Library

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: Several parameters related to the physicochemical properties of Josapine pineapple juice, such as moisture content, total soluble solids (TSS), pH, color, water activity, freezing point, sugar content and acidity, were evaluated over a week of ambient storage at 25oC and 52% RH. The results indicated that Josapine pineapples take about 11 days to progress from maturity stage 1 to stage 7. The moisture content of fruit increased from 93.5% wb to 95.1% wb over the 11 days period. Analysis on the color of the juice showed the color space coordinate parameter b varies between 9.11 to 15.8, parameter a increased from -3.33 to -3.68 and the 'L' value decreased from 39.46 to 38.7 at the initial ripening stage but increased to 40.9 in the later stages. The TSS increased at the early ripening stage but decreased toward the end of ripening period. Freezing point, water activity and pH of juice range were -2.77 to - 2.90 oC, 0.988 to 0.997 and 3.81 to 4.10 respectively. The total sugar and acidity in juice range were 12.5 to 17% and 0.69 to 0.90% respectively. The TSS/acid ratio of juice range was 12.32 to 18.60. The data presented in this work demonstrate the relationship between physicochemical properties of Josapine pineapples and the ripening process.

Notes: The quality characteristics of wastewater of the Sudanese Fermentation Industry (El-Hassaheissa- Gezira State) were investigated. The study indicated that wastewater contained higher amounts of nutrients. The percentage of protein of the separator waste and the main drain waste were found to be 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively. The molasses waste contained higher amounts of total solids (56.8 mg/l) while separator waste, filter waste and the main drain waste contained 0.4 mg/l, 0.4 mg/l and 0.24 mg/l, respectively. The molasses waste had a higher BOD (640 mg/l) and COD (4500 mg/l) values compared to the separator waste, filter waste and main drain waste which contained 250 mg/l, 450 mg/l and 148 mg/l BOD values, respectively. However, the COD values of separator waste, filter waste and main drain waste were 250 mg/l, 160 mg/l and 80 mg/l respectively. Different wastewater samples contained relatively high concentrations of macro-and micro-elements and mineral salts. The microbiological analysis indicates absence of staphylococci and coliform in most of the wastewater samples.

Notes: Investigation was carried out on the effect of processing conditions such as temperature, pressure and porosity on permeability of palm fruit cake. It was observed that increasing the temperature of the crude palm oil from 30 to 75°C, pressure from 2.88 to 3.82 kPa and porosity from 9.2 to 27.3% increases the permeability of the palm fruit cake. The statistical analysis of the effects of the processing factors on permeability indicates that temperature and porosity are significant at 99.99% while pressure was significant at 95%. A permeability model applicable to the practical palm oil expression was also developed in the study.

Notes: The aim of the study was to evaluate selected quality attributes of low-fat spread fortified with calcium complex isolated form cow milk. Calcium preparations added into foods may influence texture properties of product. In the study texture parameters of milk derived calcium complex enriched spreadable fat were measured using instrumental and sensory methods. Additionally overall sensory quality and chemical indicators i.e. peroxide value and acid value were estimated. All measurements were carried out during 3 months of storage. There was not significant influence of fortification on samples quality. Results of peroxide value measurements may suggest protective influence of added milk calcium complex against oxidation. The average daily portion of enriched spread (30 g) might provide at least 160 mg of best available calcium of milk origin, i.e. 15% of its recommended daily intake, which can significantly improve dietary calcium level.

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: Colour formation in technical and model sucrose solutions was investigated resulting in a novel kinetic approach of MAILLARD reaction during thermal processing of sugar solutions. Presented results describe new aspects of the non-enzymatic browning reaction (MAILLARD reaction). Two temperature depending pathways of colour formation were found. Both reaction mechanisms are based on the formation of a-dicarbonyl compounds, the key intermediates of colour formation. Discussing temperature dependence of colour formation, a change on MAILLARD reaction mechanism takes place at 100.4 °C. Above this temperature the colour formation is strongly accelerated. Activation energy of the non-enzymatic browning energy for temperatures from 65 ° to 100.4 °C amounts 77 kJ/mol. In this temperature range, D-glucosone is the most important a-dicarbonyl compound for studied reaction systems. Above 100.4 °C, activation energy is equal to 112 kJ/mol and 3-deoxyosone is the dominant colour formation intermediate. Achieved results bridge the gap between the termination step of a MAILLARD reaction -i.e. of colour formation (represented by its activation energy) and intermediates formation (reaction kinetics). In particular, a change of colour formation mechanism with reaction temperature was confirmed by specific formation of two a-dicarbonyl compounds, responsible for MAILLARD reaction in technical sugar solutions.

Notes: In this paper, the physical properties such as length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, arithmetic mean diameter, mass, true volume, apparent volume, true density, bulk density, porosity, sphericity, surface area, shell ratio, aspect ratio, static coefficient of friction and mechanical characteristics namely firmness, hardness, adhesiveness, adhesive force and total positive area in puncture test were determined for kiwifruit of the Hayward variety. These properties are necessary in the design of the equipment for harvesting, processing and transportation, separating and packing. The results showed that the length, width, thickness, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, sphericity and aspect ratio of kiwifruit varied from 55.5 to 82.3 mm, 46.8 to 54.8 mm, 41.5 to 52.4 mm, 49.8 to 60.99 mm, 49.56 to 59.28 mm, 71.95 to 90.48% and 62.67 to 89.20%, respectively. While the surface area determined by McCabe et al.'s and Jean & Ball's formula, and surface area measured by experimental method changed from 77.11 to 110.34 cm2, 48.74 to 95.95 cm2 and 83.29 to 108.71 cm2, respectively. The values of the fruit's true volume, apparent volume, true density, bulk density and porosity were between 85-120 cm3, 63.69-109.01 cm3, 940-1040 kg/m3, 544.73-572.17 kg/m3 and 39.70-45.5%, respectively. Furthermore, the unit mass and peel ratio of kiwifruits ranged from 75.18 to 135.32 g and 8.91 to 12.51%, respectively. On four different surfaces, namely plywood, galvanized iron sheet, glass and fiberglass, static coefficient of friction varied from 0.34 on glass to 0.49 against plywood. The average firmness, hardness, adhesiveness, adhesive force and total positive area of peeled fruits were 229.42 g, 367.49 g, 716.48 g.s, -34.2 g and 11933.5 g.s, respectively. Corresponding values for unpeeled samples obtained 403.38 g, 2081.2 g, -3175.32 g.s, -118 g and 35757.22 g.s, respectively.

Notes: Two enzyme assisted processes were studied in this work, protein extraction and hydrolysis, aiming phenylalanine (Phe) removal from corn. For protein extraction, a protease of Bacillus liccheniformis was used and the effect of temperature (55 and 60°C) and time (1, 5, 15 and 24 h) was evaluated. For Phe removal, a pancreatin was used for hydrolyzing corn proteins and the activated carbon (AC) was the adsorbent support. In this case, the influence of several parameters was estimated, such as protein extract concentration, E:S ratio, use of freezedrying, protein: AC ratio and way of using AC. The efficiency of Phe removal was evaluated by second derivative spectrophotometry, measuring the Phe content in the corn flour as well as in the hydrolysates after AC treatment. The results showed that the time and the temperature influenced the protein extraction yield and the best results were obtained at 55°C, after 5 h, 15 h and 24 h of reaction, having reached an average extraction yield of 85.3%. The removal of Phe, changed from 68.63 to 97.55%, and its final concentration from 18.80 to 240.75 mg/100 g hydrolysate. The condition that produced the highest Phe removal was the one using a protein extract concentration = 1%, E:S = 1 or 2%, pH 9, temperature = 25°C, protein: C = 1:88.5, using three types of AC and freezedrying (hydrolysates H1 and H2). However, this condition presents some disadvantages such as the use of freezedrying, which highly raises the process cost, and a non-controlled and non-repeatable reaction. Among the samples with no freezedrying stage and more controllable reaction (H9 and H10), H10 is the best one, since it showed smaller Phe content (149.27 mg/100 g) using three types of AC, which is advantageous from the technical point of view. The reduction of the protein: AC ratio, for these two hydrolysates (H9 and H10) was not beneficial for Phe removal, leading to higher Phe content.

