A new test procedure of independence in copula models via chi-square-divergence

We introduce a new test procedure of independence in the framework of parametric copulas with unknown marginals. The method is based essentially on the dual representation of $\chi^2$-divergence on signed finite measures. The asymptotic properties of the proposed estimate and the test statistic are studied under the null and alternative hypotheses, with simple and standard limit distributions both when the parameter is an interior point or not.Comment: 23 pages (2 figures). Submitted to publicatio

Oxydation d'un acide humique aquatique par le bioxyde de chlore. Incidences sur une post-chloration et sur un traitement au charbon actif

Cette étude de laboratoire a eu pour but d'examiner la réactivité du bioxyde de chlore sur un acide humique d'origine aquatique en solution aqueuse et en milieu neutre (pH = 7,5) et de préciser en particulier l'incidence d'une préoxydation chimique au CIO2 sur les potentiels de formation de composés organohalogénés (trihalométhanes, acides dicloroacétique et trichloroacétique, chlore organiquement lié) et sur l'adsorbabilité du carbone organique sur charbon actif.Les résultats obtenus montrent que radian du bioxyde de chlore sur racide humique Pinail à l'obscurité, conduit à des faibles abattements du carbone organique dissous (< 10 %) et de l'absorbance UV à 254 nm (de l'ordre de 30 %) et conduit à des productions potentiel es en composées organohalogénés très nettement inférieures à celles formées par chloration. De plus, une préoxydation chimique au bioxyde de chlore permet de diminuer d'une manière très significative la production de composés organohalogénés au cours d'une post-chloration et semble améliorer l'adsorbabllité du carbone organique sur charbon actif.L'oxydation de l'acide humique par le bioxyde de chlore s'accompagne, par ailleurs, de la formation de chlorites (0,65 mg/mg de CIO2 consommé) qui peuvent ensuite être oxydés en chlorates au cours d'une post-chloration ou réduits en chlorures par un traitement au charbon actif.Enfin, les résultats obtenus font apparaître que le mécanisme d'oxydation de composés organiques parle bioxyde de chlore en présence de la lumière ainsi que les interactions entre le bioxyde de chore, les chlorites, la matière organique et le charbon actif méritent d'être plus précisément étudiés.Chlorine dioxide has drawn much recent attention as an alternative disinfectant and oxidant for drinking water to replace chlorine because of its powerful disinfecting ability and its limited capacity to produce organohalogenated compounds. However, the use of chlorine dioxide leads to chlorite (ClO2-) and chlorate (ClO3-) as inorganic oxidation by-products which are reported to have toxic effects on humans. The reactions of ClO2 with simple organic compounds (phenols, aliphatic and aromatic amines...) produce polar compounds such as quinone, ketones, aldehydes and carboxylic acids while oxydation by-products of dissolved organic matter of surface waters (in particular humic substances) are largely unknown. Consequently, the aim of this work was to obtain a better understanding of the effects of the use of chlorine dioxide in drinking water treatment To this end, experiments were carried out with dilute aqueous solutions of an isolated aquatic humic acid (Pinail humic acid, PHA) and the objectives of this present study were :- To evaluate the ClO2 demand and to determine the productions of chlorite, chlorate and of organohalogenated compounds such as trihalomethanes (THMs), dichloroacetic and trichloroacetic acids (DCA, TCA) which are the main organohalogenated products formed by chlorination.- To show the effects of chlorine dioxide preoxidation on organic halide formation potentials (postchlorination) and on the removal of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by activated carbon. In addition, reactions of chlorite with chlorine or with activated carbon were also examined.EXPERIMENTALPniail humic acid was dissolved in phosphate buffered ultra-pure water (pH = 7.5). Oxidation and adsorption experiments were carried out in headspace-free bottles, at 20 ± 1 °C and in the dark. Stock solutions of chlorine dioxide (4-6 g l-1) and of chlorine (6-10 g l-1) were prepared in the laboratory and titrated by iodometry. Residual chlorine dioxide concentration in PHA solutions was determined by spectrophotometric measurement at 360 nm and by two colorimetric methods : the chlorophenol red and the ACVK methods. Concentrations of DOC and of total organic chlorine or halogen (TOCI, TOX) were measured using a DOHRMANN DC 80 carbon analyser and a DOHRMANN DX 20 A TOX analyser equipped with a microcoulometric cell, respectively. THMs, DCA and TCA were determined by a gas chromatograph equipped with a 63 Ni electron capture detector after extraction by pentane for the THMs, and methylation in ether phase for DCA and TCA. Inorganic chlorine species were analysed by HPLC with a UV detector (ClO2-) or by chromatography (Cl-, ClO3-).RESULTS• Oxidation of PHA by ClO2The results showed that PHA consumed about 2 mg of ClO2/mg of DOC after a reaction time of 24 hours (fig. 1) and that there is a rapid consumption of ClO2 during the first 30 minutes of the reaction (fig. 2) Oxidation by ClO2 had no effect on DOC concentration (DOC removal : < 10 %) and led to a significant decrease (about 30 %) of the UV-absorbance at 254 or 270 nm (fig. 1 and 2), and to productions of ClO2- (0,65 mg of ClO2-/mg of ClO2 consumed) which were independant of the applied oxidant dose and of the reaction time.Furthermore, after a 72 hour reaction time in the dark, chlorine dioxide ([ClO2]0 = 5 mg l-1, [PHA]0 = 5 mg l-1, DOC = 2,6 mg l-1) produces very small amounts of chloroform (< 5 µg l-1), DCA (5 µg l-1) and TCA (5 µg l-1) and organochlorinated compounds (TOCl : 36 µg/mg DOC) compared to chlorine oxidation (tableau 1). However, in the presence of sunlight, ClO2 is rapidly photodecomposed (fig. 3) and the photodegradation products of ClO2 allow bromide oxidation (fig. 11) and lead to higher productions of organohalogenated compounds such as THMs (fig. 4).• Chlorine dioxide preoxidation followed by chlorinationAs shown in figure 5, chlorine dioxide preoxidation reduces the production of organohalogenated compounds and the chlorine demand during postchlorination. For a preoxidant dose corresponding to the ClO2 demand of PHA, the decrease in the formation potentials of CHCl3, DCA, TCA and TOCl was about 40-50 %. These results confirm the similarity of the action of chlorine dioxide and chlorine on aromatic structures which have high electron density carbons and which constitute probably the most reactive precursors of organohalogenated by-products.As far as chlorite concentration is concerned, the results showed that chlorite formed during the preoxidation step was completely oxidized to chlorate during postchlorination, under the experimental conditions used in this study (chlorine dose : 40 mg l-1; contact time : 24 or 72 hours). Because of the reactions of chlorine eh chlorine and with residual chlorine dioxide, a small increase in the chlorine demand was observed when PHA solutions were heavily preoxidized (fig. 5).• Chlorine dioxide preoxidation followed by activated carbon treatmentBatch experiments were carried out with a powdered activated carbon (PAC, granulometry : < 80 µm) which was obtained by crushing a commercial granular activated carbon (CECA 40,12 x 40 mesh). Once equilibrium was achieved (contact time : 10 days), adsorption isotherms indicated that chlorine dioxide preoxidation increases the absorbability of DOC on activated carbon (fig; 4tableau 2). Furthermore, chlorite in oxidized PHA solutions was reduced by PAC to chloride. The capacity of CECA 40 activated carbon for ClO2- reduction to Cl- was about 170 mg ClO2-/g of PAC (fig. 7). Other experiments showed that chlorite may react with specific surface groups on PAC to produce inorganic carbon (fig. 7) and with PHA only in the presence of PAC as shown the DOC and UV-absorbance curves in figure 8 and the increase of TOX concentration in the liquid phase in figure 9. Thus the observed increase in DOC absorbability on PAC after a chlorine dioxide preoxidation may be attributed to cheminal interactions between PAC, chlorite, residual chlorine dioxide and adsorbed organic matter and requires further study

Probabilistic Guarded P Systems, A New Formal Modelling Framework

Multienvironment P systems constitute a general, formal framework for modelling the dynamics of population biology, which consists of two main approaches: stochastic and probabilistic. The framework has been successfully used to model biologic systems at both micro (e.g. bacteria colony) and macro (e.g. real ecosystems) levels, respectively. In this paper, we extend the general framework in order to include a new case study related to P. Oleracea species. The extension is made by a new variant within the probabilistic approach, called Probabilistic Guarded P systems (in short, PGP systems). We provide a formal definition, a simulation algorithm to capture the dynamics, and a survey of the associated software.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2012- 37434Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-0420

Measurements of eye lens doses in interventional cardiology using OSL and electronic dosemeters

The purpose of this paper is to test the appropriateness of OSL and electronic dosemeters to estimate eye lens doses at interventional cardiology environment. Using TLD as reference detectors, personal dose equivalent was measured in phantoms and during clinical procedures. For phantom measurements, OSL dose values resulted in an average difference of 215% vs. TLD. Tests carried out with other electronic dosemeters revealed differences up to +/- 20% versus TLD. With dosemeters positioned outside the goggles and when TLD doses were > 20 mu Sv, the average difference OSL vs. TLD was 29%. Eye lens doses of almost 700 mu Sv per procedure were measured in two cases out of a sample of 33 measurements in individual clinical procedures, thus showing the risk of high exposure to the lenses of the eye when protection rules are not followed. The differences found between OSL and TLD are acceptable for the purpose and range of doses measured in the survey.Postprint (published version

