Transferring QTL technology to the pig breeding industry (PigQTech) - a demonstration project

The aim of the project has been to demonstrate how the farm animal breeding industry can utilise gene mapping technology to accelerate genetic improvement. Previous theoretical studies had suggested that the use of marker assisted selection could potentially increase the annual improvement for quantitative traits like backfat with about 10% and for more difficult traits such as meat quality and reproduction by as much as 40-60% compared with existing technology. The work has comprised two major tasks: 1. Commercially relevant populations have been screened for segregation at QTLs identified in experimental populations. The aim has been to establish optimal strategies for QTL detection in commercial pig populations and the extent to which QTLs explaining major phenotypic differences between divergent lines used in experimental studies also explain quantitative variation within commercial lines. The results are important for specifying future strategies for finding economically valuable QTLs. 2. Marker assisted backcrossing has been used to demonstrate how a QTL allele can be introgressed from one breed to another. The work has focused on the major fatness QTL on pig chromosome 4 previously identified in a wild pig/Large White intercross. The end result was not designed to be a commercially viable product in its own right, but the process has validated a number of points of major importance for the exploitation of QTLs in livestock.

Descobriment de serveis en xarxes ad-hoc: JADE Bluetooth Discovery Middleware

En aquest projecte s'ha dissenyat i implementat un nou Discovery Middleware per a la plataforma d'agents mòbils JADE. Aquest DM col·laborarà amb el Directory Facilitator per tal d'oferir als agents un servei transparent que els permetrà descobrir serveis en plataformes remotes que siguin accessibles mitjançant xarxes ad-hoc basades en la tecnologia Bluetooth.

QoS support in satellite and wireless networks: study under the network simulator (NS-2)

Aquest projecte es basa en l'estudi de l'oferiment de qualitat de servei en xarxes wireless i satel·litals. Per això l'estudi de les tècniques de cross-layer i del IEEE 802.11e ha sigut el punt clau per al desenvolupament teòric d’aquest estudi. Usant el simulador de xarxes network simulator, a la part de simulacions es plantegen tres situacions: l'estudi de la xarxa satel·lital, l'estudi del mètode d'accés HCCA i la interconnexió de la xarxa satel·lital amb la wireless. Encara que aquest últim punt, incomplet en aquest projecte, ha de ser la continuació per a futures investigacions.

Desfassador banda dual basat en híbrid multibanda per aplicacions wireless

El primer objectiu del projecte és l’estudi i disseny d’un desfassador bi – banda reconfigurable per integrar en sistemes d’antenes intel·ligents i amb aplicació a sistemes dual band WLAN operant en els marges freqüencials 2.4 - 2.5 GHz i 5.15 – 5.35GHz. El desfassador que es proposa realitzar està basat en un acoblador híbrid multibanda, diplexors i circuits reconfigurables commutats amb díodes PIN. El segon objectiu del projecte és l’aprenentatge de la metodologia de disseny de circuits d’RF i més concretament les següents etapes: estudi i disseny teòric (analític), simulació circuital (ADS), simulació electromagnètica (Momentum), cosimulació circuital-electromagnètica i fabricació, així com les diferents interacions i mecanismes d’optimització entre aquestes etapes.

Análisis y diseño de filtros apilados basados en resonadores acústicos

Durant els últims anys la demanda de filtres pas banda de ràdio freqüència, de reduïdes dimensions, lleugers i d'elevades prestacions destinats a sistemes de comunicacions inalàmbriques s'ha incrementat de forma significativa. Aquests sistemes principalment són els sistemes de telefonia mòbil de tercera generació UMTS y el sistema de navegació GPS. Els filtres actuals, basats en ressonadors SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave), tenen unes dimensions reduïdes però estan limitats en freqüència (3 GHz) i la seva tecnologia no és compatible amb les tecnologies estàndards de circuits integrats. Per aquestes raons s'espera que els filtres basats en ressonadors BAW (Bulk Acoustic Wave) substitueixin als SAW. Els dos tenen dimensions similars, però els filtres BAW poden funcionar a freqüències superiors a 3 GHz, poden treballar amb nivells de potència majors, i és important destacar el fet que la seva tecnologia és compatible amb les tecnologies estàndards de circuits integrats. La investigació en l'àmbit dels filtres BAW s'ha centrat en millorar els processos tecnològics i la qualitat dels materials, però s'ha treballat poc en l'adaptació de les tècniques sistemàtiques de disseny de filtres a les particularitats d'aquesta tecnologia, per tant el principal objectiu d'aquest treball és presentar mètodes sistemàtics per al disseny de filtres BAW, centrant-se en l'estudi d’estructures apilades.

ZigBee aplicado a la transmisión de datos de sensores biomédicos

Pensado en un ámbito de tecnología médica, el propósito principal es el de realizar un seguido de medidas en diferentes partes del cuerpo para establecer unos valores máximos que nos permitan detectar cuando un paciente empieza a padecer estrés. Para ello se necesita un proceso de medición y otro de transmisión de los datos. Es aquí donde aparece el trabajo realizado en el proyecto. “ZigBee aplicado a la transmisión de datos de sensores biomédicos” está pensado para realizar la tarea de transmisión de los datos desde que el sensor realiza la medida hasta que los datos son monitorizados y almacenados. En la memoria del proyecto podremos encontrar el estudio realizado al medio de transmisión inalámbrico utilizado (ZigBee), el análisis del kit eZ430-RF2500 compatible con el medio, y finalmente la implementación del proyecto. Todo este trabajo finalizará con la recepción satisfactoria de los datos medidos por nuestro sensor biomédico (oxímetro) en el aplicativo personal programado con Visual Basic.

