Monolingual and bilingual spanish-catalan speech recognizers developed from SpeechDat databases

Under the SpeechDat specifications, the Spanish member of SpeechDat consortium has recorded a Catalan database that includes one thousand speakers. This communication describes some experimental work that has been carried out using both the Spanish and the Catalan speech material. A speech recognition system has been trained for the Spanish language using a selection of the phonetically balanced utterances from the 4500 SpeechDat training sessions. Utterances with mispronounced or incomplete words and with intermittent noise were discarded. A set of 26 allophones was selected to account for the Spanish sounds and clustered demiphones have been used as context dependent sub-lexical units. Following the same methodology, a recognition system was trained from the Catalan SpeechDat database. Catalan sounds were described with 32 allophones. Additionally, a bilingual recognition system was built for both the Spanish and Catalan languages. By means of clustering techniques, the suitable set of allophones to cover simultaneously both languages was determined. Thus, 33 allophones were selected. The training material was built by the whole Catalan training material and the Spanish material coming from the Eastern region of Spain (the region where Catalan is spoken). The performance of the Spanish, Catalan and bilingual systems were assessed under the same framework. The Spanish system exhibits a significantly better performance than the rest of systems due to its better training. The bilingual system provides an equivalent performance to that afforded by both language specific systems trained with the Eastern Spanish material or the Catalan SpeechDat corpus.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Evaluación genética de la planta forestal : concepto y resultados disponibles para rodales de pinos españoles

Presentamos una revisión de conceptos y resultados relacionados con la evaluación genética de los pinos españoles, centrada en los patrones de variación geográfica entre poblaciones. Tras describir someramente los principales mecanismos genéticos que explican esta variación, se comentan los distintos tipos de ensayos, a la luz de la legislación vigente sobre materiales de reproducción. Hemos elegido los principales resultados obtenidos hasta la fecha, con un grado de divulgación muy diverso: desde tesis doctorales y trabajos fin de carrera hasta comunicaciones en congresos y artículos científicos en revistas indexadas. Nuestro principal objetivo es dar a conocer la gran potencialidad de la variación intraespecífica de nuestras principales especies forestales de forma que se pueda sacar el máximo partido de ella dentro de una gestión forestal sostenible.________________________________We are presenting a revision of concepts and results related to the genetic evaluation of Spanish pines, focused on geographical variation patterns among populations. After describing briefly the main genetic mechanisms underlying this variation, we comment the different types of genetic trials, at the light of the current legislation on FRM. We chose the main results obtained up till now, yet with a diverse divulgation level: from doctoral Thesis and Master reports up to congress proceedings and papers on the scientific citation index. Our main goal is highlighting the wide potential of intraspecific variation of our main forest species such that it can be optimally used in the framework of a sustainable forest management

Errores conceptuales en los modelos atómicos cuánticos

SUMMARY We analyze how the basic concepts about atomic models are introduced into the Spanish educational system. We considered the textbooks most currently used in the educational levels from 8th EGB to the 1st University level. We finally discuss the possible sources of misconceptions

Determinants of profitability in Spanish financial institutions. Comparing aided and non-aided entities

The last financial crisis has led to the greatest contribution of public funds ever made to Spanish banks. This paper studies why the need for support has been asymmetric, with not all of the institutions requiring aid. Based on profitability of assets (ROA), we determine using panel data econometric and logit response models the components of profit and loss accounts that generated profitability as well as the factors leading to some entities to ask for aid. The analyses show that before the beginning of the crisis there were significant differences between entities that needed aid and those that did not. The most profitable banks grounded their success in the traditional revenue components of financial institutions (such as margin on interest rates and commissions), as well as in revenues obtained from participated companies and extraordinary results. The model offers a tool to detect entities in difficulties in advance, reducing the financial and social costs of public interventions. The factors more impacting on profitability of Spanish institutions are also identifie

New insights into the Pt(hkl)-alkaline solution interphases from the laser induced temperature jump method

The interfacial properties of platinum single crystal electrodes in contact with alkaline aqueous solutions (pH = 13) have been investigated using the laser induced temperature jump method. This technique offers insights into the net orientation of water dipoles in contact with the electrode surface by recording the coulostatic potential changes after a sudden increase of the interfacial temperature in the submicrosecond time scale. This information is intimately related with the magnitude and sign of charge separation at the interphase and the resulting electric field. In all cases, water shows a net orientation with the hydrogen towards the metal at the lowest investigated potential value, reflected in negative potential transients. The magnitude of the water orientation decreases as the applied potential increases. Eventually, the sign of the potential transient changes, reflecting a reorientation of the water dipoles. The potential where such inversion takes place follows the order Pt(110) < Pt(100) < Pt(111) in accordance with the observed behavior in acid solution and the trend of the work function. For Pt(111) the change of sign of the laser induced potential transient takes place at the onset of hydroxyl adsorption. For the three surfaces, when the pH is decreased to ca. pH = 11, a slow response is detected at potentials values above the inversion point. This could be due to a fast adsorption process or to a slow reorientation of water. After the introduction of steps on the (111) terrace, the inversion shifts to the double layer region, allowing the unambiguous identification of the inversion with a change on the net orientation of the water molecules. For stepped surfaces, a second inversion of the laser induced potential transient is observed that could be related with an effect of the local charge on steps disrupting the ordering of the water network. Comparison with analogous results in acid solution gives information about the local distribution of charges on the stepped surfaces.This work has been financially supported by the MINECO (Spain) project no. CTQ2016-76221-P

