Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Universal service'

This paper tries to explain how the regulation of the telecommunications’ activity abandoned the traditional system of State’s public service and evolved to the establishment of a new legal framework that encourages competition among all the economic agents operating in the sector, who must provide all telecommunications services, and, in case that delivery of basic services to all users cannot be done within the framework of the competition, then exceptionally the State as guarantor must impose obligations to ensure the user’s satisfaction in their communication needs.
El presente trabajo trata de explicar cómo la regulación de la actividad de las telecomunicaciones abandonó el tradicional régimen de servicio público de titularidad estatal, dando paso al establecimiento del nuevo marco jurídico que fomenta la libre competencia entre los agentes económicos que operan en el sector. Dichos agentes deben prestar todos los servicios de telecomunicaciones; sin embargo, en caso de que la prestación de los servicios básicos a todos los usuarios no pueda realizarse en el marco de la concurrencia, entonces, excepcionalmente, el Estado, como garante, deberá acudir a la técnica de la imposición de obligaciones de servicio universal, para asegurar la satisfacción de los usuarios en sus necesidades comunicacionales.

The goal of this dissertation is to test the agenda-setting theories of John Kingdon and Frank Baumgartner/Bryan Jones in terms of applicability. Universal service policy and the 1996 Telecommunications Act serve as the test case. Case study methodology guides the dissertation and employs a variety of methods including the quantitative and qualitative techniques used by John Kingdon and by Frank Baumgartner/Bryan Jones. These methods involve content analysis and the coding of media articles, an analysis of congressional hearings and government reports, and a review of scholarly literature on topics related to the policy-making in general, and telecommunications policy development, in particular. Universal service was selected for legislative action because it was bound up with telecommunications legislation, which required revision. Although some policy-makers preferred a market solution (that is the elimination of subsidized telecommunication services), universal service remained part of the telecommunications policy revision. Reasons include a new issue definition accompanied by a compelling image (information superhighway), the support of rural senators, and presidential leadership. With regard to fundamental differences between the Kingdon and Baumgartner/Jones' theories Kingdon's premise regarding the impact of cyclical events and systematic indicators has more applicability than Baumgartner and Jones' punctuated equilibria model of policy change. In addition, unlike Kingdon's research results, which indicate the media have a minor role in agenda-setting, Baumgartner and Jones' media attention indicators of policy change demonstrated a similar pattern to the universal service media indicators. The influence of interest groups is another point of difference. The universal case as with Baumgartner and Jones' research results that interest groups were major actors in setting the policy agenda. The contribution of this dissertation is to suggest elements of a new integrated model for the study of agenda-setting that incorporates aspects of the work of Kingdon and Baumgartner/Jones.
Ph. D.

Master of Science
Department of Computing and Information Sciences
Eugene Vasserman
As medical systems expand to allow for the increase the number of devices, new ways to protect patient safety have be developed. The Integrated Clinical Environment, ICE, standard sets up a set of standards that define what an integrated hospital system is. Within the specification is a direct call for a forensic logger that can be used to review patient and system data. The MDCF is one implementation of the ICE standard, but it lacked a key component the ICE standard requires, a logger. Many loggers exist in industry, with varying rates of success and usefulness. A medically sound logger has to be able to completely retell exactly what happened during an event, including patient, device, and system information, so that the right medical professional can provide the best care. Several loggers have been built for MDCF, but few were practical due to the invasiveness of the service. A universal subscriber, a service that is able to connect to all publishing data streams, logging service was built for the MDCF which has the ability to record all information that passes over the MDCF messaging service. This implementation was then stress tested with varying numbers of devices and amounts of data. A reviewing tool was also built that allows for replay of device data that is similar to the original device UI. Future work will include looking into storing system information such as state changes within MDCF and system health. There is also a push to further integrate the forensic reviewer into the core MDCF UI.

The present article aims to review the development of universal access to potable water in Peru, for this, firstly it analyses the regulations applicable to potable water and sanitation, the main actors of the activity and universal access policy. Subsequently, it explains how the access of all users to potable water in urban and rural areas, respectively is planned.
En el presente artículo se da cuenta del desarrollo del acceso universal al agua potable en el Perú. Para conseguir ello, previamente, se analiza el régimen jurídico del agua potable y saneamiento, los principales actores de la actividad y la política de acceso universal. Esto permite, posteriormente, explicar cómo es que se ha previsto conseguir el acceso de todos los usuarios al agua potable en los sectores urbanos y rurales, respectivamente.

This design thesis is part of CATEA's RERC workplace accommodations grant, and it adopts a human centered design methodology to research, develop, test and evaluate designs of behind-the-counter workspaces that maximize independence and participation of employees and increase their employment possibilities. Preliminary research shows that current designs of behind-the-counter workspaces do not accommodate needs of intended employees including the seated and standing users. According to the research, factors like task design and lack of ease of use have contributed to job loss and reduced employment. Through participatory research techniques and ergonomic studies, this project identified accessibility and usability needs and outlined basic and extended design guidelines for behind-the-counter workstations that would address these needs. Results from observational research, usability studies and user interviews were analysed to create design specifications for a range of workstations. The resulting workstation designs incorporate universal design guidelines and aim to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities and older adults.

This thesis analyses the development of telecommunications universal service in relation to people with disabilities and national policy making in Australia from 1975 to the end of 1997. The history of public policy development in telecommunications universal service obligations is analysed to gain an understanding of how different political, scientific, social symbolic and material contexts have influenced policy. It is argued that social symbolic and material contexts mutually constitute telecommunications policy. Social symbolic influences, such as charity and 'rights' discourses of disability, have framed telecommunications policy toward people with disabilities. Material contexts, including changing technological, economic and legislative environments, have created favourable conditions for either charity or 'rights' models of disability, and have dominated related policy arenas at various times. The study demonstrates that policy arenas influenced by certain discourses, may also lead to changes within the material environments. The influence of community interest groups is also analysed to investigate their effect on telecommunications policy. Associated with interest group influence on telecommunications policy is a joint consultative process initiated by Telstra and consumer groups in 1988. The value of the consultative process to people with disabilities is evaluated. A key focus of this study is the consideration given by policy makers to the interests of people with a disability in the continuing debate on access and equity issues in relation to telecommunications services for all Australians. A turning-point in telecommunications policy for people with disabilities occurred in 1995, when various people with a disability made a successful complaint against Telstra to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The outcome forced a major change of policy in telecommunications service delivery and benefited many who have disabilities. The HREOC inquiry is a useful case study which indicates the significance of the mutually constitutive effect on policy stemming from the dynamic interaction of social symbolic environments and material conditions. The research revealed that policy in this area may be described as a pluralist, non-linear process. Government and Telstra policy makers have found telecommunications policy a problematic area to reconcile with universal service obligations.

Doutoramento em Engenharia Eletrónica
This thesis addresses the issue of Universal Service for telecommunications in the context of the access networks of next generation. This work aims to contribute to the redefinition of the concept of universal telecommunications service focusing primarily on extending it to broadband services as economic and social development factor and taking into account the degree of dependence that currently, modern societies have for the different communication and information services. Complementarily it also intended to meet some of the challenges set out in the European 2020 agenda. Universal Service is defined here as access to a telecommunications network (with obligations in terms of type and quality of service for the operator), by of all citizens at any country's geographical location, with uniform and accessible price. The approach adopted is the State as a mentor for social equity, respectful of the liberalized market dynamics but also knowledgeable of the requirements of modern telecommunications services and its relationship with the different technologies available. The possibility of subsidizing is assumed. The Universal Service´s provision is subject to open to all operators, which are assumed to possess other profitability businesses, than the Universal Service, using technologies similar to those prescribed for the respective Universal Service provision contest. Although the work has components of economic and financial analysis, the approach is the engineering point of view, looking for help to identify technical and organizational solutions which offer prospects for the dissemination and adoption of next generation network solutions. As a point of departure the work gives an overview on the state of the art access networks , trying to identify which of the differences between this reality and possible scenarios for next-generation network with potential access to the generality of the people . The case of the Portuguese reality will be given special attention, taking into account their specific characteristics in terms of geography, demography, economics and market dynamics. The main results of this work are: • Identification of possible scenarios for the evolution of existing networks, in particular in areas with deficit coverage. • Identification of possible operating models and business to the materialization of the above scenarios developed and its economic analysis in an attempt to determine the critical factors associated with sustainability and / or need for subsidies. • Contribution to the regulatory framework of new generation networks from the point of view of the constraints of technology and the specifics of the Universal Service.
Esta tese aborda a questão do serviço universal de telecomunicações no contexto das redes de acesso de nova geração. Este trabalho pretende contribuir para a redefinição do conceito de Serviço Universal de Telecomunicações concentrando-se principalmente em estendê-lo a serviços de banda larga como factor de desenvolvimento económico e social e tendo em conta o grau de dependência que, actualmente, as sociedades modernas têm em relação aos diferentes serviços de comunicação e informação. De forma complementar pretende-se também ir ao encontro de alguns dos desafios enunciados na Agenda Europeia 2020. Serviço Universal é aqui definido como o acesso a uma rede de telecomunicações (com obrigações em termos de tipo e qualidade de serviço para o operador), por parte de todos os cidadãos, em qualquer localização geográfica do país, a preços uniformes e acessíveis. A perspectiva adoptada é a Estatal como mentor da equidade social, respeitador das dinâmicas de mercado liberalizado mas também conhecedor dos requisitos dos modernos serviços de telecomunicações e da sua relação com as diferentes tecnologias disponíveis. A possibilidade de subsidiação é assumida. A prestação de Serviço Universal é sujeita a concurso aberto a todos os operadores, que se assume possuírem outros negócios, que não apenas o Serviço Universal, com rentabilidade e usando tecnologias semelhantes às preconizadas para a respectiva prestação de Serviço Universal. Embora o trabalho desenvolvido tenha componentes de análise económico-financeira, a abordagem utilizada é a de engenharia, procurando contribuir para a identificação de soluções técnicas e organizacionais que possam oferecer perspectivas sustentáveis para a disseminação e adopção das soluções redes de nova geração. Como ponto de partida o trabalho apresenta uma visão geral sobre o estado da arte das redes de acesso, procurando identificar quais os diferenciais existentes entre essa realidade e a de possíveis cenários de rede de próxima geração com potencial de acesso para a generalidade dos cidadãos. O caso da realidade Portuguesa será objecto de uma atenção especial, tendo em consideração as suas especificidades em termos de geografia, demografia, economia e dinâmicas do mercado. Os principais resultados deste trabalho são os seguintes: • Identificação de possíveis cenários para a evolução das redes actuais, nomeadamente em áreas com deficit de cobertura de rede. • Identificação de possíveis modelos de operação e negócio para a materialização dos cenários acima desenvolvidos e respectiva análise económica, como tentativa de determinar os factores críticos associados à sua sustentabilidade e /ou necessidade de subsidiação. • Contributo para o quadro regulatório das Redes de Nova Geração sob o ponto de vista dos constrangimentos das tecnologias e das especificidades do Serviço Universal.

