Scaled Particle Theory for Hard Sphere Pairs. II. Numerical Analysis

We use the extension of scaled particle theory (ESPT) presented in the accompanying paper [Stillinger et al. J. Chem. Phys. xxx, xxx (2007)] to calculate numerically pair correlation function of the hard sphere fluid over the density range $0\leq \rho\sigma^3\leq 0.96$. Comparison with computer simulation results reveals that the new theory is able to capture accurately the fluid's structure across the entire density range examined. The pressure predicted via the virial route is systematically lower than simulation results, while that obtained using the compressibility route is lower than simulation predictions for $\rho\sigma^3\leq 0.67$ and higher than simulation predictions for $\rho\sigma^3\geq 0.67$. Numerical predictions are also presented for the surface tension and Tolman length of the hard sphere fluid

Modelling Production Risk in Small Scale Subsistence Agriculture

In this paper we are investigating how production risk may influence the way a risk averse producer like a subsistence farmer chooses optimal input levels. Risk averse producers will take into account both the mean and the variance of output, and therefore we expect them to choose input levels which differ form the optimal input level of risk neutral producers. Production risk is of particular importance in developing countries, since variance in production here may have grave consequences for the farmer and his family. To model the production decision problem under such circumstances we have made use of the fact that production risk can be treated as heteroskedasticity. Our analysis is based on a dataset obtained from a survey on smallholders in the Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania. Since evidence of output risk in inputs is found, we reestimate the mean and variance function using a maximum likelihood estimator, and correct the standard errors to provide valid inference.Farm Management,

Electrolytically regenerative hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell Patent

Electrolytically regenerative hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell

An Application of Price and Quantity Indexes in the Analysis of Changes in Expenditures on Physician Services

Price and quantity indexes are applied in the analysis of expenditure on physician services in the province of Ontario, Canada, using newly available data files for 1992 and 2004. Price indexes for such services are found to have increased less rapidly than indexes of general inflation and quantity indexes are found to account for the largest share of physician expenditure increases. The quantity indexes imply substantial gains in services per capita, especially for older adults. They imply also an increase in labour productivity for physicians that is somewhat greater than the corresponding increase for the economy at large.physician services; price and quantity indexes

Price Indexes for Acute Phase Treatment of Depression

Although broad trends in medical spending in the U.S. over the last decade have received widespread attention from policymakers, very little attention has focused on the components of those changes. For many other industries, economists typically divide nominal expenditures by an official government price index to decompose these expenditures into price and quantity components. In this paper we construct a new price index for the treatment of one illness depression. Making use of results from the published clinical literature and from official treatment guideline standards, we identify therapeutically similar treatment bundles. These bundles can then be linked and weighted to construct price indexes for specific forms of major depression. In doing so, we construct CPI and PPI-like medical price indexes that deal with prices of treatment episodes rather than prices of discrete inputs, that are based on transaction rather than list prices, that take quality changes and expected outcomes into account employ current, time-varying expenditure weights in the aggregation computations. We find that regardless of which index number procedure is employed time period the treatment price index for the acute phase of major depression has hardly changed remaining at 1.00 or falling slightly to around 0.97. This index grows considerably less rapidly than the various official PPIs -- thus the price index for the treatment of the acute phase of major depression has fallen over the 1991-95 time period. A hedonic approach to price index measurement yields broadly similar results. These results imply that given a budget for treatment of depression accomplished in 1995 than in 1991. Our results suggest that at least in the case of acute phase major depression, aggregate spending increases are due to a larger number of effective treatments being provided.

Alternative Pasts, Possible Futures: A "What If" Study of the Effects of Fertility on the Canadian Population and Labour Force

The "baby boom" that followed World War II, and the subsequent "baby bust", have cast a long shadow over the Canadian population, society, and economy. Drawing on a series of counterfactual projections, this paper considers what the year 2001 would have looked like if things had been different if there had been no baby boom or no bust, or if the bust had been delayed, to take three examples. The paper then considers what will happen in the coming decades under a number of alternative assumptions. A major finding is that the boom had much less impact on the 2001 age structure of the population and labour force than did the bust that followed. For the future, population aging, slower rates of growth, and increased dependency ratios are likely features, but one should be careful not to overestimate the prospective "dependency burden".fertility; population; labour force; dependency ratio