Library

Notes: This paper provides a coherent framework for classifying cases with multiple tortfeasors in relation to the efficient allocation of liability across the tortfeasors. We construct a simple model in which various tortfeasors contribute to a loss, and consider efficient liability rules under various assumptions.

Notes: We attempt to revise the inspection game used by George Tsebelis to model phenomena in criminal justice. The refinement has been conducted by disaggregating the game payoffs and then using findings from empirical studies to reconstruct the game. In contrast to Tsebelis' propositions, we find that the severity of punishment may affect the offending behavior of individuals. The result also holds for the case in which the authority initiates crime prevention programs, by providing incentives to those who do not have a criminal history. The impact of increasing the severity of punishment on reducing individuals' offending behavior is less certain than that of instigating crime prevention programs. This result holds so long as the authority does not alter the levels of enforcement.

Notes: Miller v. Schoene approved the uncompensated destruction of cedar trees that were alternate hosts to a fungus that damaged apples but not cedars. Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone's opinion noted that deciding for either cedar or apple growers would amount to action by the state. Scholars have claimed that Miller marked the demise of the public/private distinction in constitutional law. This article presents historical evidence to the contrary. A widely-accepted standard--higher commercial value--commonly decided whose interests should prevail in such controversies. The analysis also shows that moral hazard explains why cedar owners were denied just compensation, which orchardists had originally been willing to tax themselves to pay. Cedar owners whose land actually gained in value when their trees were cut down nonetheless availed themselves of damages.

Notes: This paper shows that unilateral-harm contexts with role-type uncertainty can create incentives similar to bilateral-harm contexts. For this purpose, we show that the result of Dharmapala and Hoffmann (2005), namely that standard liability rules do not lead to efficient care choices by injurer and victim if precaution costs are interdependent and harm is unilateral whereas they can in the case of bilateral harm, depends on role-type certainty.

Notes: In some recent works, negligence-based liability has been severely criticized. It has been argued that negligence-based liability does not form a convincing basis for liability assignment. Causation-based liability has been proposed as an alternative basis of liability determination. Parisi and Fon (2004) have studied the efficiency properties of the causal apportionment of liability. The authors have shown that when care levels as well as activity levels of the parties affect the causation of an accident, causation based liability does not provide efficient incentives for the parties. In this paper, we assume the activity levels to be constant. Under this assumption, we have demonstrated the existence of liability rules that are efficient and at the same time `consistent' with the requirement of causation liability. In addition, it is shown that under these rules the equilibrium outcome is unique. The analysis has been undertaken in a very general framework.

Notes: Harsh sanctions are conventionally assumed to primarily benefit vulnerable targets. Contrary to this perception, this article shows that augmented sanctions often serve the less vulnerable targets. While decreasing crime, harsher sanctions also induce the police to shift enforcement efforts from more to less vulnerable victims. When this shift is substantial, augmented sanctions exacerbate--rather than reduce--the risk to vulnerable victims. Based on this insight, this article suggests several normative implications concerning the efficacy of enhanced sanctions, the importance of victims' funds, and the connection between police operations and apprehension rates.

Notes: This article develops a model in which firms may commit to disclose varying amounts of two types of information, accuracy information and agency information, and in which a regulator may also mandate disclosures. The resulting analysis provides a way to better understand the relationship between disclosure regulation and social welfare, including issues such as: how disclosure regulation can generate social welfare gains (contra Dye, 1990; Admati & Pfleiderer, 2000), why imposing disclosure requirements on only certain firms and certain information may be efficient, and why stricter mandatory disclosure requirements may be an efficient regulatory response to more robust public securities markets (contra La Porta, Lopez de Silanes, & Shleifer, 2006).

Notes: What explains the popularity of law and economics (L&E) in some academic communities and the scarcity of such scholarship in others? Many explanations have been given for the centrality of economic analysis in American legal thought and its marginality in Europe. This article examines what drives scholars to select L&E as a topic for research. It does so by implementing the methodology of many papers in the field - by assuming that regulation and incentives matter. Legal scholars face very different academic incentives in different parts of the world. In some countries, the academic standards for appointment, promotion and tenure encourage legal scholars to concentrate on L&E. In others, they strongly discourage such research. Thus, we should expect wide variation in the participation rate of legal scholars in the L&E discourse across countries. On the other hand, economists are evaluated with similar yardsticks everywhere, and thus their participation rate is likely to vary much less. The hypothesis of this paper is that academic incentives are a major factor in the level of participation in L&E scholarship. This "incentives hypothesis" is presented and then examined empirically with data gathered from the list of authors in L&E journals and the list of participants in L&E conferences. The data generally support the hypothesis. In legal academia, the incentives to focus research on L&E topics are the strongest in Israel, weaker in North America, and weakest in Europe. In fact, the data reveal that lawyers' authorship of L&E papers weighted by population is about ten times higher in Israel than in North America; while in Europe it is almost five times lower than in North America. By comparison, the weighted participation level of economists - who face relatively similar academic environments across countries - in L&E research is not significantly different across countries.

Notes: The text of a Laudatio delivered on September 16, 2006 by Professor Francesco Parisi on the occasion of the awarding of an honorary membership in the European Association of Law and Economics (EALE) to Professor Pietro Trimarchi. This was the first such honorary membership awarded by this association.

Notes: This paper develops a stylized model of international treaty formation and analyzes the different modalities with which states can become part of an international treaty according to the procedures set forth by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. We consider the rules governing accession to international treaties, distinguishing between three situations: (i) Treaties for which acceptance of a new member requires unanimous approval of the signatory states with an amendment of the original treaty agreement (closed treaties); (ii) Treaties where acceptance of a new member is made possible through approval by a majority of the existing member states (semi-open treaties); and (iii) Treaties where the original member states have agreed to leave the treaty open for accession by other states (open treaties).

Notes: Courts may determine that an offer is irrevocable due to the offeree's reasonable reliance on it. For instance, the landmark case of Drennan v. Star Paving Co. (1958) held a subcontractor's price offer to be irrevocable once it had been relied upon by the general contractor in computing his overall bid. However, a rule of implied irrevocability raises two main difficulties. First, it seems unfair to force the offeror to commit, but not the offeree. Second, from an ex ante perspective, the implied irrevocability rule seems to deter parties from submitting low-priced, unqualified offers. These concerns have led several scholars to argue for modification of the rule. This paper rationalizes the implied irrevocability rule by demonstrating that the above concerns are unfounded. We demonstrate that whereas some restrictions on the offeree's freedom to conduct bid shopping ex post (i.e., after the uncertainties are resolved) are essential in order to allow him to receive viable price offers ex ante, these restrictions need not be absolute nor legally enforced. Partial restrictions, in the form of a self-enforced Binding Range, may well suffice. The plausible existence of a self-enforced Binding Range ensures that offerors have incentives to submit irrevocable bids because they can expect to earn a profit by submitting the best offer. This paper characterizes the optimal size of the Binding Range, and explores what legal provisions should be applied when the self-enforced Binding Range is sub-optimal.

Notes: Introduction to the Twenty-Second Annual Conference of the European Association of Law and Economics, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Notes: In most countries, wireless communications rely on administrative allocation of radio spectrum. The inefficiencies associated with this centralized approach have led economists, starting with Coase in 1959, to suggest "propertyzing" radio spectrum. Critics of this approach assert that property rights impose prohibitive transaction costs and inhibit development of wireless services. Reforms enacted in Guatemala (in 1996) and El Salvador (in 1997) have largely implemented policies suggested by Coase, yielding a natural experiment. Evidence generated in the mobile telephone market suggests that these regimes are associated with relatively efficient policy outcomes, including abundant spectrum availability and a high degree of competitiveness, and with correspondingly low retail prices and high rates of output (minutes of use). Further, such markets appear to avoid high transaction costs in the public or private sectors. We conclude that these liberal reforms tend to produce results consistent with Coase's policy conjecture.

Notes: The making of the information/knowledge society has driven a flourishing body of literature on the law and economics of copyright. This paper introduces the articles collected in the following symposium, produced by a number of scholars participating in the lively worldwide community devoted to the study of the economic role of copyright law in light of current technological change. The aim of these writings as a whole is to broaden the analytical perspective and stimulate further research, thanks to a wide selection of topics related to behavioral analysis, competition policy, insurance, cultural economics and other fields.

Notes: This paper considers how the economics of intellectual property can benefit from what has been published in the area of the economics of insurance. The objective is to show that the two areas of study are sufficiently related for the insights of the latter to be relevant to the former. Since the economics of insurance is a very mature subject, while the economics of IP is much younger, it seems that there could be many valuable lessons from insurance that can be imported into IP, at least at a first degree of approximation.

Notes: The music and movie industries have recently added individual consumers as the target of the file sharing lawsuits. It is often questioned why the industries use substantial resources to fight in the courtrooms instead of making better and more affordable products. In this article, we first analyze the reasons of the industry behavior suggesting that the court strategy may be in fact more effective, at least in the short term, than it should be based on pure economic calculations. However, the empirical evidence seems to imply that lawsuits fail to send a strong signal to individuals about the society's supposedly negative attitude towards file sharing. General deterrence from the threat of being sued does not help in the end either because people are risk seeking in the face of making a decision between a certain and probable loss. In conclusion, we argue that the court strategy cannot be used to establish any social norm with a long lasting effect on individual behavior as long as the peer pressure works towards the opposite direction.

