REMARKS FROM THE 5TH ANNUAL ANTITRUST LAW LEADERS FORUM / ANTITRUST: HELPING DRIVE THE INNOVATION ECONOMY

The year 2015 was a busy year for the Antitrust Division (Division) of the U.S. Department of Justice (Department)—we opened a number of investigations, logged a lot of trial time, and recorded several victories of note, all of which I will quickly highlight in a moment. But while these actions give you a snapshot of what we do on a day-to-day basis, they don’t fully capture our role in helping drive innovation. What I want to discuss first is how all of that work that we do maintaining competitive markets intersects with an economy that is constantly changing. Today, there are many companies, and even industries, that did not exist eighteen months ago. We should be asking ourselves: how do we balance a strong enforcement agenda with promoting growth and innovation in the economy? The answer, I think, is twofold. The first part of the answer is something that we all tend to take for granted, but should not: it is precisely because we do our jobs, and do them in a legal system that is transparent and (as much as we can make it) predictable, that innovators and entrepreneurs feel comfortable investing resources to develop new products. The promise that you will be able to compete and, most importantly, win, if you build something that consumers want, is something American businesses rely on every day. But a second, perhaps equally important part of that answer is that our system demands that we maintain flexibility. Our analyses of these industries must keep up with the changes occurring. By faithfully doing so, antitrust will continue to ensure that innovation and entrepreneurs operate in an environment where it is a foregone conclusion that they have the ability to succeed

REMARKS FROM THE 5TH ANNUAL ANTITRUST LAW LEADERS FORUM / ANTITRUST: HELPING DRIVE THE INNOVATION ECONOMY

The year 2015 was a busy year for the Antitrust Division (Division) of the U.S. Department of Justice (Department)—we opened a number of investigations, logged a lot of trial time, and recorded several victories of note, all of which I will quickly highlight in a moment. But while these actions give you a snapshot of what we do on a day-to-day basis, they don’t fully capture our role in helping drive innovation. What I want to discuss first is how all of that work that we do maintaining competitive markets intersects with an economy that is constantly changing. Today, there are many companies, and even industries, that did not exist eighteen months ago. We should be asking ourselves: how do we balance a strong enforcement agenda with promoting growth and innovation in the economy? The answer, I think, is twofold. The first part of the answer is something that we all tend to take for granted, but should not: it is precisely because we do our jobs, and do them in a legal system that is transparent and (as much as we can make it) predictable, that innovators and entrepreneurs feel comfortable investing resources to develop new products. The promise that you will be able to compete and, most importantly, win, if you build something that consumers want, is something American businesses rely on every day. But a second, perhaps equally important part of that answer is that our system demands that we maintain flexibility. Our analyses of these industries must keep up with the changes occurring. By faithfully doing so, antitrust will continue to ensure that innovation and entrepreneurs operate in an environment where it is a foregone conclusion that they have the ability to succeed

ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION, PATTERNS AND FORECAST OF ROAD TRAFFIC FATALITIES IN GHANA

Road traffic fatalities (RTFs) in Ghana have adverse effect on the dependency ratio and economic growth in the formal sector of the economy. To analyse the pattern of road traffic deaths in Ghana, fatalities of road traffic accidents by age group from 2001 – 2010 were obtained. Using published road traffic accident statistics from the National Road Safety Commission of Ghana, the pattern of RTF in the ten (10) geographical regions in Ghana was obtained, using moving average analysis. The pattern of the road traffic fatality data displays 10 distinct yearly cycles over a 10- year period, with the underlying trend showing a steady marginal increase overall, as well as in each particular region. Based entirely on the moving average trend of the past data, the values of the number of RTFs are projected for each of the 10 geographical regions. The number of road traffic fatalities in Ghana are predicted to rise from 1 986 in the year 2010 to 3 526 in the year 2030, an increase of about 77.5%. This finding is consistent with one of the key findings on global trends and projections presented in the World report on road traffic injury prevention, which revealed that road traffic deaths are predicted to increase by 83% in low-income and middle-income countries

A Moving Average Analysis of the Age Distribution and the Pattern of Road Traffic Fatalities in Ghana, From 2001 - 2010

