Multiplicity and Poincaré series for mixed multiplier ideals

Postprint (published version

Grandes accionistas y costes de agencia de la deuda. El caso español

This paper analyses the influence of large controlling shareholders on the terms of bank loans for a sample of 984 loans to 261 non-financial Spanish public and private firms over the period 2001-2017. The results show that the presence of large controlling shareholders increases the interest rate spread of bank loans only in public firms, whereas the influence is insignificant for private firms. Similarly, a less evenly balanced distribution of ownership among large shareholders is associated with higher loan spreads for public firms. Our results reveal that large controlling shareholders expropriate wealth from other investors in public firms, in line with the existence of lower benefits for borrowers due to having large controlling shareholders when they have other internal and external mechanisms of control.El objetivo del presente trabajo consiste en analizar la influencia que los grandes accionistas tienen sobre las condiciones de los préstamos bancarios para una muestra compuesta por 984 préstamos realizados a 261 empresas cotizadas y no cotizadas españolas no financieras durante el periodo 2001-2017. Los resultados muestran que la presencia de grandes accionistas incrementa el tipo de interés pagado por los préstamos en el caso de las empresas cotizadas, mientras el efecto no es significativo para las empresas no cotizadas. De forma similar, una distribución de la propiedad menos equilibrada entre los grandes accionistas está asociada con un mayor tipo de interés pagado por las empresas cotizadas. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que los grandes accionistas expropian riqueza de otros inversores en las empresas cotizadas, en línea con la existencia de menores beneficios para los prestatarios de la existencia de grandes accionistas cuando disponen de otros mecanismos, tanto internos como externos, de control

Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management.

Mucopolysaccharidosis type IVA (MPS IVA, or Morquio syndrome type A) is an inherited metabolic lysosomal disease caused by the deficiency of the N-acetylglucosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase enzyme. The deficiency of this enzyme accumulates the specific glycosaminoglycans (GAG), keratan sulfate, and chondroitin-6-sulfate mainly in bone, cartilage, and its extracellular matrix. GAG accumulation in these lesions leads to unique skeletal dysplasia in MPS IVA patients. Clinical, radiographic, and biochemical tests are needed to complete the diagnosis of MPS IVA since some clinical characteristics in MPS IVA are overlapped with other disorders. Early and accurate diagnosis is vital to optimizing patient management, which provides a better quality of life and prolonged life-time in MPS IVA patients. Currently, enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are available for patients with MPS IVA. However, ERT and HSCT do not have enough impact on bone and cartilage lesions in patients with MPS IVA. Penetrating the deficient enzyme into an avascular lesion remains an unmet challenge, and several innovative therapies are under development in a preclinical study. In this review article, we comprehensively describe the current diagnosis, treatment, and management for MPS IVA. We also illustrate developing future therapies focused on the improvement of skeletal dysplasia in MPS IVA

Multiplicity and Poincaré series for mixed multiplier ideals

Postprint (author's final draft

An Asynchronous P300-Based Brain-Computer Interface Web Browser for Severely Disabled People

This paper presents an electroencephalo- graphic (EEG) P300-based brain–computer interface (BCI) Internet browser. The system uses the “odd-ball” row-col paradigm for generating the P300 evoked potentials on the scalp of the user, which are immediately processed and translated into web browser commands. There were previous approaches for controlling a BCI web browser. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of them was focused on an assistive context, failing to test their applications with a suitable number of end users. In addition, all of them were synchronous applications, where it was necessary to introduce a “read-mode” command in order to avoid a continuous command selection. Thus, the aim of this study is twofold: 1) to test our web browser with a population of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in order to assess the usefulness of our proposal to meet their daily communication needs; and 2) to overcome the aforementioned limitation by adding a threshold that discerns between control and non-control states, allowing the user to calmly read the web page without undesirable selections. The browser was tested with sixteen MS patients and five healthy volunteers. Both quantitative and qualitative metrics were obtained. MS participants reached an average accuracy of 84.14%, whereas 95.75% was achieved by control subjects. Results show that MS patients can successfully control the BCI web browser, improving their personal autonom

