Design of maintenance structures for rural electrification with solar home systems. The case of the Moroccan program.

n decentralised rural electrification through solar home systems, private companies and promoting institutions are faced with the problem of deploying maintenance structures to operate and guarantee the service of the solar systems for long periods (ten years or more). The problems linked to decentralisation, such as the dispersion of dwellings, difficult access and maintenance needs, makes it an arduous task. This paper proposes an innovative design tool created ad hoc for photovoltaic rural electrification based on a real photovoltaic rural electrification program in Morocco as a special case study. The tool is developed from a mathematical model comprising a set of decision variables (location, transport, etc.) that must meet certain constraints and whose optimisation criterion is the minimum cost of the operation and maintenance activity assuming an established quality of service. The main output of the model is the overall cost of the maintenance structure. The best location for the local maintenance headquarters and warehouses in a given region is established, as are the number of maintenance technicians and vehicles required.

Communicating strategically in the face of terrorism: The Spanish government’s response to the 2004 Madrid bombing attacks

With the re-emergence of insurgency tied to terrorism, governments need to strategically manage their communications. This paper analyzes the effect of the Spanish government’s messaging in the face of the Madrid bombing of March 11, 2004: unlike what happened with the 9/11 bombings in the USA and the 7/07 London attacks, the Spanish media did not support the government’s framing of the events. Taking framing as a strategic action in a discursive form (Pan & Kosicki, 2003), and in the context of the attribution theory of responsibilities, this research uses the “cascading activation” model (Entman, 2003, 2004) to explore how a framing contest was generated in the press. Analysis of the coverage shows that the intended government frame triggered a battle among the different major newspapers, leading editorials to shift their frame over the four days prior to the national elections. This research analyzes strategic contests in framing processes and contributes insight into the interactions among the different sides (government, parties, media, and citizens) to help bring about an understanding of the rebuttal effect of the government’s intended frame. It also helps to develop an understanding of the role of the media and the influence of citizens’ frames on media content.