How impact fees and local planning regulation can influence deployment of telecoms infrastructure

This paper examines how local government planning regulations and charges affect the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure. We explore the economic rationale for local government regulation of such infrastructure, which we suggest should be based on managing negative externalities. Using data from Ireland, we find that the observed geographical pattern of impact fees is inconsistent with the economic rationale for them. A simple econometric model of the number of telecoms masts in each country also suggests that the level of impact fees is negatively associated with mast deployment. This paper also examines other regulatory factors that affect the provision of new infrastructure. We find wide regional variation in these regulations but are unableto quantify their impact on infrastructure provision. Such regulatory complexity places extra compliance burdens on private operators, which may in turn distort the level and regional pattern of network investment. We suggest further regional harmonisation of development policy towards telecoms infrastructure to avoid exacerbating regional disparities in rollout of services. --Land use regulation,telecommunications infrastructure investment,impact fees

Some results on surfaces with p_g=q=1 and K^2=2

Following an idea of Ishida, we develop polynomial equations for certain unramified double covers of surfaces with p_g=q=1 and K^2=2. Our first main result provides an explicit surface surface X with these invariants defined over Q that has Picard number 2, which is the smallest possible for these surfaces. This is done by giving equations for the double cover Y of X, calculating the zeta function of the reduction of Y to F_3, and extracting from this the zeta function of the reduction of X to F_3; the basic idea used in this process may also be of independent interest. Our second main result is a big monodromy theorem for a family that contains all surfaces with p_g=q=1, K^2=2, and K is ample. It follows from this that a certain Hodge correspondence of Kuga and Satake, between such a surface and an abelian variety, is motivated (and hence absolute Hodge). This allows us to deduce our third main result, which is that the Tate Conjecture in characteristic zero holds for all surfaces with p_g=q=1, K^2=2, and K ample.Comment: 27 pages. Revised version with title change. To appear in Int. Math. Res. No

Pharmaceuticals Delivery in Ireland. Getting a Bigger Bang for the Buck

Ireland

Use Cases for Abnormal Behaviour Detection in Smart Homes

While people have many ideas about how a smart home should react to particular behaviours from their inhabitant, there seems to have been relatively little attempt to organise this systematically. In this paper, we attempt to rectify this in consideration of context awareness and novelty detection for a smart home that monitors its inhabitant for illness and unexpected behaviour. We do this through the concept of the Use Case, which is used in software engineering to specify the behaviour of a system. We describe a set of scenarios and the possible outputs that the smart home could give and introduce the SHMUC Repository of Smart Home Use Cases. Based on this, we can consider how probabilistic and logic-based reasoning systems would produce different capabilities

Power-recycled weak-value-based metrology

We improve the precision of the interferometric weak-value-based beam deflection measurement by introducing a power recycling mirror, creating a resonant cavity. This results in \emph{all} the light exiting to the detector with a large deflection, thus eliminating the inefficiency of the rare postselection. The signal-to-noise ratio of the deflection is itself magnified by the weak value. We discuss ways to realize this proposal, using a transverse beam filter and different cavity designs.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur