The Effect of Incumbent Bidding in Set-Aside Auctions: An Analysis of Prices in the Closed and Open Segments of FCC Auction 35

This paper examines the impact of an incumbent carrier’s participation in two simultaneously conducted auctions: one set-aside for non-incumbents and one open to all carriers. This paper estimates the extent to which prices in the closed auction were inflated by the participation of incumbents. This paper also estimates what prices would have been in the open auction had incumbents been excluded from bidding in the closed. It is found that an incumbent’s participation in the closed auction through a front, Alaska Native, enabled it to win more licenses at lower prices in FCC Auction 35. In contrast, non-incumbents won fewer licenses and paid more for what they won. The econometric techniques employed here to estimate prices in a “but for” world could be replicated in future damage analysis. Finally, this paper suggests an alternative method of screening bidders seeking access to set-aside auctions that would be consistent with the FCC’s goal of promoting competition in the wireless industry.Auctions, spectrum auctions, market design

Reliability and Validity of Ratings of Perceived Exertion in Persons With Multiple Sclerosis

Objective: To test the reliability and validity of using the Borg rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale (ratings 6e20) in persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Design: Nonrandomized repeated measures. Setting: Research laboratory. Participants: Volunteer sample (N=27) comprised of 16 PwMS (10 women) and 11 age-matched persons without multiple sclerosis (MS) (6 women). Clinical measures included symptomatic fatigue, depression, and MS functional capacity. Interventions: A submaximal cycling test was performed to estimate maximal capacity. Participants then pedaled for 2 minutes at 50% and 60% of predicted maximal oxygen consumption per unit time (V̇O2), and physiological measures and RPE were obtained (week 1: response protocol). One week later, participants replicated the prescribed V̇O2 using the RPE range from week 1 (week 2: reproduction protocol). V̇O2, heart rate, and respiratory quotient were measured continuously; RPE and workload were measured every minute; and blood lactate and mean arterial pressure were measured after exercise. Main Outcome Measures: RPE, workload, V̇O2, and heart rate from week 1 to week 2. Results: PwMS had greater fatigue (P2, and heart rate were similar between groups. Both groups had an intraclass correlation coefficient \u3e.86 for RPE, workload, and V̇O2. The intraclass correlation coefficient was comparatively lower for heart rate for both groups (MS group: .72, non-MS group: .83). RPE was highly correlated with V̇O2(rZ.691, P Conclusions: Results suggest that RPE can be reliably reproduced, is valid, and may be used in exercise prescription in mildly to moderately impaired PwMS during cycling exercise

Development of rotorcraft interior noise control concepts. Phase 3: Development of noise control concepts

The goal of this research is the understanding of helicopter internal noise mechanisms and the development, design, and testing of noise control concepts which will produce significant reductions in the acoustic environment to which passengers are exposed. The Phase 3 effort involved the identification and evaluation of current and advanced treatment concepts, including isolation of structure-borne paths. In addition, a plan was devised for the full-scale evaluation of an isolation concept. Specific objectives were as follows: (1) identification and characterization of various noise control concepts; (2) implementation of noise control concepts within the S-76 SEA (statistical energy analysis) model; (3) definition and evaluation of a preliminary acoustic isolation design to reduce structure-borne transmission of acoustic frequency main gearbox gear clash vibrations into the airframe; (4) formulation of a plan for the full-scale validation of the isolation concept; and (5) prediction of the cabin noise environment with various noise control concepts installed

The Land Conservation Plan for New Hampshire\u27s Coastal Watershed

Spanning 990 square miles and 46 towns, New Hampshire’s coastal watersheds harbor exceptional and irreplaceable natural, cultural, recreational and scenic resources (Figure 1). To advance the long-term protection of these resources, the State of New Hampshire, acting through the NH Coastal Program and the NH Estuaries Project, sought to develop a comprehensive, science-based land conservation plan for our coastal watersheds. The State engaged a partnership of The Nature Conservancy, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Rockingham Planning Commission, and Strafford Regional Planning Commission to develop the plan. The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Piscataqua Region supported this effort as a regional approach to setting land conservation priorities and strategies, and provided substantial matching funds. Southeastern New Hampshire is changing before our eyes. The region’s forests, wildlife habitat, clean water, and scenic vistas are increasingly threatened by sprawling development, roads, and other irreversible land use changes. Over the past 36 years, in Rockingham and Strafford Counties, an average of 2,230 acres per year has been converted from undeveloped land to a developed condition. And there is no indication that the pace of development will slow in the foreseeable future. The two Counties are projected to add more than 100,000 new residents from 2000 to 2025, and land values continue to rise steeply. With this conversion comes the loss of important natural resource values provided by undeveloped land, especially for plant and wildlife habitat, clean water, and other “ecological services.” To ensure a healthy environment into the future, it is essential that communities identify, retain, and protect the remaining undeveloped lands and waters that support the most important of these natural resource values and functions. Fortunately, it is not too late to protect the essential natural resources of Great Bay, Hampton Harbor, and the many important watersheds feeding into New Hampshire’s coastline. Thanks to the foresight and dedicated efforts of communities, citizens, conservation organizations and public agencies, more than nine percent of our coastal watersheds are permanently conserved. Many municipalities and communities have embraced land conservation through open space bonds, master plans, and local ordinances. New federal funds, such as the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation program, are available for conservation in the coastal watersheds. These protected lands and waters form the basis of a network of conservation areas that will help to safeguard our most critical natural resources over time. Now, more than ever, coastal New Hampshire communities need to ensure that they are making smart, enduring conservation investments in land protection and other effective local and regional strategies to have the greatest and most long-lasting beneficial impact on coastal Now, more than ever, coastal New Hampshire communities need to ensure that they are making smart, enduring conservation investments in land protection and other effective local and regional strategies to have the greatest and most long-lasting beneficial impact on coasta

