Web based system architecture for long pulse remote experimentation

Remote experimentation (RE) methods will be essential in next generation fusion devices. Requirements for long pulse RE will be: on-line data visualization, on-line data acquisition processes monitoring and on-line data acquisition systems interactions (start, stop or set-up modifications). Note that these methods are not oriented to real-time control of fusion plant devices. INDRA Sistemas S.A., CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas) and UPM (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) have designed a specific software architecture for these purposes. The architecture can be supported on the BeansNet platform, whose integration with an application server provides an adequate solution to the requirements. BeansNet is a JINI based framework developed by INDRA, which makes easy the implementation of a remote experimentation model based on a Service Oriented Architecture. The new software architecture has been designed on the basis of the experience acquired in the development of an upgrade of the TJ-II remote experimentation system

Drivers of productivity in the Spanish banking sector : recent evidence

Este estudio analiza los determinantes de la productividad total de los factores de los bancos españoles desde el año 2000 hasta el período poscrisis. En particular, analizamos los cambios en la productividad derivados del proceso de reestructuración que ha experimentado el sector bancario español después de la crisis. Encontramos que, tras un período de continuo crecimiento, la productividad se ha reducido desde el comienzo de la crisis, aunque los bancos más grandes se han visto menos afectados. También identificamos que el riesgo, los niveles de capital, la competencia y los precios de los inputs han sido determinantes muy importantes que explican las diferencias en los cambios de productividad entre bancos. Finalmente, nuestros resultados sugieren que, al final de la muestra, existe margen para mejoras adicionales en la productividad, principalmente a través del aprovechamiento de economías de escala y de incrementos de la eficiencia en costes. Identificamos que estas oportunidades son, en general, mayores para los bancos pequeños en nuestra muestraWe analyse the drivers of total factor productivity of Spanish banks from early 2000, including the last financial crisis and the post-crisis period. This allows us to study changes in productivity following a major restructuring process in the banking sector such as the one experienced in Spain. Overall, we find that following a period of continued growth, productivity declined after the height of the crisis, though large banks were less affected. We also find that risk, capital levels, competition and input prices were important drivers of the differences in productivity change between banks. Finally, our results suggest that, by the end of our sample period, there was still some room for potential improvements in productivity via exploiting scale economies and enhancing cost efficiency. These opportunities appear to be generally greater for the smaller banks in our sampl

Linear-Phase-Type probability modelling of functional PCA with applications to resistive memories

[EN] Functional principal component analysis (FPCA) based on Karhunen-Loeve (K-L) expansion allows to describe the stochastic evolution of the main characteristics associated to multiple systems and devices. Identifying the probability distribution of the principal component scores is fundamental to characterize the whole process. The aim of this work is to consider a family of statistical distributions that could be accurately adjusted to a previous transformation. Then, a new class of distributions, the linear-phase-type, is introduced to model the principal components. This class is studied in detail in order to prove, through the K-L expansion, that certain linear transformations of the process at each time point are phase-type distributed. This way, the one-dimensional distributions of the process are in the same linear-phase-type class. Finally, an application to model the reset process associated with resistive memories is developed and explained. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (IMACS).We would like to thank F. Campabadal and M.B. Gonzalez from the IMB-CNM (CSIC) in Barcelona for fabricating and providing the experimental measurements of the devices employed here. We acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under projects TEC2017-84321-C4-3-R, MTM201788708-P, IJCI-2017-34038 (also supported by the FEDER, Spain program) and the PhD grant, Spain (FPU18/01779) awarded to Christian Acal. This work has made use of the Spanish ICTS Network MICRONANOFABSRuiz-Castro, JE.; Acal, C.; Aguilera, AM.; Aguilera-Morillo, MC.; Roldán, JB. (2021). Linear-Phase-Type probability modelling of functional PCA with applications to resistive memories. Mathematics and Computers in Simulation. 186:71-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matcom.2020.07.006717918

Earnings management and cultural values

Using theory and empirical data from social psychology to measure for cultural differences between countries, we study the effect of individualism as defined by Hofstede (1980) and egalitarianism as defined by Schwartz (1994, 1999, 2004) on earnings management. We find a significant influence of both cultural measures. In line with Licht et al. (2004), who argue that individualistic societies may be less susceptible to corruption, we find that countries scoring high on individualism tend to have lower levels of earnings management. In addition, we find that egalitarianism, defined as a society's cultural orientation with respect to intolerance for abuses of market and political power, is negatively related with earnings management. Our results are robust to different specifications and controls. The main message of this paper is that besides formal institutions, cultural differences are relevant to explain earnings management behaviour. We think that our work adds to the understanding of the importance of cultural values in managerial behaviour across countries contributing to the literature on earnings management and law and institutions