Notes: Copyright law provides an excellent case study with which to evaluate Harold Demsetz's theory of property rights. Regardless of how one feels about the relationship between property and intellectual property, it is hard to escape the fact that intellectual property rights have expanded and grown more property-like and more privatized in recent decades. In this article, I critique the undeniable Demsetzian trend in copyright law and challenge some of the fundamental premises upon which rest the normative arguments for continued privatization and propertization of intellectual resources. First, I focus on the perceived benefits of internalizing externalities, arguing that externalities do not necessarily distort incentives or, more generally, the market allocation of resources. For many externalities, there is no efficiency benefit to internalization (whether accomplished by Pigouvian taxes/subsidies or property rights). In the end, the benefits of internalization must be carefully assessed rather than assumed. The view that increasing the degree of internalization through private property rights inevitably leads to increased incentives to invest in creation or distribution is not well-established in either theory or practice. Second, I focus on the frequently-invoked solution of efficient licensing and the "logic" that property rights should be extended "into every corner in which people derive enjoyment and value...[so that] signals of consumer preference [may] trigger and direct [producers'] investments" (Goldstein, 1994). I argue that a fundamental flaw in this logic undermines the efficient licensing hypothesis. Social demand for individuals' access to and use of copyright protected works often exceeds private demand. Purchasers'/licensees' willingness to pay reflects only their private demand and does not take into account value that others might realize as a result of their use. As I explain, many uses of copyrighted works generate value for third-parties. Finally, drawing from the first two points, I argue that, from a Coasean perspective, both externalities and property rights have symmetrical and reciprocal potentials to distort the market allocation of resources. A priori and devoid of context, one cannot say that the potential distortions caused by a property right, externality, or incremental change in a property right have a net positive or negative effect on social welfare.

Notes: This paper investigates the interplay between copyright law and antitrust law in two distinct respects. We first argue that the origin of copyright seems to be rooted not only in the need to foster the production and the spread of knowledge but also in the necessity of limiting market power on the side of distributors. We then show the potential impact on market competition of the evolution of copyright as a property rule. While property rules reduce transaction costs in the standard case of bilateral monopoly over the exchange of information goods, they might increase transaction costs. When coupled with market power, a property rule enables the right holder to control uses and prices so as to implement entry deterrence strategies against potential competitors. Conversely, we argue that reversing property rules in favor of competitors or switching to liability rules for copyright may restore competitive outcomes. This conclusion brings new insights on the application of the essential facility doctrine to copyrighted works.

Notes: Over the last century, performers gradually acquired statutory protection of their economic and moral rights. These rights are not copyright in the legal sense but neighboring rights and until recently, they were mainly remuneration rights that are collectively administered. With the WPPT (WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty), performers now have individual exclusive rights for digital performances; this leads to the question: what has motivated this change - is it a change in the perception of the value of performer or a change brought about by the changing technology of copying or, indeed, a change that reflects different economic costs and benefits? The paper discusses the role of copyright law as an incentive to performers and asks if the economic role of the performer is so different from that of the author. The conclusion is that a complex interaction of the legal regulations, economic conditions and institutional arrangements for administering these new rights will determine the outcome.

Notes: This paper uses a strategic entry-deterrence framework to study the relationship between copying cost, and a monopolist's profit and product quality. The potential entrant is a fake-producer producing and selling identical copies of the monopolist's product. The monopolist's subgame perfect equilibrium quality and profit is either unaffected or positively affected by changes in the copying cost. Tariffs on copying devices may be an effective copyright right protection instrument. Though an increase in tariff increases the product quality and monopolist's profit, its welfare effects are ambiguous.

Notes: Copyright protection can be divided into ?ve levels: subject matter, level of abstraction, exceptions, term limit, and restricted acts. Although copyright exceptions, in particular the fair use doctrine, and term limit have been subject to signi?cant economic analyses, studies on protection and the limits of protection of subject matter, and level of abstraction in copyright are still fairly scarce. Furthermore, the dominant model for optimal copyright protection is problematic for it requires a standard-based copyright doctrine to achieve what was postulated. Since copyright doctrines in respect of protection based on the level of abstraction are more rule-based in nature, an alternative explanation is in order. In a recent article titled "Copyright as a Rule of Evidence", Douglas Lichtman (2003) hinted such an approach where evidence plays a role in explaining this set of doctrines. In this paper, we use an abstraction and a probabilistic model to explain copyright doctrines. Copyright doctrines such as the idea-expression dichotomy, the originality requirement, de minimis rule, substantiality requirement, merger doctrine, and the scènes á faire doctrine, have the effect of creating a protection divide. Doctrines such as the causal connection requirement, independent creation defence, and the objective similarity requirement, further create an inference divide. We show that the protection and inference divides are relevant in protecting the literal and non-literal dimensions in a copyrighted work. Furthermore, we ?nd that between the protection divide and the inference divide, there is a region of non-strict liability protection. All these three regions, and the related copyright doctrines, are explained by an evidence theory of minimising the risk of court error in deciding infringement cases.

Notes: Sequential innovation with actual patent infringement and uncertainty in litigation is analyzed. Comparative statics shows that within a wide range of model parameters, a basic researcher holding a patent is able to extract all of the profit facilitated by the basic innovation. The patent holder achieves this by offering a licensing contract which the subsequent innovator accepts in the shadow of paying infringement damages. It is further demonstrated that, under rather general circumstances, broader patent breadth may diminish the patent holder's incentive to innovate: that is to extract all of the profit from the subsequent innovator commercializing the innovation.

Notes: Many legal scholars believe that equity should be considered in designing legal rules. Kaplow and Shavell (1994) seriously challenged this approach. They proved that the tax transfer system is superior to legal rules in redistributing wealth. This paper reexamines their 'double distortion' claim, presenting two main arguments. The first shows that the 'double distortion' claim is not necessarily valid under welfarism. In particular, under an ex post approach to welfarism, which generally implies that society pays attention to the ex post (actual) rather than expected redistribution, the proof of the tax superiority breaks down. Secondly, and more importantly, it is proven that, in principle, tort rules can easily be designed to circumvent 'double distortion' effects. Thus, the tort system is not inherently more inefficient than the tax-transfer system in accomplishing redistribution. The paper generally concludes that although there are often no good reasons for redistribution within the legal system, theoretically and a priori it is not an inferior redistribution mechanism.

Notes: The focus of this study involved the application of an effective methodology to estimate decimal reduction of two main food-borne pathogens (i.e., Salmonella and Listeria) in frozen cooked chicken products using surface pasteurization. A quick and effective approach to estimate the surface temperature of the product was proposed using the Page equation and the evaluation of pathogenic destruction on the large-size and small-size frozen steamed chicken products. The samples were in the frozen form and treated as if they were post-contaminated by Salmonella and Listeria. The pasteurization temperatures in the steam oven were varied at 70, 75, 80, 90 and 100 degree Celsius. The Page equation performed well to accurately predict the surface temperature profile of the different product sizes. The steam treatment was very effective in heating up the pasteurized products and resulted in similar temperature profiles regardless of product size. The relationship between the model constant coefficient and pasteurization temperature followed the Arrhenius expression. The substitution of the predicted surface temperature profile to the process lethality equation facilitated quick estimation of pathogenic destruction on the sample surface. The different sizes of the chicken products only slightly affected the pasteurization time. However, the pasteurization time to achieve that same decimal reduction varied significantly between the two different target pathogens. The simplicity and effectiveness of this approach did not only eliminate multiple experimental repetitions and simplify the estimation of pathogenic destruction, but also provided and effective minimal processing procedure for frozen cooked chicken pasteurization of two sizes of steamed products while retaining the desirable quality of end products after surface pasteurization.

Notes: The ICUMSA or AOAC (Association of Official Agricultural Chemists) traditional test methods for testing individual constituents, pol and brix, are time consuming, operator dependent and involve the use of hazardous chemicals. The increased awareness of environmental and health topics makes it desirable to avoid the clarification of cane juice with basic lead acetate. Widely used in the food and agricultural industries, Near Infrared Spectroscopy NIR has now made considerable inroads into the more lengthy and wet chemistry procedures. Near Infrared is the region of combination bands and overtones due to interatomic forces. Hydrogenic atoms being the lightest vibrate within the near infrared region due to N-H, O-H and C-H groups. These are common atoms present within most food products. As near infrared wavelengths are specific, individual components can be identified so it can be used for quantitative analysis of phosphates, silicates and amino acids in cane juice. Amino acids are important as they, along with other nitrogenous bodies, react with reducing sugars to form colored compounds. Analyzing amino acids in a sample can help solve color problem in sugar. Alanine and glycine are commonly found amino acids in sugarcane. In the present research the online estimation of alanine and glycine is done in cane juice using Near-Infrared spectroscopy. Near Infrared Spectrophotometer of Elico (India) range (600-2500nm) has been used in its transmittance mode in conjunction with two multivariate calibration procedures, i.e., Partial Least Square Regression analysis (PLSR) and Stepwise Multivariate Linear Regression analysis (SMLR) for the analysis of alanine and glycine in cane juice. Multi linear regression analysis was also carried out to find out the most correlating wavelengths along with the standard deviation.

