New Freedom through Medical Devices Based on the Global System for Mobile Communications: A Prospective Survey of 620 Users of the Swiss Limmex Emergency Wristwatch-An Original Study from Switzerland

About 500,000 elderly people in Switzerland suffer a fall each year. Thus medical attention and help are essential for these people, who mostly live alone without a caregiver. Only 3% of people aged over 65 in Switzerland use an emergency system. Personal telehealth devices allow patients to receive enough information about the appropriate treatment, as well as followup with their doctors and reports of any emergency, in the absence of any caregiver. This increases their quality of life in a cost-effective fashion. "Limmex"-a new medical emergency watch-was launched in Switzerland in 2011 and has been a great commercial success. In this paper, we give a brief review of this watch technology, along with the results of a survey of 620 users conducted by the Department of Emergency Medicine in Bern.

The New Concept of Universal Service in a Digital Networked Communications Environment

Digitization, sophisticated fiber-optic networks and the resultant convergence of the media, communications and information technology industries have completely transformed the communications ecosystem in the last couple of decades. New contingent business and social models were created that have been mirrored in the amended communications regimes. Yet, despite an overhaul of the communications regulation paradigm, the status of and the rules on universal service have remained surprisingly intact, both during and after the liberalization exercise. The present paper looks into this paradox and examines the sustainability of the existing concept of universal service. It suggests that there is a need for a novel concept of universal service in the digital networked communications environment, whose objectives go beyond the conventional internalizing and redistributional rationales and concentrate on communication and information networks as a public good, where not only access to infrastructure but also access to content may be essential.

Defining Regulatory Objectives for Contemporary Electronic Communications : Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Goal evaluation is an essential element of the process of designing regulatory frameworks. Lawyers and legal scholars do however tend to ignore it. The present paper stresses the importance of pinpointing the precise regulatory objectives in the fluid environment of electronic communications, since, due to their technological and economic development, they have become the vital basis for communication and distribution of information in modern societies. The paper attempts an analysis of the underlying regulatory objectives in contemporary communications and seeks to put together the complex puzzle of economic and societal issues.

The Law of the WTO and the Communications Law of the EC : On a Path of Harmony or Discord?

This paper presents an overview of the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) relevant to telecommunications services and correlates this body of law with the current regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services in the European Community. The latter has been adapted to meet the challenges of technological and market developments in communications, epitomized by the processes of digitization, enhanced transport networks and convergence. The novel solutions embodied in the EC electronic communications regime, notably, a new design of the Significant Market Power mechanism, a projected withdrawal of sector specific regulation and an affirmation of the principle of technological neutrality, pose interesting questions as to the conformity of this reformed EC communications law with the WTO rules on telecommunications services and the obligations of the European Communities and their Member States. Looking beyond the WTO legal compatibility test, essential questions regarding the need for evolution of the WTO telecommunications rules are raised. The present paper contributes to the ongoing debate in that context in light of the EC experience.

EC Electronic Communications and Competition Law

Telecommunications have developed at an incredible speed over the last couple of decades. The decreasing size of our phones and the increasing number of ways in which we can communicate are barely the only result of this (r)evolutionary development. The latter has indeed multiple implications. The change of paradigm for telecommunications regulation, epitomised by the processes of liberalisation and reregulation, was not sufficient to answer all regulatory questions pertinent to communications. Today, after the transition from monopoly to competition, we are faced perhaps with an even harder regulatory puzzle, since we must figure out how to regulate a sector that is as dynamic and as unpredictable as electronic communications have proven to be, and as vital and fundamental to the economy and to society at large. The present book addresses the regulatory puzzle of contemporary electronic communications and suggests the outlines of a coherent model for their regulation. The search for such a model involves essentially deliberations on the question "Can competition law do it all?", since generic competition rules are largely seen as the appropriate regulatory tool for the communications domain. The latter perception has been the gist of the 2002 reform of the European Community (EC) telecommunications regime, which envisages a withdrawal of sectoral regulation, as communications markets become effectively competitive and ultimately bestows the regulation of the sector upon competition law only. The book argues that the question of whether competition law is the appropriate tool needs to be examined not in the conventional contexts of sector specific rules versus competition rules or deregulation versus regulation but in a broader governance context. Consequently, the reader is provided with an insight into the workings and specific characteristics of the communications sector as network-bound, converging, dynamic and endowed with a special societal role and function. A thorough evaluation of the regulatory objectives in the communications environment contributes further to the comprehensive picture of the communications industry. Upon this carefully prepared basis, the book analyses the communications regulatory toolkit. It explores the interplay between sectoral communications regulation, competition rules (in particular Article 82 of the EC Treaty) and the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) relevant to telecommunications services. The in-depth analysis of multilevel construct of EC communications law is up-to-date and takes into account important recent developments in the EC competition law in practice, in particular in the field of refusal to supply and tying, of the reform of the EC electronic communications framework and new decisions of the WTO dispute settlement body, such as notably the Mexico-Telecommunications Services Panel Report. Upon these building elements, an assessment of the regulatory potential of the EC competition rules is made. The conclusions drawn are beyond the scope of the current situation of EC electronic communications and the applicable law and explore the possible contours of an optimal regulatory framework for modern communications. The book is of particular interest to communications and antitrust law experts, as well as policy makers, government agencies, consultancies and think-tanks active in the field. Experts on other network industries (such as electricity or postal communications) can also profit from the substantial experience gathered in the communications sector as the most advanced one in terms of liberalisation and reregulation.

European Community Communications Law : An Introduction

The present article is an abridged version of a chapter to the book EC Electronic Communications and Competition Law (London: Cameron May, 2007). It provides an introduction to the rules at the European Community level governing the electronic communications sector (previously and more traditionally referred to as telecommunications). Such an introduction encompasses essentially an enquiry into the relevant competition law rules, of which here particular attention is paid to abuse of dominant position and the essential facilities doctrine, as well as an analysis of the EC sector specific regulatory framework, which has substantially evolved since the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector back in the beginning of the 1990s. It is the objective of the article to explore to what extent both regulatory tools could deal with the specificities of communications markets, and where they may fail to do so.

Regulatory Objectives for Contemporary Electronic Communications : Talking Business or Talking Culture?

The common mantra in telecommunications regulatory fora (be it national, regional or international) now goes along the lines of 'deregulation-good; regulation-bad' and competition is said to be the ultimate answer to basically every question. A generalised dictum like this is in itself suspicious and even more so, when it refers to a sector such as telecommunications, which has a history of heavy regulation and has been the very epitome of state intervention. In the contemporary environment of vibrant communications, subcribing to a purely 'black-or-white' aproach may be, to put it mildly, unsafe. Before answering the question of appropriate regulatory model for communications markets, it is essential to figure out what goals are to be pursued in order to consider what kind of measures could bring about their attainment. In the words of Robert Bork, 'only when the issue of goals has been settled is it possible to frame a coherent body of substantive rules'. Against this backdrop, the present paper looks into the goals and objectives of telecommunications regulation, their complexity and inherent tension between commercial and public interests.

Typology of the Tools of EC Communications Regulation

The present article is an abridged version of a chapter to the book EC Electronic Communications and Competition Law (London: Cameron May 2007). It explores in a neutral manner the pros and cons of the currently applied toolkit of European Community communications law, i.e. the generic competition law rules and the sector specific regulatory framework. A number of criteria are introduced and these tools are then tested as to their efficiency and efficacy.

International Regulation of Postal Communications

The article provides a concise overview of the rules applicable to postal communications at the international level. Particular attention is paid to the regulations of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the relationship between the two. Outlook on possible future developments accounting for the rapid technological advances and the liberalisation of markets wraps the analysis up. This is a 2010 update that takes into consideration the changes made in the UPU acts in 2008, as well as the latest developments in the WTO's Doha Round negotiations.

Book Review: Benedetta Brevini, Arne Hintz, and Patrick Mccurdy (eds.): Beyond Wikileaks. Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society

This is a review of the highly informative and thought-provoking book, Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society, co-edited by Benedetta Brevini, Arne Hintz and Patrick McCurdy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Postal Communications, International Regulation

The article provides a concise overview of the rules applicable to postal communications at the international level. Particular attention is paid to the regulations of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as the relationship between the two. Outlook on possible future developments accounting for the rapid technological advances, in particular the Internet, and the liberalisation of markets wraps up the analysis. This is a 2013 update that takes into consideration the changes made in the UPU acts in 2012, as well as the latest developments in the WTO's Doha Round negotiations.

Electronic Communications as a Distinct and Unique Object of Regulation

The present paper is an abridged version of the first chapter to the book EC Electronic Communications and Competition Law (London: Cameron May, 2007). It is intended to pinpoint the contours of the communications sector as an object of regulation - an exercise that is essential to any thoughts on appropriate regulatory design. The communications sector is defined through its salient features of being (i) network-bound; (ii) dynamic; (iii) converging; (iv) sensitive to regulation and society’s reactions; and as one (v) with special societal role and as (vi) part of the new economy.

Dicto: A Unified DSL for Testing Architectural Rules

Software architecture consists of a set of design choices that can be partially expressed in form of rules that the implementation must conform to. Architectural rules are intended to ensure properties that fulfill fundamental non-functional requirements. Verifying architectural rules is often a non- trivial activity: available tools are often not very usable and support only a narrow subset of the rules that are commonly specified by practitioners. In this paper we present a new highly-readable declarative language for specifying architectural rules. With our approach, users can specify a wide variety of rules using a single uniform notation. Rules can get tested by third-party tools by conforming to pre-defined specification templates. Practitioners can take advantage of the capabilities of a growing number of testing tools without dealing with them directly.

Unified detection and tracking of instruments during retinal microsurgery

Methods for tracking an object have generally fallen into two groups: tracking by detection and tracking through local optimization. The advantage of detection-based tracking is its ability to deal with target appearance and disappearance, but it does not naturally take advantage of target motion continuity during detection. The advantage of local optimization is efficiency and accuracy, but it requires additional algorithms to initialize tracking when the target is lost. To bridge these two approaches, we propose a framework for unified detection and tracking as a time-series Bayesian estimation problem. The basis of our approach is to treat both detection and tracking as a sequential entropy minimization problem, where the goal is to determine the parameters describing a target in each frame. To do this we integrate the Active Testing (AT) paradigm with Bayesian filtering, and this results in a framework capable of both detecting and tracking robustly in situations where the target object enters and leaves the field of view regularly. We demonstrate our approach on a retinal tool tracking problem and show through extensive experiments that our method provides an efficient and robust tracking solution.