Why is it so Hard to Value Intangibles? Evidence from Investments in High-Technology Start-Ups

The paper uses a range of primary-source empirical evidence to address the question: ‘why is it to hard to value intangible assets?’ The setting is venture capital investment in high technology companies. While the investors are risk specialists and financial experts, the entrepreneurs are more knowledgeable about product innovation. Thus the context lends itself to analysis within a principal-agent framework, in which information asymmetry may give rise to adverse selection, pre-contract, and moral hazard, post-contract. We examine how the investor might attenuate such problems and attach a value to such high-tech investments in what are often merely intangible assets, through expert due diligence, monitoring and control. Qualitative evidence is used to qualify the more clear cut picture provided by a principal-agent approach to a more mixed picture in which the ‘art and science’ of investment appraisal are utilised by both parties alike

Firms in Scottish High Technology Clusters: software, life sciences, microelectronics, optoelectronics and digital media – preliminary evidence and analysis on firm size, growth and optimality

This paper reports on: (a) new primary source evidence on; and (b) statistical and econometric analysis of high technology clusters in Scotland. It focuses on the following sectors: software, life sciences, microelectronics, optoelectronics, and digital media. Evidence on a postal and e-mailed questionnaire is presented and discussed under the headings of: performance, resources, collaboration & cooperation, embeddedness, and innovation. The sampled firms are characterised as being small (viz. micro-firms and SMEs), knowledge intensive (largely graduate staff), research intensive (mean spend on R&D GBP 842k), and internationalised (mainly selling to markets beyond Europe). Preliminary statistical evidence is presented on Gibrat’s Law (independence of growth and size) and the Schumpeterian Hypothesis (scale economies in R&D). Estimates suggest a short-run equilibrium size of just 100 employees, but a long-run equilibrium size of 1000 employees. Further, to achieve the Schumpeterian effect (of marked scale economies in R&D), estimates suggest that firms have to grow to very much larger sizes of beyond 3,000 employees. We argue that the principal way of achieving the latter scale may need to be by takeovers and mergers, rather than by internally driven growth.

Technology shocks and aggregate fluctuations in an estimated hybrid RBC model

This paper contributes to the on-going empirical debate regarding the role of the RBC model and in particular of technology shocks in explaining aggregate fluctuations. To this end we estimate the model’s posterior density using Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) methods. Within this framework we extend Ireland’s (2001, 2004) hybrid estimation approach to allow for a vector autoregressive moving average (VARMA) process to describe the movements and co-movements of the model’s errors not explained by the basic RBC model. The results of marginal likelihood ratio tests reveal that the more general model of the errors significantly improves the model’s fit relative to the VAR and AR alternatives. Moreover, despite setting the RBC model a more difficult task under the VARMA specification, our analysis, based on forecast error and spectral decompositions, suggests that the RBC model is still capable of explaining a significant fraction of the observed variation in macroeconomic aggregates in the post-war U.S. economy.

Using Effluent Charges in Promoting Investment in Water Pollution Control Technology: A Model of Coordination Failure among Firms

Untreated wastewater being directly discharged into rivers is a very harmful environmental hazard that needs to be tackled urgently in many countries. In order to safeguard the river ecosystem and reduce water pollution, it is important to have an effluent charge policy that promotes the investment of wastewater treatment technology by domestic firms. This paper considers the strategic interaction between the government and the domestic firms regarding the investment in the wastewater treatment technology and the design of optimal e­ffluent charge policy that should be implemented. In this model, the higher is the proportion of non-investing firms, the higher would be the probability of having to incur an e­ffluent charge and the higher would be that charge. On one hand the government needs to impose a sufficiently strict policy to ensure that firms have strong incentive to invest. On the other hand, it cannot be too strict that it drives out firms which cannot afford to invest in such expensive technology. The paper analyses the factors that affect the probability of investment in this technology. It also explains the difficulty of imposing a strict environment policy in countries that have too many small firms which cannot afford to invest unless subsidised.

Motion analysis in terms of wireless video capsule endoscopy

El treball presentat suposa una visió general de l'"Endoscopia amb Càpsula de Vídeo Wireless" i la inspecció de sequències de contraccions intestinals amb les últimes tecnologies de visió per computador. Després de la observació preliminar dels fonaments mèdics requerits, la aplicació de visió per computador es presenta en aquestos termes. En essència, aquest treball proveïx una exhaustiva selecció, descripció i avaluació de cert conjunt de mètodes de processament d'imatges respecte a l'anàlisi de moviment, en el entorn de seqüències d'imatges preses amb una càpsula endoscòpica. Finalment, es presenta una aplicació de software per configurar i emprar de forma ràpida i fàcil un entorn experimental.

Extending contingency: the impact of strategy, technology, size and business environment on the organisational form of small Chinese firms

This paper is inspired by articles in the last decade or so that have argued for more attention to theory, and to empirical analysis, within the well-known, and long-lasting, contingency framework for explaining the organisational form of the firm. Its contribution is to extend contingency analysis in three ways: (a) by empirically testing it, using explicit econometric modelling (rather than case study evidence) involving estimation by ordered probit analysis; (b) by extending its scope from large firms to SMEs; (c) by extending its applications from Western economic contexts, to an emerging economy context, using field work evidence from China. It calibrates organizational form in a new way, as an ordinal dependent variable, and also utilises new measures of familiar contingency factors from the literature (i.e. Environment, Strategy, Size and Technology) as the independent variables. An ordered probit model of contingency was constructed, and estimated by maximum likelihood, using a cross section of 83 private Chinese firms. The probit was found to be a good fit to the data, and displayed significant coefficients with plausible interpretations for key variables under all the four categories of contingency analysis, namely Environment, Strategy, Size and Technology. Thus we have generalised the contingency model, in terms of specification, interpretation and applications area.