Perceptions of common helminth infections in a rural community

Common parasite infections cause energy depletion and growth stunting in children in endemic areas, and there is a suggestion that mental processes and school achievement are affected. The efficacy of control and treatment programmes, as with other development programmes, will depend to a great extent on the acceptance and support of people in affected areas. This study focused on the views of women who have young children in their care with the object of understanding their perceptions, and the implications these would have for intervention programmes.     

Broadband development in the European Union to 2012—A virtuous circle scenario

Along with many national governments, the European Commission has pushed broadband to the fore of social and economic policies in recent years. It has aligned broadband developments with furthering information society and knowledge economy developments.This paper presents a positive scenario for broadband-related developments in the European Union area from 2009 to 2012. The scenario, the iNetWorked Society, is one of four developed in an extensive multi-country project funded by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme.Before examining the scenario, however, the paper places into a critical perspective the EU's legacy of broadband policy to date. It highlights the limitations of technology-centred policy frames and broadband strategies, which privilege supply-side infrastructure and neglect demand-side issues of applications, uses and users. Such policy frames have been associated with great variations in the level of broadband rollout, take-up and use across Member States.The paper then outlines the socio- and macro-economic conditions that need to be in place in Europe for the positive scenario of the iNetworked Society to be realised. The iNetWorked Society comprises a plausible, internally consistent scenario for developments in a number of broadband-related areas: broadband adoption, e-business, e-work, e-government and digital content. It is based on a virtuous circle of technological, economic and socio-political developments, including strong economic growth, high broadband penetration, and high social engagement with ICTs.     

Synergies in Wireless Telephony: Evidence from the Broadband PCS Auctions

We examine bid data from the first two broadband PCS spectrum auctions for evidence of value synergies. First, we estimate a benchmark regression for the determinants of final auction prices. Then, we include variables reflecting the extent to which bidders ultimately won or already owned the adjacent wireless properties. Consistent with geographic synergies in an ascending-bid auction, prices were higher when the highest losing bidder had adjacent licenses. The footprints of winning bidders suggest that they were often successful in realizing these synergies.