First-price vs second-price auctions under risk aversion and private affiliated values

Under a specific informational framework, we compare the seller's expected revenue from a first-price auction and a second-price auction when bidders are risk averse and have private affiliated values.auctions, risk aversion, private affiliated values

What Allotment and Subcontracting in Procurement Bidding

Allotment and subcontracting are the two alternative mechanisms enabling the participation of SMEs in procurement. We compare these two alternatives in the context of a procurement contract awarded by a first-price sealed-bid auction. When the winning large firm is constrained with respect to the degree of subcontracting, we show that only a reduction of the chosen SME's profit can reduce the expected cost of the contract. However, when the large firm is allowed to choose the subcontracting level, subcontracting can be a Pareto dominating mechanism, i.e. simultaneously increasing both firms' profits and reducing the expected total cost of the contract.allotment; subcontracting; procurement; bidding

Methodology for energy audits in the framework of the energy efficiency directive

The Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU (EED) was released in October 2012 and transposed in June 2014 by Member States. The Directive requires large companies to carry out an energy audit before December 2015, which has to be repeated every 4 years. A possibility for companies to be exempted from regular energy audits is to be or become certified by an approved energy management system (EnMS), most likely the international standard ISO 50001. In both cases it means that companies have to set plans and define actions to comply with European and national requirements that aim at improving their energy efficiency. Considering the differences across European countries regarding the awareness and involvement of the industrial sector in terms of energy management, a large number of companies still lack systematic and comprehensive systems to understand, monitor and improve their energy consumption in a cost-effective and sustainable way. This paper presents a methodology to carry out indicative energy audits in compliance with the European standard EN 16247-1 and including the ISO 50001 requirements of the energy planning phase (e.g. energy review, energy baseline and energy performance indicators). The proposed methodology follows a top down approach, starting from the energy bill and identifying major energy sources. It covers the evaluation of the actual system’s energy efficiency, identifies energy savings opportunities and presents an innovative approach for energy consumption monitoring via surrogate models of processes. It makes use of state-of-the-art techniques such as data reconciliation, heat integration via total site pinch analysis and statistical tools. Since natural gas and electricity usually take up the largest share of the total energy consumption in industry, the focus is put on these two energy carriers. One of the interesting aspects of the methodology concerns the data gathering and processing phases. Here the required data are targeted and classified in a systematic way in order to characterise the energy consumers and identify the areas of significant energy use presenting a potential for energy efficiency improvement. Once the energy review step is carried out, strategies for energy consumption monitoring should be developed. The methodology proposes an innovative approach to generate specific energy consumption models of industrial processes (surrogate models) that could be used to monitor units, online or offline, and detect deviations from expected behaviour

Optimal operations and resilient investments in steam networks

Steam is a key energy vector for industrial sites, most commonly used for process heating and cooling, cogeneration of heat and mechanical power as a motive fluid or for stripping. Steam networks are used to carry steam from producers to consumers and between pressure levels through letdowns and steam turbines. The steam producers (boilers, heat and power cogeneration units, heat exchangers, chemical reactors) should be sized to supply the consumers at nominal operating conditions as well as peak demand. First, this paper proposes an Mixed Integer Linear Programing formulation to optimize the operations of steam networks in normal operating conditions and exceptional demand (when operating reserves fall to zero), through the introduction of load shedding. Optimization of investments based on operational and investment costs are included in the formulation. Though rare, boiler failures can have a heavy impact on steam network operations and costs, leading to undercapacity and unit shutdowns. A method is therefore proposed to simulate steam network operations when facing boiler failures. Key performance indicators are introduced to quantify the network’s resilience. The proposed methods are applied and demonstrated in an industrial case study using industrial data. The results indicate the importance of oversizing key steam producing equipments and the value of industrial symbiosis to increase industrial site resilience

