An Active Instance-based Machine Learning method for Stellar Population Studies

We have developed a method for fast and accurate stellar population parameters determination in order to apply it to high resolution galaxy spectra. The method is based on an optimization technique that combines active learning with an instance-based machine learning algorithm. We tested the method with the retrieval of the star-formation history and dust content in "synthetic" galaxies with a wide range of S/N ratios. The "synthetic" galaxies where constructed using two different grids of high resolution theoretical population synthesis models. The results of our controlled experiment shows that our method can estimate with good speed and accuracy the parameters of the stellar populations that make up the galaxy even for very low S/N input. For a spectrum with S/N=5 the typical average deviation between the input and fitted spectrum is less than 10**{-5}. Additional improvements are achieved using prior knowledge.Comment: 14 pages, 25 figures, accepted by Monthly Notice

Predicting the Past and Forecasting the Future

A commentary on Santos\u27 article, Explaining Scholarship Addressing Hispanic Children’s Issues

Who takes the cake Effects of ECB monetary policy across income classes

This work provides evidence on the effects of monetary policy on the income class structure via stimulating economic activity and employment in Eurozone countries over the period 2007Q32016Q1. Based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data, we compute the share of the market income perceived by each income class (lower, lower-middle, upper-middle, and upper) for the states that originated the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU11). We analyse the impact of monetary policy impulses under a Bayesian Vector Autoregressive approach and find that a monetary easing shock involving a decrease in nominal interest rates tends to increase the income share of middle classes at the expense of a smaller income share of the upper class, while, the lower class is not significantly affected. Our findings highlight the identified effects are mostly triggered by short-term interest rates cuts as long as they tend to vanish as the monetary policy proxy is located further in the yield curve. This suggests that the egalitarian impacts of monetary policy on market income distribution are to a lesser extent driven by decisions modifying longer-term interest rates.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Monetary policy and middle class

The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the subsequent period of financial and economic instability have forced central banks to implement ultra-loose monetary policies for combating the downturn and the stagnation of inflation, which has led the question about how monetary policy might affect inequality to the foreground of economic and political debates. This paper attepts to evaluate how monetary policy implemented in the Euro area (EURO-11) has affected two aspects of income distribution, namely, the size of middle class dimension and its mobility. To this end, an econometric model is estimated based on data from 2003 to 2015 for the set of countries belonging to the Economic and Monetary Union that originated the Union (EMU1999). We apply the vector autoregressive (VAR) methodology to country-level panel data as a first approach of the short-term dynamics among the considered variables, where the impulse-response functions have been orthogonalized due to the existing serial correlation between the unobserved terms. Subsequently, this analysis is complimented with a more robust one. Since our variables are non-stationary but indeed co-integrated, the vector error correction model (VECM) allows us to consider the medium-term relationship between monetary policy and income inequality via the stimulus of the economic activity.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

How does monetary policy affect the income class structure? Evidence from the Eurozone.

This work provides evidence on the potential effects of monetary policy on the income class structure via stimulating economic activity and employment in the Eurozone countries over the period 2007Q3-2016Q1. Based on European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data, we compute the size of income classes (lower, lower-middle, upper-middle, and upper) for the stats that originated the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU-11) and analyse the impact of monetary policy impulses under a Bayesian Vector Autoregressive approach. We focus on the earnings heterogeneity and the income composition channel and find that a monetary easing shock involving a decrease short-term nominal interest rate has diverse effects on the different income classes, which seems to have led to a more equal income distribution. As theoretically argued by these monetary policy transmission mechanisms, our results confirm the GDP growth and the decrease in unemployment caused by the monetary policies implemented by the European Central Bank since the onset of the financial crisis have had a positive effect for those households located at the bottom of the income-class structure as well as for the middle class.Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Localization and functional role of RIM3γ and RIM4γ, the small members of the RIM protein family

RIMs are Active Zone enriched multidomain proteins. In vertebrates, the RIM family is composed of 7 proteins (RIM1α, 2α, 1β, 2β, 2γ, 3γ and 4γ) encoded by four different genes (RIM1-4). The large members of the RIM protein family are central components of the cytomatrix at the Active Zone and play a key regulatory role in synaptic vesicle exocytosis and presynaptic forms of short- and long-term plasticity. However, so far little was known about the localization and function of the γ-isoforms. The focus of this study was to gain further insights into the physiological properties of RIM3γ and RIM4γ. Therefore, we first investigated their localization. We found the regional distribution of both γ-RIMs to overlap with the full-length isoforms, however, they exhibited a diverging regional and subecellular localization. RIM3γ was presynaptically localized, whereas RIM4γ was not restricted to the synapse but also present along the axon and dendrites. In addition, we studied the γ-RIM domains and sequences responsible for the targeting of the proteins, and found the C2B domain to be sufficient for the presynaptic localization of γ-RIMs. Furthermore, we observed that coexpression of the γ-isoforms with RIM1α, but not with Liprins-α, can promote their synaptic localization. In order to delinate the function of the γ-isoforms, downregulation of the proteins was performed using lentiviral transduction in primary neuronal cultures and in vivo. RIM3γ or RIM4γ knock down neurons displayed a striking change in neuronal morphology, whereby they mantained the axon but lost most of their dendrites. In addition, downregulation of γ-RIMs, led to a decrease in the levels of RIM1α, Liprins-α and GRIP1, suggesting a possible role for γ-RIMs in neuronal morphogenesis, likely via a cascade involving Liprin-α and Liprin-α binding proteins

Lo técnico y lo político en la estructuración del sistema de servicios sociales.

Sin resume

From "This is impossible" to "I will make the standard higher": A close look at interaction in the CLIL classroom

This paper aims to explore the complexities of students' interaction in a collaborative learning task set within a CLIL unit in the EFL classroom. By way of illustration, a sample from a 4th year classroom grade in a secondary school of Catalonia has been collected. The paper examines, through the students' outcome, the impact of cooperative learning in a content-rich information swap task and discusses the role of content and language integrated learning in the classroom. This paper concludes with several implications for research and practic