The Imbrication Model for the integration of social services in a community

An innovative model for organising social services in a community, the Imbrication Model, is contrasted with two traditional models, the Entrepreneurial and the Umbrella Agency. The structural characteristics and dynamics of the three models are illustrated with actual case histories. Imbrication Model calls for the interlocking of personnel from several agencies, with the purpose of redirecting the dysfunctional interagency rivalry prevalent in the traditional models. Imbrications at all organisational levels--Board of Directors, Administrators and Staff--facilitate adoption of the superordinate goal of providing clients with the best services available, regardless of which particular agency delivers the service. Few observers of the current social service scene would challenge the statement that needs for service are unlimited and resources limited. In the USA the imbalance between needs and resources persists despite a decade of massive governmental programmes intended to alleviate social ills. Recent substantial cutbacks in federal funds, moreover are not likely to improve the situation. The resource shortage involves more than a limitation of funds. Deliverers of service and competent programme administrators are also on critically short supply. These shortages are more often than not exacerbated by a chronic spirit of competition among agencies and programmes at the local level. Three organizational models for the delivery and administration of social services, two conventional and one of more recent date, are examined in this article. The innovative model, which has been named the Imbrication Model, explicitly calls for redirecting interagency rivalry and competition. Its ambitious goal is to integrate the efforts of those attempting to meet a community's social service needs.     

Ray and van cittert-zernike characterization of spatial coherence

We discuss a ray and a van Cittert-Zernike characterization of spatial coherence in condensers for projection systems. We present a rule of thumb with which to estimate the modulus of the coherence function at a given point of the illuminated object and a ray-tracing methodology with which to determine this modulus. For uniform illumination of the pupil we relate the modulus of the coherence function and the pupil-filling factor. We suggest that the rms of the angular ray spread at a given object point is an appropriate metric with which to characterize local coherence properties.     

Dietary energy restriction does not inhibit pancreatic carcinogenesis by N-nitrosobis-2-(oxopropyl)amine in the Syrian hamster

Dietary energy restriction was previously shown to be effective in preventing a wide range of experimentally induced cancers. Studies were conducted to assess the influence on pancreatic carcinogenesis of dietary energy restrictions (reduced fat and carbohydrate) of 10%, 20% or 40% in comparison with control in Syrian hamsters treated with N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP). Two carcinogenesis studies were conducted. One used a single treatment with 20 mg BOP/kg body weight and followed hamsters for 102 weeks following treatment, and the other used three weekly treatments of 20 mg BOP/kg body weight and followed hamsters for 45 weeks after treatment. Hamsters were fed control or energy restricted diet beginning the week following the last BOP treatment. Pancreatic carcinomas were induced in 9-18% of the hamsters in the first experiment and in 59-66% of the animals in the second. Dietary energy restriction did not influence carcinoma incidence in either study, and in the second experiment the multiplicity of tumors was higher in the 40% energy restriction (ER) group than in control hamsters. Plasma corticosterone was suppressed by BOP treatment, particularly in the 20% and 40% ER hamsters in the second experiment, and diet or BOP treatment did not significantly alter plasma cortisol. Pancreatic protein kinase Czeta measured by Western blot was highest in the cytosol and particulate fractions of the 40% ER hamsters in the first experiment. These results indicate that dietary energy restriction is not effective in the prevention of BOP induced pancreatic carcinogenesis in the Syrian hamster.     

近地表疏松介质吸收补偿的数学模拟研究

为有效提高地震资料的分辨率,定量研究地震波在疏松介质中的吸收效应及补偿条件尤为重要.根据塔里木盆地针对性施工的微测井原始资料,采用频谱比法计算表层品质因子的分布规律;应用地震波在粘弹性介质中的传播机制,符合线性吸收机制原理,采用相移法在频率-空间域对地震波在疏松介质中的传播,进行正演及吸收衰减补偿的数学模拟.结果表明:疏松介质对地震波的高频吸收衰减,只有在特定的表层地震地质条件下,才能通过后续补偿处理得以恢复,给出了完全补偿这种吸收衰减效应的条件,为沙漠地区地震资料分辨率的合理上限提供了理论模拟数据.     

Cold-cathode emitter based on a metal-diamond tunneling junction

Recently Geis fabricated a composite cold cathode emitter made of diamond doped by substitutional nitrogen on a roughened metallic substrate, which is characterized by high field emission currents at very low power. Using an internal field emission mechanism through the Schottky barrier at the metal diamond interfaces to populate the conduction band of diamond, we have developed a quantitative theory to describe the operation of such a device. The calculated I-V characteristics are in good agreement with the experimental results of Geis, et al     

Antibody Libraries as Tools to Discover Functional Antibodies and Receptor Pleiotropism

Most antibodies currently in use have been selected based on their binding affinity. However, nowadays, antibodies that can not only bind but can also alter the function of cell surface signaling components are increasingly sought after as therapeutic drugs. Therefore, the identification of such functional antibodies from a large antibody library is the subject of intensive research. New methods applied to combinatorial antibody libraries now allow the isolation of functional antibodies in the cellular environment. These selected agonist antibodies have provided new insights into important issues of signal transduction. Notably, when certain antibodies bind to a given receptor, the cell fate induced by them may be the same or different from that induced by natural agonists. In addition, combined with phenotypic screening, this platform allows us to discover unexpected experimental results and explore various phenomena in cell biology, such as those associated with stem cells and cancer cells.