Behavioral modeling of PWL analog circuits using symbolic analysis

Behavioral models are used both for top-down design and for bottom-up verification. During top-down design, models are created that reflect the nominal behavior of the different analog functions, as well as the constraints imposed by the parasitics. In this scenario, the availability of symbolic modeling expressions enable designers to get insight on the circuits, and reduces the computational cost of design space exploration. During bottom-up verification, models are created that capture the topological and constitutive equations of the underlying devices into behavioral descriptions. In this scenario symbolic analysis is useful because it enables to automatically obtain these descriptions in the form of equations. This paper includes an example to illustrate the use of symbolic analysis for top-down design.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC97-058

Exposición y vulnerabilidad. Una aproximación a la ficción

El hombre siempre ha buscado desarrollar parcelas de la realidad inexploradas. La tecnología se ha mostrado como el ámbito de inteligibilidad más presente y desarrollada en los últimos tiempos. No obstante, además de la tecnología, se muestra el lenguaje y la ficción como estructuras de comprensión de las posibilidades humanas. Rastrear la virtualidad humana desde tales estructuras es la finalidad del presente artículo; encontrar desde la vulnerabilidad y la exposición de la subjetividad, la habitabilidad de un mundo.Man has always sought to develop plots of unexplored reality. Technology has proven to be the most actual and developed field of intelligibility in recent times.However, in addition to technology, language and fiction are shown as structures for understanding human possibilities.Tracking human potentiality from such structures is the purpose of this article, as well as finding, from the vulnerability and the exposure to subjectivity, the habitability of a world

INTEGRATION AND COMPETITION IN THE EUROPEAN FINANCIAL MARKETS

Financial integration in Europe should affect the competition between markets and intermediaries and generate a convergence of both interest rates and margins among the different countries. This paper analyses the evolution of the convergence in interest rates and the level of competition and its inequalities among the European banking systems for the period 1993 to 2001. The inequality index used ?the Theil index- allows us to break down the inequalities so that the importance of either a country effect or a specialization effect is quantified. If the former effect dominates it would mean that the national banking markets are segmented as a consequence of the existence of obstacles or barriers to the integration. On the other hand, the dominance of the latter effect would be related to the different level of competition depending on the type of banking specialization. La integración financiera en Europa debe producir efectos sobre la competenciaentre mercados e intermediarios (reducción de precios, costes de intermediación ymárgenes) y generar convergencia en tipos de interés y márgenes entre países. Estetrabajo analiza la evolución de la convergencia en tipos de interés y el nivel decompetencia en los sectores bancarios europeos en el periodo 1993-2001. Además, seestudia el grado de desigualdad de los niveles de competencia mediante la aplicacióndel índice de Theil. Este índice permite la descomposición de la desigualdad de formaque se cuantifica la importancia de tanto efectos país como efectos especialización. Silos primeros dominasen querría decir que los mercados bancarios nacionales estaríansegmentados como consecuencia de la existencia de barreras u obstáculos a laintegración. Por otro lado, si dominasen los efectos especialización, el nivel decompetencia dependería del tipo de especialización bancaria.integración, competencia, mercados financieros europeos. integration, competition, European financial markets

The NADPH-Dependent thioredoxin reductase C-2-Cys peroxiredoxin redox system modulates the activity of thioredoxin x in arabidopsis chloroplasts

The chloroplast redox network is composed of a complex set of thioredoxins (Trxs), reduced by ferredoxin (Fdx) via a Fdx-dependent Trx reductase (FTR), and an NADPH-dependent Trx reductase with a joint Trx domain, NTRC, which efficiently reduces 2-Cys peroxiredoxins (2-Cys Prxs). Recently, it was proposed that the redox balance of 2-Cys Prxs maintains the redox state of f-type Trxs, thus allowing the proper redox regulation of Calvin-Benson cycle enzymes such as fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase). Here, we have addressed whether the action of 2-Cys Prxs is also exerted on Trx x. To that end, an Arabidopsis thaliana quadruple mutant, ntrc-trxx-δ "2cp, which is knocked out for NTRC and Trx x, and contains severely decreased levels of 2-Cys Prxs, was generated. In contrast to ntrc-trxx, which showed a severe growth inhibition phenotype and poor photosynthetic performance, the ntrc-trxx-δ "2cp mutant showed a significant recovery of growth rate and photosynthetic efficiency, indicating that the content of 2-Cys Prxs is critical for the performance of plants lacking both NTRC and Trx x. Light-dependent reduction of FBPase was severely impaired in mutant plants lacking NTRC or NTRC plus Trx x, despite the fact that neither NTRC nor Trx x is an effective reductant of this enzyme. However, FBPase reduction was recovered in the ntrc-trxx-δ "2cp mutant. Our results show that the redox balance of 2-Cys Prxs, which is mostly dependent on NTRC, modulates the activity of Trx x in a similar way as f-type Trxs, thus suggesting that the activity of these Trxs is highly interconnected.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIO2017-85195-C2-1-

