Academic literature on the topic 'Highest price paid rule'

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the concepts market value (MV) and exit price should be interpreted in thin markets and how accounting rules may need to change to take this into account. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper using hypothetical examples as a base for the conclusions. Findings In a thin market, actors can have rather different reservation prices. The price will then be set through bargaining and the agreed price could be considerable above the reservation price of the actor with the second highest reservation price. The exit price should then be below what the MV was before the transaction and below the entry price, and according to the current accounting rules, the value in the balance sheet should then be below the price paid. The authors’ experience is, however, that this rarely happens in practice. Research limitations/implications The limitation of the paper is that it is a conceptual paper and not based a systematic empirical study of accounting practices. Practical implications The results of the paper indicate that there is a need to revise the current accounting rules. Possible changes are discussed. Originality/value As far as the authors know, this is the first paper that looks at problems in the current value concepts related to differences in reservation prices in thin markets.

Abstract The pandemic has forced many countries to introduce restrictions on individual freedom and to support the adoption of hygienically responsible behaviour in order to contain the spread of the infection. The elderly, one of the most fragile sections of the population, have paid and are paying the highest price in terms of contagion and deaths. In Italy, for example, the average age of patients who have died and are positive for SARS-CoV- 2 is 80 years (median 82, range 0–109, InterQuartile Range - IQR 74–88). The median age of SARSCoV- 2 positive deceased patients is over 30 years higher than that of infected patients (median age: deceased patients 82 years - infected patients 48 years) [data from Istituto Superiore di Sanita updated 18/11/2020]. It is clear that preventive measures are essential to preserve the elderly from the risk of contracting COVID- 19. The psychological impact on the elderly and their relatives of the introduction of “new behaviours” and health safety rules that greatly limit social relationships will be discussed. The medium and long term effects of the various forms of isolation that affect both those living in the family and those who are guests of dedicated facilities concern both emotional and cognitive aspects. The risk is that at the end of the pandemic emergency a large number of elderly people will face increasing levels of non-self-sufficiency and the need for medical and health interventions, which were not necessary in the pre-pandemic phase.

We characterize an optimal mechanism for a seller with one unit of a good facing N ≥ 3 buyers and a single competitor who sells another identical unit in a second‐price auction. Buyers who do not get the seller's good compete in the competitor's subsequent auction. The mechanism features transfers from buyers with the two highest valuations, allocation to the buyer with the second‐highest valuation, and an allocation rule that depends on the two highest valuations. It can be implemented by a modified third‐price auction, and it raises significantly more revenue than would a standard second‐ or first‐price auction with a reserve price.

The rate of fertilizer-N utilization by ginger was quite different in different applying stages. The results indicated that the rate of fertilizer-N utilization increased with the delay of application. The highest utilization rate was the fertilizer dressed at middle period of vigorous growth, which was 45.24%; while the basal manure utilization rate was only 27.67%. It was also shown that the nitrogen uptake from basal manure was distributed in highest level in main shoots and leaves, the nitrogen derived from fertilizer dressed at middle period of vigorous growth was mostly distributed into rhizomes, and nitrogen absorbed from fertilizer dressed at early period of vigorous growth was distributed evenly into all organs. The reclamation rate from fertilizer dressed at middle period of growth was the highest and lowest reclamation rate was the basal manure. The content of fertilizer-N and soil-N in ginger plant was determined, it was shown 56.57% plant-N was derived from soil-N, the remaining 43.43% was from fertilizer-N. The nitrogen from soil played a very important role in ginger production, therefore the problem of how to maintain high soil fertilizer must be paid more attention.

