"The Role of International Technological Spillovers in the Economic Growth of the OECD Countries "

This paper explores the role of imports as a mechanism of transmission of international technological spillovers and the significance of these for the growth and economic convergence of the OECD countries. For this purpose a growth model is estimated that includes amongst its determinants a measure of the stock of technological knowledge. The results reveal first that international technological spillovers transmitted through imports have had a favourable influence on the economic growth of the OECD countries, Secondly, they suggest that the capacity of countries to take advantage of those spillovers depend on their own human and R&D capital endowments..

Self-packaged miniature microwave filters based on multilayer liquid crystal polymer technology

The following thesis is concerned with the development of fabrication techniques and novel designs for self-packaged, multilayer circuits using liquid crystal polymer (LCP) materials exclusively, given the favourable characteristics this material has for microwave circuits. Fabrication techniques are aimed at the production of miniature, low-profile filters. Advanced techniques for production of interlayer via connections are investigated and new methods proposed, with special attention at the lamination process and production of vertical, inter-layer transitions. Results obtained demonstrate the fabrication process is reliable for producing multilayer filters, with up to four metal layers, and via transitions in the region of 0.2 mm diameter. The fabrication process has been developed during this work is applied to novel filter designs, covering dual-band filters and lowpass filters. A new structure for dual- band filter is proposed, using folded multimode resonators (FMSIR). This structure is validated through the fabrication of two different filters with passbands 1.2/2.4 GHz, and 2.4/5 GHz, showing deep off-band rejection. Low pass structure covered in this thesis is based on the principle of destructive interference and aims at low insertion loss and out-of-band rejection higher than 40 dB. Fabricated samples validate the design showing a rejection in the region of 42 dB, with a cuto frequency of 3 GHz. Its small footprint and low insertion loss allows this type of lters to be used as cleanup filters. All the designs covered in this work are simulated using CAD tools and then validated by measurements on fabricated samples

Estudio de las propiedades de sorción de humendad del bacalao salado y seco

Se ha determinado el efecto de la temperatura (a 10, 20 y 30° C) sobre l a~ isotermas de sorci6n del bacalao, comprobándose que tienen poca innucncia sobre el contenido acuoso en equilibrio. Se han obtenido las isotennas de sorción del clomro sódico y de las principales impu· rezas de la sal comercial, observándose que entre las isotermas de las sales puras existen di· ferencias muy marcadas, pero como impurezas en las proporciones normales no inOuycn sobre la sorción de humedad del CINa. Al estudiar el efecto de distintas condiciones de humedad y temperatura sobre el ba· calao en bolsas no se apreciaron cambios de peso en las muestras con bolsas intactas. Se ha visto que la rotura de las bolsas tiene cierta influencia sobre la sorción de humedad. En condiciones experimentales se ha comprobado que para el bacalao plano o desmc· nu1ado existe una relación estrecha entre peso del producto y humedad relativa ambien· tal, no observándose efectos muy marcados en el bacalao en bolsa

Sistema empotrado de reconocimiento de voz sobre FPGA

Comunicación presentada al "Iberchip XVIII Workshop " celebrado en Playa del Carmen (México) del 29 de Febrero al 2 de Marzo del 2012En esta comunicación se presenta un sistema empotrado sobre FPGA de reconocimiento de voz que aplica el algoritmo LPC (Linear Predictive Coding). El sistema está basado en el procesador MicroBlaze de Xilinx. Se describe el desarrollo del sistema desde la implementación del controlador del códec de audio (tanto el hardware como el desarrollo de los drivers) hasta la adaptación del algoritmo LPC a los requerimientos de la arquitectura hardware.Unión Europea MOBY-DIC Project FP7- IST-248858Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (España) TEC2008-04920 TEC2011-24319Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-03674Fondos FEDER P08-TIC-0367

The last African metatherian

Funding Information: F.J.G. and V.D.C. thank Agencia (Foncyt, Mincyt; PICT 2019-03283) and CONICET (PIP KB2 - 11220200100150CO). Funding Information: We thank the Uganda Museum, Kampala (Rose Mwan-ja, Sarah Musalizi, Christopher Sebuyungo) for access to fossil material in its care, and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology for authorization to carry out research in the country. Pierre Mein measured the specimen from Moroto and made preliminary identifications. Hugo Salais (Metazoa Studio) for the 3D reconstruction, Agustín Ruella for a previous version of the 3D reconstruction, Marcela Tomeo for the realisation of Figs 1 and 3, and Juana Yañez for the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment. Francisco Javier Ruiz-Sánchez of University of València provided the use of the electron microscopy. Maria Dolores Marin-Monfort for the taphonomical comments. We should thank Frank Sénégas for making the casts (Sorbonne University). The fossils were collected by the Uganda Palaeontology Expedition led by B. Senut and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Commission des Fouilles. We thank the villagers of Rupa for participating in the screening of the sediments which yielded the holotype of Morotodon aenigmaticus. The support of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) toward this research for V. D. Crespo is hereby acknowledged. V.D.C. is the beneficiary of a grant (ZA21-044) for the requalification Publisher Copyright: Copyright Vicente D.Morotodon aenigmaticus gen. et sp. nov. (Mammalia, Metatheria, ?Herpetotheriidae) from the early or early-middle Miocene of equatorial Africa (Moroto II locality, Moroto District, northeastern Uganda) is characterized by a short anterior cingulum, a buccal shelf, a well-developed hypoconulid in a central position, and a trigonid and talonid with similar mesio-distal lengths. Its small size and morphology suggest mostly insectivorous-faunivorous feeding habits. The faunal association of Moroto II, as well as previous palaeoenvironmental analyses, suggest that Morotodon lived in open woodland and bushland areas surrounded by grasses. Morotodon aenigmaticus shows several features reminiscent of early herpetotheriids, such as Golerdelphys stocki (late Paleocene of North America), and Amphiperatherium ambiguum (Eocene of Europe); this suggests an origin for its lineage previous to the Oligocene. In summary, its affinities lie with Northern Hemisphere herpetotheriids, and, most probably, with European ones.publishersversionpublishe

