Partial regularity of almost minimizing rectifiable G chains in Hilbert space

We adapt to an infinite dimensional ambient space E.R. Reifenberg's epiperimetric inequality and a quantitative version of D. Preiss' second moments computations to establish that the set of regular points of an almost mass minimizing rectifiable $G$ chain in $\ell_2$ is dense in its support, whenever the group $G$ of coefficients is so that $\{\|g\| : g \in G \}$ is discrete and closed.Comment: 96 page

Deposition of biaxially aligned YSZ layers by dual unbalanced magnetron sputtering

Biaxially aligned YSZ (Yttria Stabilised Zirconia) layers were deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering, in a dual magnetron geometry. The unbalanced magnetrons were mounted in such a way that the angle between the target- and substrate normal was 55° for both magnetrons. The target-substrate distance was 13 cm for both magnetrons. A better homogeneity in deposition rate and biaxial alignment was obtained with respect to depositions with one unbalanced magnetron. The YSZ layers were characterized by XRD θ/2θ and (111) pole figures and showed a [001] out-of-plane orientation and a [110] in-plane orientation. The best biaxially aligned YSZ layers obtained so far, showed a FWHM of 21° in (111) pole figures. The influence of the magnet configuration (closed-field or mirror-field) and sputter conditions on the biaxial alignment was investigated. Gauss and Langmuir probe measurements were performed to investigate the influence of the magnet configuration and sputter conditions on the plasma density and the magnetic field lines

Knowledge diffusion from FDI and Intellectual Property Rights

We study the extent to which a country's strength of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection mediates knowledge spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Following the opposing views in the IPR debate, we propose a negative effect of IPR strength on unintentional horizontal (intra-industry) knowledge diffusion. Using a unique firm-level dataset of large, publicly traded firms in 22 (mostly) developed countries, we find partial support for these expectations. Strong IPR indeed reduces horizontal knowledge diffusion, while it stimulates backward (to suppliers) knowledge diffusion. Somewhat unexpectedly however, we also find that forward (to customers) knowledge diffusion decreases with IPR strength. In general, and in line with earlier literature, the results regarding backward knowledge diffusion are most robust to changes in model specification. Our results contribute to the debate regarding the desirability of strengthening national IPR systems, and suggest that local firms might indeed benefit from this through their (backward) linkages with multinationals. Additionally, our results suggest that the moderating effect of IPR strength might partly explain the inconclusive results in the FDI knowledge diffusion literature.

A segmentation-free isogeometric extended mortar contact method

This paper presents a new isogeometric mortar contact formulation based on an extended finite element interpolation to capture physical pressure discontinuities at the contact boundary. The so called two-half-pass algorithm is employed, which leads to an unbiased formulation and, when applied to the mortar setting, has the additional advantage that the mortar coupling term is no longer present in the contact forces. As a result, the computationally expensive segmentation at overlapping master-slave element boundaries, usually required in mortar methods (although often simplified with loss of accuracy), is not needed from the outset. For the numerical integration of general contact problems, the so-called refined boundary quadrature is employed, which is based on adaptive partitioning of contact elements along the contact boundary. The contact patch test shows that the proposed formulation passes the test without using either segmentation or refined boundary quadrature. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of the proposed formulation.Comment: In this version, we have removed the patch test comparison with the classical mortar method and removed corresponding statements. They will be studied in further detail in future work, so that the focus is now entirely on the new IGA mortar formulatio

Addiction to car use and dynamic elasticity measures in France

This article presents a microeconometric analysis of the annual mileage travelled by French households with their personal cars, defining their automobility. To feature car use dependence, the rational addiction model of Becker et al. (1994) is applied on a panel dataset, drawn from the French "Car Fleet" survey over the period 1999-2001. Importantly, the estimates show that the assumption of addiction to car use cannot be rejected. Furthermore, the model yields realistic kilometric-price and income elasticities of household automobility, for both the short and the long runs.Transportation ; Car use ; Consumption ; Addiction ; Panel ; GMM

Dynkin games in a general framework

We revisit the Dynkin game problem in a general framework, improve classical results and relax some assumptions. The criterion is expressed in terms of families of random variables indexed by stopping times. We construct two nonnegative supermartingales families $J$ and $J'$ whose finitness is equivalent to the Mokobodski's condition. Under some weak right-regularity assumption, the game is shown to be fair and $J-J'$ is shown to be the common value function. Existence of saddle points is derived under some weak additional assumptions. All the results are written in terms of random variables and are proven by using only classical results of probability theory.Comment: stochastics, Published online: 10 Apr 201