License prices for financially constrained firms

It is often alleged that high auction prices inhibit service deployment. We investigate this claim under the extreme case of financially constrained bidders. If demand is just slightly elastic, auctions maximize consumer surplus if consumer surplus is a convex function of quantity (a common assumption), or if consumer surplus is concave and the proportion of expenditure spent on deployment is greater than one over the elasticity of demand. The latter condition appears to be true for most of the large telecom auctions in the US and Europe. Thus, even if high auction prices inhibit service deployment, auctions appear to be optimal from the consumers’ point of view

Multiwavelength study of the high-latitude cloud L1642: chain of star formation

L1642 is one of the two high galactic latitude (|b| > 30deg) clouds confirmed to have active star formation. We examine the properties of this cloud, especially the large-scale structure, dust properties, and compact sources in different stages of star formation. We present high-resolution far-infrared and submm observations with the Herschel and AKARI satellites and mm observations with the AzTEC/ASTE telescope, which we combined with archive data from near- and mid-infrared (2MASS, WISE) to mm observations (Planck). The Herschel observations, combined with other data, show a sequence of objects from a cold clump to young stellar objects at different evolutionary stages. Source B-3 (2MASS J04351455-1414468) appears to be a YSO forming inside the L1642 cloud, instead of a foreground brown dwarf, as previously classified. Herschel data reveal striation in the diffuse dust emission around L1642. The western region shows striation towards NE and has a steeper column density gradient on its southern side. The densest central region has a bow-shock like structure showing compression from the west and a filamentary tail extending towards east. The differences suggest that these may be spatially distinct structures, aligned only in projection. We derive values of the dust emission cross-section per H nucleon for different regions of the cloud. Modified black-body fits to the spectral energy distribution of Herschel and Planck data give emissivity spectral index beta values 1.8-2.0 for the different regions. The compact sources have lower beta values and show an anticorrelation between T and beta. Markov chain Monte Carlo calculations demonstrate the strong anticorrelation between beta and T errors and the importance of mm Planck data in constraining the estimates. L1642 reveals a more complex structure and sequence of star formation than previously known.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, accepted to Astronomy & Astrophysics; abstract shortened and figures reduced for astrop

Plasma Physics

Contains reports on five research projects.United States Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30-1)-1842)Project MACAdvanced Research Agency, Department of Defense, under Office of Naval Research Contract Nonr-4102(01

Chaos in Time Dependent Variational Approximations to Quantum Dynamics

Dynamical chaos has recently been shown to exist in the Gaussian approximation in quantum mechanics and in the self-consistent mean field approach to studying the dynamics of quantum fields. In this study, we first show that any variational approximation to the dynamics of a quantum system based on the Dirac action principle leads to a classical Hamiltonian dynamics for the variational parameters. Since this Hamiltonian is generically nonlinear and nonintegrable, the dynamics thus generated can be chaotic, in distinction to the exact quantum evolution. We then restrict attention to a system of two biquadratically coupled quantum oscillators and study two variational schemes, the leading order large N (four canonical variables) and Hartree (six canonical variables) approximations. The chaos seen in the approximate dynamics is an artifact of the approximations: this is demonstrated by the fact that its onset occurs on the same characteristic time scale as the breakdown of the approximations when compared to numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.Comment: 10 pages (12 figures), RevTeX (plus macro), uses epsf, minor typos correcte

EcoCyc: a comprehensive database resource for Escherichia coli

The EcoCyc database (http://EcoCyc.org/) is a comprehensive source of information on the biology of the prototypical model organism Escherichia coli K12. The mission for EcoCyc is to contain both computable descriptions of, and detailed comments describing, all genes, proteins, pathways and molecular interactions in E.coli. Through ongoing manual curation, extensive information such as summary comments, regulatory information, literature citations and evidence types has been extracted from 8862 publications and added to Version 8.5 of the EcoCyc database. The EcoCyc database can be accessed through a World Wide Web interface, while the downloadable Pathway Tools software and data files enable computational exploration of the data and provide enhanced querying capabilities that web interfaces cannot support. For example, EcoCyc contains carefully curated information that can be used as training sets for bioinformatics prediction of entities such as promoters, operons, genetic networks, transcription factor binding sites, metabolic pathways, functionally related genes, protein complexes and protein–ligand interactions