Dispersal-induced resilience to stochastic environmental fluctuations in populations with Allee effect

Many species are unsustainable at small population densities (Allee Effect). This implies that for population densities below a threshold, named Allee threshold, the population decreases instead of growing. In a closed local population, this makes that environmental fluctuations always leads to extinction. Here, we show how, in spatially extended habitats, dispersal can lead to a sustainable population in a region, provided the amplitude of environmental fluctuations is below an extinction threshold. We have identified two types of sustainable populations: high-density and low-density populations (through a mean-field approximation, valid in the limit of large dispersal length). Our results show that close to global extinction patches where population density is high, low or extinct coexist (even for homogeneous habitats). The extinction threshold increases proportionally to the squared root of the dispersal rate, decreases with the Allee threshold, and it is maximum for characteristic dispersal distances much larger than the spatial scale of synchrony of environmental fluctuations. The low-density population solution can be particularly interesting for future applications, as to understand non-recovery events after harvesting. This theoretical framework allows novel approaches to address the impact of other factors, as habitat fragmentation, on the population resilience to environmental fluctuations.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

La descripción archivística en el marco de la gestión documental por procesos

This paper analyses the new definition of the description, understood as essential business process within the records management, exceeding its traditional consideration as important task within the archives: along with the product of the description it is necessary to consider the quality of the own description activities. First, the paper analyses the position hold by the description within the records management process, and the descriptive method that must be developed within this framework. Then, an analysis is made of the path required to reach the quality improvement in the description: which is none other than process management.Este trabajo analiza la nueva definición de la descripción archivística, entendida como proceso esencial dentro de la gestión documental, sobrepasando su tradicional consideración como tarea importante dentro de los archivos: junto al producto de la descripción se tiene que tener muy en cuenta la calidad de las propias actividades descriptivas. Así, se abordan, inicialmente, el lugar que ocupa la descripción archivística dentro de los ítems de la gestión documental y el procedimiento descriptivo que debe desarrollarse dentro de este marco; en este sentido, a continuación, se estudia la vía necesaria para alcanzar la calidad y la mejora continua en la descripción archivística, que no es otra que la gestión por procesos

Seismic Activity Rates in the Iberian Peninsula

Evaluating the seismic hazard requires establishing a distribution of the seismic activity rate, irrespective of the methodology used in the evaluation. In practice, how that activity rate is established tends to be the main difference between the various evaluation methods. The traditional procedure relies on a seismogenic zonation and the Gutenberg-Richter (GR) hypothesis. Competing zonations are often compared looking only at the geometry of the zones, but the resulting activity rate is affected by both geometry and the values assigned to the GR parameters. Contour plots can be used for conducting more meaningful comparisons, providing the GR parameters are suitably normalised. More recent approaches for establishing the seismic activity rate forego the use of zones and GR statistics and special attention is paid here to such procedures. The paper presents comparisons between the local activity rates that result for the complete Iberian Peninsula using kernel estimators as well as two seismogenic zonations. It is concluded that the smooth variation of the seismic activity rate produced by zoneless methods is more realistic than the stepwise changes associated with zoned approaches; moreover, the choice of zonation often has a stronger influence on the results than its fairly subjective origin would warrant. It is also observed that the activity rate derived from the kernel approach, related with the GR parameter “a”, is qualitatively consistent with the epicentres in the catalogue. Finally, when comparing alternative zonations it is not just their geometry but the distribution of activity rate that should be compared

Seismic Isolation of Liquefied Natural Gas Tanks: a Compartive Assessment

In severe seismic environments, tanks for storage of liquefied natural gas may benefit from seismic isolation. As the design accelerations increase, the inner tank undergoes progressively greater demands and may suffer from corner uplift, elephant’s foot buckling, gross sliding, shell thickness requirements beyond what can be reliably welded and, eventually, global uplift. Some of these problems cause extra costs while others make the construction impossible. The seismic environments at which the previous problems arise are quantified for modern 160,000 m3 tanks, whether supported on shallow or pile foundations, for both a conventional design and one employing seismic isolation. Additionally, by introducing some cost assumptions, comparisons can be made as to the cost of dealing with the seismic threat for each seismic environment and tank design option. It then becomes possible to establish the seismic environments that require seismic isolation, as well as to offer guidance for decisions in intermediate cases

Peligrosidad sísmica en la península ibérica

Se estudia la peligrosidad sísmica en la Península Ibérica con una metodología no paramétrica basada en estimadores de densidad kernel; la tasa de actividad se deduce del catálogo, tanto en cuanto a su dependencia espacial (prescindiendo de zonificación) como en relación con la magnitud (obviando la ley de Gutenberg-Richter). El catálogo es el del Instituto Geográfico Nacional, complementado con otros en zonas periféricas, homogeneizado en su cuantificación de los terremotos y eliminando eventos espacial o temporalmente interrelacionados para mantener un modelo temporal de Poisson. La tasa de actividad sísmica viene determinada por la función kernel, el ancho de banda y los períodos efectivos. La tasa resultante se compara con la obtenida usando estadísticas de Gutenberg-Richter y una metodología zonificada. Se han empleado tres leyes de atenuación: una para terremotos profundos y dos para terremotos superficiales, dependiendo de que su magnitud fuera superior o inferior a 5. Los resultados se presentan en forma de mapas de peligrosidad para diversas frecuencias espectrales y períodos de retorno de 475 y 2475 años, lo que permite construir espectros de peligrosidad uniforme