Notes: The direct ohmic heating has been one of modern heating technology at which an electrical current passing directly through an electrically conductive medium generates the heat. During milk ohmic heating fouling deposits can be formed due to milk protein degradation. The fouling removal requires periodical cleaning that increases costs of energy, detergents and wastewater treatment. Simple semiempirical generalized correlation quantifying the effect of concentration and temperature onto electrical conductivity was proposed and tested on published data of milk, coffee and aqueous H2TiF6 solution. The semiempirical fouling kinetics model was proposed and verified in direct batch ohmic heating of milk. The model is based on the analogy to mechanisms and chemical kinetics of serial reactions. The effect of flowrate onto the fouling formation in continuous direct ohmic heating of milk was investigated. The proposed empirical fouling kinetics model is based on the assumption that the growth rate of the fouling layer thickness depends on time exponentially. It was found that fouling layer growth intensity was not decreased by the higher wall shear stress induced by the higher flowrate. However increasing wall shear stress enlarged the maximal time tnf in which the fouling layer growth is negligible.

Notes: Moisture sorption isotherms of osmotically dehydrated sweet peppers were determined at 15oC, 30oC and 40oC using static desiccator techniques. In the study, seven levels of water activity in range of 0.08 to 0.91 were used by the use of saturated salt solutions. The isotherms were found to be sigmoid type and of BET classification II. Out of seven sorption models i.e. BET, modified BET, Hasley, Caurie, GAB, Oswin and Smith, fitted to the experimental data, Oswin model was found to be the best for accurate prediction of moisture sorption isotherm with highest value of coefficient of determination (R2) and lowest values of standard error (SE) and relative deviation parentage (Rd). The value of monolayer moisture content of the osmotically dehydrated sweet pepper was found to be 3.037%, 3.934% and 4.432% (db) at 15oC, 30oC and 40oC respectively. The values of net isosteric heat of sorption as calculated by Clausius-Clapeyron equation showed a regular fall with increase in moisture content.

Notes: Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen that can survive and grow during ripening of Camembert, a soft cheese. During the ripening phase, the pH and spatial moisture content continually change, which impacts the growth of Listeria monocytogenes. Development and verification of pH model during ripening phase has been reported already. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop and verify a moisture content distribution model for the ripening phase of Camembert cheese. A finite element model (FEM) was developed for moisture content distribution during ripening of Camembert cheese. With the initial condition and the boundary conditions, the MATLAB-based FEM was used to calculate the moisture content at six locations: top center (TC), top surface (TS), left center (LC), right center (RC), bottom center (BC), and bottom surface (BS). The FEM showed good agreement with the mean moisture content measured values. The standard error of the predicted moisture content values ranged from 0.0001 to 0.01 g/g. The maximum absolute moisture content difference at six locations during ripening duration was 0.04 g/g. Together, the pH and moisture content models can be integrated with a dynamic predictive growth model to enable the prediction of survival and growth of Listeria monocytogenes during ripening of Camembert cheese.

Notes: Combined effects of heat and pulsed electric fields treatment (20 and 40oC, 0-800 µs at 30 kV/cm) on microbial inactivation inoculated in egg whites were studied. Pulsed electric fields treatment time and processing temperature had profound effects on microbial inactivation. Pulsed electric fields treatment with a bipolar pulse (2 µs wide), an intensity of 30 kV/cm, a frequency of 100 Hz, the processing temperature of 40 oC and treatment time for 800 µs, was sufficient to achieve pasteurization conditions using S. enteritidis , E. coli and S. aureus, common spoilage and pathogenic micro-organisms in egg products. This treatment produced a non-significant (p〉0.05) increase in foaming capacity and stability and an increase (p〈0.05) in emulsifying capacity and stability. Surface free sulfhydryls and hydrophobicity of egg white proteins increased with the increment of the PEF treatment time due to the partial unfolding of egg white proteins. Almost 50 % of trypsin inhibitory activity of ovomucoid in liquid egg white was decreased when the treatment time extended to 800 µs. These results suggested that combined treatment of heat and pulsed electric fields could be applied to process liquid egg whites to get desired products.

Notes: Apple seeds, a common byproduct of apple processing, have been examined for their overall proximate composition, fatty acid and amino acid composition of the lipid and protein components, respectively, as well as their key mineral constituents. Proximate analysis indicated that apple seeds are rich in oil content and protein ranging from 27.5 to 28% and 33.8 to 34.5% respectively, comparing favorably with oilseeds. GC analysis indicated high levels of linoleic acid (~49%) with the other dominant fatty acids being oleic, palmitic and stearic acids, ranging from ~39, 7 and 2% respectively. Amino acid analysis indicates that there are substantial amounts of sulfur containing amino acids in the apple seed. The apple seeds also contain significant amounts of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron, in the order of 720, 650, 510, 210 and 110 mg/100g, respectively. Based on the proximate composition of the apple seeds, if adequate amounts are available as a process byproduct, apple seeds could have value-added potential as a source of edible oil, with the oil cake potentially serving as an animal feed supplement.

Notes: This study aims at developing a kinetic model for the degradation of trypsin inhibitor (TI) in horse gram (Dolichos biflours) subjected to a defined set of processing conditions. The study was carried out in isothermal conditions over a temperature range of 60-120° C. The degradation of TI followed first order kinetics. It was adequately modeled by the Arrhenius equation. Using the time temperature data of the nonisothermal heating process encountered in three different cooking methods viz. open pan, pressure cooking and cooking in a recently developed and patented fuel-efficient 'EcoCooker', and the kinetic data obtained under isothermal temperature conditions, a mathematical model has been developed to predict the degradation of TI in these three modes of cooking.

Notes: The impact of aging on healthcare expenditure (HCE) has been at the center of a prolonged debate. This paper purports to shed light on several issues of this debate by presenting new evidence on the "red herring" hypothesis advanced by Zweifel, Felder and Meier (1999). This hypothesis amounts to distinguishing a mortality from a morbidity component in healthcare expenditure (HCE) and claiming that failure to make this distinction results in excessive estimates of future growth of HCE. A re-estimation based on a much larger data set is performed, using the refined econometric methodology. The main contribution is consistency, however. Rather than treating the mortality component as a residual in forecasting, its dynamics are analyzed in the same detail as that of the morbidity component when predicting the impact of population aging on the future growth of HCE. For the case of Switzerland, it finds this impact to be relatively small regardless of whether or not the mortality component is accounted for, thus qualifying the "red herring" hypothesis.

