DOES LEVERAGE PAY OFF? THE CASE OF EQUITY-LEVERAGED MUTUAL FUNDS

In this study we examine the risk-adjusted performance of a sample of U.S.-based enhanced index mutual funds that use leverage with the goal of generating return-multiples of its benchmark.  We study equity-leverage funds that follow four major market indices, that is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow), the NASDAQ-100, the Russell 2000 and the Standard and Poor's 500.  We consider two model specifications and different market conditions. The evidence shows that these funds fail to outperform. This is particularly true during Bull markets

A fast field-cycling MRI relaxometer for physical contrasts design and pre-clinical studies in small animals

We present a fast field-cycling NMR relaxometer with added magnetic resonance imaging capabilities. The instrument operates at a maximum proton Larmor frequency of 5 MHz for a sample volume of 35 mL. The magnetic field homogeneity across the sample is 1400 ppm. The main field is generated with a notch-coil electromagnet of own design, fed with a current whose stability is 220 ppm. We show that images of reasonable quality can still be produced under such conditions. The machine is being designed for concept testing of the involved instrumentation and specific contrast agents aimed for field-cycling magnetic resonance imaging applications. The general performance of the prototype was tested through localized relaxometry experiments, T1-dispersion weighted images, temperature maps and T1-weighted images at different magnetic field intensities. We introduce the concept of positive and negative contrast depending on the use of pre-polarized or non-polarized sequences. The system is being improved for pre-clinical studies in small animals.Fil: Romero, Javier Agustin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Grupo de Resonancia Magnética Nuclear; Laboratorio de Relaxometría y Técnicas Especiales (LaRTE); ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Gonzalo Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Grupo de Resonancia Magnética Nuclear; Laboratorio de Relaxometría y Técnicas Especiales (LaRTE); Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; ArgentinaFil: Anoardo, Esteban. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Grupo de Resonancia Magnética Nuclear; Laboratorio de Relaxometría y Técnicas Especiales (LaRTE); Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentin

Fostering place-based coalitions between social movements and science for sustainable urban environments: a case of embedded agency

The objective of this paper is to contribute to an important debate concerning the interaction between place-based social movements and the science, technology and innovation system. Our central proposition is that place-based social movements can facilitate unique local heterogeneous alliances with key actors of the science and technology system. A process of bricolage can emerge from these alliances whereby social movements are supported by the technical knowledge of the science community, and in turn, the priorities of the scientists are influenced by the agendas of the social movements, leading to new forms of knowledge production. We build on this to argue that these place-based engagements can create significant agency towards changes in socio technical and socio ecological systems in urban environments, especially in societies where regulatory oversight is weaker and social movements in areas that overlap science, technology and innovation are a common expression of civil society demand for change. Our argument is developed through a study of a social movement in defence of an urban wetland in Bogota

Relationship between force signal and superficial electromyographic signals associated to hand movements

The analysis of electromyographic signals is applied both to the diagnosis of pathologies and to the recognition of movement patterns. Variables such as force and speed of movement are factors that affect the characteristics of the signals of surface electromyography (SMEG). The naturalness of the movements of the hand are also associated with strength and speed. Current work assessment 96 records of SEMG -Force). The objective was to obtain a linear model that would allow the relation of the force signal with the tone of the forearm SEMG signals. The work results show models at the determination coefficient R2 - median 0.78. The SEMG signal would contribute to the variation of the strength signal. However, there are appreciable differences in relation to the model in each type of hand movement

Analysis of the disciplinary regime of popularly elected public officials in Colombia based on the case of Gustavo Petro from 2013-2021.

En el presente artículo se adelanto a través de un análisis cualitativo, que pretende analizar el régimen disciplinario colombiano, el cual, contemplan una serie de deberes y prohibiciones que rigen a los servidores públicos, para el caso en particular, los elegidos por voto popular. En la historia de Bogotá hasta el día de hoy, tres alcaldes electos popularmente, han sido revocados de su cargo por una resolución administrativa, entre los que se encuentran Juan Martin Caicedo, Samuel Moreno y para el caso que aquí concierne, Gustavo Francisco Petro o Gustavo F. Petro. Además, se examinará la incidencia del fallo de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en adelante CIDH respecto a la sentencia inhabilidad y destitución dictada por la Sala Disciplinaria de la Procuraduría General de la Nación o PGN de Colombia frente al caso de Gustavo F. Petro quien había sido elegido alcalde de la ciudad de Bogotá a través de elección popular.Universidad Libre - Facultad de Derecho - Especilizacion en Derecho Administrativo.This article will be a qualitative analysis, which aims to analyze the Colombian disciplinary regime, which includes a series of duties and prohibitions that govern public servants, for the particular case, those elected by popular vote. In the history of Bogotá until today, three popularly elected mayors have been revoked from their position by an administrative resolution, among which are Juan Martin Caicedo, Samuel Moreno and for the case that concerns here, Gustavo F. Petro. In addition, the incidence of the Judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding the decision of dismissal and disqualification issued by the Disciplinary Chamber of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation of Colombia will be examined in the case of Gustavo F. Petro who had been elected as mayor of the city of Bogotá through popular election

Screen Printable Electrochemical Capacitors on Flexible Substrates

This work presents a novel approach for the fabrication of Electrochemical Capacitors (ECs) based on the screen-printing of a commercial carbon-based conductive ink on flexible substrates. This technique enables the fast and cost-effective production of ECs with high flexibility and outstanding performance over bending states and voltage cycling, as demonstrated by means of cyclic voltammetry and galvanometric charge-discharge measurements. Despite the fact that the specific areal capacitances achieved are lower than the ones obtained using other carbon-based materials (~22 μF/cm2), the results show that, as soon as new screen-printable carbon-based pastes become available, this fabrication method will enable the mass production of ECs that can be attached to any surface as a conformal patch, as it is being required by a large number of the emerging technological applications.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD) and the European Union through the pre-doctoral grant FPU16/01451, and its mobility program, the project TEC2017-89955-P and fellowship H2020-MSCA-IF-2017794885-SELFSENS

¿Qué periodización es mejor (tradicional versus ondulada) para inducir cambios en la composición corporal y la fuerza de adultos jóvenes sanos?

The present study intends to investigate which type of programming is most effective for improving strength andbody composition in untrained young men. A total of 41 men participated (22.5 ± 2.8 years old, 75.6 ± 5.5 kg, 175.3 ± 8.4cm, 24.6 ± 1.8 kg · m-2) which were divided into two groups; Traditional periodization and Undulating periodization. Aprogram of eight weeks of training including back and chest exercises were applied twice a week for the two groups. Bothfat mass and fat-free mass were measured by Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, as well as the maximum repetition(RM) of the bench press and row by measuring the speed of execution with a linear encoder and the resting heart ratebefore and after the program. Data were analyzed using magnitude-based inference. Changes in athletes’ scores were assessed by using effect sizes and 90% confidence intervals. The differences within the group in pre-training and post-training were evaluated using the standardized effect size. Improvements in 1RM row, resting heart rate and fat-free mass were observed not possible to determine which training periodization produces greater adaptations in both groups with a possible and probable inference.El presente estudio pretende investigar qué tipo de programación es más efectiva para mejorar la fuerza y la composición corporal en hombres jóvenes. Participaron 41 hombres (22.5 ± 2.8 años, 7.,6 ± 5.5 kg, 175.3 ± 8.4 cm, 24.6 ± 1.8 kg · m-2) divididos en dos grupos; Periodización tradicional y Periodización ondulatoria. Se aplicó para los dos grupos un programa de ocho semanas de entrenamiento que incluía ejercicios de espalda y pecho, dos veces por semana. Se midió la masa grasa y la masa libre de grasa mediante el DEXA, el RM del press de banca y remo a través de la velocidad de ejecución, y la frecuencia cardiaca en reposo antes y después del programa. Los datos se analizaron mediante inferencia basada en la magnitud. Los cambios en las puntuaciones de los atletas se evaluaron utilizando tamaños del efecto e intervalos de confianza del 90%. Las diferencias dentro del grupo en pre-entrenamiento y post-entrenamiento se evaluaron utilizando el tamaño del efecto estandarizado. Se observaron mejoras en 1RM en remo, frecuencia cardiaca en reposo y masa libre de grasa. Los resultados muestran una posible y probable inferencia, no siendo posible determinar qué periodización del entrenamiento produce mayores adaptaciones

