This paper assesses the economic impacts of the Swiss climate policy formulated under the Kyoto Protocol; the impacts on the carbon price, the welfare cost, and trade effects are examined. Our analysis is based on a multi-sectoral and multi-regional, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the world economy (GEMINI-E3) which includes a representation of the Swiss economy. The model is use...

Eastern enlargement of the EU promises gains, but also imposes fiscal costs on incumbent countries. A sensitive issue concerns immigration, jobs and wages. We address these issues in a general equilibrium framework, both analytically and through numerical simulations. Analytical results identify capital accumulation as a prime transmission channel. Using a dynamic CGE model with search unemploy...

The identification of rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) remains problematic because of evolving taxonomy, limitations of current phenotypic methods and absence of a universal gene target for reliable speciation. This study evaluated a novel method of identification of RGM by amplification of the mycobacterial 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) followed by resolution of amplified fr...

GABA-containing (GABAergic) interneurons comprise a very heterogeneous group of cells that are crucial for cortical function. Different classes of interneurons specialize in targeting specific subcellular domains of excitatory pyramidal cells or other interneurons, which provides cortical circuits with an enormous capability for information processing. As in other regions of the CNS, cortical i...

One of the most puzzling features of respiration in insects is cyclic gas exchange (CGE, the extreme form of discontinuous gas exchange-cycles, DGC), a periodic respiratory pattern that appeared independently several times in the evolution of arthropods. Although it is a striking feature of insects and some non-insect species, to date there is no clear knowledge of how widespread it is, or its ...

While 16S rRNA sequence-based identification of Nocardia species has become the gold standard, it is not without its limitations. We evaluated a novel approach encompassing the amplification of the Nocardia 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer (IGS) region followed by fragment analysis by capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) of the amplified product for species identification of Nocardia. One hundred ...

We define and examine the performance of three minimal market games (sell-all, buy-sell, and double auction) in laboratory relative to the predictions of theory. Unlike open or partial equilibrium settings of most other experiments, these closed exchange economies have limited amounts of cash to facilitate transactions, and include feedback. The experiment reveals that (1) the competitive gener...