Notes: A study was conducted to evaluate the parameters affecting the dewatering of cassava mash during processing. First, studies on the pressure distribution within the mash during the dewatering were carried out. Experimental equipment consisting of tyre tube filled with water, a copper tube, and a pressure gauge was designed and fabricated to measure pressure used in expressing the juice contained in the grated cassava mash. It also included a cylindrical dewatering tank made of galvanized steel plate and a sack which was used as control. The tank had 7mm holes drilled at the base to allow the flow of juice. The volume of juice was measured using a measuring cylinder and the stopwatch measured the time. IITA TMS 4(2) 1425 variety of cassava at three levels of maturity age of 9, 12 and 15 months was utilized in the study. The dewatering pressure is from hydraulic jack used to press the grated mash. The dewatering parameters investigated were pressure drop, face area of the filter medium and mash resistance. The results showed that mash resistance varied with the age of the cassava with the highest value of 54,000,000,000 m/kg recorded. Medium Resistance also varied with the age, 33,000,000,000/m was the highest value recorded for 15 months old sample. 0.00371m3 volume of filtrate was obtained from the 12 months old sample with 0.0945 kg mash cake deposit on the filtering medium as the highest deposit. The Kozemy constant value for TMS 4(2) 1425 variety of cassava was found to be 11400000 and Porosity 0.0181, the result presents the distribution and values of identified parameters numerically for equipment designers use.

Notes: The effects of ingredients on the sensory evaluation and rheological behavior of two brands of mayonnaise were examined in this work. Mayonnaise samples were examined by Analytical Descriptive Test and Ranking Test of Preference. The rheological parameters were determined at 25°C using a concentric cylinder Brookfield rheometer with a spindle SC4-34. The results showed that standard mayonnaise as opposed to low-fat mayonnaise gained higher grades for most sensory attributes. All samples were found to exhibit non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior described by Herschel-Bulkley model. A decrease in the yield stress, viscosity and shear stress with the decrease in oil content was observed in all products, which confirm that the rheological characterization is capable of distinguishing rather well between mayonnaises made with different formulation.

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 today's world, one's place of birth and one's parentage are -- by law -- relevant to, and often conclusive of, one's access to membership in a particular political community. Birthright citizenship largely shapes the allocation of membership entitlement itself (the "gate-keeping" or demos-demarcation function of citizenship). But no less significantly, it also distributes opportunity unequally (the "wealthpreserving" function of citizenship). This makes citizenship a matter of inherited entitlement. In a world in which membership in different political communities translates into very different starting points in life, upholding this legal connection between birth, political membership, and life opportunities raises important questions of distributive justice. These questions are particularly pressing given that the vast majority of the world's population -- 97 out of every 100 people -- acquire political membership via circumstances beyond their control, that is, according to where and to whom they were born. While we find vibrant debates in the literature about the legitimacy of citizenship's demos-demarcation function, the perpetuation of unequal starting points through intergenerational transmission of membership has largely escaped scrutiny. It is this omission that this Article aims to address.

Notes: This Article situates contemporary shifts in citizenship law within a story of the relationship of globalization and illegal migration. The central argument is that citizenship as a formal legal status is enjoying a resurgence of authority at present. This mirrors the paradoxical nature of globalization itself: along the vector of citizenship, both inclusions and exclusions are increasing at present. As states are increasingly unable to assert exclusive power in a range of policy domains, immigration and citizenship law are transformed into a last bastion of sovereignty. Many shifts in citizenship law are explained through an understanding of how migration law and citizenship law work in tandem to form the border of the national community. Recent changes in citizenship law respond to two trends: a crackdown on extra-legal migration and a desire to reassert authority over diasporic populations. While the focus of the Article is on citizenship as a formal legal status, the importance of amnesty programs for extra-legal migrants demonstrates that ultimately the bifurcation of formal and substantive citizenship is untenable.

Notes: This Article points to a widening gap between citizenship theories and practices. Although discourses of citizenship resonate widely and are used extensively by scholars and policy makers, the author argues that the social, economic, political and even psychological processes of citizenship are shrinking in a contemporary context of global insecurity where im/migration and ever more restrictive national security concerns have become enmeshed in law, as well as in the public consciousness. As a result, this Article explores new trends of securitization and related processes of marketization, racialization and the invisibilization and/or instrumentalization of women and evaluates their impact on citizenship in Canada and Britain. A citizenship regime framework structures the analysis and highlights the contraction of citizenship in both countries. In the end, despite their purported concern with citizenship, social exclusion and social cohesion, British and Canadian state's responses serve to perpetuate feelings of insecurity on the part of both citizens and non-citizens.

Notes: The Article critically examines the adaptation of citizenship rights to industrial relations and labor law. Starting with T.H. Marshall's discussion of industrial citizenship, the Article examines the coupling of industrial citizenship with trade unions. While Marshall's concept of industrial citizenship may seem to be in decline, other labor market institutions are trying to bridge the divide between citizenship and labor rights: workplace democracy, which assumes the constituency of workers in the corporation; and corporate citizenship, which is used to entrust corporations with obligations that are traditionally expected of human citizens. Citizenship's contribution to the analysis of labor market institutions lies in the emphasis on the public nature of workers' rights, in the association of rights with obligations, and in the emphasis on active participation. However, citizenship also has "blind spots" that other theories address more coherently. Human rights are a preferred concept for distinguishing fundamental rights (including rights of citizenship) from "ordinary" rights. Labor rights are more effective in identifying power structures that citizenship rights may overlook. Consequently, the concept of citizenship may compromise workers' capacity to negotiate fair remuneration, protection from dismissal and the dignity of labor.

Notes: Beginning with the seminal work by Williams and Nagel, moral philosophers have used auto accident hypotheticals to illustrate the phenomenon of moral luck. Moral luck is present in the hypotheticals because (and to the extent that) two equally careless drivers are assessed differently because only one of them caused an accident. This Article considers whether these philosophical discussions might contribute to the public policy debate over compensation for auto accidents. Using liability and insurance practices in the United States as an illustrative example, the Article explains that auto liability insurance substantially mitigates moral luck and argues that, as a result, the moral luck literature is unlikely to make a significant contribution to this public policy debate. The debate would benefit more from philosophical analysis of victims' luck, which is not as substantially mitigated by liability insurance.

Notes: This Article considers the role of luck in judicial outcomes, stemming from differences in the moral and legal views and reasoning of the judges who decide them. It suggests that luck is ineliminable from a system of positive law and that although it poses important moral problems of unpredictability, arbitrariness, and unfairness, it is not easily remediable. It is certainly not remediable by replacing a system of positive law with a system of adjudication addressing moral issues directly. Nor is it remediable by insisting on integrity as a feature of judicial decision-making.

Notes: Corrupt politicians, and poor government more generally, are commonly viewed as a primary barrier to economic progress. The roots to these problems run deep in many political systems across the developing world, and attempts at reform have rarely found much success. To combat this impasse, we suggest a radical new approach to local politics that, instead of proposing reforms to the electoral process, focuses on the political actors that might enter into this process. Specifically, we suggest that private firms be allowed to compete in elections to hold public office. That is, a corporate entity (e.g., Ernst and Young), rather than an individual representative of the firm, would be permitted to contest a local election. We argue that this is feasible: sufficient economic incentives could be put in place to induce firms to run for office, particularly if company office-holders prove to be competent in revenue collection. More importantly, we claim that there are many channels through which company politics should improve government, from breaking up entrenched old boys' networks to leveraging a company's existing organizational expertise. Private firms have realized efficiency and performance gains in areas such as infrastructure and many bureaucratic functions; we argue that the private sector can also attain results in politics, the most public of all realms.

Notes: The conventional wisdom is that the surge in productivity growth which has surged in the United States over the past 15 years has been attributed almost wholly to advances in the production and use of information technology. While this is certainly evident from the statistics, a driving force behind the IT revolution has been the development and growth of new firms. Indeed, the U.S. economy has achieved a remarkable transformation over the last several decades from an economy characterized by large, bureaucratic firms into one increasingly powered by entrepreneurial innovation. The challenge ahead therefore is to cement and strengthen the entrepreneurial form of capitalism. In this paper, we provide a framework for policymaking to achieve this objective.

