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

Burst Erasure Correction of 2D convolutional codes

In this paper we address the problem of decoding 2D convolutional codes over the erasure channel. In particular, we present a procedure to recover bursts of erasures that are distributed in a diagonal line. To this end we introduce the notion of balls around a burst of erasures which can be considered an analogue of the notion of sliding window in the context of 1D convolutional codes. The main result reduces the decoding problem of 2D convolutional codes to a problem of decoding a set of associated 1D convolutional codes

Fonamentació teórica del model de l'Economia del Bé Comú des de la perspectiva organitzativa

L'Economia del Bé Comú ( ebc ) representa un model, que sense qüestionar la llibertat del mercat, proposa una visió més humana de l'economia, a través del bé comú i la coope- ració. Es tracta d'un model global i integral que s'està desenvolupant sobretot en el camp de la microeconomia. L'objectiu del treball és, després d'identificar les característiques bàsiques del model de l' ebc , justificar els seus fonaments teòrics des del punt de vista orga- nitzatiu, en particular, des de la teoria dels stakeholders. El Balanç del Bé Comú, com a eina que val per a implementar el model de l' ebc , utilitza una matriu de doble entrada, que ser- veix per a mesurar l'aportació de les empreses a la consecució dels principis dels drets humans a través de la seua relació amb els stakeholders

Optical properties and refractive index sensitivity of reactive sputtered oxide coatings with embedded Au clusters

The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 115.6 (2014): 063512 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/115/6/10.1063/1.4861136In the present study, nanocomposite coatings of Au clusters embedded in two different oxides, TiO2 and Al2O3, were synthesized using pulsed DC magnetron sputtering. The depositions were carried out in three steps, by depositing the oxide, the Au clusters, and again the oxide. The deposition time of the Au clusters was varied in order to achieve different cluster sizes, morphologies, and nanocomposite topographies. The structure, microstructure, morphology, and the optical properties of the coatings were studied. With the increase in Au content, red-shifted surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks with higher intensity and increased widths were observed due to changes in the metal clusters sizes and morphology and due to interparticle effects. In order to relate the peculiar SPR extinction bands with the different clusters shapes and distributions, a simulation of the optical properties of the nanocomposites was performed making use of the Renormalized Maxwell-Garnett approach. A theoretical study concerning the refractive index sensitivity was made in order to predict the optimal coatings parameters for sensing experiments. The increased surface area and the strong SPR extinction bands make these coatings suitable for gas sensing and also catalysis, albeit many other application fields can be envisaged.This research was sponsored by FEDER funds through the program COMPETE, Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade, by national funds through FCT, Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, under the Projects PEst-C/EME/UI0285/2013 and CENTRO-07-0224-FEDER-002001 (Mais Centro SCT_2011_02_001_4637), and through the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation by Projects FUNCOAT CSD2008-00023 and AIB2010PT-00241. R.E.G. wishes also to thank the MCINN for the financial support within the Ramón y Cajal programme. Funding by the European Community through Project Nano4Color is gratefully acknowledged

Rheological properties of biofilms: steady and transient shear flow modeling

Premi al millor poster en la 7th Internacional Conference on Biotechniques for Air Pollution Control and BioenergyPeer ReviewedAward-winningPostprint (published version

On the behavior of CTAB/CTAOH adlayers on gold single crystal surfaces

The behavior of adsorbed CTAB and CTAOH on gold single crystal electrodes has been studied in solutions with different pH values. For the different single crystal electrodes, the adsorbed adlayer formed by CTA+ cations is in contact with the surface, when the electrode charge is negative. As the surface charge becomes positive, the adlayer detaches from the surface and water molecules permeate through it, giving rise to characteristic peaks in the voltammogram. Charge and laser induced jump temperature measurements show that the composition of the adlayer contains not only the CTA+ cations but also anions, which are required to stabilize the adlayer. In alkaline solutions, the higher solubility of CTAB/CTAOH in alkaline solutions leads to the partial desorption of the adlayer when these species are not present in the solution. When CTAB or CTAOH are dissolved in the alkaline cell solution, the adlayer is strongly bonded to the surface in the whole potential window due to the negative charge of the surface.Financial support from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Project PID2019-105653GB-I00) and Generalitat Valenciana (Project PROMETEO/2020/063) is acknowledged

