Transparency in the European Bond Market

The European bond market is made up of many segments characterised by varying levels of liquidity and of pre- and post-trade transparency. The possibility of extending the transparency provisions envisioned in the Directive 2004/39/EC, disciplining the functioning of markets in financial instruments in Europe (MiFID), from the equity to the bond market is currently being discussed. This poses risks to the status quo through trading fragmentation and strong negotiating power of a few large dealers, particularly with respect to small retail investors. The main conclusion of the paper is that if MiFID transparency rules are to be extended to the bond market, this must be “real” transparency, meaning pre-trade dissemination of real-time executable prices and a transparent order book. Under current provisions, this kind of information is available if not directly to everybody, at least directly to dealers and indirectly to professional and retail clients through business-to-business electronic platforms.     

Einsatz von Simulationspatienten im Kommunikations- und Interaktionstraining für Medizinerinnen und Mediziner (Medi-KIT): Bedarfsanalyse — Training — Perspektiven

Communication skills are of central importance within daily medical life providing effective treatment. In the modern high-tech field of medicine, trustful conversations play a prominent role. In order to help students of the Heidelberg Medical Faculty to be ready for their highly responsible role as communication partner, training is carried out in the framework of HeiCuMed (short for Heidelberger Curriculum Medicinale) using specially trained simulation patients. The communication and interaction training program (referred to as Medi-KIT) enables to practice conducting conversations with challenging communication partners and grave conversational content in difficult situations. Feedback from the standardized patients, as well as from peers and tutors represents a central didactic element.In order to secure knowledge transfer into daily clinic life and as well to build a relation to cognitive knowledge transfer, all medical students are assigned, alongside Medi-KIT lessons, to a ward, and training units are coordinated in terms of content to correspond with symptom-oriented lectures and parallel POL-groups (problem-oriented learning groups). In addition, communication learning objectives are examined at the end of the semester in the form of a clinical practical exam (OSCE: Objective Structured Clinical Examination) and at patient’s bedside (Mini-CEX: Mini Clinical Examination). The goal in imparting communication skills within medical education is that the longitudinal communication curriculum be maintained and continued in subsequent medical specialization studies.     

Connectivity in urbanizing landscapes: The importance of habitat configuration,urban area size,and dispersal

Human activities affect both the amount and configuration of habitat. These changes have important ecological implications that can be measured as changes in landscape connectivity. I investigated how urbanization interacts with the initial amount and aggregation of habitat to change dispersal potential, restoration potential, and the risk of spatially extensive disturbances. I used a factorial set of simulated landscapes and subjected each landscape to habitat loss by overlaying 66 different US urban areas. I used a common connectivity metric, CONNECT, to assess the magnitude and direction of changes for a range of dispersal distances. My results show that the relationship between habitat loss and connectivity loss is non-linear and subject to interactions between the spatial patterns of habitat distribution, urban morphology, and dispersal capabilities. The implications of a given urban form vary widely as a function of habitat distribution and dispersal capabilities. This implies that impact assessments, restoration activities, and conservation planning should consider historical habitat distribution when evaluating observed changes in connectivity. While my results clearly show that more aggregated or continuous habitats are more vulnerable to connectivity loss, this approach can also be used to identify landscapes where restoring connectivity will be particularly effective, for example through placement of stepping stone habitats.     

Race–gender Differences in Risk and Protective Factors among Youth in Residential Group Homes

Analysis reported here examined youth in residential group home placements in order to better understand how sexual behaviors, drug use, and environmental experiences differ by race and gender subgroups. Data were collected from 336 youth aged 14–21 residing in one of 41 group homes in Maryland. Chi square and logistic regression analyses were done to determine differences on study variables among the race-gender groupings. Results demonstrate not only significant health concerns overall but notable differences were also found between race-gender subgroups. Findings suggest that found race-gender subgroup differences might be informative for tailoring programming for youth of residential group home settings.     

The Significance of Shift Work: Current Status and Future Directions

This paper provides a review and synthesis of research literature on the effects of shift work on workers’ physical health, mental health/well-being, and family life. The focus is on current knowledge, unanswered questions, and new directions for future research. The selection of research literature is guided by a general conceptual framework that identifies predictor variables, moderating variables, and outcome variables. The paper concludes with a discussion of the variables that should be incorporated into an agenda for future research.     

Solidarity in choosing a location on a cycle

We study the implications of two solidarity conditions on the efficient location of a public good on a cycle, when agents have single-peaked, symmetric preferences. Both conditions require that when circumstances change, the agents not responsible for the change should all be affected in the same direction: either they all gain or they all loose. The first condition, population-monotonicity, applies to arrival or departure of one agent. The second, replacement-domination, applies to changes in the preferences of one agent. Unfortunately, no Pareto-efficient solution satisfies any of these properties. However, if agents’ preferred points are restricted to the vertices of a small regular polygon inscribed in the circle, solutions exist. We characterize them as a class of efficient priority rules.