The Mahābhārata and Greco-Roman sources: mapping out the destruction plan

In previous publications (The Mahābhārata and Greek Mythology, New Delhi, 2014, for example) I have argued that the Mahābhārata poets worked from a Greco-Roman “repertory” or “archive” in which the Iliad’s and the Greek Epic Cycle’s (the Cypria in particular) description of the Theban and the Trojan wars gave a kind of global model or overall framework for the main story. Although the idea of both wars as part of a plan for the destruction of a generation of heroes can be defended for the Iliad (and Odyssey) it is clearly evident in the Epic Cycle, in Hesiod, and even in other authors, such as Euripides. Under this broad umbrella other Greco-Roman materials, taken from very different sources, were used for the Mbh.’s composition.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Can the rising pension burden in Europe be mitigated by immigration? Modelling the effects of selected demographic and socio-economic factors on ageing in the European Union, 2008-2050

Demographic change, and more specifically ageing - defined here as the increase in the numbers of retired people - is one of the main challenges which European societies must face. Although this challenge cannot be reduced to the demographic factor alone, the construction of highly sophisticated models to analyse the social and economic impact of ageing introduces problems of data availability and comparability between EU Member States. The approach used in this paper to overcome these obstacles is different. A demography-based model (inspired by Gérard Calot's previous work) which uses some simplified assumptions, has been defined to assess the implications of ageing for the 27 EU countries over the period 2008-2050, and the relative impact of a series of alternative measures which could be implemented to counteract ageing. Though the analysis will focus on labour supply growth through foreign (extra-EU) immigration, other actions like the increase of the average effective age at which the labour market is left or employment rate growth will also be taken into account. Results show that immigration by itself cannot counteract ageing in the European Union as the number of immigrants needed to compensate for the increasing number of retired people would be so high that no country could assume the social and political costs of such a process. However, it can play a complementary role if it is combined with other measures contributing to both increase labour participation and delay retirement. This policy mix should be different in each EU Member State depending on the initial specific situation of each parameter of the model.

The critical-state yield stress (termination locus) of adhesive powders from a single numerical experiment

Dry granular materials in a split-bottom ring shear cell geometry show wide shear bands under slow, quasi-static, large deformation. This system is studied in the presence of contact adhesion, using the discrete element method (DEM). Several continuum fields like the density, the deformation gradient and the stress tensor are computed locally and are analyzed with the goal to formulate objective constitutive relations for the flow behavior of cohesive powders. From a single simulation only, by applying time- and (local) space-averaging, and focusing on the regions of the system that experienced considerable deformations, the critical-state yield stress (termination locus) can be obtained. It is close to linear, for non-cohesive granular materials, and nonlinear with peculiar pressure dependence, for adhesive powders—due to the nonlinear dependence of the contact adhesion on the confining forces. The contact model is simplified and possibly will need refinements and additional effects in order to resemble realistic powders. However, the promising method of how to obtain a critical-state yield stress from a single numerical test of one material is generally applicable and waits for calibration and validation

Increasing granular flow rate with obstructions

We describe a simple experiment involving spheres rolling down an inclined plane towards a bottleneck and through a gap. Results of the experiment indicate that flow rate can be increased by placing an obstruction at optimal positions near the bottleneck. We use the experiment to develop a computer simulation using the PhysX physics engine. Simulations confirm the experimental results and we state several considerations necessary to obtain a model that agrees well with experiment. We demonstrate that the model exhibits clogging, intermittent and continuous flow, and that it can be used as a tool for further investigations in granular flow.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Reciprocal interactions between tumor and endothelial cells: Effects of selective vasopressin V2 receptor peptide agonists

Recent experimental evidence suggested that the synthetic peptide desmopressin (DDAVP) interferes tumor angiogenesis by inducing the formation of angiostatin. It is also known that DDAVP stimulates the endothelial release of von Willebrand factor, a key element in resistance to metastasis. Vasopressin V2 receptor agonists such as DDAVP seem to evoke dual angiostatic and antimetastatic effects, breaking cooperative interactions of tumor and endothelial cells during tumor progression.Fil: Garona, Juan. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Alonso, Daniel Fernando. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología. Laboratorio de Oncología Molecular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Financial forecasts of SMEs in IPOs: fact or fiction?

Este artículo valora el proceso de previsión financiera de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYME) en sus salidas a bolsa. Específicamente, se analiza la calidad de las previsiones de beneficios realizadas y se exploran los factores que determinan la precisión de tales previsiones. Este estudio considera todas las empresas que han salido a cotizar al Mercado Alternativo Bursátil español (MAB). Los resultados muestran que los directivos de las empresas del MAB han sido mayoritariamente optimistas y altamente imprecisos en la estimación de los beneficios futuros.This article assesses the financial forecasts of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their process of initial public offering (IPO). In particular, the quality of earnings forecasts is analysed and the determinants of accuracy of earning forecasts are explored. To this end, the empirical study considers all the companies listed on the Spanish Alternative Stock Market (MAB). The results show that managers of newly listed Spanish SMEs have mostly been optimistic and highly inaccurate when estimating their future earnings