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[EN] Recent trends in waste management have initiated interest in recycled materials for sound absorption applications. The present paper studies the possibility of paper sludge to be recycled as material for sound absorption applications. Paper sludge (PS) is the water treatment waste, produced during paper production. Two different methods were studied to produce paper sludge and slaked lime composite acoustic panels for sound absorption applications at low and mid-frequencies. The sound absorption coefficient of paper sludge composite panels is measured in an impedance tube using the two-microphone method. The samples produced with different methods showed different behaviours of sound absorption. The primary method to produce showed acoustic asymmetry in the vertical direction of the samples, and it was considerably fragile as well. An improved method to produce PS composite panels was proposed in this paper. Using this method, homogenous and robust acoustic panels were obtained., The authors would like to kindly thank the technician Javier Zaragoza Dolz and Dr. Olga Kizinievi for their fruitful suggestions on this study. This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union FEDER through Project PID2019-109175GB-C22

Objectives EQ-5D-Y-3L health states are valued by adults taking the perspective of a 10-year-old child. Compared to valuation of adult EQ-5D instruments, this entails two changes to the perspective: (i) child health states are valued instead of adult health states and: (ii) health states are valued for someone else instead of for oneself. Although earlier work has shown that these combined changes yield different values for child and adult health states that are otherwise equal, it currently remains unclear why. Hence, we aimed to disentangle the effects of both changes. Methods A sample of 205 students (mean age: 19.48) was surveyed. Each respondent completed visual analogue scale (VAS) and time trade-off (TTO) tasks for five EQ-5D-Y-3L states, using four randomly ordered perspectives: (i) self-adult (themselves), (ii) other-adult (someone their age), (iii) self-child (themselves as a 10-year-old), (iv) other-child (a child of 10 years old). We compared how each perspective impacted outcomes, precision and quality of EQ-5D-Y-3L valuation. Results Overall, differences between perspectives were consistent, with their direction being dependent on the health states and respondents. For VAS, the effect on outcomes of valuation depended on severity, but variance was higher in valuation with child perspectives. For TTO, we observed that EQ-5D-Y-3L states valued on behalf of others (i.e., children or adults) received higher valuations, but lower variances. Conclusion The use of a different perspective appears to yield systematic differences in EQ-5D-Y-3L valuation, with considerable heterogeneity between health states and respondents. This may explain mixed findings in earlier work.

Oligodendrogliomas are defined at the molecular level by the presence of an IDH mutation and codeletion of chromosomal arms 1p and 19q. In the past, case reports and small studies described gliomas with sarcomatous features arising from oligodendrogliomas, so called oligosarcomas. Here, we report a series of 24 IDH-mutant oligosarcomas from 23 patients forming a distinct methylation class. The tumors were recurrences from prior oligodendrogliomas or developed de novo. Precursor tumors of 12 oligosarcomas were histologically and molecularly indistinguishable from conventional oligodendrogliomas. Oligosarcoma tumor cells were embedded in a dense network of reticulin fibers, frequently showing p53 accumulation, positivity for SMA and CALD1, loss of OLIG2 and gain of H3K27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) as compared to primary lesions. In 5 oligosarcomas no 1p/19q codeletion was detectable, although it was present in the primary lesions. Copy number neutral LOH was determined as underlying mechanism. Oligosarcomas harbored an increased chromosomal copy number variation load with frequent CDKN2A/B deletions. Proteomic profiling demonstrated oligosarcomas to be highly distinct from conventional CNS WHO grade 3 oligodendrogliomas with consistent evidence for a smooth muscle differentiation. Expression of several tumor suppressors was reduced with NF1 being lost frequently. In contrast, oncogenic YAP1 was aberrantly overexpressed in oligosarcomas. Panel sequencing revealed mutations in NF1 and TP53 along with IDH1/2 and TERT promoter mutations. Survival of patients was significantly poorer for oligosarcomas as first recurrence than for grade 3 oligodendrogliomas as first recurrence. These results establish oligosarcomas as a distinct group of IDH-mutant gliomas differing from conventional oligodendrogliomas on the histologic, epigenetic, proteomic, molecular and clinical level. The diagnosis can be based on the combined presence of (a) sarcomatous histology, (b) IDH-mutation and (c) TERT promoter mutation and/or 1p/19q codeletion, or, in unresolved cases, on its characteristic DNA methylation profile.

ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) orbited the Earth between 2009 and 2013 for the determination of the static part of Earth’s gravity field. The GPS-derived precise science orbits (PSOs) were operationally generated by the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB). Due to a significantly improved understanding of remaining artifacts after the end of the GOCE mission (especially in the GOCE gradiometry data), ESA initiated a reprocessing of the entire GOCE Level 1b data in 2018. In this framework, AIUB was commissioned to recompute the GOCE reduced-dynamic and kinematic PSOs. In this paper, we report on the employed precise orbit determination methods, with a focus on measures undertaken to mitigate ionosphere-induced artifacts in the kinematic orbits and thereof derived gravity field models. With respect to the PSOs computed during the operational phase of GOCE, the reprocessed PSOs show in average a 8–9% better consistency with GPS data, 31% smaller 3-dimensional reduced-dynamic orbit overlaps, an 8% better 3-dimensional consistency between reduced-dynamic and kinematic orbits, and a 3–7% reduction of satellite laser ranging residuals. In the second part of the paper, we present results from GPS-based gravity field determinations that highlight the strong benefit of the GOCE reprocessed kinematic PSOs. Due to the applied data weighting strategy, a substantially improved quality of gravity field coefficients between degree 10 and 40 is achieved, corresponding to a remarkable reduction of ionosphere-induced artifacts along the geomagnetic equator. For a static gravity field solution covering the entire mission period, geoid height differences with respect to a superior inter-satellite ranging solution are markedly reduced (43% in terms of global RMS, compared to previous GOCE GPS-based gravity fields). Furthermore, we demonstrate that the reprocessed GOCE PSOs allow to recover long-wavelength time-variable gravity field signals (up to degree 10), comparable to information derived from GPS data of dedicated satellite missions. To this end, it is essential to take into account the GOCE common-mode accelerometer data in the gravity field recovery.

[EN] Forty years and 157 papers later, research on contaminant source identification has grown exponentially in number but seems to be stalled concerning advancement towards the problem solution and its field application. This paper presents a historical evolution of the subject, highlighting its major advances. It also shows how the subject has grown in sophistication regarding the solution of the core problem (the source identification), forgetting that, from a practical point of view, such identification is worthless unless it is accompanied by a joint identification of the other uncertain parameters that characterize flow and transport in aquifers., The first author wishes to acknowledge the financial contribution of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through Project No. PID2019-109131RB-I00, and the second author acknowledges the financial support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (B200201015) and Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professor Program from Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education (B19052). Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature.

[EN] Neighbor discovery represents a first step after the deployment of wireless ad hoc networks, since the nodes that form them are equipped with limited-range radio transceivers, and they typically do not know their neighbors. In this paper two randomized neighbor discovery approaches, called CDH and CDPRR, based on collision detection for static multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks, are presented. Castalia 3.2 simulator has been used to compare our proposed protocols against two protocols chosen from the literature and used as reference: the PRR, and the Hello protocol. For the experiments, we chose five metrics: the neighbor discovery time, the number of discovered neighbors, the energy consumption, the throughput and the number of discovered neighbors versus packets sent ratio. According to the results obtained through simulation, we can conclude that our randomized proposals outperform both Hello and PRR protocols in the presence of collisions regarding all five metrics, for both one-hop and multi-hop scenarios. As novelty compared to the reference protocols, both proposals allow nodes to discover all their neighbors with probability 1, they are based on collision detection and know when to terminate the neighbor discovery process. Furthermore, qualitative comparisons of the existing protocols and the proposals are available in this paper. Moreover, CDPRR presents better results in terms of time, energy consumption and number of discovered neighbors versus packets sent ratio. We found that both proposals achieve to operate under more realistic assumptions. Furthermore, CDH does not need to know the number of nodes in the network., This work has been partially supported by the "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" in the "Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica de Excelencia, Subprograma Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento" within the project under Grant TIN2017-84802-C2-1-P. This work has also been partially supported by European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) project ERANETMED3-227 SMARTWATIR.

