Do welfare maximising water utilities maximise welfare under common carriage?

Due to the increasing discussion about liberalisation in the piped water industry municipal authorities in several European countries consider modifications of their water utilities’ structure such as legal constitution, business objectives or private participation. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which it is socially optimal to compose water utilities as welfare or profit maximising companies when assuming the introduction of competition in the market based on common carriage – as applied in England and Wales. Using a game theoretic model of mixed oligopolies that contains water markets specificities we show that welfare tends to be higher in a regime, where utilities are instructed to maximise profits rather than welfare.Water, Networks, Corporate Governance, Mixed Oligopoly

Enhancing Efficiency of Water Supply – Product Market Competition versus Trade

This paper analyses and compares potential efficiency gains induced by the introduction of product market competition and cross boarder trade in the piped water market. We argue that due to the specific circumstances in the water sector product market competition, i.e. competition by common carriage is not expected to be very intensive. The connection of networks could alternatively be used for cross boarder trade between neighboured water utilities. We show that competition by common carriage leads to production incentives for the inefficient supplier. This implies that the retail prices tend to be lower than with cross border trade. However, the efficiency effect dominates and resulting welfare is higher in case of trade.Water, Networks, Product-Market Competition, Trade, Bargaining

Enhancing the Efficiency of Water Supply: Product Market Competition versus Trade

In most developed countries, the provision of water is organized at a local level. The costs and tariffs vary significantly, even between adjacent water utilities. Such heterogeneity is an obvious indication of the sector’s overall inefficiency and stresses a need for institutional adjustments. We show that cooperation by water trade and the introduction of competition by common carriage between adjacent utilities are valuable alternatives to improve the industry’s efficiency, even when mergers are not feasible. Because both approaches require the physical connection of neighboring networks, they may have similar effects. This paper analyzes and compares the relevant welfare gains and shows that production efficiency and retail prices may differ depending on the initial cost differential, the application of regulations and the distribution of bargaining power. Using a theoretical model, we show that at higher initial production cost differentials, welfare is higher under competitive conditions, even in a lowerbound benchmark case without any regulation.Water, Networks, Product-Market Competition, Trade, Bargaining.

The outperformance of family firms: the role of variance in earnings per share and analyst forecast dispersion on the Swiss market

Recent studies provide empirical evidence that family firms are outperforming their non-family counterparts in terms of stock market performance. For the Swiss stock market we find that family firms indeed outperform their non-family counterparts after controlling for firm size and beta. In addition, our data shows that family firms display more stable earnings per share in contrast to their non-family counterparts. Furthermore we find that the variance of earnings per share positively affects analyst forecast dispersion. According to anomaly literature, lower analyst forecast dispersion has been found to induce higher excess return, which our data supports for the Swiss stock market. By linking variance of earnings per share, analyst forecast dispersion and stock performance we provide an insightful explanation for the excess stock market returns of family firms. In addition, our text extends the theory of dispersion effect with an additional empirical element, the variance of earnings per shar

U-Pb zircon age of volcaniclastic layers in Middle Triassic platform carbonates of the Austroalpine Silvretta nappe (Switzerland)

We present precise U-Pb age determinations from two volcaniclastic layers within Middle Triassic carbonates in the Upper Austroalpine Silvretta nappe near Davos (Switzerland). The two volcaniclastic layers were dated using annealing-leaching techniques and yielded ages of 240.91 ± 0.26Ma (Prosanto Formation) and 239.89 ± 0.21Ma (Altein Formation), respectively. The high resolution ages allow comparison of the Upper Austroalpine record of the Ducan with sections in the Southern Alps. The upper Prosanto Formation is, thus, equivalent to the middle part of the Buchenstein Formation (Middle Pietra Verde, Earliest Ladinian), and the Altein Formation is equivalent to the upper part of the Buchenstein Formation in the section with the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Ladinian (Bagolino, northern Italy). This study demonstrates that we can use precise, accurate and carefully intercalibrated U-Pb zircon ages from volcaniclastic layers to infer the stratigraphic position of their host sediments on zone level. The older volcaniclastic layer (240.91 ± 0.26Ma) allows a precise age determination (earliest Ladinian) for the marine vertebrate beds in the upper Prosanto Formatio

Pharmacokinetic study of praziquantel enantiomers and its main metabolite R-trans-4-OH-PZQ in plasma, blood and dried blood spots in Opisthorchis viverrini-infected patients

Praziquantel (PZQ) is the treatment of choice for infections with the liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini, a major health problem in Southeast Asia. However, pharmacokinetic (PK) studies investigating the disposition of PZQ enantiomers (R- and S-PZQ) and its main metabolite, R-trans-4-OH-PZQ, in diseased patients are lacking. The implementation of a dried blood spot (DBS) sampling technique would ease the performance of PK studies in remote areas without clinical facilities. The aim of the present study is to provide data on the disposition of PZQ enantiomers and R-trans-4-OH-PZQ in opisthorchiasis patients and to validate the use of DBS compared to plasma and blood sampling.; PZQ was administered to nine O. viverrini-infected patients at 3 oral doses of 25 mg/kg in 4 h intervals. Plasma, blood and DBS were simultaneously collected at selected time points from 0 to 24 h post-treatment. PK parameters were determined using non-compartmental analysis. Drug concentrations and areas under the curve (AUC0-24h) measured in the 3 matrices were compared using Bland-Altman analysis. We observed plasma AUC0-24hs of 1.1, 9.0 and 188.7 μg/ml*h and half-lives of 1.1, 3.3 and 6.4 h for R-PZQ, S-PZQ and R-trans-4-OH, respectively. Maximal plasma concentrations (Cmax) of 0.2, 0.9 and 13.9 μg/ml for R-PZQ, S-PQZ and R-trans-4-OH peaked at 7 h for PZQ enantiomers and at 8.7 h for the metabolite. Individual drug concentration measurements and patient AUC0-24hs displayed ratios of blood or DBS versus plasma between 79-94% for R- and S-PZQ, and between 108-122% for R-trans-4-OH.; Pharmacodynamic (PD) in vitro studies on PZQ enantiomers and R-trans-4-OH-PZQ are necessary to be able to correlate PK parameters with efficacy. DBS appears to be a valid alternative to conventional venous sampling for PK studies in PZQ-treated patients

Chapter 15 – Orientation for Manufacturers of Health Apps

Entwicklung und Verbreitung von Apps sind durch entsprechende Entwicklungsumgebungen und App-Stores für nahezu jedermann möglich. Bei der daraus resultierenden großen Anzahl von Apps übersehen die Entwickler zum Teil Risiken wie Gesundheitsgefährdung oder regulatorische Aspekte, die insbesondere für Gesundheits-Apps gelten. Um den Herstellern hier eine Orientierung und Hilfestellung zu bieten, werden ausgehend vom Qualitätsbegriff Qualitätskriterien aufgestellt, die sich in der Softwareentwicklung etabliert haben (ISO 25010) und sich auf App-Entwicklung übertragen lassen. Diese Übertragung wird anhand eines App-Lebenszyklus verdeutlicht, in dem zu berücksichtigende Aspekte und Normen den einzelnen Entwicklungsphasen von der Planung über die Implementierung bis hin zur Wartung zugeordnet werden. Die dabei zu berücksichtigenden wesentliche Gesetze, Standards und Leitlinien werden übersichtsartig vorgestellt und kurz erläutert. Das Kapitel zeigt, dass je nach Zweckbestimmung trotz technisch einfacher Entwicklung viele Aspekte beachtet werden müssen, um qualitätsgesicherte Apps anbieten zu können. Die entsprechenden Hilfestellungen und Handreichungen hierfür sind teilweise schon existent.Due to the availability of development tools and the infrastructure provided via the various app stores, almost anybody is able to develop and distribute apps. This has already lead to a tremendous amount of apps, but the developers are often unaware about potential health related risks or regulatory aspects that need to be addressed when dealing with apps in a health context. With the aim of providing some orientation and assistance to the manufacturers of such apps, some quality criteria are provided that closely follow established quality concepts for software development (ISO 25010), as far as these can be applied to the development of apps. The application of these concepts is illustrated for the complete life cycle of an app: general aspects and standards that need to be considered during each stage, starting with the planning phase to implementation and maintenance, are mentioned and explained. This includes an overview over the essential laws, standards and guidelines. The chapter shows, that, depending on the purpose an app is meant to fulfill, there are many different aspects that need to be considered to be able to provide quality assured apps, even though technically speaking, the development process itself is quite easy. However, a number of relevant guidance documents and guidelines already exist

A picture paints a thousand words: Heart drawings reflect acute distress and illness perception and predict posttraumatic stress symptoms after acute myocardial infarction

The aim of this study was to examine whether heart drawings of patients with acute myocardial infarction reflect acute distress symptoms and negative illness beliefs and predict posttraumatic stress symptoms 3 months post-myocardial infarction. In total, 84 patients aged over 18 years drew pictures of their heart. The larger the area drawn as damaged, the greater were the levels of acute distress (r = 0.36; p < 0.05), negative illness perceptions (r = 0.42, p < 0.05), and posttraumatic stress symptoms (r = 0.54, p < 0.01). Pain drawings may offer a tool to identify maladaptive cognitions and thus patients at risk of posttraumatic stress disorder

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio