Improving Third-Party Relaying for LTE-A: A Realistic Simulation Approach

In this article we propose solutions to diverse conflicts that result from the deployment of the (still immature) relay node (RN) technology in LTE-A networks. These conflicts and their possible solutions have been observed by implementing standard-compliant relay functionalities on the Vienna simulator. As an original experimental approach, we model realistic RN operation, taking into account that transmitters are not active all the time due to half-duplex RN operation. We have rearranged existing elements in the simulator in a manner that emulates RN behavior, rather than implementing a standalone brand-new component for the simulator. We also study analytically some of the issues observed in the interaction between the network and the RNs, to draw conclusions beyond simulation observation. The main observations of this paper are that: $i$) Additional time-varying interference management steps are needed, because the LTE-A standard employs a fixed time division between eNB-RN and RN-UE transmissions (typical relay capacity or throughput research models balance them optimally, which is unrealistic nowadays); $ii$) There is a trade-off between the time-division constraints of relaying and multi-user diversity; the stricter the constraints on relay scheduling are, the less flexibility schedulers have to exploit channel variation; and $iii$) Thee standard contains a variety of parameters for relaying configuration, but not all cases of interest are covered.Comment: 17 one-column pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in IEEE ICC 2014 MW

Using rubrics as a self-assessment tool in Botany learning

Las rúbricas o matrices de evaluación son una herramienta educativa para la evaluación del proceso de aprendizaje. En la rúbrica se identifican ciertos criterios en la realización de un trabajo y también se define la gradación de calidad para cada criterio, desde un rendimiento pobre hasta la excelencia. Las rúbricas ayudan a estudiantes y profesores a juzgar la calidad de la tarea realizada por los estudiantes y pueden utilizarse además como herramienta de autoevaluación, mostrándose muy eficaces en algunos estudios previos. La realización de un herbario personal o en grupo ha sido un recurso utilizado para el aprendizaje de la Botánica desde hace años. Los herbarios permiten que el alumno conozca la terminología adecuada de la Taxonomía Botánica, aprenda a preparar, conservar e identificar las plantas con la bibliografía adecuada, y adquiera un conocimiento de visu de la flora local. Asimismo, otras competencias transversales, como la capacidad de trabajo en grupo, pueden ser potenciadas con la realización de dicho herbarios. La evaluación de los herbarios es compleja debido a la diversidad de competencias necesarias para la correcta realización del trabajo. Aquí presentamos una rúbrica desarrollada para que el alumno pueda autoevaluarse según diferentes criterios que se agrupan en tres grandes bloques: (i) Contenido, (ii) Presentación y Documentación, y (iii) Destrezas de trabajo colaborativas (trabajo en grupo). Esta autoevaluación tiene como finalidad la mejora en la presentación de los herbarios y con ello una mejora del rendimiento académico del alumno.A rubric (evaluation matrix) is an educational tool designed to evaluate the learning process. In an evaluation matrix, specific expectations are identified as well as a grade of fulfillment for each criterion, from a poor to an excellent performance. Rubrics make easier the evaluation task carried out by teachers and students, improving its quality, and can be used for self-assessment as its efficiency is proved by previous studies. An individual or collective herbarium is a learning tool that has been used for many years. Herbaria allow that students can familiarize with the Botanical Taxonomy terminology, learn to prepare, preserve and identify plant specimens (with the necessary bibliography), and acquire visual knowledge of local flora. In addition, several transversal competences, like teamwork related skills, are boosted in its construction. The evaluation of a herbarium is complex due to the diversity of necessary competences involved. Here, we bring a rubric to let students self-assess different criteria (grouped in three blocks): (i) Content, (ii) Presentation and Documentation, and (iii) Teamwork skills. The purpose of this self-assessment is to improve the presentation of the herbarium and hence the student's academic performance

AFLPsim: an R package to simulate and detect dominant markers under selection in hybridizing populations

Background In spite of a large diversity of approaches to investigate loci under selection from a population genetic perspective, very few programs have been specifically designed to date to test selection in hybrids using dominant markers. In addition, simulators of dominant markers are very scarce and they do not usually take into account hybridization. Results Here, we present a new, multifunctional, R package for dominant genetic markers, AFLPsim. This package can simulate dominant markers in hybridizing populations and implements genome scan methods for detecting outlier dominant loci in hybrids. In addition, it includes tools for further manipulating the results, plotting them and other tasks. We describe and tabulate the major functions implemented in AFLPsim. In addition, we provide some demonstration of its use and we perform a comparative study with other software. Finally, we conclude by briefly describing the input and output formats. Conclusions The R package AFLPsim application provides several useful tools in the context of hybridization studies. It can simulate dominant markers in hybridizing populations and predict their demographic evolution. In addition, we implement a new genome scan method for detecting outlier dominant loci in hybrids, which shows a rather high sensitivity and is very conservative in comparison with Gagnaire et al.’s, bayescan and introgress. The application is downloadable at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/AFLPsim/

The impact of environmental performance on stock prices in the green and innovative context

.This study examines the impact of environmental performance on firms' stock prices, considering the moderating effect of the green and innovative environmental context by country. Renewable energy policies, green technologies, and foreign trade form this environmental context of interest for the reduction of carbon emissions. Using a sample of 2638 firm-year observations for the firms listed in the main stock index of 16 European countries over the period of 2005–2017, we find that environmental performance is value-relevant, except during the worst years of a crisis, when it is not significant. Two elements of the green technological framework, namely, renewable energy policies and the potential transmission effect of technology through foreign trade, are valued by investors as offsetting factors of the positive effect exerted by carbon performance on the firm's value. This is consistent with the slow and costly adoption of greener technologies. However, registered green patents appear to be a turning point, showing a significant positive effect on the relationship between firms' environmental performances and their market values. Again, the crisis period interferes with deepening the negative effect of renewable energy policies and cancelling out the effect of green patents and foreign trade. On one hand, our results highlight the market's role in making inefficiencies visible and showing the potential future losses of green and innovative policies; on the other hand, the hampering interference of crisis periods must be considered by policymakers.S

