In previous research men have been shown to obtain higher mean scores on tests of horizontality CH) and verticality CV) than do women. This study investigated the role of experiential factors in this gender difference. Undergraduate psychology students were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: training, enhanced training, and placebo. The pretest measure of verticality and horizontality CV/ H), training, and posttest were administered via videotape. Major findings were: men obtained higher mean V/H scores than women; V and H scores correlated significantly; and training increased performance relative to a placebo, but enhanced training was not superior to standard training. It was hypothesized that participation in athletics might eliminate the V/ H sex difference. This was supported by initial analyses of the data. However, further analyses revealed that this may have been artifactual. Errors on the V/H test were classified as undercorrections, overcorrections, and miscorrections. It was found that miscorrections corresponded to relatively low scores, inconsistent responding, and resistance to training. Scores on a generalization test substantiated al l findings from the original V/H measure.

Horizontal wells are drilled to achieve improved reservoir coverage, high production rates, and to overcome water coning problems, etc. Many of these wells often produce at rates much below the expected production rates. Low productivity of horizontal wells is attributed to various factors such as drilling induced formation damage, high completion skins, and variable formation properties along the length of the wellbore as in the case of heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs. Matrix acidizing is used to overcome the formation damage by injecting the acid into the carbonate rock to improve well performance. Designing the matrix acidizing treatments for horizontal wells is a challenging task because of the complex process. The estimation of acid distribution along wellbore is required to analyze that the zones needing stimulation are receiving enough acid. It is even more important in cases where the reservoir properties are varying along the length of the wellbore. A model is developed in this study to simulate the placement of injected acid in a long horizontal well and to predict the subsequent effect of the acid in creating wormholes, overcoming damage effects, and stimulating productivity. The model tracks the interface between the acid and the completion fluid in the wellbore, models transient flow in the reservoir during acid injection, considers frictional effects in the tubulars, and predicts the depth of penetration of acid as a function of the acid volume and injection rate at all locations along the completion. A computer program is developed implementing the developed model. The program is used to simulate hypothetical examples of acid placement in a long horizontal section. A real field example of using the model to history match actual treatment data from a North Sea chalk well is demonstrated. The model will help to optimize acid stimulation in horizontal wells.

The genome of B. phytofirmans OLGA172 has been sequenced by Next Generation sequencing methods. Over 42 kbp of its genome surrounding its 3CBA degradative genes, tfdCIDIEIFI, was assembled and annotated. The most important method used was the synteny method, which implies homology between the genes, and descent from a common ancestor (Guttman, 2008). The conserved gene order between B. phytofirmans PsJN, B. xenovorans LB400, and OLGA172 was used as a confirmation of annotation through BLASTn, enabled closing of the gaps in the sequencing data, and allowed prediction of genes further downstream. Though the whole genome is not yet assembled, a very significant region carrying a concentrated area of mobile genetic elements (MGE) has been found to surround the degradative genes in OLGA172. This thesis details the sequence evidence that, upon examination of closely related strains, OLGA172 and its related strain from pristine soils may be the ancestral chlorobenzoate degraders.

Vibrio vulnificus is an opportunistic human and animal pathogen with the highest death rate of any foodborne disease agent. The capsular polysaccharide (CPS) is essential for virulence. Over 100 CPS types (carbotypes) have been identified among natural isolates, yet little is known about the genetic mechanisms that drive such diversity. Chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature, induces competence in Vibrio species. We found that transformation frequency varies by strain and (GlcNAc)2 was the shortest chitin-derived polymer capable of inducing competence. We confirmed that V. vulnificus can undergo chitin-dependent carbotype conversion following the uptake and recombination of complete cps loci from exogenous genomic DNA. The acquisition of a partial locus was also demonstrated when internal regions of homology between the endogenous and exogenous loci existed. Thus, the same mechanism governing the transfer of complete cps loci also contributes to their evolution by generating novel combinations of CPS biosynthesis genes.

The genome of B. phytofirmans OLGA172 has been sequenced by Next Generation sequencing methods. Over 42 kbp of its genome surrounding its 3CBA degradative genes, tfdCIDIEIFI, was assembled and annotated. The most important method used was the synteny method, which implies homology between the genes, and descent from a common ancestor (Guttman, 2008). The conserved gene order between B. phytofirmans PsJN, B. xenovorans LB400, and OLGA172 was used as a confirmation of annotation through BLASTn, enabled closing of the gaps in the sequencing data, and allowed prediction of genes further downstream. Though the whole genome is not yet assembled, a very significant region carrying a concentrated area of mobile genetic elements (MGE) has been found to surround the degradative genes in OLGA172. This thesis details the sequence evidence that, upon examination of closely related strains, OLGA172 and its related strain from pristine soils may be the ancestral chlorobenzoate degraders.

Vibrio vulnificus is an opportunistic human and animal pathogen with the highest death rate of any foodborne disease agent. The capsular polysaccharide (CPS) is essential for virulence. Over 100 CPS types (carbotypes) have been identified among natural isolates, yet little is known about the genetic mechanisms that drive such diversity. Chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature, induces competence in Vibrio species. We found that transformation frequency varies by strain and (GlcNAc)2 was the shortest chitin-derived polymer capable of inducing competence. We confirmed that V. vulnificus can undergo chitin-dependent carbotype conversion following the uptake and recombination of complete cps loci from exogenous genomic DNA. The acquisition of a partial locus was also demonstrated when internal regions of homology between the endogenous and exogenous loci existed. Thus, the same mechanism governing the transfer of complete cps loci also contributes to their evolution by generating novel combinations of CPS biosynthesis genes.

This dissertation provides an empirical test of the effects of fiscal decentralization and horizontal fiscal equalization on economic growth and examines the potential trade-off between horizontal fiscal equalization and economic growth in both China and India. Chapter II examines the effects of both fiscal decentralization and horizontal fiscal equalization on economic growth in China, particularly the effect of the Tax Sharing System reform enacted in 1994. Compared with previous studies, using more complete data providing better measures and more econometrically sophisticated instrumental variable procedures, we find that there is no substantial evidence of a trade-off between horizontal fiscal equalization and growth. The 1994 Tax Sharing System reform has positively contributed to both economic growth and horizontal fiscal equalization. In addition, we find that fiscal decentralization (FD) has a non-linear effect on growth. For values of FD less than 21, fiscal decentralization has a negative effect on growth, but for values greater than 21, fiscal decentralization has a positive effect on growth. Chapter III examines the effects of both fiscal decentralization and horizontal fiscal equalization on economic growth in India, particularly the effects of the 1991 economic reforms. Using state-wide data covering the period from 1980 through 2005, we find that fiscal decentralization has a negative effect on economic growth initially but that, beyond a certain value of fiscal decentralization, the effect on growth becomes positive. However, further decentralization could have a negative effect on horizontal fiscal equalization. These results are robust. In the meanwhile, there is no evidence of a trade-off between horizontal fiscal equalization and economic growth; instead, there is evidence of a positive effect of economic growth on equalization. In addition, the 1991 economic reform has contributed to economic growth. A comparative study of China and India has shown that the degree of fiscal decentralization in both countries is far from the point where its effect on economic growth becomes positive. Despite the dangers of widening disparities in terms of interregional fiscal resource distribution from further decentralization, no substantial evidence shows a trade-off between horizontal fiscal equalization and growth in either country. An in-depth and more thorough going fiscal decentralization with greater emphasis on equalization of fiscal disparities are required in order to effect sustainable economic growth as well as social harmony in these two Asian countries.

A new methodology was developed for flow regime identification in pipes. The method utilizes the pattern recognition abilities of Artificial Neural Networks and the unprocessed time series of a system-monitoring-signal. The methodology was tested with synthetic data from a conceptual system, liquid level indicating Capacitance signals from a Horizontal flow system and with a pressure difference signal from a S-shape riser. The results showed that the signals that were generated for the conceptual system had all their patterns identified correctly with no errors what so ever. The patterns for the Horizontal flow system were also classified very well with a few errors recorded due to original misclassifications of the data. The misclassifications were mainly due to subjectivity and due to signals that belonged to transition regions, hence a single label for them was not adequate. Finally the results for the S-shape riser showed also good agreement with the visual observations and the few errors that were identified were again due to original misclassifications but also to the lack of long enough time series for some flow cases and the availability of less flow cases for some flow regimes than others. In general the methodology proved to be successful and there were a number of advantages identified for this neural network methodology in comparison to other ones and especially the feature extraction methods. These advantages were: Faster identification of changes to the condition of the system, inexpensive suitable for a variety of pipeline geometries and more powerful on the flow regime identification, even for transitional cases.

Le transfert horizontal de gènes (THG, ou transfert latéral de gènes) est un mécanisme d'évolution naturel qui consiste en le transfert direct du matériel génétique d'une espèce à une autre. La possibilité que le transfert horizontal de gènes puisse jouer un rôle clé dans l'évolution biologique est un changement fondamental dans notre perception des aspects généraux de la biologie évolutive survenu ces dernières années. Par exemple, les bactéries et les virus possèdent des mécanismes sophistiqués d'acquisition de nouveaux gènes par transfert horizontal leur permettant de s'adapter et d'évoluer adéquatement dans leur environnement. Jusqu'à tout récemment, les méthodes de détection de ce mécanisme reposaient essentiellement sur l'analyse de séquences et étaient très rarement automatisées. Il est impossible de représenter l'évolution d'organismes ayant subi des THG à l'aide d'arbres phylogénétiques acycliques. La présentation adéquate est celle d'un réseau. Dans cette thèse, nous décrivons un nouveau modèle de ce mécanisme d'évolution, en se basant sur l'étude de différences topologiques et métriques entre un arbre d'espèces et un arbre du gène inférés pour le même ensemble d'espèces. Les méthodes qui en découlent ont été appliquées à des jeux de données réelles où des hypothèses de transferts latéraux de gènes étaient plausibles. Des simulations Monté-Carlo ont été menées afin d'évaluer la qualité des résultats par rapport à des méthodes existantes. Nous présentons également une généralisation du modèle de transferts horizontaux complets qui est applicable pour détecter des transferts partiels et identifier des gènes mosaïques. Dans ce dernier modèle, on suppose qu'une partie seulement du gène a été transférée. Enfin, nous présentons une application de ces nouvelles méthodes servant à modéliser des emprunts de mots survenus durant l'évolution des langues indo-européennes. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : arbre phylogénétique, réseau réticulé, transfert horizontal de gènes, critère des moindres carrés, distance de Robinson et Foulds, dissimilarité de bipartitions, biolinguistique.

Variation of the center of gravity of a golf club head will influence the initial velocity and rotation of speed of a ball after the golf ball is struck by golf club head. After fixing the weight of 200g of a golf head, the researcher changes the volume of golf head and the horizontal curvature of radius. He also distribute counterpoise to investigates the effect of launching of a golf ball. This thesis summarizes the ball of three-dimensional flight trajectory and offset distance. For the volume of the golf head is 400 cc, the best level of the radius of horizontal curvature is 11 in, in the 430 cc should use a radius of horizontal curvature of 12 in, and the 460 cc head club can chose a radius of horizontal curvature of 13 in. The distribution of counterpoise can effectively improve the play¡¦s habits, so the trajectory of a golf ball can be appropriately adjusted. By finite element method, the physical behavior of a series of the lunching ball can be predicted. The trajectory of golf ball can be measured by substituting the inertial value of ball into the three-dimension equations of motion. According to the trajectory of golf ball flight by this study, this study provides the characteristics for designing a golf club head.