bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Liars and Inspectors: Optimal Financial Contracts When Monitoring is Non-Observable
Authors: Menichini Anna Maria C. , Simmons Peter J.
Published: July 2006

Within a costly state verification setting, we derive the optimal financial contract between an entrepreneur, a (potentially financing) supervisor and a pure investor when there is non-verifiable and non-contractible monitoring and limited liability. We show that diversion of cash flows to the entrepreneur arises as optimal behaviour and that to get the best reporting and monitoring incentives it is crucial to separate the financing from the monitoring role. In particular, higher efficiency can be achieved by ensuring that the entrepreneur and the supervisor do not collect any cash flows in low states. These should be paid to a third party instead, the pure investor, who in exchange provides funding. However, whether the pure investor entirely finances the project (and the supervisor purely acts as a monitor) or only provides partial finance (with the supervisor cofinancing) is immaterial, as the optimal financing of the project can justify a range of alternative financial structures.
An Amendment to Baumol's Burden Test
Authors: Borrmann Jörg , Zauner Klaus G.
Published: July 2006

In order to incorporate demand interdependencies into the analysis of fairness between the different consumer groups of a multi-product public utility, Baumol (1986) designed the burden test. This test checks whether the price of a single good generates net incremental revenues which cover at least the incremental costs of the good. It is, however, more reasonable to compare net incremental revenues and net incremental costs. Furthermore, it is useful to extend the analysis to groups of goods. Therefore, we develop a new fairness test, which we call the net burden test, and characterize its properties.
The Role of Observability in Futures Markets
Authors: Ferreira José Luis
Published: July 2006

Allaz (1992) and Allaz and Vila (1993) show that in an oligopolistic industry the introduction of a futures market that operates prior to the spot market induces more competitive outcomes. Hughes and Kao (1997) show that this result presumes that firms' future positions are perfectly observed, and that when firms' positions are not observed the Cournot outcome arises. We study an alternative formulation of observability, where the behavior of participants in the futures market is explicitly analyzed, and show that this approach leads to different results. Imperfect observability induces more competitive outcomes than Allaz and Vila's model.
A Strategic Analysis of Terrorist Activity and Counter-Terrorism Policies
Authors: Das Satya P , Lahiri Sajal
Published: July 2006

This paper develops a model of terrorist activity and behavior. A terrorist organization chooses the size and the number of attacks. The defending state chooses the level of security-deterrence measures. The equilibrium sequence is such that the Organization moves first, followed by the State. A defensive policy such as an innovation in security-deterrence technology tends to reduce the size of attacks but increase their number, while an offensive policy, lowering the total "strike" or "output" potential of a terrorist organization, has opposite effects. Both policies reduce the expected damage from terror. An individual's decision to become a terrorist or a financier is also modeled, leading to endogenous supplies of terrorists and funds. The effects of terrorist-flushing measures, provisions to curb the flow of funds to terrorist organizations and income-enhancing policies are evaluated by taking into account their "supply-side" effects.
The Allocation of Labor and Endogenous Search Decisions
Authors: Uren Lawrence
Published: July 2006

This paper examines the allocation of heterogeneous workers across sectors of an economy in which workers are able to direct their search towards particular firms. We find that search frictions, in addition to causing unemployment, may result in an inefficient allocation of labor. This result arises because of the interaction between the investment decisions of firms and the search decisions of workers. Despite constant returns to scale in both the matching and production functions, this interaction can generate multiple equilibria. The existence of multiple equilibria is shown to depend crucially on the direction of comparative advantage.
Consumption and Health
Authors: Domeij David , Johannesson Magnus
Published: July 2006

Many studies show that individuals do not perfectly smooth consumption at older ages. We argue that an important explanation is that health status declines with age, making consumption at older ages less desirable. We incorporate health status into a standard incomplete markets life-cycle model, by allowing the marginal utility of consumption to increase with health status. Life-cycle income, mortality risk and health status are exogenous in the model and calibrated on Swedish data. Life-cycle consumption is endogenous and matches well Swedish Consumer Expenditure Survey data; consumption expenditure increase with age until about 60 years, and then falls with about 25% to 80 years. An alternative model with mortality risk, but without health status, fails in capturing the fall in consumption with age seen in the data.
Hormones and Democracy. Inclusion, no ``Exit-Option" and Some ``Voice": ``Democratic" Signals in International Law?
Authors: Ferrarese Maria Rosaria
Published: July 2006

