The Deterrent Effects of National Anti-Cartel Laws: Evidence from the International Vitamins Cartel

This paper estimates the effect on international trade flows during the 1990s of the formation of the vitamins cartel. After this cartel began operating, exports from countries where the cartel conspirators' headquarters were located to those nations in Asia, Western Europe, and Latin America that did not have active cartel enforcement regimes tended to rise in value more than in those nations that had such regimes. As industry studies suggest that the demand for vitamins is price inelastic, this finding is supportive of the hypothesis that the vitamins cartel raised prices further in nations without active cartel enforcement regimes. These findings also have implications for the cost-benefit analyses of anti-cartel laws. In nine economies in Western Europe and Latin America, where recent estimates of government outlays on competition policy enforcement were found, these expenditures were compared to the additional overcharges on vitamins imports that would have resulted if each of these nations did not have an active cartel enforcement regime. In seven of the nine economies, the reduction in overcharges on this one international cartel alone exceeded a quarter of their government's spending on the entire competition policy enforcement regime. These findings have a direct bearing on the debate, currently taking place at the World Trade Organization, on the merits of multilateral disciplines that would require all WTO members to enact and enforce provisions against hard core cartels.

The effect of population growth on agricultural saving in irrigation / 156

Includes bibliographical references

Convergence rates of the Allen-Cahn equation to mean curvature flow: A short proof based on relative entropies

We give a short and self-contained proof for rates of convergence of the Allen--Cahn equation towards mean curvature flow, assuming that a classical (smooth) solution to the latter exists and starting from well-prepared initial data. Our approach is based on a relative entropy technique. In particular, it does not require a stability analysis for the linearized Allen--Cahn operator. As our analysis also does not rely on the comparison principle, we expect it to be applicable to more complex equations and systems

Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of invasive versus conservative management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax

INTRODUCTION: Current management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is variable, with little evidence from randomised controlled trials to guide treatment. Guidelines emphasise intervention in many patients, which involves chest drain insertion, hospital admission and occasionally surgery. However, there is evidence that conservative management may be effective and safe, and it may also reduce the risk of recurrence. Significant questions remain regarding the optimal initial approach to the management of PSP

TESSA: A toolkit for rapid assessment of ecosystem services at sites of biodiversity conservation importance

Sites that are important for biodiversity conservation can also provide significant benefits (i.e. ecosystem services) to people. Decision-makers need to know how change to a site, whether development or restoration, would affect the delivery of services and the distribution of any benefits among stakeholders. However, there are relatively few empirical studies that present this information. One reason is the lack of appropriate methods and tools for ecosystem service assessment that do not require substantial resources or specialist technical knowledge, or rely heavily upon existing data. Here we address this gap by describing the Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA). It guides local non-specialists through a selection of relatively accessible methods for identifying which ecosystem services may be important at a site, and for evaluating the magnitude of benefits that people obtain from them currently, compared with those expected under alternative land-uses. The toolkit recommends use of existing data where appropriate and places emphasis on enabling users to collect new field data at relatively low cost and effort. By using TESSA, the users could also gain valuable information about the alternative land-uses; and data collected in the field could be incorporated into regular monitoring programmes

Mtrr hypomorphic mutation alters liver morphology, metabolism and fuel storage in mice.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with dietary folate deficiency and mutations in genes required for one‑carbon metabolism. However, the mechanism through which this occurs is unclear. To improve our understanding of this link, we investigated liver morphology, metabolism and fuel storage in adult mice with a hypomorphic mutation in the gene methionine synthase reductase (Mtrrgt ). MTRR enzyme is a key regulator of the methionine and folate cycles. The Mtrrgt mutation in mice was previously shown to disrupt one‑carbon metabolism and cause a wide-spectrum of developmental phenotypes and late adult-onset macrocytic anaemia. Here, we showed that livers of Mtrrgt/gt female mice were enlarged compared to control C57Bl/6J livers. Histological analysis of these livers revealed eosinophilic hepatocytes with decreased glycogen content, which was associated with down-regulation of genes involved in glycogen synthesis (e.g., Ugp2 and Gsk3a genes). While female Mtrrgt/gt livers showed evidence of reduced β-oxidation of fatty acids, there were no other associated changes in the lipidome in female or male Mtrrgt/gt livers compared with controls. Defects in glycogen storage and lipid metabolism often associate with disruption of mitochondrial electron transfer system activity. However, defects in mitochondrial function were not detected in Mtrrgt/gt livers as determined by high-resolution respirometry analysis. Overall, we demonstrated that adult Mtrrgt/gt female mice showed abnormal liver morphology that differed from the NAFLD phenotype and that was accompanied by subtle changes in their hepatic metabolism and fuel storage

Peak Oil:Die Herausforderung lokaler Erdölabhängigkeit am Beispiel Münster

Das Erdölzeitalter neigt sich dem Ende zu – daran ändern auch Schieferöle, Agrartreibstoffe oder Verfahren wie das Fracking langfristig nichts. Einer Gruppe von Studierenden an der Uni Münster ging die wissenschaftliche, politische und gesellschaftliche Beschäftigung mit dieser Herausforderung zu langsam. Aus diesem Grund initiierte sie 2012 eigenständig ein interdisziplinäres Peak-Oil-Seminar und begleitete Studierende dabei, in gesellschaftsrelevanten Sektoren der Energieversorgung, des Transports, der lokalen Wirtschaft, der Ernährung, der Gesundheit und der privaten Haushalte eigene Fragestellungen zu entwickeln und diesen nachzugehen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Bericht, der am Beispiel Münster die Brisanz und Aktualität knapper werdender Ressourcen herausstreicht, der die Wichtigkeit der lokalen, vorausschauenden und freiwillig-kreativen Verringerung der Öl-Abhängigkeit hervorhebt und der nicht zuletzt eine Lanze bricht für Formate transformativen und offenen Forschens und Handelns. <br

Tunneling and propagation of vacuum bubbles on dynamical backgrounds

In the context of bubble universes produced by a first-order phase transition with large nucleation rates compared to the inverse dynamical time scale of the parent bubble, we extend the usual analysis to non-vacuum backgrounds. In particular, we provide semi-analytic and numerical results for the modified nucleation rate in FLRW backgrounds, as well as a parameter study of bubble walls propagating into inhomogeneous (LTB) or FLRW spacetimes, both in the thin-wall approximation. We show that in our model, matter in the background often prevents bubbles from successful expansion and forces them to collapse. For cases where they do expand, we give arguments why the effects on the interior spacetime are small for a wide range of reasonable parameters and discuss the limitations of the employed approximations.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, matches published versio