Cost variability, quality of care and hospitals' payment systems

In most European countries hospitals' payment is based on a prospective payment per DRG. This article highlights the potential drawbacks of such a payment system when the regulator (the National Health Insurance) can observe neither the quality enhancement nor the cost reduction efforts. In order to avoid hospitals' strategies such as patients' selection or quality reduction induced by the prospective payment, we show that mixed payment systems can solve the trade-off between different goals in a second best world. [Author]]]> eng oai:serval.unil.ch:BIB_8BE277EF6A16 2022-05-07T01:22:25Z openaire documents urnserval <oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd"> https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_8BE277EF6A16 Specific Silencing of the REST Target Genes in Insulin-Secreting Cells Uncovers Their Participation in Beta Cell Survival. info:doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045844 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0045844 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/23029270 Martin, D. Allagnat, F. Gesina, E. Caille, D. Gjinovci, A. Waeber, G. Meda, P. Haefliger, J.A. info:eu-repo/semantics/article article 2012 Plos One, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. e45844 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1932-6203 urn:issn:1932-6203 <![CDATA[The absence of the transcriptional repressor RE-1 Silencing Transcription Factor (REST) in insulin-secreting beta cells is a major cue for the specific expression of a large number of genes. These REST target genes were largely ascribed to a function of neurotransmission in a neuronal context, whereas their role in pancreatic beta cells has been poorly explored. To identify their functional significance, we have generated transgenic mice expressing REST in beta cells (RIP-REST mice), and previously discovered that REST target genes are essential to insulin exocytosis. Herein we characterized a novel line of RIP-REST mice featuring diabetes. In diabetic RIP-REST mice, high levels of REST were associated with postnatal beta cell apoptosis, which resulted in gradual beta cell loss and sustained hyperglycemia in adults. Moreover, adenoviral REST transduction in INS-1E cells led to increased cell death under control conditions, and sensitized cells to death induced by cytokines. Screening for REST target genes identified several anti-apoptotic genes bearing the binding motif RE-1 that were downregulated upon REST expression in INS-1E cells, including Gjd2, Mapk8ip1, Irs2, Ptprn, and Cdk5r2. Decreased levels of Cdk5r2 in beta cells of RIP-REST mice further confirmed that it is controlled by REST, in vivo. Using siRNA-mediated knock-down in INS-1E cells, we showed that Cdk5r2 protects beta cells against cytokines and palmitate-induced apoptosis. Together, these data document that a set of REST target genes, including Cdk5r2, is important for beta cell survival

Risk sharing and moral hazard under prospective payment to hospitals : how to reimburse services for outlier patients

We analyze the regulation of a single health care provider (e.g. a hospital). According to several payment rules used in different countries, we consider a mixed linear payment in which the hospital is paid a fixed price per DRG (diagnosis related group) for most patients (inlier patients) and is reimbursed by a cost sharing payment for patients with exceptionally costly stays (outlier patients). Given this form of payment, we determine the optimal threshold above which to consider a patient as an outlier patient, as well as the optimal payment per DRG and the optimal cost sharing parameter. For the case where the regulator can use a two part tariff, we also determine the fixed charge the regulator has to impose in order to extract hospital rents. [Authors]]]> Financial Management, Hospital ; Diagnosis-Related Groups ; Risk Sharing, Financial eng oai:serval.unil.ch:BIB_397B1AA9E66E 2022-05-07T01:15:41Z <oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd"> https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_397B1AA9E66E Parachlamydia acanthamoebae enters and multiplies within pneumocytes and lung fibroblasts info:doi:10.1016/j.micinf.2005.12.011 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.micinf.2005.12.011 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/16697235 Casson, N. Medico, N. Bille, J. Greub, G. info:eu-repo/semantics/article article 2006-04 Microbes and Infection, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 1294-300 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/1286-4579 <![CDATA[Parachlamydia acanthamoebae is a Chlamydia-like organism that naturally infects free-living amoebae. P. acanthamoebae is a putative emerging agent of community-acquired and inhalation pneumonia that may enter and multiply within human macrophages. However, since Parachlamydia induces their apoptosis, macrophages may not represent a perennial niche for this obligate intracellular bacterium. Therefore, we investigated whether pneumocytes and lung fibroblasts are permissive to Parachlamydia infection and might act as a replicative niche. Entry of Parachlamydia into pneumocytes (A549) and lung fibroblasts (HEL) was confirmed by confocal and electron microscopy. In A549 cells, the mean number of Parachlamydia per cell increased 7-fold from day 0 to day 7, independently of the technique used to label the bacteria. The proportion of infected A549 cells also increased over time, whereas cell viability remained unaffected by Parachlamydia infection. The sustained (3 weeks) viability of Parachlamydia when incubated in the presence of A549 cells contrasted with that observed in the absence of cells. HEL cells were also permissive to Parachlamydia infection, as we observed a 3- to 4-fold increase in the mean number of bacteria per cell. In HEL cells, Parachlamydia retained some viability for 2 weeks. These findings demonstrate that Parachlamydia is able to enter and multiply within pneumocytes and fibroblasts. The viability of both cell types was not compromised after Parachlamydia infection. We therefore conclude that these cells may remain infected for a prolonged time and may represent an intrapulmonary niche for the strictly intracellular Parachlamydia. This indirectly supports the role of Parachlamydia as an agent of pneumonia

