CoDaPack. An Excel and Visual Basic based software of compositional data analysis. Current version and discussion form upcoming versions

In the eighties, John Aitchison (1986) developed a new methodological approach for the statistical analysis of compositional data. This new methodology was implemented in Basic routines grouped under the name CODA and later NEWCODA inMatlab (Aitchison, 1997). After that, several other authors have published extensions to this methodology: Marín-Fernández and others (2000), Barceló-Vidal and others (2001), Pawlowsky-Glahn and Egozcue (2001, 2002) and Egozcue and others (2003). (...)

Efecte de la recurrència dels incendis sobre la vegetació i el sòl a les zons de bosc del Macizo Central Ourensano

En els últims 30 anys, el número d’incendis patits a Galicia han augmentat de manera important. En el Massís Central Ourensano l’home ha utilitzat el foc com a eina de gestió forestal per tal de permetre pasturar al bestiar i per tal de recuperar terres per a pastos i culius. Aquesta pràctica ha generat grans extensions de matollar sec europeu on hi hauria d’haver formacions boscoses. Partim de la necessitat de recuperar zones de bosc i ecosistema original i per això mesurem el comportament de les diferents espècies que trobem al matollar y al bosc en aquestes altituds davant la pertorbació que suposen els incendis recurrents. Per realitzar això s’ha mostrejat la vegetació de zones cremades en moments diferents o repetides vegades, mesurant superfície i alçades així com nombre d’individus de cada espècie. També s’han analitzat perfils del sòl per tal de conèixer amb més detall les característiques de cada zona. S’ha observat mitjançant el mostreig com per a la recuperació del matollar el factor determinant és el temps, encara que no trobem un sòl de bona qualitat i profund, en una mitjana de 8 anys trobem un matollar ben desenvolupat amb una bona diversitat d’espècies i grau de cobertura. En canvi, per tal d’arribar a un estat de la successió vegetal on trobem un bosc és necessari que existeixin comunitats arbòries a prop per tal de que arribin individus al matollar desenvolupat. Cal aleshores treballar en l’educació de la població i en la cerca d’alternatives a la gestió forestal vigent, donant èmfasi en la valoració econòmica dels ecosistemes en bon estat i facilitant que aquest bon estat proporcioni beneficis a la població local. Per això cal generar una infraestructura per atraure un turisme rural respectuós amb el medi al mateix temps que es duen altres iniciatives com la implantació de centrals de biomassa als pobles que puguin proporcionar calefacció o aigua calenta. Generant llocs de feina i estalvis a la població d’una zona on l’economia encara es basa potencialment en la ramaderia. Al mateix temps l’esforç monetari dedicat a les plantacions ha de dedicar-se a generar espais al territori amb espècies autòctones com el roure en aquells matollars que presentin condicions adients per a recuperar el bosc.

Influence of hip-flexion angle on hamstrings isokinetic activity in sprinters.

CONTEXT: Hamstrings strains are common and debilitating injuries in many sports. Most hamstrings exercises are performed at an inadequately low hip-flexion angle because this angle surpasses 70° at the end of the sprinting leg's swing phase, when most injuries occur. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of various hip-flexion angles on peak torques of knee flexors in isometric, concentric, and eccentric contractions and on the hamstrings-to-quadriceps ratio. DESIGN: Descriptive laboratory study. SETTING: Research laboratory. Patients and Other Participants: Ten national-level sprinters (5 men, 5 women; age = 21.2 ± 3.6 years, height = 175 ± 6 cm, mass = 63.8 ± 9.9 kg). Intervention(s): For each hip position (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90° of flexion), participants used the right leg to perform (1) 5 seconds of maximal isometric hamstrings contraction at 45° of knee flexion, (2) 5 maximal concentric knee flexion-extensions at 60° per second, (3) 5 maximal eccentric knee flexion-extensions at 60° per second, and (4) 5 maximal eccentric knee flexionextensions at 150° per second. Main Outcome Measure(s): Hamstrings and quadriceps peak torque, hamstrings-to-quadriceps ratio, lateral and medial hamstrings root mean square. RESULTS: We found no difference in quadriceps peak torque for any condition across all hip-flexion angles, whereas hamstrings peak torque was lower at 0° of hip flexion than at any other angle (P < .001) and greater at 90° of hip flexion than at 30° and 60° (P < .05), especially in eccentric conditions. As hip flexion increased, the hamstrings-to-quadriceps ratio increased. No difference in lateral or medial hamstrings root mean square was found for any condition across all hip-flexion angles (P > .05). CONCLUSIONS: Hip-flexion angle influenced hamstrings peak torque in all muscular contraction types; as hip flexion increased, hamstrings peak torque increased. Researchers should investigate further whether an eccentric resistance training program at sprint-specific hip-flexion angles (70° to 80°) could help prevent hamstrings injuries in sprinters. Moreover, hamstrings-to-quadriceps ratio assessment should be standardized at 80° of hip flexion.

