Implementing Transition P Systems

Ponencia en el Congreso NIT 201

Evaluating Labor Market Reforms: A General Equilibrium Approach

fixed-term contracts, firing costs, general equilibrium, heterogeneous agents

Evaluating Labor Market Reforms: A General Equilibrium Approach

Job security provisions are commonly invoked to explain the high and persistent European unemployment rates. This belief has led several countries to reform their labor markets and liberalize the use of fixed-term contracts. Despite how common such contracts have become after deregulation, there is a lack of quantitative analysis of their impact on the economy. To fill this gap, we build a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents and firing costs in the tradition of Hopenhayn and Rogerson (1993). We calibrate our model to Spanish data, choosing in part parameters estimated with firm-level longitudinal data. Spain is particularly interesting, since its labor regulations are among the most protective in the OECD, and both its unemployment and its share of fixed-term employment are the highest. We find that fixed term contracts increase unemployment, reduce output, and raise productivity. The welfare effects are ambiguous.Fixed-term contracts, Firing costs, General equilibrium, Heterogeneous agents

EVALUATING LABOR MARKET REFORMS: A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM APPROACH

Job security provisions are commonly invoked to explain the high and persistent European unemployment rates. This belief has led several countries to reform their labor markets and liberalize the use of fixed-term contracts. Despite how common such contracts have become after deregulation, there is a lack of quantitative analysis of their impact on the economy. To fill this gap, we build a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents and firing costs in the tradition of Hopenhayn and Rogerson (1983). We calibrate our model to Spanish data, choosing in part parameters estimated with firm-level longitudinal data. Spain is particularly interesting, since its labor regulations are among the most protective in the OECD, and both its unemployment and its share of fixed-term employment are the highest. We find that fixedterm contracts increase unemployment, reduce output, and raise productivity. The welfare effects are ambiguous.

Downy mildew: is resistance linked to inoculum concentration?

Leaves of different Vitis vinifera cultivars, susceptible (‘Chasselas’ and ‘2185’), less susceptible (‘2142’) or resistant to downy mildew ('Solaris’ and ‘2091’), were inoculated with four different concentrations of an aqueous sporangia suspension of Plasmopara viticola (5 × 105, 2 × 105, 6 × 104 and 2 × 104 sporangia·ml-1). The infection rate of these samples was then examined by light microscopy and synthesis of stilbenes was analysed at infection sites. Infection rate increased parallel with inoculum concentration, but there was no correlation between the infection rate and resistance to P. viticola. Moreover, at the lowest inoculum concentration, the infection rate is similar for susceptible and resistant grapevine varieties. Quantification of stilbenes at 72 hpi showed that at the lowest inoculum concentration, the most susceptible grape variety synthesized the largest amount of stilbenes, whose level remained however below the ED50 values defined for each of them. Conversely, at the highest inoculum concentration, the most resistant varieties produced the highest amounts of the most toxic stilbenes against P. viticola. The critical role of the inoculum concentration used for artificial inoculation to evaluate grapevine resistance to downy mildew is discussed.

Transducers based on networks of evolutionary processors LOS FINANCIADORES NO ESTÁN BIEN

We consider a new type of transducer that does not scan sequentially the input word. Instead, it consists of a directed graph whose nodes are processors which work in parallel and are specialized in just one type of a very simple evolutionary operation: inserting, deleting or substituting a symbol by another one. The computation on an input word starts with this word placed in a designated node, the input node, of the network an alternates evolutionary and communication steps. The computation halts as soon as another designated node, the output node, is nonempty. The translation of the input word is the set of words existing in the output node when the computation halts. We prove that these transducers can simulate the work of generalized sequential machines on every input. Furthermore, all words obtained by a given generalized sequential machine by the shortest computations on a given word can also be computed by the new transducers. Unlike the case of generalized sequential machines, every recursively enumerable language can be the transduction de?ned by the new transducer of a very simple regular language. The same idea may be used for proving that these transducers can simulate the shortest computations of an arbitrary Turing machine, used as a transducer, on every input word. Finally, we consider a restricted variant of NEP transducer, namely pure NEP transducers and prove that there are still regular languages whose pure NEP transductions are not semilinear

