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This paper provides some elements to explain the observed takeover in some urban areas of a new kind of elite associated with new economy jobs, also known as "bourgeois boheme" (bobos). This takeover has been associated with greater investment in urban amenities and "clean" means of transport, with adverse effects on commuting time. The model allows us to explain those developments by productivity growth in the new economy, and by the differences in production processes between the new and old economies. The consequences of bobo takeover for house prices and employment of unskilled service workers are also discussed. A bunkerized equilibrium in which skilled workers in the old economy no longer reside in the city and have been replaced by service workers is studied. In such an equilibrium urban amenities are at their maximum and commuting flows have been eliminated. For some parameter values, bobos are better-off under bunkerization, in which case they may gain by favoring it with a "diversity" subsidy for unskilled workers to reside in the city.

This paper provides some elements to explain the observed takeover in some urban areas of a new kind of elite associated with new economy jobs, also known as "bourgeois bohème" (bobos). This takeover has been associated with greater investment in urban amenities and "clean" means of transport, with adverse effects on commuting time. The model allows us to explain those developments by productivity is growth in the new economy, and by the differences in production processes between the new and old economies. The consequences of bobo takeover for house prices and employment of unskilled service workers are also discussed. A bunkerized equilibrium in which skilled workers in the old economy no longer reside in the city and have been replaced by service workers is studied. In such an equilibrium urban amenities are at their maximum and commuting flows have been eliminated. For some parameter values, bobos are better-off under bunkerization, in which case they may gain by favoring it with a "diversity" subsidy for unskilled workers to reside in the city.

IntroductionNo controlled clinical trials had studied the role of maraviroc (MRV) in fully suppressed patients [1].Materials and MethodsMRV‐cohort is an observational, retrospective, multicentric (27 sites) large cohort study of patients starting MRV in clinical practice under different circumstances, with at least 48 weeks of follow‐up. For the present analysis we selected all those patients starting with an HIV‐RNA<50 copies/mL. Demographics, baseline CD4 cell count, past history of antiretroviral treatment (ART), tropism, reasons for MRV use, MRV based therapy and change/end of MRV use were assessed. Paired analysis of lipid, hepatic and kidney profile changes and univariate and multivariate analyses of HIV‐RNA<50 copies/mL at 48 weeks were explored.ResultsWe included 247 out of 667 subjects from the entire cohort. At study entry, their median age was 47 years, 23% were women, 31% MSM, 49% had CDC category C, median CD4+ counts were 468 cells/mm3, 46% were HCV+ and 4.5% AgHBs+. Tropism information was available in 197 (94% R5). Median length of prior ARTV was 10.7 years, with exposure to a median of three drug families. Main reasons for prescribing MRV were: toxicity 38%, inmunodiscordance 23%, simplification 19% and admission in a clinical trial 10.4%. MRV based therapies used were MRV+2NRTIs 9%, MRV+PI 46%, MRV+PI+other 40% and MRV+other 5%. At 48 weeks, 23% of patients had changed or finished MRV therapy due to toxicity 2.4%, virological failure 2%, immunological failure 1.2%, simplification 3,2%, trial requirement 9.7%, medical decision 2.8%, treatment suspension 1.2% and unknown 0.4%. At 48 weeks, no significant changes were observed in lipid, hepatic or kidney profiles, and 85% of patients remained with HIV‐RNA<50 copies/mL. Focusing on viral response univariate and multivariate models did not show any significant baseline variable explaining viral failure.ConclusionsIn clinical practice MRV was used, mostly in R5 positive patients, with adequate efficacy and tolerance, but important number of patients changed due to non‐clinical reasons. In this scenario neither reason for use of MRV nor MRV‐based therapy explained viral failure.

Explotando las variaciones espaciales y temporales en el número de bienes incautados a las organizaciones criminales, se estiman modelos de efectos fijos regionales del aumento en el número de propiedades confiscadas sobre las principales tasas de crimen. En Colombia, desde finales de 2002 las estrategias de seguridad en el país cambiaron, y como resultado, los efectos sobre los indicadores del crimen resultaron en su mayoría sustanciales, negativos y significativos. Hubo una clara reducción en los delitos comúnmente cometidos por el crimen organizado, incluyendo a la guerrilla, los paramilitares y los narcotraficantes, tales como robo de vehículos, terrorismo, piratería terrestre y secuestros. Por otro lado, los delitos cometidos por criminales comunes, tales como robos callejeros y hurtos a residencias, no se vieron afectados por la nueva política de seguridad. ; Exploiting spatial and temporal variations in the number of seizures from criminal organizations, I estimate regional fixed effects models of the increase in the number of properties confiscated on the main crime rates. Since 2002 security strategies changed, and the resulting effects on crime rates are mostly large, negative and significant. There was a clear reduction in crimes commonly committed by criminal organizations, including guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug traffickers, such as auto-theft, terrorism, terrestrial piracy and kidnappings. On the other hand, those usually committed by common criminals, such as street robberies and burglaries, were unaffected by the new security policy.

The tradition of Fiscal Federalism has included public intervention from multiple spheres of the territorial government, among others, configuring the size of its jurisdiction according to an optimal correspondence with efficiency in the provision of public goods. This makes it challenging to find a single optimal size when -as in the case in metropolitan regions- the provision of multiple public goods overlaps, fragmenting and overlapping government jurisdictions. The article explores this dilemma and exposes it as an unresolved issue, raising the need to advance in governance-type schemes that overcome the rigidity of the jurisdiction. ; La tradición del Federalismo Fiscal ha comprendido la intervención pública desde múltiples ámbitos de gobierno territorial, entre otros, configurando el tamaño de su jurisdicción en función de una correspondencia óptima con la eficiencia en la provisión de bienes públicos. Esto supone la dificultad por encontrar un único tamaño óptimo cuando -como es el caso de las regiones metropolitanas- se superpone la provisión de múltiples bienes públicos, fragmentando y traslapando jurisdicciones de gobierno. El artículo explora este dilema y lo expone como no resuelto, planteando la necesidad de avanzar en esquemas de tipo gobernanza que superen la rigidez de la jurisdicción. ; A tradição do Federalismo Fiscal tem compreendido a intervenção pública desde múltiplos âmbitos de governo territorial, entre outros, configurando o tamanho de sua jurisdição em função de uma correspondência ótima com a eficiência na provisão de bens públicos. Isto supõe a dificuldade por encontrar um único tamaño ótimo quando -como é o caso das regiões metropolitanas- se superpõe a provisão de múltiplos bens públicos, fragmentando e sobrepondo jurisdições de governo. O artigo explora este dilema e o expõe como não resolvido, colocando a necessidade de avançar em esquemas de tipo governança que superem a rigidez da jurisdição.

German municipalities have substantial autonomy in setting taxes on two distinct tax bases: business profits and property values. We use this setting and a two-step approach to explore whether implemented tax policy is consistent with the seminal inverse-elasticity rule. First, we estimate the tax elasticity of the two tax bases using event-study and generalized differences-in-differences methods based on the universe of municipalities in 1995-2010. Second, we compare the ratio of the observed tax rates for the two tax bases to the ratio of their estimated elasticities. We find that property is not very responsive to variation in tax rates, whereas business profits respond significantly. While this would suggest that property should be taxed at a higher rate, the data show that this not the case: most municipalities impose relatively higher rates on business profits. This suggests that municipality-level taxation in Germany is inconsistent with the inverse-elasticity rule. We provide suggestive evidence that this finding is explained by politician's imprecise expectations about revenue elasticities as well as re-election concerns.

On 1 July 1968 the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and some fifty other states signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Australia has not yet signed, and this monograph examines the issues the treaty raises for her. The study is intended as a contribution to the debate on a major issue in foreign policy. It is critical of the Government's attitude as manifest in the United Nations debate on the treaty and argues that three criteria should govern Australia's signing: the treaty's probable value as a brake on the further spread of nuclear weapons, its effect on Australia{u2019}s civil nuclear development, and its effect on Australia{u2019}s external security. It then proceeds to examine these considerations and concludes that Australia should sign, though not unconditionally. The issue is of fundamental importance for Australia; nor is it one whose relevant considerations are wholly technical or specialist. It is, therefore, a subject of unusual interest for those interested in Australia{u2019}s foreign policy, specialist and layman alike.

