Why did British electricity prices fall after 1998?

In an attempt to reduce high electricity prices in England and Wales the government has tried to encourage an increase in generation capacity, introduced a more competitive market structure and changed the market rules. Our econometric analysis on monthly data from April 1996 to March 2002 implies support for two conflicting hypotheses. On a static view, increases in competition and the capacity margin were responsible for the fall in prices, while changes in the trading rules had little impact. If generators had been tacitly colluding before NETA, however, the impending change in market rules might have changed their behaviour a few months before the abolition of the Pool. Regressions representing this hypothesis imply that NETA was responsible for a significant part of the reductions in prices after 1998

Why did British electricity prices fall after 1998?

In an attempt to reduce high electricity prices in England and Wales the government has reduced concentration among generators and introduced New Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA). Econometric analysis on monthly data from April 1996 to September 2002 implies support for two conflicting hypotheses. On a static view, increases in competition and the capacity margin were chiefly responsible for the fall in prices. If generators had been tacitly colluding before NETA, however, the impending change in market rules might have changed their behaviour a few months before the abolition of the Pool. That view implies that NETA reduced prices.electricity, market power, concentration, market rules

New observations regarding deterministic, time reversible thermostats and Gauss's principle of least constraint

Deterministic thermostats are frequently employed in non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations in order to remove the heat produced irreversibly over the course of such simulations. The simplest thermostat is the Gaussian thermostat, which satisfies Gauss's principle of least constraint and fixes the peculiar kinetic energy. There are of course infinitely many ways to thermostat systems, e.g. by fixing $\sum\limits_i{|{p_i}|^{\mu + 1}}$. In the present paper we provide, for the first time, convincing arguments as to why the conventional Gaussian isokinetic thermostat ($\mu=1$) is unique in this class. We show that this thermostat minimizes the phase space compression and is the only thermostat for which the conjugate pairing rule (CPR) holds. Moreover it is shown that for finite sized systems in the absence of an applied dissipative field, all other thermostats ($\mu=1$) perform work on the system in the same manner as a dissipative field while simultaneously removing the dissipative heat so generated. All other thermostats ($\mu=1$) are thus auto-dissipative. Among all $\mu$-thermostats, only the $\mu=1$ Gaussian thermostat permits an equilibrium state.Comment: 27 pages including 10 figures; submitted for publication Journal of Chemical Physic

Delegation to Independent Regulators and the Ratchet Effect

Dynamic principal-agent settings with asymmetric information but no commitment are well known to create a ratchet effect. Here, the most efficient agents must be provided with extra 'information rent' as an incentive to relinquish their informational advantage over an uninformed principal; this causes welfare to fall. We study this problem in the case of regulatory procurement and show that delegation by the government to an independent regulator whose preferences differ from the government's can overcome this inefficiency, and we provide 'conservative' conditions under which this happens. Our solution reflects several aspects of many modern regulatory settings: government commitment to a particular regulator, the provision of independence to that regulator, and heterogeneity across available regulators. Our results also provide an analogy with the literatures on the benefits of delegation to independent principals in other settings, such as monetary policy, financial regulation and trade and hence contribute to this broader research agenda.delegation; ratchet effect; procurement

Embedded or Modular? Preliminary Findings From a Study of Pre-Registration Nursing EBP Teaching Delivery Methods.

Aim: This study explores the impact of teaching delivery method (embedded vs. modular) on undergraduate pre-registration nursing students’ self-reported Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) implementation, attitudes, knowledge and skills. Background: For the past 20 years EBP has been increasingly emphasised as an effective approach and goal in healthcare. Although research has identified a number of barriers to its adoption and implementation, little research has focused on nurses’ pre-registration training; particularly on the impact of teaching delivery-method EBP throughout the learning process. Method: The study represents an on-going educational audit. Two cohorts of undergraduate nursing students were recruited for a longitudinal, cross-sectional survey study: cohort one (N=57, response rate= 90.1%) were being taught EBP modularly, but cohort two (N=88, response rate= 63.8%) had EBP embedded across their modules. Data was collected using the Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (EBPQ; Upton & Upton, 2006), administered at six-monthly intervals across the duration of students’ courses. Results: Preliminary analysis of students’ EBP 6-months into their courses identified no statistically significant differences between the cohorts on EBP Practice (U=2,138.00, Z=-0.13, p=.894). However, statistically significant differences between the two cohorts were identified on EBP attitudes (U=1, 852.00, Z=-2.43, p=.015; embedded group Md= 5.67, modular group Md=6.33) and Knowledge/skills (U=2,802.00, Z=3.68, p<.001; embedded group Md= 4.89, modular group Md=4.29). Conclusions: Although the project is still in its infancy, preliminary findings raise important questions about the relationship between EBP attitudes, practice and skill. The embedded cohort’s lower attitude scores may reflect social-desirability effects: modules dedicated to EBP may instil greater importance of displaying positive EBP attitudes. Embedding EBP may provide an effective means of developing students’ practice, knowledge and skills, without requiring dedicated modules (thereby reducing resource demands)

The Open Resource Scholarly Network: a new era for historians, archivists and technologists

Since 1985 the staff of the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (Austehc) have been collecting and disseminating information about the history of Australian science, technology and medicine including data about archival resources on the presumption that scholarly practice, including the creation of new knowledge, was based on free access to, and the citability of, existing knowledge. The advent of electronic network technologies has enable us to realise our goals in ways that were not even dreams in the earlier environment. However, not all players in the scholarly information and publishing realms have responded in the same way. Despite these new technologies, which should be making resources much more readily accessible, many valuable resources are locked up (discoverable perhaps but uncitable) behind closed database walls or are available only on a user pays basis. In many cases these resources were previously available freely through research libraries. Austehc has spent the last few years developing database driven Web publishing tools to support an open resource scholarly electronic network. These tools are being offered to the community at no cost, under the open source philosophy, if they are used for public good and education purposes. These tools, the "Online Heritage Resource Manager" (OHRM) and the "Web Academic Resource Publisher" (WARP) will be presented to this meeting.Hosted by the Scholarly Text and Imaging Service (SETIS), the University of Sydney Library, and the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (RIHSS), the University of Sydney

Psychoeducational Group Counseling for Division I Student Athletes

Student athletes experience many stressors due to the intensity of their training schedules, team travel, and the added pressure of playing at the top of their sport while meeting the rigorous academic demands of the university. This mixed methods study evaluated the effectiveness of psychoeducational group counseling for student athletes (SAs) at a Western university. Ratings of overall wellness (at pre- and post-intervention) were assessed using the Journey to Wellness scale and semi-structured interviews; bimonthly check-ins were used to measure social connection. Sixteen SAs participated in this study. The results of this study indicated the overall wellness of SAs who participated in the psychoeducational group counseling increased. Further, SAs shared they used more preventive coping strategies, increased the number and depth of their contacts with others including both student athletes and non-athletes, and experienced more confidence as they looked forward to their next transition (e.g., graduation, new role in athletic department). Students reported that feeling supported, gaining confidence, and learning new coping skills were the most helpful aspects of the group. The timing of the group and seriousness of personal concerns served as potential barriers. This study implied SAs might benefit from learning additional coping strategies as well as connecting with other student athletes and non-student athletes