Air Pollution Convergente and Economic Growth across European Countries

This paper analyses the role of macroeconomic performance in shaping the evolution of air pollutants in a panel of European countries from 1990 to 2000. The analysis is addressed in connection with EU environmental regulation and taking into account macroeconomic performance. We start by documenting the patterns of crosscountry differences among different pollutants. We then interpret these differences within a neoclassical growth model with pollution. Three main pieces of evidence are presented. First, we analyze the existence of convergence of pollution levels within European economies. Second, we rank countries according to its performance in terms of emissions and growth. Third, we evaluate the evolution of emissions in terms of the targets signed for 2010.Economic Growth, Air Pollution, Convergence

Indicators and Estimators in P-Adaptive Boundary Elements

The paper presents the possibility of implementing a p-adaptive process with the B.E.M. Although the exemples show that good results can be obtained with a limited amount of storage and with the simple ideas explained above, more research is needed in order to improve the two main problems of the method, i.e.: the criteria of where to refine and until what degree. Mathematically based reasoning is still lacking and will be useful to simplify the decission making. Nevertheless the method seems promising and, we hope, opens a path for a series of research lines of maximum interest. Although the paper has dealt only with plane potential problem the extension to plane elasticity as well as to 3-D potential problem is straight-forward

Cooperative cell motility during tandem locomotion of amoeboid cells.

Streams of migratory cells are initiated by the formation of tandem pairs of cells connected head to tail to which other cells subsequently adhere. The mechanisms regulating the transition from single to streaming cell migration remain elusive, although several molecules have been suggested to be involved. In this work, we investigate the mechanics of the locomotion ofDictyosteliumtandem pairs by analyzing the spatiotemporal evolution of their traction adhesions (TAs). We find that in migrating wild-type tandem pairs, each cell exerts traction forces on stationary sites (∼80% of the time), and the trailing cell reuses the location of the TAs of the leading cell. Both leading and trailing cells form contractile dipoles and synchronize the formation of new frontal TAs with ∼54-s time delay. Cells not expressing the lectin discoidin I or moving on discoidin I-coated substrata form fewer tandems, but the trailing cell still reuses the locations of the TAs of the leading cell, suggesting that discoidin I is not responsible for a possible chemically driven synchronization process. The migration dynamics of the tandems indicate that their TAs' reuse results from the mechanical synchronization of the leading and trailing cells' protrusions and retractions (motility cycles) aided by the cell-cell adhesions

Evaluating Novel Speech Transcription Architectures on the Spanish RTVE2020 Database

This work presents three novel speech recognition architectures evaluated on the Spanish RTVE2020 dataset, employed as the main evaluation set in the Albayzín S2T Transcription Challenge 2020. The main objective was to improve the performance of the systems previously submitted by the authors to the challenge, in which the primary system scored the second position. The novel systems are based on both DNN-HMM and E2E acoustic models, for which fully-and self-supervised learning methods were included. As a result, the new speech recognition engines clearly outper-formed the performance of the initial systems from the previous best WER of 19.27 to the new best of 17.60 achieved by the DNN-HMM based system. This work therefore describes an interesting benchmark of the latest acoustic models over a highly challenging dataset, and identifies the most optimal ones depending on the expected quality, the available resources and the required latency

Towards a sustainable energy scenario? A worldwide analysis

This paper studies the worldwide evolution of energy intensity for a large sample of countries during the period 1990–2015, differentiating between non-renewable, non-clean and total energy intensity. This division allows us to establish more precise policy recommendations which, along with the use of the Phillips and Sul (2009) methodology, provides the novelty of the analysis. Our results refute recent evidence favouring the hypothesis of global convergence for all types of energy intensity. Grouping countries either by regions or by income level, the evidence against this hypothesis remains overwhelming, with very few exceptions. Nonetheless, we can observe the presence of several convergence clubs, whose creation strongly depends on energy prices as well as on external energetic dependency. In any event, results relating to the different types of energy intensity are varied, suggesting that previous policy recommendations aimed at tackling climate change based on total energy intensity analyses are questionable

The Villalcampo Shear Zone (Zamora, Spain), geometry, kinematics and the physical conditions of the strain

[Resumen] En este trabajo se presenta una cartografía detallada de un sistema de cizalla que incluye la zona de cizalla de Villalcampo propiamente dicha y las bandas asociadas. Este sistema tiene carácter regional, afecta a granitos intruidos después de la segunda fase hercínica y a sus encajantes metamórficos en un área de al menos 150 Km2. El estudio geométrico y cinemático de las bandas, la distribución de las rocas de falla, así como el estudio microestructural han permitido interpretar todo el sistema como una cizalla subvenical dextra de carácter dúctil-frágil, que termina hacia el NW en un abanico extensional y que se prolonga hacia el SE en otra amplia área interpretada como un duplex extensional. El valor de la cizalla 'Y es de 1,55 y el desplazamiento mínimo calculado es de 3,7 Km. Todas las bandas de cizalla que incluye el sistema de Villalcampo y las venas o filones asociados pueden relacionarse con un único campo de esfuerzos en el que la trayectoria del esfuerzo principal al, subhorizontal y de dirección aproximadamente N-S sufre una desviación en la zona terminal de la banda en sentido diferente según el labio de que se trate, tal como propone Anderson (1951). Para caracterizar el régimen y los mecanismos de la deformación se ha realizado un análisis microestructural detallado de las rocas de falla y un estudio petrográfico y de la petrofábrica de las milonitas. Se concluye que los yacimientos de oro de Pino están controlados estructuralmente por este sistema de cizalla ya que aparecen en venas extensionales ocupadas por milonitas brechificadas; las condiciones de la deformación de carácter alternativamente dúctil-frágil habrtan permitido la migración de fluidos mineralizadores y el sellado de las fracturas en ciclos repetidos. Se propone como hipótesis que los yacimientos de estaño y wolframio que aparecen en la región de Villaseco-Almaraz de Duero puedan estar controlados también por el duplex extensional de este sistema de cizalla.[Abstract] The present work reports" on a detailed mapping of the Villalcampo shear system, including the Villalcampo shear itself together with related shears and veins. This regional shear system affects granites intruded after the second hercynian deformation phase and their metamorphic host rocks over an area of about 150 Km2. A st~ctural study of the shear bands, encompassing geometric and kinematic criteria and also the distribution of fault rocks, has allowed the authors to interpret the whole of the system as a ductile-fragile subvenical dextral shear spaying to the NW in an extensional fan that is prolonged to the SE over a broad area interpreted as an extensional duplex. The value of the shear strain, 'Y = 1.55, and the minimum displacement, s = 3.700 m, is calculated. The distribution of shear bands and veins is coherent with the notion of a single stress field where the principal stress, o"¡, is subhorizontal and has a N-S trajectory that deviates to the tips of the main shear, as proposed by Anderson (1951). With a view to gaining insight into the shearing regimen and the physical conditions of the deformation, a microestructural exploration of the fault rocks was carried out together with a petrographical and petrofabric study of the mylonites. It is concluded that the Pino ore veins -with Au mineralization- are structurally controlled by this shear system because they are related to the extensional veins infilled by brecchiated mylonites. Additionally, it is proposed that the deformation conditions would have alternated between brittle and ductile; this would have permited the migration and sealing of microfractures by mineralizing fluids during repeated cycles. As an hypothesis, it is proposed that the Sn and W ores situated in -the Villaseco -Almaraz area are possibly related to the extensional duplex

Determination of Network Configuration Considering Inventory Cost in a Supply Chain

AbstractIn this paper we show the importance of applying mathematical optimization when designing the distribution network in a supply chain, specifically in making decisions related location of facilities and inventory management, which are associated with different levels of planning but are closely related.The addressed problem is an extension of the classic capacitated facility location problem. The distinguishing features are: the inventory management, the presence of multiple plants, and the single source constraints in both echelons. A key issue is that demand at each distribution center is a function of the demands at the retailers assigned, which is a random variable whose value is not known at the time of designing the network. We focus on the mathematical modeling of the problem and the evaluation of the performance of the developed models, so, it can be observed the troubles that arise when modeling supply chains that consider different types of decisions

Two-way layout factorial experiments of spatial point pattern responses in mineral flotation

Factorial experiments are well-understood when the given observations are outcomes of random variables. However, when we observe spatial point patterns in each combination of factors cells, the methodology is much less developed. Motivated by a real problem of locations of bubbles in a mineral flotation experiment where the interest is analysing if the spatial distribution might be affected by frother concentrations and volumetric airflow rates, we develop an approach for statistical testing of two-way factorial experiments for spatial point patterns.We describe the point patterns through the K-function, a second-order summary statistic, and develop a set of new Fisherbased statistics using weighted means. For inference by Monte Carlo, we use random permutations of weighted residuals depending on the null hypothesis. We conduct simulation experiments to demonstrate the performance of the new test statistics and present the results of the real problem

Analysis of the behavior of daily maximum rainfall within the department of Atlántico, Colombia

In the Colombian Caribbean region, there are few studies that evaluated the behavior of one of the most commonly used variables in hydrological analyses: the maximum daily rainfall (Pmax-24h). In this study, multiannual Pmax-24h time series from 19 rain gauges, located within the department of Atlántico, were analyzed to (a) determine possible increasing/decreasing trends over time, (b) identify regions with homogeneous behavior of Pmax-24h, (c) assess whether the time series are better suited under either a stationary or non-stationary frequency analysis, (d) generate isohyetal maps under stationary, non-stationary, and mixed conditions, and (e) evaluate the isohyetal maps by means of the calculation of areal rainfall (Pareal) in nine watersheds. In spite of the presence of both increasing and decreasing trends, only the Puerto Giraldo rain gauge showed a significant decreasing trend. Also, three regions (east, central, and west) with similar Pmax-24h behavior were identified. According to the Akaike information criterion test, 79% of the rain gauges showed better fit under stationary conditions. Finally, statistical analysis revealed that, under stationary conditions, the errors in the calculation of Pareal were more frequent, while the magnitude of the errors was larger under non-stationary conditions, especially in the central-south region. © 2019 by the authors