ImportancePatients with urologic diseases often experience financial toxicity, defined as high levels of financial burden and concern, after receiving care. The Price Transparency Final Rule, which requires hospitals to disclose both the commercial and cash prices for at least 300 services, was implemented to facilitate price shopping, decrease price dispersion, and lower health care costs.ObjectiveTo evaluate compliance with the Price Transparency Final Rule and to quantify variations in the price of urologic procedures among academic hospitals and by insurance class.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis was a cross-sectional study that determined the prices of 5 common urologic procedures among academic medical centers and by insurance class. Prices were obtained from the Turquoise Health Database on March 24, 2022. Academic hospitals were identified from the Association of American Medical Colleges website. The 5 most common urologic procedures were cystourethroscopy, prostate biopsy, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, transurethral resection of the prostate, and ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy. Using the corresponding Current Procedural Terminology codes, the Turquoise Health Database was queried to identify the cash price, Medicare price, Medicaid price, and commercial insurance price for these procedures.ExposuresThe Price Transparency Final Rule, which went into effect January 1, 2021.Main Outcomes and MeasuresVariability in procedure price among academic medical centers and by insurance class (Medicare, Medicaid, commercial, and cash price).ResultsOf 153 hospitals, only 20 (13%) listed a commercial price for all 5 procedures. The commercial price was reported most often for cystourethroscopy (86 hospitals [56%]) and least often for laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (45 hospitals [29%]). The cash price was lower than the Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial price at 24 hospitals (16%). Prices varied substantially across hospitals for all 5 procedures. There were significant variations in the prices of cystoscopy (χ23 = 85.9; P = .001), prostate biopsy (χ23 = 64.6; P = .001), prostatectomy (χ23 = 24.4; P = .001), transurethral resection of the prostate (χ23 = 51.3; P = .001), and ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy (χ23 = 63.0; P = .001) by insurance type.Conclusions and RelevanceThese findings suggest that, more than 1 year after the implementation of the Price Transparency Final Rule, there are still large variations in the prices of urologic procedures among academic hospitals and by insurance class. Currently, in certain situations, health care costs could be reduced if patients paid out of pocket. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may improve price transparency by better enforcing penalties for noncompliance, increasing penalties, and ensuring that hospitals report prices in a way that is easy for patients to access and understand.

The introduction of innovations in the financial management of higher education institutions (hereinafter – HEIs) is taking place along with other changes in the educational and scientific field and is an important issue today. One of the innovations is the Procedure for the formation of minimum tuition fee for higher education on the basis of indicative ownership, which extends to 38 most popular specialties. The influence of state regulation of the minimum level of the cost of paid educational services for specialists training in some popular specialties on the formation of the financial potential of HEIs is investigated in this paper. The amount of tuition fees for students and indicators of the admission campaign in 2020/2021 academic year of some state HEIs in Lviv region is analyzed. Comparing them with the data of previous academic year, we can see that in HEIs where the cost significantly increase due to the indicative cost use, the number of entrants to the paid form of education are reducing. For comprehensive vision, considerable attention is paid to the national demographic and political situation, as well as to the approaches to higher education funding. The level of actual budget expenditures for the preparation of one applicant for higher education in different state HEIs is analyzed. It is revealed that entrant's demand directly depends on the cost of education. And the financial potential of HEIs which is formed, in particular, through paid educational services depends on the number of enrolled students who will study at the expense of individuals and legal entities. We believe that while forming the price offer and establishing the final cost of training specialists in all specialties in HEIs, in addition to considering all costs of providing services, it is necessary to take into account the situation on the market of educational services and analyze supply and demand for each specialty. It is concluded that the continued application of regulation rules of a reasonable price for education will contribute to the development of competitive educational environment, increase the responsibility of participants in the educational process, and will contribute to financial stability of HEIs.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is one of the important economic indicators that can provide information about the development of prices of goods and services (commodities) paid by consumers or the public especially the city community. This study aims to analyze the Development of the Consumer Price Index in Medan City. The benefits of this research are a description of the fluctuations in commodity prices for basic needs of the community at the level of consumers or retail traders. This type of research is descriptive qualitative. The subject in this study is the Central Statistics Agency and the object in this study is the Consumer Price Index through seven groups of household expenditure in 2018-2019. The results showed that the development of price indices in Medan City tends to fluctuate from seven types of household expenditure groups. During the January-December 2019 period the highest inflation of the seven types of expenditure was foodstuffs. Keywords: Consumer Price Index, Inflation Rate