Notes: Control of multirate systems is a challenging problem due to several reasons such as increased complexity in the design with tighter performance specifications. In this work, an algorithm for multirate constrained predictive control (MCPC) is presented. The multirate predictive control system includes a multirate state estimator, which provides inter-sample estimates of state variables of the process from infrequent and slow measurements. Constraints are addressed rigorously in this framework. The proposed design method is verified via simulation as well as experimentation. The results of the multirate predictive control for temperature control of a stirred tank system are shown and compared with those of a proportional integral (PI) control system.

Notes: Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is the refinery process for the conversion of high molecular-weight hydrocarbons to produce higher valuable products such as gasoline. The optimization of FCC process is challenging due to the complex interactions between a large number of dependent and independent parameters. One of the most uncertain aspects of a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit is the description of fluid-solid mixing at the riser entrance. Most of the existing models assume an instant mixing of solids and gaseous reactants. However, a finite mixing length at the bottom of the riser may have a pronounced effect on the FCC operation, particularly, when very short residence times are allowed in the current commercial FCC risers. A good solid-fluid mixing is essential to ensure a complete feed vaporization which is important for several reasons including assuring a thorough catalyst to oil contact and minimizing coke deposition. In this study, the Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase flow and the 3-lump kinetic models were used to simulate the hydrodynamics and cracking reactions occurring in the FCC riser reactors. The model demonstrated the capability of commercial CFD code FLUENT 6.2 to describe the flow field in the riser reactor. The model also takes into account the temperature, the heat of reactions and gasoline distribution along the riser height.

Notes: A detailed mathematical dynamic model of reactive batch distillation column is formulated for ethyl acetate synthesis and presented in terms of differential and algebraic equations (DAEs). These DAEs are solved using fourth order Runge-Kutta method in MATLAB® to obtain the detailed column dynamics. The simulation results provide the dynamics of reboiler and distillate compositions, reboiler temperature, ethyl acetate purity in the accumulated distillate and conversion of the reactants. These results are analyzed to derive the optimum operating policy, i.e., reflux ratio and batch time.

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: This Article considers the use of litigation as one mechanism to make citizenship more inclusive. It examines three Australian High Court decisions on citizenship in which the author was also counsel. While addressing the promotion of inclusive approaches to citizenship as a legal status, the Article argues that advocates must consider a range of avenues for advancing their clients' claims. In doing so, the Article also presents a normative critique of citizenship legislation as not paying enough attention to the individual's affiliation with Australia. The cases highlight rules that overlook certain individuals without giving sufficient consideration to their special circumstances, demonstrating that a person's identity is not always reflected in law.

Notes: This Article addresses the general question of "why citizenship?" through the lens of children's citizenship. It unpacks the different elements of substantive citizenship and considers what they mean for children: membership and participation; rights; responsibilities; and equality of status, respect and recognition. It then discusses the lessons that may be learned from feminist critiques of mainstream constructions of citizenship, paying particular attention to the question of capacity for citizenship. It concludes by suggesting that much of the literature that is making the case for recognition of children as citizens is not so much arguing for the wholesale extension of adult rights and obligations of citizenship to children but recognition that children's citizenship practices constitute them as de facto, even if not complete de jure, citizens. More broadly, the Article argues that this position points towards an understanding of citizenship which embraces but goes beyond that of a bundle of rights.

Notes: I take a close look at Bernard Williams's paper "Moral Luck," which put this notion on the philosophical agenda. Williams's focal example is the painter Paul Gauguin. According to Williams, Gauguin's morally dubious decision to desert his family so as to pursue an artistic career can be redeemed only by his partially fortuitous success as a painter. This is shown by the consideration that a successful Gauguin would not be able to regret his decision, whereas failure would have prompted regret. I suggest that the best way to understand this claim is to see Gauguin's decision to become an artist as a constitutive decision, which launches what for him proved to be a defining project. One cannot coherently regret the realization of such a project or the decision that gave rise to it because that would amount to wishing to be someone else: conditions of personal identity set the limits on the counterfactuals about ourselves that we can intelligibly entertain. However, not being able to regret the constitutive elements of one's life is not the same as approving of these elements. So I disagree with Williams's ultimate conclusion that the inability to regret a decision signals some justification for it, no matter how attenuated.

Notes: Contemporary debates about "moral luck" were inaugurated by Thomas Nagel's celebrated essay on the topic. Nagel notes that the puzzle about moral luck is formally parallel to the familiar epistemological problem of skepticism. In each case, the problem is generated by the apparent coherence of the thought that inner aspects of our lives are self-contained, and can be both understood and evaluated without any reference to anything external. Epistemological skepticism begins with the thought that my thoughts could be exactly as they are without any contact with the world outside, where "exactly as they are" is glossed in terms of the grounds that connect those thoughts with each other and provide the basis for our confidence in them. In the practical case, the problem of moral or legal luck arises from the thought that the only basis we have for evaluating a person's action is his decision to perform that action. The Kantian and post-Kantian response to epistemological skepticism is not to try to defeat the skeptic on his or her own grounds, but rather to show that there is something wrong in the way the problem is set up. Our ordinary ways of thinking about ordinary things, and other persons, are only in trouble if they rest on an unwarranted inference from something that is more secure. I will engage with legal luck in a parallel way: our ordinary ways of thinking about responsibility are only in trouble if they rest on an unwarranted inference from something more secure. I argue that the concept of a completed wrong is basic to law, and that aspects of human interaction on which luck-skeptics focus -- blameworthiness and harm -- are derivative. I frame the issue not in terms of moral significance, but rather in terms of the authorization of the state to use force, either to order the payment of damages in tort or to imprison criminals. In the first part of the Article I consider the case of tort liability for negligence, explaining the structure of a completed wrong and the correspondingly derivative significance of carelessness as such. In the second part I turn to the issue of criminal punishment. I offer a brief explanation of the state's authority to punish, before going on to show that the basic case that engages this authority is the completed crime. I then show why the failed attempt also attracts punishment, even though it is a derivative case.

Notes: Parallel moral luck problems exist in three different normative domains: criminal law, tort law, and conventional moral thinking. In all three, the normative status of an actor's conduct seems to depend on matters beyond the actor's control. Criminal law has historically imposed greater punishment on the murderer who kills his intended victim than on the identically behaved would-be murderer whose shot fortuitously misses. Tort law imposes liability on the negligent driver who injures someone, but no liability if, through good fortune, the negligence injures no one. And, as BernardWilliams and Thomas Nagel have famously argued, conventional moral thinking often attributes greater blame to an actor for wrongful conduct if that conduct ripens into a terrible event than if it fortuitously causes no harm at all. This Article distinguishes two different dimensions of responsibility and then uses this distinction to explain the problem in all three areas. One dimension is called "fault-expressing responsibility": it is a matter of the degree to which one's acts constitute conduct that can express one's character or faultiness. A second dimension of responsibility is called "agency-linking responsibility." In this dimension, the degree to which a person is responsible for some event is dependent upon whether that event is an action of that person. Responsibility can differ in the agency-linking dimension even if it remains the same in the fault-expressing dimension.

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 presents a Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) method for stochastic nonlinear dynamic systems. Our contribution consists of showing another method of tackling the problem of the physical origin diagnosis of faults by combining the technique based on the innovations and the technique using the multiple Kalman filters for a nonlinear dynamic system strongly non-stationary. The usefulness of this combination is the implementation of all the faults dynamics if the decision threshold on the standardized innovation exceeds a fixed value. In the other case, one filter is enough to estimate the process state. An algorithm is described and applied to a perfectly stirred chemical reactor functioning in a semi-batch mode. In this paper, the chemical reaction used is an oxido reduction one, the oxidation of sodium thiosulfate by hydrogen peroxide.

