Reducing the Asymmetry of Information Through the comparison of the Relative Efficiency of Several Regional Monopolies

Following the process initiated by Chile in the early 1980s, most countries in South America have undergone deep transformations in their electric industries. In this new playing field, the comparison of the relative efficiency of several regional monopolies seems to be a potentially valuable tool to reduce the asymmetry of information that is involved in the regulator-firm relationship. However, to be useful in the regulatory process, productive frontier estimates require a broad set of comparable firms and detailed information about them. This availability of data, although a necessary condition, is far from sufficient. One must also count on adequate techniques. In this paper we carry out an efficiency analysis in the electricity distribution sector in South America using different techniques, stating the conditions under which they become a useful tool in crafting an efficient regulation of the firms in that sector. Despite the particular results found here, the paper underscores the importance of conducting a consistency analysis whenever using efficiency measures in applied regulation.electric industries; efficiency; regional monopolies; asymmetry of information

Il Rapporto congiunto dell’8 dicembre 2017 dell’UE e del Regno Unito sui negoziati sulla Brexit

L’8 dicembre 2017 l’Unione Europea e il Regno Unito hanno chiuso dopo estenuanti negoziati un accordo preliminare per l’uscita dall’Unione. L’accordo ha riguardato, tra le altre cose, i tre aspetti più importanti su cui accordarsi per una futura convivenza: lo status dei cittadini europei e britannici, l’accordo sull’Irlanda del Nord, anche in riferimento all’Accordi di Belfast del 1998, e le regolamentazioni finanziarie sul conto che il Regno Unito dovrà pagare all’Unione per onorare il rispetto dei trattati firmati in precedenza.On December 8th, 2017 the European Union and the United Kingdom signed a tiring negotiation that is preliminary to the exit of the UK from the Union. The Agreement has settled, among other things, three peculiar aspects for a future peaceful and cooperative coexistence: the status of the European and British citizens, the agreement on Northern Ireland, also with respect to Belfast Agreement of 1998, and the financial regulations on the exit bill that the United Kingdom agreed to pay due to the treaties signed in the past

Consistency Conditions: Efficiency Measures for the Electricity Distribution Sector in South America

The main goals of this paper are basically two: to compare the relative efficiency of the firms in the electricity distribution sector in South America, and to perform a consistency analysis on the different approaches usually used to measure efficiency. The estimated model considers a single output (customers) and six variables standing for inputs and environmental characteristics (service area, sales, market structure, mains kilometres of distribution, number of employees and transformer capacity). Information on these variables comes from the CIER database for the accounting year ending in 1994. This model is in line with the previous literature on the subject. It has been found that, in general, the consistency conditions are met.Consistency Conditions; Efficiency Measures; Electricity Distribution Sector

Functional oxides for optoelectronics

Il riscaldamento globale è tra le problematiche più urgenti che dobbiamo affrontare. Diminuire il consumo energetico e incrementare l’energia prodotta da fonti rinnovabili piuttosto che dai combustibili fossili sono azioni fondamentali per affrontare il cambiamento climatico. Dato che l’illuminazione è responsabile del 20% del consumo totale di energia e che il fotovoltaico è tra le fonti di energia rinnovabile che è cresciuta di più negli ultimi decenni, l’optoelettronica riveste un ruolo centrale in questa sfida. Molti degli impressionanti miglioramenti raggiunti negli ultimi decenni in questo campo sono stati resi possibili dallo sviluppo e dall’ottimizzazione dei materiali impiegati. Film sottili e nanostrutture di ossidi sono stati studiati in questo lavoro come una possibile soluzione a problematiche nel settore dell’optoelettronica. In particolare, nanocristalli di CsPbBr3 sono di largo interesse come emettitori di luce, ma risultano poco stabili quando esposti a umidità, solventi polari, ecc. Di conseguenza, nanocristalli di CsPbBr3 sono stati incapsulati in un guscio di silica (CsPbBr3@SiO2) sfruttando una reazione tra l’anidride maleica e il legante oleilammina sulla superficie del CsPbBr3. In particolare, nanocristalli di Cs4PbBr6 vengono convertiti dall’anidride maleica in nanocristalli di CsPbBr3 e l’aggiunta di un precursore della silica permette l’incapsulamento. Ulteriori esperimenti hanno rivelato il ruolo cruciale dei nanocristalli di Cs4PbBr6 e dell’ambiente di reazione ottenuto dopo la loro conversione per garantire la formazione di CsPbBr3@SiO2. Questo lavoro apre la strada allo studio della reattività dei leganti superficiali per l’incapsulazione dei nanocristalli, ma anche per strade alternative per lo scambio o la rimozione dei liganti, una nuova chimica per nanomateriali più stabili. Gli ossidi funzionali sono stati investigati anche in forma di film sottili per applicazioni fotovoltaiche. In dettaglio, la commercializzazione di celle solari a base di materiali emergenti come Cu(In,Ga)Se2 e Sb2Se3 contengono un buffer layer a base di CdS, un composto altamente tossico che ostacola la loro commercializzazione. Zn(1-x)MgxO è stato identificato come un potenziale materiale alternativo per celle solari a base di Cu(In,Ga)Se2 mentre la titania per Sb2Se3. Film sottili di Zn(1-x)MgxO sono stati preparati mediante deposizione da bagno chimico su substrati di vetro. E’ stato studiato il ruolo dell’etanolammina e dell’acido citrico insieme al contenuto di Mg sulle proprietà del film con lo scopo di impiegare questi film come buffer layer in celle solari al Cu(In,Ga)Se2 anche mediate calcoli degli equilibri in soluzione per comprendere il meccanismo di formazione del film. Analogamente, film sottili di titania sono stati preparati mediante spin coating su ossido di stagno drogato fluoro. Un trattamento acido è stato investigato per controllare il drogaggio nel film sottile di titania al fine di ottimizzare le performance della cella solare. Alcuni calcoli termodinamici sono stati eseguiti per confrontare la stabilità di fasi a diverso contenuto di titanio e di ossigeno.Nowadays, global warming is among the most urgent challenges that we have to meet. Decrease the energy consumption and enhance the amount of energy produced trough renewable sources rather than fossil fuels are imperative actions to deal with climate change. Since lighting is responsible of about 20 % of the total energy consumption and since photovoltaics is among the renewable energy source that grew more in the last decades, optoelectronics is a central field in such a challenge. Many of the crucial improvements that have been reached in the last decades in this field were made possible thanks to the development and optimization of the materials involved. In this study, oxides were investigated at the nanoscale and in the form of thin films as valuable solutions to current issues in modern optoelectronics. In particular, CsPbBr3 nanocrystals are interesting materials for light emission applications, but they suffer from poor stability against moisture, polar solvents etc. As a consequence, the reaction between maleic anhydride and the oleylamine capping ligand was exploited to encapsulate CsPbBr3 nanocrystals in SiO2 shells (CsPbBr3@SiO2). Maleic anhydride converted the starting Cs4PbBr6 nanocrystals into CsPbBr3 ones, and the addition of silica precursor promoted the shell growth. Further experiments revealed the crucial role played by Cs4PbBr6 nanocrystals as a starting material and of the reaction environment in order to successfully grow CsPbBr3@SiO2. This study paves the way for the exploitation of the reactivity of surface capping ligands for the encapsulation of nanocrystals, and potentially also for ligand exchange or stripping, a new chemistry route for more stable nanomaterials. Functional oxides were also investigated in the form of thin films for solar cell applications. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Sb2Se3 are emerging photovoltaic technologies whose market availability is limited by the presence of a toxic CdS buffer layer. Zn(1-x)MgxO was identified as a potential alternative oxide for the deposition of buffer layers for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells, whereas titania was investigated for cells based on Sb2Se3. In view of their application as buffer layers in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells, Zn(1-x)MgxO thin films were grown trough chemical bath deposition onto soda lime glass, in order to optimize the extent of Mg incorporation and the morphology of the film, the role of the complexing agent citric acid together with the nominal Mg amount was investigated. Likewise, titania thin films were prepared trough spin coating onto fluorine-doped thin oxide substrates. Several attempts were devoted to control and measure the n-type doping of the titania layers trough an acidic treatment with the final goal of improving the solar cell performance. Lastly, thermodynamic calculations allowed a stability comparison among TixOy species

