7,120 research outputs found
The pricing dynamics of utilities with underdeveloped networks
This paper uses an analytically tractable intertemporal framework for analyzing the dynamic pricing of a utility with an underdeveloped network (a typical case in most developing countries) facing a competitive fringe, short-run network adjustment costs, theft of service, and the threat of a retaliatory regulatory review that is increasing with the price it charges. This simple dynamic optimization model yields a number of powerful policy insights and conclusions. Under a variety of plausible assumptions (in the context of developing countries) the utility will find its long-run profits enhanced if it exercises restraint in the early stages of network development by holding price below the limit defined by the unit costs of the fringe. The utility's optimal price gradually converges toward the limit price as its network expands. Moreover, when the utility is threatened with retaliatory regulatory intervention, it will generally have incentives to restrain its pricing behavior. These findings have important implications for the design of post-privatization regulatory governance in developing countries.Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Urban Water Supply and Sanitation,Infrastructure Regulation,Access to Markets
Quantum Walk on a Line with Two Entangled Particles
We introduce the concept of a quantum walk with two particles and study it
for the case of a discrete time walk on a line. A quantum walk with more than
one particle may contain entanglement, thus offering a resource unavailable in
the classical scenario and which can present interesting advantages. In this
work, we show how the entanglement and the relative phase between the states
describing the coin degree of freedom of each particle will influence the
evolution of the quantum walk. In particular, the probability to find at least
one particle in a certain position after steps of the walk, as well as the
average distance between the two particles, can be larger or smaller than the
case of two unentangled particles, depending on the initial conditions we
choose. This resource can then be tuned according to our needs, in particular
to enhance a given application (algorithmic or other) based on a quantum walk.
Experimental implementations are briefly discussed
Spin-Space Entanglement Transfer and Quantum Statistics
Both the topics of entanglement and particle statistics have aroused enormous
research interest since the advent of quantum mechanics. Using two pairs of
entangled particles we show that indistinguishability enforces a transfer of
entanglement from the internal to the spatial degrees of freedom without any
interaction between these degrees of freedom. Moreover, sub-ensembles selected
by local measurements of the path will in general have different amounts of
entanglement in the internal degrees of freedom depending on the statistics
(either fermionic or bosonic) of the particles involved.Comment: 5 figures. Various changes for clarification and references adde
Electronic Properties of Strained Si/Ge Core-Shell Nanowires
We investigated the electronic properties of strained Si/Ge core-shell
nanowires along the [110] direction using first principles calculations based
on density-functional theory. The diameter of the studied core-shell wire is up
to 5 nm. We found the band gap of the core-shell wire is smaller than that of
both pure Si and Ge wires with the same diameter. This reduced band gap is
ascribed to the intrinsic strain between Ge and Si layers, which partially
counters the quantum confinement effect. The external strain is further applied
to the nanowires for tuning the band structure and band gap. By applying
sufficient tensile strain, we found the band gap of Si-core/Ge-shell nanowire
with diameter larger than ~3 nm experiences a transition from direct to
indirect gap.Comment: 4 figure
Employee attitudes as a mediator between HRM and organizational performance
Attitude is a power that controls human behaviour. When employee Attitude is positive, it can give impact positive to organization performance. A proper human resource management (HRM) managed by organization, the employee attitude will be affected. HRM practices influence employee attitude positively and there is a mediating role of employee attitude between training and development dimension of HRM practices and organizational performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore employee atttiude as a mediator between HRM and organizational performance. A sample of this study was 219 respondents from employee construction in Libya. The data was analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. This study showed that employee attitudes is a full mediator between relationship HRM and organizational performance. Therefore, HRM practices influence employee attitude and its give impact to organizational performance for more effective and efficient in achieving organization goal
Optimal State Discrimination Using Particle Statistics
We present an application of particle statistics to the problem of optimal
ambiguous discrimination of quantum states. The states to be discriminated are
encoded in the internal degrees of freedom of identical particles, and we use
the bunching and antibunching of the external degrees of freedom to
discriminate between various internal states. We show that we can achieve the
optimal single-shot discrimination probability using only the effects of
particle statistics. We discuss interesting applications of our method to
detecting entanglement and purifying mixed states. Our scheme can easily be
implemented with the current technology
Recognizing Graph Theoretic Properties with Polynomial Ideals
Many hard combinatorial problems can be modeled by a system of polynomial
equations. N. Alon coined the term polynomial method to describe the use of
nonlinear polynomials when solving combinatorial problems. We continue the
exploration of the polynomial method and show how the algorithmic theory of
polynomial ideals can be used to detect k-colorability, unique Hamiltonicity,
and automorphism rigidity of graphs. Our techniques are diverse and involve
Nullstellensatz certificates, linear algebra over finite fields, Groebner
bases, toric algebra, convex programming, and real algebraic geometry.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure
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