Analyzing some of the most general features of the hormones dispute settled before the WTO quasi-judicial bodies, this article tries to introduce the idea of a possible ``international democracy". While the evolution of international law in a time of globalization goes in the opposite direction from the typical model of democracy, meant overall as a representative one, it is still possible to find in it some aspects that are compatible with a democratic scene. We could speak of signals of ``external" or ``international" democracy, where subjects are not so much individuals, like in the classical democracies, but states, NGOs, corporations, international bureaucracies and other subjects or groups able to gain a role on that stage. International disputes before quasi-judicial bodies can help this international democracy, as occasions where global issues as risk, security, health, environment and similar, can be discussed and articulated coherently with different political visions of the world.
Managed Care and Physician Incentives: The Effects of Competition on the Cost and Quality of Care
Authors: Cooper David J. , Rebitzer James B
Published: July 2006

We analyze the effect that competition between HMOs has on the cost and quality of medical services. Our key result is that increasing competition enhances consumer utility while also moderating the impact of managed care on quality and costs. Indeed, we find that heightened competition between HMOs can cause an overall increase in care quality and costs. This result derives from an important, but overlooked, feature of the managed care market place. Plans differentiate themselves by the size and depth of their provider network. The resulting competition to attract physicians exerts a moderating effect on the incentive contracts HMOs write with providers.
Tariffs and Firm-Level Heterogeneous Fixed Export Costs
Authors: Jørgensen Jan Guldager , Schröder Philipp J. H.
Published: July 2006

This paper presents a two-country intra-industry trade model with bilateral ad valorem tariffs and fixed export costs that are heterogeneous across firms. In this model not all firms will choose to export. We examine the effects of reciprocal changes in the tariff and the fixed export barrier on the number of firms, firm profits, tariff revenue and consumer welfare. We show that both types of trade barriers reduce (increase) the number of exporting (pure domestic) firms. However, the sum of available home and foreign varieties increases for small tariffs. Firm profits are falling in both tariff and fixed export cost barriers. Tariff revenue falls when fixed export costs increase whereas we have a Laffer curve effect for the tariff. Welfare falls when fixed export costs increase and increases for small tariffs and falls for large tariffs, i.e. there exists a welfare maximizing tariff.
Measurement Error in Schooling: Evidence from Samples of Siblings and Identical Twins
Authors: Light Audrey , Flores-Lagunes Alfonso
Published: July 2006

The value of sibling data for identifying the causal effect of schooling on wages hinges on our ability to eliminate biases due to the mismeasurement of schooling. Analysts typically assume errors in schooling reports are "classical." In this study, we use generalized method of moments to estimate the parameters of a range of measurement error models, including forms of both classical and mean-reverting error models; we estimate the models using a sample of identical twins and a sample of non-twin siblings. The results of likelihood ratio-type tests reveal that variants of classical measurement error models fit both datasets about as well as more flexible models.
Commercial Development of University Research: The Role of Patents
Authors: Bhole Bharat
Published: July 2006

This paper analyzes how university patents encourage university-firm collaboration for technology transfer. Focusing on factors other than competition, I find that the two may not collaborate either because the firm finds in-house development cheaper, or because of a disagreement about the potential product's profitability. In both cases, university patents can encourage collaboration by increasing the invention's diffusion time, and therefore play a role even in the absence of any competition. The model also suggests instances in which we can expect to see a greater impact of university patents on collaboration. Even when patents increase collaboration, they do not necessarily increase welfare. The findings are relevant for the debates on the Bayh-Dole Act, which gave universities a blanket right to patent and license inventions resulting from federally funded research.
Bush and the Plight of the Presidency
Authors: Graff Henry F.
Published: July 2006

The current problems facing President Bush are not solely of his own making. Over the past several decades, the office of the presidency has lost much of the stature and respect it once commanded, due to the actions of the men who have occupied it, more critical and even contemptuous coverage by the news media, and modern politicians obsession with public opinion polls. These developments do not bode well for the long-term health of the American republic.
Managing National Security in the Information and Terrorism Age
Authors: Dorff Robert H
Published: July 2006

The United States does not have a clearly defined national security strategy for the 21st century. This problem has its roots in a failure, which precedes 9/11, to come to grips with the fundamentally different nature of the global strategic environment. Stating that we are at war with terrorism may be correct at some levels, but it fails to identify an underlying strategic imperative around which we can build a comprehensive organizing framework to protect and promote our security both at home and abroad. Terrorism and other critical threats emerge from a failure and weakness of legitimate governance. A grand strategy focused on the promotion of legitimate governance and the expansion of the global community of legitimately governed states would provide the organizing framework for managing national security.
Playing Pin the War on the Lobby
Authors: Lazarus Ned
Published: July 2006

International Relations (IR) Realists John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have entered the realm of identity politics. Their maiden voyage inside the black box of the state, a recent paper entitled The Israel Lobby, is likely their most famous but least credible work. In apportioning blame for the US invasion of Iraq, they dismiss any influence of energy dependence or geopolitical interests, while attributing causal responsibility to an expansively defined Israel Lobby, claims as specious as they are ethnically charged. Where their critique of US and Israeli policies is right, it suggests that key parts of their theories of international politics are wrong. In ivory tower IR, The Israel Lobby represents a theoretical transgression on the part of orthodox Realists. In real-world politics, Mearsheimer and Walts essay presents d/Democratic opponents of the US invasion of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank with the opportunity to distinguish principled protest from scapegoating.
Choices of Marketing Outlets by Organic Producers: Accounting for Selectivity Effects
Authors: Park Timothy , Lohr Luanne
Published: July 2006

Organic farmers have traditionally relied on a variety of marketing channels, suggesting that earned organic income will depend on the farmer's experience in producing and selling organic products and their comparative advantage in bargaining and marketing skills. A discrete choice model of the choice of marketing channels is developed which accounts for the role of selectivity bias. Farmers who are most likely to sell through a diversified set of outlets or to use a single outlet have increased earnings relative to farmers who overlook these marketing options. Producers with less experience gravitate toward use of a single marketing outlet while more experienced producers tend to diversify and market through all three channels. Constraints in selling organic products tends tend to have a negative effect on farm income.
Effects of Sales on Brand Loyalty
Authors: Huang Rui , Perloff Jeffrey M , Villas-Boas Sofia B
Published: July 2006

Although many theoretical industrial organization models are based on the existence of a critical mass of exogenously brand loyal consumers, we find little empirical evidence supporting these assumptions in the orange juice retail market. There are very few loyal consumers. More importantly, the frequency with which stores conduct sales affects the share of loyal types so that loyalty is endogenous rather than exogenous. Households demographics have statistically significant but economically minor effects on switching behavior. Switching across frozen and refrigerated states is very common, leading to more complicated substitution patterns and less loyalty than one observes looking at each state separately.
Practical Implications of Bifurcation and Chaos in Chemical and Biological Reaction Engineering
Authors: Elnashaie Said S.E.H. , Chen Zhongxiang , Garhyan Parag , Prasad Pradeep , Mahecha-Botero Andres
Published: July 2006

This paper concentrates on the practical implications of bifurcation and chaos on novel approaches for the production of the clean fuels: hydrogen and ethanol, and the simulation of the acetylcholine neurocycle in the brain. One problem from the field of chemical reaction engineering and two from the field of biological reaction engineering, the three problems have one thing in common: the practical implications of bifurcation and chaos. The novel approach for hydrogen production is based on a novel circulating fluidized bed catalytic membrane reformer configuration achieving, simultaneously, both autothermicity and breaking the thermodynamic barriers using different techniques (membranes and/or CO2 sequestration). The static bifurcation characteristics of the autothermic process and their implications on design and operation for maximum hydrogen yield and productivity are addressed. Experimental set-up for this novel process is being developed at University of British Columbia (UBC).The novel approach for the ethanol production does not use a novel configuration, however it uses a classical configuration but with a novel mode of operation. A CSTR fermenter is used exploiting bifurcation and chaos theories to maximize ethanol yield and productivity. The sequence of research work consisted of: developing a reliable and relatively simple model to describe the fermentation process, verification of the model against experimental results, using the model in an extensive bifurcation and chaos analysis investigation to identify the regions of bifurcation and chaos and their characteristics. This is followed by using these results to guide an experimental investigation of bifurcation and chaos and their implications on improving ethanol yield and productivity.This paper also introduces our preliminary efforts to investigate the bifurcation and chaotic behavior of acetylcholine neurocycle in the brain using diffusion-reaction models in order to gain some insight into their possible connection to Alzheimer and Parkinson Diseases (AD/PD).
Contrary to Robert Shiller's Predictions, Stock Market Investors Made Much Money in the Past Decade: What Does This Tell Us?
Authors: DeLong J. Bradford , Magin Konstantin
Published: July 2006

Bradford Delong and Konstantin Magin remind us that a decade ago, many thought the stock market overvalued, and yet on balance the last decade has been good for investors who bought and held. What does this tell us?
Are Economists Smarter?
Authors: Kotlikoff Laurence J
Published: July 2006

Laurence Kotlikoff presents a humorous take on Lawrence Summers' alleged suggestion that economists are smarter than sociologists.
The Economics of Net Neutrality
Authors: Hahn Robert W. , Wallsten Scott
Published: July 2006

Robert Hahn and Scott Wallsten argue that mandating net neutrality, like most other forms of price regulation, is poor policy; instead, the government should focus on creating competition in the broadband market by liberalizing more spectrum and reducing entry barriers created by certain local regulations.
Taxes on Investment Income Remain Too High and Lead to Multiple Distortions
Authors: Feldstein Martin
Published: July 2006