Notes: In this paper a technique borrowed from modern control theory, called sliding mode observers, is used as the vehicle for nonlinear parameter estimation. The observer is a dynamic system derived from the original state equations that guides, in real time, parameter values from initial estimates to optimal ones. This is done by driving errors between the estimated and "data" states to zero. Observers are developed and demonstrated for the Monod model for biokinetics, which has been used widely in bioprocess design for both aerobic and anaerobic bio-processes under both toxic and non-toxic conditions. The Monod model has four parameters; often, two of the parameters (y, yield and b, decay coefficient) are assumed or calculated from other sources such as from thermodynamic considerations. The other two parameters (k, maximum specific uptake rate of the substrate and ks, the half saturation constant for growth) are determined from experimental data. The determination of these parameters is often performed using nonlinear regression or related methods and it has been demonstrated that these are particularly difficult parameter estimation problems. Examples are presented where only k is unknown and when both k and ks are to be determined. One case where the data are corrupted with noise is considered. The primary objective of the paper is to introduce the methodology of sliding mode observers for nonlinear parameter estimation to the chemical and process engineering communities.

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: Material reuse/recycle has gained much attention in recent years for both economic and environmental reasons. Process integration techniques for water network synthesis have evolved rapidly in the past decade. With in-plant water reuse/recycle, fresh water and wastewater flowrates are reduced simultaneously. In this work, linear programming and mixed integer linear programming models that include piping cost and process constraints are developed to retrofit an existing water network in a paper mill that was not originally designed with process integration techniques. Five scenarios are presented, each representing different aspects of decision-making in real process integration projects. The fifth scenario makes use of fuzzy optimisation to achieve a compromise solution that considers the inherent conflict between maximising water recovery and minimising capital cost for retrofit.

Notes: The NASA low-temperature oxidation catalyst (Pt/SnO2), originally developed for space-based carbon dioxide laser applications has been recently adapted to address formaldehyde destruction in industrial smoke stack emission streams. A mathematical model is developed that can be used to correlate the observable chemistry occurring on the surfaces of a monolith with the volumetric flow rate of the gas and cross sectional area of catalyst surfaces as well as quantifying process design variables such as pressure or temperature of an exhaust gas stream.

Notes: A more realistic numerical technique hereafter known as Hegde's Ultimate Numerical Technique (HUNT) is developed and demonstrated on a one dimensional and a two dimensional steady state diffusion problem of heat transfer. The available numerical methods developed are based on finite difference technique neglecting the contribution of higher order terms in Taylor series expansion of the function leading to an approximation and the error in the solution. In the present effort of the HUNT, the optimization of the partial derivatives leads to the elimination of the error and justifies the stability and the convergence of the solution. The HUNT procedure based on the interface theory developed by the author, is capable of providing the ultimate optimum solution to all the partial derivatives considered as decision vectors. Even though the HUNT is demonstrated on one dimensional and two dimensional steady state diffusion equations, it does not require rigorous efforts to apply it to three dimensional problems of fluid flow and heat transfer. As pilot exercises the HUNT is demonstrated on a one dimensional circular fin and a two dimensional plate to obtain the temperature distribution. The result is compared with the analytical method and the finite volume method for which the results are available in the literature. To the knowledge of the authors, HUNT is both different and a unique example of its kind.

Notes: The pace of a given strand of scientific research, whether purely curiosity-driven or motivated by a particular technological goal, is strongly influenced by public attitudes towards its value. In the case of research directed to the radical postponement of aging and the consequent extension of healthy and total lifespans, public opinion is entrenched in a "pro-aging trance" - a state of resolute irrationality. This arises from the entirely rational attitude to a grisly, inevitable and relatively far-off fate: putting it out of one's mind allows one to make the most of what time one has, free of preoccupation with one's demise, and it is immaterial how irrational the arguments that one uses to achieve this are, e.g. by persuading oneself that aging is not such a bad thing after all. As biotechnology increasingly nears the point where aging will no longer be inevitable, however, this studied fatalism has become a core part of the problem, making people reluctant to join the crusade to hasten that technology's arrival. An effective way to address this hesitation is to promote debate about the reasons people give for fearing the defeat of aging, most of which are sociological. Such debate exposes people to the glaring flaws in their own logic. Thus, the more the debate is sustained and promoted, the harder it is for those flaws to be ignored.

Notes: Julian Barnes' novel Arthur & George is based on the true story of Arthur Conan Doyle's involvement in the case of George Edalji, an English solicitor wrongfully convicted of horse maiming in 1903. Conan Doyle successfully employed the methods of his literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, to clear Edalji. That episode raised questions about the adequacy of remedies for wrongful conviction, and was one of the reasons for creation of the English Court of Criminal Appeal. Given the impact that Conan Doyle's Holmes stories had on the development and understanding of scientific evidence, and fact-finding in general, Arthur & George invites us to think about those topics, as well as wrongful convictions and the impact of fiction on the way that we understand evidence. The fascinating contributions presented here result from an invitation to their authors to write on whichever of these themes they pleased.

Notes: This article challenges the new international criminal tribunals to distinguish and differentiate their procedures from those of "show trials".

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: Vaccination provides indirect benefits to the unvaccinated. Despite its important policy implications, there is little analytical or empirical work to quantify this externality, nor is it incorporated in a number of cost-benefit studies of vaccine programs. We use a standard epidemiological model to analyze how the magnitude of this externality varies with the number of vaccinations, vaccine efficacy, and disease infectiousness. We also provide empirical estimates using parameters for influenza and mumps epidemics. The pattern of the externality is complex and striking, unlike that suggested in standard treatments. The size of the externality is not necessarily monotonic in the number vaccinated, vaccine efficacy, nor disease infectiousness. Moreover, its magnitude can be remarkably large. In particular, the marginal externality of a vaccination can be greater than one case of illness prevented among the nonvaccinated, so its omission from policy analyses implies serious biases.

Notes: Recently, researchers have started to re-examine the so-called Atkinson-Stiglitz theorem on optimal commodity taxation. The essence of such research is to examine whether or not it is optimal to distort markets other than the labor market for achieving the second-best resource allocation. I examine this theorem by introducing the comparative advantage of human capital accumulation. More specifically, I assume that people with high ability obtain a higher return from skilled human capital accumulation than people with low ability. I explore the implication of this comparative advantage of human capital accumulation for the Atkinson-Stiglitz theorem on optimal commodity taxation.

Notes: Donohue and Levitt (2001) attribute over half of the decline in U.S. crime rates during the 1990s to abortion legalization. This paper conducts similar research by exploiting cross-province time-series variation in Canadian data. The use of Canadian data allows me to separate the effects of teenage abortions from general abortion rates. This distinction is important, as more than a quarter of the drop in violent crime can be attributed to the increase in teenage abortions that occurred after legalization. These results suggest that lower crime rates from abortion legalization are due to better timing of births rather than lower cohort size. They are further substantiated by OLS estimates, which imply that the drop in teenage fertility rates during the 1960s and 1970s is responsible for more than half of the decline in violent crime rates witnessed during the 1990s.

Notes: This paper uses a two-stage Cournot duopoly model with demand uncertainly to examine the strategic role debt plays in deterring a company from entering when a potential entrant can enter one of several markets. We show that as the number of alternative markets available for entry rises, the incumbents' incentive to use debt as a deterrent falls. Thus, a potential entrant will prefer to have a larger number of alternative markets to enter in order to lower the incumbents' incentive to take strategic actions against it.

