The debates cente, at one level, on the issue of whether African working classes can be dismissed as constituting a conservative labour aristocracy, with no revolutionary political significance, or regarded as constituting at the very least a potential revolutionary political force. At another level the focus of the debate is on the relationship between class and ethnicity, the key issue being whether ethnicity constitutes an asset, a liability, or is irrelevant to working class (revolutionary) political behaviour.

In this study I argue that Nigerian industrial workers constitute neither a labour aristocracy nor a revolutionary political force, rather a complex interplay between class and ethnicity renders revolutionary conceptions of the Nigerian working class premature at the moment. Class and ethnicity represent concrete social and economic realities in the Nigerian political economy, and whereas the ruling classes manipulate ethnicity as a political ideology for their accumulative interests, the poorer classes, including the working class, also utilize ethnicity as social, economic and political mechanisms to survive in their conscious conditions of subordination. Under conditions of the contemporaneous development of class and ethnicity in Nigeria ethnicity constitutes an integral element in the process of class formation among urban industrial workers. The incorporation of politicized ethnicity as part of this process, I suggest, weakens working class political solidarity, and hence their political significance. The experience of post-primary education reduces the ethnic element among workers and politicizes their consciousness, but even the influence of education has not been sufficient to make workers constitute themselves into a revolutionary proletariat.

Some common features ofexisting studies are that money supply policy is used in pursuing two targets in a symmetric two-country model, and that mutual gains from co-ordination are suggested. Recently, however, numerical analyses find the gains from co-ordination to be small and sometimes negative. Thus, there have been attempts to find cases where co-ordination creates large gains.

This thesis develops a Keynesian three-country model to extend this literature. Static game theory is used in a short-run analysis. The exchange rate is strategically used by the stabilization policy authorities oftwo small countries as a monetary policy instrument, in pursuing three targets -- the inflation rate, the balance of payments,and the employment rate. The third country, the rest of the world, is assumed to be passIVe. With these new features of our framework and with representative parameter values being used in numerical simulations, we investigate several suggestions made by other authors regarding the issue of gains from policy co-ordination.

The links with the third country significantly influence the effects ofthe small countries' policies. Hence, the Canzoneri-Minford and Turnovsky-d'Orey suggestions that higher macroeconomic interdependence (measured as the ratio of transmission effects to own policy effects) between economies or lower trade price elasticies may increase the gains from co-ordination do not always hold. Tobin's (1978, p. 489) proposal that we should throw "some sand in the wheels of our excessively efficient international money markets" is examined under varying degrees of capital mobility, and it is supported by our findings. The effects of structural asymmetry between the small countries on the welfare outcome are also analyzed by allowing for asymmetric patterns in trade and capital flows. In some asymmetric patterns, one country is always better off as a Stackelberg leader, contrasting with the result of Eichengreen. The gains to both countries from policy co-ordination suggest stability of the co-ordination in these asymmetric patterns. However, the gains from co-ordination turn out to be small.

The region has also been economically depressed compared to other parts of Canada. Many initiatives have been undertaken to reduce disparities of income and employment, but by and large they have been unsuccessful. Some have argued for a shift in regional development policy away from incentives to attract new industry and towards the development of local industry. One possible form this development might take is increased value added to the region's resource production. It was hypothesized in the thesis that there are obstacles to higher value added production which follow from the more sophisticated competitive requirements of higher value added firms.

To determine the degree of value added production and the characteristics of higher value added firms, a mail survey was sent to the population of food processors in the region. Based on the results of the survey it was found that higher value added firms rely on often more advanced factors and strategies to establish and maintain their competitiveness. Although there are many firms in the region producing higher value added products, these firms do not have significantly higher growth rates than lower value added firms. This can, in part, be explained by weaknesses in the region's ability to provide the factors and incentives which higher value added firms rely upon to be successful.

It was also concluded from the study that if it is the goal of regional development policy to encourage higher value added production, development efforts should be broader in focus. In other words, policies cannot be based primarily on direct incentives to business.