Anàlisi i disseny d'un entorn multimèdia per a la llar

En l'actualitat les nostres llars s'estan convertint cada cop més, gràcies a la tecnologia actual i capacitat de còmput dels ordinadors, en un entorn multimèdia. Aquest treball analitza les necessitats d'una llar multimèdia i en proposa una solució utilitzant un servidor que emmagatzema els fitxers multimèdia i realitza streaming amb els clients. Aquests últims, no faran importants feines de còmput, d'aquesta manera la solució empleada és de baix cost. S'ha fet una implementació amb dispositius reals i s'ha comprovat que es compleixen els objectius.

Tree-based message diffusion for managing replicated data in unreliable and resource-constrained peer-to-peer environment

Abstract This thesis proposes a set of adaptive broadcast solutions and an adaptive data replication solution to support the deployment of P2P applications. P2P applications are an emerging type of distributed applications that are running on top of P2P networks. Typical P2P applications are video streaming, file sharing, etc. While interesting because they are fully distributed, P2P applications suffer from several deployment problems, due to the nature of the environment on which they perform. Indeed, defining an application on top of a P2P network often means defining an application where peers contribute resources in exchange for their ability to use the P2P application. For example, in P2P file sharing application, while the user is downloading some file, the P2P application is in parallel serving that file to other users. Such peers could have limited hardware resources, e.g., CPU, bandwidth and memory or the end-user could decide to limit the resources it dedicates to the P2P application a priori. In addition, a P2P network is typically emerged into an unreliable environment, where communication links and processes are subject to message losses and crashes, respectively. To support P2P applications, this thesis proposes a set of services that address some underlying constraints related to the nature of P2P networks. The proposed services include a set of adaptive broadcast solutions and an adaptive data replication solution that can be used as the basis of several P2P applications. Our data replication solution permits to increase availability and to reduce the communication overhead. The broadcast solutions aim, at providing a communication substrate encapsulating one of the key communication paradigms used by P2P applications: broadcast. Our broadcast solutions typically aim at offering reliability and scalability to some upper layer, be it an end-to-end P2P application or another system-level layer, such as a data replication layer. Our contributions are organized in a protocol stack made of three layers. In each layer, we propose a set of adaptive protocols that address specific constraints imposed by the environment. Each protocol is evaluated through a set of simulations. The adaptiveness aspect of our solutions relies on the fact that they take into account the constraints of the underlying system in a proactive manner. To model these constraints, we define an environment approximation algorithm allowing us to obtain an approximated view about the system or part of it. This approximated view includes the topology and the components reliability expressed in probabilistic terms. To adapt to the underlying system constraints, the proposed broadcast solutions route messages through tree overlays permitting to maximize the broadcast reliability. Here, the broadcast reliability is expressed as a function of the selected paths reliability and of the use of available resources. These resources are modeled in terms of quotas of messages translating the receiving and sending capacities at each node. To allow a deployment in a large-scale system, we take into account the available memory at processes by limiting the view they have to maintain about the system. Using this partial view, we propose three scalable broadcast algorithms, which are based on a propagation overlay that tends to the global tree overlay and adapts to some constraints of the underlying system. At a higher level, this thesis also proposes a data replication solution that is adaptive both in terms of replica placement and in terms of request routing. At the routing level, this solution takes the unreliability of the environment into account, in order to maximize reliable delivery of requests. At the replica placement level, the dynamically changing origin and frequency of read/write requests are analyzed, in order to define a set of replica that minimizes communication cost.