Notes: Individuals often respond with strong emotions to being penalised. Such responses suggest that informal penalties are important and play a role in creating deterrence. In this paper informal penalties are analysed in the context of medical errors. The introduction of informal penalties, if dependent upon formal ones, implies that: (i) the optimal enforcement regime becomes more lenient, and in some cases the lack of formal punishment is preferred, (ii) the first-best solution becomes unattainable, (iii) liability rates and formal penalty level are no longer perfect deterrence substitutes. In addition, powers of informal penalties provide a rationale for administrative sanctions (informal criticism, reprimands and warnings).

Notes: This paper compares the performance of a two-sided combinatorial call market, direct negotiation, and double auction for consolidating fragmented land. Experimental results suggest direct negotiation produces higher efficiencies than other mechanisms. The combinatorial call market tends to alleviate the exposure problem, and performs well when 1) swapping is easily agreeable, and 2) the number of subjects and commodities are increased and the initial endowments are unchallenging. The two-sided combinatorial call market, however, suffers from the holdout problem when the number of subjects and commodities is small.

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: 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: To avoid the extremely high profit levels found in the recent experience of public utilities' regulation, some regulators have introduced a profit-sharing (PS) rule that revises prices to the benefit of consumers. However, in order to be successful, a PS rule should satisfy appropriate incentive conditions.In this paper, we study the incentive properties of a second best PS mechanism designed by the regulator to induce a regulated monopolist to divert its "excessive" profits to the customers. In a real option model where a regulated monopolist manages a long-term franchise contract and the regulator has the option to revoke the contract if there is serious welfare loss, we first endogenously derive the welfare maximising PS rule under the verifiability of profits. We then explore the dynamic efficiency of this PS rule under the non-verifiability of profits and study the firm's incentive to comply with it in an infinite-horizon game. Finally, we derive the price adjustment path which follows the adoption of a PS rule in a price cap regulation.We show that the riskiness of the distribution of the firm's future profits and the regulator's cost in revoking the franchise contract are key factors in determining the equilibrium properties of a dynamic PS rule.

Notes: Combining four surveys conducted over a forty year period, I calculate intergenerational earnings elasticities for Australia, using predicted earnings in parents' occupations as a proxy for actual parental earnings. In the most recent survey, the elasticity of sons' wages with respect to fathers' wages is around 0.2. Comparing this estimate with earlier surveys, I find little evidence that intergenerational mobility in Australia has significantly risen or fallen over time. Applying the same methodology to United States data, I find that Australian society exhibits more intergenerational mobility than the United States. My method appears to slightly overstate the degree of intergenerational mobility; if the true intergenerational earnings elasticity in the United States is 0.4-0.6 (as recent studies have suggested), then the intergenerational earnings elasticity in Australia is probably around 0.2-0.3.

Notes: The objective of this work is to introduce a new method called the Survivorship Instantaneous Log-odds Ratios (SILOR); to illustrate the creation of SILOR from empirical bivariate survival functions; to also derive standard errors of estimation; to compare results with those derived from logistic regression. Hip fracture, AGE and BMI from the Third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES III) were used to calculate empirical survival functions for the adverse health outcome (AHO) and non-AHO. A stable copula was used to create a parametric bivariate survival function, that was fitted to the empirical bivariate survival function. The bivariate survival function had SILOR contours which are not constant. The proposed method has better advantages than logistic regression by following two reasons. The comparison deals with (i) the shapes of the survival surfaces, S(X1, X2), and (ii) the isobols of the log-odds ratios. When using logistic regression the survival surface is either a hyper plane or at most a conic section. Our approach preserves the shape of the survival surface in two dimensions, and the isobols are observed in every detail instead of being overly smoothed by a regression with no more than a second degree polynomial. The present method is straightforward, and it captures all but random variability of the data.

Notes: Marginal structural models (MSM) are an important class of models in causal inference. Given a longitudinal data structure observed on a sample of n independent and identically distributed experimental units, MSM model the counterfactual outcome distribution corresponding with a static treatment intervention, conditional on user-supplied baseline covariates. Identification of a static treatment regimen-specific outcome distribution based on observational data requires, beyond the standard sequential randomization assumption, the assumption that each experimental unit has positive probability of following the static treatment regimen. The latter assumption is called the experimental treatment assignment (ETA) assumption, and is parameter-specific. In many studies the ETA is violated because some of the static treatment interventions to be compared cannot be followed by all experimental units, due either to baseline characteristics or to the occurrence of certain events over time. For example, the development of adverse effects or contraindications can force a subject to stop an assigned treatment regimen.In this article we propose causal effect models for a user-supplied set of realistic individualized treatment rules. Realistic individualized treatment rules are defined as treatment rules which always map into the set of possible treatment options. Thus, causal effect models for realistic treatment rules do not rely on the ETA assumption and are fully identifiable from the data. Further, these models can be chosen to generalize marginal structural models for static treatment interventions. The estimating function methodology of Robins and Rotnitzky (1992) (analogue to its application in Murphy, et. al. (2001) for a single treatment rule) provides us with the corresponding locally efficient double robust inverse probability of treatment weighted estimator. In addition, we define causal effect models for "intention-to-treat" regimens. The proposed intention-to-treat interventions enforce a static intervention until the time point at which the next treatment does not belong to the set of possible treatment options, at which point the intervention is stopped. We provide locally efficient estimators of such intention-to-treat causal effects.

Notes: Consider a longitudinal observational or controlled study in which one collects chronological data over time on a random sample of subjects. The time-dependent process one observes on each subject contains time-dependent covariates, time-dependent treatment actions, and an outcome process or single final outcome of interest. A statically optimal individualized treatment rule (as introduced in van der Laan et. al. (2005), Petersen et. al. (2007)) is a treatment rule which at any point in time conditions on a user-supplied subset of the past, computes the future static treatment regimen that maximizes a (conditional) mean future outcome of interest, and applies the first treatment action of the latter regimen. In particular, Petersen et. al. (2007) clarified that, in order to be statically optimal, an individualized treatment rule should not depend on the observed treatment mechanism. Petersen et. al. (2007) further developed estimators of statically optimal individualized treatment rules based on a past capturing all confounding of past treatment history on outcome. In practice, however, one typically wishes to find individualized treatment rules responding to a user-supplied subset of the complete observed history, which may not be sufficient to capture all confounding. The current article provides an important advance on Petersen et. al. (2007) by developing locally efficient double robust estimators of statically optimal individualized treatment rules responding to such a user-supplied subset of the past. However, failure to capture all confounding comes at a price; the static optimality of the resulting rules becomes origin-specific. We explain origin-specific static optimality, and discuss the practical importance of the proposed methodology. We further present the results of a data analysis in which we estimate a statically optimal rule for switching antiretroviral therapy among patients infected with resistant HIV virus.

Notes: In individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), distributions of quantitative HIV RNA measurements may be highly left-censored due to values falling below assay detection limits (DL). It is of the interest to find the relationship between plasma and semen viral loads. To address this type of problem, we developed an empirical goodness-of-fit test to check the Clayton model assumption for bivariate truncated data. We also used truncated tau to estimate the dependence parameter in the Clayton model for this type of data. It turns out that the proposed methodology works for both truncated and fixed left censored bivariate data. The proposed test procedure is demonstrated using an HIV data set, and statistical inference is drawn based on corresponding test result.

