'Just one of us': Consumers playing oligopoly in mixed markets

Consumer cooperatives represent a highly successful example of democratic form of enterprises operating in developed countries. They are usually medium to large-scale companies competing with the profit-maximizing firms in the retail sector. This paper describes this situation as a mixed oligopoly in which consumer cooperatives maximize the utility of consumer-members and, in return, refund them with a share of the profits corresponding to the ratio of their individual spending to the cooperative's total sales. We show that when consumers possess quasi-linear preferences over a bundle of symmetrically differentiated goods, and companies operate using a linear technology, the presence of consumer cooperatives positively affects total industry output, as well as welfare. The effect of cooperatives on welfare proves to be even more significant when goods are either complements or highly differentiated, and when competition is à la Cournot rather than à la Bertrand.Consumer Cooperatives, Profit-maximizing Firms, Mixed Oligopoly

JUST ONE OF US: CONSUMERS PLAYING OLIGOPOLY IN MIXED MARKETS

Consumer cooperatives constitute a highly successful example of democratic forms of enterprises operating in developed countries. They are usually organized as medium and large-scale ?rms competing with pro?t-maximizing ?rms in retail industries. This paper models such situation as a mixed oligopoly in which consumer cooperatives maximize the utility of consumer-members and distribute them a share of the pro?t equal to the ratio of their individual expenditure to the ?rm total sales. We show that when consumers possess quasilinear preferences over a bundle of symmetrically di¤erentiated goods and ?rms operate with a linear technology, the presence of consumer cooperatives a¤ects all industries output and social welfare positively. The e¤ect of cooperatives on welfare proves more signi?cant when goods are either complements or highly di¤erentiated and when competition is à la Cournot rather than à la Bertrand.Consumer Cooperatives, Pro?t-maximizing Firms, Mixed Oligopoly

Embedding multidimensional grids into optimal hypercubes

Let $G$ and $H$ be graphs, with $|V(H)|\geq |V(G)|$, and $f:V(G)\rightarrow V(H)$ a one to one map of their vertices. Let $dilation(f) = max\{ dist_{H}(f(x),f(y)): xy\in E(G) \}$, where $dist_{H}(v,w)$ is the distance between vertices $v$ and $w$ of $H$. Now let $B(G,H)$ = $min_{f}\{ dilation(f) \}$, over all such maps $f$. The parameter $B(G,H)$ is a generalization of the classic and well studied "bandwidth" of $G$, defined as $B(G,P(n))$, where $P(n)$ is the path on $n$ points and $n = |V(G)|$. Let $[a_{1}\times a_{2}\times \cdots \times a_{k} ]$ be the $k$-dimensional grid graph with integer values $1$ through $a_{i}$ in the $i$'th coordinate. In this paper, we study $B(G,H)$ in the case when $G = [a_{1}\times a_{2}\times \cdots \times a_{k} ]$ and $H$ is the hypercube $Q_{n}$ of dimension $n = \lceil log_{2}(|V(G)|) \rceil$, the hypercube of smallest dimension having at least as many points as $G$. Our main result is that $$B( [a_{1}\times a_{2}\times \cdots \times a_{k} ],Q_{n}) \le 3k,$$ provided $a_{i} \geq 2^{22}$ for each $1\le i\le k$. For such $G$, the bound $3k$ improves on the previous best upper bound $4k+O(1)$. Our methods include an application of Knuth's result on two-way rounding and of the existence of spanning regular cyclic caterpillars in the hypercube.Comment: 47 pages, 8 figure

Optimizing The Riparian Buffer: Harold Brook In The Skaneateles Lake Watershed, New York

The use of riparian land buffers to protect water quality for human consumption and wildlife habitat has become an important conservation tool of both government and non-government agencies. The funds available to acquire private lands for riparian buffers are limited, however, and not all land contributes to water quality goals in the same way. Conservation agencies must therefore identify effective ways to allocate their scarce budgets in heterogeneous landscapes. We demonstrate how the acquisition of land for a riparian buffer can be viewed as a binary optimization problem and we apply the resulting model to a case study in New York (JEL Q15, Q25). Working Paper # 2002-00

FIGHTING THE CIVIL WAR IN THE CLASSROOM: High School Outreach at LSU

“High School Outreach at LSU Undergraduates’ attitudes about learning history have been shaped long before they matriculate to university. Many students do not like the rote memorization that some high school history courses still require. Many others have a fascination with the past but ...

STUDI PENYISIHAN MATERI ORGANIK, TEMBAGA, DAN KADMIUM DARI URBAN ROAD STORMWATER MENGGUNAKAN BIOFILTER

Abstrak: Urban road stormwater memiliki kuantitas cukup tinggi dengan kualitas tercemar, sehingga akan mempengaruhi kondisi badan air penerima. Aktivitas di kawasan urban didominasi oleh kegiatan domestik dan transportasi, sehingga mengakibatkan tingginya kandungan logam berat dan materi organik dalam stormwater. Biofilter dengan media filter bervegetasi berfungsi untuk mengolah limpasan  stormwater yang mengandung polutan.  Media  yang  digunakan  dalam  biofilter  adalah  kombinasi  tanah  dan  kompos,  pasir,  kerikil,  serta tanaman akar wangi (Vetiveria zizanioides). Eksperimen dilakukan menggunakan stormwater artifisial dengan variasi volume influen yang digunakan yaitu 25 l, 20 l, dan 15 l dengan penambahan influen setiap 3 hari. Efisiensi penyisihan Cu sebesar 92-99% pada influen 25 liter dan mengalami peningkatan hingga 100% pada influen 20 liter, sedangkan efisensi penyisihan Cd konstan di kedua influen yaitu 99-100%. Efisiensi penyisihan zat organik sebesar 79-87% untuk influen 25 liter dan 86% untuk influen 20 liter. Parameter kualitas air lain diukur untuk mengetahui pengaruh proses biofiltrasi terhadap kualitas air secara keseluruhan. Penyisihan TSS sebesar 56-83%, sulfat tersisihkan dengan efisiensi 15-38% untuk influen 25 liter dan 47-54% untuk influen 20 liter, Fe disisihkan dengan efisiensi 71-94% untuk influen 25 liter dan meningkat hingga 90-99% pada influen 20 liter, dan penyisihan Mn memiliki efisiensi 97-99% pada kedua variasi influen. Sedangkan nitrogen menunjukkan peningkatan konsentrasi di awal eksperimen, kemudian baru tersisihkan pada running ketiga

Consumer Cooperatives and Welfare in a Mixed Oligopoly

EMS Working Paper 2010/10, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Ital

Search for lepton flavour violation in the eμ continuum with the ATLAS detector in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions at the LHC

This paper presents a search for the t-channel exchange of an R-parity violating scalar top quark (t) in the e^± μ^∓ continuum using 2.1 fb^(−1) of data collected by the ATLAS detector in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Data are found to be consistent with the expectation from the Standard Model backgrounds. Limits on R-parity-violating couplings at 95 % C.L. are calculated as a function of the scalar top mass (mt). The upper limits on the production cross section for pp → eμX, through the t-channel exchange of a scalar top quark, ranges from 170 fb for m_t=95 GeV to 30 fb for m_t=1000 GeV