When healthcare interventions prolong life, people consume medical and non-medical goods during the years of life they gain. It has been argued that the costs for medical consumption should be included in cost-effectiveness analyses from both a healthcare and societal perspective, and the costs for non-medical consumption should additionally be included when a societal perspective is applied. Standardized estimates of these so-called future costs are available in only a few countries and the impact of inclusion of these costs is likely to differ between countries. In this paper we present and compare future costs for five European countries and estimate the impact of including these costs on the cost-effectiveness of life-prolonging interventions. As countries differ in the availability of data, we illustrate how both individual- and aggregate-level data sources can be used to construct standardized estimates of future costs. Results show a large variation in costs between countries. The medical costs for the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom are large compared to Spain and Greece. Non-medical costs are higher in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom than in Greece. The impact of including future costs on the ICER similarly varied between countries, ranging from €1000 to €35,000 per QALY gained. The variation between countries in impact on the ICER is largest when considering medical costs and indicate differences in both structure and level of healthcare financing in these countries. Case study analyses were performed in which we highlight the large impact of including future costs on ICER relative to willingness-to-pay thresholds.

INTRODUCTION: Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is highly overexpressed in stromal tissue of various cancers. While FAP has been recognized as a potential diagnostic or therapeutic cancer target for decades, the surge of radiolabeled FAP-targeting molecules has the potential to revolutionize its perspective. It is presently hypothesized that FAP targeted radioligand therapy (TRT) may become a novel treatment for various types of cancer. To date, several preclinical and case series have been reported on FAP TRT using varying compounds and showing effective and tolerant results in advanced cancer patients. Here, we review the current (pre)clinical data on FAP TRT and discuss its perspective towards broader clinical implementation. METHODS: A PubMed search was performed to identify all FAP tracers used for TRT. Both preclinical and clinical studies were included if they reported on dosimetry, treatment response or adverse events. The last search was performed on July 22 2022. In addition, a database search was performed on clinical trial registries (date 15th of July 2022) to search for prospective trials on FAP TRT.RESULTS: In total, 35 papers were identified that were related to FAP TRT. This resulted in the inclusion of the following tracers for review: FAPI-04, FAPI-46, FAP-2286, SA.FAP, ND-bisFAPI, PNT6555, TEFAPI-06/07, FAPI-C12/C16, and FSDD.CONCLUSION: To date, data was reported on more than 100 patients that were treated with different FAP targeted radionuclide therapies such as [177Lu]Lu-FAPI-04, [90Y]Y-FAPI-46, [177Lu]Lu-FAP-2286, [177Lu]Lu-DOTA.SA.FAPI and [177Lu]Lu-DOTAGA.(SA.FAPi)2. In these studies, FAP targeted radionuclide therapy has resulted in objective responses in difficult to treat end stage cancer patients with manageable adverse events. Although no prospective data is yet available, these early data encourages further research.

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of informal care receipt by the French individuals aged 60 or older. The literature has focused on the community, leaving informal care in residential care settings in the shadow. We leverage data from a representative survey (CARE) conducted in 2015–2016 on both community-dwelling individuals and nursing home residents. Focusing on the 60+ with activity restrictions, we show that 76% of nursing home residents receive help with the activities of daily living from relatives, against 55% in the community. The number of hours conditional on receipt is yet 3.5 times higher in the community. Informal care represents 186 million hours per month and a value equivalent to 1.1% of GDP at least, care in the community representing 95% of the total. We investigate the determinants of informal care receipt. Using an Oaxaca-type approach, we disentangle between two mechanisms explaining that nursing home residents are more likely to receive informal care, namely the differences in population composition (endowments) and the differences in the association of individual characteristics with informal care (coefficients). Both are found to have a similar contribution. Our results imply that private costs make up for the majority (76%) of the costs associated with long-term care provision once informal care is taken into account. They also highlight that informal care is extremely common for nursing home residents. Existing evidence on the determinants of informal care receipt in the community has, however, limited relevance to understand informal care behaviors in nursing homes.

