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Recent proposed changes in federal healthcare laws by leading U.S. political parties will lead to higher prices for consumers and heftier profits for retailers especially in monopolistic markets. This is due to the way that the surcharges are proposed to be levied which is as a percentage of the base price of the healthcare service. This paper explains how prices are formed by a profit maximizing firm under the assumption of a production function that is homogeneous of degree one. This paper also demonstrates the relationship between markups and the price elasticity of demand. An analysis of how the newly proposed healthcare rules would impact relative prices in markets of varying levels of competition is then performed.

Health care is deficient in many parts of the world, in money, facilities and manpower. In wealthy countries, the costs and complexity of health care are increasing unsustainably. Nevertheless, richer countries claim an ever escalating need for doctors, who migrate from poorer countries, with an ensuing global health workforce crisis. These political, social, demographic and international events necessitate a discussion on the roles and values of the doctor in the world today. The international mobility of both doctors and patients underlines the need for a global definition. Only when these roles and values are agreed in a global perspective, will medical education be capable of producing a professional equipped to fulfil that role. This doctor will then be useful both as a leader and as a member of health care teams with a flexible composition, related to resources and needs of particular regions, and at the same time be able to practise within any given health care system. An international task-force of the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) is working to agree themes relevant to the role of the doctor globally, and developing a statement that can be used world-wide, and used to develop medical education policy.

Building relationships between traditional college students and adults with disabilities is an important yet little understood aspect of civic engagement. The case study presented in this paper built one such relationship by utilizing a shared narrative project to construct an equitable collaborative experience between a set of students from Wagner College and some adults with intellectual disabilities from a community organization, Lifestyles for the Disabled. We also discuss learning outcomes of this project, which included a deeper understanding and connection between people who learn differently. David S. Gordon is Assistant Professor of Education at Wagner College in Staten Island, NY. Cyril Ghosh is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at Wagner College.

Neoclassic economic theory regards equilibrium, whether general or partial, as a crucially important foundation of the dismal science[1]. In the view of mainstream economists, the general equilibrium framework not only an investigation of the economy in terms of its perfect qualities, but also is suitable as an end or goal of action. The Austrian school, in contrast, sees equilibrium (or the evenly rotating economy - ERE) merely as a tendency for economic activities to move us in that direction, but it is never attained. Praxeological economics has thus concentrated not on equilibrium, but on the process by which the market moves toward it. Since the process of shifting resources to meet these ends cannot be achieved spontaneously, entrepreneurship plays a key role. In Mises and Rothbard's view, entrepreneurship involves uncertainty bearing which beyond the alertness emphasized by Hayek and Kirzner; on the other hand, unlike Lachmann looks the economy as a kaleidoscope and rejects the ERE, Mises and Rothbard regard the ERE as an indispensable way to understand the economy. [1] As Frank H. Hahn said "Whatever economics is used or thought about, equilibrium is a central organizing concept." (Hahn 1984: 43). Many economists and philosophers of science consider mathematical neoclassical general equilibrium theory as one of the peak achievements of economics (Rosenberg, 1992). Tieben (2012) stated that policy-makers and theorists of all schools of economics all use some form of equilibrium theory to develop their ideas and support their main theoretical and political claims. Lawson (2005) indicated that the equilibrium concept is a major cause of controversy between different schools of economic thought. A.W. Bob Coats even deems it the case that "economics has been dominated throughout its history by a single paradigm – the theory of economic equilibrium via the market mechanism." (Coats 1969: 292). ; La teoría económica neoclásica considera el equilibrio, ya sea en forma general o parcial, como un importante fundamento de la ciencia lúgubre. En opinión de los economistas de la corriente principal, el marco de equilibrio general ofrece no solo una investigación de la economía en términos de sus cualidades perfectas,sino también es adecuado como fin o meta de acción. La escuela austríaca, por el contrario, ve el equilibrio (o la economía de rotación uniforme - ERE) simplemente como un tendencia de las actividades económicas para movernos en esa dirección, pero nunca se alcanza. La economía praxeológica se ha concentrado, por lo tanto, no en el equilibrio, sino en el proceso por el que el mercado se mueve hacia ella. Debido a que el proceso de transferencia de recursos para satisfacer estos fines no se pueden alcanzar de forma espontánea, el emprendimiento juega un papel clave. En opinión de Mises y Rothbard, el emprendimiento implica una carga de incertidumbre que va más allá del estado de alerta enfatizado por Hayek y Kirzner. Por otro lado, a diferencia de Lachmann, quien ve la economía como un caleidoscopio y rechaza la ERE, Mises y Rothbard consideran la ERE como una herramienta indispensable para entender la economía. ; A teoria econômica neoclássica considera o equilíbrio, seja geral ou parcial, como base fundamental da ciência sombria. Na visão dos economistas do mainstream, a estrutura do equilíbrio geral oferece, não apenas oferece uma análise da economia em termos de suas qualidades perfeitas, mas também é adequada como fim ou objetivo de ação. Em contraste, a Escola Austríaca considera o equilíbrio (ou a economia uniformemente circular - ERE) apenas como a direção para a qual as atividades econômicas tendem a se mover, porém nunca é atingido. Assim, a economia praxeológica concentra-se não no equilíbrio, mas no processo de mercado que leva a ele. Como o processo de transferir recursos para atender esses fins não pode ser atingido espontaneamente, o empreendedorismo tem um papel central. Na visão de Mises e Rothbard, o empreendedorismo envolve incerteza, indo além do estado de alerta enfatizado por Hayek e Kirzner. Por outro lado, diferentemente deLachmann, que analisa a economia como um caleidoscópio e rejeita a economia uniformemente circular, Mises e Rothbard a consideram uma ferramenta indispensável para entender a economia.

Canada is often described as a highly urbanized country. Increasingly, however, researchers recognize that Canada is in fact a suburban nation. This recognition has sparked a new research agenda on the Canadian suburbs from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. In this collection of essays, four leading scholars of the Canadian suburbs discuss the opportunities and challenges of suburbanization for Canadian public policy. The essays include: • Canada is a Suburban Nation by David Gordon • Voices from the Edges: Policy Insights from Young Suburbanites by Markus Moos and Khairunnabila Prayitno • The Future of the Suburbs: Challenges and Opportunities in Municipal Finance by David Amborski • Suburbanization and Politics by Zack Taylor

U.S. velocity of base money exhibits three distinct trends since 1950. After rising steadily for thirty years, it flattens out in the 1980s and falls substantially in the 1990s. This paper explores whether the observed secular movements in velocity can be accounted for exclusively by endogenous responses to changing expectations about monetary and fiscal policy. We use a model with two key features: a substitute for money in transactions and an array of assets that includes money, nominal bonds, and physical capital. The model maps policy expectations into portfolio decisions, making equilibrium velocity a function of expected future money growth, tax rates, and government spending. When expectations are estimated using Bayesian updating, simulated velocity matches the trends in actual velocity surprisingly well.

In March 2017, the European Union (EU) adopted a new indicator of "material and social deprivation". This measure was developed by Guio et al (2012) and covers the entire population of the 28 EU Member States. It includes 13 deprivation items and replaces the 9-item "standard" material deprivation index adopted in 2009, by the then 27 EU countries and the European Commission, to monitor progress in the fight against poverty and social exclusion at national and EU level. Drawing on the methodology developed in the context of the 1999 "Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK Survey", Guio, Gordon and Marlier (2012) proposed an analytical framework for producing a suitable, valid, reliable and additive deprivation measure for the EU. Their recommendations were based on analyses of the 2009 EU-SILC material deprivation module. This report extends these analyses using the 2014 EU-SILC data and demonstrates that the composition of the new material and social deprivation indicator remains optimal over a five year period of considerable socio-economic change.

This paper proposes a new measure of child material and social deprivation (MSD) in the European Union (EU) which includes age appropriate child-specific information available from the thematic deprivation modules included in the 2009 and 2014 waves of the "EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions" (EU-SILC). It summarises the main results of the in-depth analysis of these two datasets, identifies an optimal set of robust children MSD items and recommends a child-specific MSD indicator for use by EU countries and the European Commission in their regular social monitoring. In doing this, the paper replicates and expands on the methodological framework outlined in Guio et al. (2012, 2016), particularly by including additional advanced reliability tests.

