Comparison of drug use and psychiatric morbidity between prostitute and non-prostitute female drug users in Glasgow, Scotland

Aims: To compare psychiatric morbidity between 176 female drug users with lifetime involvement in prostitution (prostitutes) and 89 female drug users with no involvement (non-prostitutes) in Glasgow, Scotland. Method: The Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) measured current neurotic symptoms. Results: Prostitutes were more likely to report adult physical (OR 1.8) or sexual abuse (OR 2.4), to have attempted suicide (OR 1.7) and to meet criteria for current depressive ideas (OR 1.8) than non-prostitutes. Seventy-two percent of prostitutes and sixty-seven percent of non-prostitutes met criteria for a level of current neurotic symptoms likely to need treatment (CIS-R ≥18). Being in foster care (OR 8.9), being prescribed medication for emotional problems in the last 30 days (OR 7.7), adult sexual abuse (OR 4.5), poly drug use in the last 30 days (OR 3.6) and adult physical abuse (OR 2.6) were significantly associated with a CIS-R score of ≥18 for prostitutes using multiple logistic regression. Conclusions: Higher rates of adulthood abuse among prostitutes may explain the greater proportion of prostitutes than non-prostitutes meeting criteria for current depressive ideas and lifetime suicide attempts

An Experimental Investigation and Improvement of Insulated Rail Joints

In this study the effect of sliding speed, applied load and period of time on the wear resistance of end post materials of Nylon12 (N12), Nylon66 (N66), Nylon66a (N66a), Epoxy Glass (EG) and Phenolic Resin Bonded Fabric materials were investigated. Wear tests were implemented in dry and wet conditions on a Block-on-Ring apparatus. The tests were carried out at different sliding speeds of 1.5 m/sec., 3.3 m/sec., and 7.2 m/sec., applied loads of 10 N, 30 N and 50 N, and three periods of time 5 min., 30 min. and 60 min. The obtained results in dry condition tests showed that the wear resistance of Nylon and composite materials used in this study decreases with an increase in applied load and sliding speed due to increase in contact temperature. But the impact of these increases in sliding speed and applied load was less on the wear resistance of composite materials. Unexpected results were that in wet test condition for Nylon66 materials where the wear resistance was less compared with the same material in a dry test

The Kinetic Activation-Relaxation Technique: A Powerful Off-lattice On-the-fly Kinetic Monte Carlo Algorithm

Many materials science phenomena, such as growth and self-organisation, are dominated by activated diffusion processes and occur on timescales that are well beyond the reach of standard-molecular dynamics simulations. Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) schemes make it possible to overcome this limitation and achieve experimental timescales. However, most KMC approaches proceed by discretizing the problem in space in order to identify, from the outset, a fixed set of barriers that are used throughout the simulations, limiting the range of problems that can be addressed. Here, we propose a more flexible approach -- the kinetic activation-relaxation technique (k-ART) -- which lifts these constraints. Our method is based on an off-lattice, self-learning, on-the-fly identification and evaluation of activation barriers using ART and a topological description of events. The validity and power of the method are demonstrated through the study of vacancy diffusion in crystalline silicon.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

The Impact of Training on Women's Micro-Enterprise Development

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Dynamics of Dengue epidemics using optimal control

We present an application of optimal control theory to Dengue epidemics. This epidemiologic disease is an important theme in tropical countries due to the growing number of infected individuals. The dynamic model is described by a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, that depend on the dynamic of the Dengue mosquito, the number of infected individuals, and the people's motivation to combat the mosquito. The cost functional depends not only on the costs of medical treatment of the infected people but also on the costs related to educational and sanitary campaigns. Two approaches to solve the problem are considered: one using optimal control theory, another one by discretizing first the problem and then solving it with nonlinear programming. The results obtained with OC-ODE and IPOPT solvers are given and discussed. We observe that with current computational tools it is easy to obtain, in an efficient way, better solutions to Dengue problems, leading to a decrease of infected mosquitoes and individuals in less time and with lower costs.Comment: Submitted to Mathematical and Computer Modelling 25/Oct/2009; accepted for publication, after revision, 22/June/201

Parameterized lower bound and NP-completeness of some HH-free Edge Deletion problems

For a graph $H$, the $H$-free Edge Deletion problem asks whether there exist at most $k$ edges whose deletion from the input graph $G$ results in a graph without any induced copy of $H$. We prove that $H$-free Edge Deletion is NP-complete if $H$ is a graph with at least two edges and $H$ has a component with maximum number of vertices which is a tree or a regular graph. Furthermore, we obtain that these NP-complete problems cannot be solved in parameterized subexponential time, i.e., in time $2^{o(k)}\cdot |G|^{O(1)}$, unless Exponential Time Hypothesis fails.Comment: 15 pages, COCOA 15 accepted pape