Fiscal data revisions in Europe

Public deficit figures are subject to revisions, as most macroeconomic aggregates are. Nevertheless, in the case of Europe, the latter could be particularly worrisome given the role of fiscal data in the functioning of EU’s multilateral surveillance rules. Adherence to such rules is judged upon initial releases of data, in the framework of the so-called Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) Notifications. In addition, the lack of reliability of fiscal data may hinder the credibility of fiscal consolidation plans. In this paper we document the empirical properties of revisions to annual government deficit figures in Europe by exploiting the information contained in a pool of real-time vintages of data pertaining to fifteen EU countries over the period 1995-2008. We build up such real-time dataset from official publications. Our main findings are as follows: (i) preliminary deficit data releases are biased and non-efficient predictors of subsequent releases, with later vintages of data tending to show larger deficits on average; (ii) such systematic bias in deficit revisions is a general feature of the sample, and cannot solely be attributed to the behaviour of a small number of countries, even though the Greek case is clearly an outlier; (iii) Methodological improvements and clarifications stemming from Eurostat’s decisions that may lead to data revisions explain a significant share of the bias, providing some evidence of window dressing on the side of individual countries; (iv) expected real GDP growth, political cycles and the strength of fiscal rules also contribute to explain revision patterns; (v) nevertheless, if the systematic bias is excluded, revisions can be considered rational after two years. JEL Classification: E01, E21, E24, E31, E5, H600data revisions, fiscal statistics, news and noise, Rationality, real-time data

Pre-Schauder Bases in Topological Vector Spaces

A Schauder basis in a real or complex Banach space X is a sequence (en)n is an element of N in X such that for every x is an element of X there exists a unique sequence of scalars (lambda n)n is an element of N satisfying that x= n-ary sumation n=1 infinity lambda nen. Schauder bases were first introduced in the setting of real or complex Banach spaces but they have been transported to the scope of real or complex Hausdorff locally convex topological vector spaces. In this manuscript, we extend them to the setting of topological vector spaces over an absolutely valued division ring by redefining them as pre-Schauder bases. We first prove that, if a topological vector space admits a pre-Schauder basis, then the linear span of the basis is Hausdorff and the series linear span of the basis minus the linear span contains the intersection of all neighborhoods of 0. As a consequence, we conclude that the coefficient functionals are continuous if and only if the canonical projections are also continuous (this is a trivial fact in normed spaces but not in topological vector spaces). We also prove that, if a Hausdorff topological vector space admits a pre-Schauder basis and is w*-strongly torsionless, then the biorthogonal system formed by the basis and its coefficient functionals is total. Finally, we focus on Schauder bases on Banach spaces proving that every Banach space with a normalized Schauder basis admits an equivalent norm closer to the original norm than the typical bimonotone renorming and that still makes the basis binormalized and monotone. We also construct an increasing family of left-comparable norms making the normalized Schauder basis binormalized and show that the limit of this family is a right-comparable norm that also makes the normalized Schauder basis binormalized

Live Demonstration: Real-time neuro-inspired sound source localization and tracking architecture applied to a robotic platform

This live demonstration presents a sound source localization and tracking system implemented with Spike Signal Processing (SSP) building blocks on FPGA devices. The system architecture is based on the ability of the mammalian auditory system to locate the direction of a sound in the horizontal plane using the interaural intensity difference. We used a binaural Neuromorphic Auditory Sensor to obtain spike rates similar to those generated by the inner hair cells of the human auditory system and the component that obtains the interaural intensity difference is inspired by the lateral superior olive. The spike stream that represents the interaural intensity difference is used to turn a robotic platform towards the sound source direction. The system was tested with pure tones (1-kHz, 2.5-kHz and 5- kHz sounds) with an average error of 2.32 degrees.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-