The trading strategy of ‘buy-and-hold for superior stock and sell-at-once for inferior stock’, as suggested by conventional wisdom, has long been prevalent in Wall Street. In this paper, two rationales are provided to support this trading strategy from a purely mathematical standpoint. Adopting the standard binomial tree model (or CRR model for short, as first introduced in Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979)) to model the stock price dynamics, we look for the optimal stock selling rule(s) so as to maximize (i) the chance that an investor can sell a stock precisely at its ultimate highest price over a fixed investment horizon [0,T]; and (ii) the expected ratio of the selling price of a stock to its ultimate highest price over [0,T]. We show that both problems have exactly the same optimal solution which can literally be interpreted as ‘buy-and-hold or sell-at-once’ depending on the value of p (the going-up probability of the stock price at each step): when p›½, selling the stock at the last time step N is the optimal selling strategy; when p=½, a selling time is optimal if the stock is sold either at the last time step or at the time step when the stock price reaches its running maximum price; and when p‹½, time 0, i.e. selling the stock at once, is the unique optimal selling time.

The trading strategy of ‘buy-and-hold for superior stock and sell-at-once for inferior stock’, as suggested by conventional wisdom, has long been prevalent in Wall Street. In this paper, two rationales are provided to support this trading strategy from a purely mathematical standpoint. Adopting the standard binomial tree model (or CRR model for short, as first introduced in Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979)) to model the stock price dynamics, we look for the optimal stock selling rule(s) so as to maximize (i) the chance that an investor can sell a stock precisely at its ultimate highest price over a fixed investment horizon [0,T]; and (ii) the expected ratio of the selling price of a stock to its ultimate highest price over [0,T]. We show that both problems have exactly the same optimal solution which can literally be interpreted as ‘buy-and-hold or sell-at-once’ depending on the value of p (the going-up probability of the stock price at each step): when p›½, selling the stock at the last time step N is the optimal selling strategy; when p=½, a selling time is optimal if the stock is sold either at the last time step or at the time step when the stock price reaches its running maximum price; and when p‹½, time 0, i.e. selling the stock at once, is the unique optimal selling time.

In 2016, the Ultimate Fighting Championship was sold for a reported price of $4 billion, the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise. This was a remarkable turn-around for a promotion that 15 years earlier was saved from bankruptcy by a $2 million buyout. This turnaround was driven by the UFC’s ability to mainstream the promotion and the sport while establishing reliable revenue streams through television contracts and massive pay-per-view events. In this paper, the authors review the pay-per-view record of the UFC and analyze the extent to which it is driven by high profile celebrity fighters with broad crossover appeal. Using statistical analysis, the authors identify the top crossover celebrities and assess the economic value they generate for the UFC. They compare this to the impact generated from the promotion’s highest ranked pound-for-pound fighter and find that celebrity has far more economic value than fighting skill.

La tesi si propone di indagare la funzione della regola del prezzo più alto pagato nel contesto della disciplina dell’OPA obbligatoria e di individuare gli strumenti più adeguati per reagire alle ipotesi di deviazione. Muovendo dalla considerazione della complementarietà tra la prospettiva della protezione degli azionisti di minoranza e quella della tutela dell’efficienza del mercato del controllo societario, viene evidenziato il ruolo imprescindibile svolto dalla highest price paid rule nel disincentivare la realizzazione di operazioni che potrebbero incidere negativamente sul valore dei titoli della società bersaglio. Affrancando la nozione di “prezzo equo” ex art. 5, par. 4, direttiva OPA dal principio della parità di trattamento, si sottolinea l’attitudine di tale prezzo a stimare il valore di scambio dei titoli della target, non già “in astratto”, come avverrebbe utilizzando un criterio fondato sulle medie di mercato, bensì “in concreto”, a partire dall’effettivo incontro tra domanda e offerta in occasione del singolo acquisto rilevante. La validità della ricostruzione proposta viene poi verificata alla luce della previsione che attribuisce alla Consob, al ricorrere di particolari circostanze (tra cui, in particolare, la “collusione tra l’offerente e uno o più venditori”), il potere di modificare con provvedimento motivato il corrispettivo d’offerta, verso l’alto o verso il basso; dalle indicazioni provenienti dall’analisi delle singole fattispecie si desume che il meccanismo – nell’autorizzare, ovvero imporre, una deviazione formale dalla highest price paid rule – consente in realtà di ripristinare, sul piano sostanziale, il funzionamento della regola, nella prospettiva dell’efficienza del mercato del controllo societario. Sulla scorta di tali premesse, la trattazione procede a esaminare i caratteri del potere dell’autorità di vigilanza, evidenziandone la portata non sanzionatoria e la componente di discrezionalità non solo tecnica, ma anche amministrativa, che si esplica con riguardo alla rettifica in aumento. In relazione alle medesime fattispecie rilevanti per la rettifica in aumento, infine, vengono ricercati nel sistema rimedi ulteriori, per l’ipotesi in cui il correttivo non sia stato tempestivamente azionato. Una volta esclusa la possibilità di ricorrere alle sanzioni comminate per la violazione degli obblighi derivanti dalla disciplina delle offerte obbligatorie, si giunge ad affermare la risarcibilità del danno cagionato dalla condotta dell’offerente che abbia leso l’interesse degli azionisti di minoranza a ricevere un’OPA al prezzo “equo”, pur negando la possibilità di qualificare l’interesse in questione in termini di diritto soggettivo.
The dissertation aims at investigating the role of the highest price paid rule in the context of the EU takeover regime and at identifying the appropriate remedies in the event of a deviation. Taking the cue from the complementarity between the protection of minority shareholders and the efficiency of the market for corporate control, the author shows how the rule makes an essential contribution to preventing value-destroying control transfers. In this perspective, the “equitable price” is not regarded as an expression of the equal treatment principle, but as a proxy for estimating the exchange-value of the target shares on a more factual and specific basis than the average market price. In the present work, this view is confirmed by the provision that enables the supervisory authority to adjust the price of the mandatory bid when particular circumstances (such as collusive arrangements between the acquirer and a seller) alter how the highest price paid rule works in practice: in such cases, in fact, the mechanism allows to restore the function of the rule in substantive terms, despite authorising or imposing a formal deviation from it. In this respect, the adjustment of the offer price does not constitute a penalty, but rather a (discretionary) corrective tool, put in place to protect shareholders against potentially inefficient changes of corporate control. Lastly, the author takes into account the possibility that the authority fails to take any action or acts ineffectively; even though penalties for violation of the mandatory bid rule shall not apply in this scenario, the offeror can be held liable for the damage caused to the interest of minority shareholders in being offered an equitable price for their shares.

This chapter sets out rules that result in certain exposures being treated as having a greater degree of risk than their actual mark to market value. In order to explain this, consider a bank which owns 100 of shares in A, but also has a derivative in place with X under which it is entitled to be paid the value of 100 shares in A. Both positions give rise to the same risk as to the future price of A, and both will be valued by reference to the value of the shares in A. However, if the value of the shares in A increases, the bank's credit exposure to X will increase. The rules set out in this chapter seek to capture this extra level of risk by treating the value of the derivative as being slightly higher than its mark to market value; thereby requiring a slightly higher level of capital to be held against it. This is the counterparty credit risk requirement (CCR).

This Chapter commences the book’s analysis of the Code’s regulation of the terms of a voluntary offer. Most importantly, this Chapter explores the role of equality of treatment in structuring these rules. It considers first the Code requirement to make an offer for all classes of shares and convertibles: a comparable offer for different classes of share, and an appropriate offer for convertibles. This first part of the Chapter explores what is required by a comparable or appropriate offer as well as the Code’s understanding of when additional rights connected to shares render such shares a separate class of shares. This section also explores the justification for the requirement to make comparable offers and finds that equal treatment does not provide a persuasive rational for the rule rather the rule is supported by an idea of minority shareholder protection and the right to exit when faced with a new controller. The second part of the Chapter considers rules that provide for equality of treatment in relation to price, the form of consideration and in relation to other arrangements between the bidder and selected shareholders. As in relation to the requirement to make an offer for all classes of shares, this Chapter is concerned to interrogate intuitive “equal protection” accounts of why we have these rules. It shows that in relation to the highest price rule equality of treatment has some, but incomplete, traction. Particularly where a target company has an existing controller, equal treatment is unpersuasive as a rational for the highest price rule and we must look elsewhere to support the rule. The Chapter considers alternative rationales for the rule, in particular, market integrity and the early-years concerns of the Panel that the market was rigged in favour of institutions to the detriment of retail investors. Finally, given its centrality to these areas of regulation, the Chapter considers the definition of the term “acting in concert” and its effect on these rules.