There are high demands of effective and high-performance of collaborations between mobile devices in the places where traditional Internet connections are unavailable, unreliable, or significantly overburdened, such as on a battlefield, disaster zones, isolated rural areas, or crowded public venues. To enable collaboration among the devices in opportunistic networks, code offloading and Remote Method Invocation are the two major mechanisms to ensure code portions of applications are successfully transmitted to and executed on the remote platforms. Although these domains are highly enjoyed in research for a decade, the limitations of multi-device connectivity, system error handling or cross platform compatibility prohibit these technologies from being broadly applied in the mobile industry. To address the above problems, we designed and developed UMSEF - an Universal Mobile Service Execution Framework, which is an innovative and radical approach for mobile computing in opportunistic networks. Our solution is built as a component-based mobile middleware architecture that is flexible and adaptive with multiple network topologies, tolerant for network errors and compatible for multiple platforms. We provided an effective algorithm to estimate the resource availability of a device for higher performance and energy consumption and a novel platform for mobile remote method invocation based on declarative annotations over multi-group device networks. The experiments in reality exposes our approach not only achieve the better performance and energy consumption, but can be extended to large-scaled ubiquitous or IoT systems.

In this thesis I analyze access problems to basic services like water and energy in developing countries. The objective of the thesis is to show how to improve access to water services and clean energies in rural communities of developing countries. In this regard, this tesis is composed by three papers. Two focused on analyzing the water sector in developing countries and one paper focused on analyzing the implementation of a program aimed to ease the substitution of wood by LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) as a cooking fuel. In the first paper, the regulation of water provision in developing countries: coverage quality and prices, I develop a theoretical model aimed to analyze the optimal product line of a regulated utility facing competition from water vendors. The existence of water vendors forces the utility to release standpipes increasing the population with access to the service but reduces coverage. Regulation can mitigate this situation. In addition universal service policies for standpipes or the delegation of standpipes´ management to a different firm can reduce the coverage of the utility. Also, regulation can mitigate this situations. In the second paper, Community managed water systems: the case of Peru, I make a descriptive analysis of communal organizations providing water services in rural areas of Peru. In addition, I analyze empirically which are the determinants of their presence in Peru. I show that JASS (Juntas Administradoras de Servicios de Saneamiento) are an efficient mechanism to provide water services in rural areas, but they need support. My result show that homogeneous communities, in terms of maintaining the Minka tradition of the Inca Empìre and also in linguistic terms, are more prone to create JASS. In the third paper, LPG cook stoves in Peru: evaluation of the FISE program, I analyse the implementation of the FISE (Fondo de Inclusión Social Energético) program in Peru. I also analyze empirically its performance in terms of use of LPG stoves and its health benefits associated. In this sense, I show that discount vouchers are an efficient policy to increase the use of LPG, avoiding cross-subsidies, to increase the use of LPG stoves but this policy alone cannot reduce respiratory problems among beneficiaries. On the other hand, this policy reduces diarrhoeal problems. The main contributions, summarized by paper were: in the first paper I analyzed a theoretical model supposing that the water utility can use two technologies to provide water and faces competition from water resellers. I analyzed how the utility uses coverage, prices and quality to increase its profits. The main contribution of the second paper has been the analysis of JASS. As far as I know this is the first paper doing so. It is interesting to remark that municipalities lower than 2.000 population have to be served by JASS, but not all municipalities have created JASS. I analyzed the determinants for the creation of JASS in Peru. Finally, in the third paper I analyzed a policy aimed to increase the use of LPG as fuel for cooking purposes via offering discount vouchers for low income households. As far as I know this is an innovative policy in Latin American countries. In the paper, I have analyzed the implementation of the program, the problems faced during its implementation and also I analyzed empirically its performance.
En esta tesis se analizan los problemas de acceso a los servicios básicos como el agua y la energía en los países en desarrollo. El objetivo de la tesis es mostrar cómo mejorar el acceso a los servicios de agua y energías limpias en las comunidades rurales de los países en desarrollo. En este sentido, esta tesis se compone de tres papeles. Dos centrado en el análisis del sector del agua en los países en desarrollo y uno de papel centrado en el análisis de la implementación de un programa destinado a facilitar la sustitución de la madera por GLP (Gas Licuado de Petróleo) como combustible para cocinar. En el primer documento, la regulación del suministro de agua en los países en desarrollo: la calidad de la cobertura y los precios, se desarrolla un modelo teórico tuvo como objetivo analizar la línea de productos óptima de un servicio público regulado frente a la competencia de los vendedores de agua. La existencia de los vendedores de agua obliga a la energía para dar tomas de agua cada vez mayores de la población con acceso al servicio, pero reduce la cobertura. La regulación puede mitigar esta situación. Además políticas de servicio universal para tomas de agua o la delegación de la gestión standpipes' a una empresa diferente pueden reducir la cobertura de la utilidad. Además, la regulación puede mitigar estas situaciones. En el segundo artículo, los sistemas de agua comunitaria logró: el caso de Perú, hago un análisis descriptivo de las organizaciones comunales que prestan los servicios de agua en las zonas rurales de Perú. Además se analizan empíricamente cuáles son los factores determinantes de su presencia en Perú. Muestro que JASS (Juntas Administradoras de Servicios de Saneamiento) son un mecanismo eficiente para proporcionar servicios de agua en las zonas rurales, pero que necesitan apoyo. Mi resultado muestra que las comunidades homogéneas, en cuanto al mantenimiento de la tradición Minka del Imperio Inca y también en términos lingüísticos, son más propensos a crear JASS. En el tercer artículo, estufas de cocción GLP en Perú: evaluación del programa FISE, que analizan la ejecución del programa FISE (Fondo de Inclusión Social Energético) en el Perú. También se analizan empíricamente su desempeño en términos de uso de cocinas de GLP y sus beneficios para la salud asociados. En este sentido, se muestra que los vales de descuento son una política eficiente para aumentar el uso de GLP, evitarán las subvenciones cruzadas, para aumentar el uso de estufas de LPG pero esta política por sí sola no puede reducir los problemas respiratorios entre los beneficiarios. Por otra parte, esta política reduce los problemas de diarrea. Las principales contribuciones, resumidas por el papel son: en el primer documento analizaba un modelo teórico suponiendo que la empresa de agua se puede utilizar dos tecnologías para proporcionar agua y se enfrenta a la competencia de los distribuidores de agua. He analizado cómo la utilidad utiliza cobertura, precios y calidad para aumentar sus beneficios. La principal contribución del segundo documento ha sido el análisis de JASS. Por lo que yo sé que este es el primer documento de hacerlo. Es interesante destacar que los municipios menores de 2.000 habitantes tienen que ser servido por JASS, pero no todos los municipios han creado JASS. He analizado los factores determinantes para la creación de JASS en el Perú. Por último, en el tercer artículo analizaba una política destinada a incrementar el uso de GLP como combustible para cocinar a través de ofrecer cupones de descuento para los hogares de bajos ingresos. Por lo que yo sé que esto es una política innovadora en los países latinoamericanos. En el trabajo he analizado la ejecución del programa, los problemas que enfrentan durante su ejecución y también analizan empíricamente su rendimiento.