Geometric Morphometrics sheds light on the systematics affinities of two enigmatic dwarf Neotropical sedges (Carex, Cyperaceae)

Geometric morphometrics (GM) is a powerful analytical tool that enables complete quantification of shapes. Its use in Botany has a great potential for complementing plant evolutionary and ecological studies. Taxonomic delimitation in Carex has been complicated due to reduction of characters and frequent homoplasy. This problem is more marked in cases where the species exhibit dwarfism. South America is the continent with the least understood Carex flora. The systematic relationships of some bizarre-looking groups were not unraveled until molecular phylogenetic studies resolved their relationships. In particular, there are two species only known from their type material whose affinities remain uncertain: Carex herteri and C. hypsipedos. These two taxa are acaulescent plants that respectively grow in the Uruguayan pampa and Peruvian high-altitude meadows. Recently, both species were ascribed to the Carex phalaroides group (subgen. Psyllophorae, sect. Junciformes) due to superficial morphological similarities, such as the androgynous peduncled spikes. However, their character combination is also coincident for its circumscription to sect. Abditispicae species. Nevertheless, in the absence of confirmation from molecular analyses, their placement must be considered preliminary until additional data can be provided. In this work we employ for the first time geometric morphometrics (GM) tools to assess the systematic affinities of two taxonomically problematic sedge species based on fruit shape. We compared utricle morphology of C. herteri and C. hypsipedos with that of C. phalaroides group and species in sect. Abditispicae. To this end we used GM and traditional morphometric approaches. Utricle shape variation along with other morphological features support the exclusion of these two species from the C. phalaroides gr. and, at the same time, show clear affinities of C. herteri to sect. Abditispicae. Carex hypsipedos remains as an incertae sedis species. Our work shows the potential utility of GM for the exploration of systematic affinities in sedges and in other graminoids