Notes: Moisture sorption isotherms of Granny Smith apples hot-air dried and texturized by Controlled Sudden Decompression (Détente Instantannée Contrôlée DIC®) were determined and compared using a gravimetric method. The DIC has been developed to confer a porous structure to partially dehydrated foods by expanding them and facilitating the drying process at lower water content. The samples were stored in a chamber; the relative humidity is controlled by an atomizing humidifier at 20, 30 and 40°C, and relative humidities ranging from 10% to 90%. The sorption capacity decreased with increasing temperature at a given water activity. The hysteresis effect was not significant for both of the dried and texturized apples. The experimental sorption data were fitted to 8 various isotherm models including two parameter relationships (BET, Halsey, Smith, Henderson, Oswin), three parameter equations (Ferro-Fontan, GAB) and four parameter equations (Peleg). A non-linear least square regression software was used to evaluate the model's constants. The goodness of fit of each isotherm was quantified through the mean relative percentage deviation modulus E. The Ferro-Fontan, Peleg, GAB and Oswin equations were best for characterizing the sorption behaviour of Granny Smith apples for a whole range of temperatures and water activities studied. The surface area corresponding to the monolayer was determined for the texturized apples and compared to the dried samples. The results showed that the treatment by DIC increases the surface area of apples. For understanding the water properties and calculating the energy requirements phenomena, net isosteric heat was evaluated by the applying Clausius-Clapeyron equation.

Notes: This article reviews the development of studying starch gelatinization under shear and shearless conditions, in particular the technologies used to detect the degree of gelatinization. Advantages and disadvantages of each technology were discussed and then some examples were presented to demonstrate their application. A new technology RheoScope, an instrument that can measure viscosity under shear stress and simultaneously observes variation of starch particles using a microscope, was also introduced. It was found the definition of "gelatinization" could be different for different detection technologies. Under shearless condition full gelatinization of starch needs about ratio of water 3/starch 1, while the gelatinization under shear condition requires less water content since shear stress enhances the processing. The number of endotherm and enthalpy of gelatinization depends on amylose/amylopectin, moisture and lipid content.

Notes: The effects of temperature, relative humidity and molecular structure on the crystallization process within amorphous solids have been explored. Lactose and sucrose were spray dried, and the products were exposed to different and relative humidities. To investigate the effect of temperature, experiments were conducted at both room temperature and 40oC. The rate of the crystallization was more than doubled for every increase of temperature by 10oC, up to three times for the case of lactose. These results are consistent with the picture of the process as an activated rate one. The effect of increasing relative humidity (RH) was observed to increase the rate of crystallization up to a threshold value, after which the rate was no longer affected by relative humidity. This threshold was found to be 51% for sucrose, at room temperature, which was lowered to 32% at 40oC. Lactose and sucrose, which have the same molecular weight of 342 g/mol but different molecular structures and thus glass transition temperatures, were exposed to similar conditions. The difference in molecular structures had little effect on the overall rate of the crystallization process for the same material temperatures, in contrast with the predictions of the Williams Landel Ferry equation, which suggests that the rate of crystallization is a function of the difference between the material temperature and the glass transition temperature.

Notes: This study was conducted to assess in detail the possible effects of some technological processes such as soaking, germination, cooking, soaking + cooking, and germination + cooking on the lipid composition of mung bean seeds of Giza 1 variety. TLC analysis of mung bean lipids showed that the phospholipids and triglycerides recorded the highest percentage among lipid fractions (32.26 and 30.10%), while the 1,3 diglycerides constituted the least percentage (2.80%) in mung bean seeds. The soaking, germination and cooking processes caused a decrease in the phospholipids, triglycerides and hydrocarbons accompanied with an increase in monoglycerides, 1,2-(2,3)-diglycerides, sterols and free fatty acids. Eleven fractions were separated from phospholipids class of the studied samples; seven of these fractions were identified. The major component of phospholipids was phosphatidyl choline, amounting to 21.30, 17.84, 16.21, 13.87, 13.20 and 11.47% of the total phospholipids in raw, soaked, germinated, raw-cooked, soaked-cooked and germinated-cooked mung bean seeds, respectively. Gas liquid chromatography of the total lipids of mung bean seeds showed that the unsaturated fatty acids represented 69.58, 64.35, 63.3, 63.16, 61.84 and 61.12%, while the levels of saturated fatty acids were low being 30.37, 34.05, 35.66, 34.64, 37.93 and 38.75% of the total fatty acids in raw, soaked, germinated, raw-cooked, soaked-cooked and germinated-cooked, respectively. The total essential fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic) represented the highest proportion of fatty acids (50.10% of the total fatty acids).

Notes: The first aim of the study was to model the influence of water amount and air pressure on various batter properties using Response Surface Methodology. Batter quality was assessed through density, water content, colour, spreadability and fluorescence spectra. Quadratic models using two variables well represented spreading time, water content and final temperature, but they failed to fairly represent initial density, overrun and L*a*b* values. In addition, simplified models using a single variable also well represented the data: final density was modelled by a linear equation involving pressure, whereas initial density, water content and final temperature were modelled by a linear equation involving water amount. Spreading time was modelled using a quadratic equation using water amount. Experimental results were compared with expertise rules used by operators to control the industrial process. Indeed, operators often used water amount and air pressure as controlling variables. It was found that experimental results were in agreement with expertise rules. The second aim was to investigate the link between smart lab-measurement methods such as fluorescence spectroscopy and simple macroscopical properties used by operators such as water content, density, spreading time and colour. By applying hierarchical clustering analysis to NADH and tryptophan merged spectra, batter samples manufactured at various water amounts and pressure levels were clearly separated at a high level of discrimination. Neither water content nor spreading time were satisfactorily predicted from NADH or tryptophan spectra using PLS.

Notes: Breadmaking experiments were undertaken to investigate the effect of addition of selected fully hydrogenated palm oil-based emulsifiers (DATEM, SSL and DMG) on the baking performance of open top white breads in terms of volume, oven spring, weight, density, color, crumb texture and shelf life using the strong and weak flours. The bread samples were prepared using straight dough method with standardized formulation for every experiment except varying six usage levels of emulsifier from 0.0% (control sample) up to 1.25% based on flour weight. The properties of bread were objectively measured and quantitatively analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with 5% significance level. Emulsifier performed most effectively at a usage level of 0.50% of flour weight. DATEM was effective as volume and oven spring improver while SSL was effective in improving crumb texture. As overall, emulsifier added breads had larger volume, higher oven spring, lower weight and density, whiter color, finer crumb texture and longer shelf life compared to control breads. The improvement in baking performance with added emulsifier was more prominent for the strong flour compared to weak flour.

Notes: The aim of this study was to employ iota-carrageenan (IC) and wheat protein (WP) as an emulsifier alternative to egg yolk in a model mayonnaise system. A solution of 0.1% IC and 4% WP was prepared and used as an emulsifier in five different mayonnaise formulas. All mayonnaise treatments were evaluated and compared based on lightness and yellowness (i.e., L and b values respectively) at 4, 23, and 40°C. In addition, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was used to model and identify the properties of the resulted mayonnaise, with the temperature and ratios. Experimental validation runs were conducted to compare the measured values and the predicted ones. The L value of the mayonnaise produced from different emulsifiers decreased at the lower storage temperature. The b-value was significantly the highest for mayonnaise formulated from 100% egg yolk. The comparison showed that the adoption of this neuro-fuzzy modeling technique (i.e., ANFIS) achieved a very satisfactory prediction accuracy of about 98%.

Notes: Experiments were conducted to study the drying characteristics of raw cauliflower florets. A mechanical tray dryer was used in this study. The samples were dehydrated at 60, 70, 80 and 90°C air temperatures with blanching pretreatment of two minutes in 0.75 per cent potassium metabisulphite. Drying characteristics were determined with the help of mass transfer data. Moisture content of cauliflower was found to decrease rapidly during the initial 150 minutes. Cauliflower behaved like a hygroscopic non-porous food material during the drying. Drying time of 330 to 510 minutes was required to reduce the moisture content from 92.50 per cent to 5.00 - 6.00 per cent. The moisture diffusivity during drying process was determined and found in the range of 2.54 x10-12 to 3.80 x10-12 m2/s. Quality of the dehydrated samples such as carbohydrate content, ascorbic acid retention and rehydration were also evaluated. The carbohydrate and ascorbic acid content in dehydrated samples ranged from 3.25 to 3.45 g per 100 g and 39.75 - 24.10 mg / 100 g as against 5.40 g / 100 g and 55.55 mg / 100 g respectively, in fresh vegetable indicating a significant loss of nutrients during processing. Product was found to be good in terms of appearance and taste up to 60 days for all the four temperature ranges.

Notes: Cassava is an important food crop, and equipment development for processing it in the developing world requires more research as industrial processing of cassava is still limited. Research efforts made by local engineers need scientific improvement to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at poverty reduction over a stipulated period of time with globally defined measurable indicators of progress. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the Report of the Commission for Africa (popularly referred to as the Tony Blair Report), and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) are targeted at re-positioning Africa in the world economy. The need for rapid cassava processing equipment and new equipment development to significantly improve stages involved in its production process is highlighted in this paper.

Notes: The influence of different cooling techniques (dry ice/ice packs) and storage temperature (-2°C/3°C) to prolong the shelf life of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) fillets were evaluated by sensory analysis, physical methods, chemical and microbial analysis. The effects of storage temperature were stronger than of different cooling agents. Superchilling (-2°C) of fillets packed with dry ice resulted in 6 days extension of shelf life compared to chilling (3°C). The use of dry ice parallel to superchilling prolonged shelf life for 1 day compared to fillets stored with ice packs. No negative effects on quality of the fillets where detected that could be linked to cell destruction caused by partial freezing or to sour taste, caused by absorption of CO2 gas in fish flesh.

Notes: Litchi pulp was treated with various concentration levels of hydrolytic enzymes viz. pectinase (0-0.133%w/w), cellulase (0-0.266%w/w) and hemicellulase (0-0.20%w/w) for different durations (30-150 min) at 45°C. The effect of enzyme treatment conditions was studied on yield, clarity, apparent viscosity and total soluble solids (TSS) of juice obtained from the pulp. The optimum process conditions were determined by employing a second order central composite rotatable design in combination with response surface methodology. Yield, clarity and TSS of juice were found to increase and apparent viscosity was found to decrease significantly by enzymatic treatment. The optimum conditions for enzymatic treatment of pulp obtained after a 2 sided desirability function with the responses juice yield, clarity and TSS to be maximized and viscosity to be minimized were 0.076% (w/w) pectinase, 0.138% (w/w) cellulase, 0.107% (w/w) hemicellulase and incubation time of 106.5 min. The predicted values for juice yield, clarity, viscosity and TSS under optimized conditions were 77.19 %, 93.53%, 1.359mPa s and 19.68°brix which showed a good agreement with the experimental values under the same set of conditions.

Notes: With falling prices of antiretroviral drugs in countries like India, there has been an increasing awareness that antiretroviral therapy can be made available and accessible to a large number of HIV-positive individuals. Prices, however, still remain high enough to keep ART out of reach of a majority of affected individuals in India. This study analyses the demand for antiretroviral therapy (ART) using a contingent valuation approach, by estimating the willingness to pay for ART among a sample of HIV positive individuals in India. The study finds a very high willingness to be on ART, but substantially lower willingness to pay for it. To cover 70 percent of patients would require the price to be around Rs. 500 per month. Economic status generally and of females in particular have a positive relationship with the willingness to pay for drugs, whereas being a female exerts a downward pressure on the demand for ART.

Notes: Empiric equations for the determination of the equilibrium moisture content as a function of temperature and relative humidity of air are normally obtained from experimental data by curve fitting. Once the fitting parameters of a function for a given product are determined, the value of that function for specific values of temperature and humidity of air is obtained by substituting these values into the function, which represents an indirect measurement. Generally, the results of these modelings are stated without the uncertainties inherent in the measurement. This article proposes a method for the determination of these uncertainties. For that, a computer code was developed which calculates the error propagation in first order approximation from the obtained fitting parameters and their covariances. The code was used for the determination of the uncertainties of the equilibrium moisture content of pumpkin seed flour, both for adsorption and desorption. This procedure allows a report of the measurement in agreement with the rules established by international standardization organizations.

Notes: The effects of thermal processing on the physico-chemical properties of cell walls from pineapple flesh tissues have been investigated. Commercially canned pineapple exhibited a similar cell wall composition to the fresh pineapple sample, although a marked increase in cell wall solubility, from 21 to 34%, was detected. Dehydration promoted important changes in cell wall components and related functional properties, in particular when relatively high air-drying temperatures were applied. Thus, samples dried at 60ºC and, in particular at 80ºC, exhibited a larger solubilisation/degradation of pectic polysaccharides, probably due to either ?-elimination processes or enzyme-catalyzed degradation. On a fresh weight basis, about 14% and up to 39% of cell wall pectins were not recovered for the dried pineapple at 60ºC and 80ºC, respectively. Pectins from the latter samples also exhibited a notable decrease in the degree of esterification. These physico-chemical changes were probably reflected on the decrease of functional properties such as swelling (Sw), water retention capacity (WRC) and fat adsorption capacity (FAC). Nevertheless, fresh, canned and dehydrated pineapple at 40ºC exhibited higher WRC and FAC values, about 30 g water/g AIR and 15 g oil/g AIR, respectively. A gradual decrease of Sw, WRC and FAC values was observed for the functional properties of pineapple samples dried at 60 and 80ºC. Moreover, high air-drying temperatures also promoted a significant decrease in cell wall solubility. Therefore, the influence that these effects might have on the nutritional properties of cell walls or dietary fibre of thermally processed fruits such as canned and/or dehydrated pineapple needs to be considered.

Notes: In an effort to balance their budgets many states are considering reducing eligibility for Medicaid. Using variation in state policies, this paper models the effect of more stringent eligibility criteria for Medicaid on the insurance status and the use of antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for people living with HIV, a group heavily dependent on Medicaid. Using nationally representative data from the mid-1990's, we find that stricter eligibility thresholds for Medicaid raise uninsurance rates and reduce the use of antiretroviral therapy among HIV+ patients, especially for those who are disabled. These stricter eligibility thresholds in turn adversely affect the survival prospects of HIV+ patients by lowering the rate of HAART use. Our estimates suggest approximately 13,000 lives could have been saved if all states had adopted the eligibility thresholds of California. We do not find any evidence of a "crowding out" effect of public insurance on private coverage among these patients.

Notes: Many U.S. employers have recently adopted less generous prescription drug benefits. In addition, in 2006 the U.S. began to offer prescription drug insurance to approximately 42 million Medicare beneficiaries. We used data on individual health insurance claims and benefit data from 1997 to 2003 to study how changes in consumers' co-payments for prescription drugs affect use of and expenditure on prescription drugs, inpatient care, and outpatient care. We analyzed the effects both in the year of the co-payment change and in the year following the change. Our results show that increases in prescription drug prices reduce both use of and spending on prescription drugs. They also show that consumers substitute the use of outpatient care for prescription drug use and that about 35% of the expenditure reductions on prescription drugs are offset by increases in other spending.

Notes: This study examines past patterns and projects future prevalence rates of obesity and severe obesity among US adults. Trends in body mass index (BMI), overweight (BMI?25), obesity (BMI?30), class 2 obesity (BMI?35), class 3 obesity (BMI?40) and class 4 obesity (BMI?45) of 20-74 year olds are obtained using data from the first National Health Examination Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Quantile regression methods are then used to forecast future prevalence rates through 2020. By that year, 77.6% of men are predicted to be overweight and 40.2% obese, with class 2, 3 and 4 obesity prevalence rates projected at 16.4%, 6.3% and 3.1%. The corresponding forecasts for women are 71.1%, 43.3%, 25.3%, 12.8% and 5.6%. The large growth predicted for severe obesity represents a major public health challenge, given the accompanying high medical expenditures and elevated risk of mortality and morbidity. Combating severe obesity is likely to require strategies targeting the particularly large weight gains of the heaviest individuals.

Notes: This note identifies three arguments from the monetary reform debate that are particularly relevant to universal basic income (UBI) and explores their contribution to the cumulative case for UBI.

Notes: Many recent policy-related debates have centred on the possibility of constructing post-social insurance and post-means tested forms of income provision. Such asset-based welfare and stakeholding proposals have included Basic Income (BI) and some form of endowment or Capital Grant (CG) scheme. Although the differences between these systems are certainly real, and present us with distinct policy options, they are often overstated. This article has two objectives, therefore - the first of which is to identify the key similarities and differences between BI and CGs, and to argue the case for a partial, non-time-limited and unconditional BI. Second, this article reviews the issue of convertibility, i.e., the main normative questions to consider when designing a system permitting the mortgaging of income streams into lump-sum grants or pools.

Notes: This paper explores the desirability and feasibility of a minimum income for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) region. I review arguments in support of a basic income or a negative income tax for the European Union (EU). Then I examine ways in which the NAFTA countries do and do not resemble the EU in aspects relevant for the desirability and feasibility of a regional basic income. I argue that a case can be made for a North American guaranteed income, grounded, with respect to desirability, in a globalist theory of justice, and with respect to feasibility, in the necessity of moderating the flow of labor migration. A universal regional basic income is a useful tool for regional development that is fair and that insures better than does the current NAFTA that cooperation benefits the least advantaged.

Notes: The reciprocity objection is one of the most widespread criticisms against Basic Income (BI). In this article I challenge the consistency between the reciprocity principle and the preferred policy options of left reciprocity theorists. I argue that any consistent policy design for a reciprocity theory should satisfy two conditions: 1. Everyone who benefits from social resources contributes relevantly (reciprocally) to society's efforts; and 2. Everyone who contributes relevantly to society benefits from social resources. BI is accused by reciprocity theorists of failing to satisfy Condition 1. But, surprisingly, their preferred policy pack also fails to satisfy Condition 1, and seems badly prepared to satisfy Condition 2. Significantly, left reciprocity theorists reject those options that would satisfy both conditions. I suggest that other normative values and intuitions may explain that inconsistency and indicate that the reciprocity objection to BI is wrong for principled reasons.

Notes: The right to freedom of religion is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed in Islam. This is emphasised in verse 256 of Sura al-Baqara: "Let there be no compulsion in religion". However, the majority of classical Muslim jurists opine that the right to freedom of religion is not applicable to Muslims, that Muslims who intend to leave the Islamic faith or who have apostatised should be condemned to the death penalty. In reality, punishment for apostasy is not prescribed in the Qur'an and had not been practised by the Prophet (S.A.W.). Instead, the Prophet (S.A.W.) had imposed the death penalty upon apostates because their acts were contemptuous of, and hostile towards, Islam. Muslims who merely renounced the Islamic religion were only required to undergo a process of repentance (tawba). The right to freedom of religion is guaranteed in Article 11(1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. However, as Islamic matters belong to the state jurisdictions, most provisions in relation to apostasy are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Shari'a Courts. Apostates are subject to punishments such as fine, imprisonment and whipping. This article makes an in-depth study of the right to freedom of religion and the issue of apostasy from the Islamic law perspective, and argues that Muslims who intend to leave the Islamic faith are only required to undergo a process of repentance (tawba), and any punishment prescribed for apostasy is contrary to the right to freedom of religion.

