Revising the Texas index of leading indicators

The Texas Leading Index (TLI), produced monthly by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, combines eight measures that tend to anticipate changes in the Texas business cycle by about three to nine months.. ; The TLI was first published in the Dallas Fed’s Economic Review in July 1988. The index’s approaching 20th anniversary provides an apt occasion to review its real-time performance and look at ways it might be improved to keep up with the changing structure of the Texas economy and the availability of new data sources. ; We find that the TLI performed well in the one recession since 1990 and, used in a model forecasting Texas employment, has done well in real time when compared with other forecasts. Although the current version of the TLI works reasonably well, we suggest changes to the TLI that generally reflect the growing importance of services and globalization and the reduced importance of energy production in Texas business cycles.Economic indicators ; Forecasting ; Index numbers (Economics)

Full steam ahead for Texas ports

Trade ; North American Free Trade Agreement ; Petroleum industry and trade

Transcriptional delay stabilizes bistable gene networks

Transcriptional delay can significantly impact the dynamics of gene networks. Here we examine how such delay affects bistable systems. We investigate several stochastic models of bistable gene networks and find that increasing delay dramatically increases the mean residence times near stable states. To explain this, we introduce a non-Markovian, analytically tractable reduced model. The model shows that stabilization is the consequence of an increased number of failed transitions between stable states. Each of the bistable systems that we simulate behaves in this manner

Structural analysis and sintering aids effects in La2Ce2O7 proton conductors

Global warming is an important problem that has to be solved without delay. The development of environmental-friendly energy technology is needed to deal with this issue. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) technology has been proposed as a real alternative to fossil fuel combustion. Proton conductors like La2Ce2O7 (LDC), has several advantages in comparison with BaCeO3 due to its high stability in H2O or CO2 conditions [1]. Furthermore, for industry application is necessary to low the high sintering temperature of typical electrolyte materials. La2Ce2O7 was synthesized by the freeze-drying precursor method and calcination conditions have been optimized to obtain single phase with high compaction at 1400 ºC for 1h. A fully characterization has been carried out using X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The total conductivity was determined by complex impedance spectroscopy in dry and wet air. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was used to clarify certainly the structure of La2Ce2O7 due to its still unknown. SAEDs patterns revealed a disordered fluorite, not appearing secondary reflections typical of pyrochlore superstructure, finishing the controversy around the correct structure in this material [2,3]. Moreover, an exhaustive study about lowering the sintering temperature with Co and Zn as sintering aids has been investigated obtaining electrolytes that can be used for SOFC. The sintering aids were impregnated using cobalt and zinc nitrates in ethanol media. Both sintering aids allow for obtain high dense pellets lowering the sintering temperature 300 ºC and 400 ºC for samples with cobalt and zinc, respectively, without compromising the electrical and microstructural properties (Fig 1).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

¿Modifican el PSA los licopenos de la dieta y exógenos?

El objetivo del presente artículo es describir la historia alimentaria y la composición corporal de pacientes con alto riesgo de padecer cáncer de próstata (CAP) y observar la influencia de la suplementación con licopeno sobre el PSA de la misma población.Fil: López Laur, José Daniel. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: López Fontana, C.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: López Fontana, G.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias MédicasFil: López Fontana, R.. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médica

A 2-set-up Routley-Meyer Semantics for the 4-valued Relevant Logic E4

The logic BN4 can be considered as the 4-valued logic of the relevant conditional and the logic E4, as the 4-valued logic of (relevant) entailment. The aim of this paper is to endow E4 with a 2-set-up Routley-Meyer semantics. It is proved that E4 is strongly sound and complete w.r.t. this semantics

Determinación de los parámetros de productividad en los procesos de carenamiento en un varadero mediano

Productivity parameters were determined in maintenance works of 16 ships in the slipways of ASTINAVE, a medium-size shipyard at Guayaquil, Ecuador, in the period between April 2008 and January 2009. Typical processes applied during ship maintenance, its units for evaluation and a classification chart are presented. With the registered time (Man-Hour, M-H), mean values, standard deviations and variation coefficients were calculated for each process. Mean value results for each work were: Plating replacement: 0.220 M-H/kg, Hull cleaning: 0.435 M-H/m2-machine, Painting: 0.027 M-H/m2-machine, Cathodic protection: 0.116 M-H/Kg, Thickness measurement: 0.030 M-H/test, Propulsion system: 130.92 M-H/line, Steering system: 54.89 M-H/line, Ship docking/undocking: 43.97 M-H/maneuver, Bottom Valves: 15.83 M-H/#valve, and, Fuel tank cleaning: 0.0093 M-H/gal.Se determinaron Parámetros de Productividad en los trabajos de mantenimiento de 16 embarcaciones en el varadero de ASTINAVE, en Guayaquil, Ecuador, en el periodo Abril 08 hasta Enero 2009. Se describen, definen las unidades para su evaluación y se clasifican los procesos típicos que se desarrollan para el mantenimiento de buques. Con los tiempos (hombres-hora) registrados se calcularon los valores medios, desviaciones estándar y Coeficiente de Variación de los parámetros de cada proceso. Los valores medios resultantes son: Cambio de planchaje 0.220 H-H/kg, Limpieza del Casco 0.435 H-H/m2-máq, Pintado 0.027 H-H/m2-máq, Protección catódica 0.116 H-H/Kg, Medición de espesores 0.030 H-H/prueba, Sistema de Propulsión 130.92 H-H/línea, Sistema de Gobierno 54.89 H-H/línea, Varada/Desvarada 43.97 H-H/maniobra, Válvulas de Fondo 15.83 H-H/#válv, y, Tanques de combustible 0.0093 H-H/gal

Rosen’s projection method for SVM training

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the 17th European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, held in Bruges on 2009In this work we will give explicit formulae for the application of Rosen’s gradient projection method to SVM training that leads to a very simple implementation. We shall experimentally show that the method provides good descent directions that result in less training iterations, particularly when large precision is wanted. However, a naive kernelization may end up in a procedure requiring more KOs than SMO and further work is needed to arrive at an efficient implementation.With partial support of Spain’s TIN 2007–66862 project and Cátedra UAM–IIC en Modelado y Predicción. The first author is kindly supported by FPU-MICINN grant reference AP2007–00142

Recommendations on seismic actions on bridges

The paper describes the main features of a technical Recommendation first draft on Seismic Actions on Bridges, promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works (MOPT). Although much more research is needed to clarify the seismic behaviour of the vast class of problems present in port structures the current state of the art allows at least a classificaton of subjects and the establishment of minimum requirements to guide the design. Also the use of more refined methods for specially dangerous situations needs some general guidelines that contribute to mantein the design under reasonable safety margins. The Recommendations of the Spanish MOPT are a first try in those directions

Least 1-Norm SVMs: a new SVM variant between standard and LS-SVMs

This is an electronic version of the paper presented at the 18th European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, held in Bruges on 2010Least Squares Support Vector Machines (LS-SVMs) were proposed by replacing the inequality constraints inherent to L1-SVMs with equality constraints. So far this idea has only been suggested for a least squares (L2) loss. We describe how this can also be done for the sumof-slacks (L1) loss, yielding a new classifier (Least 1-Norm SVMs) which gives similar models in terms of complexity and accuracy and that may also be more robust than LS-SVMs with respect to outliers.With partial support of Spain’s TIN 2007–66862 project and Cátedra IIC en Modelado y Predicción. The first author is kindly supported by FPU-MICINN grant reference AP2007– 00142