Multicast 1 is one of the best available service models for scalable, many-to-many delivery of data on the Internet. Multicast achieves scalability by letting sources send a packet only once, regardless of the number of receivers. In network-layer multicast, network elements (routers, switches, and so on) replicate packets at network branching points, delivering copies to all interested receive...

Time series modeling and analysis is central to most financial and econometric data modeling. With increased globalization in trade, commerce and finance, national variables like gross domestic productivity (GDP) and unemployment rate, market variables like indices and stock prices and global variables like commodity prices are more tightly coupled than ever before. This translates to the use o...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Therapeutic laparoscopy was incorporated into surgical practice more than 25 y ago. Several modifications have since been developed to further minimize surgical trauma and improve results. Minilaparoscopy, performed with 2- to 3-mm instruments was introduced in the mid 1990s but failed to attain mainstream use, mostly because of the limitations of the early devices. Bu...

It is a commonplace that the mechanisms established in the stability and growth pact are blunt instruments. They are highly politicised as both the establishment of infringements and possible sanctions are subject to votes in the EU Council. The financial crisis of 2009/10 has dramatically altered the financial situation of many EU member states and has also shown the need for new regulatory in...

The pricing of options, warrants and other derivative securities is one of the great success of financial economics. These financial products can be modeled and simulated using quantum mechanical instruments based on a Hamiltonian formulation. We show here some applications of these methods for various potentials, which we have simulated via lattice Langevin and Monte Carlo algorithms, to the p...

Deployment of antenna arrays is a very promising solution to reduce the Multiple Access Interference (MAI) from high data rate users in the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) system. Combining the antenna array with a RAKE receiver, both of which exploits multipath diversity, can significantly improve the system performance. In this research, we investigate the performance of these...

This paper offers a conceptual framework for considering the many layers of influences upon health worker motivation. It suggests that worker motivation is influenced not only by specific incentive schemes targeted at workers, but also by the whole range of health sector reforms which potentially affect organizational culture, reporting structures, channels of accountability, etc. In addition, ...

The staggering economic and social costs left behind by the near collapse of the global financial system in the autumn of 2008 have led to much soul searching among economists. What were the factors that contributed to the massive buildup of risks and imbalances in the financial system in the years prior to the 2007–09 financial crisis—many of which went undetected or were poorly understood at ...

The 2008 Great Financial Crisis increased the fluctuations in the stock market in the US and other countries that were linked together through various channels. In this regard, derivative instruments, as one of the main elements of the world's financial markets, had an essential role in reducing the stock market fluctuations and contagion of the crisis. The primary purpose of this study is to e...