A model is developed in which communications costs determine the geographic extent of production fragmentation. The focus is on production and trade of intermediate services and components. On the production side of the model there are returns to increased specialization within plants but fixed costs which are component specific. Communication costs are modelled as a quasi public good network i...

OBJECTIVES A substantial portion of healthcare spending is wasted on services that do not directly improve patient health and that cause harm in some cases. Features of health insurance coverage, including enrollment in high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) or health maintenance organizations (HMOs), may provide financial and nonfinancial mechanisms to potentially reduce overuse of low-value hea...

a detailed analysis of the electron-impact-induced fragmentation of 5,8dithiaspiro (3.1) octane and s,9-dithiaspiro 6.5) nonane is presented. the tetradeuteri6-analog of the cyclic dithioketals is prepared as an aid in analysing the fragmentation patterns. it was readily seen that the nature of the fragmentation pathway was governed by the size of the ring containing the two sulfur atoms and th...

Purpose: In France, the development of integrated services delivery for elderly (ISDE) has been hindered by the fragmentation of the decision-making institutions. By merging the healthcare and medicosocial institutions, the Health Regional Agencies (HRA), responsible for developing ISDE, theoretically constitutes a solution. The study examines how the HRA received and implemented the legislativ...

Integrated care generally refers to care for the elderly. Fragmentation in health and social care services creates the need to develop coordinated activities and cooperative networks in order to achieve a more cohesive set of services for the elderly. This is seen as being highly desirable by care providers, politicians, care users and financiers, mainly for reasons of quality and efficiency. H...

The present study describes the fragmentation under electron ionization (EI) of gas phase serine and threonine amino acids. Ab initio methods were performed to calculate the fragmentation paths and interpret the mass spectra. The six lowest energy conformers of L-serine, L-threonine and L-allo-threonine were obtained with B3LYP, G3MP2 and MP2 methods. The adiabatic and vertical ionizat...

Background: One of the main causes of male infertility is the negative effects of oxidative stress. Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) plays an essential role in spermatogenesis, as well as in the maintenance of sperm DNA integrity. This study aimed to determine whether the recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone (rhFSH) treatment of sperm parameters could positively affect sperm DNA and...