The role of entrepreneurial structures when determining the average price in the market of innovative medical servic

The article provides a solution to one of the major tasks in economic theory is the definition of average prices on the market innovative medical services in healthcare. The situation, when the market there are several agents - producers, buyers and entrepreneurs

Afterglows of gamma-ray bursts

Gamma-ray burst astronomy has undergone a revolution in the last three years, spurred by the discover of fading long- wavelength counterparts. We now know that at least the long duration GRBs lie at cosmological distances with estimated electromagnetic energy release of 10^(51)-10^(53) erg, making these the brightest explosions in the Universe. In this article we review the current observational state of the long-lived 'afterglow' emission that accompanies GRBs at X-ray, optical, and radio afterglow wavelengths. We then discuss the insights these observations have given to the progenitor population, the energetics of the GRB events, and the physics of the afterglow emission. We focus particular attention on the evidence linking GRBs to the explosion of massive stars. Throughout, we identify remaining puzzles and uncertainties, and emphasize promising observations tools for addressing them. The imminent launch of HETE-2, the increasingly sophisticated and coordinated ground-based and space-based observations, and the increasing availability of 10-m class optical telescopes have primed this field for fantastic growth

Development of Harmonized Indicators and Estimation Procedures for Forests with Protective Functions against Natural Hazards in the Alpine Space

The present study was developed in the context of Regulation (EC) 2152/2003 on the monitoring of forest and environmental interactions, the so-called "Forest Focus" Regulation. The specific objective of this study was to explore the possible contribution of the national forest inventories (NFIs) to assess protective functions of for-ests in the alpine space. Key components of protective functions could be determined with the help of on-going national and international studies and processes. In order to grant consistency, definitions of forest area, dam-age potential and hazard potential had to be harmonised. Based on those, a strategy for monitoring and report-ing aspects of protective functions of mountain forests in the alpine space was proposed. Estimation procedures based on existing NFI data and field assessments and their integration in different remote sensing techniques were tested for harmonised monitoring. Final results are presented in this report.JRC.DDG.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Homophily and Contagion Are Generically Confounded in Observational Social Network Studies

We consider processes on social networks that can potentially involve three factors: homophily, or the formation of social ties due to matching individual traits; social contagion, also known as social influence; and the causal effect of an individual's covariates on their behavior or other measurable responses. We show that, generically, all of these are confounded with each other. Distinguishing them from one another requires strong assumptions on the parametrization of the social process or on the adequacy of the covariates used (or both). In particular we demonstrate, with simple examples, that asymmetries in regression coefficients cannot identify causal effects, and that very simple models of imitation (a form of social contagion) can produce substantial correlations between an individual's enduring traits and their choices, even when there is no intrinsic affinity between them. We also suggest some possible constructive responses to these results.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures. V2: Revised in response to referees. V3: Ditt

VLTI status update: a decade of operations and beyond

We present the latest update of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope interferometer (VLTI). The operations of VLTI have greatly improved in the past years: reduction of the execution time; better offering of telescopes configurations; improvements on AMBER limiting magnitudes; study of polarization effects and control for single mode fibres; fringe tracking real time data, etc. We present some of these improvements and also quantify the operational improvements using a performance metric. We take the opportunity of the first decade of operations to reflect on the VLTI community which is analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Finally, we present briefly the preparatory work for the arrival of the second generation instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE, 9146-1

The effect of felled tree stems as bio-engineering type rockfall protection

International audienceIn mountainous regions forested slopes play an important protective role against rockfall. Up to now, most of the researches on rockfall protection forest have been and are focused on the dissipative effect of standing and living trees. There are hardly any studies on the protective capacity of tree stumps and lying stems against snow avalanches and rockfalls. Although, these techniques are more and more used throughout the Alps. In Austria, the felling technique Alpi has been developed, which allows a specialised lumberjack to create small rockfall barriers using one or two tree stems anchored on high tree stumps. Lying tree stems can be then used to increase efficiently the roughness of the soil and so to limit or avoid triggering and propagation falling rocks. But, due to the wood decay, the efficiency of such bio-engineering type protective works is decreasing with time. One of the questions that the forest and natural hazard managers have to answer is: what is the lifetime of such protective structures? In order to answer to this question we have developed a specific research on this thematic. The main objectives of this research program are to quantify the efficacy of these bio-engineering type rockfall fences depending on their characteristics (stump and stems density, position on the slope, tree species, etc.), and to evaluate their resistance over time. To achieve these objectives we have developed two types of experiments. The first one, performed during the summer 2009 on our experimental site test of Vaujany (France), are full scale rockfall experiments on four felled trees, which have been anchored on their stumps and are lying in an oblique direction to the slope. In total, fifty rocks (from 522 at 2242 kg) have been released one by one. For each rock, the trajectory has been filmed with high speed digital cameras. The second type of experiment is the uprooting of tree stumps (spruce, fir and beech) of different ages and diameter. To uproot the stumps we are using the same technique as for winching tests. For each experiment, stumps samples are taken in order to determine the wood decay ratio. Finally, a statistical analysis will be made in order to study the correlation between the force required to uproot a stump and its wood decay ratio. The first uprooting test campaign has been held during the summer 2009. First results of both experiment types will be presented. This study is part of the European Interreg IV Alpine Space project "MANFRED"

A Conserved Ethylene Biosynthesis Enzyme Leads to Andromonoecy in Two Cucumis Species

Andromonoecy is a widespread sexual system in angiosperms, characterized by plants carrying both male and bisexual flowers. Monoecy is characterized by the presence of both male and female flowers on the same plant. In cucumber, these sexual forms are controlled by the identity of the alleles at the M locus. In melon, we recently showed that the transition from monoecy to andromonoecy result from a mutation in 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS) gene, CmACS-7. To isolate the andromonoecy gene in cucumber we used a candidate gene approach in combination with genetical and biochemical analysis. We demonstrated co-segregation of CsACS2, a close homolog of CmACS-7, with the M locus. Sequence analysis of CsACS2 in cucumber accessions identified four CsACS2 isoforms, three in andromonoecious and one in monoecious lines. To determine whether the andromonoecious phenotype is due to a loss of ACS enzymatic activity, we expressed the four isoforms in Escherichia coli and assayed their activity in vitro. Like in melon, the isoforms from the andromonoecious lines showed reduced to no enzymatic activity and the isoform from the monoecious line was active. Consistent with this, the mutations leading andromonoecy were clustered in the active site of the enzyme. Based on this, we concluded that active CsACS2 enzyme leads to the development of female flowers in monoecious lines, whereas a reduction of enzymatic activity yields hermaphrodite flowers. Consistent with this, CsACS2, like CmACS-7 in melon, is expressed specifically in carpel primordia of buds determined to develop carpels. Following ACS expression, inter-organ communication is likely responsible for the inhibition of stamina development. In both melon and cucumber, flower unisexuality seems to be the ancestral situation, as the majority of Cucumis species are monoecious. Thus, the ancestor gene of CmACS-7/CsACS2 likely have controlled the stamen development before speciation of Cucumis sativus (cucumber) and Cucumis melo (melon) that have diverged over 40 My ago. The isolation of the genes for andromonoecy in Cucumis species provides a molecular basis for understanding how sexual systems arise and are maintained within and between species

Dissection of Structure and Function of the N-Terminal Domain of Mouse DNMT1 Using Regional Frame-Shift Mutagenesis

Deletion analysis of mouse DNMT1, the primary maintenance methyltransferase in mammals, showed that most of the N-terminal regulatory domain (amino acid residues 412–1112) is required for its enzymatic activity. Although analysis of deletion mutants helps to identify regions of a protein sequence required for a particular activity, amino acid deletions can have drastic effects on protein structure and/or stability. Alternative approaches represented by rational design and directed evolution are resource demanding, and require high-throughput selection or screening systems. We developed Regional Frame-shift Mutagenesis (RFM) as a new approach to identify portions required for the methyltransferase activity of DNMT1 within the N-terminal 89–905 amino acids. In this method, a short stretch of amino acids in the wild-type protein is converted to a different amino acid sequence. The resultant mutant protein retains the same amino acid length as the wild type, thereby reducing physical constrains on normal folding of the mutant protein. Using RFM, we identified three small regions in the amino-terminal one-third of the protein that are essential for DNMT1 function. Two of these regions (amino acids 124–160 and 341–368) border a large disordered region that regulates maintenance methylation activity. This organization of DNMT1's amino terminus suggests that the borders define the position of the disordered region within the DNMT1 protein, which in turn allows for its proper function