This paper addresses the effectiveness of auctions and legal unbundling as regulatory measures to tender a vertically integrated industry more competitive. Specifically, I analyze if implementing auctions and legal unbundling can counter market power in an industry where a Vertically Integrated Corporation (VIC) has a monopoly position in an essential, scarce upstream activity and also owns one...

BACKGROUND The Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) is a measure that combines life extension and health improvement in a single score, reflecting preferences around different types of health gain. It can therefore be used to inform decision-making around allocation of health care resources to mutually exclusive options that would produce qualitatively different health benefits. A number of qualit...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that heavily affects the patient's motor, cognitive, and psychological functions. Yet, very few studies have measured the impact of this disease on the patient's health-related quality of life (HRQoL) with specific and validated instruments. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of HD on the ...

Objective: To estimate an interim five-level EuroQol five-dimensional (EQ-5D-5L) value set for Poland on the basis of the crosswalk methodology developed by the EuroQol Group. Methods: On the basis of data from 3691 respondents from six European countries, the EuroQol Group has developed a method of obtaining interim value sets for the EQ-5D-5L by means of mapping to the available three-level E...

Isocitrate lyase (ICL, types 1 and 2) is the first enzyme of the glyoxylate shunt, an essential pathway for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) during the persistent phase of human TB infection. Here, we report 2-vinyl-d-isocitrate (2-VIC) as a mechanism-based inactivator of Mtb ICL1 and ICL2. The enzyme-catalyzed retro-aldol cleavage of 2-VIC unmasks a Michael substrate, 2-vinylglyoxylate, which ...

For a low-power wireless communication, a fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) LSI for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system has been implemented with current-mode circuits. In this current-mode OFDM system, a voltage-current converter (VIC) should be designed with an operating frequency of more than 40 MHz, because the frequency bandwidth of the OFDM signal is recommended as 20 M...

OBJECTIVE To develop a Short Form of Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke patients (SFPASS) with sound psychometric properties (including reliability, validity, and responsiveness). METHODS This study consisted of 2 parts: developing the SFPASS and cross-validation. In the 1st part, 287 people with stroke were evaluated with the PASS at 14- and 30-day post-stroke intervals. The authors reduce...

Real-time multimedia conferencing tools over the Internet have become attractive in the past few years. Many tools, such as VIC and Windows NetMeeting, have been designed to hold Internet conferences. However, these two video conferencing tools cannot communicate with each other. In this paper, we design and implement a tool which is based on VIC but can set up conferences with Windows NetMeeting.