Near-Field Directionality Beyond the Dipole Approximation: Electric Quadrupole and Higher-Order Multipole Angular Spectra

Within the context of spin-related optical phenomena, the near-field directionality is generally understood from the quantum spin Hall effect of light, according to which the transverse spin of surface or guided modes is locked to the propagation direction. So far, most previous works have been focused on the spin properties of circularly polarized dipolar sources. However, in near-field optics, higher-order multipole sources (e.g., quadrupole, octupole, and so on) might become relevant, so a more in-depth formulation would be highly valuable. Building on the angular spectrum representation, we provide a general, analytical, and ready-to-use treatment in order to address the near-field directionality of any multipole field, particularizing to the electric quadrupole case. Besides underpinning and upgrading the current framework on spin-dependent directionality, our results may open up new perspectives for engineering light-matter coupling at the nanoscale.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Supplemental Material (19 pages). Supplemental tools (calculator of angular spectra and animation) available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.267790

The Valuation of Mortgage Backed Securities with Stochastic Probabilities of Default and Prepayment

The aim of this paper is to provide a new approach to project the Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) cash flows in emerging markets where collateral information is limited, wrong or scarce. Under this framework, we use the Cox Process to model stochastic probabilities of prepayment and default. The model deals with general intensity dynamics and is applied to the starting MBS Mexican market.Mortgage valuation, MBS prepayment, MBS default, MBS curtailment, Cox Process.

Técnicas especiales en el diagnóstico de tumores óseos

Se hace una exposición del valor actual desde el punto de vista diagnóstico y pronóstico de las técnicas especiales aplicables a los tumores óseos por el patólogo. En histoquimia se resalta el valor práctico de las técnicas de PAS y fosfatasa alcalina para el diagnóstico del sarcoma de Ewing y del osteosarcoma respectivamente. Se comenta el valor de la aplicación de la microscopía electrónica en el diagnóstico de los tumores de células redondas pequeñas (sarcoma de Ewing, tumor neuroectodérmico periférico, linfoma primitivo óseo y metástasis de neuroblastoma y de rabdomiosarcoma embrionario) y de los sarcomas fusocelulares (fibrosarcoma, leiomiosarcoma embrionario) y de los sarcoma fusocelulares (fibrosarcoma, leiomiosarcoma primitivo de hueso y sarcoma sinovial) y de la aplicación de la inmunocitoquimia en los mismos tó- picos así como el diagnóstico diferencial del condrosarcoma, cordoma y metástasis de carcinoma mucosecretor en columna. Se comenta que la citología sólo es válida cuando es utilizada por un patólogo experto en patología tumoral ósea y en citopatología y que su aplicación es muy limitada. Se hace una revisión del valor de los estudios de ploidia con las técnicas de citometría de flujo y estática, resaltando su valor en la valoración pronóstica de ciertos tumores (condrosarcoma; sarcoma de Ewing). Finalmente, se comenta la aplicación diagnóstica de los estudios citogenéticos en el sarcoma de Ewing y el futuro de dichas técnicas de esta patología.In terms of diagnosis and prognosis, the present value of different sophisticated techniques applied for the patologist on bone tumors is reviewed. Histochemically, alkaline phosphatase and PAS techniques are both very important for the diagnosis of osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma respectively. The value of electronic microscopy and immunohistochemistry for diagnosis of round small cells tumors (Ewing's sarcoma, neuroectodermic tumors, primary bone lymphoma and metastatic neuroblastoma) and fusocellular sarcomas (fibrosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma of bone and synovial sarcoma) isdiscussed. The differential diagnosis of chondrosarcoma, chordoma and metastatic mucosecretor carcinoma at the spine by using immunohistochemistry is reviewed. The aplication of cytology is very limited and only useful in the hands of patologist expert in bone tumors. Recent studies on cellular ploidy using the techniques of flow and static cytometry have shown prognostic value in certain tumors such as chondrosarcoma. The future seem s to be cytogenetics as have been demostrated already for Ewing sarcoma

Understanding the impact of line-of-sight in the ergodic spectral efficiency of cellular networks

In this paper we investigate the impact of lineof-sight (LoS) condition in the ergodic spectral efficiency of cellular networks. To achieve this goal, we have considered the kappa-mu shadowed model, which is a general model that provides an excellent fit to a wide set of propagation conditions. To overcome the mathematical complexity of the analysis, we have split the analysis between large and small-scale effects. Building on the proposed framework, we study a number of scenarios that range from heavily-fluctuating LoS to deterministic-LoS. Finally, we shed light on the interplay between fading severity and spectral efficiency by means of the amount of fading.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Improved wear performance of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene coated with hydrogenated diamond like carbon

