Climate change impacts on the water services in Costa Rica: a production function for the hydroenergy sector

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Technical report of frame and catch assessment surveys of Lakes Edward and George; and the Kazinga Channel conducted in January and July 2011- 2013

This study aimed at evaluating the production levels in terms of catch estimates of the artisanal fisheries of the Edward-George system in addition to providing information on the facilities and services at landing sites and the composition, magnitude and distribution of fishing effort to guide development and management of the fisheries resources of the Edward and George lakes and Kazinga channel. Specifically, the study was expected to come up with the following outputs:- a) Information on the number of fish landing sites on the basin lakes; b) Information on the facilities available at the fish landing sites to service the fisheries sector ; c) Information on the number of fishers; d) Information on the number and types of fishing crafts; e) Information on the modes of propulsion of the fishing crafts; f) Information on the number types and sizes of fishing gears including the number of illegal fishing gears in the fishery; and g) Recommendations on development and management of the fisheries of the Edward and George lakes and Kazinga channel. h) Beach values in terms of annual catches and annual revenue from the water bodies.

Air traffic control with an expected value criterion

in this contribution we discuss a stochastic framework for air traffic conflict resolution. The conflict resolution task is posed as the problem of optimizing an expected value criterion. Optimization is carried out by Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) simulation. A numerical example illustrates the proposed strategy. Copyright © 2005 IFAC.

Il Sistema di Revenue Management strumento per lo sviluppo turistico sostenibile delle destinazioni

Businesses interact constantly with the environment, realizing several and heterogeneous exchanges. Organizations can be considered a system of different interests, frequently conflicting and the satisfaction of different stakeholders is a condition of success and survival. National and international literature attempts to explain the complex connection between companies and environment. In particular, the Stakeholder Theory considers crucial for businesses the identification of different stakeholders and their involvement in decision-making process. In this context, profit can not be considered the only purpose of companies existence and business aims become more numerous and different. The Stakeholder Theory is often utilized as framework for tourism studies, in particular in Sustainable Tourism Development research. In fact, authors consider sustainable the tourism development able to satisfy interests of different stakeholders, traditionally identified as local community and government, businesses, tourists and natural environment. Tourism businesses have to guarantee the optimal use of natural resources, the respect of socio-cultural tradition of local community and the creation of socio-economic benefits for all stakeholders in destinations. An obstacle to sustainable tourism development that characterizes a number of destinations worldwide is tourism demand seasonality. In fact, its negative impact on the environment, economy and communities may be highly significant. Pollution, difficulties in the use of public services, stress for residents, seasonal incomes, are all examples of the negative effects of seasonality. According to the World Tourism Organization (2004) the limitation of seasonality can favour the sustainability of tourism. Literature suggests private and public strategies to minimize the negative effects of tourism seasonality, as diversification of tourism products, identification of new market segments, launching events, application of public instruments like eco-taxes and use of differential pricing policies. Revenue Management is a managerial system based on differential pricing and able to affect price sensitive tourists. This research attempts to verify if Revenue Management, created to maximize profits in tourism companies, can also mitigate the seasonality of tourism demand, producing benefits for different stakeholders of destinations and contributing to Sustainable Tourism Development. In particular, the study attempts to answer the following research questions: 1) Can Revenue Management control the flow of tourist demand? 2) Can Revenue Management limit seasonality, producing benefits for different stakeholders of a destination? 3) Can Revenue Management favor the development of Sustainable Tourism? The literature review on Stakeholder Theory, Sustainable Tourism Development, tourism seasonality and Revenue Management forms the foundation of the research, based on a case study approach looking at a significant destination located in the Southern coast of Sardinia, Italy. A deductive methodology was applied and qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized. This study shows that Revenue Management has the potential to limit tourism seasonality, to mitigate negative impacts occurring from tourism activities, producing benefits for local community and to contribute to Sustainable Tourism Development.

Not thinking straight? A critical discourse analysis of the 2006 Irish High Court ruling in Zappone and Gilligan v. Revenue Commissioners and Attorney General

The recognition and protection of constitutional rights is a fundamental precept. In Ireland, the right to marry is provided for in the equality provisions of Article 40 of the Irish Constitution (1937). However, lesbians and gay men are denied the right to marry in Ireland. The ‘last word’ on this issue came into being in the High Court in 2006, when Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan sought, but failed, to have their Canadian marriage recognised in Ireland. My thesis centres on this constitutional court ruling. So as to contextualise the pursuit of marriage equality in Ireland, I provide details of the Irish trajectory vis-à-vis relationship and family recognition for same-sex couples. In Chapter One, I discuss the methodological orientation of my research, which derives from a critical perspective. Chapter Two denotes my theorisation of the principle of equality and the concept of difference. In Chapter Three, I discuss the history of the institution of marriage in the West with its legislative underpinning. Marriage also has a constitutional underpinning in Ireland, which derives from Article 41 of our Constitution. In Chapter Four, I discuss ways in which marriage and family were conceptualised in Ireland, by looking at historical controversies surrounding the legalisation of contraception and divorce. Chapter Five denotes a Critical Discourse Analysis of the High Court ruling in Zappone and Gilligan. In Chapter Six, I critique text from three genres of discourse, i.e. ‘Letters to the Editor’ regarding same-sex marriage in Ireland, communication from legislators vis-à-vis the 2004 legislative impediment to same-sex marriage in Ireland, and parliamentary debates surrounding the 2010 enactment of civil partnership legislation in Ireland. I conclude my research by reflecting on my methodological and theoretical considerations with a view to answering my research questions. Author’s Update: Following the outcome of the 2015 constitutional referendum vis-à-vis Article 41, marriage equality has been realised in Ireland.

