Rational-Expectations Equilibrium in Intermediate Good Markets

We analyze a rational-expectations model of information acquisition and price formation in an intermediate- good market: prices and net supply are non-negative, there are no noise traders, and the intermediate good has multiple potential uses. Several of our results differ from the classic Grossman-Stiglitz approach. For example, the price mechanism is more informative at high and low prices and potentially uninformative at middle prices. Also, an informed trade by a producer of one final good amounts to a noise trade from the perspective of a producer of another final good, so (a) as the price mechanism becomes more informative for producers of one final good, it becomes less informative for producers of others, who therefore have a stronger incentive to acquire information, so information acquisition has the strategic-complements property between groups, and (b) having more producers (in multiple groups) become informed need not increase the informativeness of the price mechanism.

Fatigue Intervention by Nurses Evaluation - The FINE Trial. A randomised controlled trial of nurse led self-help treatment for patients in primary care with chronic fatigue syndrome: study protocol. [ISRCTN74156610]

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME (CFS/ME), is a condition characterised primarily by severe, disabling fatigue, of unknown origin, which has a poor prognosis and serious personal and economic consequences. Evidence for the effectiveness of any treatment for CFS/ME in primary care, where most patients are seen, is sparse. Recently, a brief, pragmatic treatment for CFS/ME, based on a physiological dysregulation model of the condition, was shown to be successful in improving fatigue and physical functioning in patients in secondary care. The treatment involves providing patients with a readily understandable explanation of their symptoms, from which flows the rationale for a graded rehabilitative plan, developed collaboratively with the therapist. The present trial will test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of pragmatic rehabilitation when delivered by specially trained general nurses in primary care. We selected a client-centred counselling intervention, called supportive listening, as a comparison treatment. Counselling has been shown to be as effective as cognitive behaviour therapy for treating fatigue in primary care, is more readily available, and controls for supportive therapist contact time. Our control condition is treatment as usual by the general practitioner (GP). Methods and design: This study protocol describes the design of an ongoing, single-blind, pragmatic randomized controlled trial of a brief (18 week) self-help treatment, pragmatic rehabilitation, delivered by specially trained nurse-therapists in patients' homes, compared with nurse-therapist delivered supportive listening and treatment as usual by the GP. An economic evaluation, taking a societal viewpoint, is being carried out alongside the clinical trial. Three adult general nurses were trained over a six month period to deliver the two interventions. Patients aged over 18 and fulfilling the Oxford criteria for CFS are assessed at baseline, after the intervention, and again one year later. Primary outcomes are self-reported physical functioning and fatigue at one year, and will be analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. A qualitative study will examine the interventions' mechanisms of change, and also GPs' drivers and barriers towards referral

On the computational content of Zorn's lemma

We give a computational interpretation to an abstract instance of Zorn's lemma formulated as a wellfoundedness principle in the language of arithmetic in all finite types. This is achieved through G\"odel's functional interpretation, and requires the introduction of a novel form of recursion over non-wellfounded partial orders whose existence in the model of total continuous functionals is proven using domain theoretic techniques. We show that a realizer for the functional interpretation of open induction over the lexicographic ordering on sequences follows as a simple application of our main results

Partially linear censored quantile regression

Censored regression quantile (CRQ) methods provide a powerful and flexible approach to the analysis of censored survival data when standard linear models are felt to be appropriate. In many cases however, greater flexibility is desired to go beyond the usual multiple regression paradigm. One area of common interest is that of partially linear models: one (or more) of the explanatory covariates are assumed to act on the response through a non-linear function. Here the CRQ approach of Portnoy (J Am Stat Assoc 98:1001–1012, 2003) is extended to this partially linear setting. Basic consistency results are presented. A simulation experiment and unemployment example justify the value of the partially linear approach over methods based on the Cox proportional hazards model and on methods not permitting nonlinearity

From 'River Cottage' to 'Chicken Run': Hugh Fearnley-Whttingstall and the class politics of ethical consumption

Lifestyle television provides a key site through which to explore the dilemmas of ethical consumption, as the genre shifts to consider the ethics of different consumption practices and taste cultures. UK television cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV programmes offer fertile ground not only for thinking about television personalities as lifestyle experts and moral entrepreneurs, but also for thinking about how the meanings and uses of their television image are inflected by genre. In this article we explore how the shift from the lifestyled downshifting narrative of the River Cottage series to the 'campaigning culinary documentary' Hugh's Chicken Run exposes issues of celebrity, class and ethics. While both series are concerned with ethical consumption, they work in different ways to reveal a distinction between 'ethical' and 'unethical' consumption practices and positions - positions that are inevitably classed

Distorted body representations in healthy cognition

Delusions and misperceptions about the body are a conspicuous feature of numerous neurological and psychiatric conditions. In stark contrast to such pathological cases, the immediacy and familiarity of our ordinary experience of our body can make it seem as if our representation of our body is highly accurate, even infallible. Recent research has begun to demonstrate, however, that large and systematic distortions of body representation are a normal part of healthy cognition. Here, I will describe this research, focusing on distortions of body representations underlying tactile distance perception and position sense. I will also discuss evidence for distortions of higher-order body representations, such as the conscious body image. Finally, I will end with a discussion of the potential relations among different body representations and their distortions

Refrigerant and Lubricant Mass Distribution in a Convertible Split System Residential Air-Conditioner

Lubricants are utilized in air-conditioning systems for the purpose of decreasing friction and wear within the compressor. While ideally the lubricant remains in the compressor, some lubricant is entrained and transported by the refrigerant to the other system components. During operational transients, the lubricant is redistributed throughout the various system components. The equilibrium distribution of lubricant depends among other things on fluid properties, phase change processes, flow rates, geometries, and operating conditions. Experiments were conducted in a commercially available, split-system, residential, air-conditioning system with a nominal 3-ton capacity that could be operated both as an air-conditioner and a heat-pump. While the system was designed to operate with R410A, most of the testing was conducted with pure R32, which is a leading candidate for R410A replacement pending regulatory discontinuation of its other constituent: R125. The lubricants used in this study were traditional and advanced polyol ester lubricants. Advanced polyol ester lubricants promise to improve lubricity and wear protection compared to current lubricants. The lubricants had nominal viscosities ranging from 32 to 80 cSt. To inventory the distribution of refrigerant and lubricant, the system was modified by the installation of ball valves which could be utilized to separate the system into its constituents: compressor, condenser, liquid line, evaporator, suction line, and accumulator. The system was brought to equilibrium at conditions A, B, C, H1, and H2 which are defined in AHRI Standard 210/240. After maintaining equilibrium, simultaneously the compressor being shut off and the ball valves were closed which isolated refrigerant and lubricant within each component. The components were subsequently removed and weighed in a manner which allowed the mass of refrigerant and lubricant in each component to be determined. Analysis of the results focuses on the change in mass distribution due to refrigerant-lubricant mixture properties and due to changes in operating conditions. The implications of the net migration of lubricant from the compressor to the remainder of the system will also be discussed

Net neutrality discourses: comparing advocacy and regulatory arguments in the United States and the United Kingdom

Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this has been occurring in the United States around efforts to introduce "Net neutrality" regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has not developed in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe. We develop a comparative analysis of U.S. and UK Net neutrality debates with an eye toward identifying the arguments for and against regulation, how those arguments differ between the countries, and what the implications of those differences are for the Internet. Drawing on mass media, advocacy, and regulatory discourses, we find that local regulatory precedents as well as cultural factors contribute to both agenda setting and framing of Net neutrality. The differences between national discourses provide a way to understand both the structural differences between regulatory cultures and the substantive differences between policy interpretations, both of which must be reconciled for the Internet to continue to thrive as a global medium