Although rates are lower than in the past, the combination of the corporate and personal tax rates still imply high marginal tax rates on capital income. Martin Feldstein argues that such high tax rates hurt the economy even if saving rates are not sensitive to rates of return, and examines the various ways in which capital taxes distort other aspects of economic activity.
The (Legal) Pains of Vioxx: Why Product Liability Can Make Products More Dangerous
Authors: Ben-Shahar Omri
Published: July 2006

Comparing the experience of Vioxx and Celebrex leads Omri Ben-Shahar to think that stiff product liability has the perverse effect of inducing manufacturers of defective products to leave these products on the market, rather than withdraw them.
Letter: How High Is the Top Tax Rate on U.S. Capital Gains?
Authors: Bohn Henning
Published: July 2006

Martin Feldstein's recent article on U.S. capital income taxes perpetuates the myth that capital gains are taxed at 15 percent: yet once the AMT, child tax credits and state taxes are taken into account, the top effective rate is at least 35.8 percent.
Complementary/Alternative Medicine in Latin America: Use of Herbal Remedies among a Brazilian Metropolitan Area Population
Authors: Brandão Maria G. Lins , Acúrcio Francisco Assis , Montemor Roberto Luis Melo , Marlière Lucianno Dias Paes
Published: July 2006

We interviewed 1072 people interested in medicinal plants and phytotherapy living in Belo Horizonte and its immediate surrounding areas, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The questionnaire was designed to document patterns of use of herbal remedies in a metropolitan area and to identify the plants most commonly used by this population. The interest in this theme is higher among women, particularly among housewives. People aged 41 to 50 years old also reported higher rates of use. One of the main reasons for the interest in herbal remedies was the belief that plants are more effective than conventional therapies and are associated with lower incidence of side effects. This population uses a total of 316 different plants and one third of them are indigenous to Brazil. The results suggest that there is a strong interest in using herbal remedies by this population and special efforts are thus required to improve the access and quality of such products in Brazil and other larger cities in Latin America.
Application of Web Services in SCADA Systems
Authors: Kelapure Shekhar M , Akella S.S.K. Sastry , Gopala Rao J.
Published: July 2006

The paper presents the application of web services in the SCADA systems. Efforts are made to develop web publisher and WAP publisher using web services. Web and WAP configurators are developed to configure these MMIs. Dot NET technology has been successfully used for efficient implementation of the web services. Some sample screens of Web MMI and WAP are shown in the results section.
Application and Comparison of Metaheuristic Techniques to Generation Expansion Planning Incorporating Both Bilateral and Multilateral Transactions
Authors: Subramanian Kannan , Mary Raja Slochanal S. , Subramanian Baskar , Padhy Narayana Prasad
Published: July 2006

In restructured environment, various transactions such as firm bilateral and multilateral transactions are taking place. An analysis is made on effects of transactions on Generation Expansion Planning (GEP). Some of the metaheuristic techniques such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Differential Evolution (DE), Evolutionary Programming (EP), Evolutionary Strategy (ES), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Tabu Search (TS), Simulated Annealing (SA), and Hybrid Approach (HA) are applied to solve the Transactions-GEP problem with the support of AC-Optimal Power Flow (OPF) for the modified IEEE-30 bus test system with 6-years planning horizon. The original GEP problem is modified using the proposed methods i) Virtual Mapping Procedure (VMP), and ii) Penalty Factor Approach (PFA), to improve the effectiveness of the Metaheuristic techniques. Further, Intelligent Initial Population Generation (IIPG) and 'Store and Retrieve approach' are introduced in the solution techniques to reduce the computational time. PFA is used to convert the constrained problem into an unconstrained one. The results of the metaheuristic techniques are compared and validated with that of Dynamic Programming (DP). The performances of each metaheuristic technique were compared in terms of their Success Rate (SR), Average Number of Generations (ANG), the error percentage and the mean execution time. The effects of various transactions on GEP are also analyzed.
Power System Events Classification using Pattern Recognition Approach
Authors: Samantaray S. R. , Dash P. K. , Panda G.
Published: July 2006

A new approach for power system event recognition and classification using HS-transform and RBFNN is presented in this paper. Different power system events (disturbances) like sag, swell, notch, spike, transient, and chirp are generated and processed through Hyperbolic S-transform (HS-Transform). The excellent time-frequency resolution property of HS-Transform is used to extract useful information (features) from the non-stationary signals for pattern recognition. Here HS-transform generates the S-matrix and S-matrix provides the time-frequency contours, phase contours and absolute phase of the corresponding signal. From the above extracted information, various numerical indices like standard deviation, variance, norm, energy are found out. Further these indices are used as inputs to the Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) for classifying different power system events accordingly. The RBFNN provides accurate results even with inputs (indices) found out under high noise conditions (SNR 20 dB). Thus the proposed method provides a robust and accurate method for power system events classification.
A Neural Network Based Automatic Generation Controller Design through Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Ahamed T.P. Imthias , P.S. Nagendra Rao , P.S. Sastry
Published: July 2006

