Endangered Species Act biennial report, status of recovery program / prepared by U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Protected Resources.

1994-1996

Ocean margins program / edited by R. Jahnke and P. Verity.

Scientific Framework

Ocean margins program / edited by R. Jahnke and P. Verity.

Phase I

An alternative way to model merit good arguments

Besley (1988) uses a scaling approach to model merit good arguments in commodity tax policy. In this paper, I question this approach on the grounds that it produces 'wrong' recommendations--taxation (subsidisation) of merit (demerit) goods--whenever the demand for the (de)merit good is inelastic. I propose an alternative approach that does not suffer from this deficiency, and derive the ensuing first and second best tax rules, as well as the marginal cost expressions to perform tax reform analysis.

Economic impacts of alternative water policy scenarios in the Spanish production system: an input-output analysis

The objective of this paper is to analyse the economic impacts of alternative water policies implemented in the Spanish production system. The methodology uses two versions of the input-output price model: a competitive formulation and a mark-up formulation. The input-output framework evaluates the impact of water policy measures on production prices, consumption prices, intermediate water demand and private welfare. Our results show that a tax on the water used by sectors considerably reduces the intermediate water demand, and increases the production and consumption prices. On the other hand, according to Jevons' paradox, an improvement in technical efficiency, which leads to a reduction in the water requirements of all sectors and an increase in water production, increases the amount of water consumed. The combination of a tax on water and improved technical efficiency takes the pressure off prices and significantly reduces intermediate water demand. JEL Classification: C67 ; D57 ; Q25. Keywords: Production prices; Consumption prices; Water uses; Water policy; Water taxation.

Economic impact of alternative policy measures implemented on the energy activities of the Catalan production system: an input-output analysis

The aim of the paper is to analyse the economic impact of alternative policies implemented on the energy activities of the Catalan production system. Specifically, we analyse the effects of a tax on intermediate energy uses, a reduction in the final production of energy, and a reduction in intermediate energy uses. The methodology involves two versions of the input-output price model: a competitive price formulation and a mark-up price formulation. The input-output price framework will make it possible to evaluate how the alternative measures modify production prices, consumption prices, private welfare, and intermediate energy uses. The empirical application is for the Catalan economy and uses economic data for the year 2001.

Characteristics of HIV patients referred to a medication adherence program in Switzerland.

Background Since August 2004, HIV patients who encounter -or are at risk of -problems with their antiretroviral treatment (ART) are referred by their physician to a medication adherence program at the community pharmacy of the Department of Ambulatory Care and Community Medicine in Lausanne (Switzerland). The program combines motivational interviewing and electronic drug monitoring. Objective To compare the demographic and clinical characteristics as well as ART of HIV patients referred to the adherence program versus those of the entire HIV population followed in the same infection disease department in the same time frame. Method Retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study. Study time frame was defined according to the period with the highest number of HIV patients visiting the adherence program. Results Subjects included in the adherence program had more often a protease inhibitor-based regimen (64 %; 95 % CI [52-75 %] vs. 37 %) and lower CD4 cell counts (419 (252.0, 521.0); 95 % CI [305-472] vs. 500 (351.0, 720.0)) than the entire HIV population. A majority of women were included in the adherence program (66 %; 95 % CI [54-76 %] vs. 39% in the entire HIV population). Conclusion Subjects referred to the adherence program were different from the entire HIV population and showed worse clinical outcomes and were more often under salvage therapy. More women than men were included. Reasons for such a difference need to be further explored.

Aplicaciones Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) en ambientes distribuidos

Un reto al ejecutar las aplicaciones en un cluster es lograr mejorar las prestaciones utilizando los recursos de manera eficiente, y este reto es mayor al utilizar un ambiente distribuido. Teniendo en cuenta este reto, se proponen un conjunto de reglas para realizar el cómputo en cada uno de los nodos, basado en el análisis de cómputo y comunicaciones de las aplicaciones, se analiza un esquema de mapping de celdas y un método para planificar el orden de ejecución, tomando en consideración la ejecución por prioridad, donde las celdas de fronteras tienen una mayor prioridad con respecto a las celdas internas. En la experimentación se muestra el solapamiento del computo interno con las comunicaciones de las celdas fronteras, obteniendo resultados donde el Speedup aumenta y los niveles de eficiencia se mantienen por encima de un 85%, finalmente se obtiene ganancias de los tiempos de ejecución, concluyendo que si se puede diseñar un esquemas de solapamiento que permita que la ejecución de las aplicaciones SPMD en un cluster se hagan de forma eficiente.