The Relevance of the Principal-Agent Model for the Analysis of Public Policies : Do the Objectives Conflict ?

This paper aims to provide empirical support for the use of the principal-agent framework in the analysis of public sector and public policies. After reviewing the different conditions to be met for a relevant analysis of the relationship between population and government using the principal-agent theory, our paper focuses on the assumption of conflicting goals between the principal and the agent. A principal-agent analysis assumes in effect that inefficiencies may arise because principal and agent pursue different goals. Using data collected during an amalgamation project of two Swiss municipalities, we show the existence of a gap between the goals of the population and those of the government. Consequently, inefficiencies as predicted by the principal-agent model may arise during the implementation of a public policy, i.e. an amalgamation project. In a context of direct democracy where policies are regularly subjected to referendum, the conflict of objectives may even lead to a total failure of the policy at the polls.

Cent soixante quatorze lettres à Stendhal : 1810-1842. Volume 2 / recueillies et annotées par Henri Martineau

Collection : Le Livre du divan

Home enteral nutrition in Spain; NADYA registry 2011-2012.

To describe the results of the home enteral nutrition (HEN) registry of the NADYA-SENPE group in 2011 and 2012. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrieved the data of the patients recorded from January 1st 2011 to December 31st 2012. RESULTS: There were 3021 patients in the registry during the period from 29 hospitals, which gives 65.39 per million inhabitants. 97.95% were adults, 51.4% male. Mean age was 67.64 ± 19.1, median age was 72 years for adults and 7 months for children. Median duration with HEN was 351 days and for 97.5% was their first event with HEN. Most patients had HEN because of neurological disease (57.8%). Access route was nasogastric tube for 43.5% and gastrostomy for 33.5%. Most patients had limited activity level and, concerning autonomy, 54.8% needed total help. Nutritional formula was supplied from chemist's office to 73.8% of patients and disposables, when necessary, was supplied from hospitals to 53.8% of patients. HEN was finished for 1,031 patients (34.1%) during the period of study, 56.6% due to decease and 22.2% due to recovery of oral intake. CONCLUSIONS: Data from NADYA-SENPE registry must be explained cautiously because it is a non-compulsory registry. In spite of the change in the methodology of the registry in 2010, tendencies regarding HEN have been maintained, other than oral route

Revision of the genus acrochordiceras hyatt, 1877 (Ammonoidea, Middle Triassic): Morphology, biometry, biostratigraphy and intra-specific variability

The family Acrochordiceratidae Arthaber, 1911 ranges in age from latest Spathian to the middle/late Anisian boundary, and it represents a major component of ammonoid faunas during that time. The middle Anisian genus Acrochordiceras Hyatt, 1877 is the most widespread taxon of the family and occurs abundantly worldwide within the low paleolatitude belt. However, there is a profusion of species names available for Acrochordiceras. This excessive diversity at the species level essentially results from the fact that sufficiently large samples were not available, thus leading to a typological approach to its taxonomy. Based on new extensive collections obtained from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) Fossil Hill Member (Star Peak Group, north-west Nevada) for which a high resolution biostratigraphic frame is available, the taxonomy and biostratigraphy of the genus Acrochordiceras Hyatt, 1877 is herein revised with respect to its intra-specific variation. Morphological and biometric studies (c. 550 bedrock-controlled specimens were measured) show that only one species occurs in each stratigraphic level. Continuous ranges of intra-specific variation of studied specimens enable us to synonymize Haydenites Diener, 1907, Silesiacrochordiceras Diener, 1916 and Epacrochordiceras Spath, 1934 with Acrochordiceras Hyatt, 1877. Three stratigraphically successive species are herein recognized in the low paleolatitude middle Anisian faunas from Nevada: A. hatschekii (Diener, 1907), A. hyatti Meek, 1877 and A. carolinae Mojsisovics, 1882. Moreover, an assessment of intra-specific variation of the adult size range does not support recognition of a dimorphic pair (Acrochordiceras and Epacrochordiceras) as previously suggested by other workers (Epacrochordiceras is the compressed and weakly ornamented end-member variant of Acrochordiceras). The successive middle Anisian species of Acrochordiceras form an anagenetic lineage characterized by increasing involution, adult size and intra-specific variation. This taxonomic revision based on new bedrock-controlled collections is thus an important prerequisite before studying the evolution of the group.

Prognostic and predictive biomarkers in resected colon cancer: current status and future perspectives for integrating genomics into biomarker discovery.

The number of agents that are potentially effective in the adjuvant treatment of locally advanced resectable colon cancer is increasing. Consequently, it is important to ascertain which subgroups of patients will benefit from a specific treatment. Despite more than two decades of research into the molecular genetics of colon cancer, there is a lack of prognostic and predictive molecular biomarkers with proven utility in this setting. A secondary objective of the Pan European Trials in Adjuvant Colon Cancer-3 trial, which compared irinotecan in combination with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin in the postoperative treatment of stage III and stage II colon cancer patients, was to undertake a translational research study to assess a panel of putative prognostic and predictive markers in a large colon cancer patient cohort. The Cancer and Leukemia Group B 89803 trial, in a similar design, also investigated the use of prognostic and predictive biomarkers in this setting. In this article, the authors, who are coinvestigators from these trials and performed similar investigations of biomarker discovery in the adjuvant treatment of colon cancer, review the current status of biomarker research in this field, drawing on their experiences and considering future strategies for biomarker discovery in the postgenomic era.