This paper investigates the large and unexpected increase in cigarette prices that followed the 1997 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). We integrate key features of rational addiction theory into a discrete-choice model of the demand for a differentiated product. We find that, following the MSA, firms set prices on a more elastic region of their demand curves. Using these estimates, we predict ...

Due to urbanization and population increase, need for metro tunnels, has been considerably increased in urban areas. Estimating the surface settlement caused by tunnel excavation is an important task especially where the tunnels are excavated in urban areas or beneath important structures. Many models have been established for this purpose by extracting the relationship between the settlement a...

At present, reducing subgrade settlement of soft soil foundation is a key problem in high-speed railway construction. Pile-slab structure is a widely-utilized form of foundation structure to reduce the subgrade settlement in China. In order to save the engineering cost for high-speed railway construction in developing countries, the author developed a pile-slab structure and named it as the new...

Recent studies in Amazonia historical ecology have revealed substantial diversity and dynamic change in coupled natural human systems. In the southern Amazon, several headwater basins show evidence of substantial pre-Columbian landscape modification, particularly in areas historically dominated by speakers of the Arawak language family. The headwater basin of the Xingu River, the easternmost of...

To have an efficient and reliable infrastructure is crucial to any electronic market. Most existing electronic markets only provide limited services, such as, communication supports between buyers and sellers, databases to increase the selections, and market information to help estimation of reasonable transaction prices. In this paper, we propose a new electronic market, an Internet-based clea...

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were originally based upon a straightforward model of adjudication: Resolve the merits of cases at trial and use pretrial procedures to facilitate accurate trial outcomes. Though appealing in principle, this model has little relevance today. As is now well known, the endpoint around which the Federal Rules were structured—trial—virtually never occurs. Today,...

To find suitable for small water conservancy engineering standard method prediction of subsidence. This paper based on the genetic algorithm GA optimization extreme learning machine, three different ELM model activation function. From this, six computational models are obtained. According to input groundwater dynamic changes, precipitation, temperature and soil four indicators two kinds combina...

Some sea urchins, including the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, have been successfully used in aquaculture, but their slow growth and late reproduction are challenging to overcome when developing efficient aquaculture production techniques. S. purpuratus develops via an indirect life history that is characterized by a drastic settlement process at the end of a larval period tha...

Methods to improve bearing capacity of footing resting of collapsing soil can, in fact, take two approaches, improving soil strength properties and intrusion of reinforcing sorces into soil. The footing is modeled by a square steel plate 0.1 by 0.1 m. The footing is loaded as to have a stress of 40 kPa and settlement is receded in dry and in soaking conditions. Two depths of the geo-mesh reinfo...