Simple finite field nuclear relaxation method for calculating vibrational contribution to degenerate four-wave mixing

A simple extended finite field nuclear relaxation procedure for calculating vibrational contributions to degenerate four-wave mixing (also known as the intensity-dependent refractive index) is presented. As a by-product one also obtains the static vibrationally averaged linear polarizability, as well as the first and second hyperpolarizability. The methodology is validated by illustrative calculations on the water molecule. Further possible extensions are suggested

Variational calculation of vibrational linear and nonlinear optical properties

A variational approach for reliably calculating vibrational linear and nonlinear optical properties of molecules with large electrical and/or mechanical anharmonicity is introduced. This approach utilizes a self-consistent solution of the vibrational Schrödinger equation for the complete field-dependent potential-energy surface and, then, adds higher-level vibrational correlation corrections as desired. An initial application is made to static properties for three molecules of widely varying anharmonicity using the lowest-level vibrational correlation treatment (i.e., vibrational Møller-Plesset perturbation theory). Our results indicate when the conventional Bishop-Kirtman perturbation method can be expected to break down and when high-level vibrational correlation methods are likely to be required. Future improvements and extensions are discussed

Direct and indirect subsidies in markets with system goods in the presence of externalities. Preliminary version

This paper derives a model of markets with system goods and two technological standards. An established standard incurs lower unit production costs but causes a negative externality. The paper derives the conditions for policy intervention and compares the effect of direct and indirect cost-reducing subsidies in two markets with system goods in the presence of externalities. If consumers are committed to the technology by purchasing one of the components, direct subsidies are preferable. For a medium-low cost difference between technological standards and a low externality cost it is optimal to provide a direct subsidy only to the first technology adopter. As the higher the externality cost raises, the more technology adopters should be provided with direct subsidies. This effect is robust in all extensions. In the absence of consumers commitment to a technological standard indirect and direct subsidies are both desirable. In this case, the subsidy to the first adopter is lower then the subsidy to the second adopter. Moreover, for the low cost difference between technological standards and low externality cost the fi rst fi rm chooses a superior standard without policy intervention. Finally, a perfect compatibility between components based on different technological standards enhances an advantage of indirect subsidies for medium-high externality cost and cost difference between technological standards. Journal of Economic Literature Classi fication Numbers: C72, D21, D40, H23, L13, L22, L51, O25, O33, O38. Keywords: Technological standards; complementary products; externalities; cost-reducing subsidies; compatibility.

Rational Partisan Theory with fiscal policy and an independent central bank

The empirical evidence testing the validity of the rational partisan theory (RPT) has been mixed. In this article, we argue that the inclusion of other macroeconomic policies and the presence of an independent central bank can partly contribute to explain this inconclusiveness. This article expands Alesina s (1987) RPT model to include an extra policy and an independent central bank. With these extensions, the implications of RPT are altered signi ficantly. In particular, when the central bank is more concerned about output than public spending (an assumption made by many papers in this literature), then the direct relationship between in flation and output derived in Alesina (1987) never holds. Keywords: central bank, conservativeness, political uncertainty. JEL Classi fication: E58, E63.

GENCODE: producing a reference annotation for ENCODE

Background: The GENCODE consortium was formed to identify and map all protein-coding genes within the ENCODE regions. This was achieved by a combination of initial manualannotation by the HAVANA team, experimental validation by the GENCODE consortium and a refinement of the annotation based on these experimental results.Results: The GENCODE gene features are divided into eight different categories of which onlythe first two (known and novel coding sequence) are confidently predicted to be protein-codinggenes. 5’ rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) and RT-PCR were used to experimentallyverify the initial annotation. Of the 420 coding loci tested, 229 RACE products have beensequenced. They supported 5’ extensions of 30 loci and new splice variants in 50 loci. In addition,46 loci without evidence for a coding sequence were validated, consisting of 31 novel and 15putative transcripts. We assessed the comprehensiveness of the GENCODE annotation byattempting to validate all the predicted exon boundaries outside the GENCODE annotation. Outof 1,215 tested in a subset of the ENCODE regions, 14 novel exon pairs were validated, only twoof them in intergenic regions.Conclusions: In total, 487 loci, of which 434 are coding, have been annotated as part of theGENCODE reference set available from the UCSC browser. Comparison of GENCODEannotation with RefSeq and ENSEMBL show only 40% of GENCODE exons are contained withinthe two sets, which is a reflection of the high number of alternative splice forms with uniqueexons annotated. Over 50% of coding loci have been experimentally verified by 5’ RACE forEGASP and the GENCODE collaboration is continuing to refine its annotation of 1% humangenome with the aid of experimental validation.

Les sinusites d'origine dentaire: diagnostic et prise en charge [Diagnosis and management of sinusitis of odontogenic origin]

Les sinusites maxillaires sont des infections fréquentes de la sphère ORL. On retrouve une étiologie dentaire dans environ 10% des cas. L'extension des infections dentaires dans le sinus maxillaire est possible en raison de la proximité des racines des dents postérieures avec le bas fond sinusien. Une source odontogène doit être suspectée chez les patients ayant une anamnèse de douleur ou d'infection dentaires, de soins dentaires récents et qui présentent une sinusite unilatérale prolongée ou résistant à un traitement conservateur habituel. Les infections d'origine dentaire possèdent une flore bactérienne mixte. Le diagnostic et la prise en charge nécessitent un bilan radiologique précis. Le traitement doit prendre en charge conjointement la cause dentaire et la sinusite. Un geste chirurgical peut être indiqué dans un deuxième temps afin de restaurer la fonction sinusienne. Maxillary sinusitis are common infections. A dental origin is found in about 10% of the cases. The roots of the posterior maxillary teeth are adjacent to the sinus floor. Extensions of dental infections are therefore possible to the sinus. An odontogenic source should be considered in patients with a history of dental pain or recent oral surgery and those with extended unilateral sinusitis or unilateral sinusitis resistant to conventional treatment. Maxillary sinusitis of dental origin are polymicrobial infections. Conventional radiographs and CT-scans are required for the diagnosis and proper management. Dental treatments to remove the underlying cause combined with oral antibiotics to treat the infection are required. Endoscopic or open surgery may be necessary to complete the treatment and restore adequate sinusal function.

Angle Parking on Iowa's Low Volume Primary Extentions in Small Towns, January 2003

On-street parking has been considered problematic by engineers for many years. In fact, numerous studies have concluded that diagonal or angle parking in particular is potentially more of a safety concern than parallel or no parking at all. It is a common position of many states, including Iowa, to discourage or completely prohibit angle parking on primary road extensions in urban areas. However, with the acceptance of “context sensitive design” and traffic calming techniques, policies for on-street parking are receiving re -consideration in many agencies including the FHWA. This study was undertaken to analyze operational and safety histories in the state of Iowa where various types of on-street parking have existed for many years, concentrating in particular on smaller communities. Specifically of interest was a comparison of diagonal parking locations to other types with regard to related crash histories. If possible, it was intended to develop guidelines to assist Iowa Department of Transportation designers in the consideration of parking requirements for road improvements through small communities. In this regard, several criteria were analyzed to determine possible contribution to crash history including road width, clearance to parked vehicles, traffic volumes, community population, and length of parking area. None of these factors, with the possible exception of population, displayed a clearly definable relationship to crash history. However, when average crash rates for various parking types were compared for non-intersection crashes, differences in rates between areas with diagonal parking and those with parallel parking were almost negligible. In fact, those observed rates were less than sample locations with no parking at all. These results seem to indicate that indeed there may exist no compelling justification for blanket prohibition of angle parking along Iowa’s primary extensions in all urban areas. Rather, a case-by-case investigation with each project design of the most applicable parking type would seem appropriate in smaller communities.

Distortion control for delay-sensitive sources

We investigate the problem of finding minimum-distortion policies for streaming delay-sensitive but distortion-tolerant data. We consider cross-layer approaches which exploit the coupling between presentation and transport layers. We make the natural assumption that the distortion function is convex and decreasing. We focus on a single source-destination pair and analytically find the optimum transmission policy when the transmission is done over an error-free channel. This optimum policy turns out to be independent of the exact form of the convex and decreasing distortion function. Then, for a packet-erasure channel, we analytically find the optimum open-loop transmission policy, which is also independent of the form of the convex distortion function. We then find computationally efficient closed-loop heuristic policies and show, through numerical evaluation, that they outperform the open-loop policy and have near optimal performance.