Diseño de un Procesador de Membranas Paralelo para los Sistemas P de Transición

La computación con membranas surge como una alternativa a la computación tradicional. Dentro de este campo se sitúan los denominados Sistemas P de Transición que se basan en la existencia de regiones que contienen recursos y reglas que hacen evolucionar a dichos recursos para poder llevar a cada una de las regiones a una nueva situación denominada configuración. La sucesión de las diferentes configuraciones conforman la computación. En este campo, el Grupo de Computación Natural de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid lleva a cabo numerosas investigaciones al amparo de las cuales se han publicado numerosos artículos y realizado varias tesis doctorales. Las principales vías de investigación han sido, hasta el momento, el estudio del modelo teórico sobre el que se definen los Sistemas P, el estudio de los algoritmos que se utilizan para la aplicación de las reglas de evolución en las regiones, el diseño de nuevas arquitecturas que mejoren las comunicaciones entre las diferentes membranas (regiones) que componen el sistema y la implantación de estos sistemas en dispositivos hardware que pudiesen definir futuras máquinas basadas en este modelo. Dentro de este último campo, es decir, dentro del objetivo de construir finalmente máquinas que puedan llevar a cabo la funcionalidad de la computación con Sistemas P, la presente tesis doctoral se centra en el diseño de dos procesadores paralelos que, aplicando variantes de algoritmos existentes, favorezcan el crecimiento en el nivel de intra-paralelismo a la hora de aplicar las reglas. El diseño y creación de ambos procesadores presentan novedosas aportaciones al entorno de investigación de los Sistemas P de Transición en tanto en cuanto se utilizan conceptos que aunque previamente definidos de manera teórica, no habían sido introducidos en el hardware diseñado para estos sistemas. Así, los dos procesadores mantienen las siguientes características: - Presentan un alto rendimiento en la fase de aplicación de reglas, manteniendo por otro lado una flexibilidad y escalabilidad medias que son dependientes de la tecnología final sobre la que se sinteticen dichos procesadores. - Presentan un alto nivel de intra-paralelismo en las regiones al permitir la aplicación simultánea de reglas. - Tienen carácter universal en tanto en cuanto no depende del carácter de las reglas que componen el Sistema P. - Tienen un comportamiento indeterminista que es inherente a la propia naturaleza de estos sistemas. El primero de los circuitos utiliza el conjunto potencia del conjunto de reglas de aplicación así como el concepto de máxima aplicabilidad para favorecer el intra-paralelismo y el segundo incluye, además, el concepto de dominio de aplicabilidad para determinar el conjunto de reglas que son aplicables en cada momento con los recursos existentes. Ambos procesadores se diseñan y se prueban mediante herramientas de diseño electrónico y se preparan para ser sintetizados sobre FPGAs. ABSTRACT Membrane computing appears as an alternative to traditional computing. P Systems are placed inside this field and they are based upon the existence of regions called “membranes” that contain resources and rules that describe how the resources may vary to take each of these regions to a new situation called "configuration". Successive configurations conform computation. Inside this field, the Natural Computing Group of the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid develops a large number of works and researches that provide a lot of papers and some doctoral theses. Main research lines have been, by the moment, the study of the theoretical model over which Transition P Systems are defined, the study of the algorithms that are used for the evolution rules application in the regions, the design of new architectures that may improve communication among the different membranes (regions) that compose the whole system and the implementation of such systems over hardware devices that may define machines based upon this new model. Within this last research field, this is, within the objective of finally building machines that may accomplish the functionality of computation with P Systems, the present thesis is centered on the design of two parallel processors that, applying several variants of some known algorithms, improve the level of the internal parallelism at the evolution rule application phase. Design and creation of both processors present innovations to the field of Transition P Systems research because they use concepts that, even being known before, were never used for circuits that implement the applying phase of evolution rules. So, both processors present the following characteristics: - They present a very high performance during the application rule phase, keeping, on the other hand, a level of flexibility and scalability that, even known it is not very high, it seems to be acceptable. - They present a very high level of internal parallelism inside the regions, allowing several rule to be applied at the same time. - They present a universal character meaning this that they are not dependent upon the active rules that compose the P System. - They have a non-deterministic behavior that is inherent to this systems nature. The first processor uses the concept of "power set of the application rule set" and the concept of "maximal application" number to improve parallelism, and the second one includes, besides the previous ones, the concept of "applicability domain" to determine the set of rules that may be applied in each moment with the existing resources.. Both processors are designed and tested with the design software by Altera Corporation and they are ready to be synthetized over FPGAs

Leaf morphological characteristics and stilbene production differently affect downy mildew resistance of Vitis vinifera varieties grown in Italy

The degree of resistance to downy mildew of grape varieties belonging to the oenological tradition of Central Italy was evaluated by the analysis of plant responses to pathogen infections carried out in natural and controlled environments. Leaf morphological traits, such as hair and stomatal density, were determined for each variety, and the percentage of infected stomata and pathogen colonization of host mesophyll at 24, 48, and 72 hours post inoculation were assessed by epifluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, stilbene production at the site of Plasmopara viticola infection was analyzed at 72 hours post inoculation. Results indicate differences in resistance to downy mildew among selected varieties. Different significant values were detected among grapevines in the percentage of infected stomata and average number of successfully penetrated zoospores per stomata and per leaf surface unit. Differences also emerged in the rate of pathogen growth and stilbene production, signifying that defence mechanisms involved or induced during pathogen infection could be differentially effective among grapevine cultivars in limiting disease progression.

Insulin Resistance, Inflammation, and Obesity: Role of Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 (or CCL2) in the Regulation of Metabolism

To maintain homeostasis under diverse metabolic conditions, it is necessary to coordinate nutrient-sensing pathways with the immune response. This coordination requires a complex relationship between cells, hormones, and cytokines in which inflammatory and metabolic pathways are convergent at multiple levels. Recruitment of macrophages to metabolically compromised tissue is a primary event in which chemokines play a crucial role. However, chemokines may also transmit cell signals that generate multiple responses, most unrelated to chemotaxis, that are involved in different biological processes. We have reviewed the evidence showing that monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1 or CCL2) may have a systemic role in the regulation of metabolism that sometimes is not necessarily linked to the traffic of inflammatory cells to susceptible tissues. Main topics cover the relationship between MCP-1/CCL2, insulin resistance, inflammation, obesity, and related metabolic disturbances