Benchmarking and Regulation in the Electricity Distribution Sector

In the last two decades electricity distribution sector have witnessed a wave of regulatory reforms aimed at improving efficiency through incentive regulation. Most of these regulation schemes use benchmarking namely measuring a company’s efficiency and rewarding them accordingly. The reliability of efficiency estimates is crucial for an effective implementation of those incentive mechanisms. A main problem faced by the regulators is the choice among several legitimate benchmarking models that usually produce different results. After a brief overview of the benchmarking methodologies, this paper summarizes the methods used in the regulation practice in several OECD countries, in which the benchmarking practice is relatively widespread. Repeated observation of similar companies over time namely panel data, allows a better understanding of unobserved firm-specific factors and disentangling them from efficiency estimates. Focusing on parametric cost frontier models, this paper presents two alternative approaches that could be used to improve the reliability of benchmarking methods, and based on recent empirical evidence, draws some recommendations for regulatory practice in power distribution networks.

Electrospun Biomaterial-Induced Neutrophil Extracellular Traps: Characterization and Regulation for Biomaterial-Guided Tissue Regeneration

Electrospun Biomaterial-Induced Neutrophil Extracellular Traps: Characterization and Regulation for Biomaterial-Guided Tissue Regeneratio

Economies of scale and scope in local public transportation

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cost structure of a sample of Swiss multi-modal urban transport operators in order to assess economies of scale and scope. The results suggest that the industry is characterized by increasing returns to scale and economies of scope. Several European countries have introduced a competitive tendering procedure in the assignment of franchised monopoly in the local transport industry. In the case of multi-modal systems the regulator has to decide to open the competitive tendering procedure for supplying the entire transport services or to unbundle the multi-modal systems and open separate tenders for different modes of transport. In order to make the decision the regulator should have information on the economies of scope. Only few studies have addressed the issue of scope economies in local transport systems.

Life (And Death) After Life: The Portrayal of Old Age in the Works of Thomas Bernhard

Wenn wir der Wahrheit auf der Spur sind. ohne zu wissen. was diese Wahrheit ist. die mit der Wirklichkeit nichts als die Wahrheit. die wir nicht kennen. gemein hat. so ist es das Scheitern. es ist derTod. dem wir auf der Spur sind ... Der Tod ist mein Thema ... ...ich spreche. woruber ich auch spreche. selbst wenn ich uber das Leben spreche. uber den Tod ... Wenn wir ein Ziel haben. so scheint es mir. ist es der Tod. wovon wir sprechen. ist es der Tod ... Thomas Bernhard. arguably the most controversial and most important Austrian writer in the postwar period, is dead. Finally. one might claim, he has caught up with his major theme: death. Or, better perhaps, it has caught up with him

Artistic explorations of the brain

The symbiotic relationships between art and the brain begin with the obvious fact that brain mechanisms underlie the creation and appreciation of art. Conversely, many spectacular images of neural structures have remarkable aesthetic appeal. But beyond its fascinating forms, the many functions performed by brain mechanisms provide a profound subject for aesthetic exploration. Complex interactions in the tangled neural networks in our brain miraculously generate coherent behavior and cognition. Neuroscientists tackle these phenomena with specialized methodologies that limit the scope of exposition and are comprehensible to an initiated minority. Artists can perform an end run around these limitations by representing the brain's remarkable functions in a manner that can communicate to a wide and receptive audience. This paper explores the ways that brain mechanisms can provide a largely untapped subject for artistic exploration

Correlation-based model of artificially induced plasticity in motor cortex by a bidirectional brain-computer interface

Experiments show that spike-triggered stimulation performed with Bidirectional Brain-Computer-Interfaces (BBCI) can artificially strengthen connections between separate neural sites in motor cortex (MC). What are the neuronal mechanisms responsible for these changes and how does targeted stimulation by a BBCI shape population-level synaptic connectivity? The present work describes a recurrent neural network model with probabilistic spiking mechanisms and plastic synapses capable of capturing both neural and synaptic activity statistics relevant to BBCI conditioning protocols. When spikes from a neuron recorded at one MC site trigger stimuli at a second target site after a fixed delay, the connections between sites are strengthened for spike-stimulus delays consistent with experimentally derived spike time dependent plasticity (STDP) rules. However, the relationship between STDP mechanisms at the level of networks, and their modification with neural implants remains poorly understood. Using our model, we successfully reproduces key experimental results and use analytical derivations, along with novel experimental data. We then derive optimal operational regimes for BBCIs, and formulate predictions concerning the efficacy of spike-triggered stimulation in different regimes of cortical activity.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figure

A diversidade dos sotaques: o Inglês e as Ciências Sociais

In this new article, Renato Ortiz develops an archeology of the concepts of "linguistics" and "language," with the aim of understanding the social position of the English language in the spheres of society, science, and especially the social sciences. Assuming that all languages are equally able to describe reality, the author critically analyzes the "superiority" of the English language compared to all the other languages. In the wake of the universality / diversity dichotomy, Ortiz intends to interpret the English language as an element of the market of symbolic goods. By observing the predominance of the English language in science, he questions the dominant role of this language in the social sciences, which is characterized, if not by the constitution of a universal knowledge, by the development of a cosmopolitan knowledge.Neste novo trabalho, Renato Ortiz desenvolve uma arqueologia dos conceitos "linguística" e "língua" com o objetivo de compreender a posição social da língua inglesa nas esferas da sociedade, da ciência e, especialmente, das ciências sociais. Partindo do pressuposto de que todas as línguas têm igual capacidade para representar a realidade, o autor analisa criticamente a "superioridade" da língua inglesa frente a todas as outras línguas. No rastro da dicotomia universalidade/diversidade, Ortiz busca interpretar a língua inglesa como um elemento do mercado de bens simbólicos. Ao observar a predominância da língua inglesa nas ciências, questiona o papel dominante desse idioma nas ciências sociais, e se caracteriza, se não pela constituição de um saber universal, pelo desenvolvimento de um saber cosmopolita.