Notes: We consider random design nonparametric regression when the response variable is subject to right censoring. Following the work of Fan and Gijbels (1994), a common approach to this problem is to apply what has been termed a censoring unbiased transformation to the data to obtain surrogate responses, and then enter these surrogate responses with covariate data into standard smoothing algorithms. Existing censoring unbiased transformations generally depend on either the conditional survival function of the response of interest, or that of the censoring variable. We show that a mapping introduced in another statistical context is in fact a censoring unbiased transformation with a beneficial double robustness property, in that it can be used for nonparametric regression if either of these two conditional distributions are estimated accurately. Advantages of using this transformation for smoothing are illustrated in simulations and on the Stanford heart transplant data.

Notes: Mortality rate ratios and the associated proportional hazards models have been used to summarize the effect of Alzheimer's disease on longevity. However, the mortality rate ratios vary by age and therefore do not provide a simple parsimonious summary of the effect of the disease on lifespan. Instead, we propose a new parameter that is defined by an additive multistate model. The proposed multistate model accounts for different stages of disease progression. The underlying assumption of the model is that the effect of disease on mortality is to add a constant amount to death rates once the disease progresses from an early to late stage. We explored the properties of the proposed model; in particular the behavior of the mortality rate ratio and median survival that is induced by the model. We combined information from several data sources to estimate the parameter in our model. We found that the effect of Alzheimer's disease on longevity is to increase the absolute annual risk of death by about 8% once a person progressed to late stage disease. Most importantly, we find that this additive effect is the same regardless of the patients' age or gender. Thus, the proposed additive multi-state model provides a parsimonious and clinically interpretable description of the effects of Alzheimer's disease on mortality.

Notes: Upon completion of their education, nursing students are expected to practice safely and competently. Societal changes and revisions to nursing education have altered the way nursing students learn to competently care for patients. Increasingly, simulation experiences are used to assist students to integrate theoretical knowledge into practice. Reasons for and the variety of simulation activities used in nursing education in light of learning theory are discussed. By combining Benner's nursing skill acquisition theory with Kolb's experiential learning theory, theoretical underpinnings for examining the use of simulations in the context of nursing education are provided.

Notes: There is a growing literature on the statistical analysis of data from association-football/soccer games, seasons or groups of seasons. In contrast this paper is concerned with a single play, that is a sequence of successful passes. The play studied contained 25 passes and ended in a goal for Argentina in World Cup 2006. One question addressed is how to describe analytically the spatial-temporal movement of such a particular sequence of passes. The basic data are points in the plane, successively joined by straight lines. The resulting figure represents the trajectory of the moving soccer ball. The approach of this study is to develop a useful potential function, a concept arising from physics and engineering. In particular the potential function leads to a regression model that may be fit directly by linear least squares. The resulting potential function may be used for simple description, summary, comparison, simulation, prediction, model appraisal, bootstrapping, and employed for estimating quantities of interest. The purpose illustrated here is to simulate play in a game where the ball goes back and forth between two teams each having their own potential function.

Notes: The quantitative analysis of sports is a growing branch of science and, in many ways one that has developed through non-academic and non-traditionally peer-reviewed work. The aim of this paper is to bring to a peer-reviewed journal the generally accepted basics of the analysis of basketball, thereby providing a common starting point for future research in basketball. The possession concept, in particular the concept of equal possessions for opponents in a game, is central to basketball analysis. Estimates of possessions have existed for approximately two decades, but the various formulas have sometimes created confusion. We hope that by showing how most previous formulas are special cases of our more general formulation, we shed light on the relationship between possessions and various statistics. Also, we hope that our new estimates can provide a common basis for future possession estimation. In addition to listing data sources for statistical research on basketball, we also discuss other concepts and methods, including offensive and defensive ratings, plays, per-minute statistics, pace adjustments, true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage, rebound rates, Four Factors, plus/minus statistics, counterpart statistics, linear weights metrics, individual possession usage, individual efficiency, Pythagorean method, and Bell Curve method. This list is not an exhaustive list of methodologies used in the field, but we believe that they provide a set of tools that fit within the possession framework and form the basis of common conversations on statistical research in basketball.

Notes: Position play is a key feature of carom billiards: on easy shots, players can manage to score while ensuring that the next position will be favorable. The difficulty of a shot therefore depends on the previous shot; e.g., an easy shot generally follows an easy shot. We introduce a Markov process that accounts for such correlations. This model can explain the long series of easy shots and the high scores that ensue. It can also identify differences in the scoring patterns of players at different skill levels. Players can use this model via the web page http://billiards.mathieu.bouville.name/biMar/.

Notes: Imagery research has accumulated in two main waves since it was first investigated over a century ago. Firstly, in a period roughly extending over a century from the 1890s to the 1990s, several hundred experiments focused on the efficacy of the "mental practice" effect. More recently, attempts to shed light on the precise tasks or functions for which athletes use visualization in actual sport situations have led to an upsurge in imagery research. Central to this second wave of research is the imagery use framework (Hall et al., 1998), which has led to over 20 studies. Unfortunately, despite making significant advances these studies have a number of limitations, including a failure to include elite participants and the fact that they have largely overlooked meta-imagery abilities of the athletes. To address these issues, semi-structured interviews were used to explore imagery experiences among elite athletes. Canoe-slalom, which had been subject to previous research on imagery (e.g., White & Hardy, 1998), was the chosen sport. Five female and seven male elite level competitors (age= 25 years; SD = 4.16) participated. Findings from the elite athlete sample were inconsistent with previous research with regard to the motivational function of images. Furthermore, the athletes demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of imagery processes including imagery of realistic behaviours rather than perfect performance. Interestingly, the frequency of debilitative imagery was surprising given previous findings but may have been a consequence of the qualitative methods employed. Finally, examination of the meta-imagery construct proved valuable and is worthy of further research.

Notes: Phyllis Thompson reviews Kenneth Kiple's A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization.