This paper presents the design and implementation of a learning controller for the Automatic Generation Control (AGC) in power systems based on a reinforcement learning (RL) framework. In contrast to the recent RL scheme for AGC proposed by us, the present method permits handling of power system variables such as Area Control Error (ACE) and deviations from scheduled frequency and tie-line flows as continuous variables. (In the earlier scheme, these variables have to be quantized into finitely many levels). The optimal control law is arrived at in the RL framework by making use of Q-learning strategy. Since the state variables are continuous, we propose the use of Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural networks to compute the Q-values for a given input state. Since, in this application we cannot provide training data appropriate for the standard supervised learning framework, a reinforcement learning algorithm is employed to train the RBF network. We also employ a novel exploration strategy, based on a Learning Automata algorithm, for generating training samples during Q-learning. The proposed scheme, in addition to being simple to implement, inherits all the attractive features of an RL scheme such as model independent design, flexibility in control objective specification, robustness etc. Two implementations of the proposed approach are presented. Through simulation studies the attractiveness of this approach is demonstrated.
Survey of the Peace Economics Literature: Recent Key Contributions and a Comprehensive Coverage Up to 1992 (Part II)
Authors: Isard Walter , Anderton Charles H.
Published: July 2006

In this part we wish to present a short, but compact survey of the main strands of thought in the literature on peace economics up to 1992. A more detailed and thorough survey requires a book-length manuscript currently being written.

There are many ways in which this survey can be organized. One way would address first the question of why there is conflict, proceed to the identification of specific economic factors generating or lying behind conflicts, hone into the consequent phenomena of military expenditures and arms races, perhaps then investigate the interplay of economic factors in specific conflicts (including those leading to major unrest, wars, revolutions and terrorism), examine the basis for arms control, and finally at all stages probe into the manifold direct and indirect effects (the impact) of arms escalation, control and disarmament.

To proceed in this way, however, is not very useful. The literature on peace economics is "helter skelter," appearing in diverse journals and books without adhering to any semblance of organization. Hence we choose to present first some general conceptual materials to help identify the myriad of forces and problems that have been encountered. Then we proceed to survey the literature, for the most part on operational models and hypothesis testing, following the four approaches suggested by economic reasoning that Arrow (chapter 2) uses in treating the economic effects of arms reduction. These are: standard resource allocation theory, macroeconomic stability analysis, modern growth theory, and political economy thinking. We find examination of the literature in this manner at least as good if not better than any other that has been proposed. However, we discuss writings on arms race models and arms control which are the outgrowth of the standard resource allocation problem in a separate section. Also since there are extensive writings on sectoral and regional impacts of military expenditures which employ models derived from both standard resource allocation theory and macroeconomic stability analysis, we add a section on these impacts after the discussion of macroeconomic stability analysis. Finally, we end up with a section on conflict management analysis and procedures, a topic of concern to all social sciences and many professions, and one on which economists have made notable contributions.
Physicochemical and Rheological Properties of Salmon Protein Powders
Authors: Sathivel Subramaniam , Bechtel Peter J , Prinyawiwatkul Witoon
Published: July 2006

This study demonstrated feasibility of producing soluble protein powders from pink (PSP) and red (RSP) salmon heads. Differences were observed between physicochemical properties of the two protein powders, including nitrogen solubility, emulsion stability, and fat adsorption capacity. The flow and viscoelastic properties of the emulsions prepared with PSP and RSP were investigated using a parallel plate rheometer. The power law model and the Casson model were used to determine the flow behavior index (n), and consistency index (K) and yield stress. The emulsion containing PSP (PSPE) had a higher K value (8 Pa.s) than that (4.2 Pa.s) of the emulsion containing RSP (RSPE). Both PSPE and RSPE emulsions exhibited pseudoplastic behavior and viscoelastic characteristics. The G (an elastic or storage modulus) and G (a viscous or loss modulus) values for PSPE were higher than RSPE.
Extraction of Polyphenolics from Apple Juice by Foam Fractionation
Authors: Saleh Zaid , Stanley Roger , Nigam Mayank
Published: July 2006

This research was undertaken to test the feasibility of using the foam technology to separate polyphenols from fruit juices for use as functional food ingredients. The separation performance, expressed as enrichment ratio, selectivity and percentage recovery, was determined as a function of operating variables, namely air or N2 flow rate, initial feed concentration, bubble size, solution pH and the presence of alcohol to modify the surface tension. Measurements were made of the average bubble size and gas hold-up volume to calculate interfacial area. The bulk phase concentrations of the polyphenolics in the feed and foam fractions were analysed for total phenolic content by Folin assay and phenolic composition by reverse phase HPLC. Enrichment factors of up to 6 were found under optimum conditions of low sugar concentration (6-9 oBrix), low flow rate (0.2-0.6 ml min-1) and acidic pH (3-4). However recoveries were low at around 30% of total phenolics and selectivity was poor. It was concluded that foam fractionation represents a potential low cost technology to recover a proportion of the polyphenolic content in an enriched juice concentrate suitable for use as a functional ingredient.
Food Engineering as an Advancing Branch of Chemical Engineering
Authors: Chen Xiao Dong , Yoo Ji Yeon
Published: July 2006

