Does banning price discrimination promote entry and increase welfare? A model of differentiated-product duopoly with asymmetric markets

In this paper we investigate the impact of firms’ pricing policies upon entry and welfare under duopoly price competition and product differentiation. We consider a model where an incumbent serves two distinct and independent geographical markets and an entrant may enter in one of the markets. Our results show that discriminatory pricing may be either more, less or equally favorable to entry than uniform pricing. The welfare effect of banning price discrimination is also ambiguous. However, the case for banning price discrimination is much weaker than under monopoly. Interestingly, discriminatory pricing may yield higher welfare even when entry occurs only under uniform pricing

Growth, feed intake, carcass characteristics, and meat fatty acid profile of lambs fed soybean oil partially replaced by fish oil blend

AbstractThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of partial replacement of soybean oil by fish oil on dry matter intake (DMI), growth, carcass characteristics, and meat fatty acid profile of feedlot lambs. Fifty Santa Ines male lambs with 17.1±2.8 of initial body weight (BW) were individually penned and used in a randomized complete block design with 10 blocks and 5 treatments. Dietary treatments, dry matter (DM) basis, consisted of: (1) control diet (CONT) with a 10:90 of forage to concentrate ratio, (2) control diet supplemented with 40g/kg of soybean oil (0FO), (3) control diet supplemented with 2.5g/kg of fish oil blend+37.5g/kg of soybean oil (25FO), (4) control diet supplemented with 5g/kg of fish oil blend+35g/kg of soybean oil (50FO), and (5) control diet supplemented with 7.5g/kg of fish oil blend+32.5g/kg of soybean oil (75FO). Diets were mixed once daily and fed ad libitum. At the end of the 84-day feeding trial, all animals were slaughtered for carcass characteristics evaluations and meat fat acid profile determination. Animals fed soybean oil had reduced DMI compared to control; however, the average daily gain (ADG), feed efficiency (FE) and final BW were not affected. The animals fed fish oil had similar DMI, ADG, FE and final BW to those receiving the control treatment. The DMI, ADG, FE and final BW were not affected by the increasing substitution of soybean oil for fish oil. Most carcass characteristics were not affected by treatments. The shrink after chilling was lower for the 50FO diet. Short, medium, and long-chain fatty acids were similar for all diets. Stearic acid concentration was higher for lambs fed the fat diets vs. control. However, stearic acid concentration decreased linearly when fish oil replaced soybean oil. Vaccenic acid concentration was higher for lambs fed fat diets vs. control. In addition, vaccenic acid increased linearly with fish oil inclusion. The conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) C18:2 cis-9, trans-11 showed higher concentration in meat of animals fed diets containing fish oil compared to control, but it was not affected by soybean oil inclusion. Feeding small amounts of fish oil blend plus soybean oil does not exert an additional effect on the concentration of CLA C18:2 cis-9, trans-11 in relation to the exclusive use of soybean oil. However, the mixture of 7.5g/kg DM of fish oil blend with 32.5g/kg DM of soybean oil is recommended, because it improves the lipid profile of the meat by increasing the concentration of vaccenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Additionally, supplementing 7.5g/kg DM of fish oil blend mixed with 32.5g/kg DM of soybean had no negative effect on the feed intake, ADG, FE and carcass characteristics of the lambs fed high concentrate diet

Effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor and LDL receptor-related protein 1 (LRP-1) receptor in locally advanced breast cancer

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors are overexpressed in most neoplastic cell lines and provide a mechanism for the internalization and concentration of drug-laden nanoemulsions that bind to these receptors. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the administration of standard chemotherapeutic schemes can alter the expression of LDL and LDL receptor-related protein 1 (LRP-1) receptors in breast carcinoma. Fragments of tumoral and normal breast tissue from 16 consecutive volunteer women with breast cancer in stage II or III were obtained from biopsies before the beginning of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and after chemotherapy, from fragments excised during mastectomy. Tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for both receptors. Because complete response to treatment was achieved in 4 patients, only the tumors from 12 were analyzed. Before chemotherapy, there was overexpression of LDL receptor in the tumoral tissue compared to normal breast tissue in 8 of these patients. LRP-1 receptor overexpression was observed in tumors of 4 patients. After chemotherapy, expression of both receptors decreased in the tumors of 6 patients, increased in 4 and was unchanged in 2. Nonetheless, even when chemotherapy reduced receptors expression, the expression was still above normal. The fact that chemotherapy does not impair LDL receptors expression supports the use of drug carrier systems that target neoplastic cells by the LDL receptor endocytic pathway in patients on conventional chemotherapy

Theory of output coupling for trapped fermionic atoms

We develop a dynamic theory of output coupling, for fermionic atoms initially confined in a magnetic trap. We consider an exactly soluble one-dimensional model, with a spatially localized delta-type coupling between the atoms in the trap and a continuum of free-particle external modes. Two important special cases are considered for the confinement potential: the infinite box and the harmonic oscillator. We establish that in both cases a bound state of the coupled system appears for any value of the coupling constant, implying that the trap population does not vanish in the infinite-time limit. For weak coupling, the energy spectrum of the outgoing beam exhibits peaks corresponding to the initially occupied energy levels in the trap; the height of these peaks increases with the energy. As the coupling gets stronger, the energy spectrum is displaced towards dressed energies of the fermions in the trap. The corresponding dressed states result from the coupling between the unperturbed fermionic states in the trap, mediated by the coupling between these states and the continuum. In the strong-coupling limit, there is a reinforcement of the lowest-energy dressed mode, which contributes to the energy spectrum of the outgoing beam more strongly than the other modes. This effect is especially pronounced for the one-dimensional box, which indicates that the efficiency of the mode-reinforcement mechanism depends on the steepness of the confinement potential. In this case, a quasi-monochromatic anti-bunched atomic beam is obtained. Results for a bosonic sample are also shown for comparison.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, added discussion on time-dependent spectral distribution and corresponding figur

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl