286 research outputs found
Young men's suicidal behavior, depression, crime, and substance use risks linked to childhood teasing
No full textA Bulk Queueing System Under N-Policy With Bilevel Service Delay Discipline and Start-Up Time
No full textThe author studies the queueing process in a single-server, bulk arrival and batch service queueing system with a compound Poisson input, bilevel service delay discipline, start-up time, and a fixed accumulation level with control operating policy. It is assumed that when the queue length falls below a predefined level r (≥ 1), the system, with server capacity Λ, immediately stops service until the queue length reaches or exceeds the second predefined accumulation level N(≥ r). Two cases, with N ≦ R and N ≥ R, are studied. The author finds explicitly the probability generating function of the stationary distribution of the queueing process and gives numerical examples
Immunocompetence in Hydra. Epithelial cells recognize self-nonself and react against it
No full textThe evolution of effective immunologic defense mechanisms in multicellular organisms involves the ability of host cells to distinguish betweeen self and nonself and to react appropriately to eliminate foreign tissue. By producing interspecies grafts we have obtained evidence that immunorecognition followed by incompatibility reactions occur in Hydra. Our results demonstrate that epithelial cells of Hydra recognize and phagocytose foreign hydra cells, indicating that they are the effector cells in the incompatibility reactions. This observation is consistent with the idea that immunocompetence appeared early in the evolution of multicellular organisms
Structural feasibility of the Rotating Tower Dubai
No full textThe main objective of this graduation project was designing a feasible load bearing structure for the Rotating Tower, within the set boundary conditions given by the architectural design. The concept “Rotating Tower” is developed by the Italian architect David Fisher. The main idea behind this concept is: the building of the future. Mr. Fisher translated this idea into the design of the Rotating Tower: a tower with separate rotating floors. The tower consists of multiple (non-circular) floors that can rotate independent around a common axis. Since all floors rotate independent, the building can (theoretically) transform into every shape imaginable. The original design of the Rotating Tower (designed for target city Dubai) has a height of approximately 435 meter. To get a more detailed view of previous designed load bearing structures 3 reference project with comparable height were analysed. Different load cases were analysed and used in the calculation for the structure: dead load, live load, wind load and earthquake load. In this analysis local conditions for Dubai are taken into account. The current design of the stabilizing core for the Rotating Tower does not meet any of the requirements given in the codes. Therefore different solutions for stiffening and strengthening the structure were investigated. Most striking solutions are: higher concrete grade, thicker core, activating steel structure of the storeys and active systems. With the results of the optimization analysis 5 different feasible designs were made for the stability structure of the Rotating Tower. All these designs have one or more adaptations from the architects design. 3 of the 5 alternative designs are considered to be the most relevant for the project and are presented as “final designs”. These 3 final designs are worked out to a more detailed level. The main conclusion of this thesis report covers the structural feasibility of the project. For several designs it is shown that the project is feasible from a structural point of view but not without adapting the architectural design. All alternatives contain one or more adaptations to the architectural design, but keep the main concept of the project unchanged.Structural and Building EngineeringDesign and ConstructionCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Assessment of child problem behaviors by multiple informants: a longitudinal study from preschool to school entry
No full textPositioning for Trade Liberalization: Structure of Earnings, Comparative and Competitive Advantage of Agricultural Households in the United States and Canada
No full textConsumer/Household Economics, International Relations/Trade,
Using and evaluating CASE tools : from software engineering to phenomenology
No full textCASE (Computer-Aided Systems Engineering) is a recent addition to the long line of
"silver bullets" that promise to transform information systems development, delivering
new levels of quality and productivity. CASE is particularly intriguing because
information systems (IS) practitioners spend their working lives applying information
technology (IT) to other people's work, and now they are applying it to themselves.
CASE research to date has been dominated by accounts of tool development,
normative writings (for example practitioner success stories) and surveys recording
IT specialists' perceptions. There have been very few in-depth studies of tool use,
and very few attempts to quantify benefits, therefore the essence of the CASE process
remains largely unexplored, and the views of stakeholders other than the IT specialists
have yet to be heard.
The research presented here addresses these concerns by adopting a hybrid research
approach combining action research, grounded theory and phenoinenology and using
both qualitative and quantitative data in order to tell the story of a system developer's
experience in using CASE tools in three information systems projects for a major UK
car manufacturer over a four year period. The author was the lead developer on all
three projects. Action research is a learning process, the researcher is an explorer.
At the start of this project it was assumed that the tools would be the focus of the
work. As the research progressed it became evident that the tools were but part of
a richer organisational context in which culture, politics, history, external initiatives
and cognitive limitations played important roles. The author continued to record
experiences and impressions of tool use in the project diary together with quality and
productivity metrics. But the diary also became home to a story of organisational
developments that had not originally been foreseen.
The principal contribution made by the work is to identity the narrow positivistic
nature of CASE knowledge, and to show via the research stories the overwhelming
importance of organisational context to systems development success and how the
exploration of context is poorly supported by the tools. Sixteen further contributions
are listed in the Conclusions to the thesis, including a major extension to Wynekoop
and Conger's CASE research taxonomy, an identification of the potentially
misleading nature of quantitative IS assessment and further evidence of the limitations
of the "scientific" approach to systems development.
The thesis is completed by two proposals for further work. The first seeks to
advance IS theory by developing further a number of emerging process models of IS
development. The second seeks to advance IS practice by asking the question "How
can CASE tools be used to stimulate awareness and debate about the effects of
organisational context?", and outlines a programme of research in this area
Book Reviews
No full textBook Review 1Book Title: Mammal EcologyBook Author: M.J. DelanyBlackie & Son, Glasgow, 1982. 162 pp.Book Review 2Book Title: Social Behaviour in MammalsBook Author: Trevor B. PooleBlackie, Glasgow. 248 pp.Book Review 3Book Title: Social Odours in Mammals. Volume 1Book Authors: Edited by Richard E. Brown & David W. MacdonaldOxford University Press, Oxford, 1985. 556 pp.Book Review 4Book Title: Biology of CommunicationBook Authors: D. Brian Lewis & D. Michael GowerBlackie & Son, Glasgow. 239 pp.Book Review 5Book Title: Animal OsmoregulationBook Authors: J. Clifford Rankin & John A. DavenportBlackie & Son. 202 pp.Book Review 6Book Title: Physiological Strategies in Avian BiologyBook Authors: J.G. Phillips, P.J. Butler & P.J. SharpBlackie Publishing Corporation, Glasgow, 1985. 218 pp.Book Review 7Book Title: Vocal Communication in BirdsBook Author: Clive K. CatchpoleEdward Arnold (Publishers), London, 1979. 68 pp. & 38 diagrams.Book Review 8Book Title: An introduction to coastal ecologyBook Author: P.J.S. Boaden & R. SeedBlackie and Son (Ltd). 218 pp.Book Review 9Book Title: Biology of Reptiles: An Ecological ApproachBook Author: Ian F. SpellerbergBlackie & Son Ltd., Glasgow & London, 1982. 158 pp
On price inflation
No full textThis thesis seeks to analyse price inflation under oligopoly capitalism. Its central argument is that under oligopoly capitalism, price inflation is a structural phenomenon. For a greater understanding of that phenomenon, the adoption of the inter-industrial approach for its analysis seems essential. According to this approach, price inflation can be initiated in a single industry or in an industry group. The initiating factor may be an increase in the mark-up, an increase in the money wage rate or an increase in the foreign currency price of an imported input. It can also be initiated by devaluation. The input-output matrix, the core of the economic system, is the key to the transmission of inflationary impulses (in the form of higher unit cost) from one industry to another. Real wage resistance, rigid mark-up resistance, and rigid foreign resistance do no more than perpetuate or worsen the inflationary experience. The inflationary process itself has a dual role to play. It acts as a mechanism for shifting income distribution in favour of one section of the society against another and as a mechanism for changing the price structure.The author argues that the abandonment of the macroeconomic approach to the analysis of price inflation and its replacement by the inter-industrial approach is the first step for serious analysis of that structural phenomenon
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