Towards Implementation of the European Union Telecom Code: Ex Ante Reflections

Promoting connectivity to very high capacity networks is one of the objectives of the new EU Telecom Code. The review of the Telecom Framework is one of the pillars of the EU Digital Single Market Strategy. The Telecom Code broadens the scope of regulation and introduces new forms of market regulation in order to pursue the EU connectivity objectives.This article explores the ex ante regulation in the Telecom Code as well as its changed context. The goals and scope of the Telecom Code as well as the main tools for regulation are discussed in the second section. The third section describes the system of ex ante regulation as it has been developed under the Telecom Framework and adjusted in the Telecom Code. The fourth section explains the conditions for imposing ex ante regulations, taking into account the connectivity goals of the Telecom Code. As the context of applying ex ante regulation has also changed due to new forms of market regulations, the fifth section explores what this will mean for the application of ex ante regulation. In the sixth section the proposals for ex ante regulation as a means to regulate other markets of the Digital Economy are evaluated from the perspective of the experience with ex ante regulation in the electronic communications sector.The progression of EU law: Accommodating change and upholding value

Achter de schermen van het telecommunicatierecht. Bereikbaarheid langs het meetlint: over regulering, concurrentie en maatschappelijke belangen

Oratie uitgesproken door prof.mr.dr. G.P. van Duijvenvoorde bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van bijzonder hoogleraar op het gebied van het Telecommunicatierecht aan de Universiteit Leiden op vrijdag 9 mei 2014Regulering van het internationaal economisch verkee

Cognitive and Mental Health Predictors of Withdrawal Severity During an Active Attempt to Cut Down Cannabis Use

A milestone in cannabis research is the establishment of a clinically relevant cannabis withdrawal syndrome, yet little is known about the underlying mechanisms. We investigated the predictive role of mental health and cognitive factors in withdrawal severity during an active attempt to cut down, relative to uninterrupted cannabis use. Ninety heavy cannabis users were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. The experimental group was asked to cut down substance use for 1 week. Past week substance use, substance use-related problems, depressive symptoms, cravings, and cognitive control were assessed at baseline. Past week substance use and withdrawal severity were assessed at follow-up. The experimental group reduced their cannabis use more and experienced more withdrawal than the control group. Hierarchical regression analysis per predictor indicated that cannabis use-related problems, depressive symptoms, and cannabis craving, but not cognitive control, predicted stronger withdrawal. Craving uniquely predicted withdrawal in the experimental group. A combined hierarchical regression indicated that only depressive symptoms and cannabis use-related problems uniquely predicted withdrawal across groups. These results suggest that depressive symptoms and cannabis use-related problems are generally indicative of cannabis withdrawal severity, whereas craving specifically predicts cannabis withdrawal during an active attempt to cut-down cannabis use

Developmental asymmetries in learning to adjust to cooperative and uncooperative environments

Learning to successfully navigate social environments is a critical developmental goal, predictive of long-term wellbeing. However, little is known about how people learn to adjust to diferent social environments, and how this behaviour emerges across development. Here, we use a series of economic games to assess how children, adolescents, and young adults learn to adjust to social environments that difer in their level of cooperation (i.e., trust and coordination). Our results show an asymmetric developmental pattern: adjustment requiring uncooperative behaviour remains constant across adolescence, but adjustment requiring cooperative behaviour improves markedly across adolescence. Behavioural and computational analyses reveal that age-related diferences in this social learning are shaped by age-related diferences in the degree of inequality aversion and in the updating of beliefs about others. Our fndings point to early adolescence as a phase of rapid change in cooperative behaviours, and highlight this as a key developmental window for interventions promoting well-adjusted social behaviour

Realtime crowdsourcing with payment of idle workers in the Retainer Model

The realtime applications of crowdsourcing are a very promising topic, due to its high potentialities, for example in marketing, security or telecommunication applications. Realtime crowdsourcing ensures that solutions to a given problem are obtained in the shortest possible time using collective intelligence. In order to be ready to carry out any requested task in realtime, crowdworkers must be available at any time. Here we focus on the payment of crowdworkers and on the trade-off between the expected waiting time for a task to be carried out and the number of workers in the pool that should not become too large otherwise the total cost increases. In particular we consider the, so called, Retainer Model in which crowdworkers are paid in order to be ready to carry out any requested task in realtime. The Retainer Model considers an expected total cost which takes into account both the amount paid to a crowdworker to be in idle-state and the loss when the task is not completed in realtime. After checking the existence of a minimum cost we characterize the optimal number of crowdworkers, and suggest a practical and quick way to obtain it. Moreover, we analyse the sensitivity of the optimal number of crowdworkers with respect to different task intensities

Age differences in intertemporal choice among children, adolescents, and adults

When choosing between sooner–smaller and later–larger rewards (i.e., intertemporal choices), adults typically prefer later–larger rewards more often than children. Intertemporal choice preferences have been implicated in various impulsivity-related psychopathologies, making it important to understand the underlying mechanisms not only in terms of how reward magnitude and delay affect choice but also in terms of how these mechanisms develop across age. We administered an intertemporal choice paradigm to 60 children (8–11 years), 79 adolescents (14–16 years), and 60 young adults (18–23 years). The paradigm systematically varied amounts and delays of the available rewards, allowing us to identify mechanisms underlying age-related differences in patience. Compared with young adults, both children and adolescents made fewer later–larger choices. In terms of underlying mechanisms, variation in delays, absolute reward magnitudes, and relative amount differences affected choice in each age group, indicating that children showed sensitivity to the same choice-relevant factors as young adults. Sensitivity to both absolute reward magnitude and relative amount differences showed a further monotonic age-related increase, whereas no change in delay sensitivity occurred. Lastly, adolescents and young adults weakly displayed a present bias (i.e., overvaluing immediate vs. future rewards; nonsignificant and trend, respectively), whereas children showed a nonsignificant but opposite pattern, possibly indicating that specifically dealing with future rewards changed with age. These findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the development of patience. By decomposing overt choices, our results suggest that the age-related increase in patience may be driven specifically by stronger sensitivity to amount differences with age.</p