This paper analyzes the relationship between intermunicipal cooperation and efficiency of public service provision. The organizational arrangements, including self-provision, joint pro-vision or contracting, affect politicians' and bureaucrats' incentives as well as internal transaction costs. Hence, cooperation gains from scale effects have to be weighed against technical inefficiencies. We analyze wastewater disposal for a unique dataset of small and medium-sized Hessian municipalities. We employ a two-stage DEA (DEA = Data Envelopment Analysis) bootstrap approach to calculate relative efficiency measures controlling for organizational arrangements and further environmental variables. Jointly providing municipalities and contractor municipalities score lower in terms of technical efficiency than self-providing and contracting municipalities. The scope for increasing scale efficiency turns out to be limited and hence, only small municipalities may benefit from scale economies from cooperation. The findings suggest that small municipalities should rely on contracting or on joint provision with a high degree of vertical integration. ; In diesem Papier wird der Zusammenhang zwischen interkommunaler Zusammenarbeit und Effizienz der öffentlichen Leistungserstellung analysiert. Diejenigen Organisationsformen, die Eigenerstellung, gemeinsame Bereitstellung oder vertragliche Vergabe umfassen, beeinflussen sowohl die Anreizstrukturen für Politiker und Verwaltung als auch die internen Transaktionskosten. Folglich müssen Größenvorteile gegen technische Ineffizienzen abgewogen werden. Dazu wird die Abwasserentsorgung anhand eines singulären Datensatzes für kleine und mittlere hessische Kommunen analysiert. Hierbei kommt ein zweistufiges DEA-Bootstrap-Verfahren (DEA = Data Envelopment Analysis) zum Einsatz, um die relativen Effizienzmaße zu berechnen, wobei für die Organisationsformen und weitere Umweltvariablen kontrolliert wird. Es zeigt sich, dass gemeinsam bereitstellende Gemeinden und Auftragnehmergemeinden (d. h. Gemeinden, die das Abwasser anderer Gemeinden in eigenen Anlagen klären) hinsichtlich ihrer technischen Effizienz schlechter abschneiden als eigenerstellende Gemeinden oder auslagernde Gemeinden. Es stellt sich heraus, dass der Spielraum für eine Steigerung der Skaleneffizienz begrenzt ist, und daher möglicherweise nur kleine Gemeinden von Kooperationslösungen profitieren. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass kleine Gemeinden die vertragliche Vergabe von Leistungen oder eine in hohem Maße vertikal integrierte gemeinsame Bereitstellung bevorzugen sollten.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become important tools to promote a variety of public goals and policies. In the past years much attention has been given to the expected social benefits from deploying ICT in different fields (transportation, education, public participation in planning etc.) and to its potential to mitigate various current or emerging urban problems. The growing importance of ICT in daily life, business activities and governance prompts the need to consider ICT more explicitly in urban policies. Alongside the expectation that the private sector will play a major role in the ICT field, the expected benefits from ICT encourage also urban authorities to formulate proper public ICT policies.Against this background, various intriguing research questions arise. What are the urban policy-makers' expectations about ICT? And how do they assess the future implications of ICT for their city? An analysis of these questions will provide us with a better understanding of the extent to which urban authorities are willing to invest in and adopt a dedicated ICT policy.This paper is focusing on the way urban decision-makers perceive the opportunities of ICT policy. First, a conceptual model is developed to explain the driving forces of urban ICT policies in European cities. Next, by highlighting the importance of understanding the decision-maker's black box, we identify three crucial variables within this box. In the remaining of the paper we will give an operational meaning to these three variables by using a survey comprising more than 200 European cities . By using statistical multivariate methods (i.e., factor and cluster analysis), we were able to characterize the decision-makers according to the way they perceive their city (the imaginable city), their opinion about ICT and the way they asses the relevance of ICT policies to their city.

"Form MA-1000-R-nos". ; [R2]. Major group 22-Textile mill products; Major group 23-Apparel and other finished products made from fabrics and similar materials; Major group 31-Leather and leather products -- [R3]. Major group 24-Lumber and wood products, except furniture; Major group 25-Furniture and fixtures -- [R5]. Major group 28-Chemical and allied products; Major group 29-Petroleum refining and related industries; Major group 30-Rubber and misc. plastic products -- [R4]. Major group 26-Paper and allied products; Major group 27-Printing, publishing, and allied industries -- [R6]. Major group 33-Primary metal industries; Major group 34-Fabricated metal products, except machinery and transportation equipment -- [R7]. Major group 35-Industrial and commercial machinery and computer equipment -- [R9]. Major group 37-Transportation equipment -- [R10]. Major group 32-Stone, clay, glass, and concrete products; Major group 39-Misc. manufacturing industries. ; Mode of access: Internet.

