Hardware and Software Codesign of a JPEG2000 Watermarking Encoder

Analog technology has been around for a long time. The use of analog technology is necessary since we live in an analog world. However, the transmission and storage of analog technology is more complicated and in many cases less efficient than digital technology. Digital technology, on the other hand, provides fast means to be transmitted and stored. Digital technology continues to grow and it is more widely used than ever before. However, with the advent of new technology that can reproduce digital documents or images with unprecedented accuracy, it poses a risk to the intellectual rights of many artists and also on personal security. One way to protect intellectual rights of digital works is by embedding watermarks in them. The watermarks can be visible or invisible depending on the application and the final objective of the intellectual work. This thesis deals with watermarking images in the discrete wavelet transform domain. The watermarking process was done using the JPEG2000 compression standard as a platform. The hardware implementation was achieved using the ALTERA DSP Builder and SIMULINK software to program the DE2 ALTERA FPGA board. The JPEG2000 color transform and the wavelet transformation blocks were implemented using the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) configuration

Responsabilidad social y la identidad corporativa de los colaboradores en una empresa distribuidora de energía eléctrica Lima, 2021

La investigación tuvo como objetivo principal, determinar la relación entre la responsabilidad social y la identidad corporativa de los colaboradores de una empresa distribuidora de energía eléctrica en Lima, el estudio se basó en un enfoque cuantitativo, de tipo aplicada, de diseño no experimental transversal y de alcance correlacional. Se evaluó a 235 colaboradores utilizando el cuestionario como instrumento y la encuesta como técnica, el cual fue validado por el juicio de tres expertos, así mismo se aplicó la prueba de confiabilidad de Alfa de Cronbach, dando como resultado que la variable responsabilidad social tiene 0,817 y la variable identidad corporativa tiene 0,836. Los datos recopilados fueron procesados a través del software SPSS versión 26 el cual arroja un valor mediante la regla de Rho Spearman de 0,723 y un nivel de significancia de 0,000. De acuerdo a estos resultados, se determinó que existe una relación positiva y moderada entre las variables, responsabilidad social e identidad corporativa, evidenciando que los dos elementos son importantes para la obtención de objetivos de sostenibilidad

Numerical validation of wave propagation, transformation and dissipation towards a harbour facility: a new bechmark case

A new set of experimental data is used in the numerical validation (2DH) of waves propagating towards a scaled harbour facility. The Laredo marina-harbour located at the North coast of Cantabria (Spain), which has lately improved by the extension of its main breakwater, was modelled in the 28 m long and 8.6 m wide directional wave basin of the Environmental Hydraulic Institute, at the University of Cantabria. For two months, different 3D tests were simulated for this harbour configuration, starting with the detailed construction of the real bathymetry contour data, and followed by the construction of the 450 m (trunk and head), of a curved rubble-mound, 1:2 slope breakwater, capped with a variable height L-shaped crownwall and the armour layer is composed of 60 ton (trunk) and 70 ton (roundhead) cubic units

Polychrony as Chinampas

We study the flow of signals through paths with the following condition: a node emits a signal if two incoming signals from other nodes arrive coincidentally or if it receives an external stimuli. We apply our study to count and describe families of polychrony groups on a line, and we introduce triangular sequences.Comment: 32 pages. We refocus our study on nonlinear signal-flow graphs. We add possible generalizations of our wor

Alternatives for the management of pig slurry: Phosphorous recovery and biogas generation

[EN] Pig slurry is highly polluted waste stream characterized by its high nutrients content and its high organic matter concentration. In this research, two alternatives in the management of this wastewater were studied. On the one hand, removal of nutrients from piggery wastewater by struvite precipitation was evaluated. Different molar ratios Mg+2/PO4-3, pH and temperatures were tested. On the other hand, an anaerobic treatment was performed with and without previous struvite crystallization and the methane production was analyzed. Results showed that the optimal experimental conditions to achieve the highest ammonium nitrogen and phosphate removal percentages (62.01% and 66.96%, respectively) were a molar concentration ratio (Mg+2/PO4-3) of 2.8, pH of 10 and temperature of 22 degrees C. In addition, images from FE-SEM microscopy demonstrated that the struvite morphology was orthorhombic. Concerning the anaerobic digestion, the chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies were 59.87% and 52.25% for the treatment without previous struvite precipitation and with previous struvite precipitation, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum biogas potential was found when no previous struvite precipitation was carried out, with a biogas generation around 4 mLh(-1) and a percentage of methane in the biogas between 32.37 and 59.73%.The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project PROVIP.ES (RTC-2014-2239-2).Lujan Facundo, MJ.; Iborra-Clar, MI.; Mendoza Roca, JA.; Also Jesús, M. (2019). Alternatives for the management of pig slurry: Phosphorous recovery and biogas generation. Journal of Water Process Engineering. 30:1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2017.08.011S173

Análisis financiero del comportamiento de la cartera de crédito de la Financiera MAPRIF S.A en el periodo 2018-2021.

La presente investigación tiene como finalidad el análisis del sector financiero, con énfasis en la financiera MAPRIF S.A. Siendo las financieras una de las principales captadoras de recursos financieros para luego otorgar créditos al público en general. El objetivo de dicha investigación es analizar el comportamiento de la cartera crediticia de la financiera MAPRIF S.A, de manera a entender las políticas de recuperación de crédito entre el periodo de 2018-2021. Esta investigación se realizará principalmente por ser un requisito para optar al título de licenciatura en Banca y Finanzas. La investigación está caracterizada con una metodología mixta con el objetivo de realizar un análisis más íntegro del comportamiento de la estructura de crédito, políticas, riesgos y recuperación de la cartera, en un periodo de tiempo específico de cuatro años siendo una investigación retrospectiva, con un reforzamiento del método cualitativo con lineamiento cuantitativo para una mayor comprensión en la interpretación de los resultados. MAPRIF es una de las entidades financieras de capital propio con más de 20 sucursales a través de todo el territorio nacional, ofertando una amplia de red créditos y servicios para la población en general. Dicho análisis es para saber que tan rentable ha sido la cartera de dicha financiera en el periodo establecido. Como resultado tenemos que en Nicaragua el comercio se ha diversificado principalmente en pequeñas y medianas empresas que han aportado a sus dueños grandes beneficios, por ello las empresas quieren invertir en proyectos a largo plazo y disminuir su riesgo en la inversión, es necesario que realicen evaluaciones de la situación presente y como afectara en un futuro la toma de decisiones a los inversionistas y la empresa. Palabras Claves: Finanzas, crédito, financieras, políticas crediticias, recuperación de cartera

Pharmaceutical compounds removal by adsorption with commercial and reused carbon coming from a drinking water treatment plant

[EN] The concern for the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in purified wastewater has grown in recent years. In this context, efficient and economically viable processes are required for their removal. In this study, adsorption was conducted to assess the removal of ibuprofen, caffeine, diazepam and acetaminophen, both as separated processes as in combination with a biological process in sequencing batch reactors. Removal efficiencies of these pharmaceutical active compounds were evaluated using two commercial activated carbons in granular and powder form and a discarded (after its use) activated carbon from a drinking water treatment plant. Concerning the biological treatment tests, simulated municipal wastewater was doped with 3¿mg/L of each pharmaceutical active compounds. Results showed that caffeine, acetaminophen and ibuprofen achieved excellent removal percentages, even without powder activated carbon addition (more than 94%); By contrast, whereas diazepam removal was low (lower than 50%); however, it was improved up to 68% with the powder activated carbon addition to the sequencing batch reactors. Regarding adsorption tests as separated process, ibuprofen was the pharmaceutical active compounds with the lowest removal percentage (around 50% for the granular activated carbon) and diazepam (around 80% for the granular activated carbon) was the compound with the maximum removal efficiency for the tested concentrations (between 0.5 and 3¿mg/L). Finally, results were very promising for the reused activated carbon since the removal efficiency of the pharmaceutical active compounds was higher than 90% (except for ibuprofen) when 0.5¿g/L of reused activated carbon was applied in powder form to solutions of 3¿mg/L of each pharmaceutical active compounds. In this way, a low cost activated carbon could be applied in wastewater treatment plants for pharmaceutical active compounds removal.This work has been carried out in the frame of the project IMIDTA/2017/73 granted to the company GECIVAL, S.L. by Instituto Valenciano de Competitividad Empresarial (IVACE) within the program for research and development projects for SMEs. This project has been co-financed (50%) by the operational program FEDER of Comunitat Valenciana 2014 2020.Lujan Facundo, MJ.; Iborra-Clar, MI.; Mendoza Roca, JA.; Alcaina-Miranda, MI. (2019). Pharmaceutical compounds removal by adsorption with commercial and reused carbon coming from a drinking water treatment plant. Journal of Cleaner Production. 238:1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.117866S1923

Forecasting SO2 Air Pollution in Salamanca, Mexico using an ADALINE

A comparison between a linear regression model and a Non-linear regressionmodel is presented in this work for forecasting of pollution levels due to SO2 in Salamanca city, Gto. Prediction is performed by means of an Adaptive Linear Neural Network (ADALINE) and a Generalized Regression NeuralNetwork (GRNN). Prediction experiments are realized for 1, 12 and 24 hours in advance, and the results for linear regression have been satisfactory. The performance estimation of both models are determined using the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE). Obtained results are compared. The final results indicated that ADALINE outperforms the past approach using GRNN

Caracterización de micro y nanopartículas magnéticas para aplicaciones biomédicas

El uso de Partículas Magnéticas (PMs), ya sea a escala micro o nano, como elementos auxiliares en el diagnóstico y tratamiento de enfermedades ha despertado un gran interés tanto en la comunidad científica como médica. Sin embargo, actualmente se le dá mayor énfasis a la fabricación de PMs sin considerar la futura aplicación médica. Bajo esta premisa, esta revisión pretende enfatizar la relevancia de un cambio en el sentido evolutivo del empleo de PMs en la biomedicina, esto es, que dependiendo de la aplicación médica se diseñe, fabrique y pruebe la mejor solución en función de la caracterización de propiedades magnéticas de los materiales y respuestas mecánicas, dinámicas, térmicas y temporales de las PMs. En consecuencia, se optimizará el avance en las aplicaciones médicas potenciales. Palabras Clave: Partículas Magnéticas, AGFM, Guiado, Focalización, Relajometría, Hipertermia