State Dependence and Alternative Explanations for Consumer Inertia

For many consumer packaged goods products, researchers have documented a form of state dependence whereby consumers become "loyal" to products they have consumed in the past. That is, consumers behave as though there is a utility premium from continuing to purchase the same product as they have purchased in the past or, equivalently, there is a psychological cost to switching products. However, it has not been established that this form of state dependence can be identified in the presence of consumer heterogeneity of an unknown form. Most importantly, before this inertia can be given a structural interpretation and used in policy experiments such as counterfactual pricing exercises,alternative explanations which might give rise to similar consumer behavior must be ruled out. We develop a flexible model of heterogeneity which can be given a semi-parametric interpretation and rule out alternative explanations for positive state dependence such as autocorrelated choice errors, consumer search, or consumer learning.

Improving the Numerical Performance of Static and Dynamic Aggregate Discrete Choice Random Coefficients Demand Estimation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93649/1/ECTA8585.pd

Pharmacogenomics of blood lipid regulation

Blood lipids are important modifiable risk factors for coronary heart disease and drugs target different lipid fractions. Considerable efforts have been made to identify genetic variants that modulate responses to drugs in the hope of optimizing their use. Pharmacogenomics and new biotechnologies now allow for meaningful integration of human genetic findings and therapeutic development for increased efficiency and precision of lipid-lowering drugs. Polygenic predictors of disease risk are also changing how patient populations can be stratified, enabling targeted therapeutic interventions to patients more likely to derive the highest benefit, marking a shift from single variant to genomic approaches in pharmacogenomics.IRS

Historique et problématique du régime de négociation collective dans le secteur de la santé et des services sociaux

Dans cet article, les auteurs font d'abord l'historique de la négociation collective dans le secteur de la santé et des services sociaux. Après avoir rappelé que le Code du travail ne constitue pas un bon cadre législatif pour cette négociation puisqu'il n'a pas été conçu à cette fin, les auteurs soulignent les principales caractéristiques d'une négociation avec l'État. Enfin, ils exposent les choix à faire quant à la centralisation ou la décentralisation des négociations, et quant aux modes de règlement des différends.Abstract: In this article, the writers begin by giving an overview of the history of collective negotiations in the health and social services sector. After noting that the Labour Code does not constitute the appropriate legislative framework for such negotiations since this legislation was not adopted with such a purpose in mind, the writers go on to describe the fundamental characteristics of negotiations entered into with the State. Lastly, the writers describe the relative merits of centralized and decentralized negotiations as well as those of the various modalities available for resolving disputes

To put an end to car dependence - Final report of the scoping review of the literature on the modal shift from the car to alternative modes 2010-2020

This research answers the following question: what are the main modal shift strategies discussed in the literature of the last 10 years? It also undertakes to analyze the impacts of each of the strategies present in the literature. It presents a scoping review of the literature aiming to draw an up-to-date portrait of the abundant literature on modal shift in order to synthesize it and present it in an organized manner and draw conclusions for future research and transport and development policies aimed at reducing automobile dependence and inducing a modal shift from the automobile to alternative modes of transport. We reviewed 2,872 studies published between 2010 and 2020 and retained 108 that we analyzed in detail. More than two thirds of studies report positive results of modal shift from the car towards alternative mobility. This leads us to believe that it is possible to implement public policies to facilitate modal shift and thus help reduce car dependence. A large majority of research on public transport reports positive examples. However, for studies on active transportation, we note that almost all of the research (92%) reports successes. By paying attention to the degree of coercion of the interventions investigated in the literature, we see that the “carrot” measures which seek to induce the modal shift by offering a benefit are more successful than the “stick” type measures which aim to restrict certain choices (pricing, tolls, reduction of parking spaces). However, research on the “carrot and stick” combination approach reports the most positive results. This leads us to conclude that research on this type of intervention should continue to be developed, even encouraged, and to suggest that public decision-makers take into account the beneficial effects for modal shift resulting from the combination of the two types of interventions simultaneously “carrot and stick”

Effect of curing pressure on machinability of carbon fiber composite

The increasing use of composite materials in aerospace structures and their associated manufacturing and machining processes have shown the need to reengineer traditional tools. This study aims to provide an understanding of the relationship between the manufacturing parameters of carbon fiber/epoxy composites and their machinability. The main objective is to establish a new predictive model for cutting forces during machining as a function of curing pressure, cutting speed and feed rate. The research methodology is based on a multifactorial design of experiments, with input factors being the curing pressure, the feed rate, and the cutting speed. To examine the effect of the composite curing pressure, correlations between the curing pressure and the void content, as well as between the curing pressure and the mechanical properties, are evaluated. The cutting forces are then predicted based on the curing pressure and the cutting parameters

Pour en finir avec la dépendance automobile : rapport final de l’étude de la portée de la littérature sur le transfert modal de la voiture aux modes alternatifs 2010-2020