Holder continuity of absolutely continuous spectral measures for one-frequency Schrodinger operators

We establish sharp results on the modulus of continuity of the distribution of the spectral measure for one-frequency Schrodinger operators with Diophantine frequencies in the region of absolutely continuous spectrum. More precisely, we establish 1/2-Holder continuity near almost reducible energies (an essential support of absolutely continuous spectrum). For non-perturbatively small potentials (and for the almost Mathieu operator with subcritical coupling), our results apply for all energies.Comment: 16 page

Aprender Arquitectura de Computadores con la herramienta Simula3MS

En este artículo se presenta la experiencia de uso de la herramienta Simula3MS en el laboratorio de las asignaturas de Arquitectura de Computadores en los estudios impartidos en la Facultad de Informática de la Universidade da Coruña y la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. El objetivo de las prácticas es ilustrar, mediante un juego de ejercicios realizados sobre el simulador Simula3MS, cómo trabaja el procesador del computador. El simulador usa un subconjunto de instrucciones MIPS y varias configuraciones diferentes del procesador que se escogen según el objetivo de los ejercicios prácticos. En el artículo se describen los ejercicios que se proponen a los estudiantes en el laboratorio y se muestra un análisis sobre el impacto que ha tenido el uso del simulador en la actividad docente.Peer Reviewe

Detection of skewed X-chromosome inactivation in Fragile X syndrome and X chromosome aneuploidy using quantitative melt analysis.

Methylation of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) exon 1/intron 1 boundary positioned fragile X related epigenetic element 2 (FREE2), reveals skewed X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in fragile X syndrome full mutation (FM: CGG &gt; 200) females. XCI skewing has been also linked to abnormal X-linked gene expression with the broader clinical impact for sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs). In this study, 10 FREE2 CpG sites were targeted using methylation specific quantitative melt analysis (MS-QMA), including 3 sites that could not be analysed with previously used EpiTYPER system. The method was applied for detection of skewed XCI in FM females and in different types of SCA. We tested venous blood and saliva DNA collected from 107 controls (CGG &lt; 40), and 148 FM and 90 SCA individuals. MS-QMA identified: (i) most SCAs if combined with a Y chromosome test; (ii) locus-specific XCI skewing towards the hypomethylated state in FM females; and (iii) skewed XCI towards the hypermethylated state in SCA with 3 or more X chromosomes, and in 5% of the 47,XXY individuals. MS-QMA output also showed significant correlation with the EpiTYPER reference method in FM males and females (P &lt; 0.0001) and SCAs (P &lt; 0.05). In conclusion, we demonstrate use of MS-QMA to quantify skewed XCI in two applications with diagnostic utility

Attitudes of sperm, egg and embryo donors and recipients towards genetic information and screening of donors

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Gamete and embryo donors undergo genetic screening procedures in order to maximise the health of donor-conceived offspring. In the era of genomic medicine, expanded genetic screening may be offered to donors for the purpose of avoiding transmission of harmful genetic mutations. The objective of this study was to explore the attitudes of donors and recipients toward the expanded genetic screening of donors. Methods: Qualitative interview study with thematic analysis, undertaken in a tertiary fertility centre. Semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with eleven recipients and nine donors from three different cohorts (sperm, egg and embryo donors/recipients). Results: Donors and recipients acknowledged the importance of genetic information and were comfortable with the existing level of genetic screening of donors. Recipients recognised some potential benefits of expanded genetic screening of donors; however both recipients and donors were apprehensive about extended genomic technologies, with concerns about how this information would be used and the ethics of genetic selectivity. Conclusion: Participants in donor programs support some level of genetic screening of donors, but are wary of expanding genetic screening beyond current levels

A Variational Inference based Detection Method for Repetition Coded Generalized Spatial Modulation

In this paper, we consider a simple coding scheme for spatial modulation (SM), where the same set of active transmit antennas is repeatedly used over consecutive multiple transmissions. Based on a Gaussian approximation, an approximate maximum likelihood (ML) detection problem is formulated to detect the indices of active transmit antennas. We show that the solution to the approximate ML detection problem can achieve a full coding gain. Furthermore, we develop a low-complexity iterative algorithm to solve the problem with low complexity based on a well-known machine learning approach, i.e., variational inference. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can have a near ML performance. A salient feature of the proposed algorithm is that its complexity is independent of the number of active transmit antennas, whereas an exhaustive search for the ML problem requires a complexity that grows exponentially with the number of active transmit antennas.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

H\"older Continuity of the Integrated Density of States for the Fibonacci Hamiltonian

We prove H\"older continuity of the integrated density of states for the Fibonacci Hamiltonian for any positive coupling, and obtain the asymptotics of the H\"older exponents for large and small couplings.Comment: 18 page