During the past two decades, application of established chemical engineering principles in food industry has rapidly become an important branch of chemical engineering. Challenges faced by engineers and technologists have been in the areas of preserving the original food quality, creating new food structures in large quantities and at high rates. Active ingredients within foods that are good for human consumption must be kept within acceptable limits. Collaborations with food and nutrition scientists and microbiologists, microelectronic engineers etc. are an essential element for success. Studies have been conducted at all scales (from molecular (nano scale), macromolecular, to macroscopic and large scales such as packaged foods). In the area of chemical engineering education, there is an increasing amount of interest in introducing chemical engineering students to food related concepts. Both Australia and New Zealand have very large agri-food businesses. The challenges due to the specific materials (food materials) concerned in R & D have led to many inventions that have great potentials in new food development. In this lecture, the advances made in food engineering research and new technology development will be highlighted.
The Impact of Macroeconomic Conditions on the Health Insurance Coverage of Americans
Authors: Cawley John , Simon Kosali I.
Published: July 2006

In March 2001, the longest economic expansion in U.S. history ended, and an economic recession began. This paper seeks to provide a better understanding of the historical relationship between macroeconomic variables and health insurance coverage.We use data from two nationally representative samples: the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). The longitudinal nature of our data allows us to remove individual-specific, time-invariant heterogeneity and to focus on changes in health insurance status in response to changes in macroeconomic variables.The results confirm our prediction that the probability of any health insurance coverage is negatively associated with unemployment rate. We find that a one percentage point increase in the state unemployment rate is associated with a decrease in the probability of health insurance coverage, through any source, of 0.62 percent for men, 0.54 percent for women, and 1.1 percent for children. However, our prediction that an indicator variable for national recession would be negatively correlated with the probability of health insurance coverage is not supported by the data. We find that changes in employment status explain roughly one-quarter of the correlation between health insurance coverage and unemployment rates. Our estimates imply that 440,000 men, 436,000 women, and 494,000 children have lost health insurance coverage during the current recession.
Smoking Cessation and Lifestyle Changes
Authors: Picone Gabriel , Sloan Frank
Published: July 2006

We used the first five waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to study three distinct but possibly interrelated phenomena: smoking cessation, changes in alcohol consumption, and changes in weight. The HRS is well suited for our study because it contains smoking and drinking behavior measures; weight; detailed financial, demographic, and health data; and health conditions existing at baseline and those newly occurring. Men who quit smoking within two years before the interview reduced daily alcohol consumption by about 0.1 to 0.15. Smoking cessation did not affect alcohol consumption for women. Unlike men, for whom there was no interaction between smoking cessation and problem drinking, female problem drinkers who quit smoking during the last two years reduced daily alcohol consumption by about 0.3 to 0.4 drinks per day on average, but the effect was only temporary. Quitting or starting heavy drinking had no effect on smoking cessation for either gender. Smoking cessation led to an increase in body mass index (BMI), both for men and for women. Furthermore, the effect increased with duration of smoking cessation. For men, BMI increased by 0.28 in the first two years after smoking cessation, but by almost 0.7 among male smokers who had quit more than two years previously. For females, the short-run effect of smoking cessation was larger, but the long-run effect was about the same as for men. A 0.7 increase in BMI is equivalent to about a five-pound increase in weight for a person who is 5 feet, 11 inches tall. Overall, our longitudinal analysis of HRS data shows that smoking cessation is negatively associated with alcohol consumption and positively associated with weight gain. The specific nature of the link between smoking cessation and alcohol consumption differs between the genders.
Reference Pricing of Pharmaceuticals for Medicare: Evidence from Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand
Authors: Danzon Patricia M. , Ketcham Jonathan D.
Published: July 2006

This paper describes three prototypical systems of therapeutic reference pricing (RP) for pharmaceuticalsGermany, the Netherlands, and New Zealandand examines their effects on the availability of new drugs, reimbursement levels, manufacturer prices, and out-of-pocket surcharges to patients. RPfor pharmaceuticals is not simply analogous to a defined contribution approach to subsidizing insurance coverage. Although a major purpose of RPis to stimulate competition, theory suggests that the achievement of this goal is unlikely, and this is confirmed by the empirical evidence. Other effects of RPdiffer across countries in predictable ways, reflecting each countrys system design and other cost-control policies. New Zealands RPsystem has reduced reimbursement and limited the availability of new drugs, particularly more expensive drugs. Compared to these three countries, if RP were applied in the United States, it would likely have a more negative effect on prices of on-patent products because of the more competitive U.S. generic market, and on research and development (R&D) and the future supply of new drugs, because of the much larger U.S. share of global pharmaceutical sales.
Adverse Selection and the Challenges to Stand-Alone Prescription Drug Insurance
Authors: Pauly Mark V. , Zeng Yuhui
Published: July 2006

This paper investigates a possible predictor of adverse selection problems in unsubsidized stand-alone prescription drug insurance: the persistence of an individuals high spending over multiple years. Using Medstat claims data and data from the Medicare Survey of Current Beneficiaries, we find that persistence is much higher for outpatient drug expenses than for other categories of medical expenses. We then use these estimates to develop a simple and intuitive model of adverse selection in competitive insurance markets and show that this high relative persistence makes it unlikely that unsubsidized drug insurance can be offered for sale, even with premiums partially risk adjusted, without a probable adverse selection death spiral. We show that this outcome can be avoided if drug coverage is bundled with other coverage, and we briefly discuss the need either for comprehensive coverage or generous subsidies if adverse selection is to be avoided in private and Medicare insurance markets.
Disability Forecasts and Future Medicare Costs
Authors: Bhattacharya Jayanta , Cutler David M. , Goldman Dana P. , Hurd Michael D. , Joyce Geoffrey F. , Lakdawalla Darius N. , Panis Constantijn W. A. , Shang Baoping
Published: July 2006

The traditional focus of disability research has been on the elderly, with good reason. Chronic disability is much more prevalent among the elderly, and it has a more direct impact on the demand for medical care. It is also important to understand trends in disability among the young, however, particularly if these trends diverge from those among the elderly. These trends could have serious implications for future health care spending because more disability at younger ages almost certainlytranslates into more disability among tomorrows elderly, and disability is a key predictor of health care spending.Using data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and the National Health Interview Study (NHIS), we forecast that per-capita Medicare costs will decline for the next fifteen to twenty years, in accordance with recent projections of declining disability among the elderly. By 2020, however, the trend reverses. Per-capita costs begin to rise due to growth in disability among the younger elderly. Total costs may well remain relatively flat until 2010 and then begin to rise because per-capita costs will cease to decline rapidly enough to offset the influx of new elderly people. Overall, cost forecasts for the elderly that incorporate information about disability among todays younger generations yield more pessimistic scenarios than those based solely on elderly data sets, and this information should be incorporated into official Medicare forecasts.
Benefit Plan Design and Prescription Drug Utilization Among Asthmatics: Do Patient Copayments Matter?
Authors: Crown William H. , Berndt Ernst R. , Baser Onur , Finkelstein Stan N. , Witt Whitney P. , Maguire Jonathan , Haver Kenan E.
Published: July 2006

The ratio of controller-to-reliever medication use has been proposed as a measure of treatment quality for asthma patients. In this study we examine the effects of plan-level mean out-of-pocket asthma medication patient copayments and other features of benefit plan design on the use of controller medications alone, controller and reliever medications (combination therapy), and reliever medications alone. The 19952000 MarketScanTM claims data were used to construct plan-level out-of-pocket copayment and physician/practice prescriber preference variables for asthma medications. Separate multinomial logit models were estimated for patients in fee-for-service (FFS) and non-FFS plans relating benefit plan design features, physician/practice prescribing preferences, patient demographics, patient comorbidities, and county-level income variables to patient-level asthma treatment patterns. We find that the controller-to-reliever ratio rose steadily over 19952000, along with out-of-pocket payments for asthma medications, which rose more for controllers than for relievers. After controlling for other variables, however, plan-level mean out-of-pocket copayments were not found to have a statistically significant influence on patient-level asthma treatment patterns. On the other hand, physician/practice prescribing patterns strongly influenced patient-level treatment patterns. There is no strong statistical evidence that higher levels of out-of-pocket copayments for prescription drugs influence asthma treatment patterns. However, physician/practice prescribing preferences influence patient treatment.
Sequencing peptides by electrospray ion-trap mass spectrometry: A useful tool in synthesis of Axinastatin 3
Authors: Jia Chenxi , Qi Wei , He Zhimin , Qiao Bin
Published: July 2006

Axinastatin 3 as a potential anticancer agent was synthesized by chemical methods. In an electrospray ion-trap mass spectrometer, using one stage of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), the linear peptide intermediate was sequenced via the complementarities of y and b ions. Then, using multistep MS/MS (to MS6), the cyclic peptide was sequenced through sequentially removing one amino acid residue in each stage of MS/MS. The difference of the fragmentation mechanisms and the sequencing approaches between them is discussed.
Studies on genetic changes in rye samples (Secale cereale L.) maintained in a seed bank
Authors: Chwedorzewska Katarzyna , Bednarek Piotr , Lewandowska Renata , Krajewski Paweł , Puchalski Jerzy
Published: July 2006