Défini comme un ensemble de mesures d'intérêt général compatibles avec un fonctionnement concurrentiel des marchés, le service universel est l'obligation pour un opérateur (ou un groupe d'opérateurs) de fournir un service de base d'une qualité donnée à tous les consommateurs à un tarif abordable. Le plus souvent, une contrainte de prix uniforme est également imposée. Jusqu'ici, la littérature économique s'est surtout articulée autour des questions allocatives. Néanmoins, l’argument de la Pareto-efficacité n’est pas suffisant pour justifier pleinement le service universel. En particulier, si la littérature souligne également l'aspect éthique des OSU, aucune référence n'est faite aux développements récents des théories économiques de la justice.Nous proposons d’articuler cette thèse en trois points. Premièrement, nous proposons l’étude des soubassements éthiques des OSU, tels qu’analysés dans la littérature. Cela consiste à proposer une lecture de l’économie industrielle des OSU en termes d’équité et de justice entre les agents impliqués dans les transactions. La notion d’égalitarisme spécifique à la Tobin est traditionnellement avancée pour justifier les OSU. Les nouvelles approches économiques de l’équité peuvent permettre d’aller plus loin et d’affiner les principes en mettant l’accent sur des arbitrages tels que égalité-responsabilité ou égalité-liberté de choix. Dans un deuxième temps, les préférences éthiques du régulateur sont représentées par une fonction de bien-être social à la Atkinson-Stiglitz. Ceci permet d’élucider l’implémentation de critères éthiques à travers les OSU dans un contexte ou il existe des contraintes de marché (telles qu’une tarification ou une couverture de monopole ou de duopole). Ceci révèle les avantages comparatifs de chaque instrument des OSU en termes d’efficacité et d’équité. Cela permet également de déterminer quels instruments sont complémentaires ou substituts au regard des différentes mesures d’équité et d’efficacité. Enfin, nous décrivons l’évolution du cadre législatif du service universel, avant d’exposant l’impact distributif du changement de structure de marché dans les industries de réseaux. Alors que le service universel est souvent présenté comme le parent pauvre de la concurrence, visant à considérer les question de justice sociale, nous montrons que l’introduction de la concurrence s’inscrit en elle-même dans une logique distributive qui lui est propre
Defined as a set of public interest measures compatible with a competitive environment, universal service is the obligation for an operator (or a group of operators) to provide a range of basic services of specified quality to all consumers at an affordable rate. In many instances, a uniform price is imposed as an additional requirement to the service provider.Until now, the economic literature has focused essentially on efficiency issues. Nevertheless, this Pareto efficiency argument is not sufficient to justify plainly the universal service. Particularly, the literature stresses on the ethical aspect of USO but without using the recent development in distributive justice and without introducing it in a competitive market benchmark.The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the nature and the justification of USO and its relationship with ethic considerations. Why should USO constraints be imposed? What should a regulator do with social preferences in term of coverage, pricing, and market structure? Indeed, most models on coverage and pricing of USO generally assume their implementation exogenously, but do not give a justification for them.We propose to articulate this thesis around three points. First, we propose the study of the underlying ethical principles of USO, as analyzed in the literature, in order to provide a reading of the industrial organization of USO in terms of equity and justice between the agents involved in transactions. The notion of Tobin specific egalitarianism is traditionaly given to justify the USO. The new economic approaches to equity can allow going further and refining the egalitarian principles with emphasis on trade-off such as equality-responsibility and equality-freedom of choice. Secondly, equity preferences of the regulator are represented by an Atkinson-Stiglitz social welfare function. This allows us to study how to implement equity criteria through USO in a context where there is market constraints (such as monopoly or duopolistic pricing and coverage). This reveal the comparative advantages of each USO instruments in terms of efficiency and equity. This also determines which instruments are substitutes or complements with respect to different equity and efficiency measures.Thirdly, we describe the evolution of the legislative framework of universal service. Then we expose the distributional impacts of market structure changes in network industries. While universal service is often presented as the residual of competition intended to consider the issues of social justice, we show that the introduction of competition is rather fit itself in a distributive logic

Students diagnosed with disabilities are increasingly educated in inclusive settings. Despite this shift, general education teachers typically do not receive adequate preparation for working with these populations. Such deficiencies in preparation have lasting negative consequences for students with disabilities, particularly with regard to education and employment outcomes.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to curriculum development and instruction that is targeted toward providing all students, regardless of any distinguishing characteristic, with an opportunity to learn. As such, UDL appears particularly well suited for inclusive settings. An emerging body of research suggests that UDL-based instruction fosters improved learning outcomes for students with and without disabilities. Recent federal education policies, particularly the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, have encouraged general education teacher preparation programs to provide instruction on UDL.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which faculty members of college and university-based teacher preparation programs perceive that the instruction of UDL has been incorporated into their general education teacher preparation courses. Areas of the framework that are typically taught by faculty members, as well as barriers to the incorporation of the framework, are also examined. An online survey was administered to general education faculty of programs that were recipients of Teacher Quality Partnership Grants for Pre-Baccalaureate Preparation of Teachers (TQP grants). These grants are awarded to programs that are expected to prepare educators to understand teaching research and practices that are consistent with the UDL framework.

The data collected indicate that UDL is being taught in a wider range of programs and states than previously documented. However, the depth of this penetration appears limited; the survey results suggest that awareness and instruction of the framework were modest for programs with TQP grants. Among faculty who do teach UDL, nearly all address all three UDL principles. At least two-thirds provide instruction on seven of the nine associated guidelines. Several barriers to instruction were identified, including a lack of awareness and—among those aware of it—insufficient knowledge of the framework. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.

Cette thèse aborde de façon systémique l’analyse de la situation des TICs en Afrique Centrale, elle identifie les problématiques liées à l’accès universel et étudie les politiques d’harmonisation des TICs. Cette analyse conduit alors à proposer une cartographie cible intégrée permettant de réduire la fracture numérique. Non seulement les différentes technologies optiques et radio large bande sont mises à contribution mais décrites en vue de relater les notions de base permettant d’appréhender les avantages et inconvénients de chaque technologie. Ceci a permis par la suite de proposer une démarche méthodologique de modélisation de l’indicateur d’accès au service universel couplée à une stratégie d’optimisation révélant, d’une part le gap technologique à combler et d’autre part, prédisant le niveau d’accès technologique à atteindre en fonction des politiques d’investissement du Fonds de Service Universel. Aussi, outre la proposition de cette démarche de modélisation cette thèse apporte une autre contribution en développant un modèle d’architecture réseau basé sur les technologies radio et en proposant une méthodologie consistant à intégrer les différents paramètres impliqués dans le choix des technologies à déployer en vue de l’accès au service universel. De plus, elle se projette dans l’évolution future de la technologie en offrant une ouverture sur les technologies hybrides
This thesis deals systematically with the analysis of the situation of ICTs in Central Africa, it identifies the problems related to universal access and studies ICTs harmonization policies. This analysis then enables the proposal of an integrated target mapping to reduce the digital divide. Not only the different optical and radio broadband technologies are used but described to relate the basic concepts allowing to apprehend the advantages and disadvantages of each technology. This allowed us to propose a methodological approach to modeling the universal access and service indicator coupled with an optimization strategy revealing, on the one hand, the technological gap to be filled and on the other hand, predicting the access level based on technologies to achieve in accordance with the investment policies of the Universal Service Fund. Besides the proposal of this modeling approach, other contributions of this thesis is developing a network model architecture based on radio technologies and proposing a methodology consisting of integrating the various parameters involved in the choice of technologies to be deployed for access and universal service. In addition, it is projected into the future evolution of solutions that leads to hybrid technologies

This thesis undertakes an analysis of the law pertaining to the regulation of telecommunications in Nigeria generally and more specifically with regards to the extension of access to telecommunications services to unserved and underserved persons and areas in Nigeria. The study is situated in the context of privatisation and liberalisation reform of the Nigerian telecommunications sector. It addresses the question of how to extend access to telecommunications services in Nigeria to unserved and underserved persons and areas. This question is researched by focusing on the sector regulator the Nigerian Communications Commission and analysing the mechanisms, ranging from licensing to interconnection to universal service provision and the National Rural Telecommunication Programme, that have been deployed in the past to achieve this objective to ascertain how these may be improved to ensure that as many persons and areas as possible have access to telecommunications services. The issue of securing the accountability of the regulator responsible for the deployment of these access extension mechanisms is also addressed. The research identifies the main international influences on the development of the Nigerian regulatory framework and shows the country’s ability to borrow from a number of sources while adapting and refining the borrowed rules to solve Nigerian problems. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in at least three material ways. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the first work on the legal framework for the regulation of telecommunications in Nigeria after the enactment of the Communications Act 2003. Secondly, it is also the first work that I am aware of which analyses issues of access to telecommunications services using a variety of regulatory mechanism as opposed to focusing on universal access and universal service alone. Finally it presents a positive illustration of a successful outcome of globalisation of rules, specifically the transposition or transplantation of specific legal rules in the economic context of a developing African country.

Kyoto University (京都大学)
0048
新制・課程博士
博士(地域研究)
甲第13194号
地博第44号
新制||地||14(附属図書館)
UT51-2007-H467
京都大学大学院アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科東南アジア地域研究専攻
(主査)教授 水野 廣祐, 教授 松林 公蔵, 教授 玉田 芳史
学位規則第4条第1項該当

Published Article
The value of interactive reflective activities in the development of a universal orientation among service-learning students is explored. Psychology students participated in a service-learning module that incorporated various reflective activities. The hypothesis that exposure to reflective activities would result in change with regard to students' universal orientation, was confirmed. The most significant changes were seen in students who were involved in interactive reflective activities. These results support the value of dialogue and group interaction in students' development toward a universal orientation to life. Interactive reflection (embedded in the philosophy of human mediated constructivist learning and connected knowing) models the idea of interdependence and maximises students' perspectives of "we-ness".