‘Just can’t hide it’:A behavioral and lesion study on emotional response modulation after right prefrontal damage

Introduction: Historically, emotion regulation problems have been reported as a common consequence of right prefrontal cortex (rPFC) damage. It has been proposed that the rPFC, particularly the rIFG, has a key role inhibiting prepotent reflexive actions, thus contributing to emotion regulation and self-regulation. This study is the first to directly explore this hypothesis, by testing whether damage to the rIFG compromises the voluntary modulation of emotional responses, and whether performance on inhibition tasks is associated with emotion regulation. Method: 10 individuals with unilateral right prefrontal damage and 15 matched healthy controls were compared on a well-known response modulation task. During the task participants had to amplify and suppress their facial emotional expressions, while watching film clips eliciting amusement. Measures of executive control, emotion regulation strategies usage and symptomatology were also collected. Results: As a group, individuals with rPFC damage presented a significantly reduced range of response modulation compared with controls. In addition, performance in the suppression task was associated with measures of cognitive inhibition and suppression usage. Interestingly, these effects were driven primarily by a subgroup of individuals with rPFC damage, all of whom also had damage to the right posterior insula, and who presented a marked impairment in suppressing facial emotional expression

Near Infrared properties of 12 Globular Clusters toward the inner Bulge of the Galaxy

We present near-IR Colour-Magnitude diagrams and physical parameters for a sample of 12 galactic globular clusters located toward the inner Bulge region. For each cluster we provide measurements of the reddening, distance, photometric metallicity, luminosity of the horizontal branch red clump, and of the red giant branch bump and tip. The sample discussed here together with that presented in Valenti, Ferraro & Origlia (2007) represent the largest homogeneous catalog of Bulge globular clusters (comprising ~ 80% of the entire Bulge cluster population) ever studied. The compilation is available in electronic form on the World Wide Web (http://www.bo.astro.it/~GC/ir_archive)Comment: 2 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Social and Cultural Context of Coping with Sickle Cell Disease: I. A Review of Biomedical and Psychosocial Issues

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is widely conceived in the United States as a group of blood disorders that principally affect African Americans. Although pain is its principal feature, strokes, lung problems, sepsis, anxiety, depression, impaired social functioning, and maladjustment at work are frequent concomitants. This article selectively reviews biomedical and psychosocial aspects of SCD related to pain assessment, medical treatment, genetic counseling, education, and employment. The strongest support exists for claims of social deficits among adolescents and depression and work-related problems among adults. The social context of SCD, including issues related to socioeconomic status (SES), urbanicity, ethnicity, cultural values, and racial stigmatization, are important to include in empirical assessments and theoretical analyses of the effects of SCD on children and their families. The adverse psychosocial functioning often described as an effect of SCD might indeed be a consequence of these factors acting alone or in concert with the strains of SCD.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67048/2/10.1177_0095798499025003002.pd

Purifying selection in corvids is less efficient on islands

Funding was provided by the European Research Council (ERCStG-336536 FuncSpecGen to J.B.W.W.), the Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet (621-2013-4510 to J.B.W.W.), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (to J.B.W.W.), the Lawski foundation (to V.E.K. and J.B.W.W.), the German Research Foundation (KU 3402/1-1 to V.E.K.), the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/G023913/2 to C.R.), and the New Zealand Marsden Fund (to G.R.H.).Theory predicts that deleterious mutations accumulate more readily in small populations. As a consequence, mutation load is expected to be elevated in species where life-history strategies and geographic or historical contingencies reduce the number of reproducing individuals. Yet, few studies have empirically tested this prediction using genome-wide data in a comparative framework. We collected whole-genome sequencing data for 147 individuals across seven crow species (Corvus spp.). For each species, we estimated the distribution of fitness effects of deleterious mutations and compared it with proxies of the effective population size Ne. Island species with comparatively smaller geographic range sizes had a significantly increased mutation load. These results support the view that small populations have an elevated risk of mutational meltdown, which may contribute to the higher extinction rates observed in island species.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe