Trusting Labels: A Matter of Numbers?

Labelling is an increasingly popular way to deal with the problem of non-observability of quality inherent in the consumption of credence goods. I present a model in which the number of labelled products a monopolist offers serves as a signal for the non-observable endogenous quality. An increase in the number of labelled products increases the risk of losing consumer trust by increasing the possibility of detecting wrong labels. This lowers the incentive to produce low quality in the first place.credence goods; labels; product quality; consumer trust

Monitoring Eco-Labels: You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing

An increasing number of product labels is making environmental claims. Typically, these claims are non-verifiable to consumers, they represent a credence attribute of the product. The usual way to handle this problem is external monitoring of such labels. We consider a model where firms in a competitive market choose product quality and the intensity of monitoring. It is shown that all the firms producing the high quality credence good will choose the same level of monitoring, i.e., an industry standard will evolve. However, in a competitive equilibrium there will be more monitoring than is socially desirable.credence goods; labels; monitoring; product quality

The Demand for Tests

Many consumption goods have inherent attributes that are unknown to both consumers and producers of the good. This is reflected for example by the current discussion about potential harms of food products containing genetically modified organisms. The underlying paper analyzes consumers’ demand for product tests in a surrounding of symmetric but imperfect information. It is shown that the demand for information of existing customers is higher than that of potential new ones. In addition, the introduction of an information market unambiguously lowers the product price. This is true, even though expected positive or negative quality news is symmetric in terms of monetary valuation

The Resurrection of Christ: A Bayesian Analysis of Explanatory Hypotheses

The goal of this thesis is to determine under which circumstances a supernatural hypothesis should be preferred over the most probable natural hypothesis to explain a set of historical facts. The supernatural hypotheses include the objective vision hypothesis and the resurrection hypothesis, while the subjective vision hypothesis is taken to be the most probable natural hypothesis. Each of them can be found in the recent literature on the Resurrection and is still advocated by major proponents. The facts by which these three hypotheses are judged are agreed upon by most scholars. They include (1) Jesus’ death by crucifixion, (2) the disciples’ claim that Jesus was raised and appeared to them alive after his death, and (3) the transformative experience of Paul. This thesis argues that, unless it is extremely improbable that God exists and that He would raise Jesus from the dead, the best historical explanation for the set of historical facts herein considered is that Jesus appeared alive in bodily form after being crucified

Validation study of small-angle X-ray scattering tensor tomography

Small-angle scattering tensor tomography (SASTT) is a recently developed technique able to tomographically reconstruct the 3D reciprocal space from voxels within a bulk volume. SASTT extends the concept of X-ray computed tomography, which typically reconstructs scalar values, by reconstructing a tensor per voxel, which represents the local nanostructure 3D organization. In this study, the nanostructure orientation in a human trabecular-bone sample obtained by SASTT was validated by sectioning the sample and using 3D scanning small-angle X-ray scattering (3D sSAXS) to measure and analyze the orientation from single voxels within each thin section. Besides the presence of cutting artefacts from the slicing process, the nanostructure orientations obtained with the two independent methods were in good agreement, as quantified with the absolute value of the dot product calculated between the nanostructure main orientations obtained in each voxel. The average dot product per voxel over the full sample containing over 10 000 voxels was 0.84, and in six slices, in which fewer cutting artefacts were observed, the dot product increased to 0.91. In addition, SAXS tensor tomography not only yields orientation information but can also reconstruct the full 3D reciprocal-space map. It is shown that the measured anisotropic scattering for individual voxels was reproduced from the SASTT reconstruction in each voxel of the 3D sample. The scattering curves along different 3D directions are validated with data from single voxels, demonstrating SASTT\u27s potential for a separate analysis of nanostructure orientation and structural information from the angle-dependent intensity distribution

Ein kleiner Eingriff mit grossen Auswirkungen : praxisrelevantes Wissen für Pflegefachpersonen im Umgang mit Frauen mit einer Hysterektomie

Einleitung: Die Hysterektomie ist die zweithäufigste Operation in der Gynäkologie. Mögliche negative Auswirkungen dieses Eingriffs auf die sexuelle Gesundheit einer Frau werden in der Praxis nicht priorisiert und die Betreuung dieser Patientinnengruppe ist folglich häufig unzureichend. Ziel: Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit untersucht, welche negativen Auswirkungen die Hysterektomie auf die sexuelle Gesundheit einer Frau haben kann und welche pflegerischen Interventionen zur Förderung der sexuellen Gesundheit in der aktuellen Literatur vorhanden sind. Methode: Zur Beantwortung der Forschungsfrage erfolgte zusätzlich zur Handsuche eine systematisierte Literaturrecherche in den Datenbanken CINAHL, MEDLINE und PsycINFO. Insgesamt wurden vier Studien zu den Auswirkungen und drei Studien zu den Interventionen miteinbezogen. Ergebnisse: Die Thematik dieser Bachelorarbeit ist wenig erforscht. Mögliche postoperative Auswirkungen einer Hysterektomie auf die sexuelle Gesundheit sind zahlreich (z.B. Körperbildstörung, Scham und soziale Isolation) können je nach soziokulturellem Hintergrund stark variieren. Es wurden sieben Ansätze für pflegerische Interventionen herausgearbeitet: Caring, Familienzentrierte Pflege, Personenzentrierte Gesprächsführung und Aktives Zuhören, Interprofessionelle Zusammenarbeit, Edukation, Anonymität, Austausch in Peergruppen. Schlussfolgerung: Pflegende sollen durch die erarbeiteten Ergebnisse auf die Thematik sensibilisiert werden, um eine professionelle Pflege zu bieten. Weitere Forschung wird benötigt, um evidenzbasierte Assessmentinstrumente und pflegerische Interventionen zu entwickeln

The salt curve revisited - Electrostatic charges govern the viscoelastic properties of micellar solutions

In ionic surfactant micelles, interactions among surfactant monomers, their counterion, and additives are fundamental to tune molecular self-assembly and thus the rheological properties (see Figure 1). Here we propose a combination of 1H-NMR, integrated small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and small-angle X-ray scattering, and rheology to probe the molecular arrangements of the individual molecules within the micelle and the resulting flow properties [1, 2]. Shifts in the 1H-NMR signal show the penetration of counterions and additives into the micellar surfactant structure while SANS and SAXS determine specific intramicellar length scales and intermicellar interactions. SANS signals are sensitive to the contrast between the solvent (deuterium) and the hydrocarbonic tails in the micellar core (hydrogen) and SAXS access the inner structure of the polar shell because the headgroups, counterions, and penetrated salt have higher electron densities compared to the solvent and to the micellar core. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

In Situ Visualization of the Structural Evolution and Alignment of Lyotropic Liquid Crystals in Confined Flow

Self‐assembled materials such as lyotropic liquid crystals offer a wide variety of structures and applications by tuning the composition. Understanding materials behavior under flow and the induced alignment is wanted in order to tailor structure related properties. A method to visualize the structure and anisotropy of ordered systems in situ under dynamic conditions is presented where flow‐induced nanostructural alignment in microfluidic channels is observed by scanning small angle X‐ray scattering in hexagonal and lamellar self‐assembled phases. In the hexagonal phase, the material in regions with high extensional flow exhibits orientation perpendicular to the flow and is oriented in the flow direction only in regions with a high enough shear rate. For the lamellar phase, a flow‐induced morphological transition occurs from aligned lamellae toward multilamellar vesicles. However, the vesicles do not withstand the mechanical forces and break in extended lamellae in regions with high shear rates. This evolution of nanostructure with different shear rates can be correlated with a shear thinning viscosity curve with different slopes. The results demonstrate new fundamental knowledge about the structuring of liquid crystals under flow. The methodology widens the quantitative investigation of complex structures and identifies important mechanisms of reorientation and structural changes