The successful deployment of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) is heavily dependent on Quality of Service (QoS) to be achieved. This thesis addresses a few facets of the QoS issues in UMTS, including traffic shaping and policing, conformance consistency, Call Admission Control (CAC) and resource allocation.

The main focus of this thesis is traffic conditioning related issues for QoS provisioning in UMTS. Assuming an end-to-end QoS scenario supported by IntServ or/and Diffserv architectures, the thesis initially presents an all nodes traffic conditioning-enabled framework in UMTS. Under this framework, the traffic generated at each User Equipment (UE) is regulated by a traffic shaper in the form of a token bucket, and the conformance of the traffic flow is policed at the policing node. The performance of imposing traffic shaping at the UE is studied and compared with the case without shaping. Next, having observed that the performance of the traffic conditioned system is sensitive to the values of the token bucket parameters, the thesis proposes a heuristic approach for searching local and global QoS-aware token bucket parameters. By tuning the system operating at the obtained ’optimal’ shaping parameters, the requirements for all concerned QoS attributes are guaranteed. Furthermore, the thesis studies conformance consistency in a traffic conditioned multi-hop network, by monitoring the conformance status of a traffic flow using an identical token bucket for both traffic shaping and policing. In the presence of variable packet size, the thesis gives a quantitative result, for a simple case, on how much percent of the originally conformant packets may misbehave at further policing node(s). The performance of the aggregated traffic flows and the measures to minimize the effect of conformance deterioration are also studied in the thesis.

Another facet of the QoS issues in UMTS, CAC together with resource allocation, is also studied in the thesis. A priority-oriented framework for QoS management of multimedia services in UMTS is proposed. Based on a traffic class priority definition, the framework is implemented through a priority-oriented CAC, channel congestion control and adaptive bandwidth allocation.

Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Keywords: value added services; cross subsidies; universal service; system dynamics; telecom planning. Includes bibliographical references (p.178-187).

This thesis analyses narratives associated with the development of public policy in telecommunications from the advent of telegraphy to Australia in 1854 to the end of 2000, with particular emphasis on concepts of universal service. The history of public policy development in telecommunications universal service obligations is analysed to gain an understanding of how different narratives are used to frame policy within particular material contexts. The study demonstrates that narratives in telecommunication development reflect national public policy agendas. In addition the thesis analyses how policy narratives are used to underwrite and legitimise assumptions, values and statements that influence the agendas and expectations of diverse social actors and interpretive communities. Furthermore, the thesis examines the interaction between policy narratives and the barriers and opportunities created by dynamic material environments such as economic, legislative and technological arenas. The study analyses five narratives that influence telecommunication policy and the agendas and expectations of diverse social actors and interpretive communities. National development, technocratic, rights, competition and charity narratives are used to frame different approaches to telecommunication policy, with particular reference to universal service. The study demonstrates how national development and competition narratives compete to dominate policy. Furthermore, diverse technocratic narratives provide scientific reinforcement to underwrite and legitimise the dominant narrative as well as discredit alternative perspectives. In addition, social rights and charity narratives respectively provide moral support to underwrite and legitimise national development and competition policy narratives. A key focus of this study is a narrative analysis of more than a thousand submissions to an independent inquiry in 2000 into telecommunication service levels with particular reference to universal service. The Telecommunications Service Inquiry was a forum that provided examples of the narratives analysed in this study from a cross-section of the Australian community. Submissions came from diverse social actors and institutions that included governments and state bodies, the telecommunication industry, unions, the farming industry, other business groups, community groups and individuals. The research demonstrates that changes in material environments and social expectations of universal service produce tensions within dominant narratives that require greater support from secondary narratives to provide scientific and moral legitimacy. Furthermore the research indicates that, in part, universal service policy functions to stabilise and legitimise the dominant policy narrative. However, the diverse social expectations associated with universal service produce continuing tensions within the dominant narrative that keep the policy in a state of flux. Consequently, government and industry policy makers find telecommunications policy a problematic area to reconcile with expectations of universal service.

Current home networks typically involve two or more machines sharing network resources. The vision for the home network has grown from a simple computer network, to every day appliances embedded with network capabilities. In this environment devices and services within the home can interoperate, regardless of protocol or platform. Network clients can discover required resources by performing network discovery over component descriptions. Common approaches to this discovery process involve simple matching of keywords or attribute/value pairings. Interest emerging from the Semantic Web community has led to ontology languages being applied to network domains, providing a logical and semantically rich approach to both describing and discovering network components. In much of the existing work within this domain, developers have focused on defining new description frameworks in isolation from existing protocol frameworks and vocabularies. This work proposes an ontology-based description framework which takes the ontology approach to the next step, where existing description frameworks are in- corporated into the ontology-based framework, allowing discovery mechanisms to cover multiple existing domains. In this manner, existing protocols and networking approaches can participate in semantically-rich discovery processes. This framework also includes a system architecture developed for the purpose of reconciling existing home network solutions with the ontology-based discovery process. This work also describes an implementation of the approach and is deployed within a home-network environment. This implementation involves existing home networking frameworks, protocols and components, allowing the claims of this work to be examined and evaluated from a ‘real-world’ perspective.

The rapid emergence of broadband, or always-on Internet, during the course of the last decade, has increased the importance of the so- called information society in urban and industrialized societies world- wide. Liberalized information and communications technology (ICT) market forces worldwide have however failed to supply these services to rural and low-income regions resulting in the so-called digital divide. One financial tool, adopted by many developing nations to drive broadband investments in underserved areas, is the universal service fund (USF), a public fund mainly levying its resources from ICT market players. USFs have previously been used to fund telecom networks but with the growing importance of broadband, structural and regulatory discrepancies are preventing USFs from adequately supporting broadband investments. Currently, little up-to-date academic theory exists within this field; thus, this thesis serves to outline principles that policy-makers and regulators need to consider when designing or reforming universal service fund mechanisms. The research is based on a series of qualitative country case studies investigating policy, procedural, and executional aspects related to USFs and rural broadband. Publicly available material has been complemented with interviews of stakeholders from various levels to establish a holistic empirical base upon which conclusions have been drawn. The conclusions outline principles governing public involvement in USFs, roles played by various stakeholders in the broadband ecosystem, and strategies for rural broadband network deployment.
Framfarten av bredband under det senaste årtiondet har ökat vikten av det så kallade informationssamhället i de industrialiserade och urbaniserade samhällen. Marknadskrafterna inom den liberaliserade informations- och kommunikationsindustrin har dock misslyckats med att göra dess tjänster tillgängliga till glesbefolkade och låginkomstregioner, vilket har lett till en digital klyfta. Ett finansiellt hjälpmedel som många utvecklingsländer har anammat för att påskynda bredbandsinvesteringar i regioner med få bredbandsuppkopplingar är fonder för samhällsomfattande tjänster (USF), som är en offentlig fond vilken får den största delen av sitt kapital genom en pålaga på intäkterna från aktörer inom informations- och kommunikationsindustrin. USF:er har tidigare använts för att finansiera telekomnätverk, men i takt med att bredbandets ökande genomslag i samhället har strukturella och regleringsmässiga problem med USF:erna uppdagats vilka hindrar dem från att effektivt stödja bredbandsinvesteringar. För närvarande finns lite akademisk teori på området, och sålunda syftar denna uppsatts till att tillhandahålla principer vilka beslutsfattare och regulatorer bör efterfölja vid utformning eller reformering av mekanismer för samhällsomfattande tjänster för bredband. Arbetet baseras på en serie kvalitativa fallstudier av länder med policy, procedurella och verkställande aspekter kopplade till USF:er i områden med få bredbandsuppkopplingar i fokus. Material tillgängligt för allmänheten har kompletterats med intervjuer av intressenter från olika organisations- och samhällsnivåer för att skapa en heltäckande empiri på området från vilka slutsatser har dragits. Slutsatserna innehåller principer som rör offentlig inblandning i USF:er, roller för samhällets olika intressenter i ett ekosystem för bredband, samt strategier för utbyggnad av bredbandsnätverk i glesbefolkade områden.

A tremendous disparity exists between the few countries with expansive access to information and communications technologies, and the many others still lacking the basic infrastructure and unable to participate in the information age.
While the current trade regime under the Basic Telecommunications Agreement, which forms part of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, offers many opportunities for developing countries, its potential for bridging the digital divide through increased flows of FDI is likely to benefit only those countries with large, lucrative markets. Global market failures would result in deepening the digital divide facing the poorest of the developing countries. Unable to come under the new liberalization paradigm, these countries are likely to be left even further behind.
A legal approach to bridging the digital divide requires going beyond the current trade regime and engaging in a new regime-building exercise. Drawing upon the domestic universal service concept, this thesis calls for a global universal service and access (GUSA) regime. Such a regime entails a new form of international cooperation that harnesses all available resources and includes the recasting of international accounting rates and a revitalization of official development assistance. It also involves institutional reform and reconfiguration through the creation of a new international financial institution, a Global Universal Service Fund (GUSF) as well as the strengthening of the role of the ITU as the custodian of the GUSA regime.
The GUSF would be an independently managed, politically balanced and internationally accountable institution. Because of its flexibility and its mandate to supplement market mechanisms and respond to global market failures, the fund would go a long way towards subsidizing network build out programs in the poorest developing countries, and ensuring widespread connectivity. The proposal is legally defensible under human rights law as well as trade and telecommunications laws, is economically justified under the global public goods doctrine, and technologically feasible given current capacity to connect the world and create the global village.

En 1957, l’État est l’organisateur du service public postal en France à travers son administration centrale. Cette même année est signé un traité à Rome entre six États européens autour de l’idée de marché commun avec délégation de souveraineté.Le service public postal et l’Europe du traité de Rome vont, tout d’abord, évoluer parallèlement. Mais, au début des années 1980, le contexte politique, économique et technologique change et l’Europe se saisit de la question postale ; d’une phase d’ignorance, on entre alors dans une phase de confrontation : l’Europe soumet le service postal au droit commun de la concurrence et remet en cause le monopole, organisation traditionnelle du service postal. Par ailleurs, le service public postal organique est transformé : La Poste, exploitant public doté de la personnalité juridique est née. Progressivement, la logique de confrontation laisse place à une phase de concertation entre l’Europe du traité de Rome et les États membres qui donne naissance à plusieurs directives. Ces dernières placent en leur cœur le service universel postal. En 2012, la libéralisation du service postal devient totale : il n’existe plus de monopole légal.Cette ouverture du marché est concomitante avec la révolution numérique. Ainsi, dans ce contexte de bouleversements idéologiques, technologiques et économiques, le service public postal connaît des évolutions significatives tant dans sa forme – La Poste devient une société anonyme – que dans sa mission : pour répondre aux nouveaux besoins d’intérêt général, raison d’être du service public, le service public postal est reconfiguré
In 1957, the State is the organiser of the public postal service in France through its central administration. That same year, a treaty was signed in Rome between six European States around the idea of a common market with a delegation of sovereignty. At first, the public postal service and the Europe of the Treaty of Rome develop separately. But in the early 1980s, the political, economic and technological context evolves and Europe decides to take an active interest in the matter of the postal service. After a phase of disinterest in postal matters, we enter in a phase of confrontation; Europe submits the postal service to the competition law: monopoly, the traditional organisation of the postal service, is challenged. Moreover, the French public postal service is transformed: La Poste, independent public operator is born. Following the period of confrontation, a period of dialogue follows, bringing together the Europe of the Treaty of Rome and the States members to write the postal law. Several guidelines are adopted, focused in particular on the universal postal service. By 2012, the process of liberalisation of the postal service is complete: there is no legal monopoly in Europe. This new openness is concomitant with the digital era. The postal service must now continue to adapt to this new ideological, technological and economical context: in its form – La Poste becomes a public limited company – as well as in its mission to serve the public interest, the raison d’être of the public service, so the public postal service is reconfigured

Les futurs systèmes UMTS devront être capables d'offrir des services bas et haut débit, permettant de transmettre voix, images et video, ainsi que d'effectuer des connexions Internet. Plusieurs niveaux de qualité de service devront donc être gérés. Pour ce faire, une architecture de qualité de service est en cours de normalisation au 3GPP. Cette thèse se propose d'étudier la réalisation de la qualité de service dans les systèmes UMTS. La réalisation de la qualité de service repose notamment sur les performances réalisables sur l'interface air, et l'impact de ces performances sur la qualité de service de bout-en-bout. Nos efforts se sont axés autour de deux points essentiels : d'une part, l'étude de l'impact de la qualité sur l'interface air sur la fiabilité de bout-en-bout, lorsque l'utilisateur UMTS est connecté avec un réseau IP externe ; d'autre part, la réalisation de la qualité de service sur l'interface air, via les fonctions radio avancées spécifiques à l'UMTS et mises en oeuvre au niveau du réseau d'accès. Dans un premier temps, nous étudions les performances de bout-en-bout du protocole TCP, sur une connexion non temps réel comportant une portion UMTS. Dans un deuxième temps, nous étudions la réalisation des performances sur l'interface air W-CDMA, via la mise en oeuvre de fonctions radio avancées. Nous étudions en particulier le design et le dimensionnement de l'UTRAN, afin de permettre la mise en oeuvre de ces fonctions radio. Dans cette étude, nous envisageons à la fois le trafic temps réel et le trafic non temps réel
Trends in UMTS systems are towards delivering voice, data and video, as well as Web trafic with appropriate end-to-end QoS guarantees as illustrated by the intensive standardization work on a QoS architecture in 3GPP. Key to its implementation is the air interface and its limiting performance to the end-to-end system. In this work, we consider an end-to-end architecture, where in a UMTS system interworks with a wired IP network and focus on two major topics. First, we consider the impact of the air interface on the end-to-end Qos, mainly in terms of reliability. Second, we investigate the feasibility of the implementation of advanced radio functions within the UTRAN. Typically, in wired networks, reliability for data traffic is guaranteed by the use of TCP at the transport layer. The wireless, mobile component adds error and delay to the end-to-end performance. In our work, we quantify the performance of TCP over ARQ, an error detection / retransmission mechanism present at the RLC layer. As of the UTRAN, the challenge is to guarantee low transport delay toboth real-time and non-real-time traffic, as dictated by the advanced radio functions. We particularly study the design and dimensionning of the UTRAN for both voice and data traffic in isolation as well as service differenciation in the case where both co-exist

Thesis advisor: Richard M. Jackson
The diversity of the student population in K-12 settings has steadily increased over the past few decades. While students who are of a racial/ethnic minority background have increased (Villegas & Lucas, 2007), teachers are increasingly young, female, and white (Goldenberg, 2008; NCES, 2013). In acknowledging these demographic discrepancies between teachers and students, many studies and reports have put forward an array of frameworks that teachers can employ in their practice to address diversity. Among these frameworks are Teaching for Social Justice (TSJ) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This dissertation seeks to examine the potential relationship among the two frameworks as viewed by undergraduate teacher candidates as they develop their dispositions for teaching diverse learners through a 17-week course attached to a one-day-per-week pre-practicum experience. This multi-case study examined how the beliefs of 19 participants regarding TSJ and UDL changed over the course of a 6-month study within the context of a course. This study investigated how these participants connected UDL and social justice as a cohesive framework for addressing diversity in the classroom. Using daily and weekly journals, online discussion forums, and pre- and post- surveys, this study analyzed all 19 participants to identify four representative cases. Findings from this study reveal that most participants were impacted by the course to the extent that they were able to identify the importance of aspects of social justice in the practice of an educator. Fewer participants were able to identify the role of UDL in the classroom. Only one participant viewed social justice and UDL as a cohesive framework for impacting classroom practice. Analysis of the representative case studies suggests that participants at this level of development may need more time to engage in complicated abstract concepts. They may also need course-attached field placements in classrooms that align with the mission and vision of the preparation program, consistency in messaging through the duration of a preparation program, and differentiated supports based on their background experiences
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction

Since the advent of the millennium, a growing interest has arisen in information and communication technologies (ICT) given the potential to bridge the digital divide. ICT have had a central role to play in terms of economic, regulatory and political development. Telecommunications is used in this thesis as a sector case to study policy diffusion, which focuses on the movement of policies across borders and actors. This thesis answers the following research question: does policy diffusion take place in the telecommunications sector in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries? This is answered using qualitative methods, such as expert interviews and the comparison of six cases, composed of two sectors of ICT; Universal Service Obligation (USO) and spectrum management, and of three countries; Morocco, Jordan and Egypt. In case the research question is positively answered two further foci are central to the thesis. Firstly, the thesis explores the conditions leading to policy diffusion. The thesis argues that the conditions leading to policy diffusion are linked to different degrees of vulnerability of countries to external actors. This vulnerability is described through four variables, which reveals the levels of governance and market openness and economic and political interconnectedness of the adopting countries. Secondly, it scrutinizes the links between sector variables and mechanisms of diffusion. The argument of this part is that different combinations of these sector variables support the differentiation across the four traditional mechanisms of policy diffusion; learning, imitation, competition and coercion. The main contributions of this thesis are both theoretical, to the literature of policy diffusion and empirical, regarding telecommunications regulation in three MENA countries. The thesis underlines the key role of government administrations as the main driver for policy change in MENA countries, compared to international pressures and market forces. Furthermore this thesis concludes that, in the telecommunications sector, transgovernmental channels are nowadays omnipresent in the phenomenon of policy diffusion and are thus not sufficient to disentangle mechanisms of diffusion. The thesis examines the additional factors of efficiency, economic interests and sanction capacity for explanatory power.

