Aggregating opinions in non-uniform ordered qualitative scales

Producción CientíficaThis paper introduces a new voting system in the setting of ordered qualitative scales. The process is conducted in a purely ordinal way by considering an ordinal proximity measure that assigns an ordinal degree of proximity to each pair of linguistic terms of the qualitative scale. Once the agents assess the alternatives through the qualitative scale, the alternatives are ranked according to the medians of the ordinal degrees of proximity between the obtained individual assessments and the highest linguistic term of the scale. Since some alternatives may share the same median, an appropriate tie-breaking procedure is introduced. Some properties of the proposed voting system have been provided.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project ECO2016-77900-P

Is there a rationale and role for long-acting anticholinergic bronchodilators in asthma?

The authors acknowledge the medical writing assistance received from Sam Yarwood, PhD, of Complete HealthVizion, in the form of literature searches and preparation and revision of the draft manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Energetics and dynamics of H2_2 adsorbed in a nanoporous material at low temperature

Molecular hydrogen adsorption in a nanoporous metal organic framework structure (MOF-74) was studied via van der Waals density-functional calculations. The primary and secondary binding sites for H$_2$ were confirmed. The low-lying rotational and translational energy levels were calculated, based on the orientation and position dependent potential energy surface at the two binding sites. A consistent picture is obtained between the calculated rotational-translational transitions for different H$_2$ loadings and those measured by inelastic neutron scattering exciting the singlet to triplet (para to ortho) transition in H$_2$. The H$_2$ binding energy after zero point energy correction due to the rotational and translational motions is predicted to be $\sim$100 meV in good agreement with the experimental value of $\sim$90 meV.Comment: 5 pagers, 4 figures. added reference

Effective theory for matter in non-perturbative cavity QED

Starting from a general material system of N particles coupled to a cavity, we use a coherent-state path integral formulation to produce a effective theory for the material degrees of freedom. We tackle the effects of image charges, the A^2 term and a multimode arbitrary-geometry cavity. The resulting (non-local) action has the photonic degrees of freedom replaced by an effective position-dependent interaction between the particles. In the large-NN limit, we discuss how the theory can be cast into an effective Hamiltonian where the cavity induced interactions are made explicit. The theory is applicable, beyond cavity QED, to any system where bulk material is linearly coupled to a diagonalizable bosonic bath. We highlight the differences of the theory with other well-known methods and numerically study its finite-size scaling on the Dicke model. Finally, we showcase its descriptive power with three examples: photon condensation, the 2D free electron gas in a cavity and the modification of magnetic interactions between molecular spins; recovering, condensing and extending some recent results in the literature

Eficiencia de un acondicionador de suelo en la producción de maíz dulce en el Valle de Lajas

Improved soil-water relations through supplemental irrigation or the application of a soil conditioner can increase crop yield in semiarid regions. Barbary-Plante (BP) is a soil conditioner consisting of a sodium acrylamideacrilate copolymer with macro- and micronutrients and other components that improve nutrient availability, water retention, and aggregate stability in the soil. The efficacy of BP as a soil conditioner was tested on sweet corn (Zea maysL. cv. Sure Sweet) yield in the semiarid southwestern region of Puerto Rico (Lajas Valley). The soil at the experimental site is classified as Fraternidad clay (fine, smectitic, isohyperthermic Typic Haplusterts). The treatments consisted of three rates of BP (0, 50, and 100 kg/ha, without hydration) and three irrigation levels (corresponding to evapotranspiration replenishment of 0, 50, and 100%). Irrigation treatments were scheduled by using the Pan A evaporation method. Barbary-Plante was incorporated into the soil and supplemented with inorganic fertilizer to attain final rates of 150-50-150 kg/ha (N-P205-K20). Sweet corn was planted on 20 February 2001 at a density of 64,000 plants per hectare. Drip irrigation treatments significantly affected marketable sweet corn yields. Marketable corn yield and cob number were unaffected by BP addition. Applications of 50 kg BP/ha under rainfed conditions produced the highest sweet corn emergence, although this effect was not significantly different from that in the untreated plots. Generally, BP effect on seed corn emergence was inconsistent. El rendimiento de los cultivos en regiones semiáridas puede aumentarse mejorando el contenido hídrico en el suelo o el uso de acondicionadores de suelo. Barbary-Plante (BP) es un acondicionador comercial de suelo que consiste de un polímero de acrilamida de sodio que contiene macro- y m¡cronutrimentos, entre otros componentes. El fabricante alega que este producto mejora la disponibilidad de nutrimentos, retensión de agua y la estabilidad de agregados en el suelo. La eficacia de BP como acondicionador de suelo se probó en maíz dulce (Zea mays L. cv. Sure Sweet) en la región semiárida del suroeste de Puerto Rico (Valle de Lajas). El suelo en el predio experimental pertenece a la serie Fraternidad (fino, esmectítico, isohipertérmico Typic Haplusterts). La serie Fraternidad es un Vertisol, orden de suelo más predominante en el Valle de Lajas. El maíz dulce se sembró el 20 de febrero de 2001 a una densidad de 64,000 plantas por hectárea. Los tratamientos probados fueron 0, 50 y 100 kg/ha de BP sin hidratar y riego por goteo a razón de 0,50 y 100% de reposición de evapotranspiración. Los tratamientos de riego por goteo se programaron utilizando el método del tanque de evaporación. Una vez hidratado, según la recomendación del fabricante, el BP se incorporó al suelo al momento de la siembra. Los tratamientos de BP se suplementaron con fertilizantes inorgánicos hasta alcanzar un nivel de 150-50-150 kg/ha de N-P205-K20. Los niveles de riego afectaron el rendimiento de mazorcas comerciales. En cambio, las aplicaciones de BP no afectaron el rendimiento de mazorcas comerciales. Aplicaciones de 50 kg/ha de BP produjeron la mayor germinación, aunque no significativamente mayor que en las parcelas no tratadas. En términos generales el efecto de BP en la germinación del maíz dulce fue inconsistente

Improving accuracy of parallel SLICOT model reduction routines for stable systems

© 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.This paper shows part of the work carried out to develop parallel versions of the SLICOT routines for model reduction of stable systems. In particular, the routines that have been parallelised are those based on the solution of Lyapunov equations. The goal is to be able to work with larger unreduced models and also to obtain better performance in the reduction process. New routines have been developed using standard libraries to improve portability and efficiency. A preliminary version was released previously by the authors, which achieved high performance. However, accuracy improvements have been necessary in order to make the new routines similar to the sequential ones in this aspect. Routines presented in this paper preserve good performance obtained by the previous parallel implementation while maintaining high accuracy of sequential SLICOT routines.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under grant TIN2013-41049-PGuerrero López, D.; Román Moltó, JE. (2015). Improving accuracy of parallel SLICOT model reduction routines for stable systems. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/MED.2015.7158781

A consensus reaching process in the context of non-uniform ordered qualitative scales

Producción CientíficaIn this paper, we consider that a group of agents judge a set of alternatives by means of an ordered qualitative scale. The scale is not assumed to be uniform, i.e., the psychological distance between adjacent linguistic terms is not necessarily always the same. In this setting, we propose how to measure the consensus in each subset of at least two agents over each subset of alternatives. We introduce a consensus reaching process where some agents may be invited to change their assessments over some alternatives in order to increase the consensus. All the steps are managed in a purely ordinal way through ordinal proximity measures.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (ECO2012-32178)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA066U13