Sistemes de crèdit hipotecari en l'europa del segle XIX, en especial a Catalunya i Espanya: legislació hipotecària i bancs hipotecaris

Investigación producida a partir de una estancia en la Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Alemania, entre julio y septiembre del 2007. En este trabajo, se estudia la situación del crédito hipotecario en España a mediados de siglo XIX (con especial atención a Cataluña). En su desarrollo, se abordan tres cuestiones. La situación del crédito hipotecario en España a mediados de siglo XIX. La legislación hipotecaria española en el siglo XIX. En especial, se ha puesto de relieve su incapacidad para movilizar la riqueza inmueble, que sólo se solucionó con una completa reforma hipotecaria y registral. El “sistema de crédito territorial” que, ideado por el desconocido abogado catalán Joaquín Borrell y Vilá, debe considerarse como el verdadero primer paso jurídico hacia el futuro desarrollo de las instituciones de crédito hipotecario en España, aunque fue ignorado por el Gobierno y los agentes económicos.

Is real GDP stationary? Evidence from a panel unit root test with cross-sectional dependence and historical data

We use historical data that cover more than one century on real GDP for industrial countries and employ the Pesaran panel unit root test that allows for cross-sectional dependence to test for a unit root on real GDP. We find strong evidence against the unit root null. Our results are robust to the chosen group of countries and the sample period. Key words: real GDP stationarity, cross-sectional dependence, CIPS test. JEL Classification: C23, E32

Intra-Party Democracy and middle-level elites in Spain

The gradual implementation of new, more participatory and thus, more democratic mechanisms of intra-party decision-making has been pointed out by several party politics scholars. This phenomenon has been studied as the party elite’s reactions to a widespread trend in Western countries: the party membership decline. Spain is still a deviant case in both the party membership decline trend, and with regards to the introduction of more participatory and democratic decision-making mechanisms. However, the paper point out that support for intra-party democracy is quite widespread within Spanish party middle elites (party delegates). That is why the aim of this paper is to explain which factors are underpinning the supports for intra-party democracy amongst Spanish party delegates. After conducting a multivariate analysis, the results show that ideology, the involvement in intra-party experiences and the degree of pragmatism, amongst others, are factors strongly associated with the support for intraparty democracy in Spanish party middle elites.

Complex and real Hausdorff operators

Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt.

Quantificació de l'error comès pels models de níxol ecològic al predir la distribució d'especies generalistes

Report for the scientific sojourn carried out at the University of California at Berkeley, from September to December 2007. Environmental niche modelling (ENM) techniques are powerful tools to predict species potential distributions. In the last ten years, a plethora of novel methodological approaches and modelling techniques have been developed. During three months, I stayed at the University of California, Berkeley, working under the supervision of Dr. David R. Vieites. The aim of our work was to quantify the error committed by these techniques, but also to test how an increase in the sample size affects the resultant predictions. Using MaxEnt software we generated distribution predictive maps, from different sample sizes, of the Eurasian quail (Coturnix coturnix) in the Iberian Peninsula. The quail is a generalist species from a climatic point of view, but an habitat specialist. The resultant distribution maps were compared with the real distribution of the species. This distribution was obtained from recent bird atlases from Spain and Portugal. Results show that ENM techniques can have important errors when predicting the species distribution of generalist species. Moreover, an increase of sample size is not necessary related with a better performance of the models. We conclude that a deep knowledge of the species’ biology and the variables affecting their distribution is crucial for an optimal modelling. The lack of this knowledge can induce to wrong conclusions.

Eina que permet, en temps real, poder saber l'estock de terminals de telèfons mòbils existents en un determinat magatzem.

El projecte es desenvoluparà en format web i seguint l'estàndar J2EE, dins del què podríem anomenar MVC1, de manera que la seva consulta es pugui fer en línia aprofitant les noves tecnologies i l'accés a internet.

