The increasing penetration of solar energy into the grid has led to management difficulties that require high accuracy forecasting systems. New techniques and approaches are emerging worldwide every year to improve the accuracy of solar power forecasting models and reduce uncertainty in predictions. This article aims to evaluate and compare various solar power forecasting methods based on their characteristics and performance using imagery. To achieve this goal, this article presents an updated analysis of diverse research, which is classified in terms of the technologies and methodologies applied. This analysis distinguishes studies that use ground-based sensor measurements, satellite data processing, or all-sky camera images, as well as statistical regression approaches, artificial intelligence, numerical models, image processing, or a combination of these technologies and methods. Key findings include the superior accuracy of hybrid models that integrate multiple data sources and methodologies, and the promising potential of all-sky camera systems for very short-term forecasting due to their ability to capture rapid changes in cloud cover. Additionally, the evaluation of different error metrics highlights the importance of selecting appropriate benchmarks, such as the smart persistence model, to enhance forecast reliability. This review underscores the need for continued innovation and integration of advanced technologies to meet the challenges of solar energy forecasting.

Forecasting is of great importance in the field of renewable energies because it allows us to know the quantity of energy that can be produced, and thus, to have an efficient management of energy sources. However, determining which prediction system is more adequate is very complex, as each energy infrastructure is different. This work studies the influence of some variables when making predictions using ensemble methods for different locations. In particular, the proposal analyzes the influence of the aspects: the variation of the sampling frequency of solar panel systems, the influence of the type of neural network architecture and the number of ensemble method blocks for each model. Following comprehensive experimentation across multiple locations, our study has identified the most effective solar energy prediction model tailored to the specific conditions of each energy infrastructure. The results offer a decisive framework for selecting the optimal system for accurate and efficient energy forecasting. The key point is the use of short time intervals, which is independent of type of prediction model and of their ensemble method.

From the moment a patient is admitted to the hospital, monitoring begins, and specific information is collected. The continuous flow of parameters, including clinical and analytical data, serves as a significant source of information. However, there are situations in which not all values from medical tests can be obtained. This paper aims to predict the medical test values of COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). By retrieving the missing medical test values, the model provides healthcare professionals with an additional tool and more information with which to combat COVID-19. The proposed approach utilizes a customizable deep learning model. Three types of neural networks, namely Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Long/Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU), are employed. The parameters of these neural networks are configured to determine the model that delivers the optimal performance. Evaluation of the model’s performance is conducted using metrics such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Mean Absolute Error (MAE). The application of the proposed model achieves predictions of the retrieved medical test values, resulting in RMSE = 7.237, MAPE = 5.572, and MAE = 4.791. Moreover, the article explores various scenarios in which the model exhibits higher accuracy. This model can be adapted and utilized in the diagnosis of future infectious diseases that share characteristics with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The Canary Islands, internationally recognized as a biodiversity hot spot, possess unique ecological characteristics including endemic reptile species that face substantial threats from invasive alien species. Particularly, concerning is the California kingsnake ( Lampropeltis californiae ), which exhibits remarkable adaptability and inflicts severe ecological damage on endangered endemic fauna. This proposal aims to address biodiversity conservation challenges in the Canary Islands ecosystem by advancing reptile species classification through the implementation of Swin Transformer architectures. The integration of these advanced neural network architectures with conservation biology provides an automated, precise tool for species identification across different taxonomic levels that can enhance monitoring and control strategies for biodiversity preservation worldwide. This technical approach addresses urgent conservation requirements in the Canary Islands while simultaneously establishing a methodological framework applicable to other ecological contexts facing comparable biodiversity threats. The methodology employed pre-trained Swin Transformer models, initially developing fine-grained reptile species discrimination capabilities through hyperparameter optimization on a limited-scale database (160 images, 40 per species) using nested cross-validation to ensure statistical rigor and independence. The optimized configuration was subsequently transferred to a substantially larger database (4,400 images) for binary classification distinguishing snake from non-snake reptiles, where training on only 400 samples achieved 99.38% accuracy on 4,000 independent test samples, directly addressing the invasive alien species monitoring challenge. The Swin-B Transformer model demonstrated robust performance, achieving up to 100% accuracy in multiclass species classification and 99.38% accuracy in the challenging, taxonomically broader binary snake versus non-snake classification. These results establish the transferability and scalability of the hyperparameter optimization methodology across datasets of substantially different magnitudes.