Strategic Trade Policy in Bargaining over Managerial Delegation Competition

In this paper, we assess the influence of the generalized Nash bargaining model on strategic trade policies. In particular, how the trade policy and the bargaining process over managerial contract are strategically connected within the context of bargaining over the sales delegation model is analyzed. We explore the policy impacts in two different models: the export rivalry model and the import-competing model, and show that the introduction of managers' bargaining process leads to a decrease in the export subsidy and optimal tariff in different models.Bargaining Delegation

Privatization and the Environment in a Mixed Duopoly with Pollution Abatement

The purpose of this note is to re-examine whether privatization improves the environment or not in a mixed duopolistic model. In our model, both firms adopt pollution abatement technologies in response to the environmental tax imposed by the government. It is shown that privatization unambiguously reduces the pollution levels of firms. Namely, privatization does improve the environment. Moreover, by implementing partial-privatization policy, social welfare can be enhanced.Environmental Taxes; Mixed Oligopoly: Privatization

Penning collisions of laser-cooled metastable helium atoms

We present experimental results on the two-body loss rates in a magneto-optical trap of metastable helium atoms. Absolute rates are measured in a systematic way for several laser detunings ranging from -5 to -30 MHz and at different intensities, by monitoring the decay of the trap fluorescence. The dependence of the two-body loss rate coefficient $\beta$ on the excited state ($2^3P_2$) and metastable state ($2^3S_1$) populations is also investigated. From these results we infer a rather uniform rate constant $K_{sp}=(1{\pm}0.4)\times10^{-7}$ cm$^3$/s.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Revte

Role of ejecta clumping and back-reaction of accelerated cosmic rays in the evolution of Type Ia supernova remnants

We investigate the role played by initial clumping of ejecta and by efficient acceleration of cosmic rays (CRs) in determining the density structure of the post-shock region of a Type Ia supernova remnant (SNR) through detailed 3D MHD modeling. Our model describes the expansion of a SNR through a magnetized interstellar medium (ISM), including the initial clumping of ejecta and the effects on shock dynamics due to back-reaction of accelerated CRs. The model predictions are compared to the observations of SN 1006. We found that the back-reaction of accelerated CRs alone cannot reproduce the observed separation between the forward shock (FS) and the contact discontinuity (CD) unless the energy losses through CR acceleration and escape are very large and independent of the obliquity angle. On the contrary, the clumping of ejecta can naturally reproduce the observed small separation and the occurrence of protrusions observed in SN 1006, even without the need of accelerated CRs. We conclude that FS-CD separation is a probe of the ejecta structure at the time of explosion rather than a probe of the efficiency of CR acceleration in young SNRs.Comment: 12 pages, 11 Figures; accepted for publication on ApJ. Version with full resolution images can be found at http://www.astropa.unipa.it/~orlando/PREPRINTS/sorlando_clumping.pd

Does technology licensing matter for privatization?

In mixed oligopolies, technology licensing from a cost-efficient firm to a cost-inefficient firm has been widely observed. This paper examines the relationship between privatization and licensing (by public or private firms) with the consideration of either a domestic or a foreign private firm. We find that i) in the case of a domestic private firm, public licensing facilitates privatization, but private licensing hinders privatization; ii) in the case of a foreign private firm, both public and private licensing facilitate privatization. Our results yield important policy implications on privatization

Relative-performance delegation destabilizes upstream collusion

This paper analyzes upstream firms’ collusive sustainability when downstream firms adopt the relative-performance delegation in an infinitely repeated Cournot or Bertrand game. We find that relative-performance delegation makes managers act more aggressive and upstream collusion more difficult to sustain compared to sales-revenue delegation. The driving force is that downstream relative-performance delegation makes more profits for the deviated firm. This result holds regardless of the competition modes

Privatization, entry and corporate social responsibility with consumer cognition

In this paper, we formulate a mixed triopoly with product differentiation and consumer cognition in which a welfare-maximizing public firm and CSR-concerned private firms conduct quantities competition. The government decides the optimal degree of privatization of public firm. We find that the privatization degree of public firm is closely related to product differentiation and consumer cognition. When private firm enters, whether CSR efforts are made or not, the degree of privatization will be higher. Furthermore, if the public firm is the leader of the industry, government’s optimal choice of privatization is not to privatize. The total output level, consumer surplus and social welfare are lower than those of Cournot competitors

Fandubbing

This chapter provides an overview of fandubbing, understood largely as a phenomenon encompassing a myriad of dubbing practices undertaken by amateur or non-expert users. The focus is placed on its origins, evolution and characteristics, and on the motivations of those involved in these underexplored fandom-related practices. This is achieved drawing on Baños’ research on this topic, on the few academic publications dealing with this phenomenon, and on non-academic sources providing useful insight into these practices and revealing the point of view of the creators of fandubs. The chapter also highlights the differences between fandubs and official dubbing, and identifies areas of future research

Development of a D genome specific marker resource for diploid and hexaploid wheat

Citation: Wang, Y., Drader, T., Tiwari, V. K., Dong, L. L., Kumar, A., Huo, N. X., . . . Gu, Y. Q. (2015). Development of a D genome specific marker resource for diploid and hexaploid wheat. Bmc Genomics, 16, 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-015-1852-2Background: Mapping and map-based cloning of genes that control agriculturally and economically important traits remain great challenges for plants with complex highly repetitive genomes such as those within the grass tribe, Triticeae. Mapping limitations in the Triticeae are primarily due to low frequencies of polymorphic gene markers and poor genetic recombination in certain genetic regions. Although the abundance of repetitive sequence may pose common problems in genome analysis and sequence assembly of large and complex genomes, they provide repeat junction markers with random and unbiased distribution throughout chromosomes. Hence, development of a high-throughput mapping technology that combine both gene-based and repeat junction-based markers is needed to generate maps that have better coverage of the entire genome. Results: In this study, the available genomics resource of the diploid Aegilop tauschii, the D genome donor of bread wheat, were used to develop genome specific markers that can be applied for mapping in modern hexaploid wheat. A NimbleGen array containing both gene-based and repeat junction probe sequences derived from Ae. tauschii was developed and used to map the Chinese Spring nullisomic-tetrasomic lines and deletion bin lines of the D genome chromosomes. Based on these mapping data, we have now anchored 5,171 repeat junction probes and 10,892 gene probes, corresponding to 5,070 gene markers, to the delineated deletion bins of the D genome. The order of the gene-based markers within the deletion bins of the Chinese Spring can be inferred based on their positions on the Ae. tauschii genetic map. Analysis of the probe sequences against the Chinese Spring chromosome sequence assembly database facilitated mapping of the NimbleGen probes to the sequence contigs and allowed assignment or ordering of these sequence contigs within the deletion bins. The accumulated length of anchored sequence contigs is about 155 Mb, representing similar to 3.2 % of the D genome. A specific database was developed to allow user to search or BLAST against the probe sequence information and to directly download PCR primers for mapping specific genetic loci. Conclusions: In bread wheat, aneuploid stocks have been extensively used to assign markers linked with genes/traits to chromosomes, chromosome arms, and their specific bins. Through this study, we added thousands of markers to the existing wheat chromosome bin map, representing a significant step forward in providing a resource to navigate the wheat genome. The database website (http://probes.pw.usda.gov/ATRJM/) provides easy access and efficient utilization of the data. The resources developed herein can aid map-based cloning of traits of interest and the sequencing of the D genome of hexaploid wheat