Estudi del disseny i la implementació d¿un: Sistema de control de la salut dels bancs europeus en temps real.

El Banc Central Europeu(BCE) ens ha encarregat preparar-li una base de dades on poder emmagatzemar uns registres diaris relacionats amb uns indicadors. En el moment d¿enregistrar els indicadors si es viola alguna regla de negoci, prèviament definides per el BCE, es llencen una sèrie d¿alertes que també s¿emmagatzemaran a la base de dades per al seu posterior tractament. Amb la informació emmagatzemada en aquesta base de dades(BD), el BCE utilitzant una aplicació per explotar aquestes dades, podrà controlar la salut dels bancs europeus en temps real i facilitar la presa de decisions. També se¿ns demana la implementació d¿un mòdul estadístic on hi hagin una sèrie de dades ja precalculades per facilitar la seva consulta.

Virtual library, a real library?

Les possibilitats ofertes per la virtualitat tenen una gran importància en l'esfera educativa i en tots els aspectes referents a ella. Evidentment, les biblioteques i els centres de documentació no són estranys a aquest nou ambient virtual facilitat pel canvi social, econòmic i, sobretot, tecnològic que ha permès que els bibliotecaris-documentalistes accedeixin a gran quantitat d'informació i de documentació, permetent que actuïn com a agents intermediaris entre aquesta nova situació i l'ús que se'n poden fer pels diversos tipus d'usuaris.

Breast cancer incidence and overdiagnosis in Catalonia (Spain)

Early detection of breast cancer (BC) with mammography may cause overdiagnosis andovertreatment, detecting tumors which would remain undiagnosed during a lifetime. The aims of this study were: first, to model invasive BC incidence trends in Catalonia (Spain) taking into account reproductive and screening data; and second, to quantify the extent of BC overdiagnosis. We modeled the incidence of invasive BC using a Poisson regression model. Explanatory variables were:age at diagnosis and cohort characteristics (completed fertility rate, percentage of women that use mammography at age 50, and year of birth). This model also was used to estimate the background incidence in the absence of screening. We used a probabilistic model to estimate the expected BC incidence if women in the population usedmammography as reported in health surveys. The difference between the observed and expected cumulative incidences provided an estimate of overdiagnosis.Incidence of invasive BC increased, especially in cohorts born from 1940 to 1955. The biggest increase was observed in these cohorts between the ages of 50 to 65 years, where the final BC incidence rates more than doubled the initial ones. Dissemination of mammography was significantly associated with BC incidence and overdiagnosis. Our estimates of overdiagnosis ranged from 0.4% to 46.6%, for women born around 1935 and 1950, respectively.Our results support the existence of overdiagnosis in Catalonia attributed to mammography usage, and the limited malignant potential of some tumors may play an important role. Women should be better informed about this risk. Research should be oriented towards personalized screening and risk assessment tools

Regional flows of domestic tourism in Spain = Flujos regionales del turismo doméstico en España

The paper analyses the regional flows of domestic tourism that took place in Spain in year 2000, contributing to the state of knowledge on tourism required by authorities and private firms when faced with decision making, for example, for regional infrastructure planning. Although tourism is one of the main income-generating economic activities in Spain, domestic tourism has received little attention in the literature compared to inbound tourism. The paper uses among others, gravitational model tools and concentration indices, to analyse regional concentration of both domestic demand and supply; tourism flows among regions, and the causes that may explain the observed flows and attractiveness between regions. Among the most remarkable results are the high regional concentration of demand and supply, and the role of population and regional income as explanatory variables. Also remarkable are the attractiveness of own region and neighbour ones, and that domestic tourism may be acting as a regional income redistributing activity

Semi-online neural-Q_leaming for real-time robot learning

Reinforcement learning (RL) is a very suitable technique for robot learning, as it can learn in unknown environments and in real-time computation. The main difficulties in adapting classic RL algorithms to robotic systems are the generalization problem and the correct observation of the Markovian state. This paper attempts to solve the generalization problem by proposing the semi-online neural-Q_learning algorithm (SONQL). The algorithm uses the classic Q_learning technique with two modifications. First, a neural network (NN) approximates the Q_function allowing the use of continuous states and actions. Second, a database of the most representative learning samples accelerates and stabilizes the convergence. The term semi-online is referred to the fact that the algorithm uses the current but also past learning samples. However, the algorithm is able to learn in real-time while the robot is interacting with the environment. The paper shows simulated results with the "mountain-car" benchmark and, also, real results with an underwater robot in a target following behavior

Policy gradient based Reinforcement Learning for real autonomous underwater cable tracking

This paper proposes a field application of a high-level reinforcement learning (RL) control system for solving the action selection problem of an autonomous robot in cable tracking task. The learning system is characterized by using a direct policy search method for learning the internal state/action mapping. Policy only algorithms may suffer from long convergence times when dealing with real robotics. In order to speed up the process, the learning phase has been carried out in a simulated environment and, in a second step, the policy has been transferred and tested successfully on a real robot. Future steps plan to continue the learning process on-line while on the real robot while performing the mentioned task. We demonstrate its feasibility with real experiments on the underwater robot ICTINEU AUV

Towards a real-time vision-based navigation system for a small-class UUV

This paper deals with the problem of navigation for an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) through image mosaicking. It represents a first step towards a real-time vision-based navigation system for a small-class low-cost UUV. We propose a navigation system composed by: (i) an image mosaicking module which provides velocity estimates; and (ii) an extended Kalman filter based on the hydrodynamic equation of motion, previously identified for this particular UUV. The obtained system is able to estimate the position and velocity of the robot. Moreover, it is able to deal with visual occlusions that usually appear when the sea bottom does not have enough visual features to solve the correspondence problem in a certain area of the trajectory

A new approach to real time traffic sign recognition based on colour information

The automatic interpretation of conventional traffic signs is very complex and time consuming. The paper concerns an automatic warning system for driving assistance. It does not interpret the standard traffic signs on the roadside; the proposal is to incorporate into the existing signs another type of traffic sign whose information will be more easily interpreted by a processor. The type of information to be added is profuse and therefore the most important object is the robustness of the system. The basic proposal of this new philosophy is that the co-pilot system for automatic warning and driving assistance can interpret with greater ease the information contained in the new sign, whilst the human driver only has to interpret the "classic" sign. One of the codings that has been tested with good results and which seems to us easy to implement is that which has a rectangular shape and 4 vertical bars of different colours. The size of these signs is equivalent to the size of the conventional signs (approximately 0.4 m2). The colour information from the sign can be easily interpreted by the proposed processor and the interpretation is much easier and quicker than the information shown by the pictographs of the classic signs

Disseny i construcció d'un motor 3D en temps real per la Gameboy Advance

El projecte desenvolupat ha tractat l’estudi i disseny d’un motor 3D interactiu a la consolaGame Boy Advance (GBA). La GBA disposa d’un processador ARM7TDMI a 16’78Mhz i no disposa de operacions 3D per-hardware, és una consola lenta en comparació lesque podem trobar al mercat d’avui en dia. Aquest treball, va partir de la construcció d’un prototipus ray-casting per-columna. Després,vàrem adaptar-lo a una estructura de portals i sectors. Més tard,es va introduir el mapeig de sostre/terra i de paisatges. Per últim,vàrem introduir efectes a la renderització per donar més realismeal recorregut del món, com il·luminació, objectes, etc.Tot i que es va estudiar l’arquitectura d’un motor eficient, no estenia prou per arribar a tenir un motor interactiu. Una de lestasques més difícils va ser la part de optimització. Peraconseguir-ho s’ha hagut de substituir operacions a temps realcostoses a temps de execució, replantejar parts de l’algorisme per fer-lo més eficient, entre altres