10,583 research outputs found
Are cost models useful for telecoms regulators in developing countries?
Worldwide privatization of the telecommunications industry, and the introduction of competition in the sector, together with the ever-increasing rate of technological advance in telecommunications, raise new and critical challenges for regulation. Fo matters of pricing, universal service obligations, and the like, one question to be answered is this: What is the efficient cost of providing the service to a certain area or type of customer? As developing countries build up their capacity to regulate their privatized infrastructure monopolies, cost models are likely to prove increasingly important in answering this question. Cost models deliver a number of benefits to a regulator willing to apply them, but they also ask for something in advance: information. Without information, the question cannot be answered. The authors introduce cost models and establish their applicability when different degrees of information are available to the regulator. They do no by running a cost model with different sets of actual data form Argentina's second largest city, and comparing results. Reliable, detailed information is generally scarce in developing countries. The authors establish the minimum information requirements for a regulator implementing a cost proxy model approach, showing that this data constraint need not be that binding.ICT Policy and Strategies,Decentralization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Business Environment,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Geographical Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Educational Technology and Distance Education
Primordial Earth mantle heterogeneity caused by the Moon-forming giant impact
The giant impact hypothesis for Moon formation successfully explains the
dynamic properties of the Earth-Moon system but remains challenged by the
similarity of isotopic fingerprints of the terrestrial and lunar mantles.
Moreover, recent geochemical evidence suggests that the Earth's mantle
preserves ancient (or "primordial") heterogeneity that predates the
Moon-forming giant impact. Using a new hydrodynamical method, we here show that
Moon-forming giant impacts lead to a stratified starting condition for the
evolution of the terrestrial mantle. The upper layer of the Earth is
compositionally similar to the disk, out of which the Moon evolves, whereas the
lower layer preserves proto-Earth characteristics. As long as this predicted
compositional stratification can at least partially be preserved over the
subsequent billions of years of Earth mantle convection, the compositional
similarity between the Moon and the accessible Earth's mantle is a natural
outcome of realistic and high-probability Moon-forming impact scenarios. The
preservation of primordial heterogeneity in the modern Earth not only
reconciles geochemical constraints but is also consistent with recent
geophysical observations. Furthermore, for significant preservation of a
proto-Earth reservoir, the bulk composition of the Earth-Moon system may be
systematically shifted towards chondritic values.Comment: Comments are welcom
Inhomogenized sudden future singularities
We find that sudden future singularities may also appear in spatially
inhomogeneous Stephani models of the universe. They are temporal pressure
singularities and may appear independently of the spatial finite density
singularities already known to exist in these models. It is shown that the main
advantage of the homogeneous sudden future singularities which is the
fulfillment of the strong and weak energy conditions may not be the case for
inhomogeneous models.Comment: REVTEX 4, 5 pages, no figures, a discussion of the most general case
include
Engineering magnetic domain-wall structure in permalloy nanowires
Using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy we investigate the behavior of
domain walls pinned at non-topographic defects in Cr(3 nm)/Permalloy(10
nm)/Cr(5 nm) nanowires of width 500 nm. The pinning sites consist of linear
defects where magnetic properties are modified by a Ga ion probe with diameter
~ 10 nm using a focused ion beam microscope. We study the detailed change of
the modified region (which is on the scale of the focused ion spot) using
electron energy loss spectroscopy and differential phase contrast imaging on an
aberration (Cs) corrected scanning transmission electron microscope. The signal
variation observed indicates that the region modified by the irradiation
corresponds to ~ 40-50 nm despite the ion probe size of only 10 nm. Employing
the Fresnel mode of Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, we show that it
is possible to control the domain wall structure and its depinning strength not
only via the irradiation dose but also the line orientation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Applie
A Free-Form Lensing Grid Solution for A1689 with New Mutiple Images
Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689 has revealed
an exceptional number of strongly lensed multiply-imaged galaxies, including
high-redshift candidates. Previous studies have used this data to obtain the
most detailed dark matter reconstructions of any galaxy cluster to date,
resolving substructures ~25 kpc across. We examine Abell 1689 (hereafter,
A1689) non-parametrically, combining strongly lensed images and weak
distortions from wider field Subaru imaging, and we incorporate member galaxies
to improve the lens solution. Strongly lensed galaxies are often locally
affected by member galaxies, however, these perturbations cannot be recovered
in grid based reconstructions because the lensing information is too sparse to
resolve member galaxies. By adding luminosity-scaled member galaxy deflections
to our smooth grid we can derive meaningful solutions with sufficient accuracy
to permit the identification of our own strongly lensed images, so our model
becomes self consistent. We identify 11 new multiply lensed system candidates
and clarify previously ambiguous cases, in the deepest optical and NIR data to
date from Hubble and Subaru. Our improved spatial resolution brings up new
features not seen when the weak and strong lensing effects are used separately,
including clumps and filamentary dark matter around the main halo. Our
treatment means we can obtain an objective mass ratio between the cluster and
galaxy components, for examining the extent of tidal stripping of the luminous
member galaxies. We find a typical mass-to-light ratios of M/L_B = 21 inside
the r<1 arcminute region that drops to M/L_B = 17 inside the r<40 arcsecond
region. Our model independence means we can objectively evaluate the
competitiveness of stacking cluster lenses for defining the geometric
lensing-distance-redshift relation in a model independent way.Comment: 23 pages with 25 figures Replced with MNRAS submitted version. Some
figures have been corrected and minor text edit
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