Abstract From an individual perspective, there is a fundamental difference between cooperation for mutual benefit and self-sacrificing altruism. However, there is no such difference for the gene’s eye view of social evolution, which stipulates that both types of cooperation are equally self-serving. Gene’s eye explanations of altruism started with the pedigree version of Hamilton’s rule, and were later generalized when Price equation logic produced a statistical and fully general genetic theory of social evolution, and an approximate phenotypic theory amenable to empirical testing. However, this generalization applied to societies with redundant partnerships where relatedness is variable and social adaptations are mediated by condition-dependent altruism at the level of cellular or multicellular agents. Under such conditions, adaptations for the exclusive benefits of the higher-level of organizational complexity cannot evolve. Yet, such adaptations of unconditional somatic altruism universally characterize the convergent major evolutionary transitions (MTEs) towards multicellular organismality and colonial superorganismality. I show that the origins of (super)organismality can be conjectured to have required invariably maximal relatedness among cell copies or siblings, owing to lifetime commitment between a pair of gametes or monogamous parents. Such pairwise closure in terms of genetic information partitions Hamilton’s rule in an invariant necessary condition of relatedness equivalence between dispersing and adhering offspring, and a contingent sufficiency condition (b/c > 1) that is additionally required to forge a MTE origin. This implies that (super)organismality MTEs are expected to evolve by directional kin selection for unconditional, obligate altruism by entire cohorts, which is different from individual selection for conditional altruism in societies. I contrast the predictions of the classical continuous version of Hamilton’s rule for social evolution in societies and the partitioned discontinuous version applicable to MTE origins, and argue that conflict reduction and body- or family-size stabilize societies but played no role in the origin of (super)organismality.

This chapter demonstrates how those parties that came into being as a result of their leaders' long years in Moscow and their postwar dependence on the support of the Red Army's troops were at a monumental disadvantage. Importantly, their association with the Soviet Union meant that they were deprived of the national narrative; indeed, they were regarded by their populations as agents of an enemy power. Since most of the Eastern European parties fell into this category, it is no wonder that they welcomed the black-and-white simplicity of the Communist Information Bureau, or Cominform. There was a cost to this conformity, however. Their acceptance of a Stalinist, state-centered model of leadership meant that they, like their Soviet overseers, were prepared to sacrifice the motivating idea of communist party rule. Given the fact that they had few alternative sources of legitimation than state power, most paid this price, even at the cost of ignoring their national identities.

Aviation in all countries, as in our country, from the moment it began to rule the sky, paid for this victory with great blood sacrifices! These sacrifices were much higher at that time in terms of flight time and performance. It was found that no matter how rigorous the selection of personnel, the human factor, along with other factors, aeronautical and meteorological material, was a major cause, and accidents could be largely reduced, but not eliminated. Appreciating the sacrifice of the aviators and their material disinterest in this ideal, the "FLIGHT", the highest forums, have taken measures in all countries to ensure the lives of disabled aviators or their descendants due to flight accidents. In line with this unanimously implemented trend at the international level, the system of insurance premiums was first legislated in our country by the Law of the Undersecretary of State for Air of June 5, 1932 and continued later, by the laws that followed, with various amendments. to this day.

We present a complete information game-theoretic model for crowdsourcing contests. We observe that in design contests, coding contests and other domains, separating low quality submissions from high quality ones is often easy. However, pinning down the best submission is more challenging since there is no objective measure. We model this situation by assuming that each contestant has an ability, which we interpret as its probability of submitting a high-quality submission. After the contestants decide whether or not they want to participate, the organizer of the contest needs to break ties between the high quality submissions. A common assumption in the literature is that the exact tie-breaking rule does not matter as long as ties are broken consistently. However, we show that the choice of the tie-breaking rule may have significant implications on the efficiency of the contest. Our results highlight both qualitative and quantitative differences between various deterministic tie-breaking rules. Perhaps counterintuitively, we show that in many scenarios, the utility of the organizer is maximized when ties are broken in favor of successful players with lower ability. Nevertheless, we show that the natural rule of choosing the submission of the successful player with the highest ability guarantees the organizer at least 1/3 of its utility under any tie-breaking rule. To complement these results, we provide an upper bound of Hn ~ \ln(n) on the price of anarchy (the ratio between the social welfare of the optimal solution and the social welfare of the Nash equilibrium). We show that this ratio is tight when ties are broken in favor of players with higher abilities.

Abstract Over the last 50 years, Acid Stimulation has been growing as an effective method for enhancing Permeability, improving inflow, and reducing wellbore skin. In mature EOR projects, maintaining high inflow to offtake producers are of the main challenges to safeguard reserves and meeting long-term production expectations. In this paper, a novel workflow is presented to discuss best practices into acid stimulation campaign during 2020-2022, resulting incremental oil gain which quick payback period during cyclic oil price environment. This is a thermal EOR operation in deep reservoirs (> 2,000 ft) with extremely high viscosity (>10,000 cp) with temperatures exceeding 500°F. The area is a mature thermal area with 15 years of continuous steam flood operations resulting in different type of scale deposit including Carbonate, Sulfate and Sulfide scales that impact the well deliverability over the last 15 years. The novel workflow, based on a combination of chemical analysis, root cause analysis for Artificial lift failures, zonal treatment systems, was developed in-house and deployed in > 50 wells with a great success rate. The pilot area consists of multiple reservoir zones that have undergone vertical steam injection since 2005 and horizontal producing at dedicated reservoir zone. The skin is induced either by Rock/fluid interaction causing scale drop out and resulting in Artificial lift failures, which holds a larger amount of the remaining oil. The Subsurface and Well Engineering teams collaborated to design a novel well deployment methods treating up to 3000 ft horizontal lateral and operation using coiled tubing units with high rate techniques. The well and reservoir surveillance included gathering data for injectivity/productivity assessment, vertical injection logging, temperature profiles, production in offset producers, and well testing for determining water cut. The low inflow wells manage to increase their pump fillage to highest level in the last 5 years, post flow back shows a short spike of hardness as a result of successful stimulation. In addition, wells with high H2S remain a challenge for stimulation as a result for iron sulfide scale limited dissolving with available chemical in the industry. The final oil production tripled over a period of 3 months, which paid back the cost of the pilot. To our knowledge, based on an SPE literature search, this is the first comprehensive Sandstone Acid Stimulation in thermal EOR operation conducted with the following combination of technologies: 1) skin characterization techniques either wellbore or deep reservoir, and 2) Using downhole sensors with rigless operation of coiled tubing units at harsh conditions. The outcomes open a new frontier for well enhancement in matured thermal EOR development in multi-stack reservoirs, offering better offtake management, safeguard reserve over the field life cycle. The cost of the stimulation per well project was paid off in the first 4 weeks, and chemicals used were developed in an eco-friendly system with much less CO2 emission compared to commodity chemical which allow better management for CO2 emission.

