The Welfare Costs of Unreliable Water Service

Throughout the developing world, many water distribution systems are unreliable. As a result, it becomes necessary for each household to store its own water as a hedge against this uncertainty. Since arrivals of water are not synchronized across households, serious distributional inefficiencies arise. We develop a model describing the optimal intertemporal depletion of each household’s private water storage when it is uncertain when water will next arrive to replenish supplies. The model is calibrated using survey data from Mexico City, a city where many households store water in sealed rooftop tanks known as tinacos. The calibrated model is used to evaluate the potential welfare gains that would occur if alternative modes of water provision were implemented. We estimate that most of the potential distributional inefficiencies can be eliminated simply by making the frequency of deliveries the same across households which now face haphazard deliveries. This would require neither costly investments in infrastructure nor price increases.Water Supply Uncertainty, Water Storage, Distributional Inefficiency

FACTORS AFFECTING EFFICIENCY OF FEEDER CATTLE HEDGING IN KENTUCKY

Livestock Production/Industries,

The connective K-theory of the Eilenberg-MacLane space K(Z/p,2)

We compute ku^*(K(Z/p,2)) and ku_*(K(Z/p,2)), the connective KU-cohomology and connective KU-homology groups of the mod-p Eilenberg-MacLane space K(Z/p,2), using the Adams spectral sequence. We obtain a striking interaction between h_0-extensions and exotic extensions. The mod-p connective KU-cohomology groups, computed elsewhere, are needed in order to establish higher differentials and exotic extensions in the integral groups

Are Institutional Investors Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?: Key Descriptive and Prescriptive Questions About Shareholders

Over the last twenty years, institutional investors have owned an increasing share of public equity markets — more than 70 percent of the largest 1,000 companies in the United States in 2009, for example. Over the past two years, in response to failures of some boards of directors and business leaders, shareholders, including institutional investors, have been given increased powers to participate in — or have disclosures about — discrete spheres of governance in publicly held corporations. Moreover, during this same period, and in multiple jurisdictions, there have been increasing calls from both the public and private sectors for institutional investors to play a broad “stewardship” role by “engaging” with investee companies to “help achieve long-term sustainable value” and to help curb excessive risk taking seen as a factor in the financial crisis. But with these shifts in market and legal powers have come questions about institutional investors which are similar to those raised in the recent past about the corporations in which they invest. These questions relate to goals, strategies, governance, performance and accountability and, importantly, the separation of ownership and control (agency problems). They boil down to a bedrock query: do investors have the capacity to perform the role now expected of them? Institutional investors in this paper include: pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, hedge funds and endowments of non-profit entities like universities and foundations

Long Fight for Freedom

The Sixteenth Jacoby-Lunin Humanitarian Lecture underwritten by the Frank Jacoby Foundation in collaboration with the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies and Open VISIONS Forum… A conversation with Damien Echols, one of the \u27West Memphis Three\u27 wrongfully convicted of killing three small boys. Echols, his wife Lorri, and attorney Stephen Braga \u2778 discuss the twisted road to justice.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/bennettcenter-posters/1304/thumbnail.jp

Modifying monolayer behaviour by incorporating subphase additives and improving Langmuir–Blodgett thin film deposition on optical fibres

Experiments showing the possibility of modifying the behaviour of calix[4]resorcinarene monolayers at the air–water interface and optimising the deposition of multilayer coatings onto optical fibres are presented. The nature of the subphase is fundamental to the behaviour of monolayers and their utility in coating and sensing applications. Here we show initial studies exploring the modification of the calix[4]resorcinarene monolayer–water interaction through the introduction of dipole altering alcohol additives to the aqueous subphase. We explored the effect of this modification for three small alcohols. The resulting isotherms of the materials showed a reduction in the surface pressure and area per molecule required in order for the monolayer to reach its point of collapse. Incorporation of alcohols shifted the point of collapse, leading to the application of ethanol being successful in improving the transfer of material via Langmuir–Blodgett coating onto optical fibres at lower pressures. This method may prove useful in allowing greater control over future sensor surface coatings

Detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using an optical fibre long period grating with a calixarene anchored mesoporous thin film

