Regulation is widely considered as the key issue in reforms of public service sectors. But it has been pointed early to the problem that regulatory capture could undermine the stated aims of the reforms. This paper reviews the concept and the literature of regulatory capture under the special focus of public service sectors. Although mentioning corruption as an important mean way of capture, th...

This paper explores the evolution of a simple traffic convention concerning the side of the road on which to drive. This agent-based simulation probes some of the deeper conceptual issues involved in the evolution of conventions, particularly the nature of rational decision-making and its possible reliance upon habit. The simulations show that the systemic convergence to a left/right convention...

In Drosophila melanogaster, the expression of adenosine deaminase acting on RNA is regulated by transcription and alternative splicing so that at least four different isoforms are generated that have a tissue-specific splicing pattern. Even though dAdar has been extensively studied, the complete adult expression pattern has yet to be elucidated. In the present study, we investigate mature trans...

Schaffer [Schaffer, M.E., 1988. Evolutionarily stable strategies for a finite population and a variable contest size. Journal of Theoretical Biololgy 132, 469–478] proposed a concept of evolutionary stability for finite-population models that has interesting implications in economic models of evolutionary learning, since it is related to perfectly competitive equilibrium. The present paper expl...

Solid-state phase transformations and melting of high-purity crystalline boron have been in situ and ex situ studied at pressures to 20 GPa in the 1500-2500 K temperature range where diffusion processes become fast and lead to formation of thermodynamically stable phases. The equilibrium phase diagram of boron has been constructed based on thermodynamic analysis of experimental and literature d...