Notes: Generic technology is presented for the optimal screening of reaction and separation process interactions. The proposed scheme enables the use of particularly rich superstructure formulations that are comprised of two types of generic synthesis units with flexible representation modes. A reaction unit enables a detailed representation of the reaction and a conceptual representation of separation systems is facilitated through separation task units. Possible process design interactions are embedded in the superstructure formulations as combinations of generic units. The design options are explored using stochastic optimisation techniques suitable for this class of problems. The synthesis scheme supports the decision making process in early process design stages and prepares problem definitions for later stages. Conceptual screening functionalities reveal design insights into the performance of complex reaction-separation systems based on the limited modelling information available early in design. This enables the identification and inclusion of the relevant design information into the superstructure formulations employed in the subsequent design stages.

Notes: This article presents a solution to pH control based on model-free learning control (MFLC). The MFLC technique is proposed because the algorithm gives a general solution for acid-base systems, yet is simple enough for implementation in existing control hardware. MFLC is based on reinforcement learning (RL), which is learning by direct interaction with the environment. The MFLC algorithm is model free and satisfying incremental control, input and output constraints. A novel solution of MFLC using multi-step actions (MSA) is presented: actions on multiple time scales consist of several identical primitive actions. This solves the problem of determining a suitable fixed time scale to select control actions so as to trade off accuracy in control against learning complexity. An application of MFLC to a pH process at laboratory scale is presented, showing that the proposed MFLC learns to control adequately the neutralization process, and maintain the process in the goal band. Also, the MFLC controller smoothly manipulates the control signal.

Notes: This article demonstrates, using simulations, the potential of the S-system formalism for the inference of unknown chemical reaction networks from simple experimental data, such as that typically obtained from laboratory scale reaction vessels. Virtually no prior knowledge of the products and reactants is assumed. S-systems are a power law formalism for the canonical approximate representation of dynamic non-linear systems. This formalism has the useful property that the structure of a network is dictated only by the values of the power law parameters. This means that network inference problems (e.g. inference of the topology of a chemical reaction network) can be recast as parameter estimation problems. The use of S-systems for network inference from data has been reported in a number of biological fields, including metabolic pathway analysis and the inference of gene regulatory networks. Here, the methodology is adapted for use as a hybrid modelling tool to facilitate the reverse engineering of chemical reaction networks using time series concentration data from fed-batch reactor experiments. The principle of the approach is demonstrated with noisy simulated data from fed-batch reactor experiments using a hypothetical reaction network comprising 5 chemical species involved in 4 parallel reactions. A co-evolutionary algorithm is employed to evolve the structure and the parameter values of the S-system equations concurrently. The S-system equations are then interpreted in order to construct a network diagram that accurately reflects the underlying chemical reaction network.

Notes: Like many globalized industries, the pulp and paper sector finds itself with an increasingly demanding clientele, who continually expect a better and cheaper product. An important design strategy being employed to address this objective is through an analysis of the vast quantity of process and product data accumulated in plant-wide data historians, in order to improve operations. Mill processes are multivariate, meaning that the interactions between the variables are as important as the variables themselves. Process relationships must therefore be modeled as a group, using an appropriate simulation technique like Multivariate Analysis (MVA), with suitable data pre-processing to account for process upsets and other disturbances. In a previous paper, using an Eastern Canadian newsprint mill as an industrial case study, we showed that it was possible to find statistically significant correlations between wood chip refiner operation, intermediate pulp quality, and final paper quality using data-driven models. This was true even though some important process parameters went unmeasured, process lags changed with time, and the operation of key equipment items changed gradually with use. The present study compares the use of different timescales and combinations of unit operations to determine which ones yield the best MVA simulations. Because plant operating data were used, and experimental design was not practical, it is possible that some of the correlations found could be attributable to coincidence. We therefore added and removed variables and time periods to explore the validity of the models. The best MVA models were obtained by using a shorter (1-hour) data timescale, although use of a weighted-average filter helped to bridge the gap between these faster readings and the slower paper quality trends.

Notes: The manuscript is focused on the optimization of a batch distillation column that is actually formulated in terms of control problem. The final objective is finding the optimal time-dependent reflux profile. In order to fulfill the call for simplicity and functionality from the industries, the reflux profile was approximated by means of a piece-wise function with three time intervals. A first-principles model, derived from the literature, proved to be a good trade-off between computational effort and accuracy. The capacity factor (CAP), defined as the on-specification products produced per time unit, is the performance index that must be maximized. The optimization problem was solved by a specifically modified Simplex method that demonstrated a good behavior in case of discontinuous objective function. Finally, a graphical analysis of the capacity factor was performed to show the irregularities of such a function.

Notes: The problem of the on-line estimation of the reaction heat in a continuous stirred tank reactor from temperature measurements is addressed in this paper. The proposed uncertainty observer is based on differential algebraic techniques, such that the algebraic observability condition of the uncertainty from noisy temperature measurements is easily verified and the observer structure is very simple, which lead to feasible implementation. The observer proposed is robust against noisy measurements and sustained disturbances. The good performance of the observer is shown by means of numerical simulations and is compared with a nonlinear Luenberger-type observer.

Notes: In this paper, a simple dynamic controllability analysis is developed to analyze the achievable control performance of different control structures for multi-unit processes. Based on the concept of passive systems, this approach extends the concepts of Decentralized Integral Controllability (DIC) and Block-Decentralized Integral Controllability (BDIC) so that process dynamics are considered. By using particular multipliers that represent different control structures, the frequency ranges in which perfect control may be achieved by multi-loop, multi-unit (block diagonal) and multivariable controllers are estimated. This bandwidth indicates the swiftness of the feedback control systems (e.g., the time the control systems take to reject a disturbance).

Notes: We model the increase in temperature in compost piles or landfill sites due to micro-organisms undergoing exothermic reactions. The model incorporates the heat release due to biological activity within the pile and the heat release due to the oxidation of cellulosic materials. The heat release rate due to biological activity is modelled by a function which is a monotonic increasing function of temperature over a particular range and followed by a monotone decreasing function of temperature. This functionality represents the fact that micro-organisms die or become dormant at high temperatures. The heat release due to the oxidation reaction is modelled by the usual manner using Arrhenius kinetics. The bifurcation behaviour is investigated for two-dimensional slab geometries to determine the critical sizes of the compost piles.

Notes: A fluidized bed reactor for phosphate precipitation and removal from wastewater is modeled according to a two-step procedure. The first modeling phase, based on the development of a thermodynamic model for the computation of phosphate conversion, previously presented elsewhere is not reported here. The second step is related to the reactor modeling in the core of this paper. The pellet reactor is modeled as a reactor network involving a set of elementary cells representing ideal flow patterns. All the potential solutions are imbedded into a superstructure and the modeling problem is expressed as a MINLP problem. The MINLP problem is solved by means of the GAMS package, first for two flow rate values corresponding to two experimental fluidized bed behaviours, and then for the two flow rates considered simultaneously. In each case, the problem consists in finding an output concentration as close as possible to the experimental output concentration. Three objective functions are studied. The results are compared with those of Montastruc et al. (2004) who used a different numerical procedure. Whatever the considered case, the solutions found are structurally simpler than the ones of Montastruc et al. (2004). A major assessment of this study is that the reactor efficiency can easily be deduced, without any precise knowledge of some key parameters such as the density and thickness of the calcium phosphate layer. Finally a last numerical study concerning the superstructure definition shows that too complex a superstructure does not provide significant refinements on the solution.

Notes: The Morse potential energy function (PEF) is considered regarding the characterization of interaction forces of particles with tuning parameters. Phase coexistence of Morse fluids is predicted for different steepness and range of the PEF parameters using the grand-canonical transition matrix Monte Carlo (GC-TMMC) method, with quantification of the parameter S, which is the product of a constant with a unit of reciprocal length and the equilibrium distance between two molecules. We found that a lower limit of S exists bounded by infinite critical temperature. The critical properties of the vapor-liquid equilibrium curves are estimated using a rectilinear diameter method and a scaling law approach. A Clausius-Clayperon type relation of S and critical temperature is derived in this work. Vapor-liquid surface tension of Morse fluids by finite size scaling and GC-TMMC is also reported. Surface tensions are found to be higher at lower S.

Notes: The objective of this study is to simulate the green petroleum coke calcining processes using the simulation program HYSYS and using actual industrial data. Because counter-current mass flow is not allowed in the HYSYS program, the kiln was described by using fictive streams and unit operations. By the simulation, it is possible to predict the operating conditions that control the contents of undesirable impurities in the calcined petroleum coke, namely, sulfur, volatile matter and moisture contents. It also gives the desirable calcined petroleum coke properties such as density. Apart from the metal contents, the simulation allows the coke calciner to utilize any type of green coke regardless of the undesirable impurities. This is done without resorting to the costly blend from different types of green cokes. Simulation is also effective in controlling and optimizing calcination processes' variables. From the simulation it was found that it is possible to process any type of green coke for varying sulfur, volatile matter and water content by adjusting the amount of tertiary air and/or fuel. Two simulation cases were studied for low and high volatile matter contents of 8.5 and 14.7 wt% in the feed. Mass flow rates of fuel and tertiary air were both increased in the first case, while no fuel was required in the second case. The benefit from this is to reduce the operating costs.

Notes: Dynamic simulation and optimization of a hydrogenation reactor system were developed and investigated in the present work. The process mainly consists of three adiabatic fixed bed hydrogenation reactors in series in addition to one heater before the first reactor and three coolers after each reactor for interstage cooling. The feed flow rate to the unit, the feed temperature or the carbon monoxide content of the feed may change and cause variations of the outlet temperature of reactors. Therefore, it is essential to control the inlet temperature of each reactor. There is a temperature controller before each reactor and also one after the third reactor. The tuning parameters of the controllers were optimized in three different cases, taking into account the process constraints. In each case, a special disturbance was forced to the process. Because of catalyst deactivation, the inlet temperature of reactors must be increased during the running period in order to have the desired conversion. Therefore, the optimal inlet temperature profile was determined based on SOR, MOR and EOR data. Optimization of the process was done by the use of a hybrid GA-SQP method. The new hybrid method was developed to overcome the difficulties of both methods. The genetic algorithm (GA) which is a stochastic method, is relatively slow, but is not sensitive to the initial point. In contrast, sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method is a deterministic method which is fast, but very sensitive to the initial point and gets trapped in local optima. In the newly developed hybrid method, the SQP method speeds the solving procedure, while the GA enables the algorithm to escape from local optima. An industrial acetylene hydrogenation system was used to provide the necessary data to adjust kinetics and to validate the approach.

Notes: A new simulation method for investigating mixed aqueous electrolyte systems at thermodynamic equilibrium is presented. Based on the commercial simulation package IPSEpro, a graphical procedure for assembling equilibrium systems followed by simultaneous solution of the underlying equation system was developed. At graphical setup, species and reactions objects are connected by the information of activity and stoichiometry in a network-like manner. Consequently, the resulting equations of mass action, the electro-neutrality and balance conditions are solved incorporating the Pitzer activity coefficient model and equilibrium constants from thermodynamic standard data. The method developed allows fast and flexible application of the complex thermodynamic principles to engineering tasks. The modeling approach and all basic models for graphical input and simultaneous solution of coupled equilibrium conditions are explained. For demonstration of the simulation method, example simulations for the systems of H2SO4-H2O, CaSO4-H2SO4-H2O and NaCl-CaSO4-CO2-H2O are described and evaluated successfully.

Notes: This paper examines the legal impediments facing the acceptability of intellectual property as collateral in Malaysia. As Malaysia practises a dual banking system, conventional and Islamic, both running parallel to each other, the position of intellectual property under the Islamic banking system will also be analysed. This, in turn, requires a deeper elaboration of principles relating to collateral security or rahn in Shari'ah law. The paper also proceeds to explore the suitability, acceptability and practical risks of allowing intellectual property as a form of security in comparison to "physical assets".

Notes: The Rule of Law is considered a major aspect of modern governance. For every legal system, it is important whether the Rule of Law is attained and how far it has been attained. Though there are various indicators and indexes of the Rule of Law they all have their limitations. This paper reported a study conducted in Hong Kong in 2005, combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies, to assess the level of attainment of the Rule of Law in Hong Kong. It is found that the level of attainment is high but a downward trend is also discovered. A main objective of developing this new methodology in assessing Rule of Law, is that it could be used for tracking the development of the Rule of Law in a particular legal system and facilitating comparison between legal systems.

Notes: This is a reply to the discussion piece Life Span Extension Research and Public Debate: Societal Considerations, Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology by Audrey de Grey. Having read the article there seem to be four messages. The first being, that longevity/immortality research faces rejection, resistance and neglect from `classic anti-aging' researchers, policy makers, the funding system and the public. The second being that the `pro-aging' trance is illogical; the third being that not pushing for longevity and immortality research is immoral; and the fourth being that so far no valid reason for opposing longevity and immortality has been generated and that we will deal with potential problems if and when they appear. My message in this invited comment is 1) that de Grey is right with his first point; 2) that his second point is debatable and depends on certain assumptions; 3) that his third point is even on weaker feet and debatable (Morals and ethics are social and cultural constructions and depending on ones frame of reference something can be seen as moral and ethical or not. This is a whole different paper as to who decides which morals and ethics are right and wrong and can't be covered here.) and 4) that the longevity and immortality research exhibits the same discourse problems as the other new and emerging technology discourses, namely that its makes light of potential and real social risks that it tailors to a minority of the world and ignores the marginalized majority of the world.

Notes: A computer package based on visual basic code is developed for single and multiple effect evaporation desalination systems (SEE and MEE). The package features design calculations of heat transfer area, power consumption, and costing. The package is user-friendly and is equipped with interactive menus for report and form printing, file saving and retrieving, help files, and tutorial. The computer code is designed to run a default design case and also allows the user to change variables within pre-specified practical ranges. A rigorous process model is used in the package, which is based on detailed fundamental material and energy balance equations, well-proven correlations for the heat transfer coefficients, physical properties, and thermodynamic losses. Illustrations of the package displays are presented together with a number of case studies. Model predictions generated from the code are validated against actual field data and they showed a very good agreement. Future plans involve development of design simulator for the multistage flash desalination (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO).

Notes: Supercritical fluid extraction (SCFE) has been introduced as an excellent method especially for food and pharmaceutical industries. Trout powder was selected as a source of high amount of valuable materials such as essential fatty acids (FAs). In this work, a mathematical model is introduced to simulate the transitional behavior of the extraction process. This model is able to explain the variation of FAs concentration profile in the bulk and solid phases versus the time of extraction. Effects of main operational parameters such as pressure (280 to 340 bar) and temperature (310 to 326 K) on the extraction yields were investigated in the supercritical fluid extraction system of laboratory scale and the results were compared with that information obtained from the solution of the model. In order to describe solid-solvent interactions, a linear equilibrium relationship was used in the model. Partial differential mass balance equations for the solid and fluid phases were solved numerically using an implicit method. The effective diffusivity into the particle pores and mass transfer coefficient to the bulk phase were the model parameters and they were correlated at different temperatures and pressures by fitting the results of the model to the experiments. The axial diffusivity and equilibrium coefficient of solid-solvent were kept constant in whole range of the operational conditions and they were estimated as the model constants.

Notes: Flexible manufacturing and processing, which are becoming crucial for companies that wish to remain competitive in today's changing market environment, require the detailed modeling of process operations, as well as the incorporation of utility consumption modeling and energy integration strategies. In this paper, a comprehensive modeling environment for heat and power integration in batch and semi-continuous processes is presented. Moreover, a general procedure concerning utility generation and utility system design optimization is described. This framework has been tested and evaluated as part of an industrial case study. The results obtained indicate that the general design methodology developed is effective for process integration of time-dependent processes with combined heat and power.

Notes: This paper's account of the core issues at stake in relation to genetic enhancement is presented as an alternative to mainstream liberal defenses of enhancement. The mainstream arguments are identified as being associated with reproductive autonomy, individual choice, and a `neutral', passive interpretation of technology. The alternative account is associated with the perspective of `woman' or child-bearer, with a fundamental concern for social justice, and an understanding of society in both a global and a contextual sense. This paper adopts a theoretical framework informed by feminist ethics, particularly a feminist ethic of care. The paper begins by outlining some of the key points of the care perspective, highlighting how this contrasts with a mainstream `justice' perspective, and illustrating how this is reflected in arguments relating to genetic enhancement. The paper then turns to a consideration of how a care perspective might be applied to questions of genetic enhancement, and how this may bring forward new issues. This includes in particular a consideration of IVF technologies and how applying understandings from research into this area brings forward usually unaddressed concerns in considering genetic enhancement. The final section of the paper covers some of the questions that there is space to ask once the narrow focus on individual rights is overcome.

Notes: The article looks at Schumpeterian growth. What makes nations rise is their ability to use technological progress to create growth industries. But industrial leadership does not automatically translate into future industrial leadership, as technological progress means that the key industries never remain the same. I compare Britain, France, Germany, the U.S. and Japan during five periods of industrial leadership, from the Industrial Revolution until today, to analyze why certain nations have been better able to rise to industrial leadership, and stay there, than others. The theoretical framework blends Joseph Schumpeter and Mancur Olson's work to yield three theoretical propositions which receive broad empirical support. First, human capital is crucial. Second, the state must prevent vested interests from blocking structural economic change. Third, the states that have managed to do so have been characterized by political consensus and social cohesion. This is because consensus and cohesion provides the state with more autonomy for independent policy-making.

Notes: Past discussions about economic efficiency and personal injury torts have focused on the relationship between the optimal amount of care a potential injurer should take for economic efficiency. Typically this discussion has assumed that the economic damages are strictly monetary without any full consideration of how these damages should be measured. This paper constructs a general model which incorporates as an unknown the amount of monetary damages that an injurer should pay in the interest of economic efficiency. The optimal amount of damages need to be known to serve as signal for the amount of care a potential injurer should take. The model shows that the optimal damage award should be at that point where that marginal utility of money paid out by the injurer equals the marginal utility of the money received by the victim under his utility function after the accident and not considering any non-monetary damages.

Notes: This case provides information used to evaluate a small company, with two owners (50/50) who have different ideas about the future of the company, Multicines Aalto, S.A. The case summarizes the opinions of the partners during the long hours of negotiation for acceptable business value for both of them. In particular, they were worried about what consideration to give to the unique situation of the film exhibition industry in Spain, and the alternatives available to the company and to each partner, not to mention how to raise the money to pay for the operation, providing it was a good idea...

Notes: The last decade of the twentieth century was characterised by a resurgence of multipartism in Africa. The return of political parties produced a discontinuity not only in the continent's political life, but also in the study of African politics. A number of new researches were carried out that were largely based on existing theories and concepts in political science. These new works thus contributed to an increased integration of the study of politics south of the Sahara with mainstream political science. The present article provides an overview of the insights and advances that these studies have produced, focusing on the key issues raised by the return of party pluralism in Africa and on the utility of existing models, theories and approaches for its understanding. There is little doubt that recent research efforts have advanced our knowledge of the changing politics of the continent. However, neither the elaboration of theoretical frameworks nor the detail of empirical knowledge has achieved adequate levels of development as yet.