The second essay is concerned with the impact of children on labour supply decisions of married women using the 1975 labor supply data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Some previous research treated the number of children as a continuous variable and has found that the number or children is exogenous in the hours of work equation of married women suggesting that the number of children is determined independently of hours worked. This essay finds that treating the number of children as a discrete integer may be important when testing for their individual exogeneity in the hours equation. It also finds that children and labour force participation are a joint decision for married women. The findings in this essay emphasize the importance of considering both the potential endogeneity and the discrete count data nature of the number of children when estimating the policy-related parameters in labour supply equations. especially in the participation equation.

The third essay investigates the cost of children through equivalence scales using Canadian family expenditure surveys. It generalises Blackorby and Donaldson's (BD) condition concerning the structure of preferences. Both the BD condition and its generalization detemine the equivalence scale uniquely from the demand data. It is found that the restriction implied by the BD condition regarding the budget share for the 'children only' good is rejected whereas that of its generalization is not. A new rank three demand system is developed to examine the testable implications of the generalized HD condition which are then rejected. Nevertheless, equivalence scales are estimated under the generalized BD condition. It is found that the cost of a child increases with both the age of a child and the labour force involvement of the female adult and decreases with the income level of the household.

Objective: This study examined whether sociodemographic characteristics or type of prenatal care provider influenced the quality of prenatal care received by women in Canada. The main predictors of high quality prenatal care received by Canadian women were identified.

Methods: A secondary analysis of data collected for a primary study that developed and tested the Quality of Prenatal Care Questionnaire (QPCQ) was conducted. Women (n=422), recruited from five cities, completed a background questionnaire and the QPCQ. Data analysis involved examining nine sociodemographic variables and one prenatal care provider variable using independent samples t‐ tests, one‐way analysis of variance, and analysis of covariance.

Results: Statistically significant differences in prenatal care quality were noted among women based on language spoken at home, racial background, marital status, family income, and education level. Women receiving midwifery care reported the highest quality of prenatal care, compared to women receiving care from obstetricians who reported lower quality prenatal care. The strongest predictors of high quality prenatal care were type of prenatal care provider and total family income.

Conclusions: Efforts to universally improve quality of prenatal care in Canada require practice, policy, and research initiatives. Incorporating alternative/ancillary prenatal care services has the potential to improve access, psychosocial supports, appropriate referrals, education, and interventions for women receiving lower quality prenatal care. Systemic practice and policy changes to increase midwifery care capacity would enable midwives to provide high quality prenatal care to a larger portion of low risk Canadian women. Shared care models could reduce the burden on obstetricians, enabling them to provide higher quality prenatal care to high risk Canadian women. Future research needs to focus on identifying the efficacy of each prenatal care component and examining their specific effects on birth outcomes.

This thesis is divided into three chapters. Using George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the first chapter explores the inherent danger of the utopian ideal which the anti-utopianists set out to expose, Specifically, the chapter investigates how the governing elite use and manipulate myths, stories, and the written word in order to exert an ontological stranglehold on the inhabitants of Oceania to maintain their vision. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is destroyed because he attempts to use the written word in order to stand against the governing party. The final two chapters of this thesis then explore how critical utopianists, namely Sheni Tepper in her work The Gate to Women's Country and Russell Hoban with Riddley Walker, challenge the notion that it is impossible for true individual selfuood to exist within a utopian state. As in Nineteen Eight-Four, it is through the written word, as well as the interpretation and subsequent manipulation of stories, that the respective protagonists Stavia and Riddley attempt to stand against, and more importantly, within their given societies as individuals. Only Riddley, however, is truly able to assert and define an authentic self, as he is the only protagonist in the three novels studied who is able tell his own story.

In general, contractionary devaluation is not an unusual phenomenon; instead, it can easily occur as long as the demand and supply structures in the market satisfy a condition which we derive and interpret.

In short-run micro models with homogeneous goods, our findings show that perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly do not change the nature of the conditions required for expansionary, neutral or contractionary devaluation. However, these three market structures do have an impact through altering the magnitude (not sign) of the output change following a devaluation. makers should be aware Thus both theorists and policy that the existence of imperfect competition can largely reduce the power of a devaluation (if not the direction of that effect).

Our partial equilibrium micro model with monopolistic competition provides results which challenge the theory of neutrality of devaluation in the long-run. Also, the micro foundations reveal the mechanism through which the long-run real effects of devaluation occur. It is the devaluation which causes the changes in the number of varieties and it is the change in the number of the varieties which alters the market structure and thus causes the long-run effects on real output.

As a key variable, the number of varieties also generates some seemingly odd results which are not seen in perfect competition: following a devaluation, the aggregate price and aggregate output, welfare and employment, may change in the opposite directions.

To establish the linkage between the microeconomic foundations and the macroeconomic formulations, we extend an existing closed macro model with monopolistic competition to a small open economy version. The neutrality of devaluation is derived in this context. This macro result should not be considered inconsistent with the result of non-neutrality in the micro model with monopolistic competition. The main reasons is that: the number of varieties is an exogenous variable in the macro model but endogenous variable in the micro model; and the money wage is flexible in the former but fixed in the latter.

The first contribution is the Weight Partitioned PHD filter. It separates the Probability Hypothesis Density (PHD) surface into partitions that represent the individual state estimates both spatially and proportionally. The partitions are labeled and propagated over several time steps to form continuous track estimates. Multiple variants of the filter are presented. Next, the Multitarget Multi-Bernoulli (MeMBer) filter is extended to allow the tracking of manoeuvring targets. A model state variable is incorporated into the filter framework to estimate the probability of each motion model. The standard implementations are derived. Finally, a new linear variant of the Intensity filter (iFilter) is presented. A Gaussian Mixture approximation provides more computationally efficient implementation of the iFilter.

Each of the new algorithms are validated on simulated data using standard multitarget tracking metrics. In each case, the methods improve on several aspects of multitarget tracking in the real world.

In this essay, I explore which fiscal regime is able to limit output volatility in the presence of shocks. The model involves two important features that make it possible for the flexible approach to fiscal policy to be less not more stabilizing for output. By issuing more bonds during a downturn (to finance temporary deficits}, governments create an obligation to work down the debt-ratio in the future. Thus, while conducting fiscal policy a la "'Keynes" can reduce the size of a recession initially, it can delay and weaken any eventual recovery and hence make the recession last longer.

On the other hand, while the impact effect of a negative shock under "Hoover" is bigger. the speed at which the economy recovers is faster as this fiscal regime avoids the destabilizing, part of bond-financed deficits. As a result, depending on the magnitude of the impact and the speed at which the economy recovers from a downturn, output volatility can be higher under "'Keynes".

The second feature highlighted in this essay which raises the probability that a rigid annual balanced-budget approach can be superior in reducing output volatility, Involves the interaction between fiscal and monetary policy. Monetary policy is modelled by deriving the interest-rate setting rule that is appropriate for meeting the central bank's goal (assumed to be an expected future inflation rate of zero). taking the rest of the macro model as the bank' s constraint. Since fiscal policy is part of the system, monetary policy adjusts whenever the fiscal regime changes. In particular, since the rigid fiscal regime avoids the destabilizing part of a bond-financed deficit, the central bank finds it appropriate to put less weight on stabilizing long-term expectations and more weight on the deviations of real output from its target. Traditional analyses of fiscal policy have not allowed for such an endogenous reaction of monetary policy.

My results tor this essay indicate that the degree of forward-lookingness, the nature of the shock hitting the economy and to some extent the degree of price stickiness are important factors in determining the choice of the best fiscal regime I find that in an number of cases. the "Hoover" approach minimizes output volatilIty. In particular, in the micro-based specification and forward-looking version of the model, at least for demand shocks and some common ways of specifying prices, output volatility can be reduced by moving away from a flexible fiscal regime toward one that involves rigid annual budget targets. To check for the robustness of my results, a senes of sensitIvity tests are performed.

The second essay extends the analysis developed in the first essay of this thesis to the small open economy case. The same issues are examined but this time using a richer and more complex framework. Several changes are introduced in this essay. However, despite these changes, I find that the results from this chapter are very sImilar to those obtained in the closed economy framework. In particular, I find that the "Hoover" approach receives more support when the more forward-Iooking version of the model is used while the flexible regime dominates the rigid approach when the more backward-looking version of the model is assumed.

In addition to the "Keynes" v/s "Hoover" debate, several other interesting findings emerge from this essay. For example, in the second essay, I find that a more conservative central bank is more desirable when demand and supply shocks are persistent. This venfies the finding of many other studies which have obtaIned an identical result using the same framework whIch however excludes government and open economy considerations. As in the previous chapter, I perfoml a series of sensitivity tests.

