Current DRM systems do not provide flexible payment methods, requiring the user to handle the payment by hand. For instance, when the user needs to pay for watching a movie, she needs to decide which available payment method is the most optimal and suitable. This is a rather cumbersome process for the user that can be avoided by the specification of payment policies. A payment policy automates ...

The periodic trimming of the long hairs growing at the distal end of the tail -switch trimming- is humane alternative of tail docking. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of switch trimming on somatic cell count (SCC), California mastitis test (CMT) and udder cleanliness of lactating cows in a free-stall dairy farm. In the present study, 219 healthy, pregnant Holstein cows ...

Through the adoption of a two-step methodology, this paper sets out to examine the pattern of diffusion of mobile telecommunications with the aim of identifying the key factors influencing the diffusion rate for 29 OECD countries and Taiwan between 1980 and 2001. We find that the pattern of diffusion of mobile telecommunications for all the sample countries is generally characterized by an S-sh...

Many people invest regularly in sinking funds that track stock market indices. When stock markets themselves sink significantly, as in the current credit crunch, investors face a decision as to whether they should continue paying into a falling fund, or switch payment to a risk-free deposit account until the market recovers. Most financial advice is to keep investing on the grounds that as the ...

Many people invest regularly in sinking funds that track stock market indices. When stock markets themselves sink significantly, as in the current credit crunch, investors face a decision as to whether they should continue paying into a falling fund, or switch payment to a risk-free deposit account until the market recovers. Most financial advice is to keep investing on the grounds that as the ...

Consider (with apologies to Adam Smith) an efficient pin producer selling half her production in the convertible currency market (where buyers are picky) and the rest in the domestic market to inefficient, financially shaky (state-owned) enterprises. The pins are similar but not identical, with only good pins sold in the convertible currency market and both good and bad pins in the domestic mar...

This article analyzes a change in the measure of teaching intensity when calculating Medicare's indirect medical education (IME) adjustment: It looks at the potential for replacing, in the denominator of the ratio, beds with the average daily census (ADC). Among the findings are: (1) Hospitals with small teaching programs would benefit from this switch more than hospitals with larger programs b...

We analyze the contract settlement data of a poultry company who contracts the production of broiler chickens with a group of independent growers. The company originally used rank-order (ordinal) tournaments to compensate their contract growers and later switched to cardinal tournaments. Based on the observed payment mechanism we construct an empirical model of a rank-order tournament game and ...