Single-prover interactive proofs can recognize PSPACE; if certain complexity assumptions are made, they can do so in zero-knowledge. Generalizing to multiple non-communicating provers extends this class to NEXP, and at the same time removes the complexity assumption needed for zero-knowledge. \n \nHowever, it was recently discovered that the non-communication condition might be insufficient to guarantee soundness. The provers can form joint randomness through non-local computation without communicating. This could break protocols that rely on the statistical independence of the provers. \n \nIn this work, we analyze multi-prover interactive proofs under the constraint of statistical isolation which prohibits non-local computation. We show that there exists perfect zero-knowledge proofs for NEXP under statistical isolation.
최근 스마트 기기는 결제, 할인쿠폰 등 각종 기능을 제공하는 수단으로 진화되면서 통신과 금융이 융합된 모바일 NFC 서비스의 시장이 급성장할 것으로 전망되고 있다. 특히 모바일 NFC 결제 서비스 시장의 활성화가 예상됨에 따라 모바일 NFC 결제 서비스는 국내 외적으로 널리 주목받고 있다. 하지만 이에 따른 NFC 기술 활용 증가로 개인정보 이용이 늘면서 침해요소 또한 증가하고 있다. 최근 한국인터넷진흥원에서 발표한 "NFC 개인정보보호 대책 최종보고서"에 따르면 개인정보 암호화를 부분적으로 미지원하거나 불필요한 개인정보의 과도한 수집 및 저장 등이 문제점으로 제기되었으며 Google사의 Google Wallet 서비스의 개인정보 유출 사고 또한 이러한 문제점을 뒷받침하는 근거가 되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 기존에 서비스되고 있는 NFC 모바일 결제 서비스 상에서 결제정보의 이동 경로 별 결제 기술의 위협을 분석하고 OTA(Over the Air) 상에서 안전한 정보교환을 위한 NTRU 기반 상호인증 기법과 사용자와 은행 간의 결제 단계에서 결제정보를 직접적으로 사용하지 않고 결제자를 증명할 수 있는 NTRU기반 영지식 증명 기법에 대해 제안한다. Recently, smart devices for various services have been developed using converged telecommunications, and the markets for near field communication (NFC) mobile services is expected to grow rapidly. In particular, the realization of mobile NFC payment services is expected to go commercial, and it is widely attracting attention both on a domestic and global level. However, this realization would increase privacy infringement, as personal information is extensively used in the NFC technology. One example of such privacy infringement would be the case of the Google wallet service. In this paper, we propose an mutual authentication scheme based on NTRU for secure channel in OTA and an zero-knowledge proof scheme NTRU based on for protecting user information in NFC mobile payment systems without directly using private financial information of the user.
The question of whether and how law plays a role in producing social change has received renewed scholarly attention, powered by research on the role of social movements in law making and the relation between court decisions and backlash. Reflecting the broader turn to empiricism within legal scholarship, this research either directly engages in or builds upon the empirical study of law in ways that chart exciting new scholarly directions — but also raise important conceptual and methodological questions. This essay explores these questions in an effort to frame what is at stake and guide future research. It makes three contributions.First, it offers a map of the law and social change field, suggesting how researchers across disciplines have asked a set of questions that can be understood as part of a coherent model in which law is viewed as both an “input” and “output” of social change campaigns. Within this model, debate centers on what factors cause lawyers and activists to turn to law as a tool of reform in the first instance (input analysis) and whether legal mobilization ultimately advances movement goals (output analysis). Focusing on the input side, the Essay next outlines how existing research presents a more nuanced story of legal mobilization than posited by the conventional view of rights claiming in court to advance underrepresented interests. In contrast to the traditional account of lawyers deploying litigation as a substitute for traditional politics, the input literature offers a more complex and dynamic account of the relationship of legal mobilization to political power; of lawyers to clients and constituencies; and of litigation to other legal and nonlegal social change strategies.Finally, the Essay turns to the output side to consider the multiple — and often contested — ways in which law may effect change. Here, it highlights an important challenge that empiricism poses to law and social change researchers: the challenge of evaluation. In particular, much of the debate about law and social change has centered on whether legal mobilization makes positive or negative contributions to reform efforts. As these debates become more informed by interdisciplinary research, it is useful to think about how the questions asked may shape the answers produced — and what this means for our understanding of law as a tool of transformative politics. Toward this end, the Essay identifies four key evaluative challenges — how to account for background conditions, select baselines, understand burdens of proof, and weigh counterfactuals — and offers some thoughts on how they might be addressed.
This paper aims to investigate the measures taken by Chinese commercial banks to deal with the financial difficulties facing small businesses, based on the case study on the decentralized lending system of “SanBaoYiGua”. About the problem of financing of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, before 2003, although the central financial institution took policy measures, such as reform to Credit Cooperatives, encouraging construction and maintenance of small business credit guarantee system, they did not pay attention to the role of State Owned Bank in small and medium-sized credit market. After 2003, the most typical policy measure that State Owned Commercial Bank took for small business lending is the decentralized lending system of “SanBaoYiGua”. After considering the effects and limitations of lending system of “SanBaoYiGua”, this paper clarifies the reason why the lending system of “SanBaoYiGua” was not able to play prearranged role in small business credit market by focusing the relationship-lending. Finally, this paper gives a policy proposal for solving the problem in conclusion.
Jannik Dreier, Guillaume Dumas, Hugo Jonker, Pascal Lafourcade
An electronic auction protocol will only be used by those who trust that it operates correctly. Therefore, e-auction protocols must be verifiable: seller, buyer and losing bidders must all be able to determine that the result was correct. We pose that the importance of verifiability for e-auctions necessitates a formal analysis. Consequently, in the first part of the talk, we identify notions of verifiability for each stakeholder. We formalize these and then use the developed framework to study the verifiability of several examples. We provide an analysis of the protocol by Sako in the applied pi-calculus with help of ProVerif, finding it to be correct. Additionally we identify issues with the protocols due to Curtis et al. and Brandt. In the second part, we will analyze the protocol by Brandt in more detail. We show first that this protocol – when using malleable interactive zero-knowledge proofs – is vulnerable to attacks by dishonest bidders. Such bidders can manipulate the publicly available data in a way that allows the seller to deduce all participants’ bids. Additionally we discuss attacks on non-repudiation, fairness and the privacy of individual bidders exploiting authentication problems.
This paper investigates the semiotics of Bitcoin, an electronic cash system that uses decentralized networking to enable irreversible payments. For enthusiasts, Bitcoin provides an alternative to currencies and payment systems that are seen to threaten users' privacy, limit personal liberty, and undermine the value of money through state and corporate oversight. Bitcoin's promise lies in its apparent capacity to resolve these concerns not through regulatory institutions or interpersonal trust, but through its cryptographic protocols. We characterize this semiotics as a “practical materialism” and suggest it replays debates about privacy, labor, and value.
This study is the first attempt to examine the determinants of expenditure decentralization at sub-provincial levels in China. The Chinese central government gives detailed guidelines to local governments on public finance, but, ironically, their expenditure assignment is far from being well-regulated. Differences in fiscal decentralization on the expenditure side are enormous among local governments. Employing a panel dataset of 1995–2006, we provide empirical evidence that transfer dependency negatively affects expenditure decentralization in Chinese local governments. It suggests that intermediate governments, i.e., provincial governments, may have “grabbed” central grants for self-interests.
Henry‐York Steiner, Claire Halpin, Joseph M. Jez, John Kough · 8 authors
Plant breeding has a long history of developing varieties with desirable traits in response to the needs of both growers and consumers. Although the bases for most of these traits are not known genetically or biochemically, conventional breeding combines these multiple traits to create new hybrids and stable varieties that are safe and not generally subject to safety assessment. With the advent of genetic engineering, a tool for incorporating additional traits has become available to plant breeders. The safe application of genetic engineering to food and feed crops is widely acknowledged as a useful tool in addressing global agricultural challenges, including population growth and climate change. As used here, the term genetically engineered (GE) stack refers to a plant in which two or more transgenic events (i.e. single-locus insertions) that have been separately assessed for safety have been combined by conventional breeding (Table I). In recent years, increasing numbers of GE stacks have been planted, the first of which offered combinations of insect and herbicide tolerance genes to combat a wider range of pests and weeds than covered by the single events (Que et al., 2010; James, 2011). Two main questions arise when considering the food and feed safety of GE stacks: (1) does incorporation of more than one event increase genomic instability, and (2) can potential interactions between the products of the combined events impact safety? A related paper considered the stacking of events in light of the plasticity of plant genomes and concluded that enhanced genetic instability from a transgene or from common sequences in two or more transgenes is remote (Weber et al., 2012). This paper addresses the second question of potential interactions between events and their products combined in a stack, reviews the basic principles of plant breeding and its history of safe use, and extends these principles to the feed and food safety of events combined through the same processes used in conventional breeding of non-GE plants. Potential environmental impacts are outside the scope of food and feed safety. The new