Miniaturization of superconducting filters using Hilbert fractal curves

This work presents novel compact high-temperature superconductor microstrip resonators and filters based on the Hilbert space-filling fractal curve. Several Hilbert resonator configurations have been assessed by using a full-wave electromagnetic simulator and their miniaturization performance has been investigated, emphasizing the parameters which allow obtaining good tradeoff between compact size and losses. These resonators have proved to be useful for filter design. A four-pole 2.45-GHz quasi-elliptic filter and a four-pole 1.9-GHz Chebyshev filter have been realized by patterning 10 mm/spl times/10 mm Y/sub 2/Ba/sub 3/Cu/sub 7-/spl delta//O thin films on MgO substrates. Insertion losses of the order of 0.2 dB have been measured, showing good agreement with the simulations.     

Factors affecting hospital admission and recovery stay duration of in-patient motor victims in Spain

Hospital expenses are a major cost driver of healthcare systems in Europe, with motor injuries being the leading mechanism of hospitalizations. This paper investigates the injury characteristics which explain the hospitalization of victims of traffic accidents that took place in Spain. Using a motor insurance database with 16,081 observations a generalized Tobit regression model is applied to analyse the factors that influence both the likelihood of being admitted to hospital after a motor collision and the length of hospital stay in the event of admission. The consistency of Tobit estimates relies on the normality of perturbation terms. Here a semi-parametric regression model was fitted to test the consistency of estimates, concluding that a normal distribution of errors cannot be rejected. Among other results, it was found that older men with fractures and injuries located in the head and lower torso are more likely to be hospitalized after the collision, and that they also have a longer expected length of hospital recovery stay.     

Possible Ecological Role of Pseudopterosins G and P-U and SECO-Pseudopterosins J and K from the Gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae from Providencia Island (SW Caribbean) in Regulating Microbial Surface Communities

The gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae collected at Providencia Island (Colombia) has an unfouled surface, free of obvious algal and invertebrate growth. This gorgonian produces significant amounts of the glycosilated diterpenes pseudopterosins and seco-pseudopterosins (Ps and seco-Ps). Our previous experiments have shown activity of these compounds against eukaryotic (human cancer cell lines and Candida albicans) and prokaryotic cells (Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis). However, the potential role of pseudopterosins on the regulation of the fouling process is still under study. We evaluated the activity of these compounds against bacteria isolated from heavily fouled marine surfaces as an indicator of antifouling activity. Additionally, we assessed their activity against bacteria isolated from P. elisabethae to determine whether potentially they play a role in preventing surface bacterial colonization, thus impairing presumptively the establishment of further successional stages of fouling communities. Results showed that Ps and seco-Ps seem to modulate bacterial growth (controlling Gram-positive bacterial growth and inducing Gram-negative bacterial associations). We thus hypothesized that Ps and seco-Ps may play a role in controlling microbial fouling communities on the surface of this gorgonian. By using bTEFAP and FISH we showed that the most abundant bacteria present in the microbial communities associated with P. elisabethae are Gram-negative bacteria, with Proteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria the most representative. To evaluate whether Ps and seco-Ps have a direct effect on the structure of the bacterial community associated with P. elisabethae, we tested these compounds against culturable bacteria associated with the surface of P. elisabethae, finding remarkable selectivity against Gram-positive bacteria. The evidence presented here suggests that Ps and seco-Ps might have a role in the selection of organisms associated with the gorgonian surface and in the regulation of the associated bacterial community composition.     

Polyurethane-acrylate based films as humidity sensors

Fluorescence spectroscopy, together with a conventional gravimetric method, were employed to study the mechanism and kinetics of water diffusion in UV-cured polyurethane-acrylate based adhesive films doped with organic fluorescent sensors. The diffusion of water through the films followed Fick's law during almost the whole mass sorption curve. Whilst the fluorescence data showed that boundary conditions are more complex and Fickian behaviour is only observed after different periods, depending on the molar volume of the fluorescent probe and the adhesive composition. The influence of hydrophilic monomers is discussed. Good correlation between diffusion coefficients by both methods is obtained in the range where water uptake is diffusion controlled.

