We examine the optimal regulatory policy for a risk-averse …rm when the …rm is imperfectly informed about its e¢ ciency parameter for a project at the time of contracting. The …rm’s risk aversion shifts the optimal regulatory policy from a …xed-price contract to a cost-plus contract. The optimal regulatory policy entails undere¤ort by an ine¢ cient …rm as in Lafont and Tirole (1986) and the e¤o...

While it has been established that anti-phospholipid antibodies (aPL) are associated with recurrent miscarriage (RM), the importance of anti-beta2 glycoprotein 1 (GP1) IgG and anti-annexin V IgG antibodies as risk factors for RM is undefined. We have investigated the prevalence of anti-beta2 GP1 IgG and anti-annexin V IgG antibodies in 54 aPL-positive and 48 aPL-negative women with RM. The prev...

BACKGROUND Remote monitoring (RM) is defined as the surveillance of device-transmitted outpatient data. RM is expected to enable better management of chronic diseases. The objective of this research was to identify public policies concerning RM in four European countries. METHODS Searches of the medical literature, the Internet, and Ministry of Health websites for the United Kingdom (UK), Ger...

This paper studies optimal divestment policy of an investor in a …rm that may partially and gradually divest its capital or sell the whole …rm at once. Partial divestment o¤ers greater ‡exibility while a whole-…rm transaction provides a price premium. We show that, if the price premium includes both a …xed and a proportional component, a large …rm optimally starts to divest partial capital befo...

BACKGROUND The aim of our study was to evaluate the pulmonary effects of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) with or without recruitment maneuver (RM) after open heart surgery. METHODS One-hundred patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery were randomized into four groups after the operation: 1) RM with sustained inflation during mechanical ventilation postoperatively (RM group, n = 25); 2)...

We analyze the repeated interaction between a …rm, short-lived consumers, and a monitor that sells recommendations about the …rm to consumers. In each period, the monitor decides whether to recommend the …rm, the current consumer decides whether to purchase the recommendation and whether to buy from the …rm, and the …rm decides whether to exert high e¤ort to provide quality. We show that, in a ...

Balanced generalized weighing matrices are applied for constructing a family of symmetric designs with parameters (1 + qr(rm+1 − 1)/(r − 1), rm, rm−1(r − 1)/q), where m is any positive integer and q and r = (qd − 1)/(q − 1) are prime powers, and a family of non-embeddable quasi-residual 2−((r+1)(rm+1−1)/(r−1), rm(r+ 1)/2, rm(r− 1)/2) designs, where m is any positive integer and r = 2d− 1, 3 · 2...

BACKGROUND Increased peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cell activity has been associated with unexplained reproductive failure including recurrent (three or more) miscarriages (RM). Studies have reported abnormalities in both numbers (absolute and proportion) and activation. This study assessed numerous NK cell parameters to determine which (if any) are altered in women with RM compared with...