Cette recherche est une contribution à la réflexion sur la régulation d’un Service Universel des télécommunications intégrant l’accès à l’Internet dans une optique de maximisation du bien-être collectif.Un premier thème concerne l’effet d’une intégration d’un niveau minimal de bande passante dans la définition du Service Universel. Un deuxième thème abordé concerne le choix optimal des technologies permettant d’assurer le quantum de bande passante définie par le Service Universel. Un troisième thème concerne l’impact de la quantité de bande passante sur la consommation, donc l’objectif de bande passante que doit viser le Service Universel pour maximiser le bien-être collectif. Le quatrième thème abordé est celui des gains de surplus par les consommateurs en fonction des prix de l’accès à l’Internet. Ces relations sont établies sur la base de données issues des pays de l’OCDE.A cette fin nous cherchons principalement à répondre aux questions concernant le niveau minimal de bande passante, ainsi que le choix optimal des technologies à partir d’une analyse théorique économique. D’autre part, les questions concernant l’impact de la quantité de bande passante sur la consommation et les gains de surplus par les consommateurs sont visés à travers une analyse économétrique
This research is a contribution to regulation debate on telecommunications universal service including Internet access to maximizing social welfare. A first subject concerns the effect of an integration of a minimum bandwidth level in the definition of Universal Service. A second subject relates to the optimal technological choice to ensure band width quantum defined by the Universal Service. A third subject is the impact of bandwidth on consumption, therefore the goal of bandwidth that aim the universal service to maximize social welfare. The fourth subject is related to consumers surplus gains based on the price of Internet access.These relationships are established from OECD countries database. In this perspective we aim primarily to address issues concerning bandwidth minimum level and optimal technological choice from an economic theoretical analysis. On the other hand, questions of the impact of bandwidth on consumption and consumers surplus gains are referred through econometric analysis

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2011.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-119).
As the competitive wholesale cost of bandwidth continues to plummet in Kenya, last-mile networks have become a bottleneck in the extension of affordable broadband outside major cities. In this work we explore the business case for small-scale wireless mesh networks as a means to implement demand-driven, bottom-up growth of broadband infrastructure on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Under the hypothesis that current conditions are not attractive to small scale operators (SSO), we develop a continuous growth model to understand the investment required by a SSO before a small-scale network is able to grow sustainably. The model is then used to test the effects of a variety of policy interventions on the SSO's required investment. Our analysis reveals that the two primary barriers for SSOs are license fees and inability to access market prices for upstream inputs at prices competitive with large commercial operators. Based on these results we propose government support for a SSO cooperative as an efficient method of supporting small-scale wireless networks and their operators.
by Keith A. Berkoben.
S.M.in Technology and Policy

Serviços de telecomunicações são importantes não apenas pela sua característica de setor de infra-estrutura mas também pelo seus potenciais efeitos de spill over. A universalização dos serviços de telecomunicações tem sido uma parte importante da intervenção regulatória. As justificativas podem ser econômicas: externalidades de rede, ou não econômicas: cidadania e coesão social. Das várias possibilidades alternativas de políticas, apresenta-se a implementação dos preços de Ramsey, através de markup, como um meio de minimizar as perdas de eficiência econômica na consecução ao deste objetivo, a partir de diferentes cenários de estruturas de mercado e valores de parâmetros.
Telecommunications services are relevant, not only due to its infra-structure service characteristic, but also for their spill over potential effects. Telecommunication suniversal service has been a relevant piece of the regulatory process. Economic reasons might be network externalities; whilst non-economic, citizenship and social cohesion. Among the alternative policy possibilities, it is suggested the implementa-tion of Ramsey pricing, through markup, as a mean to minimize the loss of economic efficiency in reaching this purpose, from different market structures scenarios and parameters values.

Thailand introduced universal access to Anti-retroviral treatment (ART) service in 2003. This became the main factor increasing demands for services with increasing numbers of People living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), (PLHIV) and those people living longer. Since 2011, two other factors altered the ART service provision: changes in enrolment criteria to allow PLHIV with high CD4 count (a blood test that establishes the stage of immunosuppression), access to the ART service, and decentralisation changes allowing easier access to ART at peripheral levels. This study therefore examined how service providers at all levels of care deliver ART services, and developed a tool to estimate future requirements for those providers. The case study uses mixed methods including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Two stages of data collection were conducted; fieldwork to collect data on activities and flow of ART services, and time required for each type of service provider. These become the input data for a second stage to project staffing requirements based on Markov and Monte Carlo analysis to 2025. Three models of ART services were found, across all levels of facility in the public sector operating in high HIV/AIDS prevalence settings,: community-based, doctor-led and mixed-comprehensive. All models adapted their ART services from the national guidelines by applying HR strategies: task shifting, skill mix and community-based approach, to maintain/increase accessibility and quality of care. The estimation of time required to provide ART service of providers was estimated. 60 full time equivalent (FTE) providers (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and non-healthcare providers) in 2012, projected to almost double in 2015. This study found negligible gaps (0.02-0.05%) between needs and availability of healthcare providers to deliver ART service. The HR strategies investigated, were sufficiently widespread to be worth recommending for wide application in human resource planning. Moreover, the tool developed to estimate the requirements for healthcare providers from this study could further support forward towards planning for HIV/AIDS services in Thailand and possibly elsewhere.

Étant donne le contexte d'ouverture accrue du marché du courrier à la concurrence, nous nous posons la question de dispositifs alternatifs au monopole, pour garantir la viabilité du service universel postal. Celui-ci consiste en une offre de services postaux de qualité déterminée, fournis de manière permanente en tout point du territoire à des prix abordables pour l'ensemble des utilisateurs. L’organisation du service universel repose sur un réseau universel : sa vocation est de répondre a des besoins très varies en concentrant puis en répartissant des envois très différents. L’équilibre antérieur des opérateurs de service universel européens est aujourd'hui remis en cause par l'évolution de la demande vers des services personnalises, les pressions du marché et les pressions règlementaires sur le monopole. L’analyse et la mesure du cout du service universel permet alors d'appréhender les effets de cette dynamique de marche sur les obligations de service universel. Ainsi nous montrons comment les besoins de financement de l'opérateur pour maintenir le service universel varient en fonction de la situation de marche. La pérennité des obligations de service universel nécessite ensuite d'envisager d'autres modalités de financement (fiscalité générale, fonds de compensation, aides ciblées, etc. ). Les possibilités d'adaptation en matière d'application des obligations de service universel (niveau de prix abordable, niveau de qualité de service) sur un marché libéralise sont également examinées. Elles impliquent en définitive un débat sur la définition et le périmètre du service universel.

The relationship between organizational culture and organizational effectiveness has been the subject of much research by Daniel Denison. Much of this research has been conducted in developed countries where the environment is highly competitive, highly productive and the economies are stable. There has been the challenge however to determine if the findings of such research are relatively universally consistent. In this case the challenge is to determine if the findings hold in circumstances where the economies are less developed and more fragile than those previously studied. This research study is designed to examine the relationship between organizational culture and organizational effectiveness in circumstances typical of the English speaking Caribbean where the economies are weak and in some respects informal and to use these findings to compare with earlier findings from developed economies. The research study involves the administration of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey which was also used in the earlier studies, to persons engaged in the electronic media sector in the English-speaking Caribbean. This sector has the characteristic of competitiveness which is typical of other industries studied. The evidence points to a strong correlation between organizational effectiveness and all four of the Denison culture traits. The adaptability and the mission traits were identified as the more dominant and the organizations reflected an external focus. The results of the study indicate that notwithstanding the economic foundational differences, the findings hold true of a positive relationship between organizational culture and organizational effectiveness similar in extent to and in some cases stronger than earlier studies and as such provided support for the previous research findings.

This dissertation contributes to the literature and current discussions on the European postal markets and the universal service obligations (USO). It consists of three independent chapters.

In chapter one, we investigate the consumers' preferences for various kinds of postal services. As such, we begin by reviewing the market and regulatory conditions for Europe and for our case study, Belgium. Then using data provided by the incumbent provider, the Belgian post (Bpost), we estimate demand price elasticities. The data comprises customer transactional information on letter mail, direct mail, parcels & express services, press delivery and value added services for the 2008-2009 period. These categories constitute not only the important lines of services that Bpost offers to its clients but also the main segments that constitute the whole Belgian postal market. As such, and using standard methods, we estimate for each service an equation that explains demand by prices, product varieties (i.e. mixes or combinations of volume, weight, priority and destination, inter alia), income, regulation proxies and other socioeconomic variables. The estimated price elasticities for regulated and partially regulated services are around -1.1, whereas for unregulated segments they fluctuate between -2.1 and -2.8. The lowest price elasticity is obtained for direct mail services (-1.0); the highest ones are associated with value added services (-2.1) and registered mail (-3.3). Price elasticities may be influenced by the cyclical effects during the period of analysis. Therefore, elasticities are higher when compared with the empirical evidence obtained for other countries and through the various methodologies applied over the last decades. The fact that technological substitutes, such as expenditures on telephony and internet access for daily and administrative mail services and, radio and television advertising for direct mail services, could not be accounted for (because there were no data available) may however be considered as a major limitation for the scope of our results.