varieties developed through modern biotechnology are identified by a number of terms, including genetically modified (GM), GE, transgenic, biotech, recombinant, and plants with novel traits. The term GE is used here as defined by Weber et al. (2012). For these reasons, the term GE is preferred over the term GM. There are many methods encompassed by the general term conventional breeding, including wide crosses and selection, mutagenesis, and somaclonal variation. When the parental species are not closely related, the cross may be facilitated by embryo rescue, somatic hybridization, or x-ray-induced translocations. The term interaction, as used in this paper, refers to an effect, such as a new or modified metabolic activity, resulting from a combination of transgenes. An example of an interaction is protein-protein binding resulting in a novel effect only seen with a specific combination of proteins, for instance, protein cofactors or subunits for the same enzymatic complex or subcellular metabolic binding reaction. Examples can also include a direct metabolic interaction that would inhibit or activate components in a metabolic pathway shared by the proteins newly combined in the GE stack or components of independent metabolic pathways that indirectly interact by way of a common metabolite. Thus, interactions within GE stacks generally refer to the metabolic or physiochemical interplay between the products of transgenes or between the product of one transgene and the second gene, rather than between the two genes themselves. Conventional breeding has a long history of safe use despite the presence of antinutritional factors, toxins, and allergens in crops. There is no evidence that a random genomic change in a crop has resulted in a novel food or feed safety issue (Weber et al., 2012). Historically, humans have selected desirable traits that arise from the crop’s genomic plasticity and interactions between genes. As breeding became more advanced, new methods were applied to select and combine desired traits, which also modify the genome as a consequence. Plants produce a multitude of metabolites that provide various functions. These include signaling activities in response to environmental stress or attack from plant pathogens and pests. Some metabolites have beneficial effects, while others are toxic when fed at high levels to sensitive animal species (Ames et al., 1990). Although particular metabolites tend to be specific to some plant families, there are metabolites of concern in a number of common food and feed crops, including apple (Malus domestica), apricot (Prunus armeniaca), Brassica spp., celery (Apium graveolens), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), potato (Solanum tuberosum), cherry (Prunus avium or Prunus cerasus), and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor; Beier, 1990; D’Mello et al., 1991; Stewart, 2009). Examples of such metabolites include alkaloids, lectins, glucosinolates, furanocoumarins, cyanoglucosides, nicotines, and phytoestrogens. Some of these can impart bitter taste, and conventional breeding has repeatedly reduced their levels to acceptable concentrations (Drewnowski and Gomez-Carneros, 2000). There are few documented cases in which breeding led to an unacceptable level of a metabolite. Following reports of bitter taste, the potato var Lenape, which was developed from a cross of potato to a wild Solanum species, was found to contain doubled levels of glycoalkaloids (Anonymous, 1970). The only other documented incident of unacceptable metabolite levels associated with plant breeding is that of a disease-resistant celery containing elevated levels of furanocoumarins, which may have contributed to dermatitis among grocery store personnel (Berkley et al., 1986; Seligman et al., 1987). The environment can also play a role in impacting furanocoumarin levels; a later report of dermatitis among celery harvesters in southern Israel was attributed to delayed harvest, and hence more mature plants being handled, due to the Gulf War (Finkelstein et al., 1994). Similarly, reports of toxic squash (Rymal et al., 1984) and zucchini (Herrington, 1983) appear to have been limited to individual plants within otherwise widely grown varieties, suggesting the higher toxin levels were due to environmental conditions or mutations. Despite these few instances, these crops remain safe for food or feed use. Although breeders recombine tens of thousands of genes with virtually infinite potential interactions, to our knowledge, there has never been a report of a completely novel toxin or allergen appearing in a genus as a result of conventional breeding. The development of an interspecific somatic hybrid of potato (S. tuberosum and Solanum brevidens) containing demissidine (Laurila et al., 1996) has often been cited as proof that novel toxins can arise during breeding. In fact, Jadhav et al. (1981) documented the presence of demissidine in potato more than a decade before it was found in the hybrid. To guard against unexpected increases in levels of known toxins, breeders have instituted screens for these compounds in new varieties before they are released. Examples include cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), potato, lima bean, and canola (Brassica napus), because they contain known compounds that can impact food or feed safety. However, breeders cannot and do not screen for de novo compounds. Hundreds of thousands of varieties have been bred without the emergence of any novel allergens or toxins, indicating that the likelihood of such events is virtually zero (Stevens, 1974). Improved crop varieties produced by conventional breeding are the cornerstone of food production in the world today. Thus, the ways in which risks are managed during conventional breeding of non-GE crops, which includes testing for any known concerns, sets the framework for the food and feed safety assessment of GE stacks. As is the case