Compressor surge is a complete breakdown in compression resulting in an abrupt momentary reversal of gas flow and the violent pressure fluctuation with relatively low frequency and high amplitude. It commonly exists in dynamic type turbo compressors, particularly axial compressor and jet engine, or turbo charger for reciprocating engines. It is generally accepted that surge is preceded by a rotating stall, a situation of a few stalled blades rotating around compressor annulus (cascade) with much higher frequency. In jet engine, violent surge event typically produces a frightening loud bang, lots of vibrations and could cause catastrophic structural failures if not timely managed. Naturally, as important matters as rotating stall and surge, there have been tremendous R/D efforts from academia, government and industry devoted to this area, especially since jet engines became the prime powerhouses for modern airplanes. Despite of all the efforts, there still seems to be a more urgent need to understand the physical characteristics of the transition from a rotating stall to surge that has mystified researchers due to its transient nature. Fundamental questions remain unanswered even today, such as: What exactly triggers the surge to take place from a rotating stall? What is the physical nature of a compressor system or a local incipient surge: is it a movement of wave or fluid particles or both? How to estimate the quantitative destructive forces of a severe surge, that is, the maximum possible surge strength? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying the classical Shock Tube Theory to the transient process from rotating stall to surge. The Shock Tube analogy is established with the hypothesis (implied from experimental observations) that an instant zero through flow condition exists inside a stalled cascade cell or dynamic compressor that triggers surge. It is revealed that surge event consists of a pair of non-linear compression and expansion waves (CW & EW) that instantly reverse gas flow (IRFF) by the pushing force of upstream propagating CW and the pulling force from downstream travelling EW. The surge strength is shown to be proportional to the square root of the pressure ratio of the involved cascade or compressor. Surge Rules are deduced to predict the location of surge initiation, the minimum and maximum surge strengths, travelling directions and speed. Moreover, a pro-active control strategy called SEWI (Surge Early Warning Initiative) is proposed using the unique characteristics of CW-IRFF-EW formation of a cascade cell induced surge as precursors for subsequent warning and controls before the destructive compressor surge takes place.

We study the potential benefits of adding a lottery component to cut the main risks associated with standard negotiated and rule-based auction procurement procedures. We show that adopting a two stage approach in which bureaucrats first negotiate with a small number of bidders to assess their eligibility and, next, rely on a lottery to award the contract reduces corruption risks often observed in negotiated procedures. For rule-based procedures, we show that a “third-price lottery” in which the two highest bidders are selected with equal probability and the project is contracted at a price corresponding to the third highest bid can reduce limited liability, renegotiation, bid rigging and collusion risks.