The third essay continues this shift in emphasis from fiscal to monetary policy. The third essay is based on two propositions. First the goal of price stability can be achieved with exchange rate targeting, but with also exchange rate flexibility combined with a monetary policy that targets either the price level or an index of wage rates. The three different monetary regimes are assumed to generate the same outcome regarding long-term inflation. As a result, the choice among these alternative monetary regimes can be made on the basis of which fiscal regime delivers the most built-in stability for real output. Second, this essay is based on the belief that changes in aggregate demand are a very important source of disturbance in the economy. SInce these shocks are costly to society. they generate the desire for built-in stability.

The three monetary regimes are compared using several models and I assume that the central bank can target any of these regimes in a modest or aggressive fashion In the face of temporary and on-going shocks in demand. All the models in this essay involve consistent exchange rate expectations and through the existence of intermediate imports, supply-side effects of exchange rate changes. Moreover, all models also incorporate the possibility of an imperfect pass-through of exchange rate movements on prices. My results from this essay indicate that in all of these models, either price level or wage-rate targeting can do as well, or better than exchange rate targeting. However. exchange rate targeting is often the second best policy while the other two monetary regimes swItch between the first and third best ranking. Hence exchange rate targeting appears to be more robust to model uncertainty compared to the other two targeting regimes and hence emerges as an appealing compromise

Successful extraction of the human globin genes is largely dependent on two factors: retrieving sufficient amounts of ancient DNA without PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) inhibitors, and no contamination from modern DNA. To improve the chances of success, a more efficient and rapid method of extracting DNA from ancient skeletons was developed using a silica-based spin column technique to maximize the yield of amplifiable DNA from ancient skeletons and minimize the risk of the contamination with modern DNA. In a single step, the DNA is concentrated and separated from non-DNA substances that could inhibit PCR. This sufficiently removed PCR inhibitors but without an increased risk of contamination. A comparison test proved that this new approach is superior to current commonly used methods.

Upon application of the new method, the evidence suggests that ancient human p-globin genes were extracted from three of the five individuals from Isola Sacra. DNA diagnosis for two of the most common Italian thalassemia mutations, IVS 1-11 a and codon 39 (more than 50% of current Italian thalassemia mutations),revealed that these three individuals did not have these two mutations. However, the present results cannot totally exclude the possibility of thalassemia from these specimens since five other untested mutations might occur in these specimens.

Precautions were taken to minimize the risk of contamination. Contamination was also monitored by mtDNA analysis of each individual. No systemic contamination took place in this study but a sporadic contamination was identified with one specimen. The further analysis clearly indicated that the contamination came from the author.

This thesis has shown that DNA diagnosis of diseases from ancient remains can be a new, powerful approach to the study of health and disease in past human populations. Technical improvements and revised research strategies are expected to advance DNA diagnoses of ancient diseases.

Methods: This mixed methods study explored the association between HIVI HSV-2 coinfection and physical and mental HRQoL of adult HIV -positive women. A sequential exploratory model was utilized, which involved collecting qualitative data after a quantitative phase. In the first quantitative phase, a cross-sectional questionnaire was administered, HSV -2 sero-status was determined and clinical correlates and HRQoL scores were analyzed using multivariable methods. The second qualitative phase was conducted to further explain the quantitative findings; participants' views of the relationship between symptomatic HSV-2 and HIV co-infection and HRQoL were explored. The qualitative phase employed an interpretive phenomenological philosophy and methodology.

Quantitative Findings: Although women's HRQoL scores on general and HIV-specific measures differed depending on their HSV-2 sero-status, place of origin, receipt of antiretroviral therapy, etc., HSV-2/HIV co-infected women did not have significantly different HRQoL scores compared to women infected with HIV alone. This conclusion was drawn on the basis of only fair goodness-of-fit of the linear regression models. HSV -2 sero-positivity predicting a better perceived physical and mental HRQoL was also considered biologically implausible and divergent with the literature.

Qualitative Findings: The participant narratives highlighted the meaning that women ascribe to living with HIV and HSV-2 in relationship to their perceived HRQoL. HIV was something that affected their global physical and mental HRQoL; it was associated with a social and historical context and was mapped onto their life trajectories. HSV-2, on the other hand, was an immediate concern experienced on an episodic basis, and was more relevant to dimensions of HRQoL such as day-to-day physical and social functioning, as well as intimacy and relationships with partners. HSV-2 infection was a separate, dominant and gendered medical condition that compounded and complicated women's experiences with HIV.

Main implication: HRQoL assessments from the perspective of patients will become increasingly important as life-prolonging antiretroviral treatments are refined and clinicians and HIV -positive individuals look to maximize quality oflife and well-being. As people living with HIV I AIDS continue to face complex health-related challenges, it is essential to incorporate HRQoL into treatment and care planning. It is important for service providers to account for HSV -2 as an important medical and psychosocial issue and to discuss with their clients how HSV -2 may affect perceived HRQoL. This study adds to the body of knowledge regarding women's experiences living with HN, but adds an important layer regarding co-infections and co-morbidities, which are relevant to developing an understanding of women's sexual health.

In each transfer study, four aversive pretraining conditions were used. Excitatory aversive conditioning was conducted by forward pairings of the tone CS with shock. Inhibitory aversive pretraining was conducted by backward pairings, where the shock preceded the tone. In addition, two control conditions were included: a random control, where the tone CS and shock were presented in an uncorrelated manner; and a naive control condition, where no tones or shocks were presented. The four transfer studies differed only in their treatment in the transfer phase.

Experiment 1 transferred aversive pretraining onto an aversive conditional inhibition discrimination to the pretrained tone. This transfer design is sensitive to inhibitory pretraining and was used to demonstrate clearly that backward pretraining effectively produces an inhibitory aversive CS and that random pretraining does not. The results showed that backward pretraining with the shock and tone enhanced the acquisition of a conditional inhibition discrimination to the backward tone CS. Random pretraining, on the other hand, interferred with the acquisition of conditional inhibition to the random tone CS.

Experimental 2 transferred aversive pretraining onto the simple acquisition of appetitive responding to the tone CS. Excitatory aversive pretraining profoundly retarded acquisition to the tone es. Inhibitory aversive pretraining enhanced appetitive responding to the tone es compared to the naive control condition, but not compared to the random control condition which also showed enhanced acquisition compared to the naive control condition. With the exception of performance in the random control condition, Experiment 2 confirmed the predictions of reciprocal inhibition.

Experimental 3 transferred aversive pretraining onto the acquisition of an appetitive conditional inhibition discrimination to the tone es. The excitatory aversive tone suppressed appetitive responding from the outset of discrimination training. Although the inhibitory aversive and random control conditions enhanced responding on negative trials initially, this enhancement was short-lived compared to the naive control condition. The results of Experiment 3 confirmed the inhibitory nature of excitatory aversive transfer to the appetitive system, but are inconclusive with respect to the predicted facilitative nature of inhibitory aversive transfer for the appetitive system.

Experiment 4 transferred aversive pretraining onto compound appetitive conditioning. Excitatory aversive pretraining suppressed responding during compound acquisition, but showed enhanced responding to the previously neutral light CS ("superconditioning") compared to naive control condition which received appetitive conditioning to the light alone. Inhibitory aversive pretraining enhanced responding during compound conditioning compared to the naive control conditions but not more than the random control condition. Both the inhibitory aversive and random control conditions responded more to the light CS than the naive control condition, but were not different from the naive control condition which received light alone acquisition. This apparent reduction in overshadowing is inconsistent with the predictions of reciprocal inhibition for inhibitory aversive transfer.

Taken together, the results suggest that aversive excitation is inhibitory, but aversive inhibition is not facilitative, for the appetitive conditioning system. A model is proposed which incorporates this asymmetry in motivational interactions. In addition, analysis of control group performance suggests that greater attention be paid to contextual conditioning and pseudoconditioning in assessing motivational interactions.

Two quantitative models developed to account for intramodal duration discrimination, describe very well intermodal discrimination in two experiments. Although none can be rejected, the onset-offset model is prefered because it represents better the totality of the results in this research. Finally, response latencies clearly indicate the operation of a real-time criterion mechanism in duration discrimination. It is concluded that duration discrimination is under the control of a single central timekeeper.

Parasites are often considered a disease of urban societies. Classified on the basis of their subsistence economy, the archaeological populations of the Northwest Coast were non-agrarian hunter-fishergatherers. Normative thinking about hunters and gatherers maintain that such cultures were benignly impacted by infectious disease agents. As the level of disease risk is considered low, there has been little expectation of finding pathogen evidence at hunter-gatherer sites.

But consistent and quantifiable microscopic evidence of intestinal parasites, some as much as six thousand years old, was successfUlly recovered from 11 of 15 shell midden sites tested. Auger samples produced preserved eggs of four parasite taxa, including giant human roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) and broad fish tapeworm (Diphyllobothrium spp.), genera relevant to human health. The ecological, epidemiological and cultural significance of these finds are discussed in relation to health, settlement, behaviour patterns and regional culture history. Methodologically, this project demonstrates a replicable and noninvasive process for retrieving parasite evidence from midden sediments. The results of this study contribute to what is known about huntergatherer health, broadening the range of parasite species known in the Americas and confirming the antiquity of the human-parasite relationship.

Structure maps and 3-D mesh diagrams suggest that the erosion surface can be divided into four topographic areas: a relatively high, flat TERRACE, a BEVEL where underlying sediments are truncated, and an erosional remnant topography of BUMPS and HOLLOWS, which gradually fades basinwards into a relatively flat BASIN PLAIN. The erosion surface is covered by conglomerates with localized thicknesses of up to 20 m. These conglomerates are assigned to the Carrot Creek Member of the Cardium Formation. The thick conglomerates occur in relatively elongate northwest-southeast trending pools. They are overlain by the transgressive marine mudstones of the Dismal Rat Member of the Cardium Formation.

At first sight the coarsening upward sequence capped by conglomerates (Carrot Creek Member) appears to be similar to other coarsening upward sequences encased in marine mudstones described from the Western Interior Seaway. These deposits have "traditionally" been interpreted as "offshore ridges", forming many tens of kilometres from the time equivalent shoreline. The Carrot Creek conglomerates, however, are separated from the Raven River Member coarsening upward sequence by an erosion surface, and thus are not genetically part of it. The erosion surface is believed to have formed during a rapid relative lowering of sea level. During maximum lowstand a new shoreface profile (the bevel) was established in the basin. Also during this lowstand, gravel was supplied to the shoreface by incised rivers, and reworked along the shelf by marine processes. Both upper and lower shoreface deposits can be recognized in the conglomerate pools. Subsequent transgression reworked gravel southwestwards across the terrace, while storms transported gravel stringers northeastwards into the transgressive muds accumulating in the hollows.

Similar erosion surfaces of this type have been described from Alberta at the Cardium, Viking, and Badheart horizons. The Gallup-Tocito Formation in New Mexico also invoke a similar erosion surface. The presence of these surfaces may be more widespread than presently documented. The results of this thesis suggest that sea level changes and shoreface incision should be considered as a possible alternative for other long, narrow, "offshore ridges", particularly when the offshore deposits are coarser than the proposed time equivalent shoreline deposits.

The first article investigates the performance of various estimators in estimating the continuous time short-term interest rate models under the assumption that the higher moment dynamics of the short rate series are misspecified. The Monte Carlo evidence suggests that volatility of a continuous time short-term interest rate model would be estimated with a serious bias if the higher moments of the series are misspecified. Furthermore, in the root mean square sense, computationally intensive simulation based estimators do not exhibit better finite sample performance than the conventional estimators.

The second article presents a numerical analysis of optimal initial and maintenance margin setting for futures commission merchants (futures brokers). The problem is analyzed in a profit maximization context using a Markov chain approach and it is shown that the uncertainty regarding the futures price process, the trader's attitude toward a negative margin account and the transaction costs associated with margin calls lead the futures brokers to set positive performance margins without the need of legal enforcements of the futures exchange.

The third article estimates the intertemporal allocation parameters using a new structural estimation technique, Simulated Residual Estimation. A series of Monte Carlo experiments which involve solving and simulating a life cycle model under both interest rate and income uncertainty are performed. The intertemporal allocation parameters,the elasticity of intertemporal substitution and the discount rate are repeatedly estimated using the exact Euler equation, the approximate (log-linearized) Euler equation and the Simulated Residual Estimation. The results ofthe experiments suggest that the Simulated Residual Estimation has superior finite sample properties in comparison to conventional GMM based estimators even under the circumstances in which the consumption data is measured with error.