Objectives: Oral conditions are of high prevalence and chronic character within the general population. Identifying the risk factors and determinants of oral disease is important, not only to reduce the burden of oral diseases, but also to improve (equal access to) oral health care systems, and to develop effective oral health promotion programs. Longitudinal population-based (birth-)cohort studies are very suitable to study risk factors on common oral diseases and have the potential to emphasize the importance of a healthy start for oral health. In this paper, we provide an overview of the comprehensive oral and craniofacial dataset that has been collected in the Generation R study: a population-based prospective birth cohort in the Netherlands that was designed to identify causes of health from fetal life until adulthood. Methods: Within the multidisciplinary context of the Generation R study, oral and craniofacial data has been collected from the age of 3 years onwards, and continued at the age of six, nine, and thirteen. Data collection is continuing in 17-year-old participants. Research outcomes: In total, the cohort population comprised 9749 children at birth, and 7405 eligible participants at the age of seventeen. Based on questionnaires, the dataset contains information on oral hygiene, dental visits, oral habits, oral health–related quality of life, orthodontic treatment, and obstructive sleep apnea. Based on direct measurements, the dataset contains information on dental caries, developmental defects of enamel, objective orthodontic treatment need, dental development, craniofacial characteristics, mandibular cortical thickness, and 3D facial measurements. Conclusions: Several research lines have been set up using the oral and craniofacial data linked with the extensive data collection that exists within the Generation R study. Clinical relevance: Being embedded in a multidisciplinary and longitudinal birth cohort study allows researchers to study several determinants of oral and craniofacial health, and to provide answers and insight into unknown etiologies and oral health problems in the general population.

Many community-rated health insurance markets include risk equalization (also known as risk adjustment) to mitigate risk selection incentives for competing insurers. Empirical evaluations of risk equalization typically quantify selection incentives through predictable profits and losses net of risk equalization for various groups of consumers (e.g. the healthy versus the chronically ill). The underlying assumption is that absence of predictable profits and losses implies absence of selection incentives. This paper questions this assumption. We show that even when risk equalization perfectly compensates insurers for predictable differences in mean spending between groups, selection incentives are likely to remain. The reason is that the uncertainty about residual spending (i.e., spending net of risk equalization) differs across groups, e.g., the risk of substantial losses is larger for the chronically ill than for the healthy. In a risk-rated market, insurers are likely to charge a higher profit mark-up (to cover uncertainty in residual spending) and a higher safety mark-up (to cover the risk of large losses) to chronically ill than to healthy individuals. When such differentiation is not allowed, insurers face incentives to select in favor of the healthy. Although the exact size of these selection incentives depends on contextual factors, our empirical simulations indicate they can be non-trivial. Our findings suggest that – in addition to the equalization of differences in mean spending between the healthy and the chronically ill – policy measures might be needed to diminish (or compensate insurers for) heteroscedasticity of residual spending across groups.

Purpose: Intravenous maintenance fluid therapy (IV-MFT) prescribing in acute and critically ill children is very variable among pediatric health care professionals. In order to provide up to date IV-MFT guidelines, the European Society of Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC) undertook a systematic review to answer the following five main questions about IV-MFT: (i) the indications for use (ii) the role of isotonic fluid (iii) the role of balanced solutions (iv) IV fluid composition (calcium, magnesium, potassium, glucose and micronutrients) and v) and the optimal amount of fluid. Methods: A multidisciplinary expert group within ESPNIC conducted this systematic review using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) grading method. Five databases were searched for studies that answered these questions, in acute and critically children (from 37 weeks gestational age to 18 years), published until November 2020. The quality of evidence and risk of bias were assessed, and meta-analyses were undertaken when appropriate. A series of recommendations was derived and voted on by the expert group to achieve consensus through two voting rounds. Results: 56 papers met the inclusion criteria, and 16 recommendations were produced. Outcome reporting was inconsistent among studies. Recommendations generated were based on a heterogeneous level of evidence, but consensus within the expert group was high. “Strong consensus” was reached for 11/16 (69%) and “consensus” for 5/16 (31%) of the recommendations. Conclusions: Key recommendations are to use isotonic balanced solutions providing glucose to restrict IV-MFT infusion volumes in most hospitalized children and to regularly monitor plasma electrolyte levels, serum glucose and fluid balance.

[EN] This paper presents a quantitative vision of the study of crowdfunding, through a bibliometric analysis of the most relevant publications. The main goal is to deter¿ mine whether crowdfunding is really a subject of increasing interest, and to identify the most productive and infuential sources of its scientifc research. Data were col¿ lected from the general Web of Science, one of the most complete and prestigious databases. We found that the USA is where crowdfunding is most studied. The two most active authors (Brooks AC and Andreoni J) are also in the USA. Regarding the temporal evolution of publications and citations, exponential growth was observed from 2010, which together with the low numbers of citations and publications, high¿ light the youth of crowdfunding as a subject of study, and the high potential it has for future research. Finally, a compilation of the most relevant articles was made in terms of the number of citations. This is the basis for starting new studies that delve deeper into the theme. With the results obtained, any researcher interested in the subject can easily analyze the most relevant articles, and fnd the studies of the authors, entities, and countries with the greatest infuence on the subject.

The aim was to reflect on the unexpected finding of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the neonate (PPHN) and pulmonary hypertension in infants born within the Dutch STRIDER trial, its definition and possible pathophysiological mechanisms. The trial randomly assigned pregnant women with severe early-onset fetal growth restriction to sildenafil 25 mg three times a day versus placebo. Sildenafil use did not reduce perinatal mortality and morbidity, but did result in a higher rate of neonatal pulmonary hypertension (PH). The current paper reflects on the used definition, prevalence, and possible pathophysiology of the data on pulmonary hypertension. Twenty infants were diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension (12% of 163 live born infants). Of these, 16 infants had PPHN shortly after birth, and four had pulmonary hypertension associated with sepsis or bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Four infants with PPHN in the early neonatal period subsequently developed pulmonary hypertension associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia in later life. Infants with pulmonary hypertension were at lower gestational age at delivery, had a lower birth weight and a higher rate of neonatal co-morbidity. The infants in the sildenafil group showed a significant increase in pulmonary hypertension compared to the placebo group (relative risk 3.67; 95% confidence interval 1.28 to 10.51, P = 0.02).Conclusion: Pulmonary hypertension occurred more frequent among infants of mothers allocated to antenatal sildenafil compared with placebo. A possible pathophysiological mechanism could be a “rebound” vasoconstriction after cessation of sildenafil. Additional studies and data are necessary to understand the mechanism of action. What is Known:• In the Dutch STRIDER trial, persistent pulmonary hypertension in the neonate (PPHN) was more frequent among infants after antenatal sildenafil exposure versus placebo. What is New:• The current analysis focuses on the distinction between PPHN and pulmonary hypertension associated with sepsis or bronchopulmonary dysplasia and on timing of diagnosis and aims to identify the infants at risk for developing pulmonary hypertension.• The diagnosis pulmonary hypertension is complex, especially in infants born after severe early-onset fetal growth restriction. The research field could benefit from an unambiguous consensus definition and standardized screening in infants at risk is proposed.

[EN] Bridge optimization can be complex because of the large number of variables involved in the problem. In this paper, two box-girder steel¿concrete composite bridge single objective optimizations have been carried out considering cost and CO¿ emissions as objective functions. Taking CO¿ emissions as an objective function allows adding sustainable criteria to compare the results with cost. SAMO2, SCA, and Jaya metaheuristics have been applied to reach this goal. Transfer functions have been implemented to fit SCA and Jaya to the discontinuous nature of the bridge optimization problem. Furthermore, a Design of Experiments has been conducted to tune the algorithm and set its parameters. Consequently, it has been observed that SCA shows similar values for objective cost function as SAMO2 but improves computational time by 18% while also getting lower values for the objective function result deviation. From a cost and CO¿ optimization analysis, it has been observed that a reduction of 2.51 kg CO¿ is obtained by each euro reduced using metaheuristic techniques. Moreover, for both optimization objectives, it is observed that adding cells to bridge cross-sections improves not only the section behavior but also the optimization results. Finally, it is observed that the proposed design of double composite action in the supports allows this study to remove continuous longitudinal stiffeners in the bottom flange., Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research has been made possible thanks to funding received from the following research projects: Grant PID2020-117056RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by "ERDF A way of making Europe", Grant FPU-18/01592 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by "ESF invests in your future" and Grant CONICYT/FONDECYT/INICIACION/11180056.

