Access by Capacity and Peak-Load Pricing

Several European telecommunications regulatory agencies have recently introduced a fixed capacity charge (flat rate) to regulate access to the incumbents network. The purpose of this paper is to show that the optimal capacity charge and the optimal access-minute charge analysed by Armstrong, Doyle, and Vickers (1996) have a similar structure and imply the same payment for the entrant. I extend the analysis to the case where there is a competitor with market power. In this case, the optimal capacity charge should be modified to avoid that the entrant cream-skims the market, fixing a longer or a shorter peak period than the optimal. Finally, I consider a multiproduct setting, where the effect of the product differentiation is exacerbated.peak-load pricing, network regulation, telecommunications, access pricing, capacity charge

Integrability, Supersymmetry and Coherent States. A volume in honour of Professor Véronique Hussin

ISBN 978-3-030-20087-

Modeling of macro fiber composite actuated laminate plates and aerofoils

© 2019 Sage Publications . The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in the Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures by Sage Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. It is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1045389X19888728This article investigates the modeling of macro fiber composite-actuated laminate plates with distributed actuator patches. The investigation details an analytical and finite element modeling, with experimental validation of the bending strain and deflection of an epoxy E-glass fiber composite laminate. An analytical approach is also developed to estimate the plate deflection from the experimental strain measurements. The analytical method uses direct integration of single dimensional plate bending moments obtained by strain-induced shear moments from the macro fiber composite actuators. Finite element analysis software was used with the composite laminate modeled in ANSYS ACP. The results from both analytical and numerical models show good agreement with the experimental results, with strain values agreeing within 20 ppm and the maximum difference in deflection not exceeding 0.1 mm between models. Finally, an application of the analytical model for developing morphing aerofoil designs is demonstrated.Peer reviewe

Urban transport governance reform in Barcelona

The unusual mixed public-private structure of the urban bus market in the metropolitan area of Barcelona provides an interesting context in which to analyze the management challenges and opportunities of the partial privatization of public services. Initiatives used by the public regulator to promote competition for contracts, such as short term concessions to private contractors and the removal of entry barriers, have considerable potential for improving efficiency and quality. The growth in the share of routes managed by private firms in recent years shows that privatization is a credible threat that may well stimulate improved performance among public managers. The type of reform implemented in Barcelona is of interest to all metropolitan areas large enough to operate under constant returns to scale regimes, and suitable for potential concessions of routes in segregated areas inside the metropolitan area, so as not to miss out on the benefits of economies of density.Privatization, mixed public-private, regulation, competition JEL classification:

Intertwining Symmetry Algebras of Quantum Superintegrable Systems

We present an algebraic study of a kind of quantum systems belonging to a family of superintegrable Hamiltonian systems in terms of shape-invariant intertwinig operators, that span pairs of Lie algebras like $(su(n),so(2n))$ or $(su(p,q),so(2p,2q))$. The eigenstates of the associated Hamiltonian hierarchies belong to unitary representations of these algebras. It is shown that these intertwining operators, related with separable coordinates for the system, are very useful to determine eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonians in the hierarchy. An study of the corresponding superintegrable classical systems is also included for the sake of completness

Europe is witnessing the establishment of a new regional order, built on territories such as Scotland, Catalonia and the Basque Country

This year has seen an independence referendum in Scotland, a contested debate over a proposed independence consultation in Catalonia and growing momentum behind independence movements elsewhere in Europe. Igor Calzada writes that the debates taking place within countries like Spain and the UK offer an example of what he terms ‘post-independence’. He argues that political devolution, economic development and nation-state re-scaling processes have become intertwined, thereby establishing a new European regional order characterised by the presence of city-regional small nations as new key players beyond their referential nation-states

The Zajal and the Villancico: The Path to Modern Spanish Christmas Carols

The existence of Al-Andulus in the Iberian Peninsula worked to combine many aspects of Arabic and Spanish culture, including literature. By comparing the structures and rhyme patterns of Arabic zajals and the later Spanish villancicos, one can see how the latter is influenced by the former, and eventually gave way to a form of the modern Spanish Christmas carol

Influence of dissociative recombination on the LTE of argon high-frequency plasmas at atmospheric pressure

This work presents a few preliminary results from a collisional-radiative (CR) model intended to describe an argon microwave (2.45 GHz) plasma at atmospheric pressure. This model aims to investigate the influence of dissociative recombination products on the Saha-Boltzmann plasma equilibrium. The model is tested through comparison with experimental results obtained in an argon plasma column generated by a traveling electromagnetic surface-wave, which is suitable to perform a parametric investigation of the plasma. It is shown that dissociative recombination predominantly populates the 4s levels and the ground state. It is further observed that it strongly influences the population of the levels, specially those of lower energy. However, the higher levels (close to the ionization limit) appear to be in equilibrium whatever the plasma density. This allows assuming that the excitation temperature Texc determined from the upper levels in the atomic system in the Boltzmann-plot is equal to Te.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France