The aim of this study was to identify genetic changes in rye seeds induced by natural ageing during long-term storage and consecutive regeneration cycles under gene bank conditions. Genomic DNA from four rye samples varying in their initial viability after one and three cycles of reproduction was analyzed by AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) fingerprinting. Seven EcoRI/MseI primer combinations defined 663 fragments, and seven PstI/MseI primer combinations defined 551 fragments. The variation in the frequency of the seventy-four EcoRI/MseI bands was statistically significant between samples. These changes could be attributed to genetic changes occurring during storage and regeneration. However, the PstI/MseI fragments appeared to be uninfluenced by seed ageing, regeneration and propagation. A combined Principle Coordinate Analysis revealed differences between samples with different initial viability. We showed that materials with low initial viability differ in their response from highly viable ones, and that the changes exhibited in the former case are preserved through regeneration cycles.
Genotyping of recombinant Pichia pastoris strains
Authors: Viader-Salvadó José , Cab-Barrera Eddy , Galán-Wong Luis , Guerrero-Olazarán Martha
Published: July 2006

A simplified amplified-fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) method was used to genotype Pichia pastoris strains obtained by transformation of P. pastoris strain GS115 with a single integration vector. A total of 14 transformants and 3 control strains were analyzed, which generated 16 different band patterns. A clonal variation was obtained after the transformation process due to genetic differences generated during the transformation event of the host strain. Furthermore, the cluster analysis showed that the transformants with lesser genetic differences with respect to the P. pastoris host strain are the recombinant strains with the highest level of recombinant protein production.
The bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of the narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.)
Authors: Kasprzak Andrzej , Šafář Jan , Janda Jaroslav , Doležel Jaroslav , Wolko Bogdan , Naganowska Barbara
Published: July 2006

The narrow-leafed lupin possesses valuable traits for environment-friendly agriculture and for the production of unconventional agricultural products. Despite various genetic and environmental studies, the breeding of improved cultivars has been slow due to the limited knowledge of its genomic structure. Further advances in genomics require, among other things, the availability of a genomic DNA library with large inserts. We report here on the construction of the first DNA library cloned in a BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) vector from diploid Lupinus angustifolius L. cv. Sonet. The high molecular weight DNA used for its preparation was isolated from interphase nuclei that were purified by flow cytometry. The library comprises 55,296 clones and is ordered in 144×384-well microtitre plates. With an average insert size of 100 kb, the library represents six haploid genome equivalents. Thanks to the purification of the nuclei by flow cytometry, contamination with chloroplast DNA and mitochondrial DNA was negligible. The availability of a BAC library opens avenues for the development of a physical contig map and positional gene cloning, as well as for the analysis of the plant’s genome structure and evolution.
Impact of linkage disequilibrium on multipoint linkage analysis
Authors: Amos Christopher I. , Huang Qiqing
Published: July 2006

In this chapter we describe the impact that an inaccurate assumption of linkage equilibrium has upon linkage methods. Most multipoint linkage analysis programs assume linkage equilibrium among tightly linked markers. Violation of this assumption leads to biased evidence for linkage when analyzing affected sib‐pairs and an excess probability of falsely detecting evidence for linkage. Including the parents in the analysis or additional unaffected siblings reduces or eliminates this bias. Procedures for removing markers in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) or for treating linked markers as sets of alleles at a single locus have been developed. Some parametric linkage methods can perform analysis incorporating haplotype frequencies among tightly linked markers, but these approaches are awkward to implement for dense multipoint mapping.
The chimpanzee genome
Authors: Mikkelsen Tarjei S.
Published: July 2006

The complete genome sequence of the common chimpanzee (
Pan troglodytes
) is a unique tool for elucidating the mutational processes and selective pressures that have shaped the human genome in our recent evolutionary history. This article highlights initial insights from comparative analyses of the chimpanzee and human genomes.
Functional prediction through phylogenetic inference and structural classification of proteins
Authors: Sjölander Kimmen , Specht Chelsea
Published: July 2006

Computational prediction of gene function is an essential tool for modern biologists. The primary method of function prediction used today is based on homology, involving the transfer of annotation from the top hit in a database search to the gene of interest. However, homology‐based methods of function prediction have been shown to be prone to systematic errors stemming from gene duplication, domain shuffling, and existing database errors. In recent years, methods of gene function prediction have focused on inclusion of information from evolutionary studies and structural analysis, and the success of these methods in inferring function from sequence data is very encouraging. In this paper, we present a perspective on the use of phylogenetic and structural analyses for improving the inference of protein function.