Investigating social protection convergence in the EU-15 : a panel data analysis

The scientific investigation goal of this paper is to analyze the convergence of social protection indexes within the EU-15 member states. More specifically, we employ a panel data analysis, testing certain hypotheses of welfare convergence upon the 15 EU Member States, for the years 1990 to 2009, by considering three specific factors. GDP growth rate is used first as a proxy for the financial capacity of the system, while unemployment provides, next, a broader picture of the demand for social security benefits. Finally, the dependency ratio is used as a proxy of the countries’ socio-demographic characteristics. Moreover, certain other exogenous factors reflecting economic integration are considered also. Panel data estimations confirm the existence of conditional β-convergence of social expenditure in EU-15 countries, with unemployment, dependency ratio and GDP growth having a significant impact upon the growth of social protection expenditure. With respect to specific external factors, the existing evidence is less clear.peer-reviewe

A diagnostic plot for estimating the tail index of a distribution

The problem of estimating the tail index in heavy-tailed distributions is very important in many applications. We propose a new graphical method that deals with this problem by selecting an appropriate number of upper order statistics. We also investigate the method’s theoretical properties are investigated. Several real datasets are analyzed using this new procedure and a simulation study is carried out to examine its performance in small, moderate and large samples. The results suggest that the new procedure overcomes many of the shortcomings present in some of the most common techniques—for example, the Hill and Zipf plots—used in the estimation of the tail index, and it performs very competitively when compared with other adaptive threshold procedures based on the asymptotic mean squared error of the Hill estimator.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PRAXIS XXI

Humanized mice efficiently engrafted with fetal hepatoblasts and syngeneic immune cells develop human monocytes and NK cells

Human liver chimeric mice are useful models of human hepatitis virus infection, including hepatitis B and C virus infections. Independently, immunodeficient mice reconstituted with CD34(+) hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) derived from fetal liver reliably develop human T and B lymphocytes. Combining these systems has long been hampered by inefficient liver reconstitution of human fetal hepatoblasts. Our study aimed to enhance hepatoblast engraftment in order to create a mouse model with syngeneic human liver and immune cells.The effects of human oncostatin-M administration on fetal hepatoblast engraftment into immunodeficient fah(-/-) mice was tested. Mice were then transplanted with syngeneic human hepatoblasts and HSC after which human leukocyte chimerism and functionality were analyzed by flow cytometry, and mice were challenged with HBV.Addition of human oncostatin-M enhanced human hepatoblast engraftment in immunodeficient fah(-/-) mice by 5-100 fold. In contrast to mice singly engrafted with HSC, which predominantly developed human T and B lymphocytes, mice co-transplanted with syngeneic hepatoblasts also contained physiological levels of human monocytes and natural killer cells. Upon infection with HBV, these mice displayed rapid and sustained viremia.Our study provides a new mouse model with improved human fetal hepatoblast engraftment and an expanded human immune cell repertoire. With further improvements, this model may become useful for studying human immunity against viral hepatitis.Important human pathogens such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus only infect human cells which complicates the development of mouse models for the study of these pathogens. One way to make mice permissive for human pathogens is the transplantation of human cells into immune-compromised mice. For instance, the transplantation of human liver cells will allow the infection of these so-called liver chimeric mice with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus. The co-transplantation of human immune cells into liver chimeric mice will further allow the study of human immune responses to hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus. However, for immunological studies it will be crucial that the transplanted human liver and immune cells are derived from the same human donor. In our study we describe the efficient engraftment of human fetal liver cells and immune cells derived from the same donor into mice. We show that liver co-engraftment resulted in an expanded human immune cell repertoire, including monocytes and natural killer cells in the liver. We further demonstrate that these mice could be infected with hepatitis B virus, which lead to an expansion of natural killer cells. In conclusion we have developed a new mouse model that could be useful to study human immune responses to human liver pathogens

Profit-oriented resource allocation using online scheduling in flexible heterogeneous networks

In this paper, we discuss a generalized measurement-based adaptive scheduling framework for dynamic resource allocation in flexible heterogeneous networks, in order to ensure efficient service level performance under inherently variable traffic conditions. We formulate our generalized optimization model based on the notion of a “profit center” with an arbitrary number of service classes, nonlinear revenue and cost functions and general performance constraints. Subsequently, and under the assumption of a linear pricing model and average queue delay requirements, we develop a fast, low complexity algorithm for online dynamic resource allocation, and examine its properties. Finally, the proposed scheme is validated through an extensive simulation study.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47990/1/11235_2006_Article_6525.pd

Chacterization of CU tube filled with Al alloy foam by means of X-ray computer tomography

Copper tubes filled with aluminium foams were prepared by directly foaming metal powder compacts inside them. Compressive behaviour and foam-shell interface, that characterizes mechanical properties of reinforced tubes, were investigated by means of variable focus X-ray computer tomography. Compression tests were performed on empty and filled samples at increasing deformation steps: at each stage the samples were observed by tomography. A geometric evaluation of porosity on 2D sections was performed by calculating, for each pore, its area, equivalent diameter and circularity

Inhibitors of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus Targeting a Novel Pocket of the RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) is a picornavirus that infects cloven-hoofed animals and leads to severe losses in livestock production. In the case of an FMD outbreak, emergency vaccination requires at least 7 days to trigger an effective immune response. There are currently no approved inhibitors for the treatment or prevention of FMDV infections.Using a luciferase-based assay we screened a library of compounds and identified seven novel inhibitors of 3Dpol, the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of FMDV. The compounds inhibited specifically 3Dpol (IC(50)s from 2-17 µM) and not other viral or bacterial polymerases. Enzyme kinetic studies on the inhibition mechanism by compounds 5D9 and 7F8 showed that they are non-competitive inhibitors with respect to NTP and nucleic acid substrates. Molecular modeling and docking studies into the 3Dpol structure revealed an inhibitor binding pocket proximal to, but distinct from the 3Dpol catalytic site. Residues surrounding this pocket are conserved among all 60 FMDV subtypes. Site directed mutagenesis of two residues located at either side of the pocket caused distinct resistance to the compounds, demonstrating that they indeed bind at this site. Several compounds inhibited viral replication with 5D9 suppressing virus production in FMDV-infected cells with EC(50) = 12 µM and EC(90) = 20 µM).We identified several non-competitive inhibitors of FMDV 3Dpol that target a novel binding pocket, which can be used for future structure-based drug design studies. Such studies can lead to the discovery of even more potent antivirals that could provide alternative or supplementary options to contain future outbreaks of FMD

Identifiability of flow distributions from link measurements with applications to computer networks

We study the problem of identifiability of distributions of flows on a graph from aggregate measurements collected on its edges. This is a canonical example of a statistical inverse problem motivated by recent developments in computer networks. In this paper (i) we introduce a number of models for multi-modal data that capture their spatio-temporal correlation, (ii) provide sufficient conditions for the identifiability of nth order cumulants and also for a special class of heavy tailed distributions. Further, we investigate conditions on network routing for the flows that prove sufficient for identifiability of their distributions (up to mean). Finally, we extend our results to directed acyclic graphs and discuss some open problems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58107/2/ip7_5_004.pd

Queueing Networks of Random Link Topology: Stationary Dynamics of Maximal Throughput Schedules

In this paper, we study the stationary dynamics of a processing system comprised of several parallel queues and a single server of constant rate. The connectivity of the server to each queue is randomly modulated, taking values 1 (connected) or 0 (severed). At any given time, only the currently connected queues may receive service. A key issue is how to schedule the server on the connected queues in order to maximize the system throughput. We investigate two dynamic schedules, which are shown to stabilize the system under the highest possible traffic load, by scheduling the server on the connected queue of maximum backlog (workload or job number). They are analyzed under stationary ergodic traffic flows and connectivity modulation. The results also extend to the more general case of random server rate.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47640/1/11134_2005_Article_858.pd