Hydrogenated diamond like carbon (DLCH) thin films were deposited on medical grade ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The DLCH coating thicknesses ranged from 250 to 700. nm. The substrates were disks made of UHMWPEs typically used for soft components in artificial joints, namely virgin GUR 1050 and highly crosslinked (gamma irradiated in air to 100. kGy) UHMWPEs. Mechanical and tribological properties under bovine serum lubrication at body temperature were assessed on coated and uncoated polyethylenes by means of nano-hardness and ball-on-disk tests, respectively. Morphological features of the worn surfaces were obtained by confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. This study confirms an increase in surface hardness and good wear resistance for coated materials after 24. h of sliding test compared to uncoated polyethylene. These results point out that to coat UHMWPE with DLCH films could be a potential method to reduce backside wear in total hip and knee arthroplasties.Ministerio de Ciencia y Educación MAT2006-12603- C02-01, CSD2008-0002

Efficient transfer entropy analysis of non-stationary neural time series

Information theory allows us to investigate information processing in neural systems in terms of information transfer, storage and modification. Especially the measure of information transfer, transfer entropy, has seen a dramatic surge of interest in neuroscience. Estimating transfer entropy from two processes requires the observation of multiple realizations of these processes to estimate associated probability density functions. To obtain these observations, available estimators assume stationarity of processes to allow pooling of observations over time. This assumption however, is a major obstacle to the application of these estimators in neuroscience as observed processes are often non-stationary. As a solution, Gomez-Herrero and colleagues theoretically showed that the stationarity assumption may be avoided by estimating transfer entropy from an ensemble of realizations. Such an ensemble is often readily available in neuroscience experiments in the form of experimental trials. Thus, in this work we combine the ensemble method with a recently proposed transfer entropy estimator to make transfer entropy estimation applicable to non-stationary time series. We present an efficient implementation of the approach that deals with the increased computational demand of the ensemble method's practical application. In particular, we use a massively parallel implementation for a graphics processing unit to handle the computationally most heavy aspects of the ensemble method. We test the performance and robustness of our implementation on data from simulated stochastic processes and demonstrate the method's applicability to magnetoencephalographic data. While we mainly evaluate the proposed method for neuroscientific data, we expect it to be applicable in a variety of fields that are concerned with the analysis of information transfer in complex biological, social, and artificial systems.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PLOS ON

Sobre la convergencia del modelo GARCH(1,1)-M al movimiento geométrico browniano con reversión a la media

This paper shows, under certain conditions, the convergence of the GARCH (1.1)-M model to the geometric Brownian motion with mean reversion (diffusion GARCH process). The importance from this result is that the problem of inference on the parameters of the valuation models of options with stochastic volatility can be reduced by estimating the model GARCH (1.1)-M. It is also carried out a discussion on the assumptions that ensure the existence and uniqueness of the limit process. Finally, it is provided a quick demonstration of the convergence, which is less formal, but more intuitive and easy to remember.Convergencia de procesos estocásticos, valuación de derivados, volatilidad estocástica

Biorefineries: Achievements and challenges for a bio-based economy

Funding This work was supported by a project (FQM-176) financed by the Junta de Andalucía. FM-M, acknowledges the support from the Global Challenges Research Fund from Swansea University, and from the Royal Society of Chemistry Enablement Grant (E21-7051491439).Climate change, socioeconomical pressures, and new policy and legislation are driving a decarbonization process across industries, with a critical shift from a fossil-based economy toward a biomass-based one. This new paradigm implies not only a gradual phasing out of fossil fuels as a source of energy but also a move away from crude oil as a source of platform chemicals, polymers, drugs, solvents and many other critical materials, and consumer goods that are ubiquitous in our everyday life. If we are to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, crude oil must be substituted by renewable sources, and in this evolution, biorefineries arise as the critical alternative to traditional refineries for producing fuels, chemical building blocks, and materials out of non-edible biomass and biomass waste. State-of-the-art biorefineries already produce cost-competitive chemicals and materials, but other products remain challenging from the economic point of view, or their scaled-up production processes are still not sufficiently developed. In particular, lignin’s depolymerization is a required milestone for the success of integrated biorefineries, and better catalysts and processes must be improved to prepare bio-based aromatic simple molecules. This review summarizes current challenges in biorefinery systems, while it suggests possible directions and goals for sustainable development in the years to come.Project (FQM-176) financed by the Junta de AndalucíaGlobal Challenges Research Fund from Swansea UniversityRoyal Society of Chemistry Enablement Grant (E21-7051491439