1st Report of the Working Group on Standard Development

The initial meeting of the working group on standard development took place at the 1st SAFO-Workshop, September 2003, in Florence. In accordance with the main topic of the Workshop, the discussion was primarily focused on the relationship between socio-economic aspects of the standards and the issue of animal health and food safety in organic farming. The report cover the additional issues discussed in the 1st Working Group meeting in Florence

PDA-BCJR algorithm for factorial hidden Markov models with application to MIMO equalisation

Publication in the conference proceedings of EUSIPCO, Florence, Italy, 200

Cross-Border Trade: A Two-Stage Equilibrium Model of the Florence Regulatory Forum Proposals

Cross-Border Trade: A Two-Stage Equilibrium Model of the Florence Regulatory Forum Proposal

Non-Traditional Patterns of Global Regulation: Is the WTO ‘Missing the Boat’?

Presented at the European University Institute, Florence, 24-25 September 2004, Conference on Legal Patterns of Transnational Social Regulations and Trad

Nuclear lattice simulations: Status and perspectives

I review the present status of nuclear lattice simulations. This talk is dedicated to the memory of Gerald E. Brown.Comment: Plenary talk sponsored by The European Physical Journal A -- Hadrons and Nuclei, INPC 2013, Florence, Italy, 8 pages, 3 figures, uses webofc.cl

Agglomerative Magnets and Informal Regulatory Networks: Electricity Market Design Convergence in the USA and Continental Europe

The absence of one broadly accepted design template for liberalised electricity markets induces regulatory competition and institutional diversity. Focussing on continental Europe and the USA, this analysis explores how agents and structures accelerate or impede the move to one standard market design in the electricity sector. It reveals that market design convergence in Europe is driven by the 'Florence Consensus,' a tripartite coalition between the European Commission fostering European integration and the internal market, informal regulatory networks between grid operators, standardisation authorities and regulators, who have been coordinating their actions in the 'Florence Forum,' and epistemic communities exemplified in the Florence School of Regulation. In contrast, the United States' Federal Energy Regulatory Commission lacks support among politicians, many states' public utility commissions, the neo-liberal intelligentsia and even industrial lobbying groups to effectively push for a standardised market design. However, design convergence in the USA may be induced by the gradual expansion of multi-state markets operated by regional transmission organisations.Electricity, Deregulation, Regulatory Competition, Policy Diffusion

With One\u27s Own Arms: Condottieri, Machiavelli, and the Rise of the Florentine Militia

This paper examines the use of mercenary warfare on the Italian peninsula during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It later focuses on the unique political and economic environment in Florence that led to Niccolo Machiavelli orchestrating the creation of the Florentine militia

Book Review

Review of the following: LEONARD EVANS, TRAFFIC SAFETY AND THE DRIVER. (Van Nostrand Reinhold 1991) [404 pp.] About the author, author index, figures, notes, preface, subject index, tables. LC 90-44233, ISBN 0-4421-00163-0. [Cloth $51.95. P.O.B. 668, Florence KY 41022-0668.

MATCH - A Software Package for Robust Profile Matching Using S-Plus

This manual details the implementation of the profile matching techniques introduced in Robust Estimation of Air-Borne Particulate Matter (Wiens, Florence and Hiltz, Environmetrics, 2001 - included as an appendix). The program consists of a collection of functions written in S. It runs in S-Plus, including the student version. A graphical user interface is supplied for easy implementation by a user with only a passing familiarity with S-Plus. A description of the software is given, together with an extensive example of an analysis of a data set using the software. The software is available at http://www.stat.ualberta.ca/~wiens/publist.htm where it is linked to the listing for Wiens, Florence and Hiltz (2001).