On the investment implications of bankruptcy laws

Axiomatic analysis of bankruptcy problems reveals three major principles: (i) proportionality (PRO), (ii) equal awards (EA), and (iii) equal losses (EL). However, most real life bankruptcy procedures implement only the proportionality principle. We construct a noncooperative investment game to explore whether the explanation lies in the alternative implications of these principles on investment behavior. Our results are as follows (i) EL always induces higher total investment than PRO which in turn induces higher total investment than EA; (ii) PRO always induces higher egalitarian social welfare than both EA and EL in interior equilibria; (iii) PRO induces higher utilitarian social welfare than EL in interior equilibria but its relation to EA depends on the parameter values (however, a numerical analysis shows that on a large part of the parameter space, PRO induces higher utilitarian social welfare than EA)

Protectionist demands in globalization

This paper analyzes a small, open economy whose citizens have single-peaked preferences on the tariff rate for an import good. They publicly declare this rate to the government, which has discretion in implementing it. While the government has an incentive not to deviate too much from the publicly chosen tariff rate, its final choice is determined by bargaining with a foreign lobby that has a much lower optimal rate and offers monetary transfers in return for lower tariffs. The authors show that the expectation of foreign influence causes citizens to vote for a more protectionist tariff policy. Moreover, citizens’ behavior leads to an increase in transfers by the foreign lobby.Tariff ; Trade

An experimental study of the investment implications of bankruptcy laws

In bankruptcy laws, proportionality is the universal norm when allocating the liquidation value of a bankrupt firm among creditors. The theoretical literature on bankruptcy proposes two prominent alternatives to proportionality: the equal awards and the equal losses principles. We use an experiment to analyze and compare actual creditor behavior under these three principles. More specifically, we test the following hypotheses: replacing proportionality with equal losses increases total investment while replacing proportionality with equal awards decreases total investment; under all three principles individual investment choices decrease in response to an increase in the probability of bankruptcy or an increase in risk aversion; total investment difference between proportionality and either of the other two principles is independent of the probability of bankruptcy as long as both induce an interior equilibrium. The results of the nonparametric tests and random effects Tobit regression analyses we conduct on our experimental data offer support for all hypotheses

Determination of environmental factors influencing bacterial regrowth in drinking water distribution system

İçme suyu arııma tesisi çıkışında bakteriyel standartları sağlayan içme suyu, tüketiciye ulaşana kadar dağıtım sistemi içerisinde bir takım değişikliklere uğramakta ve heterotrofik bakteri sayısında artış meydana gelebilmektedir. Bursa İli içme suyu dağıtım sisteminde meydana gelen bakteriyel değişimlerin ve bunları etkileyen mikro-çevresel faktörlerin incelendiği bu çalışmada arıtma tesisi çıkışı itibari ile yaklaşık 10200 m’lik bir hat üzerinde çalışılmıştır. Bu hat üzerinde seçilen 5 noktadan alınan örneklerde pH, bulanıklık, bakiye klor, nitrat, orto-fosfat, amonyum azotu, TOK (Toplam Organik Karbon), HBS (Heterotrofik Bakteri Sayısı), toplam koliform ve AOK (Asimile Edilebilir Organik Karbon) ölçümleri yapılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlar Bursa İli içme suyu dağıtım sisteminde arıtma tesisinden başlayarak şehrin doğusuna doğru uzanan hat üzerinde uzaklığa bağlı olarak bakteri sayısının arttığını göstermiştir. TOK, AOK ve amonyum azotu azalırken HBS değeri artmıştır. Bu parametreler arasındaki korelasyon katsayıları sırası ile -0.57, -0.74 ve -0.80 olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu değerler seçilen iletim hattı boyunca mikro-çevresel faktörlerin bakteriyel çoğalma üzerindeki etkisini ortaya koymaktadır. TOK, AOK ve amonyum-azotu ile uzaklık arasındaki korelasyon katsayıları ise -0.64, -0.89, -0,87 dir. Bazı noktalarda bakteri sayısının içme suyu standardı limit değerlerinin üzerinde olması, dağıtım sistemindeki bakiye klor konsantrasyonunun (<0.2 mg.l-1) seçilen hat boyunca meydana gelen bakteriyel çoğalmanın kontrol edilmesinde yetersiz kaldığını ve suyun bakteriyel çoğalma potansiyeline sahip olduğunu işaret etmektedir. Anahtar kelimeler: İçme suyu, HBS, Koliform, Bakteriyel yeniden çoğalma, TOK, AOK.In the present study, variations in microbial quality of drinking water and influential micro-environmental factors were examined in the distribution system of Bursa City. A 10200 m length of distribution line from the treatment plant was designated as the study area. pH, turbidity, residual chlorine, nitrate, ortho-phosphate, ammonium nitrogen, TOC (Total Organic Carbon), HPC (Heterotrophic Plate Count), total coliform and AOC (Assimilable Organic Carbon) measurements were carried out in water samples which were collected from 5 different points of the distribution system. The results of this study, indicated that the number of bacteria increased with distance between treatment plant and east side of the city. HPCs were determined to be 29, 62, 101, 133 and 176 CFU.ml-1 for the sampling points of 1., 2., 3., 4. and 5., respectively. TOC concentrations for the same points were 3.45, 2.64, 2.13, 1.61 and 1.19 mg.l-1. AOC concentrations measured in samples of point 1, 3 and 5 were 126.3, 99.1 and 92.1 mgC.l-1. It is known that AOC which is decomposed easily and utilized directly in cell synthesis forms 0.1-9% of TOC. In the present study, mean AOC concentration of water was measured to be 105.8 mgC.l-1 and formed 4-8% of TOC (2.2 mg.l-1). Standard value for HPC is 100 CFU.ml-1 according to WHO (World Health Organization) and AOC is required to be below 10 mgC.l-1 in order to accomplish this standard. However, bacterial regrowth appears to be inevitable in our distribution system since mean AOC concentration (105.8 mgC.l-1) was much above of this standard. Ammonium nitrogen concentrations were measured to be 0.26, 0.22, 0.17, 0.11 and 0.11 mg.l-1 for the sampling points of 1., 2., 3., 4. and 5., respectively. Decreasing TOC, AOC and ammonium nitrogen concentrations were followed by increasing HPC. Correlation coefficients between HPC and TOC, AOC, and ammonium nitrogen were found to be -0.57,    -0.74 and -0.80, respectively. These values signify the effect of micro-environmental factors on microbial growth. Concentrations of TOC, AOC and ammonium nitrogen decreased significantly with increasing distance from treatment plant. Correlation coefficients between distance and TOC, AOC and ammonium nitrogen were found to be -0.64, -0.89 and -0.87. Nitrate concentrations for the sampling points were measured to be 3.05, 3.13, 3.15, 3.50 and 4.15 mg.l-1 and indicated an increasing trend line with distance. It is thought that potential nitrification process cause this increase in nitrate concentrations.  A positive correlation (0.57) was determined between nitrate concentration and HPC whereas no correlation (0.37) existed between nitrate concentration and distance. Orhto-phosphate concentrations were measured to be 0.110, 0.087, 0.106, 0.082 and 0.078 mg.l-1 for the same points. Although HPC increased with increasing ortho-phosphate at the end section of distribution system, no powerful correlation (-0.13) was determined between these parameters. Reduction of ortho-phosphate concentration in the distribution system indicated that ortho-phosphate was likely to be utilized by bacteria as a nutrient along with ammonium nitrogen and AOC. It is known that marginal variations in inorganic phosphate concentrations may stimulate bacterial growth in distribution systems. Mean pH values were measured to vary between 7.24 and 7.47 and this variation was found to be insignificant. However, this level of pH was thought to be appropriate for bacterial growth. Turbidity of water did not vary significantly in the distribution system. Mean turbidity levels were determined to be 2.49, 2.13, 2.36, 1.93 and 2.17 NTU for the sampling points of 1., 2., 3., 4. and 5., respectively. Mean turbidity level determined in the present study appears to comply with the drinking water standards. In general, turbidity is expected to increase with the increasing number of bacteria in water. However, turbidity doesn?t increase unless bacterial growth occurs at significant levels. Therefore, in the present study, turbidity of water remained at reasonable levels as a result of minor increases of HPC in water. Residual chlorine was found to be below 0.2 mgl-1 at all sampling points, indicating that residual chlorine in the distribution system was not maintained at a level to control bacterial growth. Accordingly, HPC in water increased with distance, which provided convincing evidence for inadequate regrowth control in the distribution system. Microbiological parameters measured in this study showed that microbial quality of water was at a level which would not show any adverse effects on human health. However, bacteriological quality and AOC level of the water must be monitored continuously since the bacterial regrowth potential exists. Keywords: Drinking water, HPC, Coliform, Bacterial regrowth

Evaluation of visceral leishmaniasis diagnosis using indirect fluorescent antibody tests in 4 pediatric patients.

Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) in infancy is mostly seen between the ages of 2-4,and visceral infection causes long standing fever, weakness, weight loss, hepatosplenomegaly and pancytopenia. Leishmania infantum is responsible for VL in Turkey. In this study, 4 pediatric cases of VL were analysed retrospectively. Bone marrow aspirate was obtained in two cases and Leishmania amastigotes were not obtained in these cases. Leishmania antibodies by the indirect immun fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) were positive in all cases. We consider that IFAT was a suitable alternative to parasite detection in the conclusive diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in pediatric patients when strong clinical suspicion is present

Bringing letters to life: handwriting with haptic-enabled tangible robots

In this paper, we present a robotic approach to improve the teaching of handwriting using the tangible, haptic-enabled and classroom-friendly Cellulo robots. Our efforts presented here are in line with the philosophy of the Cellulo platform: we aim to create a ready-to-use tool (i.e. a set of robot-assisted activities) to be used for teaching handwriting, one that is to coexist harmoniously with traditional tools and will contribute new added values to the learning process, complementing existing teaching practices. To maximize our potential contributions to this learning process, we focus on two promising aspects of handwriting: the visual perception and the visual-motor coordination. These two aspects enhance in particular two sides of the representation of letters in the mind of the learner: the shape of the letter (the grapheme) and the way it is drawn, namely the dynamics of the letter (the ductus). With these two aspects in mind, we do a detailed content analysis for the process of learning the representation of letters, which leads us to discriminate the specific skills involved in letter representation. We then compare our robotic method with traditional methods as well as with the combination of the two methods, in order to discover which of these skills can benefit from the use of Cellulo. As handwriting is taught from age 5, we conducted our experiments with 17 five-year-old children in a public school. Results show a clear potential of our robot-assisted learning activities, with a visible improvement in certain skills of handwriting, most notably in creating the ductus of the letters, discriminating a letter among others and in the average handwriting speed. Moreover, we show that the benefit of our learning activities to the handwriting process increases when it is used after traditional learning methods. These results lead to the initial insights into how such a tangible robotic learning technology may be used to create cost-effective collaborative scenarios for the learning of handwriting

Characteristics of hospitalised COVID-19 patients and parameters associated with severe pneumonia

Background: After the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in China in December 2019, it caused a global pandemic, including Turkey. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of hospitalised COVID-19 patients and assess the parameters related to severe pneumonia. Methods: Included in the study were hospitalised COVID-19 patients with positive naso-oropharyngeal swabs. Patients’ demographics, admission symptoms, laboratory and radiological findings were recorded retrospectively. Results: Of 1013 patients, 583 were males (57.6%) and 430 were females (42.4%), with a mean age of 53.7 ± 17.9. More than half of the patients had at least one comorbidities, the most common of which were hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Cough (59.8%), fatigue (49.5%) and fever (41.2%) were the most common presenting symptoms. Of the hospitalised COVID-19 patients, 84.9% had pneumonia and 83.5% had typical radiological COVID-19 appearances (94.5%: ground-glass areas). The most common laboratory findings were high C-reactive protein (CRP) (73.6%) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (46.2%) levels, as well as lymphopenia (30.1%). Severe pneumonia was present in 28.1% of COVID-19 patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that advanced age, hypotension, anaemia and elevated CRP and LDH serum levels were independent risk factors for the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia (P = .011, .006, .017, .003 and .001, respectively). Conclusion: This study, as one of the first multicentre studies about characteristics of COVID-19 in Turkey, may guide about disease-related parameters and severity of pneumonia. Age, blood pressure, complete blood count and routine biochemical tests (including CRP and LDH) would appear to be important parameters for the evaluation of the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia

Lead Accumulations in Biotic and Abiotic Components of Emet Stream, Uluabat Lake Basin, Turkey

Abstract.-Emet Stream is one of Turkey's most important river systems. It is used for purposes such as irrigation water, industrial water supply, receiving environment for domestic and industrial wastes and fishing activities around the regions that the stream passes. The aim of this study is to determine the lead levels both in biotic (fish tissues) and abiotic (water and sediment) components of Emet Stream. Water, sediment and fish samples (Squalius cii, (Richardson, 1857); Capoeta tinca, (Heckel, 1843); Barbus oligolepis, Battalgil, 1941) were collected from eight stations (one of them is on the Kınık Stream and one of them is on the Dursunbey Stream) on the Emet Stream seasonally between the dates of November 2010 -August 2011. According to data, the lowest Pb concentrations of water and sediment were determined in E1 station (0.00307 mg/L and 10.48 mg/kg); the highest Pb concentrations were determined in E4 station for water (0.02503 mg/L) and in E8 station for sediment (48.53 mg/kg). Pb accumulations in biotic and abiotic components of Emet Stream were determined as sediment > fish tissues > water; the Pb accumulations in tissues of S. cii and B. oligolepis follows as, liver > kidney > gill > muscle; in tissues of C. tinca follows as, kidney > liver > gill > muscle respectively and it was also determined that biotic components of system were highly affected by the lead