Sample Testing with Vitalab Flexor

The Vitalab Flexor is a high-tech medical instrument designed to perform a large number of simultaneous measurements on samples of blood and urine. For future purposes it is desired to increase the throughput, i.e. the number of tests per hour, of the instrument. The analysis in this report gives upper bounds on the throughput if the Vitalab Flexor is operated in modes which are standard in the present situation. It is shown that a desired throughput of at least 266 tests per hour can not be realized on the basis of these standard operation modes. Possible improvements are suggested via so-called parallel or on-line operation modes, or a combination of these two modes. These possible improvements however require a number of changes in the technical design of the Vitalab Flexor

Road User Interactions: Patterns of Road Use and Perception of Driving Risk

The goal of the Road User Interactions research programme is a better understanding of the human factors of our road transport system: road user demographics, risk perceptions of road users, and the driving attitudes of various road user groups. Our analysis of the 1989 and 1999 New Zealand Household Travel Surveys identified several fundamental road user differences and consistent demographic trends over the past 10 years. The driver characteristics of gender, age, and area of residence (urban, secondary urban, and rural) are the demographic factors which most clearly differentiate New Zealand road user groups. Analysis of the patterns of road use suggests that, although these road user groups do drive at distinctly different times, there are periods of conflict which are also associated with the greatest crash risk for these drivers. Our analysis of a sample of road user groups in Hamilton, Auckland, Gisborne, New Plymouth, and Palmerston North found significant differences in their perceptions of risk and driving behaviours. Rural drivers and women drivers rated a range of driving situations as having greater risk than did the other road user groups, and they rated the high risk scenarios as being much riskier. Men indicated the greatest willingness to accept the risk in driving situations and rated their own driving skill as higher. Older drivers also rated driving situations as having higher risk, and young drivers generally rated low risk situations much lower than other drivers. In the survey of driving behaviour, young men in our sample reported very high levels of violations and aggressive violations. The male drivers’ rates of violations and aggressive violations were significantly higher than the women drivers’ and the number of both decreased significantly with age. Finally, inspection of crash data show that young drivers’ and older drivers’ crashes have some characteristics in common; both groups have a disproportionate number of crossing, turning, and manoeuvring crashes at intersections in the mid-afternoon

Molecular Gas in the Bulge and Ring of NGC 7331

Maps of the J=2-1 12CO emission from the SbII galaxy NGC 7331 show a low-contrast ring at a radius of about 3.5 kpc. There is no evidence for a pronounced central hole in the CO distribution as claimed by others. The molecular ring is just outside the radius of peak emission from warm dust, but coincides with the peak of colder dust emission. Various 12CO and 13CO transitions have been observed from three positions including the center, which was also observed in the 492 GHz transition. The line measurements have been modelled by emission from a clumpy mixture of low-density molecular gas at about T(kin) = 10 K and high-density molecular gas at temperatures of 10 K and 20 K. The CO to H2 conversion factor in NGC 7331 is lower than that in the Milky Way, and lowest in the center of NGC 7331. The total interstellar gas mass is dominated by molecular hydrogen in the bulge and in the ring, and by atomic hydrogen outside the ring. Total hydrogen mass densities in the ring are about twice those in the bulge. Total gas to dynamic mass ratios increase from 1% in the bulge to 3% outside the ring. The bulge molecular gas may have originated in mass loss from bulge stars, in which case the molecular ring is probably the consequence of evacuation efficiency decreases at the outer bulge edge.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, A&A in pres

Relationship Banking and SMEs: A Theoretical Analysis

Reliable information on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is rare and costly for financial intermediaries. To compensate for this, relationship banking is often considered as the appropriate lending technique in the case of SMEs. In this paper we offer a theoretical model to analyze the pricing behavior of banks in a Bertrand competition framework with monitoring costs. We show that the lack of reliable information leads to comparably high interest rates even if a long-term relationship between borrower and bank exists. The paper offers a theoretical explanation why SME managers consider external finance as a major constraint to their business.Relationship banking; Financial constraints; Small and medium sized enterprises; Accounting

Macroeconomic consequences of migration diversion : a CGE simulation for Germany and the UK

"This paper examines the macroeconomic consequences of the diversion of migration flows away from Germany towards the UK in the course of the EU Eastern Enlargement. The EU has agreed with the new member states from Central and Eastern Europe transitional periods for the free movement of workers. The selective application of migration restrictions during the transitional periods has resulted in a reversal of the pre-enlargement allocation of migration flows from the new member states across the EU: Germany as the main destination before enlargement attracts only modest immigration flows since 2004, while the UK and Ireland which have been only marginally affected by immigration prior to enlargement absorb about 60% of the inflows in the post-enlargement period. The macroeconomic effects of this diversion process is analysed in this paper on the basis of a CGE model which considers wage rigidities. We find that higher migration is associated with larger GDP and employment gains, but also with a smaller wage increase and a smaller decline of the unemployment rate. The diversion of migration flows away from Germany towards the UK yields thus a higher GDP and employment growth in the UK. The joint GDP of Germany and the UK declines by 0.1 per cent as a consequence of the migration restrictions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))EU-Osterweiterung - Auswirkungen, internationale Wanderung, Ost-West-Wanderung, Arbeitskräftemobilität, Mobilitätsbarriere, Wirtschaftsentwicklung - internationaler Vergleich, Bruttoinlandsprodukt, Beschäftigungseffekte, Arbeitsmarktentwicklung, Arbeitslosigkeit, Lohnentwicklung, Beschäftigungsentwicklung, Einwanderung, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Großbritannien, Irland, Europäische Union, Osteuropa