The case for international coordination of electricity regulation : evidence from the measurement of efficiency in South America

A decade long experience shows that monitoring the performance of public and private monopolies in South America is proving to be the hard part of the reform process. The operators who control most of the information needed for regulatory purposes have little interest in volunteering their dissemination unless they have an incentive to do so. The authors argue that, in spite of, and maybe because of, a much weaker information base and governance structure, South America's electricity sector could pursue an approach that relies on performance rankings based on comparative efficiency measures. The authors show that with the rather modest data currently available publicly, such an approach could yield useful results. They provide estimates of efficiency levels in South America's main distribution companies between 1994 and 2000. Moreover, the authors show how relatively simple tests can be used by regulators to check the robustness of their results and strengthen their position at regulatory hearings.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Enterprise Development&Reform,Labor Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Geographical Information Systems,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Technology and Distance Education

The Effect of Whole and Part-Task Training and Feedback during Simulated Instrument Flight Training

The most cost effective method for training novice pilot’s instrument flight procedures has not been well investigated. Part-task scenarios condition and a whole task scenarios condition, both with different levels of feedback were compared in a between group study of novice pilots learning a 737 instrument approach with Microsoft ESP flight simulator. The two different types of training methods were evaluated after a series of training exposures by comparing the ability to pass a series of training scenarios along with a final test. This standard was created by 737 pilots, FAA regulations, and 737 instructors. These training methods were also evaluated on which style of feedback produces the best performance score in three sub conditions. The three sub conditions of feedback consisted of elaborative (hierarchal structured) feedback, fixed feedback (knowledge of results feedback), and no feedback. While no difference in the ability to train the pilots in a series of training scenarios was found for the type of training (part-task versus whole-task), fixed feedback demonstrated the best overall performance when compared against the other two feedback conditions

Three-dimensional phenomena in microbubble acoustic streaming

Ultrasound-driven oscillating micro-bubbles have been used as active actuators in microfluidic devices to perform manifold tasks such as mixing, sorting and manipulation of microparticles. A common configuration consists on side-bubbles, created by trapping air pockets in blind channels perpendicular to the main channel direction. This configuration consists of acoustically excited bubbles with a semi-cylindrical shape that generate significant streaming flow. Due to the geometry of the channels, such flows have been generally considered as quasi two-dimensional. Similar assumptions are often made in many other microfluidic systems based on \emph{flat} micro-channels. However, in this paper we show that microparticle trajectories actually present a much richer behavior, with particularly strong out-of-plane dynamics in regions close to the microbubble interface. Using Astigmatism Particle Tracking Velocimetry, we reveal that the apparent planar streamlines are actually projections of a \emph{streamsurface} with a pseudo-toroidal shape. We therefore show that acoustic streaming cannot generally be assumed as a two-dimensional phenomenon in confined systems. The results have crucial consequences for most of the applications involving acoustic streaming as particle trapping, sorting and mixing.Comment: 5 pages, 4 high quality figures. Accepted for Publication in Phys. Rev. Applied, March 201