for any other new variety or hybrid, GE stacks are only considered for market introduction if the combined traits have met the intended thresholds for efficacy and stability. Newly developed GE events undergo rigorous safety assessments by the developer and by regulatory agencies prior to their commercial release. These assessments evaluate the impact of both intended and potential unintended effects on food, feed, and other aspects of crop safety. Assessment criteria and objectives are based on national priorities and on international standards, such as those of the Joint Food Standards Program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (FAO/WHO, 1996, 2000), as well as Codex Alimentarius Commission recommendations for conducting food safety assessments of GE crops (Codex Alimentarius Commission, 2009). Codex principles and guidance are widely followed for single events. The key components of GE crop safety assessments include (1) descriptive information on the transgenes and inserted recombinant DNA; (2) detailed characterization of the DNA insert relative to the native genome, in planta concentration and stability of the products of the transgene(s), analysis of plant phenotype, and descriptive information such as efficacy, mechanism or mode of action of the new trait(s), and crop management considerations; (3) evaluation of the safety of the products of the transgene(s) in the context of common commercial crop practices and uses; and (4) comparative safety assessment for suitability as food and/or feed. Such analyses might include a determination of expression levels of known allergens and toxins, and overall composition, including nutrients, antinutrients, and selected metabolites for that crop (FAO/WHO, 1996, 2000; Cellini et al., 2004; Codex Alimentarius Commission, 2009; Thomas et al., 2009). Assessments of nutrient composition and agronomic characteristics, as well as an assessment of potential allergenicity and toxicity, are widely recognized as significant components of GE crop safety assessments (FAO/WHO, 1996, 2000; Metcalfe et al., 1996; Kuiper et al., 2001; Cellini et al., 2004; Delaney et al., 2008; Codex Alimentarius Commission, 2009; Thomas et al., 2009). Differences between the GE crop and appropriate comparators are evaluated in terms of biological relevance, magnitude of difference, exposure, and impact on food or feed safety to determine the need for further investigation. The comparators may include a closely related non-GE variety and other commercial GE and non-GE varieties. The International Life Sciences Institute’s Crop Composition Database (http://www.cropcomposition.org; International Life Sciences Institute, 2006) may also serve as a reference for comparison for some crops (Ridley et al., 2004). These holistic analyses also take into account interactions of the transgenes with endogenous genes and their products. Agriculturally important plants express approximately 25,000 to 50,000 genes at any given time. The safety assessment evaluates the GE crop phenotype, which includes interactions between the event and the host genome that may impact safety. Once the safety assessment is completed, conventional breeding is used to incorporate the event into different genetic backgrounds, without undergoing additional assessment. The developer of the resulting food and feed products is, however, responsible for the safety of those products and for meeting all relevant statutory and regulatory requirements, as is the case for all foods and feeds. Even within a single genus having species that differ in ploidy level, the number of genes within a plant can vary. For example, some 400 genes are not common in the historically important maize (Zea mays) inbreds B73 and Mo17; each of these genes is found in B73 but not in Mo17 or vice versa (Springer et al., 2009; Lai et al., 2010). Similarly, of the approximately 46,000 of genes in soybean (Glycine max), 856 genes were present in some but not all of the soybean genotypes tested (Lam et al., 2010). Of the two potato genotypes with sequenced genomes, 275 genes are found in only one or the other et al., 2011). Thus, different non-GE genotypes in novel combinations in novel interactions, but no safety have been this of novel interactions is to be by the stacking of transgenes. Despite the genetic in crop most regulatory agencies do not new non-GE varieties developed by conventional breeding there is a known safety concern or associated with the new variety of and Food and of the Food on Organization and Health Food This is based on the that conventional breeding is as As defined conventional breeding traits from genetic interactions of genes and their products are in breeding to produce new crop varieties. In plant breeders through crosses that combine different different et al., in some different genes et al., 2011). However, the are from and among have the that might be in et al., et al., et al., and et al., these that thousands of interactions are when genomes are combined by breeding. these interactions have led to which has been selected by plant breeders to desirable traits et al., 2010). these interactions of genes have a long history of food and feed the bases of these interactions are the information to a specific interactions between endogenous genes in conventional breeding do not to direct As information and methods to complex become it may be to such when GE events by breeding, it is to interactions between the events within the GE stack in a and can be developed for those specific with the historically used in conventional breeding to new traits into crop such as wide hybridization, genetic engineering a direct of a DNA that a specific into a the methods by which individual events are combined to produce a GE stack are to those used to combine multiple traits in new conventional crop varieties and two GE does not any in the genome is by two non-GE (Weber et al., the safety assessments