Tragedy of the common canal

This paper uses laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of alternative solutions to a common-pool resource with a unidirectional flow. The focus is on the comparative economic efficiency of communications, bilateral “Coasian” bargaining, auctions and price-based allocations. All treatments improve allocative efficiency relative to a baseline environment. Communication and bilateral bargaining are not generally as effective as market allocations. An exogenously imposed, optimal fee results in the greatest efficiency gain, followed by auction allocations that determine the usage fee endogenously.externalities, experiments, auctions, Coasian bargaining, common pool resource

Frontline direct care workers experiences of providing domiciliary care towards the end of life:a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis

Background An ageing population heralds a greater demand for palliative and end of life care. Many people approaching the end of life rely on domiciliary care services provided by a para-professional workforce. Despite low pay and status, these workers provide personal and social care to people at a difficult time in their lives. Little is known about the impact of this work on the workers themselves or how they are trained, supervised and supported. Methods A systematic search was conducted in six databases. All study designs were included. Titles and abstracts of retrieved papers were screened by two researchers working independently. Findings were analysed using a narrative synthesis approach. Results Of 747 retrieved references, 12 papers from six countries in four continents were selected for inclusion in the review. Few studies dealt directly with the experiences of direct care workers themselves. Most considered them as part of multi-professional care networks with many focusing on issues relating to the professionals involved in the teams under consideration. Internationally and within nations, workers job titles varied and in some cases obscured job role. Where this role was clear, there was much overlap between domestic, personal, social and health related tasks. There was little evidence of a consistent approach to training and supporting staff involved in care towards the end of life and a paucity of ‘voice’ for these workers in published studies. Conclusion The experiences of direct care workers in palliative homecare is poorly studied. There is considerable variability in how workers are named, the work they do, and who they report to. More research that privileges the voice of these workers and identifies the impact on them of caring for those approaching the end of life is required so that employing agencies may consider how to improve the training, supervision and support of this essential frontline workforce

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of E-Commerce at United Parcel Service

This paper is an analysis of e-commerce at United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). The paper begins with a general overview of the company’s IT environment to establish awareness of the size and complexity of this corporation. The analysis includes a macro level breakdown of the technology infrastructure of UPS ranging from the amount of data centers the company has, to the amount of PCs currently in operation. The study also more closely analyzes the software and database structure of UPS. Furthermore, an analysis of the company’s E-commerce activities was conducted and includes an interview with Tom Creech, the North Florida District E-commerce manager at UPS. Finally, research was conducted to evaluate the emerging technologies that UPS will soon be implementing and should be employing in the future to support the business strategy and maintain its competitive edge

An investigation into column flotation of South African coals

Bibliography: pages 245-254.The high efficiency of separation of fine (typically the -150 μm fraction) particles achievable with column flotation technology is well established. The principal aim of this thesis is to investigate whether column flotation can be used to recover saleable, particularly low-ash quality, coal from South African coal fines which are presently discarded. Samples of thickener underflow fines from the Durnacol, Kleinkopje and Greenside Collieries were used in laboratory column testwork. In addition, on-line column trials were performed at the Kleinkopje Colliery. The effects of co 1 umn operating parameters were established using both one-variable-at-a-time testing and fractional factorial design experiments. An investigation into coal slurry conditioning using oil and oil-water dispersions was also undertaken. The results of laboratory and plant column testwork showed that it was possible to recover the desired quality products from all three of the coal fines samples investigated. For all the coals tested, better grades were obtained at any given yield from column cell flotation than with conventional (batch) froth flotation. The test results also demonstrated that the column cell is best suited to recovering and upgrading the finer (< 75 μm) size fractions. Column performance was found to be strongly affected by the petrographic composition of the coal fines feed, i.e. by coal TYPE. Coals with high vitrinite and, conversely, low inertinite contents were found to be the most easily floatable. Depending on the coal TYPE, the rate of mass transport in either the pulp or froth phase was found to be rate limiting; this in turn dictated which operating parameters affected product yields and grades. Existing methods of conditioning coal slurries were found to be inadequate. Considerable scope for improvement in coal conditioning lies in better choice of collector and "promotor" reagents as well as in designing more energetically efficient conditioning vessels

United Parcel Services IT Infrastructure: A Case Analysis

This analysis of the information technology infrastructure at United Parcel Service (UPS) begins with a general overview of the companys information technology (IT) environment to establish awareness of the size and complexity of this corporation. It includes a macro-level breakdown of the technology infrastructure of UPS ranging from the data centers to the PCs currently in operation. The study also more closely analyzes the software and database structure of UPS along with an analysis of the companys E-commerce activities. It includes an interview with Tom Creech, the North Florida District E-commerce manager at UPS. Finally, research was conducted to evaluate the emerging technologies that UPS is implementing and employing to support the business strategy and maintain its competitive edge

Notch3 directs differentiation of brain mural cells from human pluripotent stem cell-derived neural crest.

Brain mural cells regulate development and function of the blood-brain barrier and control blood flow. Existing in vitro models of human brain mural cells have low expression of key mural cell genes, including NOTCH3. Thus, we asked whether activation of Notch3 signaling in hPSC-derived neural crest could direct the differentiation of brain mural cells with an improved transcriptional profile. Overexpression of the Notch3 intracellular domain (N3ICD) induced expression of mural cell markers PDGFRβ, TBX2, FOXS1, KCNJ8, SLC6A12, and endogenous Notch3. The resulting N3ICD-derived brain mural cells produced extracellular matrix, self-assembled with endothelial cells, and had functional KATP channels. ChIP-seq revealed that Notch3 serves as a direct input to relatively few genes in the context of this differentiation process. Our work demonstrates that activation of Notch3 signaling is sufficient to direct the differentiation of neural crest to mural cells and establishes a developmentally relevant differentiation protocol

Pore structural characterization of fuel cell layers using integrated mercury porosimetry and computerized X-ray tomography

The pore structure of the cathode catalyst layer of proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is a major factor influencing cell performance. The nanostructure of the catalyst layer has been probed using a novel combination of mercury porosimetry with computerized X-ray tomography (CXT), even though the nanopores were below the nominal CXT resolution. The method allows probing of the macroscopic spatial variability in the accessibility of the nanostructure. In particular, mercury entrapment within the catalyst layer showed a pronounced regular spatial patterning corresponding to the already higher X-ray absorbing regions of the fresh catalyst layer. The initial, greater X-ray absorption was due to a higher local concentration of carbon-supported platinum catalyst. This was due to segregation of ionomer away from these areas caused by the particular screen printing catalyst layer deposition method used, which both enhanced the accessibility of the origin regions and, concomitantly, reduced the accessibility of the destination regions

Tragedy of the common canal

This paper uses laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of alternative solutions to a common-pool resource with a unidirectional flow. The focus is on the comparative economic efficiency of communications, bilateral “Coasian” bargaining, auctions and price-based allocations. All treatments improve allocative efficiency relative to a baseline environment. Communication and bilateral bargaining are not generally as effective as market allocations. An exogenously imposed, optimal fee results in the greatest efficiency gain, followed by auction allocations that determine the usage fee endogenously

Tragedy of the common canal

This paper uses laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of alternative solutions to a common-pool resource with a unidirectional flow. The focus is on the comparative economic efficiency of communications, bilateral “Coasian” bargaining, auctions and price-based allocations. All treatments improve allocative efficiency relative to a baseline environment. Communication and bilateral bargaining are not generally as effective as market allocations. An exogenously imposed, optimal fee results in the greatest efficiency gain, followed by auction allocations that determine the usage fee endogenously