This report maps the African landscape of Open Science – with a focus on Open Data as a sub-set of Open Science. Data to inform the landscape study were collected through a variety of methods, including surveys, desk research, engagement with a community of practice, networking with stakeholders, participation in conferences, case study presentations, and workshops hosted. Although the majority of African countries (35 of 54) demonstrates commitment to science through its investment in research and development (R&D), academies of science, ministries of science and technology, policies, recognition of research, and participation in the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI), the following countries demonstrate the highest commitment and political willingness to invest in science: Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. In addition to existing policies in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), the following countries have made progress towards Open Data policies: Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa and Uganda. Only two African countries (Kenya and South Africa) at this stage contribute 0.8% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to R&D (Research and Development), which is the closest to the AU’s (African Union’s) suggested 1%. Countries such as Lesotho and Madagascar ranked as 0%, while the R&D expenditure for 24 African countries is unknown. In addition to this, science globally has become fully dependent on stable ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) infrastructure, which includes connectivity/bandwidth, high performance computing facilities and data services. This is especially applicable since countries globally are finding themselves in the midst of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), which is not only “about” data, but which “is” data. According to an article1 by Alan Marcus (2015) (Senior Director, Head of Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries, World Economic Forum), “At its core, data represents a post-industrial opportunity. Its uses have unprecedented complexity, velocity and global reach. As digital communications become ubiquitous, data will rule in a world where nearly everyone and everything is connected in real time. That will require a highly reliable, secure and available infrastructure at its core, and innovation at the edge.” Every industry is affected as part of this revolution – also science. An important component of the digital transformation is “trust” – people must be able to trust that governments and all other industries (including the science sector), adequately handle and protect their data. This requires accountability on a global level, and digital industries must embrace the change and go for a higher standard of protection. “This will reassure consumers and citizens, benefitting the whole digital economy”, says Marcus. A stable and secure information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure – currently provided by the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) – is key to advance collaboration in science. The AfricaConnect2 project (AfricaConnect (2012–2014) and AfricaConnect2 (2016–2018)) through establishing connectivity between National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), is planning to roll out AfricaConnect3 by the end of 2019. The concern however is that selected African governments (with the exception of a few countries such as South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia and others) have low awareness of the impact the Internet has today on all societal levels, how much ICT (and the 4th Industrial Revolution) have affected research, and the added value an NREN can bring to higher education and research in addressing the respective needs, which is far more complex than simply providing connectivity. Apart from more commitment and investment in R&D, African governments – to become and remain part of the 4th Industrial Revolution – have no option other than to acknowledge and commit to the role NRENs play in advancing science towards addressing the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals). For successful collaboration and direction, it is fundamental that policies within one country are aligned with one another. Alignment on continental level is crucial for the future Pan-African African Open Science Platform to be successful. Both the HIPSSA ((Harmonization of ICT Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa)3 project and WATRA (the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly)4, have made progress towards the regulation of the telecom sector, and in particular of bottlenecks which curb the development of competition among ISPs. A study under HIPSSA identified potential bottlenecks in access at an affordable price to the international capacity of submarine cables and suggested means and tools used by regulators to remedy them. Work on the recommended measures and making them operational continues in collaboration with WATRA. In addition to sufficient bandwidth and connectivity, high-performance computing facilities and services in support of data sharing are also required. The South African National Integrated Cyberinfrastructure System5 (NICIS) has made great progress in planning and setting up a cyberinfrastructure ecosystem in support of collaborative science and data sharing. The regional Southern African Development Community6 (SADC) Cyber-infrastructure Framework provides a valuable roadmap towards high-speed Internet, developing human capacity and skills in ICT technologies, high- performance computing and more. The following countries have been identified as having high-performance computing facilities, some as a result of the Square Kilometre Array7 (SKA) partnership: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia, and Zambia. More and more NRENs – especially the Level 6 NRENs 8 (Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, and recently Zambia) – are exploring offering additional services; also in support of data sharing and transfer. The following NRENs already allow for running data-intensive applications and sharing of high-end computing assets, bio-modelling and computation on high-performance/ supercomputers: KENET (Kenya), TENET (South Africa), RENU (Uganda), ZAMREN (Zambia), EUN (Egypt) and ARN (Algeria). Fifteen higher education training institutions from eight African countries (Botswana, Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, and Tanzania) have been identified as offering formal courses on data science. In addition to formal degrees, a number of international short courses have been developed and free international online courses are also available as an option to build capacity and integrate as part of curricula. The small number of higher education or research intensive institutions offering data science is however insufficient, and there is a desperate need for more training in data science. The CODATA-RDA Schools of Research Data Science aim at addressing the continental need for foundational data skills across all disciplines, along with training conducted by The Carpentries 9 programme (specifically Data Carpentry 10 ). Thus far, CODATA-RDA schools in collaboration with AOSP, integrating content from Data Carpentry, were presented in Rwanda (in 2018), and during17-29 June 2019, in Ethiopia. Awareness regarding Open Science (including Open Data) is evident through the 12 Open Science-related Open Access/Open Data/Open Science declarations and agreements endorsed or signed by African governments; 200 Open Access journals from Africa registered on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); 174 Open Access institutional research repositories registered on openDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories); 33 Open Access/Open Science policies registered on ROARMAP (Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies); 24 data repositories registered with the Registry of Data Repositories (re3data.org) (although the pilot project identified 66 research data repositories); and one data repository assigned the CoreTrustSeal. Although this is a start, far more needs to be done to align African data curation and research practices with global standards. Funding to conduct research remains a challenge. African researchers mostly fund their own research, and there are little incentives for them to make their research and accompanying data sets openly accessible. Funding and peer recognition, along with an enabling research environment conducive for research, are regarded as major incentives. The landscape report concludes with a number of concerns towards sharing research data openly, as well as challenges in terms of Open Data policy, ICT infrastructure supportive of data sharing, capacity building, lack of skills, and the need for incentives. Although great progress has been made in terms of Open Science and Open Data practices, more awareness needs to be created and further advocacy efforts are required for buy-in from African governments. A federated African Open Science Platform (AOSP) will not only encourage more collaboration among researchers in addressing the SDGs, but it will also benefit the many stakeholders identified as part of the pilot phase. The time is now, for governments in Africa, to acknowledge the important role of science in general, but specifically Open Science and Open Data, through developing and aligning the relevant policies, investing in an ICT infrastructure conducive for data sharing through committing funding to making NRENs financially sustainable, incentivising open research practices by scientists, and creating opportunities for more scientists and stakeholders across all disciplines to be trained in data management.