Cette recherche répond à la question suivante : quelles sont les principales stratégies de transfert modal discutées dans la littérature des 10 dernières années. Elle entreprend aussi d’analyser les impacts de chacune des stratégies présentes dans littérature. Elle présente une étude de la portée de la littérature visant à dresser un portrait à jour de l’abondante littérature sur le transfert modal afin de la synthétiser et de la présenter de façon organisée et d’en tirer des constats pour la recherche future et les politiques de transport et d’aménagement visant à réduire la dépendance automobile et à induire un transfert modal de l’automobile vers les modes de transports alternatifs. Nous avons révisé 2872 études publiées entre 2010-2020 et en avons retenu 108 que nous avons analysées en détail. Plus de deux tiers des études rapportent des résultats positifs de transfert modal de la voiture au profit des mobilités alternatives. Ce qui nous porte à croire qu’il est possible de mettre en place des politiques publiques afin de faciliter le transfert modal et d’ainsi contribuer à réduire la dépendance à l’automobile. Parmi les recherches portant sur les transports en commun, une grande majorité rapporte des exemples positifs. Cependant, du côté des études portant sur le transport actif, nous notons que la presque totalité des recherches (92 %) rapporte des succès. En portant attention au degré de coercition des interventions enquêtées dans la littérature, on constate que les mesures « carotte » qui cherchent à induire le transfert modal en offrant un bénéfice ont plus de succès que les mesures de type « bâton » qui visent à restreindre certains choix (tarification, péage, diminution des espaces de stationnement). Cependant, les recherches portant sur la combinaison « carotte et bâton » rapportent les résultats les plus positifs. Ceci nous amène à conclure que la recherche sur ce type d’intervention devrait continuer à être développée, voire encouragée, et à suggérer aux décideurs publics de tenir compte des effets bénéfiques pour le transfert modal provenant de la combinaison des deux types d’interventions simultanément « carotte et bâton »

Pharmacogenomics of the efficacy and safety of Colchicine in COLCOT

© 2021 The Authors. Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine is published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.Background: The randomized, placebo-controlled COLCOT (Colchicine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial) has shown the benefits of colchicine 0.5 mg daily to lower the rate of ischemic cardiovascular events in patients with a recent myocardial infarction. Here, we conducted a post hoc pharmacogenomic study of COLCOT with the aim to identify genetic predictors of the efficacy and safety of treatment with colchicine. Methods: There were 1522 participants of European ancestry from the COLCOT trial available for the pharmacogenomic study of COLCOT trial. The pharmacogenomic study's primary cardiovascular end point was defined as for the main trial, as time to first occurrence of cardiovascular death, resuscitated cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, stroke, or urgent hospitalization for angina requiring coronary revascularization. The safety end point was time to the first report of gastrointestinal events. Patients' DNA was genotyped using the Illumina Global Screening array followed by imputation. We performed a genome-wide association study in colchicine-treated patients. Results: None of the genetic variants passed the genome-wide association study significance threshold for the primary cardiovascular end point conducted in 702 patients in the colchicine arm who were compliant to medication. The genome-wide association study for gastrointestinal events was conducted in all 767 patients in the colchicine arm and found 2 significant association signals, one with lead variant rs6916345 (hazard ratio, 1.89 [95% CI, 1.52-2.35], P=7.41×10-9) in a locus which colocalizes with Crohn disease, and one with lead variant rs74795203 (hazard ratio, 2.51 [95% CI, 1.82-3.47]; P=2.70×10-8), an intronic variant in gene SEPHS1. The interaction terms between the genetic variants and treatment with colchicine versus placebo were significant. Conclusions: We found 2 genomic regions associated with gastrointestinal events in patients treated with colchicine. Those findings will benefit from replication to confirm that some patients may have genetic predispositions to lower tolerability of treatment with colchicine.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Protein-coding variants implicate novel genes related to lipid homeostasis contributing to body-fat distribution.

Body-fat distribution is a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular health consequences. We analyzed the association of body-fat distribution, assessed by waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, with 228,985 predicted coding and splice site variants available on exome arrays in up to 344,369 individuals from five major ancestries (discovery) and 132,177 European-ancestry individuals (validation). We identified 15 common (minor allele frequency, MAF ≥5%) and nine low-frequency or rare (MAF <5%) coding novel variants. Pathway/gene set enrichment analyses identified lipid particle, adiponectin, abnormal white adipose tissue physiology and bone development and morphology as important contributors to fat distribution, while cross-trait associations highlight cardiometabolic traits. In functional follow-up analyses, specifically in Drosophila RNAi-knockdowns, we observed a significant increase in the total body triglyceride levels for two genes (DNAH10 and PLXND1). We implicate novel genes in fat distribution, stressing the importance of interrogating low-frequency and protein-coding variants

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of HDL cholesterol response to statins

BACKGROUND: In addition to lowering low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), statin therapy also raises high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels. Inter-individual variation in HDL-C response to statins may be partially explained by genetic variation.METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify variants with an effect on statin-induced high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) changes. The 123 most promising signals with p&lt;1×10(-4) from the 16 769 statin-treated participants in the first analysis stage were followed up in an independent group of 10 951 statin-treated individuals, providing a total sample size of 27 720 individuals. The only associations of genome-wide significance (p&lt;5×10(-8)) were between minor alleles at the CETP locus and greater HDL-C response to statin treatment.CONCLUSIONS: Based on results from this study that included a relatively large sample size, we suggest that CETP may be the only detectable locus with common genetic variants that influence HDL-C response to statins substantially in individuals of European descent. Although CETP is known to be associated with HDL-C, we provide evidence that this pharmacogenetic effect is independent of its association with baseline HDL-C levels.</p