In June 2010, European Union (EU) Heads of State and Government adopted a social inclusion target as part of the new 'Europe 2020 Strategy': to lift at least 20 million people in the EU from the risk of poverty and exclusion by 2020. One of the three indicators used to monitor progress towards this target is the EU indicator of severe material deprivation (MD). A main limitation of this indicator is the weak reliability of some of the items it is based on. For this reason, a thematic module on MD was included in the 2009 wave of the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. This article assesses the 2009 EU-SILC MD data and proposes an analytical framework for developing robust EU MD indicators. It carries out a systematic item by item analysis at both EU and country levels to identify the MD items which satisfactorily meet suitability, validity, reliability and additivity criteria across the EU. This approach has resulted in a proposed 13-item MD indicator covering some key aspects of living conditions which are customary across the whole EU covering a broad range of basic (food, clothes, shoes, etc.) as well as social (Internet, regular leisure activities, etc.) necessities.

The project was supported by the Max-Planck Society and has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 715730). M.D.B. acknowledges studentship funding from EPSRC under grant no. EP/I007002/1. A.L.S. acknowledges support from a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. A.L.S. would like to thank Edwin Huang for helpful discussions and Tom Devereaux for letting us use his group cluster. Computational work was performed on the Sherlock cluster at Stanford University and on resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, supported by DOE under contract DE_AC02-05CH11231. D.G.G.'s and A.W.B.'s work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic EnergySciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515. ; Geometric electron optics may be implemented in solids when electron transport is ballistic on the length scale of a device. Currently, this is realized mainly in 2D materials characterized by circular Fermi surfaces. Here we demonstrate that the nearly perfectly hexagonal Fermi surface of PdCoO2 gives rise to highly directional ballistic transport. We probe this directional ballistic regime in a single crystal of PdCoO2 by use of focused ion beam (FIB) micro-machining, defining crystalline ballistic circuits with features as small as 250 nm. The peculiar hexagonal Fermi surface naturally leads to enhanced electron self-focusing effects in a magnetic field compared to circular Fermi surfaces. This super-geometric focusing can be quantitatively predicted for arbitrary device geometry, based on the hexagonal cyclotron orbits appearing in this material. These results suggest a novel class of ballistic electronic devices exploiting the unique transport characteristics of strongly faceted Fermi surfaces. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

This project was supported by the Max Planck Society and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (MiTopMat, grant agreement no. 715730). M.D.B. and P.H.M. acknowledge EPSRC for PhD studentship support through grant number EP/L015110/1. Research in Dresden benefits from the environment of the Excellence Cluster ct.qmat. A.S. acknowledges support from an ARCS Foundation Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. A.S. would thanks Z. Gomez and E. Huang for helpful discussions and T. Devereaux for letting us use his group cluster. Computational work was performed on the Sherlock cluster at Stanford University and on resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, supported by the DOE under contract DE_AC02-05CH11231. T.S. acknowledges support from the Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), in particular the Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2020-05842), Accelerator Supplement (RGPAS-2020-00060) and Discovery Launch Supplement (DGECR-2020-00222). T.S. contributed to this work prior to joining AWS. D.G.-G.'s and A.W.B.'s involvement in calculations was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515. E.Z. and M.M. thank the International Max Planck Research School for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials (IMPRS-CPQM) for financial support. G.B. and D.A.B. acknowledge support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-2018-04280) and from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. ; In an idealized infinite crystal, the material properties are constrained by the symmetries of the unit cell. The point-group symmetry is broken by the sample shape of any finite ...

Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs) are responsible for safeguarding the interests of study participants and assuring the integrity and credibility of clinical trials. The independence of DMCs from sponsors and investigators is essential to achieving this mission. Creative approaches are needed to address ongoing and emerging challenges that potentially threaten DMCs' independence and effectiveness. An expert panel of representatives from academia, industry and government sponsors, and regulatory agencies discussed these challenges and proposed best practices and operating principles for effective functioning of contemporary DMCs.