The article examines incentives for exclusive distribution of premium television programming. Static analysis shows that a vertically integrated operator with premium programming always supplies this content to the rival distributor, using per-subscriber fees to soften competition. In a dynamic setting with switching costs exclusivity confers a market share advantage, benefiting the operator in...

We define energy security as “a state in which consumers and their governments believe, and have reason to believe, that there are adequate reserves and production and distribution facilities available to meet their requirements in the foreseeable futures, from sources at home and abroad, at costs which do not put them at a competitive disadvantage or otherwise threaten their well-being. Insecu...

Methods SCIG and IVIG options for immunoglobulin replacement therapy in adult PID patients were compared in a costminimization model over three years of treatment. The model focused on direct medical costs for infusion supplies and personnel. A three-year budget impact model assessed the economic impact on the healthcare system of switching from IVIG to SCIG for PID patients of the BC Central T...

When energy prices fluctuate, small scale storage, such as provided by electric vehicles or uninterruptible power supplies, allows users to reduce their overall costs by buying in price troughs. However, if future prices are rising, a user may be inclined to store energy long-term. By analysing the structural properties of the charging schedule for energy storage systems,this paper demonstrates...

Sensitivity to others' emotions is foundational for many aspects of human life, yet computational models do not currently approach the sensitivity and specificity of human emotion knowledge. Perception of isolated physical expressions largely supplies ambiguous, low-dimensional, and noisy information about others' emotional states. By contrast, observers attribute specific granular emotions to ...

A school-located mass vaccination program can enable rapid vaccination of a large number of students while minimizing disruption of their school activities. During 3 consecutive influenza seasons beginning in 2005, the Knox County Health Department conducted school-located mass vaccination clinics using live attenuated influenza vaccine. Overall, the proportion of elementary schoolchildren vacc...

Long development times and high costs prevent robots from being practical for use in many important field missions. Here a modular design approach is proposed to produce a rapidly deployable low cost field robotic system. An inventory of components such as actuated joints, links, power supplies, and software modules are assembled to produce a field robotic system for a specified task. The propo...

The paper examines possible reasons behind expanded outsourcing by modeling outsourcing decisions when intellectual property rights are imperfectly protected. Firms in the North develop higher quality levels of existing products and then decide whether to shift some stages of production to the South. Production in the South lowers costs but entails risk of imitation by Southern firms. In this s...

In a never-ending effort to reduce power consumption and gate oxide thickness, the integrated circuit industry is constantly developing smaller power supplies. Furthermore, in an effort to reduce costs and integrate analog and digital circuits onto a single chip, MOS devices are used in the weak inversion region or the subthreshold inversion region to minimize dc source power. A feasible config...

The choice of motor and drive as well as mechanical transducer is a very important step in servo system design, because non-optimal selection leads to poor system performance and increased installation and maintenance costs. It is still an iterative process with skill in choice dependant on obtaining correct specifications and safety margins. Fundamental principles and procedures in selecting p...