In the second chapter, we explore theoretically the effects of the USO on unregulated markets. In particular, we are interested in investigating its welfare effects when the provision of services cannot be technologically separated. We present a model in which there is an incumbent who provides two services: a universal service and a non-USO service, the latter opened to competition. This is the case of letter mail and direct (or bulk) mail, services which have quite different purposes and regulatory frameworks (i.e. the former is fully regulated whereas the latter is liberalized under the current European Internal Market framework), but are jointly produce at some stages of the postal value chain. The USO is simplified to two dimensions, affordability and quality, implemented as a price cap and a minimum quality standard (MQS) for the provision of letter mail services. The latter involves the technological aspects that we are interested in. We find that the definition of the USO plays an important role in organizing markets that are open to competition. When it imposes few quality requirements (low MQS), the incumbent is not cost efficient enough to provide the high-quality variant of bulk mail, allowing its competitors to cream-skim the segment. However, because there are cost economies, the firm's participation in the segment yields a higher average quality of mail services at lower prices. When the USO is too comprehensive (high MQS), the incumbent exhibits large cost economies that ensure a dominant position in the provision of bulk mail services. Consumers are worse off as competition induces too much service differentiation in order to make profitable the provision. Relaxing the definition of the USO mitigates the competitive advantage of the USP and so, yields improvements in welfare. In the absence of access costs, firms will find profitable to participate in the bulk mail segment. However, foreclosure happens if the USO induces the incumbent to exhibit significant fixed costs. Therefore, the USP may end up as the sole supplier of bulk mail services if the definition of the USO imposes too many quality requirements (high MQS). In that case, the authority must balance the welfare gains of defining USO with the welfare losses of the consumers of the contested service.

Finally, in the third chapter we consider the ownership aspect of the provision of universal services as an incentive to introduce competition. One can further segment the provision between services for customers located in high-cost areas and services for customers located in low-cost areas. Additionally, under the current EU legislation, the supply is divided between upstream activities (e.g. collection and sorting) and downstream activities (i.e. delivery). The provision of upstream activities in high-cost areas remains in hands of the incumbent firm or the owner of the downstream (delivery) network. The upstream provision in low-cost areas is open to competition, but a retailer may be vertically integrated/separated or legally unbundled with the downstream firm. Legal unbundling means, in our model, that the downstream firm and one upstream firm located in the low-cost area belong legally to the same entity entitled to all profits, whom does not have full control rights over the firms' decisions. That is to say, upstream activities and the downstream services will be managed separately under the same ownership. In this framework we analyze the firm's boundaries in terms of competition development and welfare. We implement two criteria to answer questions like, does vertical separation promotes competition (entry of firms) while covers a larger demand than vertical integration? Does vertical integration demand less public funds to cover demand? Does legal unbundling is worse than ownership separation to promote competition? The first criterion is the probability of entry (of the potential upstream firm), which we determine for each modes of ownership. The second criterion is the cost of public funds. It is implemented by defining a loss function as the difference between the expected consumer surplus when the downstream firm chooses an access fee that maximizes its profits and the consumer surplus when access is priced at marginal cost. The use of both criteria let us conclude that efficient entry occurs when the downstream firm is vertically separated or legally unbundled of the retailer providing services in the low-cost area. However, it is under legal unbundling that the access charge takes its lowest value. The highest cost of public transfers is obtained when firms are vertically separated, but the lowest one is attained when firms are legally unbundled. Therefore legal unbundling constitutes the preferred organizational form to induce competition and to reduce the cost of public funds.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La thèse entreprise a pour objectif d’essayer de définir un statut juridique de la procédure de dédouanement des envois postaux. La nature juridique des envois postaux justifie un traitement douanier autonome et distinct des formalités douanières applicables aux marchandises des échanges commerciaux internationaux. Les travaux réalisés devraient tout d’abord aider à répondre aux problématiques liées aux difficultés juridiques de la définition de cette procédure de dédouanement spécifique et leurs conséquences. L’étude portera particulièrement sur le règlement des différends entre les autorités douanières et les importateurs ou exportateurs d’envois postaux internationaux en cas de litige lié au dédouanement. Au préalable, il faut donc relever et clarifier les règles juridiques qui sont déjà applicables au dédouanement des envois postaux, tant au niveau national et européen, qu'au niveau international en ce domaine. Cependant, cela se révèle difficile, et il faut rester opiniâtre devant l'extrême diversité des sources et des textes, parsemés dans de nombreuses branches du droit. Il faut ensuite nécessairement tenter de redéfinir, clairement et simplement, la notion d’envoi postal et la notion de service postal universel justifiant l'application d'une procédure spécifique de dédouanement des envois postaux. La notion de service postal universel implique un dédouanement rapide des envois postaux. Les administrations douanières ont, elles, l’obligation d’assurer le contrôle de toutes les marchandises importées ou exportées de leurs territoires nationales. La mission principale des autorités douanières est de protéger l’attractivité économique des Etats. Les agents douaniers doivent, d’une part, prélever les droits de douane et taxes à l’importation, d’autre part, lutter contre les trafics illicites de marchandises prohibées ou soumises à restriction. La délicate combinaison de l’universalisme du service postal et des obligations douanières doit permettre la reconnaissance et l’établissement d’une procédure de dédouanement spécifique aux envois postaux impliquant une nouvelle détermination des envois relevant du service postal universel et la mise en place de règles de dédouanement obligatoires et communes à l’ensemble des services postaux internationaux. La mise en œuvre d’une coopération internationale renforcée entre les services postaux et les autorités douanières est, en ce sens, préalablement indispensable. L’étude doit permettre de rendre compréhensible, pour les entreprises et les particuliers nationaux et européens, le droit positif douanier applicable au dédouanement postal. On analysera notamment les infractions et les règles douanières sanctionnant les diverses fraudes que l’on retrouve le plus fréquemment en pratique. L’essai sur la définition d'un statut juridique de la procédure de dédouanement des envois postaux démontrera qu’il est impératif de renforcer les pouvoirs et les moyens de contrôle et de sanctions des autorités douanières pour ce type singulier de dédouanement. Les voies de recours non-contentieuses et contentieuses qui sont ouvertes aux redevables et requérants feront également l’objet d’un traitement particulier. Les droits des redevables ou requérants sont notamment garantis par le principe de contrôle de la légalité des décisions de l’Administration des douanes et de ses agents par le juge judiciaire. Le juge judiciaire et le droit européen limitent et encadrent les pouvoirs exorbitants des autorités douanières
The thesis undertaken aims to try to define a legal status of the procedure of taking out of bond of the postal sendings. The legal nature of the postal sendings justifies a customs treatment autonomous and distinct from the customs formalities applicable to the goods of the international commercial exchanges. The completed works should first of all help to answer the problems related to the legal difficulties of the definition of this procedure of specific taking out of bond and their consequences. The study will relate particularly to settlement of disputes between the customs authorities and the importers or exporters of international postal sendings in the event of litigation related to the taking out of bond. As a preliminary, it is thus necessary to raise and clarify the legal rules which are already applicable to the taking out of bond of the postal sendings, so much at the national and European level, that with the international level in this field. However, that appears difficult, and there is necessary to remain obstinate in front of the extreme diversity of the sources and the texts, strewn in many branches with the right. It is then necessarily necessary to try to redefine, clearly and simply, the concept of postal sending and the notion of universal postal service justifying the application of a specific procedure of taking out of bond of the postal sendings. The concept of universal postal service implies a fast taking out of bond of the postal sendings. The customs administrations have, they, the obligation to ensure the control of all the imported or exported goods their territories main roads. The main mission of the customs authorities is to protect the economic attractivity from the States. The customs agents must, on the one hand, take the customs duties and import taxes, on the other hand, to fight against the illicit traffics of goods prohibited or subjected to restriction. The delicate combination of the universalism of the postal service and the customs obligations must allow the recognition and the establishment of a procedure of taking out of bond specific to the postal sendings implying a new determination of the sendings concerned with the universal postal service and the installation of rules of taking out of bond obligatory and communes the whole of the international postal services. The implementation of an international cooperation reinforced between the postal services and the customs authorities is, in this direction, beforehand essential. The study must make it possible to make comprehensible, for the companies and the individuals national and European, the customs substantive law applicable to the postal taking out of bond. One will analyze in particular the customs infringements and rules sanctioning the various frauds which one finds most frequently in practice. The test on the definition of a legal status of the procedure of taking out of bond of the postal sendings will show that it is imperative to reinforce the powers and the means of control and sanctions of the customs authorities for this singular type of taking out of bond. The not-contentious and contentious appeals which are opened up for the debtors and applicants will also be the object of a particular treatment. The rights of the debtors or applicants are in particular ensured by the principle of control of the legality of the decisions of the Customs and Excise and of its agents by the legal judge. The legal judge and the European right limit and frame the exorbitant powers of the customs authorities

Lo scenario contemporaneo di sviluppo dei sistemi comunicativi, caratterizzato da un continuo scambio tra chi realizza l’informazione e chi ne fruisce, necessita di una maggiore attenzione alla creazione di contenuti che possano essere compresi e accessibili a tutte le categorie di individui; A11Y Learning System for Communication Design si posiziona in questo scenario come risultato dell’applicazione delle metodologie di Service Design alla progettazione di una piattaforma partecipativa a sostegno della comunicazione inclusiva, come sistema di valorizzazione del tema dell’accessibilità delle informazioni. Il servizio si basa su un processo creativo-accessibile composto da una fase di scoperta, una fase progettuale e una fase conclusiva di partecipazione, in modo che si attui la nascita di una community attorno al sistema, assumendo la caratteristica di un progetto di design sociale, inteso come creazione di una rete di condivisione che sia implementata e migliorata dagli stessi individui che ne entrano a far parte. Il progetto è il risultato di un percorso di ricerca composto da tre fasi principali: l'analisi del contesto sociale e storiografico in cui il tema dell'accessibilità si è sviluppato, evidenziando la relazione con le metodologie del design e l'approccio collaborativo, una fase di ricerca sui bisogni dell'utente per individuare gli obiettivi progettuali e lo sviluppo del servizio, descrivendo la sua organizzazione e come avviene l'interazione tra gli stakeholder del sistema attraverso la piattaforma abilitante. A conclusione del processo, è stata svolta un'analisi su possibili scenari di sviluppo futuri di questo servizio, in termini di diffusione e scalabilità.