The Nostrum-DSS EU funded Co-ordination Action (CA) aims at contributing to the achievement of improved governance and planning in the field of sustainable water management within the Mediterranean Basin by establishing a network between the science, policy, and civil society spheres and through the development and dissemination of Best Practices Guidelines (BPGs) for the design and implementation of DSSs for IWRM in the Mediterranean Area. Decision Support Systems (DSS) have a great theoretical potential as tools for the identification of optimal water resource management regimes in the Mediterranean basin, thus helping policy makers (PMs) to bring the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) into practice. However, such tools are only episodically exploited outside the academia. This article presents the outcomes of project activities targeting the development of more effective communication strategies, in order to facilitate the development of research products with greater potential for been up taken by the expected end-users, i.e. the community of policy makers, and their staffs, advisors, consultants, etc., in the Mediterranean Region.

We analyze a simple model of local public good provision in a country consisting of a large number of heterogeneous regions, each comprising two districts, a city and a village. When districts remain autonomous and local public goods have positive spillover effects on the neighbouring district, there is underprovision of public goods in both the city and the village. When districts unite, underprovision persists in the village (and may even become more severe), whereas overprovision of public goods arises in the city as urbanites use their political power to exploit the villagers. From a social welfare point of view, inhabitants of the village have insufficient incentives to vote for unification. We examine how national transfers to local governments can resolve these problems.

The file associated with this record is under embargo until 12 months after publication, in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above. ; BACKGROUND: Asthma is a disease characterised by ventilation heterogeneity (VH). A number of studies have demonstrated that VH markers derived using impulse oscillometry (IOS) or multiple breath washout (MBW) are associated with key asthma patient related outcome measures and airways hyper responsiveness. However the topographical mechanisms of VH in the lung remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: We hypothesised that specific regionalisation of topographical small airway disease would best account for IOS and MBW measured indices in patients. METHODS: We evaluated paired expiratory/inspiratory computed tomography in a cohort of asthmatic (n=41) and healthy volunteers (n=11) to understand the determinants of clinical VH indices commonly reported using IOS and MBW. Parametric response mapping (PRM) was utilised to calculate functional small airways disease marker PRMfSAD and Hounsfield unit (HU) based density change from total lung capacity to functional residual capacity (ΔHU); gradients of ΔHU, in gravitationally perpendicular (parallel), inferior-superior (anterior-posterior) axes, were quantified. RESULTS: ΔHU gradient in the inferior-superior axis provided the highest level of discrimination of both Sacin and R5-20. Patients with a high inferior-superior ΔHU gradient demonstrated evidence of reduced specific ventilation in the lower lobes of the lungs and high levels of PRMfSAD. A computational small airway tree model confirmed that constriction of gravitationally dependant lower zone small airway branches would promote the largest increases in R5-R20. Ventilation gradients correlated with asthma control and quality of life but not with exacerbation frequency. CONCLUSIONS: Lower lobe predominant small airways disease is a major driver of clinically measured VH in adult asthma. ; Supported by the Sir Jules Thorn trust, "Systems medicine: novel mathematical approaches to personalized care in asthma patients," through a clinical senior lecturer award (Professor Siddiqui). Additional funding was received for the original computed tomographic scan and physiologic analyses from Roche Pharmaceuticals (C.B. and S.S.) and the European Union Airways Disease Predicting Outcomes in Patient Specific Computational Models (AirPROM-FP7) consortium. This article was also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Respiratory Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). ; Peer-reviewed ; Post-print

IntroductionNucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) is associated with endothelial dysfunction and proinflammatory effects. Maraviroc (MVC) is an antagonist of CCR5 receptor. CCR5 is the receptor of RANTES (Regulated on Activation, Normal T Cell Expressed and Secreted), a mediator of chronic inflammation and endothelial function. Our aim was to evaluate the maintenance of viral suppression and improvement of endothelial function in virologically suppressed HIV‐infected patients switched to an NRTI‐sparing combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) with MVC.Materials and MethodsThis observational, non‐interventional, multicenter study was performed at the Infectious Diseases Service of Santa Lucia, Morales Meseguer, Virgen de la Arrixaca and Reina Sofía University Hospital (Murcia, Spain). The selection criteria were to be asymptomatic on a regimen with undetectable viral load (<50 HIV‐RNA copies/mL) for at least six months, no previous treatment with R5 antagonists, no evidence of previous protease inhibitor (PI) failure and available R5 tropism test. Twenty‐one HIV‐infected patients were selected after the treatment regimen was changed to Maraviroc 150 mg/once daily plus ritonavir‐boosted PI therapy. Endothelial function was prospectively evaluated through flow‐mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery at baseline and at weeks 24.ResultsWe included 21 patients on treatment with PI in combination with 2 NRTI. The mean cART exposition was 133±68.9 months. Fourteen (66.6%) were males, aged 49±9 years, 15 (71.4%) smokers, 4 (19.04%) family history of coronary heart disease, 1 (5.76%) type 2 diabetes and 3 (14.28%) hypertensive, mean total cholesterol was 185.5±35 mg/dL, c‐LDL 100.2±37 mg/dL, tryglicerides 170.42±92.03 mg/dL, cHDL 52.6±15.5 mg/dL, CD4 779,5±383.28 cells/mL, nadir CD4 187,96±96 cells/mL. After 24 weeks of follow‐up of a switch to an NRTI‐sparing regimen, 95.2% of HIV‐patients on viral suppressive cART maintained viral suppression and CD4+ T cell count. This cART switch improve endothelial function in patients with lower baseline FMD levels after 24 weeks (baseline FMD −1.19±4.84 % to 24 weeks FMD 11.32±7.27%; p=0.002).ConclusionsThe results of our study show that a switch to an NRTI‐sparing bi‐therapy with MVC improves endothelial function and maintained the immune‐virologic efficacy. This regimen emphasizes the needs for further clinical studies to associate these achievements with the incidence of non‐AIDS‐defining illnesses.

IntroductionA dual split reporter protein system (DSP), recombining Renilla luciferase (RL) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) split into two different constructs (DSP1–7 and DSP8–11), was adapted to create a novel rapid phenotypic tropism assay (PTA) for HIV‐1 infection (DSP‐Pheno).MethodsDSP1–7 was stably expressed in the glioma‐derived NP‐2 cell lines, which expressed CD4/CXCR4 (N4X4) or CD4/CCR5 (N4R5), respectively. An expression vector with DSP8–11 (pRE11) was constructed. The HIV‐1 envelope genes were subcloned in pRE11 (pRE11‐env) and transfected into 293FT cells. Transfected 293FT cells were incubated with the indicator cell lines independently. In developing the assay, we selected the DSP1–7‐positive clones that showed the highest GFP activity after complementation with DSP8–11. These cell lines, designated N4R5‐DSP1–7, N4X4‐DSP1–7 were used for subsequent assays.ResultsThe env gene from the reference strains (BaL for R5 virus, NL4‐3 for X4 virus, SF2 for dual tropic virus) subcloned in pRE11 and tested, was concordant with the expected co‐receptor usage. Assay results were available in two ways (RL or GFP). The assay sensitivity by RL activity was comparable with those of the published phenotypic assays using pseudovirus. The shortest turnaround time was 5 days after obtaining the patient's plasma. All clinical samples gave positive RL signals on R5 indicator cells in the fusion assay. Median RLU value of the low CD4 group was significantly higher on X4 indicator cells and suggested the presence of more dual or X4 tropic viruses in this group of patients. Comparison of representative samples with Geno2Pheno [co‐receptor] assay was concordant.ConclusionsA new cell‐fusion‐based, high‐throughput PTA for HIV‐1, which would be suitable for in‐house studies, was developed. Equipped with two‐way reporter system, RL and GFP, DSP‐Pheno is a sensitive test with short turnaround time. Although maintenance of cell lines and laboratory equipment is necessary, it provides a safe assay system without infectious viruses. With further validation against other conventional analyses, DSP‐Pheno may prove to be a useful laboratory tool. The assay may be useful especially for the research on non‐B subtype HIV‐1 whose co‐receptor usage has not been studied much.