemes. Its efficiency allows it to be used with gene expression. In addition, SparseGO integrates an eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) technique, DeepLIFT, with Support Vector Machines to computationally discover the MoA of drugs. SparseGO's sparse implementation significantly reduced GPU memory usage and training speed compared to other methods, allowing it to process gene expression instead of mutations as input data. SparseGO using expression improved the accuracy and enabled its use on drug repositioning. Furthermore, gene expression allows the prediction of MoA using 265 drugs to train it. It was validated on understudied drugs such as parbendazole and PD153035. SparseGO is an effective XAI method for predicting, but more importantly, understanding drug response. The Accelerator Award Programme funded by Cancer Research UK [C355/A26819], Fundación Científica de la AECC and Fondazione AIRC, Project PIBA_2020_1_0055 funded by the Basque Government and the Synlethal Project (RETOS Investigacion, Spanish Government).

Experimental test of a building thermal system for preventive maintenance based on thermoeconomic analysis

An analysis of the sectorial structure of energy consumption shows that residential and tertiary sector buildings are the third-highest consumers, responsible for 29.5% of a city’s final energy consumption. The Building Quality Control Laboratory of the Basque Government aims to promote quality, innovation, and sustainability in buildings. To accomplish this goal, it has constructed an experimental facility with different energy generation technologies and a very versatile control system for testing different energy systems and operation modes. In this study, we tested a facility for supplying domestic hot water and heating for a multi-family house by means of a condensing boiler and an aerothermal heat pump (together with the corresponding control). This installation could reproduce the thermal demands required to be satisfied by the generation equipment through a programmed operation of the installation based on real demands. Additionally, this installation was analyzed using thermoeconomics (TE) to solve problems unable to be solved using traditional energy analyses based on the First Law of Thermodynamics. These problems include: (1) Determining the costs of the products of the installation based on physical criteria, (2) detecting the places where losses actually occur, evaluating their costs, and proposing cost-effective improvements, and (3) diagnosing issues in the installation. As a result, this paper suggests a solution to the preventive maintenance problems confronting the technical maintenance personnel for thermal installations in buildings by applying TE knowledge and using real data collected from sensors.

Environmental science through orbiters. An example of Sentinel-5P on how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the air quality

Due to the lockdown caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease (a.k.a. COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, most industrial and social activity drastically stopped. This drastic fall in human and industrial activity might have caused a drastic fall in the concentration of important atmospheric pollutants. This study investigates whether the atmospheric concentration of NO2, CO, HCOOH, CH4, SO2 and O3 changed during this extraordinary situation. Secondly, this manuscript demonstrates how orbiter data can be freely used to endeavour any research question and the usefulness of multivariate data analysis in analyzing such data. The data used was the European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite (SP5). Besides, the molecular concentration found with S5P was compared with the ground meteorological stations of the Basque Government, Spain. Concerning the individual evolution of the molecular concentrations found with SP5, no significant differences were obtained for the abovementioned molecules for the same period (from January until June) in different years (2019 and 2020) using ANOVA. The average concentration between years and their respective relative standard deviations were in the same range. Nevertheless, Principal Component Analysis applied to the time series demonstrated significant changes in the overall behaviour of the monitored pollutants.

Miren’s Story

Ten-year-old Miren Alonso was one of almost 4,000 Basque children evacuated from the Basque Country in northern Spain to Southampton, England by the Basque Government in May 1937, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This article, based on extensive oral testimony, provides a firsthand look at a historical event that remains largely unknown to most people. It is also one of only a few long-term studies of the evacuation from the perspective of an individual. This is a summary of Miren’s experience before, during, and after the evacuation, framed within the social, political, and historical context of the period. Her story is a remarkable account of what it was like to be a child refugee, separated from her parents and sent from a war-ravaged city into the care of strangers in a country with a language that she did not speak. It is also the account of what is was like to face the aftereffects of the evacuation and trauma of the Spanish Civil War. This is a story of tragedy on an almost incomprehensible scale, but also a story of resilience, human kindness, and the power of community.

Symptom Severity in Early-stage Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (P5-3.009)

Symptom Severity in Early-stage Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (P5-3.009)

Impact of Early-stage Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis on Quality of Life (P13-3.006)

Impact of Early-stage Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis on Quality of Life (P13-3.006)

Basque Immigrants and Nevada's Sheep Industry: Geopolitics and the Making of an Agricultural Workforce, 1880–1954

For decades, historians of the American West have problematized Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis in myriad ways. Coalescing in a group often labeled New Western historians, these individuals found holes in Turner's interpretation of the American West as a place where hardy pioneers constructed democratic institutions, lived independently, and assimilated into one “American” community. For his part in confronting Turner's view, Iker Saitua “challenges the idea of melting-pot homogeneity in the American West by examining the Basque immigrant experience in Nevada as a complex collectivity in a complex geographical place” (13). In so doing, Saitua examines the relatively unknown story of Basque immigration to and settlement in Nevada to demonstrate that we still have much to learn about the region and those who reside in it.As a native of the Basque country and the Basque Government Postdoctoral Fellow at both the University of the Basque Country and the University of California, Riverside, Saitua is intimately familiar with this story. The author organizes the study by separating it into three distinct parts. Saitua begins by relating the first waves of Basque immigration to the United States in the late nineteenth century, transitions into how the Basque community became a fixture in Nevada before the outbreak of World War II, and closes by looking at how labor shortages compelled American recruitment of Basque workers following the war. Each part explores how they faced distinct challenges to establish themselves in the United States. Nothing proved easy, but perhaps the most daunting issue that Saitua covers is the racialization of Basque immigrants in the aftermath of World War I and following the Johnson-Reid Act of 1924 that constructed quotas for immigrants coming to the United States. As Saitua tells it, the Basque community in the West proved largely successful in finding a niche in the Nevada ranching economy as knowledgeable and dedicated sheepherders. Unfortunately, while their contribution provided opportunities to earn acceptance by and respect from their employers and others in the state, the community became susceptible to the volatile anti-immigrant fervor that erupted in the 1920s and continued into the 1930s.World War II changed that, however. The restriction on Basque immigration left the sheep industry desperate for laborers, and that desperation compelled many Nevadans to fight to reform the restrictive quota acts. Most notably, Senator Patrick McCarran lobbied hard to ease restrictions and open opportunities for Basques to immigrate and resolve labor shortages. The consummate anti-communist, McCarran even met with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in 1949 and advised him to emphasize Spain's resistance to communism to improve relations between the two nations. His efforts paid off in the end with both the lessening of restrictions in 1951 and the normalization of relations between Spain and the United States with the 1953 Pact of Madrid, an agreement that encouraged economic ties and “indirectly facilitated the recruitment of Basque immigrant labor” that continued beyond 1953 (249).There is much to appreciate in this book. Notably, Saitua engages labor history, conservation and land use, foreign policy, and whiteness, and he clearly ties those distinct bodies of literature back to his study of Basque community. He has taken a relatively unknown group of people and presented an exemplary case study of how the trials and tribulations of a specific community of immigrants in Nevada can help us better understand the ways that monumental shifts—the development of an agricultural industry in the West, anti-immigration trends in the 1920s and 1930s, and the rise of production demands during World War II—impacted peoples in the West. In the process, he achieves his primary goal of using the Basque story to expand the historiography of the New Western History and counter Turner's dated notion of Americanization on the frontier.Two minor issues detract from the study. First, there is no conclusion. Each chapter works well on its own, but a short conclusion that included a summary of main themes as well as the author's contributions, or perhaps even a mention to how the Basque community fared after 1954, would refocus the book. Second, it is sometimes difficult to understand the impact of these shifts on the Basque community itself. It might help had the author grounded some of these developments with a better representation of community numbers, or how they were viewed beyond Nevada, or whether the community remains viable.Minor complaints such as these will do little to detract from the book's contributions. Saitua adeptly weaves together several complicated bodies of literature to shine a light on a largely unknown story of community development and adaptation in the American West.