The distribution of sales revenues from pharmaceutical innovation.

OBJECTIVE: This report updates our earlier work on the returns to pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) in the US (1980 to 1984), which showed that the returns distributions are highly skewed. It evaluates a more recent cohort of new drug introductions in the US (1988 to 1992) and examines how the returns distribution is emerging for drugs with life cycles concentrated in the 1990s versus the 1980s. DESIGN AND SETTING: Methods were described in detail in our earlier reports. The current sample included 110 new drug entities (including 28 orphan drugs), and sales data were obtained for the period 1988 to 1998, which represented between 7 and 11 years of sales for the drugs included. 20 years was chosen as the expected market life for this cohort, and a 2-step procedure was used to project future sales for the drugs--during the period until patent expiry and then beyond patent expiry until the 20-year time-horizon was completed. Thus, the values in the first half of the life cycle are essentially based on realised sales, while those in the second half are projected using information on patent expiry and other inputs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND RESULTS: Peak annual sales for the top decile of drugs introduced between 1988 and 1992 in the US amounted to almost $US1.1 billion compared with peak sales of less than $US175 million (1992 values) for the mean compound. In particular, the top decile accounted for 56% of overall sales revenue. Although the sales distributions were skewed in both our earlier and current analysis, the top decile in the later time-period exhibited more rapid rates of growth after launch, a peak that was more than 50% greater in real terms than for the 1980 to 1984 cohort, and a faster rate of expected decline in sales after patent expiry. One factor contributing to the distribution of sales revenues becoming more skewed over time is the orphan drug phenomenon (i.e. most of the orphan drugs are concentrated at the bottom of the distribution). CONCLUSION: The distribution of sales revenues for new drug compounds is highly skewed in nature. In this regard, the top decile of new drugs accounts for more than half of the total sales generated by the 1988 to 1992 cohort analysed. Furthermore, the distribution of sales revenues for this cohort is more skewed than that of the 1980 to 1984 cohort we analysed in previous research.

Illicit cigarette consumption and government revenue loss in Indonesia.

BACKGROUND: Illicit cigarettes comprise more than 11% of tobacco consumption and 17% of consumption in low- and middle-income countries. Illicit cigarettes, defined as those that evade taxes, lower consumer prices, threaten national tobacco control efforts, and reduce excise tax collection. METHODS: This paper measures the magnitude of illicit cigarette consumption within Indonesia using two methods: the discrepancies between legal cigarette sales and domestic consumption estimated from surveys, and discrepancies between imports recorded by Indonesia and exports recorded by trade partners. Smuggling plays a minor role in the availability of illicit cigarettes because Indonesians predominantly consume kreteks, which are primarily manufactured in Indonesia. RESULTS: Looking at the period from 1995 to 2013, illicit cigarettes first emerged in 2004. When no respondent under-reporting is assumed, illicit consumption makes up 17% of the domestic market in 2004, 9% in 2007, 11% in 2011, and 8% in 2013. Discrepancies in the trade data indicate that Indonesia was a recipient of smuggled cigarettes for each year between 1995 and 2012. The value of this illicit trade ranges from less than $1 million to nearly $50 million annually. Singapore, China, and Vietnam together accounted for nearly two-thirds of trade discrepancies over the period. Tax losses due to illicit consumption amount to between Rp 4.1 and 9.3 trillion rupiah, 4% to 13% of tobacco excise revenue, in 2011 and 2013. CONCLUSIONS: Due to the predominance of kretek consumption in Indonesia and Indonesia's status as the predominant producer of kreteks, illicit domestic production is likely the most important source for illicit cigarettes, and initiatives targeted to combat this illicit production carry the promise of the greatest potential impact.

The “re-socialization” of Gypsy women in the literacy courses aimed to the recipients of the Social Integration Revenue Policy of the Region of Madrid

This article studies the gender values that are promoted both in the literacy courses for gypsy women beneficiaries of the Social Integration Revenue Policy of the Region of Madrid and in the events that are organized for this group by public institutions and NGOs. The process of “socialization” that occurs in the educative groups for Gypsy women is focused on constructing an image of what it is to be a “Gypsy modern woman”. Through multiple mechanisms and discursive techniques a specific conception of gender equality is transmitted in these educative spaces. In addition to this, Gypsy women are continually urged to assume certain values and social practices (of gender identity, of "citizenship", of parenting, etc..), while an archetype of "Gypsy Woman" which condenses powerful stereotypes and prejudices about the "Gypsy culture" and the gender relations characteristics of this group is constructed.

Robust Dynamic Pricing Over Infinite Horizon in The Presence of Model Uncertainty( 2* Journal)

This paper studies a problem of dynamic pricing faced by a retailer with limited inventory, uncertain about the demand rate model, aiming to maximize expected discounted revenue over an infinite time horizon. The retailer doubts his demand model which is generated by historical data and views it as an approximation. Uncertainty in the demand rate model is represented by a notion of generalized relative entropy process, and the robust pricing problem is formulated as a two-player zero-sum stochastic differential game. The pricing policy is obtained through the Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs (HJI) equation. The existence and uniqueness of the solution of the HJI equation is shown and a verification theorem is proved to show that the solution of the HJI equation is indeed the value function of the pricing problem. The results are illustrated by an example with exponential nominal demand rate.