The Value of Sampling This is a first draft. Comments are welcome. This paper investigates consumer welfare implication of commercial breaks during television programmings. The conventional wisdom dictates that consumers prefer watching television without the disruption of commercial breaks. However, we argue that commercial breaks may improve the welfare of consumers under certain conditions. ...

Summary results of the assessment of new tools for the generation of reconfigurable screen media (ShapeShifting media) and of eight experimental ShapeShifting screen media productions covering genres including news, documentary and drama, are presented from the project New Millennium, New Media. The new tools for creating interactive and reconfigurable narratives depend upon a Narrative Structu...

The use of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) as a tool in assessing acquisition and development program risk has steadily increased over the past several years. There is considerable evidence to support the utility of using TRLs as part of a risk assessment, but there are some difficulties in using TRLs with software, especially Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software technology and products....

This work attempts to identify determinants of capital structure in a sample of commercial banks listed on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stock markets. To achieve this objective, data about were collected from 47 GCC commercial banks for the period between 2001 and 2010. We find that profitability and liquidity affect banks’ capital structure decision. The major contribution of this study ...

154 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Statistical notes for clinical researchers: Sample size calculation 2. Comparison of tw...

AIMS To determine if the iron in EDTA anticoagulated plasma samples can be measured by colorimetric assays using Ferrozine. METHODS Paired samples of serum and EDTA plasma were obtained from 24 patients and analysed by three commercial iron methods. The EDTA plasmas were also analysed using methods modified by the addition of zinc sulphate or with different concentrations of Ferrozine. The ir...

In this work sub- and supercritical CO(2) were used to obtain extracts from two origanum samples, one commercial, and another cultivated under agronomic control. The experiments were performed in the temperature range of 293-313 K and from 100 to 200 bar in pressure, employing around 26 g of origanum samples. Results show that the commercial sample provides a higher yield of extract if compared...

Much of what is known about commercial sexual encounters between men is based on data gathered from escorts. With few exceptions, studies have not compared male clients' reports of behavior during commercial sexual encounters with male escorts'. The present study draws from two datasets, a 2012 survey of clients (n = 495) and a 2013 survey of escorts (n = 387)--both used virtually identical mea...