Deep convolutional neural network for damaged vegetation segmentation from RGB images based on virtual NIR-channel estimation

Performing accurate and automated semantic segmentation of vegetation is a first algorithmic step towards more complex models that can extract accurate biological information on crop health, weed presence and phenological state, among others. Traditionally, models based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), near infrared channel (NIR) or RGB have been a good indicator of vegetation presence. However, these methods are not suitable for accurately segmenting vegetation showing damage, which precludes their use for downstream phenotyping algorithms. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive method for robust vegetation segmentation in RGB images that can cope with damaged vegetation. The method consists of a first regression convolutional neural network to estimate a virtual NIR channel from an RGB image. Second, we compute two newly proposed vegetation indices from this estimated virtual NIR: the infrared-dark channel subtraction (IDCS) and infrared-dark channel ratio (IDCR) indices. Finally, both the RGB image and the estimated indices are fed into a semantic segmentation deep convolutional neural network to train a model to segment vegetation regardless of damage or condition. The model was tested on 84 plots containing thirteen vegetation species showing different degrees of damage and acquired over 28 days. The results show that the best segmentation is obtained when the input image is augmented with the proposed virtual NIR channel (F1=0.94) and with the proposed IDCR and IDCS vegetation indices (F1=0.95) derived from the estimated NIR channel, while the use of only the image or RGB indices lead to inferior performance (RGB(F1=0.90) NIR(F1=0.82) or NDVI(F1=0.89) channel). The proposed method provides an end-to-end land cover map segmentation method directly from simple RGB images and has been successfully validated in real field conditions

Multipurpose Sensing Platform Based on Laser-Reduced Graphene Oxide for Flexible and Ubiquitous Electronics

We present a versatile sensing platform, intended for ubiquitous and flexible electronics sensing applications based on the controlled reduction of Graphene Oxide by a laser diode. This technique allows the fast and ecological production of reduced Graphene Oxide without the need of expensive lithography masks. We will show results of the conductivity calibration by the photothermal reduction power, as well as the electrical characterization of the bare samples. Finally, a simple demonstrator of the platform based on an ultra-low power System on Chip (SoC) is introduced.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Educaton, Culture and Sport (MECD) through the pre-doctoral grant FPU16/01451, the University of Granada through the scholarship “Initiation to Research“, the National Excellence Research Project TEC2017-89955-P and the European Union by the fellowship H2020-MSCA-IF-2017 794885-SELFSENS

Analysis of the thermal sensation in single-family home from microclimatic monitoring: Case study Bucaramanga Colombia

The present work describes the experimentation of monitoring for the finding of the heat index and the individual thermal sensation, where the behavior of the real temperature in the exterior and interior of a conventional single-family house with a warm and temperate climate in Colombia was analyzed. The detailed monitoring campaign is carried out for 2880 hours, where the conditions of the interior area of the house and the local climatic conditions of the area are recorded, through the implementation of a thermohydrometers registration system. The methodology for the calculation of the sensation of heat and thermal comfort was determined under the adjusted equation of cooling power of Leonardo Hill and Morikofer-Davos, applied in the analyses of the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies - IDEAM. The results showed a thermal sensation of dissatisfaction of 97.7%, because with the monitored temperature the thermal sensation is calculated yielding in 1382.4 hours with very hot, 1151.6 hours of hot and 280.8 hours of warm thermal sensation