Functional Disambiguation Based on Syntactic Structures

This article presents a disambiguation method which diminishesthe functional combinations of the words of a sentence takinginto account the context in which they appear. This processis built in two phases: the first phase is based on the localsyntactic structures of the Spanish language and reaches anaverage yield of 87%. The second one is supported by syntactictree representation and pushes the results up to an approximatehigh end of 96%. This process constitutes the starting pointtowards an automated syntactic analysis.     

Evaluation of correspondence errors for stereo

The computation of a scalar correspondence error is the fundamental step in most stereo correspondence algorithms. The quality of the results obtained by the reconstruction algorithm directly depends on the characteristics of such error. We have developed a procedure to evaluate different methods proposed for the computation of the correspondence error. The evaluation is based on exploring the shape of the error surface generated and testing it for uniqueness, isolation and compatibility. The scheme presented makes it possible to recognise the known characteristics of the tested methods for the computation of a correspondence error from the results of the evaluations. Our results show that, for the tested scenes, the evaluation scheme allows us to identify the most appropriate method to compute the correspondence error.     

RTSVC: Real‐time system for visual control of robots

This article presents an image processing system that can work in hard real‐time. Compared with systems that use the traditional multiprocessor architecture approach, this computer system takes advantage on recent technological advances and it is designed to work with a single processor PC under RTLinux. Its programming environment is similar to C programming language and it offers a friendly graphical user interface. The performance of the system is illustrated by means of experiments applied to visual guidance of mobile robots via velocity fields using a fixed high‐speed camera. The experiments were carried out with a strict sampling frequency of 100 Hz. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 18, 251–256, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).     

Acid-Catalyzed Homogeneous Esterification Reaction for Biodiesel Production from Palm Fatty Acids

This work deals with esterification of palm fatty acids to produce biodiesel in a batch reactor, using homogeneous acid catalysts, evaluating the effect of the alcohol used, presence of water, type and concentration of catalysts. Methanesulfonic and sulfuric acid were the best catalysts. Reaction with methanol showed greater yields. It was showed very clearly that the presence of water in the reaction medium showed a negative effect in the reaction velocity. Kinetic parameters were estimated and molecular modeling was performed. Protonation of the carboxylic moiety of the fatty acid were defined as rate determinant step for the reaction.     

Sources of growth and competitiveness of local tourist production systems: an application to Italy (1991–2001)

Local development can assume many forms, depending on the environmental characteristics of places and the way they evolve historically. Tourist resorts are concentrated on space, forming a well-defined geography of local productive systems which show very different growth rates. The aim of this paper is to establish a geography of local tourist production systems in Italy, and to explore their sources of growth and competitiveness. Results suggest that higher levels of growth are not based on natural endowments but on localization economies, especially on the presence of all the phases of a “tourist filière”, a chain of economic activities directly related to tourism production, in the local production system.     

Mineral content in legumes and nuts: contribution to the Spanish dietary intake

We evaluated the levels of essential elements as Cu, Cr, Fe and Zn, and toxic elements as Al, Ni, Pb and Cd in a total of 40 samples of different legumes and 56 samples of different nuts, that are widely consumed in Spain. These elements were determined in the samples mineralized with HNO(3) and V(2)O(5), using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) as the analytical technique. Reliability of the procedure was checked by analysis of a certified reference material. No matrix effects were observed and aqueous standard solutions were used for calibration. In legumes, the levels ranged from 1.5-5.0 microg Cu/g, 0.05-0.60 microg Cr/g, 18.8-82.4 microg Fe/g, 32.6-70.2 microg Zn/g, 2.7-45.8 microg Al/g, 0.02-0.35 microg Ni/g, 0.32-0.70 microg Pb/g and not detectable-0.018 microg Cd/g. In nuts, the levels ranged from 4.0-25.6 microg Cu/g, 0.25-1.05 microg Cr/g, 7.3-75.6 microg Fe/g, 25.6-69.0 microg Zn/g, 1.2-20.1 microg Al/g, 0.10-0.64 microg Ni/g, 0.14-0.39 microg Pb/g, and not detectable-0.018 microg Cd/g. A direct statistical correlation between Cu-Cr, Zn-Al and Cr-Ni (P<0.05), and Al-Pb (P<0.001), has been found. The growing popularity of these products in recent years on the basis of its nutritional properties and beneficial effects, requires additional data and a periodical control. In addition, the present findings are of potential use to food composition tables.     

Cournot oligopolistic competition in spatially separated markets: The Stackelberg equilibrium

Consider a two-stage non-cooperative Cournot game with location choice involving r firms. There are n spatially separated markets located at the vertices of a network. Each firm, first selects the location of a facility and then selects the quantities to supply to the markets in order to maximize its profit. Non-zero conjectural variation at the second stage in the model by Sarkar et al. (1997) is studied. When the demand in each market is sufficiently large, equilibrium in the quantities offered by each firm in the markets exists. Furthermore, each firm chooses to locate its facility at the vertices.Partially financed by Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spain) and FEDER, grant BFM2002-04525-C02-01.Received: August 2002 / Accepted: May 2003     

The effect of parboiled rice on glycemia in Wistar rats

Starch is an important energy source and can represent more than 60% of the calories of the human diet. The starch fraction resistant to enzymatic digestion is called resistant starch. When rice is parboiled, the starch retrogrades with the formation of type 3-resistant starch (retrograded), which presents beneficial effects on the health, since it acts as a prebiotic. In the present study three types of rice were selected, with high, medium and low amylose contents, with the objective of evaluating the effects of conventional and parboiled rice on glycemia in Wistar rats. The samples with high and medium amylose contents were soaked for 6 h at 65 degrees C, and the low amylose sample for 7 h at 70 degrees C. The samples were subsequently autoclaved for 10 minutes at 0.7kgf x cm(-2). Six male Wistar rats were used for each treatment. Seven experimental diets were elaborated, formulated according to AIN-93M, the control diet and diets substituting the carbohydrate source with conventional or parboiled rice. Resistant starch was determined in the diets and glycemia monitored using glucose paper strips, the sample being blood obtained from the distal part of the rat's tail. For the glycemic curve, glycemia was measured in the fasting state and during 90 minutes post-prandial. The results indicated there were no significant differences between the diets formulated with high, medium and low amylose, parboiled or conventionally prepared, with respect to fasting or post-prandial glycemia in Wistar rats.