Coûts de la régulation des industries de réseau: enseignements du réseau postal

Notre approche des coûts de la régulation est une contribution à une meilleure compréhension des conséquences de la régulation, ainsi que du rôle et de l’influence des autorités de régulation sur les industries de réseaux. Selon nous, la comparaison des coûts de régulation directs et indirects sur divers marchés postaux peut aider à déterminer comment concevoir les institutions et les conditions-cadres de régulation pour à la fois promouvoir la concurrence et satisfaire aux objectifs du service public.Cost of regulation, Postal network

Umsetzungsvarianten einer aktiven öffentlichen FTTH-Policy für die Schweiz

The study develops and assesses models to implement a national FTTH network.FTTH, fiber to the home, telecommunications

Untersuchungen zur Häufigkeit der Heparin-induzierten Thrombozytopenie Typ II (HIT-II) unter einer Prophylaxe mit einem niedermolekularen Heparin

Die Arbeit untersucht die Häufigkeit des Auftretens einer Heparin-induzierte Thrombozytopenie Typ II (HIT II) bei immobilisierten chronisch internistisch kranken Patienten, welche das niedermolekulare Heparin Enoxaparin zur Prophylaxe thromboembolischer Ereignisse erhielten. Die Arbeit stützt sich auf Proben und Daten von Patienten der PRINCE I und II-Studien. Über einen Zeitraum von wenigstens 8 Tagen erhielten 167 der untersuchten Patienten Kalzium-Heparin und 168 das niedermolekulare Heparin Enoxaparin. Zur Sicherung einer HIT II war ein typischer Thrombozytenabfall, der positive HIT II-Antikörpernachweis und eine entsprechende Klinik gefordert. In keiner der beiden Gruppen konnte die Diagnose einer HIT II gesichert werden

Bestimmung des Regulierungsbedarfs aus ökonomischer Sicht: Angemessenheit und Folgen einer funktionalen oder strukturellen Trennung von Swisscom.

The study analyzes the regulatory need of a functional or structural separation of the Swiss incumbent Swisscom.Separation, Access, Telecommunications

Over-optimism in unsupervised microbiome analysis: Insights from network learning and clustering

In recent years, unsupervised analysis of microbiome data, such as microbial network analysis and clustering, has increased in popularity. Many new statistical and computational methods have been proposed for these tasks. This multiplicity of analysis strategies poses a challenge for researchers, who are often unsure which method(s) to use and might be tempted to try different methods on their dataset to look for the “best” ones. However, if only the best results are selectively reported, this may cause over-optimism: the “best” method is overly fitted to the specific dataset, and the results might be non-replicable on validation data. Such effects will ultimately hinder research progress. Yet so far, these topics have been given little attention in the context of unsupervised microbiome analysis. In our illustrative study, we aim to quantify over-optimism effects in this context. We model the approach of a hypothetical microbiome researcher who undertakes four unsupervised research tasks: clustering of bacterial genera, hub detection in microbial networks, differential microbial network analysis, and clustering of samples. While these tasks are unsupervised, the researcher might still have certain expectations as to what constitutes interesting results. We translate these expectations into concrete evaluation criteria that the hypothetical researcher might want to optimize. We then randomly split an exemplary dataset from the American Gut Project into discovery and validation sets multiple times. For each research task, multiple method combinations (e.g., methods for data normalization, network generation, and/or clustering) are tried on the discovery data, and the combination that yields the best result according to the evaluation criterion is chosen. While the hypothetical researcher might only report this result, we also apply the “best” method combination to the validation dataset. The results are then compared between discovery and validation data. In all four research tasks, there are notable over-optimism effects; the results on the validation data set are worse compared to the discovery data, averaged over multiple random splits into discovery/validation data. Our study thus highlights the importance of validation and replication in microbiome analysis to obtain reliable results and demonstrates that the issue of over-optimism goes beyond the context of statistical testing and fishing for significance

