The limits of open acess as a regulatory yardstick in the regulation of utilities in Latin America

This paper contends that the identification of a pro-competitive agenda in the process of regulatory reform undertaken in many developing countries, particularly in the field of utilities regulation, ultimately rests on the vision held by the authority about the sources of market failures. Conventional Industrial Organization theory assumes that the exercise of market power by incumbent firms limits the access of potential competitive entrants, and therefore, government regulation should curb such power. However, the existence of market “power” is an inference from conventional “equilibrium” thinking on markets and competition, where such power is associated with the static conditions of markets, away from the efficient equilibrium epitomized by the Perfect Competition model. By logical inference, an alternative “market process” view that regards markets as entities subject to constant disequilibrium should lead to alternative normative conclusions. Under this alternative view, exploring the role of rules and institutions is essential for the analysis of “efficient” market outcomes. Such efficiency is related to the capacity of market participants to coordinate their productive activities, and complementary entrepreneurial synergies. This paper outlines an alternative network competition perspective, focused on the integration of complementary capabilities, as a regulatory yardstick. This view balances the rights of incumbent firms to exploit their rights, and the possibilities of third parties to integrate into the network concerned on a non-discriminatory basis, thereby preserving the investments of incumbents on a more equitable basis. It also explores the experience of selected Latin American countries in the development of this network competition approach.

Institutional Analysis of Competition Policy in Transition and Developing Countries: The Lessons from Latin America

This Article explores how institutions in developing countries shape competition policy-making and regulatory reform, the implications of this process on the adoption of a pro-market strategy to promote development, and the implications of its application to a country transitioning from a command economy to a market economy such as China

Buenas prácticas de innovación docente en la Universidad de Córdoba

La propuesta, que empezó a gestarse hace cuatro cursos académicos, se denomina Investigación en atención a la diversidad (Invadid), que supone el establecimiento de relaciones significativas entre los conocimientos conceptuales de las asignaturas Métodos de Investigación en Educación y Educación especial, que se imparten en la titulación de Psicopedagogía. El reto: la formación integral del alumnado

An Expert System to Improve the Energy Efficiency of the Reaction Zone of a Petrochemical Plant

Energy is the most important cost factor in the petrochemical industry. Thus, energy efficiency improvement is an important way to reduce these costs and to increase predictable earnings, especially in times of high energy price volatility. This work describes the development of an expert system for the improvement of this efficiency of the reaction zone of a petrochemical plant. This system has been developed after a data mining process of the variables registered in the plant. Besides, a kernel of neural networks has been embedded in the expert system. A graphical environment integrating the proposed system was developed in order to test the system. With the application of the expert system, the energy saving on the applied zone would have been about 20%.Junta de Andalucía TIC-570

Forecasting Recharging Demand to Integrate Electric Vehicle Fleets in Smart Grids

Electric vehicle fleets and smart grids are two growing technologies. These technologies provided new possibilities to reduce pollution and increase energy efficiency. In this sense, electric vehicles are used as mobile loads in the power grid. A distributed charging prioritization methodology is proposed in this paper. The solution is based on the concept of virtual power plants and the usage of evolutionary computation algorithms. Additionally, the comparison of several evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithm, genetic algorithm with evolution control, particle swarm optimization, and hybrid solution are shown in order to evaluate the proposed architecture. The proposed solution is presented to prevent the overload of the power grid

Monitoring and Fault Location Sensor Network for Underground Distribution Lines

One of the fundamental tasks of electric distribution utilities is guaranteeing a continuous supply of electricity to their customers. The primary distribution network is a critical part of these facilities because a fault in it could affect thousands of customers. However, the complexity of this network has been increased with the irruption of distributed generation, typical in a Smart Grid and which has significantly complicated some of the analyses, making it impossible to apply traditional techniques. This problem is intensified in underground lines where access is limited. As a possible solution, this paper proposes to make a deployment of a distributed sensor network along the power lines. This network proposes taking advantage of its distributed character to support new approaches of these analyses. In this sense, this paper describes the aquiculture of the proposed network (adapted to the power grid) based on nodes that use power line communication and energy harvesting techniques. In this sense, it also describes the implementation of a real prototype that has been used in some experiments to validate this technological adaptation. Additionally, beyond a simple use for monitoring, this paper also proposes the use of this approach to solve two typical distribution system operator problems, such as: fault location and failure forecasting in power cables.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Government of Spain project Sistema Inteligente Inalámbrico para Análisis y Monitorización de Líneas de Tensión Subterráneas en Smart Grids (SIIAM) TEC2013-40767-RMinisterio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Government of Spain, for the funding of the scholarship Formación de Profesorado Universitario 2016 (FPU 2016

Increasing the Efficiency of Rule-Based Expert Systems Applied on Heterogeneous Data Sources

Nowadays, the proliferation of heterogeneous data sources provided by different research and innovation projects and initiatives is proliferating more and more and presents huge opportunities. These developments create an increase in the number of different data sources, which could be involved in the process of decisionmaking for a specific purpose, but this huge heterogeneity makes this task difficult. Traditionally, the expert systems try to integrate all information into a main database, but, sometimes, this information is not easily available, or its integration with other databases is very problematic. In this case, it is essential to establish procedures that make a metadata distributed integration for them. This process provides a “mapping” of available information, but it is only at logic level. Thus, on a physical level, the data is still distributed into several resources. In this sense, this chapter proposes a distributed rule engine extension (DREE) based on edge computing that makes an integration of metadata provided by different heterogeneous data sources, applying then a mathematical decomposition over the antecedent of rules. The use of the proposed rule engine increases the efficiency and the capability of rule-based expert systems, providing the possibility of applying these rules over distributed and heterogeneous data sources, increasing the size of data sets that could be involved in the decision-making process

Influence of the Degree of Cure in the Bulk Properties of Graphite Nanoplatelets Nanocomposites Printed via Stereolithography

In this work, we report on the fabrication via stereolithography (SLA) of acrylic-based nanocomposites using graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) as an additive. GNPs are able to absorb UV-Vis radiation, thus blocking partial or totally the light path of the SLA laser. Based on this, we identified a range of GNP concentrations below 2.5 wt %, where nanocomposites can be successfully printed. We show that, even though GNP is well-dispersed along the polymeric matrix, nanocomposites presented lower degrees of cure and therefore worse mechanical properties when compared with pristine resin. However, a post-processing at 60 degrees C with UV light for 1 h eliminates this difference in the degree of cure, reaching values above 90% in all cases. In these conditions, the tensile strength is enhanced for 0.5 wt % GNP nanocomposites, while the stiffness is increased for 0.5-1.0 wt % GNP nanocomposites. Finally, we also demonstrate that 2.5 wt % GNP nanocomposites possess characteristic properties of semiconductors, which allows them to be used as electrostatic dispersion materials