Developments in neuroradiological MRI analysis offer promise in enhancing objectivity and consistency in dementia diagnosis through the use of quantitative volumetric reporting tools (QReports). Translation into clinical settings should follow a structured framework of development, including technical and clinical validation steps. However, published technical and clinical validation of the available commercial/proprietary tools is not always easy to find and pathways for successful integration into the clinical workflow are varied. The quantitative neuroradiology initiative (QNI) framework highlights six necessary steps for the development, validation and integration of quantitative tools in the clinic. In this paper, we reviewed the published evidence regarding regulatory-approved QReports for use in the memory clinic and to what extent this evidence fulfils the steps of the QNI framework. We summarize unbiased technical details of available products in order to increase the transparency of evidence and present the range of reporting tools on the market. Our intention is to assist neuroradiologists in making informed decisions regarding the adoption of these methods in the clinic. For the 17 products identified, 11 companies have published some form of technical validation on their methods, but only 4 have published clinical validation of their QReports in a dementia population. Upon systematically reviewing the published evidence for regulatory-approved QReports in dementia, we concluded that there is a significant evidence gap in the literature regarding clinical validation, workflow integration and in-use evaluation of these tools in dementia MRI diagnosis.

[EN] This paper introduces 2MP-inverses, MP2-inverses, and C2MP-inverses, for rectangular matrices following a different approach to that used in the recent literature. These new inverses generalize some classical inverses in the literature. Instead of considering a system of matrix equations as usually, in order to define 2MP-inverses and MP2-inverses, we consider a construction from oblique projectors represented by means of outer generalized inverses. We use an adequate equivalence relation, and then we pass to the quotient set in order to get the most simple canonical representative. An interesting advantage of our extension of CMP inverses from square to rectangular matrices is that we do not need any auxiliary weight matrix, but we are using the own matrix A for doing it. In addition, some properties and representations of 2MP-, MP2-, and C2MP-inverses are given., Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature

In an automotive battery pack, many Li-ion cells are connected to meet the energy and power requirement. The micro-resistance spot welding (micro-RSW) process is one of the commonly used joining techniques for the development of cylindrical cell-based battery packs, especially for low to medium volume applications. This paper is focused on identifying the effect of influencing parameters of the micro-RSW process and developing an optimized joining solution to connect a 0.2-mm-thin nickel tab to 18,650 Li-ion battery cells. The effect of welding parameters including weld current, weld time, squeeze time, pre-heat current, pre-heat time, dwell time and hold time were investigated to optimize joint strength. Firstly, the welding pilot runs were conducted between Ni connector and two different thicknesses (i.e. 0.3 mm and 0.4 mm) of Hilumin coupons, representative of negative and positive terminals of 18,650 cylindrical cells. Secondly, it was observed that the weld current had the most significant effect on the weld strength followed by weld time. Finally, at the optimum parameter combination, the live cell welding was conducted between the Ni tab and both positive and negative terminals of LG HG2 18,650 Li-ion cells, and the joints were relatively strong; no intermetallic compounds (IMCs) appeared. Weld microstructure studies provided insightful information on under-weld, good-weld and over-weld characterization and correlated with the joint strength. In addition, electrical contact resistance and temperature rise at the joint is equally important for electric vehicle battery applications. The joint performance was evaluated by analyzing the change in contact resistance and joint temperature rise when different amplitudes of current (i.e. 10 A, 20 A and 30 A) passed through the joints.\ud \ud

[EN] In this paper, an optimization tool based on a MILP model to support the teaching assignment process is proposed. It considers not only hierarchical issues among lecturers but also their preferences to teach a particular subject, the non-regular time schedules throughout the academic year, different type of credits, number of groups and other specific characteristics. Besides, it adds restrictions based on the time compatibility among the different subjects, the lecturers' availability, the maximum number of subjects per lecturer, the maximum number of lecturers per subject as well as the maximum and minimum saturation level for each lecturer, all of them in order to increase the teaching quality. Schedules heterogeneity and other features regarding the operation of some universities justify the usefulness of this model since no study that deals with all of them has been found in the literature review. Model validation has been performed with two real data sets collected from one academic year schedule at the Spanish University Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.