Mapping of the human visual cortex using image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation

We describe a protocol using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to systematically map the visual sensations induced by focal and non-invasive stimulation of the human occipital cortex. TMS is applied with a figure of eight coil to 28 positions arranged in a 232-cm grid over the occipital area. A digitizing tablet connected to a PC computer running customized software, and audio and video recording are used for detailed and accurate data collection and analysis of evoked phosphenes. A frameless image-guided neuronavigational device is used to describe the position of the actual sites of the stimulation coils relative to the cortical surface. Our results show that TMS is able to elicit phosphenes in almost all sighted subjects and in a proportion of blind subjects. Evoked phosphenes are topographically organized. Despite minor inter-individual variations, the mapping results are reproducible and show good congruence among different subjects. This procedure has potential to improve our understanding of physiologic organization and plastic changes in the human visual system and to establish the degree of remaining functional visual cortex in blind subjects. Such a non-invasive method is critical for selection of suitable subjects for a cortical visual prosthesis.This research has been carried out with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, specific RTD programme ‘Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources’, QLK6-CT-2001-00279 and by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologıa(MAT2000-1049)Fondo de Investigaciones de la Seguridad Social (FISS 01-0674)National Institute of Mental Health (MH60734, MH57980)National Eye Institute (EYEY12091)Harvard-Thorndike General Clinical Research Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (NCRR MO1 RR01032).Medicin

IUmote: A Framework for the Efficient Modelling, Evaluation, and Deployment of Algorithms and Hardware for Underwater Communications

We present an approach for the modelling and simulating of the modem section of underwater sensor networks. The proposal is based on a specially designed modem architecture and the use of simulation tools and models that represent each of the communication elements: the water medium, physical transducers, electronics, and coding/decoding software. The algorithms can be simulated in the modelling environment; this framework does not require recoding and allows the combination of real and modelled elements. In physical terms, the modem engine provides a decoupled pipelined design of the processing path for the algorithms which allows users to run complex algorithms without requiring a highly demanding specific hardware. The proposal includes a methodology that has allowed us to significantly reduce the effort required in the process, from algorithm development to the effective deployment of the system. As a case study, this paper shows its application and results in the evaluation of a multipath and Doppler-shift correction algorithms.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the CICYT ANDREA: Automated Inspection and Remote Performance of Marine Fish Farms (CTM2011-29691-C02-01), RIDeWAM: Research on Improvement of the Dependability of WSN based Applications by developing a hybrid monitoring platform (TIN2011-28435-C03-01), Valencian Regional Government under Research Project GV/2014/012, and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia under Research Project UPV PAID-02-12. The translation of this paper was funded by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.Sánchez Matías, AM.; Perles Ivars, A.; Yuste Pérez, P.; Capella Hernández, JV.; Serrano Martín, JJ. (2015). IUmote: A Framework for the Efficient Modelling, Evaluation, and Deployment of Algorithms and Hardware for Underwater Communications. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks. 2015:1-14. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/358315S114201

Mental disorders in primary health care: a study of their frequency and diagnosis in four developing countries

1624 patients who were attending primary health facilities in 4 developing countries were examined to determine how many were suffering from mental disorder. Using stringent criteria to establish the presence of psychiatric morbidity, 225 cases were found, indicating an overall frequency of 13·9 %. The great majority of cases were suffering from neurotic illnesses and for most the presenting complaint was of a physical symptom, such as headache, abdominal pain, cough or weakness. The health workers following their normal procedure correctly detected one third of the psychiatric case

Integrative Oncogenomic Analysis of Microarray Data in Hematologic Malignancies

During the last decade, gene expression microarrays and array-based comparative genomic hybridization (array-CGH) have unraveled the complexity of human tumor genomes more precisely and comprehensively than ever before. More recently, the simultaneous assessment of global changes in messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and in DNA copy number through "integrative oncogenomic" analyses has allowed researchers the access to results uncovered through the analysis of one-dimensional data sets, thus accelerating cancer gene discovery. In this chapter, we discuss the major contributions of DNA microarrays to the study of hematological malignancies, focusing on the integrative oncogenomic approaches that correlate genomic and transcriptomic data. We also present the basic aspects of these methodologies and their present and future application in clinical oncology