EDUKA: Design and development of an intelligent tutor and author tool for the personalised generation of itineraries and training activities in inmersive 3D and 360° educational environments

Nowadays, Virtual and Augmented Reality have begun to be integrated in the educational field for the creation of immersive learning environments. This research presents the results of a project called “EDUKA: Intelligent tutor and author tool for the personalised generation of itineraries and training activities in immersive 3D and 360º educational environments”, funded by the Basque Government (BG) (Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment Department). The project started in April 2018 and was completed in December 2020. Nowadays, an improved version is being developed in a project called IKASNEED, also supported by the BG. The aim of the study was to develop research around a set of latest generation technologies that offer interdependence to educational centres for the adoption, development and integration of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and immersive content technologies in their study plans.

New Temporary Public Housing Typology in the Basque Country: A Legislative and Design Response to the New Requirements of the 21st Century Society

The Administration of the Basque Country has been responsible for public housing since 1981. Since then, more than 104,000 protected housing units have been built for 2,200,000 inhabitants, 34,000 of which have been directly promoted by the Basque Government. To better adapt its policies to the requirements of a new contemporary society, the Housing Department of the Basque Government has developed a new Habitability Decree in 2022. This Decree aims to update housing to the new ways of living in Basque society and to incorporate new social requirements regarding housing, such as universal accessibility, gender perspective, productive housing, and remote work, while trying to open new ways to improve flexibility of the housing stock. This article analyses some of the key aspects of the new Decree and one of the newly regulated typologies for temporary housing aimed at young and older populations. In addition to the critical selection of the most relevant aspects of the Decree, this article aims at contextualising its requirements in the European context and the broader reference framework of the housing crisis in the Basque Country. To that end, the most notable novelties of the Decree are presented alongside the analysis of 13 temporary housing projects developed by the Housing Department before the approval of the Decree, placing special emphasis on the issue of over-occupation. The analysis makes it possible to typologically characterise the temporary accommodation built to date and to compare the new minimum living space requirements per person with other international regulations. As a conclusion, a discussion is offered about the usefulness of the Decree for adapting new housing in the Basque country to the 21st century, and for preventing the issue of overcrowding.

In-Service Primary Teachers’ Practices and Beliefs About Multilingualism: Linguistically Sensitive Teaching in the Basque Autonomous Community

Summary European schools have seen a considerable increase in the number of multilingual students (Bergroth et al., 2021). Teaching languages separately restricts the use of students’ entire linguistic repertoire; however, new lines of research have pointed out the usefulness of multilingualism and the potential benefits of pedagogical translanguaging (Leonet et al., 2017). In this context, Linguistically Sensitive Teaching (LST) allows teachers to make multilingualism visible in their classrooms (Llompart & Birello, 2020). This qualitative research study was conducted in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), where Basque and Spanish are official languages. In most cases, English is taught as a Foreign Language. Even though the minority language is not the student’s first language in many cases, most students’ families choose Basque as the language of instruction (Basque Government, 2020). This study analyses in-service primary teachers’ perspectives on multilingual education in a government aided semiprivate school. Data were collected through linguistic landscape analysis, observations, and a focus group discussion. Two researchers observed one hundred six primary multilingual students and eight in-service language and content teachers for three weeks. Teachers who participated in the study were at least bilingual and fluent in Basque and Spanish and some (4) were also fluent in English (B2–C1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for languages). The findings reveal that in-service primary teachers are aware of the utility of putting LST into practice, and they are willing to teach and flexibly use languages. In addition, they believe in transferences across languages and highlight the value of using language to learn content. Although in many cases, multilingual strategies are appropriate for adapting to the current situation, those strategies are not systematized, creating a climate of insecurity. The results suggest the need for more linguistically sensitive education and training.