The fluorescence of the studied probes or labels in these films shows high sensitivity to humidity, good long-term stability and fast response time. Therefore, it appears that these doped films can be used as efficient humidity sensors.     

On the relation between Context and Sequence Unification

Both Sequence and Context Unification generalize the same problem: Word Unification. Besides that, Sequence Unification solves equations between unranked terms involving sequence variables, and seems to be appealing for information extraction in XML documents, program transformation, knowledge representation, and rule-based programming. It is decidable. Context Unification deals with the same problem for ranked terms involving context variables, and has applications in computational linguistics and program transformation. Its decidability is a long-standing open question.In this work we study a relation between these two problems. We introduce a variant (restriction) of Context Unification, called Left-Hole Context Unification (LHCU), to which Sequence Unification is P-reduced: We define a partial currying procedure to translate Sequence Unification problems into Left-Hole Context Unification problems, and prove the soundness of the translation. Furthermore, a precise characterization of the shape of the unifiers allows us to easily reduce Left-Hole Context Unification to (the decidable problem of) Word Unification with Regular Constraints, obtaining then a new decidability proof for Sequence Unification. Finally, we define an extension of Sequence Unification (ESU) and, closing the circle, prove the inter-P-reducibility of LHCU and ESU.     

Importance-driven focus of attention

This paper introduces a concept for automatic focusing on features within a volumetric data set. The user selects a focus, i.e., object of interest, from a set of pre-defined features. Our system automatically determines the most expressive view on this feature. A characteristic viewpoint is estimated by a novel information-theoretic framework which is based on the mutual information measure. Viewpoints change smoothly by switching the focus from one feature to another one. This mechanism is controlled by changes in the importance distribution among features in the volume. The highest importance is assigned to the feature in focus. Apart from viewpoint selection, the focusing mechanism also steers visual emphasis by assigning a visually more prominent representation. To allow a clear view on features that are normally occluded by other parts of the volume, the focusing for example incorporates cut-away views.     

Improving Multipath Radiosity with Bundles of Parallel Lines

Monte Carlo approaches use random lines to distribute the light power in the scene but the cost of creating a set of random single lines is very costly. In this paper, we present several software and hardware techniques in order to reduce the computational cost of the generation of random single lines by using bundles of parallel lines. The bundle of parallel lines is simulated with a general purpose polygon filling algorithm, like the painter's algorithm. We also present two graphics hardware implementations. The first approach uses two depth buffers in order to represent stochastically a bundle of parallel global lines. The second one uses multiple depth buffers and the aim is to exploit coherence between projection planes for each iteration. All algorithms were implemented with the multipath method.     

Modelling residuals dependence in dynamic life tables: A geostatistical approach

The problem of modelling dynamic mortality tables is considered. In this context, the influence of age on data graduation needs to be properly assessed through a dynamic model, as mortality progresses over the years. After detrending the raw data, the residuals dependence structure is analysed, by considering them as a realisation of a homogeneous Gaussian random field defined on R×R. This setting allows for the implementation of geostatistical techniques for the estimation of the dependence and further interpolation in the domain of interest. In particular, a complex form of interaction between age and time is considered, by taking into account a zonally anisotropic component embedded into a nonseparable covariance structure. The estimated structure is then used for prediction of mortality rates, and goodness-of-fit testing is performed through some cross-validation techniques. Comments on validity and interpretation of the results are given.     

Informational aesthetics measures.

The Birkhoff aesthetic measure of an object is the ratio between order and complexity. Informational aesthetics describes the interpretation of this measure from an information-theoretic perspective. From these ideas, the authors define a set of ratios based on information theory and Kolmogorov complexity that can help to quantify the aesthetic experience.