Comportamiento operativo de las salidas a Bolsa en España

Este trabajo ha sido seleccionado y ha obtenido el Accésit Premio Estudios Financieros 2003 en la Modalidad de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas. El objetivo del trabajo es analizar el comportamiento operativo de las empresas que han iniciado su cotización en la Bolsa de Madrid en el período 1985-1997. Asimismo se pretende estudiar si ese comportamiento se puede explicar a partir de argumentos basados en la intensificación de costes de agencia, de ventanas de oportunidad, de «maquillaje» contable y de reducción de las restricciones financieras. Los resultados son consistentes con el aprovechamiento de las ventanas de oportunidad y el «maquillaje» de los resultados contables con anterioridad a la salida a bolsa. Asimismo, se constata el papel supervisor desempeñado por las entidades financieras en el mercado español de capitales. Códigos JEL: G10 y G32

Caracterización de pacientes con accidente cerebrovascular isquémico en un Servicio de Medicina Interna

Introducción: Las enfermedades cerebrovasculares constituyen uno de los principales desafíos que en la actualidad enfrentan las ciencias médicas, y constituyen una carga social, sanitaria y económica. Objetivo: Caracterizar a pacientes egresados del Servicio de Medicina Interna del Hospital Universitario "General Calixto García" en el año 2018, con diagnóstico de enfermedad cerebrovascular isquémica, para identificar el tipo de hiperlipidemia más frecuente en ellos. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo de corte transversal. La muestra se conformó con 300 pacientes que se diagnosticaron con ictus isquémico y cumplieron los criterios de inclusión y exclusión establecidos. Resultados: Los pacientes tenían una edad promedio de 67,4 ± 5,7 años, con predominio del sexo masculino (52,3 %) y color de piel negra (47,3 %). El 56,0 % de los mismos eran hipertensos, el 39,7 % obesos y el 24,7 % diabéticos y un 3,0 % había sufrido anteriormente una enfermedad cerebrovascular. La hipercolesterolemia aislada fue la hiperlipidemia más frecuente (38,0 %). Conclusiones: Existe una fuerte asociación entre la edad avanzada, el color negro de la piel y la ocurrencia de enfermedad cerebrovascular isquémica. Predominaron los pacientes con accidente isquémico transitorio y fue la hipercolesterolemia aislada, la hiperlipidemia más frecuente

Comparison of Chemical and Mechanical Surface Treatments on Metallic Precision Spheres for Using as Optical Reference Artifacts

[EN] The improvement of industrial manufacturing processes requires measurement procedures and part inspection tasks to be faster and faster while remaining effective. In this sense, the capabilities of noncontact measuring systems are of great help, not only because of the great amount of data they provide but also for the ease of the integration of these systems as well as their automation, minimising the impact on the industry. This work presents a comparative study on the influence of two surface treatments performed on low-cost, high-precision metallic spheres on the suitability of these spheres to be used as artefacts for the calibration of optical sensors, specifically laser triangulation sensors. The first surface treatment is sandblasting (a mechanical process), whose effect has been studied and presented in previous work. The second treatment focused on in this paper is acid etching (a chemical process). The comparison has been performed by evaluating the same metrological characteristics on two identical groups of spheres of similar type (diameter and accuracy), each of which was subjected to a different treatment. It was necessary to obtain the reference values of the metrological parameters with high accuracy, which involved measuring the spheres with a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) by contact probing. Likewise, spheres were scanned by a laser triangulation sensor mounted on the same CMM. The results derived from both the contact and laser measurements and before and after treating the surfaces were used to compare four parameters: point density, sphere diameter, sphere form deviation, and standard deviation of the best-fit sphere to the corresponding point cloud. This research has revealed that acid etching produces better optical qualities on the surfaces than the mirror-like original ones, thus enhancing the laser sensor capturing ability. However, such chemical etching has affected the metrological characteristics of the spheres to a greater extent than that produced by sandblasting. This difference is due to the variability of the chemical etching, caused by the high aggressiveness of the acid, which makes the process very sensitive to the time of exposure to the acid and the orientations of the spheres in the bath.SIUniversity Institute of Industrial Technology of Asturias, IUTA, through the research project ref. SV-21-GIJON-1-06

Análisis, diseño e implementación de un sistema de información para el control y seguimiento del modelo en la evaluación de la relación docencia - servicio del Hospital Universitario San Jorge de Pereira

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