Attenuation measurements in artificial clouds Final technical report

Attenuation and near-forward scattering of both ice and water fogs and dependence of spectral curves of transmittance on particle size distributio

Indirect Expropriation and its Valuation in the BIT Generation

The number of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) has increased dramatically in the past decade. Until the mid-1970s, a bare handful of BITs existed, and the numbers increased only at a slow or moderate pace until the early 1990s. By September 1994, however, some 140 states had concluded more than 700 BITs, by 1999, more than 1300 BITs had entered into force among about 160 stats, and by the end of 2002, 2181 BITs had been signed. Particular provisions of BITs vary from state to state. But certain general features, which respond to the demands of expanding globalization and, as a consequence, the increasing interdependence of national economies, characterize virtually all BITs. BITs seek to establish a stable, orderly framework for investment by creating, as the preamble to a typical United Kingdom BIT states, \u27favourable conditions for greater investment by nationals and companies of one state in the territory of the other state.\u2

The Incident at Cavalese and Strategic Compensation

In 1953 the United States ratified the North Atlantic Treaty Organization\u27s Status of Forces Agreement of 1951 (SOFA), which set forth conditions and terms which will control the status of forces sent by one state, party to the Agreement, into the territory of another state, party to the Agreement. The drafters foresaw that the presence and training of foreign military forces within and between their territories would probably, if not inevitably, cause injury to civilians, giving rise to claims that, if not settled quickly and satisfactorily, could spark incidents disruptive to their cooperation in mutual defense. To this end, the SOFA established a jurisdictional regime designed to minimize the political friction these incidents threatened to generate, by providing prompt and manifestly fair settlement procedures. The SOFA\u27s jurisdictional framework protects nationals of a foreign military force from the criminal processes of the alien jurisdiction in which they reside and train, yet permits injured citizens of the host state to pursue civil damages for the tortious acts of foreign forces without fear that their claims might receive prejudicial treatment in the foreign state\u27s local courts

Cooperative action in eukaryotic gene regulation: physical properties of a viral example

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects more than 90% of the human population, and is the cause of several both serious and mild diseases. It is a tumorivirus, and has been widely studied as a model system for gene (de)regulation in human. A central feature of the EBV life cycle is its ability to persist in human B cells in states denoted latency I, II and III. In latency III the host cell is driven to cell proliferation and hence expansion of the viral population, but does not enter the lytic pathway, and no new virions are produced, while the latency I state is almost completely dormant. In this paper we study a physico-chemical model of the switch between latency I and latency III in EBV. We show that the unusually large number of binding sites of two competing transcription factors, one viral and one from the host, serves to make the switch sharper (higher Hill coefficient), either by cooperative binding between molecules of the same species when they bind, or by competition between the two species if there is sufficient steric hindrance.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of highly substituted pyrrolizidines

A catalytic asymmetric double (1,3)-dipolar cycloaddition reaction has been developed. Using a chiral silver catalyst, enantioenriched pyrrolizidines can be prepared in one flask from inexpensive, commercially available starting materials. The pyrrolizidine products contain a variety of substitution patterns and as many as six stereogenic centers

Locomotor adaptability in persons with unilateral transtibial amputation

Background Locomotor adaptation enables walkers to modify strategies when faced with challenging walking conditions. While a variety of neurological injuries can impair locomotor adaptability, the effect of a lower extremity amputation on adaptability is poorly understood. Objective Determine if locomotor adaptability is impaired in persons with unilateral transtibial amputation (TTA). Methods The locomotor adaptability of 10 persons with a TTA and 8 persons without an amputation was tested while walking on a split-belt treadmill with the parallel belts running at the same (tied) or different (split) speeds. In the split condition, participants walked for 15 minutes with the respective belts moving at 0.5 m/s and 1.5 m/s. Temporal spatial symmetry measures were used to evaluate reactive accommodations to the perturbation, and the adaptive/de-adaptive response. Results Persons with TTA and the reference group of persons without amputation both demonstrated highly symmetric walking at baseline. During the split adaptation and tied post-adaptation walking both groups responded with the expected reactive accommodations. Likewise, adaptive and de-adaptive responses were observed. The magnitude and rate of change in the adaptive and de-adaptive responses were similar for persons with TTA and those without an amputation. Furthermore, adaptability was no different based on belt assignment for the prosthetic limb during split adaptation walking. Conclusions Reactive changes and locomotor adaptation in response to a challenging and novel walking condition were similar in persons with TTA to those without an amputation. Results suggest persons with TTA have the capacity to modify locomotor strategies to meet the demands of most walking conditions despite challenges imposed by an amputation and use of a prosthetic limb

The importance of individualized pharmaceutical therapy in the treatment of diabetes mellitus

Individualized pharmaceutical care for patients with diabetes is necessary for several reasons. First, diabetes is a highly complex disease caused by the interplay among genetic, physiological, and environmental factors that vary from individual to individual. Second, the profile of patients with diabetes has evolved to include people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, with varying medical histories and health behaviors. Third, diabetes often occurs concurrently with other medical conditions, especially in certain groups, such as the elderly. While the treatment goals for all patients with diabetes are the sameto stabilize and maintain healthy blood glucose levels to prevent serious complicationsthe treatment plan used to achieve those goals will vary among individuals. There are many clinically proven options available for the treatment of diabetes. While there are well-established guidelines regarding which intervention is the best option for patients with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, individual patient characteristics and needs should drive the care process. Assuring patient access to the wide variety of medications is crucial to meeting these needs and achieving quality, cost-effective diabetes management

Soft systems methodology: a context within a 50-year retrospective of OR/MS

Soft systems methodology (SSM) has been used in the practice of operations research and management science OR/MS) since the early 1970s. In the 1990s, it emerged as a viable academic discipline. Unfortunately, its proponents consider SSM and traditional systems thinking to be mutually exclusive. Despite the differences claimed by SSM proponents between the two, they have been complementary. An extensive sampling of the OR/MS literature over its entire lifetime demonstrates the richness with which the non-SSM literature has been addressing the very same issues as does SSM