Cette thèse de doctorat a pour objet d’évaluer les effets potentiels d’une concurrence accrue sur le marché de la santé. Elle porte une attention particulière aux effets de la concurrence sur l’efficacité allocative du système de santé en termes de soins et de dépenses de santé. Dans leur ensemble, nos résultats suggèrent que les effets canoniques de la concurrence ne s’appliquent pas nécessairement au marché de la santé, et détaillent des circonstances dans lesquelles une hausse de la concurrence pourrait nuire au bien-être social. Cette thèse comporte une introduction et trois chapitres (articles académiques), chacun portant sur un aspect diffèrent de l’efficacité du système de santé. Le premier chapitre analyse l’impact de la concurrence sur les pratiques de soins hospitaliers et leur régulation par tarification prospective. Le second chapitre détaille les enjeux de régulation liés à la nature incomplète de l’information sur les patients au moment de choisir la procédure de soins à adopter, à commencer par la décision de mettre en œuvre des tests de diagnostic supplémentaires. Le dernier chapitre de cette thèse discute les conséquences possibles de l’asymétrie qui peut exister entre fournisseur de soins public et privé en termes d’obligation de couverture et pouvant être appliqué au marché de l’aide à domicile des personnes âgées
The purpose of this thesis is to study the potential effects of an increased competition between health-care providers on the allocative efficiency of the health-care system. In a theoretical framework it discusses the effect of competitive pressure considering the decentralization of treatment decisions, diagnostic tests’ performance, and the organization of care coverage. It is composed of an introduction and three chapters (essays), each of them focusingon a different aspect of the health-care system efficiency. Our findings globally suggest that the canonical effect of competition does not necessarily applies to the health-care market,and detail circumstances in which competition could degrade social welfare. The first chapter analyses the impact of competition on hospitals’ treatment praxis and their regulation through fixed-repayments. The second chapter details the regulation issues related to the incomplete nature of the information on patients’ illness before the decision to perform diagnostic tests.The last chapter of this thesis discusses the possible outcomes of the asymmetry of obligation of services between public and private competitors in an application to the home-care market for the elderly

In an increasingly digital world, the accessibility of digital services is an important question of inclusion. Despite judicial requirements for accessibility of digital public services, the inclusion of accessibility into design practices is a new research area.   This research project explores how to facilitate the inclusion of accessibility into design practices by creating a methodology that centres around an accessibility maturity assessment. The result of the assessment forms the basis for the selection of design methods that are mapped to the attributes of the model.   Preliminary research consists of an interview study, desk research and unorganized research activities. A case study is conducted at the Swedish Tax Agency, the result of which form the basis of the design intervention. Case study data is analysed with the help of an accessibility maturity model, which also serves as the core of the design intervention. For the intervention, adapted, proven design methods are connected to the attributes of the accessibility maturity model. A proof of concept is created in the form of a handbook and validated with designers and employees at the Tax Agency. The validation shows that there is promise in the proposed methodology, as the use of the design practices ensure that accessibility is a part of the entire design process. Further research should investigate the use of the handbook in a case study in order to consolidate the practicalities of the methodology, as well as validate the utility of the methodology in a practical application.   Keywords: digital accessibility, digital public service, maturity model, accessibility maturity assessment, UX practices, universal design, disability   Contact: linneamichel@gmail.com

Orientadores: Raul Vinhas Ribeiro, Maria Silvina Medrano
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T21:31:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Giansante_Moacir_M.pdf: 31760626 bytes, checksum: 1c3f355aabddb68180939401b269973f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007
Resumo: Este estudo apresenta uma metodologia para calcular os custos decorrentes de projetos de universalização de serviços de telecomunicações, conforme estabelece a legislação brasileira, denominados como custos líquidos em outras legislações. Tal conceito é baseado na obtenção dos custos evitáveis e para seu cálculo, os custos atribuídos ao cumprimento das obrigações devem ser alocados de forma a guardar relação com a atividade que o gerou bem como com a quantidade de serviços/produtos produzidos. A metodologia também deve ser capaz de capturar economias de escala e de escopo decorrentes de compartilhamento de recursos e de otimização das capacidades instaladas. Por isso, propõe-se um modelo que combine os conceitos de custos incrementais e de custos prospectivos de longo prazo de forma flexível e que permita a análise de diferentes projetos de universalização
Abstract: This study presents a methodology to calculate the net costs resulting from telecommunications universal services, in accordance with Brazilian legislation. Such a concept is based on the estimation of the avoidable costs due to universal obligations. In order to proceed with the calculations, the costs attributed to these obligations should be allocated to guard relation with the activity that generated them as well as with the quantity of service/productsproduced. ,The methodology also should be capable of capture scale and scope economies due to shared resources or capacities optimization. Theproposed model combines the concepts of incremental costs andforward-looking costs in aflexible manner to enable the analysis of different projects regarding universal service
Mestrado
Automação
Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Le service universel se définit comme : l'accès de tous à des services de base à un tarif abordable, ces services comprennent l'accès à un branchement électrique, aux services de téléphonie vocale et un service postal de base. Dans les deux dernières décennies, les conditions de fourniture du service universel ont été bouleversées. Les autorités de régulation doivent mettre en place de nouveaux modes d'organisation de cette fourniture. Cela passe par la définition et le calcul du coût de cette fourniture d'une part. Par l'étude et la mise en place de nouveaux modes de financement d'autre part. La question sous-jacente étant de savoir si il est possible de mettre en place une méthodologie de calcul et un mode de financement unique pour tous les services concernés. Il s'avère en fait, que si il peut exister pour un mode de calcul du coût unique ; le mode de financement lui devra être adopté en fonction des objectifs du régulateur et des contraintes posées par l'industrie, au cas par cas.

Processing completely producting technological documentation for production part “INJECTOR COVER” for firm BM SERVICE (formerly ČKD Hradec Králové), including time schedule production of parts (parts which past welding and machining create demanded component part) and calculation production costs. Solving production process is concepted in two variation (actual and forecast study) for machines which are sorted from existing machinery and from now proposed machines. Estimation is designed for firm conditions introducing to the production with view for qualifications of workers, convention in firm and equipment.

The presented text first summarizes the basic principles and objectives of liberalization in the European Union. Additionally, a short introduction to liberalization of the service sector is presented. In particular, the thesis aims towards two goals. Firstly, it analyses the postal market liberalization on a sample of chosen countries that were first on a way to fully accomplished postal market opening. The analysis regards Sweden, Great Britain, Netherlands, Germany and Estonia. Secondly, the emphasis was given to identification of potential entry barriers, which could distort competition on a seemingly fully liberalized postal market.

La construction communautaire, initiee a l'origine par le traite de rome de 1957, et destinee a aboutir a un grand marche interieur de libre echange pour toutes les activites, a connu une nouvelle avancee avec la notion de service universel nee en 1987, a l'initiative de la commission europeenne. Ce service universel est destine a proteger les activites dites d'interet economique general a vocation specifique des entreprises de reseaux telephonique et postal. La notion de service universel vient remplacer celle de service public pour ces deux activites, eu egard a l'evolution technologique sans precedent que connaissent ces secteurs, a la difference de l'energie electrique qui conserve, de fait, l'appellation traditionnelle de service public. Les trois reseaux de telephone, de service postal et d'electricite desservant l'usager a son domicile constituent le support de notre etude parce qu'ils mettent cote a cote les notions de service universel et de service public. Loin de s'opposer, ces dernieres se completent dans l'apprehension du service d'interet economique general. Si le service universel puise ses sources dans le droit communautaire derive, il a vocation a s'incorporer dans les droits nationaux au moyen de la transposition par les legislateurs nationaux des directives communautaires prises pour ces activites. L'objectif est d'arriver a concilier interet general et lois du marche, grace a l'instauration progressive d'une branche du droit public specifique a la concurrence.

Software support for the generation of good Braille has historically been hampered by fragmented and small markets. Some languages have good commercial support, others are lacking. Fortunately Liblouis, an open source tool for complete Braille transcription services, is emerging as a universal solution. Liblouis provides Braille translation for literary and computer Braille, offers support for contracted and uncontracted translation for many languages and includes support for Braille mathematics codes such as Nemeth. Liblouis also provides Braille formatting, which can handle many document formats including DTBook XML. Both the translation and the formatting can easily be adapted to new languages and document formats. This paper shows how Liblouis will be used at the Swiss Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired to integrate Braille generation into a production workflow based around DTBook XML.

Software support for the generation of good Braille has historically been hampered by fragmented and small markets. Some languages have good commercial support, others are lacking. Fortunately Liblouis, an open source tool for complete Braille transcription services, is emerging as a universal solution. Liblouis provides Braille translation for literary and computer Braille, offers support for contracted and uncontracted translation for many languages and includes support for Braille mathematics codes such as Nemeth. Liblouis also provides Braille formatting, which can handle many document formats including DTBook XML. Both the translation and the formatting can easily be adapted to new languages and document formats. This paper shows how Liblouis will be used at the Swiss Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired to integrate Braille generation into a production workflow based around DTBook XML.