Estimating scale economies and the optimal size of school districts: A flexible form approach

This paper investigates estimation methods to model the relationship between school district size, costs per student and the organisation of school districts. We show that the assumptions on the functional form strongly affect the estimated scale economies and offer two possible solutions to allow for more flexibility in the estimation method. First, we introduce a model by adding higher-degree district size polynomials, allowing for multiple optima. Second, we develop a Fourier cost function, innovative in the literature on scale economies in education. We then compare both models to classical approaches in the literature. We illustrate how a minor change in the estimation method can alter policy conclusions significantly using Flemish school district data. In doing so, we find sizeable potential cost savings from the consolidation of school districts, especially at the lower tail of the district-size distribution. The organisational transition from small to large school districts is characterised by an interval between two optima. Beyond an apparent slowdown in cost savings in medium-sized school districts, cost savings from school district consolidation increase again, up to the optimal size of around 6,500 students. Beyond this optimum, school districts incur diseconomies of scale. The commonly used quadratic form (U'-shaped cost function) overestimates scale economies, and fails to identify the interval between both optima

Puzzles of insurance demand and its biases: A survey on the role of behavioural biases and financial literacy on insurance demand

This paper reviews the puzzles of insurance demand, and provides an overview of behavioural-based explanations on the concept of underinsurance. In particular, the study outlines the biases (among myopia, narrow framing and others) that help to explain the existence of those puzzles. The results indicate that biases do motivate the chances of underinsurance through sub-optimal probability weighting or wrong probability estimation of risks. We discuss that the literature has fallen short in providing possible solutions for the puzzles, with this study proposing financial literacy treatments, that aim at improving knowledge and use of finance, as a systematic solution

Polderen met de PAS in Twente : Verslag van de najaarsbijeenkomst van de NHV, 29 september 2016: 'Natura2000 en ecohydrologie, een praktijkvoorbeeld in Twente!'

Ongeveer 35 mensen namen op 29 september 2016 de moeite om naar hotel-restaurant Tante Sien in Vasse (gemeente Tubbergen) af te reizen, om daar een bijeenkomst van de NHV bij te wonen. Een bont gezelschap van hydrologen, biologen, beleidsmakers, een meteoroloog, een tuinder en een verdwaalde fietsenmaker. Aanleiding was het 'fieldlab' dat hydroloog Jan van Bakel (Bakelse stroom), samen met landbouwdeskundige Inge Hageman (LTO Noord) en ecoloog Fons Eysink (Bosgroepen), uitvoerden naar maatregelen om de natuur te redden in het prachtige Springendal en het dal van de Mosbeek. In dit fieldlab heeft het drietal met de boer van ieder perceel gesproken om te bepalen wat er moet gebeuren in het kader van de Programmatische Aanpak Stikstof (PAS). Maatwerk in de praktijk, daar komt het fieldlab op neer

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-related quality of life in head and neck cancer survivors:An observational cohort studs

Objective: To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical, psychological, and social aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors. Materials and methods: Prospectively collected data from the NETherlands QUality of life and BIomedical Cohort study in HNC were used. All patients were diagnosed and treated before the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) collected 24 and 36 months after treatment (M24 and M36) were compared between survivors who completed both assessments before the COVID-19 pandemic and those who completed M24 before but M36 during the pandemic. Personal, clinical, physical, psychological, social, and lifestyle characteristics of the survivors assessed at baseline or M24 were investigated as potential effect modifiers. Results: In total, 318 HNC survivors were included, of which 199 completed both M24 and M36 before the COVID-19 pandemic and 119 completed M24 before but M36 during the pandemic. Changes in HRQOL between 24 and 36 months follow-up did not differ between the two groups for any of the PROMs. Nevertheless, in some subgroups of HNC survivors the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the course of HRQOL for several PROMs while it positively affected the course of HRQOL for other PROMs. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic did not affect HRQOL in HNC survivors in general, but some subgroups were affected in a positive and others in a negative way.</p

A multi-perspective evaluation of a service robot for seniors: the voice of different stakeholders

Purpose: The potential of service robots for seniors is given increasing attention as the ageing population in Western countries will continue to grow as well as the demand for home care. In order to capture the experience of living with a robot at home, a multi-perspective evaluation was conducted. Methods: Older adults (n = 10) were invited to execute an actual interaction scenario with the Care-O-bot ® robot in a home-like environment and were questioned about their experiences. Additionally, interviews were conducted with the elderly participants, informal carers (n = 7) and professional caregivers (n = 11). Results: Seniors showed to be more keen to accept the robot than their caregivers and relatives. However, the robot in its current form was found to be too limited and participants wished the robot could perform more complex tasks. In order to be acceptable a future robot should execute these complex tasks based on the personal preferences of the user which would require the robot to be flexible and extremely smart, comparable to the care that is delivered by a human carer. Conclusions: Developing the functional features to perform activities is not the only challenge in robot development that deserves the attention of robot developers. The development of social behaviour and skills should be addressed as well. This is possible adopting a person-centred design approach, which relies on validation activities with actual users in realistic environments, similar to those described in this paper. Implications for rehabilitation Attitude of older adults towards service robots Potential of service robots for older adult

Anti-thymocyte globulin with CsA and MMF as GVHD prophylaxis in nonmyeloablative HLA-mismatched allogeneic HCT

Nonmyeloablative regimens are used for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) of older or medically unfit patients, but successful outcome is still hindered by graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), especially in the setting of HLA-mismatched HCT. New GVHD prophylaxis strategies are emerging, including the triple drug strategy, that improve the GVHD-free and relapse-free survival (GRFS). Because the impact of ATG in HLA-mismatched Flu-TBI-based nonmyeloablative HCT has not been investigated, we did a retrospective analysis in three Dutch centers. 67 patients were evaluable, with a median age of 56 years. Overall survival, relapse-free survival and GRFS at 4 years were 52%, 43%, and 38%, respectively. NRM findings and cumulative incidence of relapse at 4 years were 26% and 31%, respectively. At 1-year grade II-IV had occurred in 40% of the patients, and the incidence of moderate-severe chronic GVHD incidence was 16%. Acknowledging the limitations of retrospective analyses, we conclude that the use of ATG for HLA-mismatched truly nonmyeloablative Flu-TBI HCT is feasible and results in acceptable long term outcomes, especially with regards to GRFS. We consider ATG in combination with cyclosporin and mycophenolate mofetil as an alternative for the triple drug strategy that uses sirolimus for GVHD prophylaxis in this particular setting

Universal corrections to scaling for block entanglement in spin-1/2 XX chains

We consider the R\'enyi entropies $S_n(\ell)$ in the one dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg XX chain in a magnetic field. The case n=1 corresponds to the von Neumann ``entanglement'' entropy. Using a combination of methods based on the generalized Fisher-Hartwig conjecture and a recurrence relation connected to the Painlev\'e VI differential equation we obtain the asymptotic behaviour, accurate to order ${\cal O}(\ell^{-3})$, of the R\'enyi entropies $S_n(\ell)$ for large block lengths $\ell$. For n=1,2,3,10 this constitutes the 3,6,10,48 leading terms respectively. The o(1) contributions are found to exhibit a rich structure of oscillatory behaviour, which we analyze in some detail both for finite $n$ and in the limit $n\to\infty$.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure