function(view.plot = 0)
{
#
#Program compute.beta()
#
#Computes birth rates for active uninfected and infected women using
#relational Gompertz model. For the present, this is just a dummy.
#
#
#  #read in asbr values and pad with zeros to get right dimension
#
	beta <- array(data = 0, dim = aa)
	v.in <- as.vector(data.matrix(read.table("d:\\aidsmodel\\data\\beta.txt")))	#
	beta[1:length(v.in)] <- v.in
	beta <- beta[1:aa]	#truncate if necessary
	names(beta) <- 1:aa - 0.5	#
#
#  #plotting option
#
	if(view.plot == 1) {
		ages <- 1:length(beta) - 0.5
		plot(ages[1:60], beta[1:60])
	}
#
#  #wrap up
#
	write.ascii(compute.beta)
	beta
}