Platform Competition and Broadband Uptake: Theory and Empirical Evidence from the European Union

Broadband access provides users with high speed, always-on connectivity to the Internet. Due to its superiority, broadband is seen as the way for consumers and firms to exploit the great potentials of new applications. This has generated a policy debate on how to stimulate adoption of broadband technology. One of the most disputed issues is about competition policies: these may be intended to promote competition in the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) segment of the market (intra- platform competition), or to stimulate entry into the market for alternative platforms such as cable access or fiber optics (inter- platform competition). Using a model of oligopoly competition between differentiated products, our paper explicitly studies the effect of inter and intra platform competition on the diffusion of broadband access. The implications of the model are then tested using data from 14 European countries. The econometric evidence confirms the results of the theoretical model and indicates that while inter-platform competition drives broadband adoption, competition in the market for DSL services does not play a significant role. The results also confirm that lower unbundling prices stimulate broadband uptake.Broadband, inter-platform and intra-platform competition,local loop unbundling

Platform Competition and Broadband Uptake: Theory and Empirical Evidence from the European Union

Broadband access provides users with high speed, always-on connectivity to the Internet. Due to its superiority, broadband is seen as the way for consumers and firms to exploit the great potentials of new applications. This has generated a policy debate on how to stimulate adoption of broadband technology. One of the most disputed issues is about competition policies: these may be intended to promote competition in the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) segment of the market (intra- platform competition), or to stimulate entry into the market for alternative platforms such as cable access or fiber optics (inter- platform competition). Using a model of oligopoly competition between differentiated products, our paper explicitly studies the effect of inter and intra platform competition on the diffusion of broadband access. The implications of the model are then tested using data from 14 European countries. The econometric evidence confirms the results of the theoretical model and indicates that while inter-platform competition drives broadband adoption, competition in the market for DSL services does not play a significant role. The results also confirm that lower unbundling prices stimulate broadband uptake.Broadband, inter-platform and intra-platform competition, local loop unbundling

Temporary caging results in reduced levels of circulating melatonin in migratory robins.

The hormone melatonin, a main component of the avian circadian system, plays an important role in the physiological transitions that accompany the activation of the migratory phenotype in passerine birds. Most small passerines migrate at night when circulating concentrations of melatonin are elevated. Previous work measured nocturnal melatonin levels of migratory birds only in captive animals, because free-living individuals are usually caught at day time. In this study, we compared nocturnal melatonin levels of European robins (Erithacus rubecula) caught during the day and held in cages overnight with those of birds that were caught at night and sampled immediately. We found that circulating melatonin at night was lower in birds held in cages compared to birds that were actively migrating. This result suggests that temporary caging affects the melatonin system and that in nature melatonin levels could be generally higher than those previously described by studies on captive birds

Casa della memoria

The House of Memory is a house, a collective house in which Milanese citizens hope to find protection for the memories they want to preserve. Nobody inhabits this house, and in this case the word house is understood as an envelope, a protected space, or a shelter that crystallizes memory within the flow of the metropolis. So the house becomes an object to be both protected and exhibited, a treasury to be surrounded with an envelope that both defends and exposes its content. Stefano Graziani’s photographs depict the construction of the building, while the texts by Howard Burns, Jean-Louis Cohen and Kersten Geers try to interpret its significance in the context of contemporary architecture. The book includes a complete set of drawings of the building. AUTHORS Howard Burns is a 1961 graduate of Ancient and Modern History from Cambridge University where he was a King’s College Fellow. He later taught art and architectural history at the Courtauld Institute in London and held the titles of Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at King’s College. He was the Robert C. and Marian K. Weinberg Professor of Architecture at Harvard University, Professor at the University IUAV in Venice, Visiting Professor at MIT and Senior Lecturer in the History of Architecture at Harvard University. Jean-Louis Cohen is Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. From 1997 to 2003 he directed the Institut Français d’Architecture and the Musée des Monuments Français. He has been a curator for numerous exhibitions including The Lost Vanguard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2007) and Scenes of the World to Come and Architecture in Uniform at the Canadian Center for Architecture (1995 and 2011). In 2014, he was the curator of the French pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Since 2014 he is a professor at the Collège de France. Kersten Geers is a founding partner of OFFICE KGDVS. He was professor at the University of Ghent, and visiting professor at Columbia University, NYC, and the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio (CH), and is currently teaching at the EPFL, Lausanne (CH) and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Stefano Graziani is a photographer. He has worked and published di erent portfolios for Domus, A+U, Numero Press, Camera Austria, Log, Repubblica, Cross, FlashArt Italia, Abitare, Monopol Magazine, Marsilio. His work has been exhibited at Fondazione Ragghianti (2006), GC.AC Monfalcone (2006/2009), Festival della Filoso a, Modena (2006), Villa Manin Centro d’arte Contemporanea (2007), Manifesta 7, and at the XIII, XIV and XV Venice Biennale (2012, 2014, 2016)

