The Pricing Behaviour of Firms in the Euro Area: New Survey Evidence

This study investigates the pricing behaviour of firms in the euro area on the basis of surveys conducted by nine Eurosystem national central banks. Overall, more than 11,000 firms participated in the survey. The results are very robust across countries. Firms operate in monopolistically competitive markets, where prices are mostly set following mark-up rules and where price discrimination is a common practice. Our evidence suggests that both time- and state-dependent pricing strategies are applied by firms in the euro area: around one-third of the companies follow mainly time-dependent pricing rules while two-thirds use pricing rules with some element of state-dependence. Although the majority of firms take into account a wide range of information, including past and expected economic developments, about one-third adopts a purely backward-looking behaviour. The pattern of results lends support to the recent wave of estimations of hybrid versions of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve. Price stickiness arises both at the stage when firms review their prices and again when they actually change prices. The most relevant factors underlying price rigidity are customer relationships – as expressed in the theories about explicit and implicit contracts – and thus, are mainly found at the price changing (second) stage of the price adjustment process. Finally, we provide evidence that firms adjust prices asymmetrically in response to shocks, depending on the direction of the adjustment and the source of the shock: while cost shocks have a greater impact when prices have to be raised than when they have to be reduced, reductions in demand are more likely to induce a price change than increases in demand.

The pricing behaviour of firms in the euro area : new survey evidence

This study investigates the pricing behaviour of firms in the euro area on the basis of surveys conducted by nine Eurosystem national central banks. Overall, more than 11,000 firms participated in the survey. The results are very robust across countries. Firms operate in monopolistically competitive markets, where prices are mostly set following mark-up rules and where price discrimination is a common practice. Our evidence suggests that both time- and state-dependent pricing strategies are applied by firms in the euro area: around one-third of the companies follow mainly time-dependent pricing rules while two-thirds use pricing rules with some element of state-dependence. Although the majority of firms take into account a wide range of information, including past and expected economic developments, about one-third adopts a purely backward-looking behaviour. The pattern of results lends support to the recent wave of estimations of hybrid versions of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve. Price stickiness arises both at the stage when firms review their prices and again when they actually change prices. The most relevant factors underlying price rigidity are customer relationships - as expressed in the theories about explicit and implicit contracts - and thus, are mainly found at the price changing (second) stage of the price adjustment process. Finally, we provide evidence that firms adjust prices asymmetrically in response to shocks, depending on the direction of the adjustment and the source of the shock: while cost shocks have a greater impact when prices have to be raised than when they have to be reduced, reductions in demand are more likely to induce a price change than increases in demand.price setting, nominal rigidity, real rigidity, inflation persistence, survey data.

Ballistic thermal phonons traversing nanocrystalline domains in oriented polyethylene

Thermally conductive polymer crystals are of both fundamental and practical interest for their high thermal conductivity that exceeds that of many metals. In particular, polyethylene fibers and oriented films with uniaxial thermal conductivity exceeding 50 W⋅m^(-1)⋅K^(-1) have been reported recently, stimulating interest into the underlying microscopic thermal transport processes. While ab initio calculations have provided insight into microscopic phonon properties for perfect crystals, such properties of actual samples have remained experimentally inaccessible. Here, we report the direct observation of thermal phonons with mean free paths up to 200 nm in semicrystalline polyethylene films using transient grating spectroscopy. Many of the mean free paths substantially exceed the crystalline domain sizes measured using small-angle X-ray scattering, indicating that thermal phonons propagate ballistically within and across the nanocrystalline domains; those transmitting across domain boundaries contribute nearly one-third of the thermal conductivity. Our work provides a direct determination of thermal phonon propagation lengths in molecular solids, yielding insights into the microscopic origins of their high thermal conductivity

Novel HVDC Spacers in GIS/GIL by Adaptively Controlling Surface Charges - Insulation Compounding Scheme

The spacer is a challenging part of high voltage direct current (HVDC) gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and gas- insulated transmission lines (GILs). Based on the charge adaptively controlling strategy verified by our previously published papers, this paper serves as an important step towards further industrialization of charge adaptively controlling spacers. The insulation compounding scheme based on previous researches is focused in this paper. Spacers composed of insulating regions and charge adaptive control regions with different mass fractions of nonlinear materials were prepared. The mechanical properties, as well as the DC and AC surface flashover performance of these spacers were investigated. The results show that the DC surface flashover voltage is greatly reduced using spacers with a pure insulating region and with a doped charge adaptive region. As the doping ratio of the nonlinear material in the insulating region increases, the surface flashover voltage increases remarkably. However, the mechanical stress decreases dramatically when the mass ratio of nonlinear material is beyond 35%. The different doping ratios of nonlinear materials does not make a difference in AC surface flashover voltage. However, these surface flashover values obtained by bowl shaped spacers are much more stable and higher than that of the values measured from traditional cone type spacers at AC. The results in this paper can be a key step and are helpful in further determining the preferred option of the industrial spacer that can be potentially used in HVDC GIS/GILs. Meanwhile, based on the advanced performance, the idea of the novel bowl shape has potentially possibility in the application field of AC GIS/GILs

Ballistic thermal phonons traversing nanocrystalline domains in oriented polyethylene

