Classical horizontal inequity and reranking: an integrated approach

The last 20 years have seen a significant evolution in the literature on horizontal inequity (HI) and have generated two major and "rival" methodological strands, namely, classical HI and reranking. We propose in this paper a class of ethically flexible tools that integrate these two strands. This is achieved using a measure of inequality that merges the well-known Gini coefficient and Atkinson indices, and that allows a decomposition of the total redistributive effect of taxes and transfers in a vertical equity effect and a loss of redistribution due to either classical HI or reranking. An inequality-change approach and a money-metric cost-of-inequality approach are developed. The latter approach makes aggregate classical HI decomposable across groups. As in recent work, equals are identified through a nonparametric estimation of the joint density of gross and net incomes. An illustration using Canadian data from 1981 to 1994 shows a substantial, and increasing, robust erosion of redistribution attributable both to classical HI and to reranking, but does not reveal which of reranking or classical HI is more important since this requires a judgement that is fundamentally normative in nature.

The Core ideas and axioms of classical fascism (1919-1945)

This article presents and explores the axioms and core ideas, or idées-force, of the Fascist ideologies of the first third of the twentieth century. The aim is to identify the features that define the term “Classical Fascism” as a conceptual category in the study of politics and to uncover the core ideas of its political theory. This analysis requires an appraisal of both the idées-force themselves and the political use that is made of them. If these appreciations are correct, Classical Fascism is characterized by a set of ideological and political aims and methods in which ideas, attitudes and behaviours are determined by an anti-democratic palingenetic ultranationalism underpinned by a sacralized ideology; the quest for a united, indissoluble society as apolitical system and, at the same time, the collective myth that mobilizes and redeems the nation; and third, violence as a political vehicle applied unchecked against internal opposition and against external enemies who challenge the nation´s progression towards the dream of rebirth and the culmination of this progression in the form of an empire.

Development of advanced silicon radiation detectors for high energy physics and medical imaging

The 1st chapter of this work presents the different experiments and collaborations in which I am involved during my PhD studies of Physics. Following those descriptions, the 2nd chapter is dedicated to how the radiation affects the silicon sensors, as well as some experimental measurements carried out at CERN (Geneve, Schwitzerland) and IFIC (Valencia, Spain) laboratories. Besides the previous investigation results, this chapter includes the most recent scientific papers appeared in the latest RD50 (Research & Development #50) Status Report, published in January 2007, as well as some others published this year. The 3rd and 4th are dedicated to the simulation of the electrical behavior of solid state detectors. In chapter 3 are reported the results obtained for the illumination of edgeless detectors irradiated at different fluences, in the framework of the TOSTER Collaboration. The 4th chapter reports about simulation design, simulation and fabrication of a novel 3D detector developed at CNM for ions detection in the future ITER fusion reactor. This chapter will be extended with irradiation simulations and experimental measurements in my PhD Thesis.

Merging the hypothetical extraction method and the classical multiplier approach: a hybrid possibility for identifying key distributive sectors

The two main alternative methods used to identify key sectors within the input-output approach, the Classical Multiplier method (CMM) and the Hypothetical Extraction method (HEM), are formally and empirically compared in this paper. Our findings indicate that the main distinction between the two approaches stems from the role of the internal effects. These internal effects are quantified under the CMM while under the HEM only external impacts are considered. In our comparison, we find, however that CMM backward measures are more influenced by within-block effects than the proposed forward indices under this approach. The conclusions of this comparison allow us to develop a hybrid proposal that combines these two existing approaches. This hybrid model has the advantage of making it possible to distinguish and disaggregate external effects from those that a purely internal. This proposal has also an additional interest in terms of policy implications. Indeed, the hybrid approach may provide useful information for the design of ''second best'' stimulus policies that aim at a more balanced perspective between overall economy-wide impacts and their sectoral distribution.

Quantum similarity topological indices definition, analysis and comparison with classical molecular topological indices

Es mostra que, gracies a una extensió en la definició dels Índexs Moleculars Topològics, s'arriba a la formulació d'índexs relacionats amb la teoria de la Semblança Molecular Quàntica. Es posa de manifest la connexió entre les dues metodologies: es revela que un marc de treball teòric sòlidament fonamentat sobre la teoria de la Mecànica Quàntica es pot connectar amb una de les tècniques més antigues relacionades amb els estudis de QSPR. Es mostren els resultats per a dos casos d'exemple d'aplicació d'ambdues metodologies

An alternative approach to fundamental general physics concepts

An alternative approach to the fundamental general physics concepts has been proposed. We demonstrate that the electrostatic potential energy of a discrete or a continuous system of charges should be stored by the charges and not the field. It is found that there is a possibility that any electric field has no energy density, as well as magnetic field. It is found that there is no direct relation between the electric or magnetic energy and photons. An alternative derivation of the blackbody radiation formula is proposed. It is also found that the zero-point of energy of electromagnetic radiation may not exist.