Road traffic fatalities (RTF) in Ghana have adverse effect on the dependency ratio and economic growth in theformal sector of the economy. To analyse the pattern of road traffic deaths in Ghana, fatalities for road trafficaccidents by age groups from 2001 – 2010 were obtained. Using published road traffic accident statistics fromthe National Road Safety Commission, the pattern of RTF with respect to age was obtained, using movingaverage analysis. The pattern of the series data displays 8 distinct yearly cycles over a 10-year period, with theunderlying trend showing a steady increase overall, as well as in each particular age group.Based entirely on the trend of the past data, the values of the number of RTFs are projected for each of the 8 agegroups. The number of road traffic fatalities in Ghana is predicted to rise from 1 987 in the year 2010 to 3 677 inthe year 2030, an increase of about 85%.Key Words: Age, Fatality, Trend and Forecas

Experimental Investigation of the Genesis of Struvite Stones in Cats

Infrared spectroscopy of feline urinary stones revealed that struvite was the main constituent in 77.6 % of all concrements. However, only in 30.8% (16/52) of struvite stone patients were any infections of the urinary tract detected. Scanning electron microscopical comparison of non-infected feline struvite stones and human struvite concrements which had grown in the presence of infection revealed clear differences. All the feline struvite concrements were of coarse crystalline construction with the crystalline form typical of struvite. Traces of partial solution and stratification were frequently detected on the crystalline surfaces. The human struvite stones whose growth had been accompanied by infection did not display these features; the predominant structures in these concrements revealed very little evidence of any ordered growth. Examination of the urine and calculation of the relative supersaturation showed that where physiological pH values and physiological concentrations of lithogenic substances were present sterile urine can become supersaturated with struvite. The morphological peculiarities of the feline concrements and the results of urinary analysis indicate slow crystalline growth rates. Phases of growth alternate with periods of stagnation. This process may be influenced by dietary factors. In contrast to this, struvite stone formation in the presence of infection is characterised by rapid growth in continually supersaturated urine

Analysis of Canine Urinary Stones using Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy

Infrared spectroscopic analysis of 741 canine urinary calculi revealed that struvite stones, 58% of the total, were the ones most commonly to be found. Cystine stone disease, 21%, is also of great significance for dogs, whereas calcium oxalate, urate and brushite calculi occur only seldom. 3 cases of xanthine stone formation were also noted. SEM examination revealed structures similar to human stones such as bipyramidal weddelIite, pseudomorphs from whewellite to weddellite, apatite deposits in cystine stones and characteristic mono-ammonium-urate needles. Other, unknown, structures were also discovered such as closely-knit intergrowths of cystine and brushite strata, mono-Na-urate and mono-K-urate intergrowths and Caurate. Of particular interest are the various forms of xanthine from compact spherical to lance-shapes in sheath-like arrangement

The young stellar population of NGC 4214 as observed with HST. II. Results

We present the results of a detailed UV-optical study of the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 4214 using multifilter HST/WFPC2+STIS photometry. The stellar extinction is found to be quite patchy, with some areas having values of E(4405-5495)< 0.1 mag and others, associated with star forming regions, much more heavily obscured, a result which is consistent with previous studies of the nebular extinction. We determined the ratio of blue-to-red supergiants and found it to be consistent with theoretical models for the metallicity of the SMC. The stellar IMF of the field in the range 20-100 solar masses is found to be steeper than Salpeter. A number of massive clusters and associations with ages between a few and 200 million years are detected and their properties are discussed.Comment: 49 pages, 12 figures, 6 table

The effect of collisional enhancement of Balmer lines on the determination of the primordial helium abundance

This paper describes a new determination of the primordial helium abundance (Y_P), based on the abundance analysis of five metal-poor extragalactic HII regions. For three regions of the sample (SBS 0335-052, I Zw 18, and H29) we present tailored photoionization models based on improved calculations with respect to previous models. In particular, we use the photoionization models to study quantitatively the effect of collisional excitation of Balmer lines on the determination of the helium abundance (Y) in the individual regions. This effect is twofold: first, the intensities of the Balmer lines are enhanced with respect to the pure recombination value, mimicking a higher hydrogen abundance; second, the observed reddening is larger than the true extinction, due to the differential effect of collisions on different Balmer lines. In addition to these effects, our analysis takes into account the following features of HII regions: (i) the temperature structure, (ii) the density structure, (iii) the presence of neutral helium, (iv) the collisional excitation of the HeI lines, (v) the underlying absorption of the HeI lines, and (vi) the optical thickness of the HeI lines. The object that shows the highest increase in Y after the inclusion of collisional effects in the analysis is SBS 0335-052, whose helium abundance has been revised by Delta Y = +0.0107. The revised Y values for the five objects in our sample yield an increase of +0.0035 in Y_P, giving Y_P = 0.2391 +/- 0.0020.Comment: 59 pages, 8 figures. AAS Latex. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa