https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14090 Sat, 25 Jul 2026 20:11:02 GMT 2026-07-25T20:11:02Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14647 Extracurricular work experiences and soft skills development among pre-service teachers Urkia-Basterra, Iraia; Alvarez-Huerta, Paula; Imaz Agirre, Ainara Purpose This study explores how extracurricular work experiences relate to the development of soft skills among pre-service teachers. Soft skills such as social competences, communication, flexibility, efficacy beliefs and lifelong learning are crucial for addressing complex classroom challenges and supporting professional growth, yet whether work experiences may help foster them remains underexplored. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed with 709 pre-service teachers enrolled in two bachelor’s programmes in educational sciences. Data was gathered through an online questionnaire at the start of the 2024–2025 academic year. Findings Results indicate that extracurricular work experiences are positively associated with social competencies and communication skills, but show no significant effect on efficacy beliefs or flexibility. Interestingly, pre-service teachers with work experience reported lower lifelong learning skills. Originality/value This study contributes to the limited research on how extracurricular work shapes soft skill acquisition in teacher education. By identifying both benefits and drawbacks of such experiences, it highlights the need for teacher education programmes to more intentionally integrate work experiences into their curricula. As teaching grows more complex, linking experiential learning programmes with pedagogical goals is key to fostering the well-rounded development of future educators. Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14647 2026-07-17T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14645 Fatigue life estimation of cast aluminium alloys considering the effect of porosity on initiation and propagation phases Hidalgo, Raquel; Esnaola, Jon Ander; Llavori, Inigo; Larrañaga, Miren; Hurtado, Iñaki; Herrero-Dorca, Nuria Porosity is one of the main parameters in the fatigue life of cast alloys as it affects both crack initiation and propagation phases. However, most fatigue assessments present a lack of accuracy as they only consider the effect of the initial pore on the fatigue limit. Therefore, in the present study, first, the effect of the main porosity characteristics on the crack initiation and propagation phases is evaluated. Then, an alternative fatigue assessment model is proposed and implemented for Low Pressure Die Casting (LPDC) A356-T6 aluminium alloy. The model accounts for the effect of the initial pore size and distance to surface on the initiation phase as well as fractographic porosity and average pore size on the fracture surface on the propagation phase. Finally, the model was validated by means of experimental tests. Results have shown that the proposed model is able to qualitatively predict the scatter trend of samples tested at the same load. In addition, the model presents high quantitative accuracy in life estimation with an average logarithmic error below 2% and an absolute average error below 16%. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14645 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14644 A coupled crack initiation and propagation numerical procedure for combined fretting wear and fretting fatigue lifetime assessment Llavori, Inigo; Zabala, Alaitz; Urchegui, M. A.; Tato, Wilson; Gomez, Xabier This work presents a numerical procedure for combined fretting wear and fretting fatigue problems. It combines the Archard wear model and the Smith-Watson-Topper fatigue indicator parameter with the Miner damage rule for crack nucleation estimation. The eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is then used in combination with the Archard wear model for crack propagation prediction. This procedure was validated in 12 experimental tests taken from the literature, and a good correlation was found. The procedure allows a detailed study of the interaction between the crack and fretting contact in combination with wear. The results show that the relative slip decreases and changes its distribution unevenly when the crack grows, and highlight the key importance of accounting for wear in order to obtain non-conservative predictions. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14644 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14640 Automatic Generation of Test System Instances for Configurable Cyber-Physical Systems Arrieta, Aitor; Sagardui, Goiuria; Etxeberria, Leire; Zander, Justyna Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are ubiquitous systems that integrate digital technologies with physical processes. These systems are becoming configurable to respond to the different needs that users demand. As a consequence, their variability is increasing, and they can be configured in many system variants. To ensure a systematic test execution of CPSs, a test system must be elaborated encapsulating several sources such as test cases or test oracles. Manually building a test system for each configuration is a non-systematic, time-consuming, and error-prone process. To overcome these problems, we designed a test system for testing CPSs and we analyzed the variability that it needed to test different configurations. Based on this analysis, we propose a methodology supported by a tool named ASTERYSCO that automatically generates simulation-based test system instances to test individual configurations of CPSs. To evaluate the proposed methodology, we selected different configurations of a configurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, and measured the time required to generate their test systems. On average, around 119 s were needed by our tool to generate the test system for 38 configurations. In addition, we compared the process of generating test system instances between the method we propose and a manual approach. Based on this comparison, we believe that the proposed tool allows a systematic method of generating test system instances. We believe that our approach permits an important step toward the full automation of testing in the field of configurable CPSs. Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11984/14640 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z