Effective atomic orbitals for fuzzy atoms

The method of extracting effective atomic orbitals and effective minimal basis sets from molecular wave function characterizing the state of an atom in a molecule is developed in the framework of the "fuzzy" atoms. In all cases studied, there were as many effective orbitals that have considerable occupation numbers as orbitals in the classical minimal basis. That is considered to be of high conceptual importance

Oxidation of silicon: further tests for the interfacial silicon emission model

The classical description of Si oxidation given by Deal and Grove has well-known limitations for thin oxides (below 200 Ã). Among the large number of alternative models published so far, the interfacial emission model has shown the greatest ability to fit the experimental oxidation curves. It relies on the assumption that during oxidation Si interstitials are emitted to the oxide to release strain and that the accumulation of these interstitials near the interface reduces the reaction rate there. The resulting set of differential equations makes it possible to model diverse oxidation experiments. In this paper, we have compared its predictions with two sets of experiments: (1) the pressure dependence for subatmospheric oxygen pressure and (2) the enhancement of the oxidation rate after annealing in inert atmosphere. The result is not satisfactory and raises serious doubts about the model’s correctness

Predictability of music descriptor time series and its application to cover song detection

Intuitively, music has both predictable and unpredictable components. In this work we assess this qualitative statement in a quantitative way using common time series models fitted to state-of-the-art music descriptors. These descriptors cover different musical facets and are extracted from a large collection of real audio recordings comprising a variety of musical genres. Our findings show that music descriptor time series exhibit a certain predictability not only for short time intervals, but also for mid-term and relatively long intervals. This fact is observed independently of the descriptor, musical facet and time series model we consider. Moreover, we show that our findings are not only of theoretical relevance but can also have practical impact. To this end we demonstrate that music predictability at relatively long time intervals can be exploited in a real-world application, namely the automatic identification of cover songs (i.e. different renditions or versions of the same musical piece). Importantly, this prediction strategy yields a parameter-free approach for cover song identification that is substantially faster, allows for reduced computational storage and still maintains highly competitive accuracies when compared to state-of-the-art systems.

Computing infinite plans for LTL goals using a classical planner

Classical planning has been notably successful in synthesizing finite plans to achieve states where propositional goals hold. In the last few years, classical planning has also been extended to incorporate temporally extended goals, expressed in temporal logics such as LTL, to impose restrictions on the state sequences generated by finite plans. In this work, we take the next step and consider the computation of infinite plans for achieving arbitrary LTL goals. We show that infinite plans can also be obtained efficiently by calling a classical planner once over a classical planning encoding that represents and extends the composition of the planningdomain and the B¨uchi automaton representingthe goal. This compilation scheme has been implemented and a number of experiments are reported.

A new hybrid summarizer based on vector Space model, statistical physics and linguistics

In this article we present a hybrid approach for automatic summarization of Spanish medical texts. There are a lot of systems for automatic summarization using statistics or linguistics, but only a few of them combining both techniques. Our idea is that to reach a good summary we need to use linguistic aspects of texts, but as well we should benefit of the advantages of statistical techniques. We have integrated the Cortex (Vector Space Model) and Enertex (statistical physics) systems coupled with the Yate term extractor, and the Disicosum system (linguistics). We have compared these systems and afterwards we have integrated them in a hybrid approach. Finally, we have applied this hybrid system over a corpora of medical articles and we have evaluated their performances obtaining good results.

Are There Classical Business Cycles?

The aim of this paper is to test formally the classical business cycle hypothesis, using data from industrialized countries for the time period since 1960. The hypothesis is characterized by the view that the cyclical structure in GDP is concentrated in the investment series: fixed investment has typically a long cycle, while the cycle in inventory investment is shorter. To check the robustness of our results, we subject the data for 15 OECD countries to a variety of detrending techniques. While the hypothesis is not confirmed uniformly for all countries, there is a considerably high number for which the data display the predicted pattern. None of the countries shows a pattern which can be interpreted as a clear rejection of the classical hypothesis.

Are these classical business cycles?

The aim of this paper is to test formally the classical business cyclehypothesis, using data from industrialized countries for the timeperiod since 1960. The hypothesis is characterized by the view that the cyclical structure in GDP is concentrated in the investment series: fixed investment has typically a long cycle, while the cycle in inventory investment is shorter. To check the robustness of our results, we subject the data for 15 OECD countries to a variety of detrending techniques. While the hypothesis is not confirmed uniformly for all countries, there is a considerably high number for which the data display the predicted pattern. None of the countries shows a pattern which can be interpreted as a clear rejection of the classical hypothesis.

Fixed and random effects in Classical and Bayesian regression

This paper proposes a common and tractable framework for analyzingdifferent definitions of fixed and random effects in a contant-slopevariable-intercept model. It is shown that, regardless of whethereffects (i) are treated as parameters or as an error term, (ii) areestimated in different stages of a hierarchical model, or whether (iii)correlation between effects and regressors is allowed, when the sameinformation on effects is introduced into all estimation methods, theresulting slope estimator is also the same across methods. If differentmethods produce different results, it is ultimately because differentinformation is being used for each methods.