We extend an analytical general equilibrium model of environmental policy with pre-existing labor tax distortions to include pre-existing monopoly power as well. We show that the existence of monopoly power has two offsetting effects on welfare. First, the environmental policy reduces monopoly profits, and the negative effect on income increases labor supply in a way that partially offsets the ...

The harmonization of laboratory testing is a high priority topic in Laboratory Medicine. It is more than harmonized terminology, units of reporting, methodology and reference intervals but, rather, covers a wide range of topics from the “pre-pre-analytical” phase (‘Right test at the Right time for the Right patient’) to the analytical aspects and reporting of critical results through to consume...

Advances in the "omics" field bring about the need for a high number of good quality samples. Many omics studies take advantage of biobanked samples to meet this need. Most of the laboratory errors occur in the pre-analytical phase. Therefore evidence-based standard operating procedures for the pre-analytical phase as well as markers to distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' quality samples takin...

Arterial blood gas analyses provide information about the patient's oxygenation, ventilation, and perfusion. Studies have shown that most errors occur during the pre-analytical phase (the processes prior to the actual analysis of the sample). 1st Automatic is an extra module to the existing blood gas analyzer and a partial automation of the pre-analytical phase which is designed to reduce these...

was to assess analytical issues surrounding the measurement of PSA in prostate cancer screening. A subsequent review article published earlier this year in the Annals of Clinical Biochemistry titled " Pre-and post-analytical factors that may influence use of serum prostate specific antigen and its isoforms in a screening programme for prostate cancer " 1 discusses the findings and draws from th...

BACKGROUND We investigated the influence of pre-analytical factors on the results of clinical tests and thereby analyzed approaches to improve quality management in clinical laboratories. METHODS Unqualified clinical samples were selected from all the samples received at our clinical laboratory. The data were collected for 2009 and 2010, i.e., the years before and after the establishment of t...

With the introduction of new biological agents for cancer treatment enabling 'personalized medicine', treatment decisions based on the molecular features of the tumour are more common. Consequently, tissue evaluation in tumour pathology is becoming increasingly based on a combination of classical morphological and molecular analysis. The results of diagnostic tests rely not only on the quality ...

Thymus- and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) in serum/plasma associates with the disease activity of atopic dermatitis (AD), and is a promising tool for assessing the response to the treatment of the disease. TARC also exists within platelets, with elevated levels detectable in AD patients. We examined the effects of pre-analytical factors on the quantitation of TARC in human EDTA plasma. ...

BACKGROUND Soluble vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a promising biomarker in monitoring rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but studies of pre-analytical and biologic variability are few. METHODS VEGF was measured by ELISA methods in serum and plasma from healthy persons and RA patients. Pre-analytical factors were investigated. A reference interval for VEGF was established in serum and pl...