Notes: The article challenges the contention that individual amendments are crucial for a system of exchanging favors with the Administration by members of Congress interested in distributive policies as a way of guaranteeing their reelection. By analyzing funds allocated through Congressional amendments, their distribution in different government programs, and roll-call votes in the Brazilian House of Representatives from 1996 to 2001, the authors show that: individual amendments are not prioritized either by Congress in the budget's approval or by the Administration in its implementation; there are no differences between the agenda dictated by the Administration and that of the legislators; and party affiliation explains both House floor votes and the implementation of individual amendments and is thus an explanatory variable in the Executive-Legislative relationship.

Notes: The basic proposition of this article is that the democratic potential of professionalization clearly outweighs the problems, at least in the Danish case, but probably also more generally. Thus, my claim is that the professionalization of political communication contributes positively to the development of the public sphere and more democratic communication in the political system as well as the journalistic system. This claim is, however, not based on critical public sphere theory, but rather sociological systems theory headed first and foremost by Niklas Luhmann. Thus, the article introduces the functionalistic strategy of analysis of systems theory as an alternative to what could be called the utopian method of critical public sphere theory. In the final instance, the choice between these two traditions is simply a matter of analytical approach.

Notes: This paper seeks to offer a different perspective on China's energy policy and of the role played by security issues in its definition. Hence, it will impart particular attention to conceptions and ideas held by the actors involved in the energy policy decision-making process. It will demonstrate that the different measures that make up Chinese energy policy are the result of a debate among proponents of three frames - a strategic vision, a market approach, and a conception of "scientific development"- simultaneously exhibited within China's energy policy community. Each one of these frames sheds light in a unique fashion on the objective conditions confronting Chinese decision-makers by identifying some of them as problematic while leaving others in the shadows, and, at the same time, they offer solutions articulated in their own terms.

Notes: This paper investigates the ways in which terrorism is linked to education and poverty using data newly culled from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) documentary sources. The paper presents a statistical analysis of the determinants of participation in terrorist activities by members of the Hamas and PIJ between the late 1980s and May 2002. The resulting evidence suggests that both higher education and standard of living are positively associated with participation in Hamas or PIJ and with becoming a suicide bomber, while being married significantly reduces the probability of participation in terrorist activities.

Notes: This paper builds on several existing empirical models that have been widely used in studying the causes of civil war and/or internal political instability. It begins by showing that some widespread models have been inadequate in both accurately modeling causal relations and time dependence among several kinds of events, and to take advantage of some highly disaggregated (daily) datasets. It does so thanks to graphical comparisons of several existing models and dataset arrangements, followed by an intuitive graphical representation of the proposed model. Then, mathematical tools are used to compare the latter to a particular Generalized Linear Model. It is shown how the proposed model can be implemented practically, and it is finally applied to the period 1962-1997 to study the impact of International Financial Institutions' Structural Adjustment Programs on the risk of civil war.

Notes: The international community injects millions of dollars into the Middle East region every year. The main objective of this funding is to create a desirable impact either in economic or socio-political parameters. The standard economic tools are limited to the economics impact only; therefore a more comprehensive method is required. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method together with a ranking method, we developed a credible systematic tool that can be used by the international community to achieve maximum efficiency under certain budget constraints.

Notes: The auto industry is usually considered to be a global industry. Yet the majority of passenger cars are still manufactured and sold in industrialised states where its largest firms are headquartered. The central claim made is that despite the auto industry being comprised of multinational corporations, there are clear national differences in the motivations firms cite for environmental initiatives. US firms are more focused on traditional material factors, especially market forces. However, German and Japanese firms are more focused on social concerns and internally-driven strategies. They have more normative, non-market rationales for their environmental initiatives. By analysing what firms themselves say motivates them to improve the environmental performance of their products, via a qualitative analysis of recent environmental reports by German, US and Japanese firms, as well as interviews conducted with key personnel, the conclusion reached is as follows. While the question of 'greenwashing' versus real commitment to reduce the environmental impact of the industry's products remains relevant, the institutional basis of capitalist relations in their home state (i.e. their home state's variety of capitalism) suggests different nationally appropriate and conducive paths to environmental commitments.

Notes: By analyzing the interaction between a business firm and multiple government institutions (including a regulatory agency, an executive and a bicameral legislature), we develop predictions about how firms target their political strategies at different branches of government when seeking more favorable public policies. The core of our argument is that firms will target their resources at the institution that is 'pivotal' in the policy-making process. We develop a simple framework, drawing on the political science literature, which identifies pivotal institutions in different types of political environments. We find empirical support for our thesis in an analysis of how U.S. accounting firms shifted their political campaign contributions between the House and Senate in response to the threat of new regulations governing auditor independence during the 1990s.

Notes: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, products and practices are increasingly being used across the United States and worldwide by individuals who are healthy, as well as by those who are ill (Barnes, Powell-Griner, McFann & Nahin et al., 2004; Burstein, Gelber, Guadagnoli, & Weeks, 1999; Eisenberg, et al., 1998; Ernst & Cassileth, 1998; Kessler, et al., 2001; Richardson & Straus, 2002). This trend, which is anticipated to continue, reflects changing health care behavior. Individuals, who are experiencing illness, use CAM for treatment, management of illness related symptoms and to enhance quality of life. Those who are well also use CAM to promote health, and prevent disease. This increasing prevalence of CAM has created a need to identify patterns and predictors of use among the diverse populations of users. Concurrently, this trend evokes questions about the effect of CAM on the utilization of conventional health services and providers, health outcomes and quality of life. This paper presents an emerging conceptual framework, referred to as the CAM Healthcare Model. This model aims to identify factors associated with the use of CAM providers, therapies, products and practices within a health services framework, thereby providing a guide for CAM research and practice. The CAM Healthcare Model is a modification of Andersen's Behavioral Model for Health Service Use, a framework that has guided research on conventional health services for more than three decades (Andersen, 1969, 1995). The CAM Healthcare Model identifies factors influencing the use of CAM health services and resources that are provider-directed, and CAM use as a self-directed health care activity and/or practice. The authors propose that CAM use, with or without a provider, has the potential to affect utilization of conventional health services as it offers more choices to healthcare consumers. These choices ultimately affect healthcare outcomes, research, health service delivery and policy, hence the importance of this work Understanding the trends and implications of CAM use further emphasizes the need for a model to study CAM within a health service/resource context.

Notes: Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the developed world. With the emergence of herbal preparations, the number of people using these products to improve their health is growing. The purpose of this study is to investigate a product that contains a number of ingredients that singly have been shown to lower lipids.A commercial combination herbal extract containing phytosterols, fiber, and other plant extracts with lipid-lowering properties was investigated using a double blind placebo-controlled clinical study. There were two active phases and one placebo phase, each two months in length. Two groups of subjects were studied; one group was taking statin drugs and the other was not taking any cholesterol-lowering drugs but had high cholesterol. Safety was investigated with a battery of tests including blood chemistry, coagulation, hematology, blood pressure and weight. Efficacy for heart disease risk factors were evaluated and included lipids, homocysteine, and C-reactive protein. Glucose was also measured. There were no significant side effects with the active supplement and no changes in liver enzymes indicating a lack of toxicity. The product (11 g) taken daily and compared to placebo significantly lowered cholesterol, LDL and the risk ratio, and glucose only in the group not taking statins. There was no significant change vs. the placebo for two other heart disease risk factors, homocysteine and high sensitivity C-reactive protein. After combining both subject groups, the product lowered total cholesterol 4.8% (p 〈 0.001), decreased LDL 8.3% (p 〈 0.001) and lowered the cholesterol/HDL (heart disease risk ratio) 9.4% (p 〈 0.001). Triglycerides were also improved and declined 11.6%, but the change was not significant. Glucose was also significantly decreased 4.8% (p 〈 0.001). The product with low doses of herbal ingredients was shown to be safe and effective for improving the lipid profile and thus decreasing the risk of heart disease. An additional benefit was that glucose was lowered by the supplement.

