Deregulating Network Industries: Dealing with Price-quality Tradeoffs

This paper examines the effects of introducing competition into monopolized network industries on prices and infrastructure quality. Analyzing a model with reduced-form demand, we first show that deregulating an integrated monopoly cannot simultaneously decrease the retail price and increase infrastructure quality. Second, we derive conditions under which reducing both retail price and infrastructure quality relative to the integrated monopoly outcome increases welfare. Third, we argue that restructuring and setting very low access charges may yield welfare losses, as infrastructure investment is undermined. We provide an extensive analysis of the linear demand model and discuss policy implication

Transformer-Based Learned Optimization

We propose a new approach to learned optimization where we represent the computation of an optimizer's update step using a neural network. The parameters of the optimizer are then learned by training on a set of optimization tasks with the objective to perform minimization efficiently. Our innovation is a new neural network architecture, Optimus, for the learned optimizer inspired by the classic BFGS algorithm. As in BFGS, we estimate a preconditioning matrix as a sum of rank-one updates but use a Transformer-based neural network to predict these updates jointly with the step length and direction. In contrast to several recent learned optimization-based approaches, our formulation allows for conditioning across the dimensions of the parameter space of the target problem while remaining applicable to optimization tasks of variable dimensionality without retraining. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach on a benchmark composed of objective functions traditionally used for the evaluation of optimization algorithms, as well as on the real world-task of physics-based visual reconstruction of articulated 3d human motion.Comment: Accepted to the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2023 (CVPR) in Vancouver, Canad

Investigation of the local environment of SnO2 in an applied magnetic field

This paper presents the results of time-differential perturbed gamma–gamma angular correlation measurements of SnO2 thin films carried out in an applied magnetic field. The measurements were performed upon the implantation of Fe at 80 keV and 111In (111Cd) at 160 keV. The samples were further characterized by energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The hyperfine parameters were studied at room temperature with and without an applied magnetic field. The results indicate the presence of two distinct local environments for the probe nuclei. Both occupy a paramagnetic state and correspond to a substitutional Sn site in the rutile phase of SnO2 with different numbers of electrons added to SnO2:Cd0. In addition, the crystal homogeneity of the site 1 increases upon applying the magnetic field

Temperature and Tree Size Explain the Mean Time to Fall of Dead Standing Trees across Large Scales

Dead standing trees (DSTs) generally decompose slower than wood in contact with the forest floor. In many regions, DSTs are being created at an increasing rate due to accelerating tree mortality caused by climate change. Therefore, factors determining DST fall are crucial for predicting dead wood turnover time but remain poorly constrained. Here, we conduct a re-analysis of published DST fall data to provide standardized information on the mean time to fall (MTF) of DSTs across biomes. We used multiple linear regression to test covariates considered important for DST fall, while controlling for mortality and management effects. DSTs of species killed by fire, insects and other causes stood on average for 48, 13 and 19 years, but MTF calculations were sensitive to how tree size was accounted for. Species’ MTFs differed significantly between DSTs killed by fire and other causes, between coniferous and broadleaved plant functional types (PFTs) and between managed and unmanaged sites, but management did not explain MTFs when we distinguished by mortality cause. Mean annual temperature (MAT) negatively affected MTFs, whereas larger tree size or being coniferous caused DSTs to stand longer. The most important explanatory variables were MAT and tree size, with minor contributions of management and plant functional type depending on mortality cause. Our results provide a basis to improve the representation of dead wood decomposition in carbon cycle assessments

Arsenic metabolism in high altitude modern stromatolites revealed by metagenomic analysis

Modern stromatolites thrive only in selected locations in the world. Socompa Lake, located in the Andean plateau at 3570 masl, is one of the numerous extreme Andean microbial ecosystems described over recent years. Extreme environmental conditions include hypersalinity, high UV incidence, and high arsenic content, among others. After Socompa’s stromatolite microbial communities were analysed by metagenomic DNA sequencing, taxonomic classification showed dominance of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, and a remarkably high number of unclassified sequences. A functional analysis indicated that carbon fixation might occur not only by the Calvin-Benson cycle, but also through alternative pathways such as the reverse TCA cycle, and the reductive acetyl-CoA pathway. Deltaproteobacteria were involved both in sulfate reduction and nitrogen fixation. Significant differences were found when comparing the Socompa stromatolite metagenome to the Shark Bay (Australia) smooth mat metagenome: namely, those involving stress related processes, particularly, arsenic resistance. An in-depth analysis revealed a surprisingly diverse metabolism comprising all known types of As resistance and energy generating pathways. While the ars operon was the main mechanism, an important abundance of arsM genes was observed in selected phyla. The data resulting from this work will prove a cornerstone for further studies on this rare microbial community.EEA RafaelaFil: Kurth, Daniel German. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Amadio, Ariel F. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ordoñez, Omar F. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Allbarracín, Virginia H. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto Miguel Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Farías, María E. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Gärtner, Wolfgang. Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion; Alemani

How was it for you? Experiences of participatory design in the UK health service

Improving co-design methods implies that we need to understand those methods, paying attention to not only the effect of method choices on design outcomes, but also how methods affect the people involved in co-design. In this article, we explore participants' experiences from a year-long participatory health service design project to develop ‘Better Outpatient Services for Older People’. The project followed a defined method called experience-based design (EBD), which represented the state of the art in participatory service design within the UK National Health Service. A sample of participants in the project took part in semi-structured interviews reflecting on their involvement in and their feelings about the project. Our findings suggest that the EBD method that we employed was successful in establishing positive working relationships among the different groups of stakeholders (staff, patients, carers, advocates and design researchers), although conflicts remained throughout the project. Participants' experiences highlighted issues of wider relevance in such participatory design: cost versus benefit, sense of project momentum, locus of control, and assumptions about how change takes place in a complex environment. We propose tactics for dealing with these issues that inform the future development of techniques in user-centred healthcare design

ADCY5 gene expression in adipose tissue is related to obesity in men and mice

Genome wide association studies revealed an association of the single nucleotide polymorphism rs11708067 within the ADCY5 gene—encoding adenylate cyclase 5—with increased type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk and higher fasting glucose. However, it remains unclear whether the association between ADCY5 variants and glycemic traits may involve adipose tissue (AT) related mechanisms. We therefore tested the hypothesis that ADCY5 mRNA expression in human and mouse AT is related to obesity, fat distribution, T2D in humans and high fat diet (HFD) in mice. We measured ADCY5 mRNA expression in paired samples of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue from 244 individuals with a wide range of body weight and parameters of hyperglycemia, which have been genotyped for rs11708067. In addition, AT ADCY5 mRNA was assessed in C57BL/6NTac which underwent a 10 weeks standard chow (n = 6) or high fat diet (HFD, n = 6). In humans, visceral ADCY5 expression is significantly higher in obese compared to lean individuals. ADCY5 expression correlates with BMI, body fat mass, circulating leptin, fat distribution, waist and hip circumference, but not with fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c. Adcy5 expression in mouse AT is significantly higher after a HFD compared to chow (p<0.05). Importantly, rs11708067 is not associated with ADCY5 mRNA expression levels in either fat depot in any of the genetic models tested. Our results suggest that changes in AT ADCY5 expression are related to obesity and fat distribution, but not with impaired glucose metabolism and T2D. However, altered ADCY5 expression in AT does not seem to be the mechanism underlying the association between rs11708067 and increased T2D risk