ClubADSL: When your neighbors are your friends

ADSL is becoming the standard form of residential and small-business broadband Internet access due to, primarily, its low deployment cost. These ADSL residential lines are often deployed with 802.11 Access Points (AP) that providewireless connectivity. Given the density of ADSL deployment, it is often possible for a residential wireless client to be in range of several other APs, belonging to neighbors, with ADSL connectivity. While the ADSL technology has showed evident limits in terms of capacity (with speeds ranging 1-10 Mbps), the short-range wireless communication can guarantee a muchhigher capacity (up to 20 Mbps). Furthermore, the ADSL links in the neighborhood are generally under-utilized, since ADSL subscribers do not connect 100% of the time. Therefore, it is possible for a wireless client to simultaneously connect to several APs in range and effectively aggregate their available ADSL bandwidth.In this paper, we introduce ClubADSL, a wireless client that can simultaneously connect to several APs in range on different frequencies and aggregate both their downlink and uplink capacity. ClubADSL is a software that runs locally on the client-side, and it requires neither modification to the existing Internet infrastructure, nor any hardware/protocol upgradesto the 802.11 local area network. We show the feasibility of ClubADSL in seamlessly transmitting TCP traffic, and validate its implementation both in controlled scenarios and with current applications over real ADSL lines. In particular we show that a ClubADSL client can greatly benefit from the aggregated download bandwidth in the case of server-client applications such as video streaming, but can also take advantage of the increased upload bandwidth greatly reducing download times with incentive-based P2P applications such as BitTorrent.

High-resolution seismic images of potentially seismogenic structures beneath the northwest Canterbury Plains, New Zealand

The transpressional boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates in the central South Island of New Zealand comprises the Alpine Fault and a broad region of distributed strain concentrated in the Southern Alps but encompassing regions further to the east, including the northwest Canterbury Plains. Low to moderate levels of seismicity (e. g., 2 > M 5 events since 1974 and 2 > M 4.0 in 2009) and Holocene sediments offset or disrupted along rare exposed active fault segments are evidence for ongoing tectonism in the northwest plains, the surface topography of which is remarkably flat and even. Because the geology underlying the late Quaternary alluvial fan deposits that carpet most of the plains is not established, the detailed tectonic evolution of this region and the potential for larger earthquakes is only poorly understood. To address these issues, we have processed and interpreted high-resolution (2.5 m subsurface sampling interval) seismic data acquired along lines strategically located relative to extensive rock exposures to the north, west, and southwest and rare exposures to the east. Geological information provided by these rock exposures offer important constraints on the interpretation of the seismic data. The processed seismic reflection sections image a variably thick layer of generally undisturbed younger (i.e., < 24 ka) Quaternary alluvial sediments unconformably overlying an older (> 59 ka) Quaternary sedimentary sequence that shows evidence of moderate faulting and folding during and subsequent to deposition. These Quaternary units are in unconformable contact with Late Cretaceous-Tertiary interbedded sedimentary and volcanic rocks that are highly faulted, folded, and tilted. The lowest imaged unit is largely reflection-free Permian Triassic basement rocks. Quaternary-age deformation has affected all the rocks underlying the younger alluvial sediments, and there is evidence for ongoing deformation. Eight primary and numerous secondary faults as well as a major anticlinal fold are revealed on the seismic sections. Folded sedimentary and volcanic units are observed in the hanging walls and footwalls of most faults. Five of the primary faults represent plausible extensions of mapped faults, three of which are active. The major anticlinal fold is the probable continuation of known active structure. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred on 4 September 2010 near the southeastern edge of our study area. This predominantly right-lateral strike-slip event and numerous aftershocks (ten with magnitudes >= 5 within one week of the main event) highlight the primary message of our paper: that the generally flat and topographically featureless Canterbury Plains is underlain by a network of active faults that have the potential to generate significant earthquakes.