Design or Extinction

L’ultimo capitolo di Vers une architecture s’intitola Architecture ou Révolution. Per Le Corbusier, nel 1923, le cose sono chiare: c’è una possibile rivoluzione e una architettura che potrebbe evitarla. La narrazione è una, il processo è uno, e i suoi possibili sviluppi sono due: una ottusa resistenza che provocherà una catastrofe, oppure una consapevole adesione. È lo stesso paradigma che definisce la storia europea dal 1789 al 1989: la reazione allo spirito del tempo distingue progressisti e conservatori, chi abbraccia le trasformazioni della modernità contro chi tenta di resistervi. L’urgenza delle scelte è tutta basata sul tempo: qualcosa di nuovo s’a accia sulla scena, e a questa novità bisogna reagire. La soluzione corretta si riduce a una sola mossa, un solo progetto, sempre nettamente opposto a un’alternativa in tut- to contraria.The last chapter of “Vers une architecture” is titled “Architecture ou Révolution”. For Le Corbusier, in 1923, matters were clear : there was a possible revolution and an architecture that could avert it. There was one narration, one process, with two possible developments: an obtuse resist- ance that would cause a catastrophe, or a conscious acceptance. It was the same paradigm that defines European history from 1789 to 1989: the reaction to the spirit of the times distinguished progressives from conservatives, those who embraced the trans- formations of modernity, and those who attempted to resist them. The urgency of these choices was all based on time: something new that would appear on the scene, a novelty calling for a reaction. The correct solution boiled down to one move and one design only, always sharply opposed to a totally contrary alternative

Public Ambitions

Italy Under Construction Buildings, Landscapes, Positions in Contemporary Italian Architecture In a globalized yet fragmented world, how can architecture reevaluate its cultural and political role and enable practises of identification and belonging? What role does architecture occupy in shaping the relationship between regional cultures and international forces? Between the global hunger for the architectural icon and claims for the authenticity of regional craftsmanship, what is the architect’s agency within and against contemporary modes of architectural production? Italy Under Construction is a new programme of exhibitions and lectures on contemporary architecture in Italy. Presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto, the series investigates contemporary architectural practice and its interaction with culture, cities, and landscapes. The programme will bring together emerging and established voices from the architectural community, both from Italy and North America. With Toronto serving as a venue for transatlantic exchange, we hope to open a conversation on the relevance of new architecture in Italy within a broader discussion on architectural design challenges in a globalized world. Italy Under Construction will run for three years and host two exhibitions per year- the first will open in the fall of 2015 and the second in spring 2016. The fall series of exhibitions will focus on a pair of established architects, initiating a dialogue between different approaches to research, local context, and national processes. The spring exhibition is thematic in nature and will present new buildings from a selected group of architects organized around pressing contemporary issues such as the ambitions and opportunities of building public architecture, housing and urbanism, and the domestic landscapes of the private house

Massive black holes from dissipative dark matter

We show that a subdominant component of dissipative dark matter resembling the Standard Model can form many intermediate-mass black hole seeds during the first structure formation epoch. We also observe that, in the presence of this matter sector, the black holes will grow at a much faster rate with respect to the ordinary case. These facts can explain the observed abundance of supermassive black holes feeding high-redshift quasars. The scenario will have interesting observational consequences for dark substructures and gravitational wave production

Transmittance and reflectance measurements at terahertz frequencies on a superconducting BaFe_{1.84}Co_{0.16}As_2 ultrathin film: an analysis of the optical gaps in the Co-doped BaFe_2As_2 pnictide

Here we report an optical investigation in the terahertz region of a 40 nm ultrathin BaFe$_{1.84}$Co$_{0.16}$As$_2$ superconducting film with superconducting transition temperature T$_c$ = 17.5 K. A detailed analysis of the combined reflectance and transmittance measurements showed that the optical properties of the superconducting system can be described in terms of a two-band, two-gap model. The zero temperature value of the large gap $\Delta_B$, which seems to follow a BCS-like behavior, results to be $\Delta_B$(0) = 17 cm$^{-1}$. For the small gap, for which $\Delta_A$(0) = 8 cm$^{-1}$, the temperature dependence cannot be clearly established. These gap values and those reported in the literature for the BaFe$_{2-x}$Co$_{x}$As$_2$ system by using infrared spectroscopy, when put together as a function of T$_c$, show a tendency to cluster along two main curves, providing a unified perspective of the measured optical gaps. Below a temperature around 20 K, the gap-sizes as a function of T$_c$ seem to have a BCS-like linear behavior, but with different slopes. Above this temperature, both gaps show different supra-linear behaviors

Analysis of multi-year near-surface ozone observations at the WMO/GAW "Concordia" station (75°06′S, 123°20′E, 3280 m a.s.l. – Antarctica)

Abstract This work focuses on the near-surface O3 variability over the eastern Antarctic Plateau. In particular, eight years (2006–2013) of continuous observations at the WMO/GAW contributing station "Concordia" (Dome C–DMC: 75°06′S, 123°20′E, 3280 m) are presented, in the framework of the Italian Antarctic Research Programme (PNRA). First, the characterization of seasonal and diurnal O3 variability at DMC is provided. Then, for the period of highest data coverage (2008–2013), we investigated the role of specific atmospheric processes in affecting near-surface summer O3 variability, when O3 enhancement events (OEEs) are systematically observed at DMC (average monthly frequency peaking up to 60% in December). As deduced by a statistical selection methodology, these OEEs are affected by a significant interannual variability, both in their average O3 values and in their frequency. To explain part of this variability, we analyzed OEEs as a function of specific atmospheric variables and processes: (i) total column of O3 (TCO) and UV-A irradiance, (ii) long-range transport of air masses over the Antarctic Plateau (by Lagrangian back-trajectory analysis – LAGRANTO), (iii) occurrence of "deep" stratospheric intrusion events (by using the Lagrangian tool STLEFLUX). The overall near-surface O3 variability at DMC is controlled by a day-to-day pattern, which strongly points towards a dominating influence of processes occurring at "synoptic" scales rather than "local" processes. Even if previous studies suggested an inverse relationship between OEEs and TCO, we found a slight tendency for the annual frequency of OEEs to be higher when TCO values are higher over DMC. The annual occurrence of OEEs at DMC seems related to the total time spent by air masses over the Antarctic plateau before their arrival to DMC, suggesting the accumulation of photochemically-produced O3 during the transport, rather than a more efficient local production. Moreover, the identification of recent (i.e., 4-day old) stratospheric intrusion events by STEFLUX suggested only a minor influence (up to 3% of the period, in November) of "deep" events on the variability of near-surface summer O3 at DMC