Notes: The topic of this symposium has allowed me to indulge myself in addressing a number of pet complaints, ranging from the pernicious effects of Sherlock Holmes on the self-image of forensic scientists, to the dangers of relying on fiction in the teaching of evidence. It is not often that one has the opportunity to deal with such a diverse catalogue of peeves in a single piece, and still claim that they are central to the topic set out by a symposium organizer. We owe this to the special nature of the subject for this symposium: A novel about the actual investigation of a real criminal case by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who of course is best remembered as the writer who created Sherlock Holmes, a fictional character (for those of you who were unsure). What we are to examine is art imitating life imitating art imitating life.The first ``art" in that sentence is the art brought to bear by the novelist Julian Barnes in the creation of his 2005 novel Arthur & George. This novel is a novel of a particular sort. It is based on an actual episode of crime and punishment, and is peopled dominantly with characters who had real historical existence. If all fictional art must imitate life in some broad sense, in order to be intelligible as fiction about worlds bearing on our own, such a work as Arthur & George promises to ``imitate life" in a special way not applicable to other fiction. Thus, such a novel is a creative exercise under the special constraint of staying reasonably close to the historical record, and we will have occasion to examine how well Barnes performs under this constraint.In order to know how well Barnes' art imitates life in this special way, we will have to know something about the lives being imitated, and their relevant factual details and contexts. The central characters to be examined are, of course, Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, George was the elder son of an unlikely couple in Victorian rural Staffordshire. His father, Shapurji Edalji, was a Bombay-born Parsi convert to Christianity who became a minister of the Church of England, found himself essentially stranded in England after his ordination, and in 1874 married a twenty-nine-year-old Englishwoman named Charlotte Stoneham. As a wedding gift, one of Charlotte's clergyman uncles arranged for the appointment of Shapurji to be his replacement as vicar of St. Mark's parish in the village of Great Wyrley, Staffordshire, upon the uncle's retirement. Shapurji became vicar in December of 1875 when Charlotte was nearing the end of her first pregnancy. George was born in the vicarage of St. Mark's on January 22, 1876. The story of the Edalji family, from George's childhood to his conviction in connection with a series of nocturnal animal maimings in 1903, is in some ways almost literally incredible, and it is one of two main foci of Barnes' novel. Of necessity, the day-to-day details of the lives of George and his family, and the community in which they were embedded, are less well-known and well-documented than those of the much more famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As might be expected, the relative paucity of information seems to have tempted Barnes to give himself wide latitude in portraying those lives and that community. Whether Barnes yielded too far to that temptation in ways that violate the special constraints of such a work, by failing to investigate and take into account the actual details of what is known, is a subject to which the article devotes considerable examination.Conan Doyle next. And Holmes. The special popular allure of the Edalji case arises from the fact that Conan Doyle decided that George had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice, and set out to right it by investigating the ``real facts" of the case. In essence, the creator of Sherlock Holmes set out to play Sherlock Holmes in real life. So if Conan Doyle's fictional Holmes himself in some way claimed to imitate life (as I have already said all fiction in some sense must), now Conan Doyle was setting out to imitate the product of his literary art, Sherlock Holmes, in real life. In order to see the significance of these characters, real and fictional, (whichever is which in the given context), the article examines at length the meaning of Holmes in late Victorian culture and thereafter, and also examines Conan Doyle at length, to see how he compares to Holmes, and to the Conan Doyle of Arthur & George.

Notes: The Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) carried forward three unfortunate practices from previous war crimes tribunals. The IHT allowed hearsay evidence and the reading of ex parte affidavits as evidence, two of the most criticized practices of the Nuremberg Tribunal. The IHT also allowed the admission of testimony by anonymous witnesses, a legacy of the Yugoslavia Tribunal which has since been rejected by that same court. This article argues that the admission of such evidence by the IHT was improper and wholly unnecessary given the extensive documentary evidence in the case. The article concludes that the IHT and other tribunals should explicitly detail the evidence which was not relied upon in making major factual findings, particularly when dealing with unreliable evidence. Only through such explicit rejection can tribunals prove that a defendant can get a ``fair trial on the evidence."

Notes: To control tailpipe pollution, governments often use environmental product standards and consumption taxes in conjunction (for example, the use of fuel economy standards and gasoline taxes to restrict automobile pollution in the US). Further, the choice of standards and consumption taxes is often independently influenced by special interests. For example, domestic producers have the incentive to influence environmental product standards, and likewise, domestic consumers have the incentive to influence the choice of the consumption tax. In this paper we explore the political link between environmental standards and consumption taxes in the presence of independent special interests. We find that despite the independence of special interests, the political outcome is inextricably linked. This political link is different from the welfare maximizing second-best link usually expected between two related policies, and is crucial in correctly anticipating policy outcomes. Specifically, we find that the government's choice of an environmental standard influences political incentives in the choice of the consumption tax. As the environmental standard falls, a higher demand for the environmentally damaging product develops. This higher demand increases the incentives for consumers to lobby for lower consumption tax. Under certain conditions, this political link is large enough to result in a complementary relationship between the two policies in equilibrium. The complementary relationship implies that a lower standard results in a lower consumption tax and vice versa when the standard is higher.

Notes: Prior to implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), many estimates of the marginal cost of SO2 abatement were provided to guide policy makers. Numerous studies estimated the marginal cost of abatement to be between $250 and $760 per ton, though permits initially traded well below $200 and remained below $220 until 2004. We use a fixed effects estimator and a hedonic price model of coal purchases in order to determine the implicit price of sulfur. Data on contract coal purchases are divided into regulatory regimes based on when the contract was signed or re-negotiated. We find that purchases by Phase I plants made under contracts signed or re-negotiated after the passage of the 1990 CAAA show an implicit price of SO2 of approximately $50 per ton, an amount much closer to the eventual permit price. The implicit market price of sulfur seems to have revealed better information than did the calculations of industry experts.

Notes: This paper re-examines the labor supply responses in the Seattle and Denver Income Maintenance Experiments (SIME/DIME). Specifically, the original experimental results show a significantly larger labor supply response for men and women from dual-headed households in the five-year Negative Income Tax (NIT) treatment relative to those in the three-year NIT treatment. Although typically thought of only as an NIT experiment, the SIME/DIME also included a job training experiment that enrolled roughly 60 percent of households, including both NIT treatment and control households. The original empirical specification imposed strong assumptions on the treatment response to the job training experiment in order to increase the precision of the estimated parameters. Once these assumptions are relaxed, the labor supply differences between men in the three- and five-year NIT treatments fall by over 50 percent in magnitude and become statistically insignificant. The analogous differences for women are almost entirely explained by these specification changes. Whereas the original findings of the SIME/DIME were inconsistent with the standard life-cycle labor supply model, the results of the re-analysis are mostly consistent with the model.

Notes: Does the Internet provide a failsafe against media consolidation in the wake of an easing of media ownership rules? This paper posits a model of news outlet selection on the Internet in which consumers experience cognitive costs that increase with the number of options faced. Consistent with psychological evidence, these costs may be reduced by constraining one's choice set to "safe bets" familiar from offline (e.g., CNN.com). It is shown that, as the number of outlets grows, dispersion of patronage across outlets inevitably declines. Consequently, independent Internet outlets may fail to mitigate lost outlet independence on other media.

Notes: This paper analyzes the effects of human capital on welfare dynamics in Canada using data from the Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP). SSP offered a time-limited earnings supplement to a randomly assigned group of new welfare applicants who remained on welfare for one year and, in the subsequent year, left welfare for full-time employment. The results suggest that high school completion has no significant impact on the exit rate from welfare or on the re-entry rate. Moreover, full-time work experience is found to reduce the risk of returning to welfare but not for respondents who were assigned to the treatment group. This finding suggests that the provision of an earnings subsidy encourages welfare recipients to accept low-wage jobs with little gains from work experience. Thus, the rationale for such a policy that work today will raise experience and consequently future wages is not supported by the results in this paper.

Notes: This study presents a model of optimal contracting for health services in the presence of excess demand and waiting times. We assume that: i) hospitals differ in their demand for treatment; ii) potential demand is private information of the provider; iii) specialists can dump patients; iv) activity and waiting times are contractible. A separating equilibrium exists when it is optimal for the purchaser to contract more activity and longer waiting times to those hospitals with higher demand. Hospitals with low demand gain informational rents. A pooling equilibrium may also occur.

Notes: This paper revisits the 'jobs versus the environment' debate and provides the first analysis for a country other than the US. We firstly examine the impact of environmental regulations on employment assuming such regulations are exogenous. However, for the first time in a study of this nature, we then allow environmental regulation costs and employment to be endogenously determined. Environmental regulation costs are not found to have a statistically significant effect on employment whether such costs are treated as being exogenous or endogenous. We therefore find no evidence of a trade-off between jobs and the environment.

Notes: In this paper we study a model of rational consumption and quitting in the context of harmful addictive goods. We assume that a person has imperfect information about his ability to resist and terminate the addiction. We first characterize the optimal consumption path of a non-addicted person, along which his stock of the addictive substance is either always increasing (and thus addiction occurs stochastically), always decreasing, or always unchanged. We then characterize the optimal consumption path of an addicted person, along which he may attempt to quit the addiction for a period of time, and then resume his consumption if the attempt is unsuccessful. Finally, we remark on the issues of regret, multiple attempts to quit, and quitting programs.

Notes: We study how local environmental pollution affects spatial patterns of economic activities when workers can migrate. Based on a New Economic Geography model, we analytically characterize the stability conditions for three different types of equilibria: symmetric spreading, partial and full agglomeration. We show that the extent of agglomeration crucially depends on the damages caused by local pollution. We thereby provide a unified framework for discussing different relationships between the extent of agglomeration and trade freeness that have been found in the literature.

Notes: Banks supply liquidity to insure individuals against possible short-term consumption shocks. The higher this level of illiquidity insurance the lower the investments in long run assets, and the higher the risk of a bank run generated by a real negative shock. If individuals are sufficiently risk averse, competitive banks trade off liquidity insurance for portfolio risk. High growth expectations, typical of emerging economies, increase the optimal liquidity supply even when this increases the risk of a bank run. On the contrary, deposit contracts offered when economic performances are very uncertain (like in less developed economies), and where output fluctuations are milder (like in developed economies), are less exposed to the risk of a bank run. In this setting, a bail-out in case of crisis is ex-ante Pareto efficient even if it always increases the risk of crisis.

Notes: The use and evaluation of an innovative Web-based technology and its suitability for promoting realism when interacting in clinical nursing situations are described. Also discussed are the development, implementation and evaluation of online role-play simulation. Student and faculty-centered insights are shared about the simulation and the technology supporting it. This Web-based learning experience validated literature review findings and offered new understanding about extended learning, projected realism, diversity, seriousness, non-verbal prompting, and evaluation.This simulation used the Fablusi platform in which students experienced the outcomes of their decisions and actions. This Web-based technology can be adapted for different student groups to enhance learning.