Evidence of a radiation belt around a brown dwarf

Radio observations of ultracool dwarfs, objects comprising brown dwarfs and the very lowest mass stars, have mainly focused on analyzing their light-curve and spectral energy distributions providing valuable insights into their magnetic fields. However, spatially-resolved studies of such magnetospheres have been elusive so far. Radio interferometric observations of the brown dwarf LSR J1835+3259 reveal an extended magnetosphere with a morphology compatible with the presence of a radiation belt, similar to that of Jupiter and Earth, consisting of energetic particles confined via magnetic mirroring. Our finding suggests that radio emitting ultracool dwarfs may behave as scaled up versions of Jupiter, validating the connection between dipole-ordered magnetic fields and the presence of belt-like morphologies and aurorae beyond our Solar System.Comment: Submitted on 12 January 2023 to Science. In revie

Activation Energy of Hydrogen Adsorption on Pt(111) in Alkaline Media: An Impedance Spectroscopy Study at Variable Temperatures

The hydrogen evolution reaction is one of the most studied processes in electrochemistry, and platinum is by far the best catalyst for this reaction. Despite the importance of this reaction on platinum, detailed and accurate kinetic measurements of the steps that lead to the main reaction are still lacking, particularly because of the fast rate of the reaction. Hydrogen adsorption on Pt(111) has been taken as a benchmark system in a large number of computational studies, but reliable experimental data to compare with the computational studies is very scarce. To gain further knowledge on this matter, a temperature study of the hydrogen adsorption reaction has been carried out to obtain kinetic information for this process on Pt(111) in alkaline solution. This was achieved by measuring electrochemical impedance spectra and cyclic voltammograms in the range of 278 ≤ T ≤ 318 (K) to obtain the corresponding surface coverage by adsorbed species and the faradaic charge transfer resistance. From this data, the standard rate constant has been extracted with a kinetic model assuming a Frumkin-type isotherm, resulting in values of 2.60 × 10–7 ≤ k0 ≤ 1.68 × 10–6 (s–1). The Arrehnius plot gives an activation energy of 32 kJ mol–1. Comparisons are made with values calculated by computational methods and reported values for the overall HER, giving a reference frame to support future studies on hydrogen catalysis.This work was financially supported by the MINECO (Spain) project no. CTQ2016-76221-P. L.E.B. thanks the Generalitat Valenciana for funding from the Santiago Grisolia Program (no. GRISOLIAP/2017/181)

3D model validation to estimate intercepted radiation using high spatial resolution imagery in row-tree canopies

En este trabajo se llevó a cabo la validación del modelo 3D de transferencia radiativa FLIGHT para la estimación de la fracción de radiación fotosintéticamente activa interceptada (fIPAR) en cubiertas heterogéneas. El modelo permite simular cubiertas de tipo discontinuo evaluando la relación entre la energía reflejada y absorbida en función de distintos parámetros como la estructura de la plantación, geometría de visión o las propiedades espectrales del suelo y la vegetación. El estudio fue llevado a cabo en cultivos de melocotón y naranjo, pertenecientes a fincas comerciales situadas en las provincias de Córdoba y Sevilla. De cada plantación, se tomaron imágenes multiespectrales de alta resolución mediante un vehículo aéreo no tripulado (UAV) en zonas de estudio con un amplio rango de heterogeneidad estructural, donde se realizaron medidas ópticas foliares, estructurales y de interceptación de radiación. El sensor utilizado para la toma de imágenes fue una cámara multiespectral de 6 bandas y 10 nm FWHM, obteniendo los datos de radiación interceptada para validación de fIPAR mediante ceptómetro en el momento del vuelo del UAV. Los errores obtenidos en la estimación de fIPAR usando el modelo FLIGHT fueron de 10% RMSE, permitiendo parametrizar la relación NDVI vs fIPARA study was conducted to evaluate the 3D radiative transfer model FLIGHT to estimate fraction of Intercepted Photosyntetically Active Radiation (fIPAR) in heterogeneous canopies. The FLIGHT 3D canopy model enables simulation of the effects of different input parameters on fIPAR, such as the orchard architecture, planting grid, solar geometry and background artifacts. The study was conducted over two commercial peach and orange orchards located in Cordoba and Seville, where study areas showing a gradient in heterogeneous structure were selected. High resolution multispectral imagery was acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The multispectral sensor used in this study was a 6-band multispectral camera with 10nm FWHM bands, using a ceptometer for ground truth data of intercepted radiation. Estimates for radiation interception using a modeling approach yielded errors bellow 10% RMS

82: Severe Hemorrhagic Cystitis (HC) After Allogeneic Hematopoeitic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT): Incidence and Risk Factors

With the purpose to investigate the radio emission of new ultracool objects, we carried out a targeted search in the recently discovered system VHS J125601.92$-$125723.9 (hereafter VHS 1256$-$1257); this system is composed by an equal-mass M7.5 binary and a L7 low-mass substellar object located at only 15.8\,pc. We observed in phase-reference mode the system VHS 1256$-$1257 with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array at $X$- and $L$- band and with the European VLBI Network at $L$-band in several epochs during 2015 and 2016. We discovered radio emission at $X$-band spatially coincident with the equal-mass M7.5 binary with a flux density of 60 $\mu$Jy. We determined a spectral index $\alpha = -1.1 \pm 0.3$ between 8 and 12 GHz, suggesting that non-thermal, optically-thin, synchrotron or gyrosynchrotron radiation is responsible for the observed radio emission. Interestingly, no signal is seen at $L$-band where we set a 3-$\sigma$ upper limit of 20 $\mu$Jy. This might be explained by strong variability of the binary or self-absorption at this frequency. By adopting the latter scenario and gyrosynchrotron radiation, we constrain the turnover frequency to be in the interval 5--8.5 GHz, from which we infer the presence of kG-intense magnetic fields in the M7.5 binary. Our data impose a 3-$\sigma$ upper bound to the radio flux density of the L7 object of 9 $\mu$Jy at 10\,GHz.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in A&