National organic action plans and organic farmland area growth in Europe

The expansion of organic agricultural production methods has been tendered as a critical factor in the development of a sustainable global food system. The European Union has led efforts to expand organic farming, with a current target share of 25% organic farmland area by 2030 through the Farm-to-Fork strategy. Many member states have set organic area targets through the initiation of organic action plans, but systematic, quantitative, empirical research into the effectiveness of such organic policies is lacking. This study analyses the effect of four different national organic action plans - the 1st French Organic Action Plan (2008 to 2012), the 2nd Swedish Organic Action Plan (2006 to 2010), the 2nd Czech Organic Action Plan (2011 to 2015) and the 5th Austria Organic Action Plan (2011 to 2013) - on organic farmland area extent. This was achieved using a balanced country-level panel dataset consisting of 26 OECD states between 2001 and 2019 (N = 494). The synthetic control method was applied systematically to predict the counterfactual organic area growth paths, enabling the quantification of the treatment effects for the selected action plans. The model specifications were vigorously tested with leave-out-one robustness tests and in-space placebo tests. The results indicated robust, large, positive and significant effects for the French and Swedish organic action plans on organic farmland area. However, the Czech and Austrian plans were found to be ineffectual. Whilst organic action plans appear useful agenda-setting tools, caution is advised in relying on them to produce consistent results, particularly if numerous plans have been previously implemented and the organic area share is already high. This finding is also likely indicative of decreasing marginal returns to action plans. A deeper understanding of the effectiveness of previously implemented plans is critical for the optimisation of future interventions

Regulatory Institutions and Governance Costs in the Postal Sector: The Case of Switzerland

Currently there is a strong trend toward sector-specific regulatory authorities across sectors and countries. However, liberalization has not led to a common European regulatory model. The circumstance that different old and new regulatory authorities exist in parallel not only raises agency problems, but also requires a horizontal coordination among the different authorities and their competences. The regulatory regimes differ in the degree to which regulatory authorities are upwardly accountable to governments, horizontally active alongside or related to courts and regulators, or downwardly responsible for operators and interest groups. Based on Williamson (1996, 2005) as well as on Spiller and Tommasi (2005) we try to develop conceptual foundations about the definition and identification of governance costs in regulatory regimes. Following our theoretical findings we explore the Swiss postal regulatory regime and its institutional framework. Our focus is on the identification of the institutional design and the drivers of governance costs in the specific setting of Switzerland

Effects of Alpine hydropower dams on particle transport and lacustrine sedimentation

Abstract.: The effects of high-alpine hydropower damming on lacustrine sedimentation and transport of solid particles were investigated in the glaciated Grimsel area and in downstream Lake Brienz, providing quantitative denudation rates and sediment yield on a source-sink basis. A total of 271 kt/yr of solid particles entered the Grimsel reservoirs on average in the last 71 years, mostly by turbiditic underflows that focused sedimentation in depocenters upstream of obstacles such as bedrock ridges, submerged moraines, or dams. This is equivalent to a sediment yield of 2430 t/(km2yr) in the catchment (111.5 km2) or a denudation rate of 0.94 mm/yr. A total of 39 kt/yr of the fine fraction (<~4 μm) leave the reservoirs and are transported to downstream Lake Brienz, while 232 kt/yr of mostly coarse particles are retained, reducing total sediment input of the River Aare into Lake Brienz by two thirds. Modeling the particle budgets in the Aare with and without dams indicates that the fine fraction budgets are only slightly affected by damming, but that the reservoirs cause a shift in seasonal runoff timing resulting in increasing and decreasing particle transport in winter and summer, respectively. Thus, hydrodamming alters mostly deltaic sedimentation in Lake Brienz, where the coarse fraction is deposited, whereas fine grained distal sedimentation and varve formation on lateral slopes are less affected. All varved records of the reservoirs and Lake Brienz that provide sediment rates and grain size records on an annual basis indicate that climate is the main control on these proxies, while, for instance, the onset of pump storage activity in the reservoirs did not impose any significant change in lacustrine sedimentation patter