Multilateral Interchange Fees: Competition and regulation in light of recent legislative developments. ECRI Research Report No. 14, 31 January 2014

Two-sided payment card markets generate costs that have to be distributed among the participating actors. For this purpose, payment card networks set an interchange fee, which is the fee paid by the merchant’s bank to the cardholder’s bank per transaction. While in recent years many antitrust authorities all over the world - including the European Commission - have opened proceedings against card brands in order to verify whether agreements to collectively establish the level of interchange fees are anticompetitive, the Reserve Bank of Australia – as a regulator - has directly tried to address market failures by lowering the level of interchange fees and changing some network rules. The US has followed with new legislation on financial consumer protection, which also intervenes on interchange fees. This has opened a strong debate not only on legitimacy of interchange fees, but also on the appropriateness of different public tools to address such issues. Drawing from economic and legal theories and a comparative analysis of recent case law in the EU and other jurisdictions, this work investigates whether a regulation rather than a purely competition policy approach would be more appropriate in this field, considering in particular, at EU level, all of the competition and regulatory concerns that have arisen from the operation of SEPA with multilateral interchange fees. The paper concludes that a wider regulation approach could address some of the shortcomings of a purely antitrust approach, proving to be highly beneficial to the development of an efficient European single payments area.

Explora: A Visualisation Tool for Metric Analysis of Software Corpora

When analysing software metrics, users find that visualisation tools lack support for (1) the detection of patterns within metrics; and (2) enabling analysis of software corpora. In this paper we present Explora, a visualisation tool designed for the simultaneous analysis of multiple metrics of systems in software corpora. Explora incorporates a novel lightweight visualisation technique called PolyGrid that promotes the detection of graphical patterns. We present an example where we analyse the relation of subtype polymorphism with inheritance and invocation in corpora of Smalltalk and Java systems and find that (1) subtype polymorphism is more likely to be found in large hierarchies; (2) as class hierarchies grow horizontally, they also do so vertically; and (3) in polymorphic hierarchies the length of the name of the classes is orthogonal to the cardinality of the call sites.

Detrital zircon geochronology data, petrographic point count data and paleocurrent indicator data of Triassic turbidites in the Nanpanjiang Basin, South China

Triassic turbidites of the Nanpanjiang basin of south China represent the most expansive and voluminous siliciclastic turbidite accumulation in south China. The Nanpanjiang basin occurs at a critical junction between the southern margin of the south China plate and the Indochina, Siamo and Sibumasu plates to the south and southwest. The Triassic Yangtze carbonate shelf and isolated carbonated platforms in the basin have been extensively studied, but silicilastic turbidites in the basin have received relatively little attention. Deciphering the facies, paleocurrent indicators and provenance of the Triassic turbidites is important for several reasons: it promises to help resolve the timing of plate collisions along suture zones bordering the basin to the south and southwest, it will enable evaluation of which suture zones and Precambrian massifs were source areas, and it will allow an evaluation of the impact of the siliciclastic flux on carbonate platform evolution within the basin. Turbidites in the basin include the Early Triassic Shipao Formation and the Middle-Late Triassic Baifeng, Xinyuan, Lanmu Bianyang and Laishike formations. Each ranges upward of 700 m and the thickest is nearly 3 km. The turbidites contain very-fine sand in the northern part of the basin whereas the central and southern parts of the basin also commonly contain fine and rarely medium sand size. Coarser sand sizes occur where paleocurrents are from the south, and in this area some turbidites exhibit complete bouma sequences with graded A divisions. Successions contain numerous alternations between mud-rich and sand-rich intervals with thickness trends corresponding to proximal/ distal fan components. Spectacularly preserved sedimentary structures enable robust evaluation of turbidite systems and paleocurrent analyses. Analysis of paleocurrent measurements indicates two major directions of sediment fill. The northern part of the basin was sourced primarily by the Jiangnan massif in the northeast, and the central and southern parts of the basin were sourced primarily from suture zones and the Yunkai massif to the south and southeast respectively. Sandstones of the Lower Triassic Shipao Fm. have volcaniclastic composition including embayed quartz and glass shards. Middle Triassic sandstones are moderately mature, matrix-rich, lithic wackes. The average QFL ratio from all point count samples is 54.1/18.1/27.8% and the QmFLt ratio is 37.8/ 18.1/ 44.1%. Lithic fragments are dominantly claystone and siltstone clasts and metasedimentary clasts such as quartz mica tectonite. Volcanic lithics are rare. Most samples fall in the recycled orogen field of QmFLt plots, indicating a relatively quartz and lithic rich composition consistent with derivation from Precambrian massifs such as the Jiangnan, and Yunkai. A few samples from the southwest part of the basin fall into the dissected arc field, indicating a somewhat more lithic and feldspar-rich composition consistent with derivation from a suture zone Analysis of detrial zircon populations from 17 samples collected across the basin indicate: (1) Several samples contain zircons with concordant ages greater than 3000 Ma, (2) there are widespread peaks across the basin at 1800 Ma and 2500, (3) a widespread 900 Ma population, (3) a widespread population of zircons at 440 Ma, and (5) a larger population of younger zircons about 250 Ma in the southwestern part which is replaced to the north and northwest by a somewhat older population around 260-290 Ma. The 900 Ma provenance fits derivation from the Jiangnan Massif, the 2500, 1800, and 440 Ma provenance fits the Yunkai massif, and the 250 Ma is consistent with convergence and arc development in suture zones bordering the basin on the south or southwest. Early siliciclastic turbidite flux, proximal to source areas impacted carbonate platform evolution by infilling the basin, reducing accommodation space, stabilizing carbonate platform margins and promoting margin progradation. Late arrival, in areas far from source areas caused margin aggradation over a starved basin, development of high relief aggradational escarpments and unstable scalloped margins.

Organic carbon and carbohydrates in waters of the Amazon River, Atlantic Ocean, and Tropical Indian Ocean

A method is presented to study carbohydrate composition of marine objects involved into sedimento- and diagenesis (plankton, particulate matter, benthos, and bottom sediments). Analysis of the carbohydrates is based on consecutive separation of their fractions with different solvents (water, alkali, and acid). Ratios of carbohydrate fractions allows to evaluate lability of carbohydrate complexes. They are also usable as an indicators of biogeochemical processes in the ocean, as well of genesis and degree of transformation of organic matter in bottom sediments and nodules. Similarity in monosaccharide composition is shown for dissolved organic matter and aqueous and alkaline fractions of seston and particulate matter.

Analysis of airborne viable bacteria at solid waste processing facilities /

Mode of access: Internet.

Analysis of low-acceleration lifting entry from escape speed /

Mode of access: Internet.

Analysis of the versification of the 1st book of Lucretius' poem, "De rerum natura;" thesis submitted for the degree of M. A.(University of California) May, 1898.

Note.- Type written manuscript. Blank sheets bound in.

Analysis of computer architectures for information retrieval /

Thesis (M. S.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Analysis of a long-time delay circuit for digital application.

Includes bibliographical references.

Analysis of electric service for rural homes.

First printed March 1924.

Analysis of underground openings in rock by finite element methods : final report /

"This research was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense and was monitored by the Bureau of Mines ..."

Economic analysis of effluent guidelines (NSPS) on the independent rendering industry updated to 1976 conditions.

Mode of access: Internet.

Lectures on the analysis of variance /

Cover title.