Thermally conductive polymer crystals are of both fundamental and practical interest for their high thermal conductivity that exceeds that of many metals. In particular, polyethylene fibers and oriented films with uniaxial thermal conductivity exceeding 50 Wm−1K−1 have been reported recently, stimulating interest into the underlying microscopic thermal transport processes. While ab-initio calculations have provided insight into microscopic phonon properties for perfect crystals, such properties of actual samples have remained experimentally inaccessible. Here, we report the direct observation of thermal phonons with mean free paths up to 200 nm in semicrystalline polyethylene films using transient grating spectroscopy. Many of the mean free paths substantially exceed the crystalline domain sizes measured using small-angle x-ray scattering, indicating that thermal phonons propagate ballistically within and across the nano-crystalline domains, with those transmitting across domain boundaries contributing nearly a third of the thermal conductivity. Our work provides the first direct determination of thermal phonon propagation lengths in molecular solids, providing insights into the microscopic origins of their high thermal conductivity

Correction to: Long-term results after stapled hemorrhoidopexy: a survey study with mean follow-up of 12 years

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Treatment of heart failure with autologous skeletal myoblasts

The management of patients with heart failure is a daily challenge for cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. Pharmacotherapy, atrio-biventricular resynchronization, myocardial revascularization, valve repair techniques, latissimus dorsi cardiomyoplasty, acorn cardiac support device, heart transplantation and mechanical assist devices do not cover all the needs. The recent progress in cellular and molecular biology allows the development of new therapies for heart failure. Transplantation of Autologous Cells: One of the most innovative consists in the transplantation of autologous ex-vivo expanded cells into the myocardium for heart muscle regeneration. This approach is called “cellular cardiomyoplasty”

The imaging properties of the Gas Pixel Detector as a focal plane polarimeter

X-rays are particularly suited to probe the physics of extreme objects. However, despite the enormous improvements of X-ray Astronomy in imaging, spectroscopy and timing, polarimetry remains largely unexplored. We propose the photoelectric polarimeter Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) as an instrument candidate to fill the gap of more than thirty years of lack of measurements. The GPD, in the focus of a telescope, will increase the sensitivity of orders of magnitude. Moreover, since it can measure the energy, the position, the arrival time and the polarization angle of every single photon, allows to perform polarimetry of subsets of data singled out from the spectrum, the light curve or the image of source. The GPD has an intrinsic very fine imaging capability and in this work we report on the calibration campaign carried out in 2012 at the PANTER X-ray test facility of the Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur extraterrestrische Physik of Garching (Germany) in which, for the first time, we coupled it to a JET-X optics module with a focal length of 3.5 m and an angular resolution of 18 arcsec at 4.5 keV. This configuration was proposed in 2012 aboard the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE) in response to the ESA call for a small mission. We derived the imaging and polarimetric performance for extended sources like Pulsar Wind Nebulae and Supernova Remnants as case studies for the XIPE configuration, discussing also possible improvements by coupling the detector with advanced optics, having finer angular resolution and larger effective area, to study with more details extended objects.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplemen

Phase III study of ACVBP versus ACVBP plus rituximab for patients with localized low-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (LNH03-1B)

Background The superiority of a chemotherapy with doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vindesine, bleomycin and prednisone (ACVBP) in comparison with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristin and prednisone plus radiotherapy for young patients with localized diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was previously demonstrated. We report the results of a trial which evaluates the role of rituximab combined with ACVBP (R-ACVBP) in these patients. Patients and methods Untreated patients younger than 66 years with stage I or II DLBCL and no adverse prognostic factors of the age-adjusted International Prognostic Index were randomly assigned to receive three cycles of ACVBP plus sequential consolidation with or without the addition of four infusions of rituximab. Results A total of 223 patients were randomly allocated to the study, 110 in the R-ACVBP group and 113 in the ACVBP group. After a median follow-up of 43 months, our 3-year estimate of event-free survival was 93% in the R-ACVBP group and 82% in the ACVBP group (P = 0.0487). Three-year estimate of progression-free survival was increased in the R-ACVBP group (95% versus 83%, P = 0.0205). Overall survival did not differ between the two groups with a 3-year estimates of 98% and 97%, respectively (P = 0.686). Conclusion In young patients with low-risk localized DLBCL, rituximab combined with three cycles of ACVBP plus consolidation is significantly superior to ACVBP plus consolidation alon

HIV-1 prevalence and factors associated with infection in the conflict-affected region of North Uganda

BACKGROUND: Since 1986, northern Uganda has been severely affected by civil strife with most of its population currently living internally displaced in protected camps. This study aims at estimating the HIV-1 prevalence among this population and the factors associated with infection. METHODS: In June-December 2005, a total of 3051 antenatal clinics attendees in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts were anonymously tested for HIV-1 infection as part of routine sentinel surveillance. Factors associated with the infection were evaluated using logistic regression models. RESULTS: The age-standardised HIV-1 prevalence was 10.3%, 9.1% and 4.3% in the Gulu, Kitgum and Pader district, respectively. The overall prevalence in the area comprised of these districts was 8.2% when data was weighted according to the districts' population size. Data from all sites combined show that, besides older women [20–24 years: adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.96, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.29–2.97; 25–29 years: AOR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.30–3.11; ≥ 30 years: AOR = 1.91, 95% CI: 1.23–2.97], unmarried women (AOR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.06–2.04), and those with a partner with a non-traditional occupation (AOR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.18–2.21), women living outside of protected camps for internally displaced persons have a higher risk of being HIV-1 infected than internally displaced women (AOR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.15–2.08). CONCLUSION: Although published data from Gulu district show a declining HIV-1 prevalence trend that is consistent with that observed at the national level since 1993, the prevalence in North Uganda is still high. Internally displaced women have a lower risk of being infected probably because of their reduced mobility and accessibility, and increased access to health prevention services