527 research outputs found
Sub-national public debt in Spain political economy issues and the role of fiscal rules and decentralization
Sub-sovereign public debt in Spain more than doubled over the period 2007-2011
leading to growing concerns on its sustainability and the potential negative spillovers
for general government public finance consolidation targets, in particular by rating
agencies and international organizations, in the context of the more general public
debt crisis suffered by the euro area. Spain offers an interesting case study to understand
the fundamental determinants of sub-sovereign debt for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the country has witnessed successive waves of fiscal decentralization that have
increased the amount of public services provided directly by sub-national governments
in a framework of increased fiscal co-responsibility (fiscal autonomy). Secondly, this
decentralization process took place in a period in which a number of supra-national and
national fiscal rules were put in place in the country. Thirdly, while fiscal rules provide
some explicit coordination among the different levels of government, there is also a high
degree of market-imposed discipline, as most regional government’s debt is regularly
scrutinized by rating agencies. Within this framework, we analyze the evolution and
the determinants of sub-sovereign public debt, focusing on regional government debt
determinants, including of liabilities accounted for outside the extant definition of EDP
public debt. Among the set of determinants we pay special attention to institutional
factors (fiscal decentralization, fiscal autonomy, fiscal rules) and market discipline. We
do so by estimating empirical models in which we exploit the pool structure of our
data (17 regions, over the period 1995-2010) within a GMM econometric approac
Multi-GPU Development of a Neural Networks Based Reconstructor for Adaptive Optics
Aberrations introduced by the atmospheric turbulence in large telescopes are compensated using adaptive optics systems, where the use of deformable mirrors and multiple sensors relies on complex control systems. Recently, the development of larger scales of telescopes as the E-ELT or TMT has created a computational challenge due to the increasing complexity of the new adaptive optics systems. The Complex Atmospheric Reconstructor based on Machine Learning (CARMEN) is an algorithm based on artificial neural networks, designed to compensate the atmospheric turbulence. During recent years, the use of GPUs has been proved to be a great solution to speed up the learning process of neural networks, and different frameworks have been created to ease their development. The implementation of CARMEN in different Multi-GPU frameworks is presented in this paper, along with its development in a language originally developed for GPU, like CUDA. This implementation offers the best response for all the presented cases, although its advantage of using more than one GPU occurs only in large networks
Instituciones fiscales independientes en España y en la UEM
Artículo de revist
High-Level Modular Autopilot Solution for Fast Prototyping of Unmanned Aerial Systems
Article number 9291382A redundant fast prototyping autopilot solution for unmanned aerial systems has been
developed and successfully tested outdoors. While its low-level backbone is executed in a Raspberry Pi
R
3 +
NAVIO2
R with a backup autopilot, the computational power of an Intel
R NUC mini-computer is employed
to implement complex functionalities directly in Simulink
R
, thus including in-flight debugging, tuning
and monitoring. Altogether, the presented tool provides a flexible and user-friendly high-level environment
with enhanced computational capabilities, which drastically reduces the prototyping timespans of complex
algorithms –between 50% and 75%, according to our long and proven experience in aerial robotics–, while
preventing incidents thanks to its redundant design with a human-in-the-loop pilot on the reliable PX4. Three
typical outdoor cases are carried out for validation in real-life scenarios, all mounted in a DJI
c F550 platform.
Full integration results and telemetry for more than 50 hours of outdoor flight tests are provided.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad DPI2017-89790-RPrograma Horizonte 2020. Unión Europea 779411Programa Horizonte 2020. Unión Europea 87147
Obesity associated risk using Edmonton staging in bariatric surgery
Con una prevalencia de obesidad mórbida del 1,2% en
población española, los criterios de indicación para Cirugía
Bariátrica (CB) no consideran comorbilidades ni estado
funcional. Es necesaria una aproximación diagnóstica
capaz de predecir mortalidad y sustentar criterios de
priorización terapéutica.
Objetivo: Aplicar la propuesta Edmonton como sistema
de estadiaje clínico para la clasificación de pacientes
en lista de espera de CB.
Método: Se recogen datos de 81 pacientes (2011 –
2013), tras protocolo prequirúrgico. Se registra peso,
talla, IMC, cintura, determinaciones bioquímicas, TA,
presencia de enfermedad hepática, renal, osteoarticular,
síndrome apnea-hipopnea del sueño (SAHS) y reflujo
gastroesofágico. Se aplica a cada persona la propuesta de
estadiaje de Edmonton, con 10 variables.
Resultados: 67% mujeres. Edad media: 47 años, 18%
con edad inferior a 30 años. IMC medio: 47 (37-67), 90%
IMC > de 40. El 34% de los pacientes presentan SHAS y el
25% enfermedad por reflujo. Un 9% asocia IMC > 45, disglucosis-
diabetes mellitus y SAHS. Aplicando el modelo de
Edmonton, nueve pacientes (11%) se sitúan en el rango de
mayor riesgo (estadío 3), 70% en rango de riesgo elevado
(estadío 2), y 15 pacientes (18%), están incluidos en la condición
de bajo riesgo. Ningún paciente se situaba en estadio
0, sin factores de riesgo asociados a obesidad.
Conclusiones: El estadiaje de Edmonton nos aporta
información sobre la presencia y extensión de co-mobilidades,
que apoye la toma de decisiones terapéuticas.
La capacidad predictiva de mortalidad de la propuesta
de Edmonton podría ser útil para establecer criterios de
priorización quirúrgicaWith a prevalence of Morbid Obesity of 1,2% of the
Spanish population, the current criteria for Bariatric
Surgery do not classify patients taking into consideration
co-morbidities or functional status. We need new staging
systems useful in predicting mortality and able to support
prioritizing treatments.
Aim: Applying Edmonton staging system to patients
awaiting Bariatric Surgery.
Method: Data collected from 81 patients from 2011-
2013 after pre-surgery protocol. Weight, height, waist,
BMI, biochemical parameters and blood pressure are
registered. Also taken down are hepatic, renal, osteoarticular
diseases, sleep-apnea syndrome and/or gastro-oesophageal
reflux, if present. Edmonton staging of ten variables
is applied to each patient.
Results: 81 patients: 67% women, average age 47y,
18% below 30y. Average BMI of 47, 90% of patients have
a BMI >40. 34% of patients show sleep-apnea syndrome
and 25% gastro-oesophageal reflux. 9% of the patients
have a BMI >45, diabetes mellitus and sleep-apnea syndrome.
Applying the Edmonton Staging, nine patients
(11%) are in the highest risk range (stage 3), 70% are in
the high-risk range (stage 2) and 15 patients (18%) are
included in the low-risk range. No patient was found to
be in stage 0 without obesity risk factors.
Conclusions: The Edmonton staging system provides
us with information on presence or extent of co-morbidities
that guide decision making in individuals. The mortality-
predictive ability of Edmonton proposal could help
to assist in determining the urgency of Bariatric Surgery
and establish better criteria to prioritize these group of
patient
Body image and dietary habits in adolescents: a systematic review
Context: Adolescence is a critical developmental stage in which increasing concerns about body image (BI) coincide with the consolidation of dietary habits (DHs). Multiple studies have sought robust associations between BI and DHs to prevent unhealthy behaviors. Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to examine the available literature on the association between BI perception (BIP) and/or satisfaction (BIS) and DHs in adolescents. Data Sources: A search was carried out of 5 electronic databases (PubMed, SciELO, Cochrane, Embase, and PsycInfo) using a combination of keywords (and synonyms) related to adolescence, BI, and diet. Data Extraction: Data screening, extraction, and quality assessment were performed independently by 2 investigators using the PRISMA and AXIS guidelines. Data Analysis: Of 2496 articles screened, 30 articles, published in English or Spanish, that evaluated the relationship between BI and DHs in adolescents aged between 10 years and 18 years, were included. A relationship between accurate BI perception in adolescents and healthy DHs was reported in 5 articles (16.2%). A relationship between overestimation of body weight in adolescents and healthy DHs was reported in 4 articles (13.3%). A relationship between underestimation of body weight and unhealthy DHs was reported in 8 articles (26.7%). In addition, 4 articles (13.3%) reported a relationship between BIS and healthy DHs. The desire to gain weight was associated with unhealthy DHs in 3 (10%) of the articles, while the desire to lose weight was related to healthy DHs in 3 (10%) of the articles and to unhealthy DHs in 3 (10%) other articles. There were also gender differences in the relationship between BIP or BIS and DHs. Conclusion: Adolescents who underestimate their body weight tend to report less healthy DHs than body weight overestimators. Adolescents unsatisfied with their BI and with a drive for thinness frequently engage in DHs linked to losing weight. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO registration no. CRD42020184625
Point Source Detection with Fully-Convolutional Networks: Performance in Realistic Simulations
Point sources (PS) are one of the main contaminants to the recovery of the
cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal at small scales, and their detection
is important for the next generation of CMB experiments. We develop a method
(PoSeIDoN) based on fully convolutional networks to detect PS in realistic
simulations, and we compare its performance against one of the most used PS
detection method, the Mexican hat wavelet 2 (MHW2). We produce realistic
simulations of PS taking into account contaminating signals as the CMB, the
cosmic infrared background, the Galactic thermal emission, the thermal
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, and the instrumental and PS shot noises. We first
produce a set of training simulations at 217 GHz to train the network. Then we
apply both PoSeIDoN and the MHW2 to recover the PS in the validating
simulations at all 143, 217, and 353 GHz, comparing the results by estimating
the reliability, completeness, and flux density accuracy and by computing the
receiver operating characteristic curves. In the extra-galactic region with a
30{\deg} galactic cut, the network successfully recovers PS at 90% completeness
corresponding to 253, 126, and 250 mJy for 143, 217, and 353 GHz respectively.
The MHW2 with a 3 flux density detection limit recovers PS up to 181,
102, and 153 mJy at 90% completeness. In all cases PoSeIDoN produces a much
lower number of spurious sources with respect to MHW2. The results on spurious
sources for both techniques worsen when reducing the galactic cut to 10{\deg}.
Our results suggest that using neural networks is a very promising approach for
detecting PS, providing overall better results in dealing with spurious sources
with respect to usual filtering approaches. Moreover, PoSeIDoN gives
competitive results even at nearby frequencies where the network was not
trained.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted Astronomy & Astrophysic
Zirconia-Based Ultra-Thin Compact Flexible CPW-Fed Slot Antenna for IoT
An ultra-thin compact flexible CPW-fed slot monopole antenna suitable for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications was achieved as a result of exploring the use of Zirconia-based ENrG’s Thin E-Strate® for the antenna’s design. The electromagnetic characterization of the novel material at the frequency range of interest was analyzed. A comparison was made concerning the required dimensions and the simulation results regarding impedance matching and radiation properties, for three different dielectric substrates: Novel flexible ceramic (ENrG’s Thin E-Strate), rigid Arlon 25N, and flexible Polypropylene (PP). Two different metallization techniques—electrotextile-based and inkjet printing—were used in the fabrication of prototypes based on ENrG’s Thin E-Strate. Return losses measured results for the fabricated prototypes with both procedures was compared, as well as with simulation. The best prototype on the ENrG’s Thin E-Strate was compared with one on Arlon 25N, in terms of radiation properties in an anechoic chamber, and conclusions were drawn
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