Notes: The "idea of private law" has occupied a prominent place in tort theorizing over the past twenty years. To American ears, the idea has a libertarian ring, implying a realm of private freedom beyond the reach of public power. But the idea of "private law" pursued in recent tort theory is different. This strand of tort theory takes an essentially formal view of "private law" as a form of adjudication through which one member of civil society invokes the public power of the state to call another member of civil society to account for breach of an obligation, owed by the latter to the former. In a number of recent, elegant essays, Arthur Ripstein has advanced a particular version of this view, a version distinguished in important part by its enlistment of the political philosophy of John Rawls in support of this project. Tort Law in a Liberal State is a further contribution to this project, summarizing Professor Ripstein's view and arguing for both the interpretive and the philosophical plausibility of his project.Personal Inviolability and Private Law raises objections to both aspects of Ripstein's project, and briefly explains why "public law" conceptions of tort are at least as plausible as "private law" ones, both philosophically and interpretively. Interpretively, Professor Ripstein's conception is open to three serious objections. First, by placing the calling of one member of civil society to account by another at the center of their view, "private law" theorists threaten to place the remedial cart before the substantive horse. Prior to the late nineteenth century, tort existed--to the extent that it existed at all--as an essentially remedial body of law. Our modern law of torts comes into existence with (and by the recognition of) tort as a freestanding law of primary obligation. By placing such great weight both on Kant's property-centered account of private law and on "private law" theory's heavily remedial conception of tort, Professor Ripstein's conception cuts against the fundamental thrust of modern tort law. That thrust is to make obligation central and to treat right and remedy as separable. Ripstein, by contrast, places enormous weight on remedy and takes right and remedy to be indivisible.Second, Tort Law in a Liberal State is, in important part, a brief for the fault principle. Professor Ripstein is right to distinguish between "harm-based" torts such as liability for accidental injury, negligently inflicted and right-based" torts such as trespass, but wrong to claim that "harm-based" liability in tort is always fault-based. This claim leads Professor Ripstein both to a distorted account of tort law's various strict liabilities and to a fundamental mischaracterization of much of the conduct subject to liability in tort. Professor Ripstein's recasting of strict liabilities as fault ones commits him to the unfortunate idea that there is something intrinsically wrong with valuable, productive activities, blamelessly conducted. Both the recasting of particular strict liabilities in fault terms, and the righteous condemnation of risk to which this recasting leads, are mistaken. Rylands conduct in the famous case of Rylands v. Fletcher was not wrongful; Atlantic Cement's conduct in Boomer was not wrongful; and Lake Erie's conduct in Vincent was not wrongful. In all of these cases, defendant's only "fault" lay in (unreasonably) failing to make reparation for harm (reasonably) inflicted. More generally and more importantly, risk, like pollution, is not wrongful in itself, and harm is a matter of moral concern even when it issues from blameless conduct. Strict liability is a morally significant and instructive form of liability because it registers the perception that serious harm must sometimes be repaired, even though it has been faultlessly inflicted. Third and last, it is an interpretive mistake to insist that "public" and "private" forms of tort and accident law express fundamentally different values and moral conceptions. "Public law" schemes frequently complement or perfect "private law" ones, and threads of political morality tie private and public accident law institutions together. Zoning law's relation to nuisance is only one of many cases in point. Professor Ripstein's philosophical claims are likewise open to objection. For starters, Professor Ripstein's attachment to the form of "private law" transforms Kant's preoccupation with the inviolability of persons into a preoccupation with the formal purity of legal institutions. This is a path to avoid. An accident law faithful to the power of Kant's philosophy must be give pride of place to the inviolability of our persons, not to the inviolability of our legal forms. That latter path leads to endowing legal rules with the intrinsic value held only by persons. Second, Ripstein's assertion that Rawls' theory of justice commits him to the particular institutional form of "private law" is unpersuasive. Famously and explicitly, Rawls' theory leaves open the choice between capitalism and market socialism. The most natural and plausible reading of his theory of justice shows that it also leaves open the far more modest institutional choice between "private" and "public" law institutions. The final part of Personal Inviolability and "Private Law" briefly suggests that some form of enterprise liability constructed around a conception of commutative justice may, in fact, express the independence, equality and inviolability of democratic citizens more adequately than a "private law" constructed around a conception of corrective justice does. Free and equal citizens have ample reason not to place their rights against one another at the mercy of a "private law" negligence lottery, and to seek surer reparation for serious injury.

Notes: Daniel J. Sargent reviews Zbigniew Brzezinski's Second Chance.

Notes: This article provides a case study on joint production technologies in the market for blood products. The discussion and analysis are motivated by a patent for a plasma-scrubbing technology, acquired solely by the Red Cross. This example of joint production is used to illustrate questions surrounding the leveraging of monopoly power. Specifically, could the Red Cross utilize its monopoly over one jointly produced good (scrubbed plasma) to extend market power to a non-monopolized good (red blood cells) when competing with the Blood Centers of America? The case considers the potential for a dual monopoly (by the Red Cross in both markets), limit pricing on the part of the Red Cross in the market for red blood cells, and a shared market in which the Red Cross is a monopoly in the market for plasma but competes with the Blood Centers of America in the market for red blood cells.

Notes: We estimate real US GDP growth as a threshold autoregressive process, and construct confidence intervals for the parameter estimates. However, there are various approaches that can be used in constructing the confidence intervals. We construct confidence intervals for the slope coefficients and the threshold using asymptotic results and bootstrap methods, finding that the results for the different methods have very different economic implications. We perform a Monte Carlo experiment to evaluate the various methods. Surprisingly, the confidence intervals are wide enough to cast doubt on the assertion that the time-series responses of GDP to negative growth rates are different than the responses to positive growth rates.

Notes: This paper investigates the transmission mechanisms of structural shocks and volatility between economies through trade links, and the effects of synchronization on business cycles. We investigate the transmission of outside structural shocks and the fluctuations that the shocks generate. We identify conditions under which international economic links reduce the volatility and unpredictability of economic output emanating from shocks within the individual economies. Under certain conditions, devaluation of a country's currency causes reduction in the unpredictability of the business cycle and its volatility as seen by that country's exporters, while increased valuation of a country's currency produces higher unpredictability and volatility, as seen by the country's importers.

Notes: Despite expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, the Japanese real economy has been stagnating since the bubble bursting in the early nineties. Within a multivariate setup, this paper proposes to test for and date apossible structural shift in the response of Japanese macroeconomic fluctuations to aggregate supply and aggregate demand shocks. The econometric methodology directly derives from Andrews (1993) and Bai, Lumsdaine and Stock (1998) theoretical results. Our empirical study from monthly post-1980 observations reveals i) a significant structural break in the end of 1991, and ii) a sharp decrease in the influence of demand shocks on Japanese output fluctuations after this date.

Notes: Measuring country exchange rates relative to a common reference basket results in a set of no-arbitrage prices, unlike trade-weighted indexes, the usual method of comparing country exchange rate histories. The reference basket is analogous to a portfolio, and its choice can be resolved by drawing on required economic interpretations or uses. We use currency reference rates to examine the historical variability of different currencies over designated cyclical bands. The temporal decompositions used are those provided by wavelet analysis, which is light on maintained assumptions about data generating processes. Some countries, notably Japan and New Zealand do exhibit a powerful but irregular medium term cycle, while others are much more stable. Implications are briefly examined for investment, hedging, monetary policy and common currency studies.

Notes: The large decline in output volatility experienced by most industrialized countries in the last decades has been thoroughly analyzed using standard time and frequency domain methods. In this paper we investigate the issue of moderation of volatility in G-7 economies and its sources, applying a multi-scaling approach to the industrial production indices of G-7 countries between 1961:1-2006:10. Using the MODWT estimates of wavelet variance we provide a scale-based analysis of variance that allows us to characterize the decline in volatility and to detect the importance of the various explanations of the moderation. The main scale-by-scale results stemming from multi scale analysis of variance are: i) a reduction in volatility which, although displayed by all the G-7 countries, is not uniform across time scales (as the decline is larger at short-term scales than at business cycle scales for France and Italy, and quite uniform across scale for the UK and the US) nor countries (as the decline is significant for a subset of countries only, i.e. France, Italy, the UK and the US); and ii) the moderation has to be attributable to the decline in the variance of both common (in the 1970s) and country-specific (in the 1960s) exogenous disturbances hitting the economy.

Notes: As a growing economic sector in many Muslim countries, Islamic banking has its roots in the application of the Shari'a. This is because Islamic banking is, in principle, based on legally recognized financial contracts and transactions that should be free of riba and gharar, both of which are interpreted somewhat differently by major Sunni and Shi'i schools of law. The objective of this study is (a) to shed light on the development of the debate on riba among Sunni and Shi'i scholars and the position of governments on the problem of interest-free banking in the twentieth century in Egypt, Iran and Pakistan; and (b) to study the implications of this debate for Islamic financial contracts. It is concluded that the expansion of a modern and viable internationally orientated Islamic banking and finance depends mainly on the development of financial capital markets, more independent and transparent central banking in Muslim countries, and a more innovative and flexible approach to Shari'a by different schools of law in Muslim countries.

Notes: This paper presents an empirical analysis of Wagner's law in the case of Turkey over the period 1960-2000. The paper uses modern time-series econometric techniques to test the law's proposition that in the course of economic development, government expenditures increase. The results of this study do not support the empirical validity of Wagner's law for Turkey for the period 1960-2000. However, the paper finds statistical evidence for an augmented version of Wagner's law.