Resilient decision making in steam network investments

Steam is a key energy vector for industrial sites, used for process heating, direct injection and stripping, tracing and cogeneration of mechanical power. Steam networks transport steam from producers to consumers and across different pressure levels. The steam production equipments (boilers, cogeneration units and heat exchangers) should be dimensioned to always supply key consumers as well as to deal with extreme demand caused by exceptional events such as unit startups or extreme weather. An important issue to be dealt with is that of unexpected boiler shutdowns, which can take significant amounts of time to bring back online. In cases where demand surpasses the available production of steam, load shedding is necessary in order to keep the network operable. A penalty cost can be associated to load shedding. A well dimensioned steam network is one which is resilient to such events, being able to overcome extreme demand and unexpected boiler shutdowns at minimum cost. This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the operability of a steam network when facing unexpected boiler shutdowns. A Monte-Carlo simulation is carried out on a multi-period steam network problem, randomly shutting down boilers according to their failure properties (probability of failure and duration of failure). The aim of this method is to evaluate how resilient a steam network is to boiler shutdowns. The Monte-Carlo simulation is applied to a steam network model built using a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation, whose objective function is to minimise the operational costs of the steam network and therefore also to minimise the penalty costs associated to load shedding. A case study based on anonymised industrial data is used to demonstrate the method. Two investment propositions are evaluated and compared using the proposed method

Berlioz and the freezing of boiling water

This article tries to link art and science in proposing the analysis of a text written by Berlioz in his memoirs. His text deals with the cooling of water under vacuum and its spectacular transformation into ice. We provide information allowing this experiment to be reproduced with students. We also focus on the way Berlioz, who is not a scientist, describes the experiment in terms of relationships between facts and models. To situate Berlioz's knowledge in the context of the 19th century, notion from history of science are also provided

Memorisation of Information from Scientific movies

Livre ESERAThis study deals with students working with a hypermedia that links a bank of chemical movies. Two aspects were examined: (i) the factors (such as surface features) that prevail to the choice of movies by students that use the hypermedia; (ii) the kinds of information that students are able to memorize. The research questions were formulated as (i) How chemical movies are chosen by students who have to answer questions about chemistry? and (ii) How difficult is it to memorize conceptual information from such movies? The films were specifically produced for this research, several of them with two possible narrations, one with a description as perceptible as possible of the pictures of the movie, the other with a maximum of chemical terms. In a first experiment, 6 pairs of 17 years old students were given a set of question to answer with the hypermedia. In a second one, 4 students were given a series of 7 movies to be used, and were questioned after 7 days. The most occurring factors for choosing movies were surface features, but we observed students making their choice after reformulating a question. Their also happened that a pair of students chose a movie more than once. Low memorisation seems to occur with movies that display several events, such as chemical reactions. After seven days, students remembered more pictures of the movie than words of the narration, and from the picture, more icons than animations or photos, and almost no symbols

Optimal process design for thermochemical biofuel production plants

Transport applications are a major global source of greenhouse gas emissions and the production of fuels that are renewable and neutral in CO2 is an important issue in chemical process research and development. Contrary to the biological routes that produce bioethanol and -diesel on industrial scale through fermentation or esterification, 2nd generation biofuels obtained through thermochemical processing of lignocellulosic and waste biomass by means of gasification and fuel reforming are expected to be truly sustainable since high conversion efficiencies and a decidedly positive environmental balance are achieved. The poster addresses the optimal design of such thermochemical fuel production processes with respect to its environomic (energetic, economic and environmental) performance. Thereby, the challenge is to develop design methodologies that allow the identification of the most promising conversion routes in a specific environmental and economical context. Thermo-economic process modelling and integration techniques are coupled with a multi-objective optimisation algorithm to target the best process technology and operating conditions for the trigeneration of fuels, heat and power. The approach is demonstrated on the production of synthetic natural gas from wood considering different gasification technologies and the possibility to increase the fuel yield from biomass and electrical power by integrating an electrolyser in the system