1,352 research outputs found
The political origins of platform economy regulations. Understanding variations in governing Airbnb and Uber across cities in Switzerland
In the past decade, digital platforms have entrenched themselves within key urban sectors, opening the way for radical changes in traditional industries. Along with new opportunities for city residents, globally operating platforms such as Airbnb and Uber also raised specific challenges, sparking calls for adequate responses by city governments around the world. The aim of this paper is to explain the diversity of regulations across cities. Holding constant national factors, we conducted comparative case studies in six Swiss cities (Zurich, Geneva, Davos, Montreux, Aarau, and Neuchâtel) to investigate political processes leading to local regulations of Airbnb and Uber. Four crucial factors shape regulatory trajectories. First, intensity of platform-related issues in cities is key in shaping the stringency of regulatory responses. Second, grassroots and political mobilization plays a role: where these issues become politically salient, regulations are stricter. Third, the inscription of platform-related issues on a city's institutional agenda tends to produce stricter regulatory responses. Finally, local governments tend to adopt a stricter control over platforms in cities where relevant urban sectors are already highly regulated. We conclude that the varying stringency of governmental responses to the platform economy lays in the dynamics of politicization from which they emerged
Currents, Torques, and Polarization Factors in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Application of Bardeen's tunneling theory to magnetic tunnel junctions having
a general degree of atomic disorder reveals the close relationship between
magneto-conduction and voltage-driven pseudo-torque, as well as the thickness
dependence of tunnel-polarization factors. Among the results: 1) The torque
generally varies as sin theta at constant applied voltage. 2) Whenever
polarization factors are well defined, the voltage-driven torque on each moment
is uniquely proportional to the polarization factor of the other magnet. 3) At
finite applied voltage, this relation predicts significant voltage-asymmetry in
the torque. For one sign of voltage the torque remains substantial even when
the magnetoconductance is greatly diminished. 4) A broadly defined junction
model, called ideal middle, allows for atomic disorder within the magnets and
F/I interface regions. In this model, the spin dependence of a state-weighting
factor proportional to the sum over general state index of evaluated within the
(e.g. vacuum) barrier generalizes the local state density in previous theories
of the tunnel-polarization factor. 5) For small applied voltage,
tunnel-polarization factors remain legitimate up to first order in the inverse
thickness of the ideal middle. An algebraic formula describes the first-order
corrections to polarization factors in terms of newly defined lateral
auto-correllation scales.Comment: This version no. 3 is thoroughly revised for clarity. Just a few
notations and equations are changed, and references completed. No change in
results. 17 pages including 4 figure
Ultrafast Insulator-Metal Phase Transition in VO2 Studied by Multiterahertz Spectroscopy
The ultrafast photoinduced insulator-metal transition in VO2 is studied at
different temperatures and excitation fluences using multi-THz probe pulses.
The spectrally resolved mid-infrared response allows us to trace separately the
dynamics of lattice and electronic degrees of freedom with a time resolution of
40 fs. The critical fluence of the optical pump pulse which drives the system
into a long-lived metallic state is found to increase with decreasing
temperature. Under all measurement conditions we observe a modulation of the
eigenfrequencies of the optical phonon modes induced by their anharmonic
coupling to the coherent wave packet motion of V-V dimers at 6.1 THz.
Furthermore, we find a weak quadratic coupling of the electronic response to
the coherent dimer oscillation resulting in a modulation of the electronic
conductivity at twice the frequency of the wave packet motion. The findings are
discussed in the framework of a qualitative model based on an approximation of
local photoexcitation of the vanadium dimers from the insulating state.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures submitted to Physical Review
Magnetic and electric properties of double-perovskites and estimation of their Curie temperatures by ab initio calculations
First principles electronic structure calculations have been carried out on
ordered double perovskites Sr_2B'B"O_6 (for B' = Cr or Fe and B" 4d and 5d
transition metal elements) with increasing number of valence electrons at the
B-sites, and on Ba_2MnReO_6 as well as Ba_2FeMoO_6. The Curie temperatures are
estimated ab initio from the electronic structures obtained with the local
spin-density functional approximation, full-potential generalized gradient
approximation and/or the LDA+U method (U - Hubbard parameter). Frozen
spin-spirals are used to model the excited states needed to evaluate the
spherical approximation for the Curie temperatures. In cases, where the induced
moments on the oxygen was found to be large, the determination of the Curie
temperature is improved by additional exchange functions between the oxygen
atoms and between oxygen and B' and B" atoms.
A pronounced systematics can be found among the experimental and/or
calculated Curie temperatures and the total valence electrons of the transition
metal elements.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to the Physical Review
Magnesium Phosphate Cement as Mineral Bone Adhesive
Mineral bone cements were actually not developed for their application as bone-bonding agents, but as bone void fillers. In particular, calcium phosphate cements (CPC) are considered to be unsuitable for that application, particularly under moist conditions. Here, we showed the ex vivo ability of different magnesium phosphate cements (MPC) to adhere on bovine cortical bone substrates. The cements were obtained from a mixture of farringtonite (Mg(PO)) with different amounts of phytic acid (CHOP, inositol hexaphosphate, IP6), whereas cement setting occurred by a chelation reaction between Mg ions and IP6. We were able to show that cements with 25% IP6 and a powder-to-liquid ratio (PLR) of 2.0 g/mL resulted in shear strengths of 0.81 Âą 0.12 MPa on bone even after 7 d storage in aqueous conditions. The samples showed a mixed adhesiveâcohesive failure with cement residues on the bone surface as indicated by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. The presented material demonstrated appropriate bonding characteristics, which could enable a broadening of the mineral bone cementsâ application field to bone adhesive
Rumination and Age: Some Things Get Better
Rumination has been defined as a mode of responding to distress that involves passively focusing one's attention on symptoms of distress without taking action. This dysfunctional response style intensifies depressed mood, impairs interpersonal problem solving, and leads to more pessimistic future perspectives and less social support. As most of these results were obtained from younger people, it remains unclear how age affects ruminative thinking. Three hundred members of the general public ranging in age from 15 to 87 years were asked about their ruminative styles using the Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ), depression and satisfaction with life. A Mokken Scale analysis confirmed the two-factor structure of the RSQ with brooding and reflective pondering as subcomponents of rumination. Older participants (63 years and older) reported less ruminative thinking than other age groups. Life satisfaction was associated with brooding and highest for the earlier and latest life stages investigated in this study
RF-dressed Rydberg atoms in hollow-core fibres
The giant electro-optical response of Rydberg atoms manifests itself in the
emergence of sidebands in the Rydberg excitation spectrum if the atom is
exposed to a radio-frequency (RF) electric field. Here we report on the study
of RF-dressed Rydberg atoms inside hollow-core photonic crystal fibres
(HC-PCF), a system that enables the use of low modulation voltages and offers
the prospect of miniaturised vapour-based electro-optical devices. Narrow
spectroscopic features caused by the RF field are observed for modulation
frequencies up to 500 MHz.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by the Institute of Physics
Ways of improving the precision of eye tracking data: Controlling the influence of dirt and dust on pupil detection
Eye-tracking technology has to date been primarily employed in research. With recent advances in aordable video-based devices, the implementation of gaze-aware smartphones, and marketable driver monitoring systems, a considerable step towards pervasive eye-tracking has been made. However, several new challenges arise with the usage of eye-tracking in the wild and will need to be tackled to increase the acceptance of this technology. The main challenge is still related to the usage of eye-tracking together with eyeglasses, which in combination with reflections for changing illumination conditions will make a subject "untrackable". If we really want to bring the technology to the consumer, we cannot simply exclude 30% of the population as potential users only because they wear eyeglasses, nor can we make them clean their glasses and the device regularly. Instead, the pupil detection algorithms need to be made robust to potential sources of noise. We hypothesize that the amount of dust and dirt on the eyeglasses and the eye-tracker camera has a significant influence on the performance of currently available pupil detection algorithms. Therefore, in this work, we present a systematic study of the eect of dust and dirt on the pupil detection by simulating various quantities of dirt and dust on eyeglasses. Our results show 1) an overall high robustness to dust in an o-focus layer. 2) the vulnerability of edge-based methods to even small in-focus dust particles. 3) a trade-o between tolerated particle size and particle amount, where a small number of rather large particles showed only a minor performance impact
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