A long period grating (LPG) modified with a mesoporous film infused with a functional compound, calix[4]arene, was employed for the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The mesoporous film consisted of an inorganic part, of SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) along with an organic moiety of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) polycation PAH, which was finally infused with functional compound, p-sulphanatocalix[4]arene (CA[4]). The LPG sensor was designed to operate at the phase matching turning point to provide the highest sensitivity. The sensing mechanism is based on the measurement of the refractive index (RI) change induced by the complexion of the VOCs with calix[4]arene (CA). The LPG modified with 5 cycles of (SiO2 NPs/PAH)5PAA responded to exposure to chloroform and benzene vapours. The sensitivity to humidity as an interfering parameter was also investigated

The connective Morava K-theory of the second mod p Eilenberg-MacLane space

We develop tools for computing the connective n-th Morava K-theory of spaces. Starting with a Universal Coefficient Theorem that computes the cohomology version from the homology version, we show that every step in the process of computing one is mirrored in the other and that this can be used to make computations. As our example, we compute the connective n-th Morava K-theory of the second mod p Eilenberg-MacLane space.Comment: minor change of title and one sentence adde

Mismatch-based delayed thrombolysis: a meta-analysis

<p><b>Background and Purpose</b>: Clinical benefit from thrombolysis is reduced as stroke onset to treatment time increases. The use of "mismatch" imaging to identify patients for delayed treatment has face validity and has been used in case series and clinical trials. We undertook a meta-analysis of relevant trials to examine whether present evidence supports delayed thrombolysis among patients selected according to mismatch criteria.</p> <p><b>Methods</b>: We collated outcome data for patients who were enrolled after 3 hours of stroke onset in thrombolysis trials and had mismatch on pretreatment imaging. We selected the trials on the basis of a systematic search of the Web of Knowledge. We compared favorable outcome, reperfusion and/or recanalization, mortality, and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage between the thrombolyzed and nonthrombolyzed groups of patients and the probability of a favorable outcome among patients with successful reperfusion and clinical findings for 3 to 6 versus 6 to 9 hours from poststroke onset. Results are expressed as adjusted odds ratios (a-ORs) with 95% CIs. Heterogeneity was explored by test statistics for clinical heterogeneity, I2 (inconsistency), and L’Abbé plot.</p> <p><b>Results</b>: We identified articles describing the DIAS, DIAS II, DEDAS, DEFUSE, and EPITHET trials, giving a total of 502 mismatch patients thrombolyzed beyond 3 hours. The combined a-ORs for favorable outcomes were greater for patients who had successful reperfusion (a-OR=5.2; 95% CI, 3 to 9; I2=0%). Favorable clinical outcome was not significantly improved by thrombolysis (a-OR=1.3; 95% CI, 0.8 to 2.0; I2=20.9%). Odds for reperfusion/recanalization were increased among patients who received thrombolytic therapy (a-OR=3.0; 95% CI, 1.6 to 5.8; I2=25.7%). The combined data showed a significant increase in mortality after thrombolysis (a-OR=2.4; 95% CI, 1.2 to 4.9; I2=0%), but this was not confirmed when we excluded data from desmoteplase doses that were abandoned in clinical development (a-OR=1.6; 95% CI, 0.7 to 3.7; I2=0%). Symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage was significantly increased after thrombolysis (a-OR=6.5; 95% CI, 1.2 to 35.4; I2=0%) but not significant after exclusion of abandoned doses of desmoteplase (a-OR=5.4; 95% CI, 0.9 to 31.8; I2=0%).</p> <p><b>Conclusions</b>: Delayed thrombolysis amongst patients selected according to mismatch imaging is associated with increased reperfusion/recanalization. Recanalization/reperfusion is associated with improved outcomes. However, delayed thrombolysis in mismatch patients was not confirmed to improve clinical outcome, although a useful clinical benefit remains possible. Thrombolysis carries a significant risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage and possibly increased mortality. Criteria to diagnose mismatch are still evolving. Validation of the mismatch selection paradigm is required with a phase III trial. Pending these results, delayed treatment, even according to mismatch selection, cannot be recommended as part of routine care.</p&gt