Regulatory authorities in the EU information and communications technology sectors: The role of trust and transparency in watching the watchdog

Our research starts from the general observation that everywhere around the globe, an increasing number of regulatory tasks, traditionally falling under the responsibility of government, are being transferred to so-called independent regulatory authorities (i.e. independent from market actors, but quite often, also from political actors). This is, for instance, the case in the recently liberalized network industries (e.g. energy, railways), but also in the financial or the audiovisual media sector. In some cases (e.g. the electronic communications sector in the European Union), powers attributed to these regulatory authorities even prevent other, more democratically legitimate, institutions, like governments or parliaments, to interfere with the regulatory policy (cf. Judgment 424/07 of the Court of Justice in the German regulatory holidays case of December 3rd, 2009). Especially in that case, the question becomes: who's watching the watchdog? --Independent regulatory bodies,regulation,media and communications law

The Devil's long tail: religious moderation and extremism on the Web

In this article, we examine Chris Anderson's theory of the long tail with regard not to an economic market, but rather to the competitive marketplace of ideas. In a religious context, we interpret the long-tail theory as predicting that the Web will allow extreme or strict sects to flourish in an unprecedented way by helping proponents cater to the long tail online. If this is true, it threatens the orthodox understanding of the dynamics of religious extremism. It would also undermine the associated idea that groups’ convergence on the middle ground of religious beliefs cultivates and is cultivated by liberal civic virtues. If radical groups can flourish while preaching virtues diametrically opposed to liberalism, freedom of religion might not be so good for liberalism after all

Democracy, Ideology and Process Re-Engineering: Realising the Benefits of e-Government in Singapore

The re-engineering of governmental processes is a necessary condition for the realisation of the benefits of e-government. Several obstacles to such re-engineering exist. These include: (1) information processing thrives on transparency and amalgamation of data, whilst governments are constrained by principles of privacy and data separation; (2) top-down re-engineering may be resisted effectively from the bottom up. This paper analyses these obstacles in the way of re-engineering in Singapore – a democratic one-party state where legislative and executive power lies with the People’s Action Party – and considers how that hegemony has aided the development of e-government

Regulatory reform in the UK gas market: the case of the storage auction

The UK gas industry has undergone major changes since it was privatised in 1986 as a fully integrated monopoly. The most significant of these has occurred not as a result of the privatisation legislation but by the intervention of the ordinary competition authorities in support of an active industry regulator. While price capping continues to be used as the primary instrument for welfare protection against the still substantial monopolistic powers of the incumbent, new competition (which has been positively encouraged) has had the greater impact on prices and choice. Recently, however, the regulator has encouraged the use of auctions for the sale of storage capacity. This paper considers the merits of auctions and makes a tentative evaluation of their effectiveness. Further use of auctions is recommended but reserve prices are considered inappropriate where monopoly power still remains.

Covers for self-dual supercuspidal representations of the Siegel Levi subgroup of classical p-adic groups

We study components of the Bernstein category for a p-adic classical group (with p odd) with inertial support a self-dual positive level supercuspidal representation of a Siegel Levi subgroup. More precisely, we use the method of covers to construct a Bushnell-Kutzko type for such a component. A detailed knowledge of the Hecke algebra of the type should have number-theoretic implications.Comment: 22 page

Predicting X-ray emission from wind-blown bubbles - Limitations of fits to ROSAT spectra

Wind-blown bubbles, from those around massive O and Wolf-Rayet stars, to superbubbles around OB associations and galactic winds in starburst galaxies, have a dominant role in determining the structure of the Interstellar Medium. X-ray observations of these bubbles are particularly important as most of their volume is taken up with hot gas, 1E5 < T (K) < 1E8. However, it is difficult to compare X-ray observations, usually analysed in terms of single or two temperature spectral model fits, with theoretical models, as real bubbles do not have such simple temperature distributions. In this introduction to a series of papers detailing the observable X-ray properties of wind-blown bubbles, we describe our method with which we aim to solve this problem, analysing a simulation of a wind-blown bubble around a massive star. We model a wind of constant mass and energy injection rate, blowing into a uniform ISM, from which we calculate X-ray spectra as would be seen by the ROSAT PSPC. We compare the properties of the bubble as would be inferred from the ROSAT data with the true properties of the bubble in the simulation. We find standard spectral models yield inferred properties that deviate significantly from the true properties, even though the spectral fits are statistically acceptable, and give no indication that they do not represent to true spectral distribution. Our results suggest that in any case where the true source spectrum does not come from a simple single or two temperature distribution the "observed" X-ray properties cannot naively be used to infer the true properties.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX with 13 eps figures, condensed abstract. MNRAS in pres

Rigidity of p-adic cohomology classes of congruence subgroups of GL(n, Z)

We extend the work of Ash and Stevens [Ash-Stevens 97] on p-adic analytic families of p-ordinary arithmetic cohomology classes for GL(N,Q) by introducing and investigating the concept of p-adic rigidity of arithmetic Hecke eigenclasses. An arithmetic eigenclass is said to be "rigid" if (modulo twisting) it does not admit a nontrivial p-adic deformation containing a Zariski dense set of arithmetic specializations. This paper develops tools for explicit investigation into the structure of eigenvarieties for GL(N). We use these tools to prove that known examples of non-sefldual cohomological cuspforms for GL(3) are rigid. Moreover, we conjecture that for GL(3), rigidity is equivalent to non-selfduality.Comment: 23 page

Developing and modelling complex social interventions: introducing the Connecting People Intervention

Objectives: Modeling the processes involved in complex social interventions is important in social work practice, as it facilitates their implementation and translation into different contexts. This article reports the process of developing and modeling the connecting people intervention (CPI), a model of practice that supports people with mental health problems to enhance their social networks. Method: The CPI model was developed through an iterative process of focus group discussions with practitioners and service users and a two-stage Delphi consultation with relevant experts. Results: We discuss the intervention model and the processes it articulates to provide an example of the benefits of intervention modeling. Conclusions: Intervention modeling provides a visual representation of the process and outcomes of an intervention, which can assist practice development and lead to improved outcomes for service users

Monte Carlo algorithm for the evaluation of the distance estimation variance in RSS-based visible light positioning

In this work, the Monte Carlo algorithm to determine the variance on the distance estimation in Received Signal Strength-based visible light positioning is considered. The method is build on the maximization of the signal-to-noise-ratio by means of matched filtering, and leads to a number of characteristics that are typically only obtained after intensive analytical elaborations. It is shown that the results match those obtained by calculating the Cramer-Rao lower bound when only the noise is considered as non-deterministic. It is demonstrated that the method is also applicable when multiple physical parameters exhibit a probability distribution, leading to an assessment of the distance estimation accuracy in more realistic settings