Study of the influence of the operational parameters on the photoelectro-Fenton performance of an industrial wastewater treatment prototype using Orange II as a model pollutant

AbstractA two-stage photoelectro-Fenton reactor was built and employed to test its ability to remove colour using Orange II as a model dye compound. A set of four critical operational variables was defined for the reactor under study. In order to quantify their significance on colour removal, a 24 experimental factorial design was used. From the resultant data, and from a variable interaction analysis, a model of the reactor's performance as well as a characteristic set of experimental conditions was obtained. From this information, a triple interaction among current density, resin concentration and pH was statistically significant. Hydraulic retention time was not important. The best treatment among those studied was obtained at pH 3, current density 23.9 mA cm−2, and 3.7 g L−1 of resin concentration, with 96% decolorization. The best results with decolorization higher than 86% were obtained at acidic or slightly acidic pH, and higher levels of current density and resin concentration, or lower level of current density and resin concentration

Patrones comunes de fracaso y reorganización por sector y país para las PYMEs de seis países europeos utilizando PDFR

This study contributes to identifying common distress patterns in financial indicators by sector and country in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain as well as ex-post signals of reorganization success. We use PDFR that provides a distance-to-failure measure and allows us to track the behavior of different features of the firm proxied by accounting ratios. Our results show that indicators of financial structure, followed by working capital, profitability on assets, margin over sales and cash flow to assets, are the most discriminant variables of failed SMEs across all sectors and countries analyzed. By contrast, during reorganization, return on assets and its components are the main initial drivers of recovery, whereas the financial structure factors show a progressive but slow recovery. Boosting and Z-scores are used for robustness.Este estudio contribuye a la identificación de patrones comunes de fracaso en indicadores financieros por sector y país en Alemania, España, Finlandia, Francia, Italia y Portugal, así como a la identificación de patrones comunes de éxito en la reorganización. Utilizamos PDFR, que proporciona una medida de distancia al fracaso y permite hacer un seguimiento de la evolución de la empresa a través de sus ratios contables. Nuestros resultados muestran que los indicadores de estructura financiera, seguidos de fondo de maniobra, rentabilidad sobre activos, margen sobre ventas y cashflow sobre activos, son las variables más discriminantes de las pymes clasificadas como fracasadas, en todos los sectores y países analizados. En contraste, durante la reorganización, la rentabilidad sobre activos y sus componentes son los principales inductores iniciales de la recuperación, mientras que los indicadores de estructura financiera muestran una progresiva pero lenta recuperación. Se utilizan Boosting y Z-score como medidas de robustez.©2023 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM - Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Patrones comunes de fracaso y reorganización por sector y país para las PYMEs de seis países europeos utilizando PDFR

This study contributes to identifying common distress patterns in financial indicators by sector and country in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain as well as ex-post signals of reorganization success. We use PDFR that provides a distance-to-failure measure and allows us to track the behavior of different features of the firm proxied by accounting ratios. Our results show that indicators of financial structure, followed by working capital, profitability on assets, margin over sales and cash flow to assets, are the most discriminant variables of failed SMEs across all sectors and countries analyzed. By contrast, during reorganization, return on assets and its components are the main initial drivers of recovery, whereas the financial structure factors show a progressive but slow recovery. Boosting and Z-scores are used for robustness.Este estudio contribuye a la identificación de patrones comunes de fracaso en indicadores financieros por sector y país en Alemania, España, Finlandia, Francia, Italia y Portugal, así como a la identificación de patrones comunes de éxito en la reorganización. Utilizamos PDFR, que proporciona una medida de distancia al fracaso y permite hacer un seguimiento de la evolución de la empresa a través de sus ratios contables. Nuestros resultados muestran que los indicadores de estructura financiera, seguidos de fondo de maniobra, rentabilidad sobre activos, margen sobre ventas y *cashflow* sobre activos, son las variables más discriminantes de las pymes clasificadas como fracasadas, en todos los sectores y países analizados. En contraste, durante la reorganización, la rentabilidad sobre activos y sus componentes son los principales inductores iniciales de la recuperación, mientras que los indicadores de estructura financiera muestran una progresiva pero lenta recuperación. Se utilizan Boosting y Z-score como medidas de robustez

IT-REHAB : Integral Telerehabilitation System

The main functionalities of the physical rehabilitation module of IT-REHAB are briefly described in this paper. IT-REHAB is a telerehabilitation system under development for patients with physical or cognitive rehabilitation needs. It supports wireless biomechanical and physiological data collection and includes advanced functionalities based on a custom-designed Medium Access (MAC) protocol for improved bandwidth utilization and an immersive user interface that incorporates virtual reality elements for a motivating experience. Moreover, it includes affective computing technologies for pain intensity estimation, wearables for easy sensor devices setting up, and real-time communication between patients and therapists

A System for Automatic English Text Expansion

This work was supported in part by the Mineco, Spain, under Grant TEC2016-76465-C2-2-R, in part by the Xunta de Galicia, Spain, under Grant GRC-2018/53 and Grant ED341D R2016/012, and in part by the University of Vigo Travel Grant to visit the CLAN Research Group, University of Aberdeen, U.K.Peer reviewedPublisher PD