Understanding Why Universal Service Obligations May Be Unnecessary: The Private Development of Local Internet Access Markets

This study analyzes the geographic spread of commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the leading suppliers of Internet access. The geographic spread of ISPs is a key consideration in U.S. policy for universal access. We examine the Fall of 1998, a time of minimal government subsidy, when inexpensive access was synonymous with a local telephone call to an ISP. Population size and location in a metropolitan statistical area were the single most important determinants of entry, but their effects on national, regional and local firms differed, especially on the margin. The thresholds for entry were remarkably low for local firms. Universal service in less densely-populated areas was largely a function of investment decisions by ISPs with local focus. There was little trace of the early imprint of government subsidies for Internet access at major U.S. universities.Internet; Universal service; Geographic diffusion; Telecommunications

Universal Access and Local Commercial Internet Markets

Concern over the potential need to redefine universal service to account for Internet-related services and other combinations of communication and computing motivates this study of the geographic spread of commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the leading suppliers of Internet access in the United States. The paper characterizes the location of 40,000 access points, local phone numbers offered by commercial ISPs, in the Fall of 1997. Markets differ widely in their structure, from competitive to unserved. Over ninety-two percent of the U.S. population has easy access to a competitive commercial Internet access market, while approximately four and one-half percent of the U.S. population has costly access. Urban/rural coverage must be understood in the context of the different strategies of national/local providers.

The Mobile Magazine Services Platform

The m-Mag platform advances the state of the art in mobile services by bridging the gap between mobile Operators and content Publishers, enabling the creation of a new category of mobile service called a mobile magazine. An m-Mag mobile magazine is a next generation mobile publishing service that is made available from a mobile operator's portal, that is integrated with value added mobile data services and that uses the operator's billing capabilities to charge consumers for access to the magazine. Using Parlay/OSA as an open approach, the m-Mag platform can integrate into an operator's network using standardised APIs and is portable across different operator networks. A discussion of the commercial potential analyses the route to the market

Frailsafe: from conception to national breakthrough collaborative

The number of people aged over 60 years worldwide is projected to rise from 605 million in 2000 to almost 2 billion by 2050, while those over 80 years will quadruple to 395 million. Two-thirds of UK acute hospital admissions are over 65, the highest consultation rate in general practice is in those aged 85-89 and the average age of elective surgical patients is increasing. Adjusting medical systems to meet the demographic imperative has been recognised by the World Health Organisation to be the next global healthcare priority and is a key feature of discussions on policy, health services structures, workforce reconfiguration and frontline care delivery

Mobile Operator Publishing and Entertainment Platform

There is a gap between mobile Operators and content Publishers, hindering established small and medium sized publishers to enter the mobile market despite its commercial potential. A Mobile Operator Publishing and Entertainment Platform enables the creation of a new category of mobile service called a mobile magazine. An m-Mag (mobile magazine) is a next generation mobile publishing service that is made available from a mobile operator's portal, that is integrated with value added mobile data services and that uses the operator's billing capabilities to charge consumers for access to the magazine. Using Parlay/OSA as an open approach, the m-Mag platform can integrate into an operator's network using standardised APIs and is portable across different operator networks

The First Two Years of Electromagnetic Follow-Up with Advanced LIGO and Virgo

We anticipate the first direct detections of gravitational waves (GWs) with Advanced LIGO and Virgo later this decade. Though this groundbreaking technical achievement will be its own reward, a still greater prize could be observations of compact binary mergers in both gravitational and electromagnetic channels simultaneously. During Advanced LIGO and Virgo's first two years of operation, 2015 through 2016, we expect the global GW detector array to improve in sensitivity and livetime and expand from two to three detectors. We model the detection rate and the sky localization accuracy for binary neutron star (BNS) mergers across this transition. We have analyzed a large, astrophysically motivated source population using real-time detection and sky localization codes and higher-latency parameter estimation codes that have been expressly built for operation in the Advanced LIGO/Virgo era. We show that for most BNS events the rapid sky localization, available about a minute after a detection, is as accurate as the full parameter estimation. We demonstrate that Advanced Virgo will play an important role in sky localization, even though it is anticipated to come online with only one-third as much sensitivity as the Advanced LIGO detectors. We find that the median 90% confidence region shrinks from ~500 square degrees in 2015 to ~200 square degrees in 2016. A few distinct scenarios for the first LIGO/Virgo detections emerge from our simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables. For accompanying data, see http://www.ligo.org/scientists/first2year

Three layers of energy law for examining CO2 transport for carbon-capture and storage

This research is a legal analysis concerning four scenarios for cross-border carbon dioxide (CO2) transport that could increase the deployment of carbon-capture and storage (CCS) deployment in Europe. The legal analysis categorizes the law into three levels—international, national and local—and considers the four scenarios in light of these three levels of energy law. Upon reviewing the four scenarios, it is clear that the Rotterdam Nucleus (referred to as the ‘Pilot Case’) is the leading scenario and as a result it is explored in more detail. The potential Pilot Case is based on the development of Rotterdam (in the Netherlands) as a southern North Sea hub. Under this Rotterdam Nucleus scenario, captured CO2 will be transported through the Port of Rotterdam to depleted gas fields offshore the Netherlands. CO2 will also be transported through further links using CCS infrastructure to facilitate the processing of undeveloped gas fields offshore UK. The Pilot case contemplates further expansion opportunities, increasing the capture clusters through additional pipelines, expanding to further gas fields and using the port of Rotterdam for CO2 shipping—hence the analysis of the other scenarios may be invaluable in the future development of CO2 networks in the EU. Finally, and an original contribution of this article is that it employs the three lawyers of energy law theoretical framework to an energy problem that was examined by an interdisciplinary research team. Furthermore, this research was developed further through two key industry stakeholder meetings with CCS experts in the EU

Stellar cosmic rays as an important source of ionization in protoplanetary discs: a disc mass-dependent process

We assess the ionizing effect of low-energy protostellar cosmic rays in protoplanetary discs around a young solar mass star for a wide range of disc parameters. We assume a source of low-energy cosmic rays located close to the young star that travels diffusively through the protoplanetary disc. We use observationally inferred values from nearby star-forming regions for the total disc mass and the radial density profile. We investigate the influence of varying the disc mass within the observed scatter for a solar mass star. We find that for a large range of disc masses and density profiles that protoplanetary discs are ‘optically thin’ to low-energy (∼3 GeV) cosmic rays. At R ∼ 10 au, for all of the discs that we consider (Mdisc = 6.0 × 10−4– 2.4 × 10−2M), the ionization rate due to low-energy stellar cosmic rays is larger than that expected from unmodulated galactic cosmic rays. This is in contrast to our previous results that assumed a much denser disc that may be appropriate for a more embedded source. At R ∼ 70 au, the ionization rate due to stellar cosmic rays dominates in ∼50 per cent of the discs. These are the less massive discs with less steep density profiles. At this radius, there is at least an order of magnitude difference in the ionization rate between the least and most massive disc that we consider. Our results indicate, for a wide range of disc masses, that low-energy stellar cosmic rays provide an important source of ionization at the disc mid-plane at large radii (∼70 au)

Improving self-efficacy in spinal cord injury patients through "design thinking" rehabilitation workshops

Advances in surgical and medical management have significantly reduced the length of time that patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) have to stay in hospital, but has left patients with potentially less time to adjust psychologically. Following a pilot in 2012, this project was designed to test the effect of "design thinking" workshops on the self-efficacy of people undergoing rehabilitation following spinal injuries. Design thinking is about understanding the approaches and methods that designers use and then applying these to think creatively about problems and suggest ways to solve them. In this instance, design thinking is not about designing new products (although the approaches can be used to do this) but about developing a long term creative and explorative mind-set through skills such as lateral thinking, prototyping and verbal and visual communication. The principals of "design thinking" have underpinned design education and practice for many years, it is also recognised in business and innovation for example, but a literature review indicated that there was no evidence of it being used in rehabilitation or spinal injury settings. Twenty participants took part in the study; 13 (65%) were male and the average age was 37 years (range 16 to 72). Statistically significant improvements were sen in the EQ-5D score (t = -3.13, p = 0.007) and the Patient Activation Measure score (t = -3.85, p = 0.001). Other outcome measures improved but not statistically. There were no statistical effects on length of stay or readmissions rates, but qualitative interviews indicated improved patient experience.</p