for the individual events are to the GE The only safety question that the individual event assessments do not is that of interactions between the products of the combined transgenes. Two questions on the potential of interactions between the events in a particular GE (1) does a potential interaction between the products in each single event in the GE stack, and (2) would the potential interaction result in a food and feed safety In other are there of engineered and any interactions between these that might create A safety assessment of a crop produced by conventional breeding of parental into a GE stack can incorporate a that addresses interactions of the transgene products are and if they might food and feed safety. A for this is in which the overall development of a for potential interactions, with the and of the crop of the single and the prior food and feed safety assessments on the products. The question in the assessment is it or that the transgene expression products of the single events interact in the The only of interaction different in a GE stack from that seen in conventional breeding of non-GE plants is a metabolic or physiochemical interaction from the combination of the transgene products. other interactions are to those in bred non-GE plants. A for the safety assessment of a food and feed crop with a GE stack produced by conventional breeding of two or more events. if it is that novel interactions in the GE stack, can the interaction impact the safety of the GE This is a if there is no for a potential interaction, or if a potential interaction that does not the prior safety assessments on the individual events are for the GE a can be developed for an interaction that may food or feed further questions on the and of the A number of relevant be considered to a the presence and of interactions to a potential safety Although the of questions on the transgenes in the GE stack, these questions be to food and feed safety. Examples of questions that can be to a are in these questions on direct product interactions, expression and metabolic products of the transgenes. The same to genes expression of other such as transgenic and to the of endogenous genes. these of transgenes may expression of of other the and of by each transgene would be documented before each single event is used in be from the of the specific effects of each many products of conventional breeding of non-GE plants on known to have been from in or from et al., 2010). To the that conventional breeding has plants with associated with or in factors, there is no that metabolite have resulted in any novel to food or feed safety. In or there has not been the of novel toxins related to these metabolic of the specific of transgenes being assessment of the combined information from the single events can or a for The need for further safety assessment of the potential interaction is evaluated on a Examples of the can be used to at safety assessment are An interaction between the products of transgenes is not the single events combined in a GE stack proteins that are not known to interact or that on different metabolic pathways with no known or common metabolite between GE stacks that combine insect and herbicide tolerance are an In these crops, insect is by one or more genes toxin proteins from that are not native to but have a general history of safe use in the food as in conventional and and in GE crops. 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An example a potential interaction within a pathway that does not impact food or feed safety can be found in the A in is the for and James, The product of the is used for Plant are of two subunits and two The two subunits are by different genes. In a GE stack, one event would an engineered of of higher levels of and the second event would an engineered of also of higher levels of In both single the level of is due to an level of from the would be in these traits to for an effect on In this example, the two genes would be for their direct genes expression and the proteins are in the same metabolic pathway and the same enzymatic interaction between the transgenes in these events is for the intended effect of further in a GE In this the GE stack does not a new pathway or metabolites only and effects are there is no potential impact on food or feed safety. is to a safety issue from a GE example which are produced plant metabolites in plant can be into and become toxic by by a and they in the plant response to from pests and pathogens et al., The is in the the is in the or In some the and its are in but to the of and no toxin is present in However, from insect and of enzymatic of the in the a toxic to the In this event the level of a particular that is present in the plant at resulting in a variety with to pests and Although event the level of this particular the is if found within the range of levels in this would no food or feed safety during the safety assessment of event which is also in a variety with a with enhanced that is to a The of this transgene into a host plant with levels of the particular of this no because the inserted the for toxin The safety assessment of each individual event would be to include an analysis of the safety of the event various environmental the of that enzymatic of the in the to produce a toxic would have been evaluated during the safety assessment of the individual events. However, for the of the combination of these two it is that this be more closely in the event than been with the individual events In such an additional assessment of the GE stack would be In over a of plant breeding, there are no known de novo effects from the breeding which has conventional plant breeding with a history of safety for food and feed. effects have have been can be between endogenous genes in a conventional breeding and transgenes by conventional breeding The between the endogenous genes combined conventional breeding and transgenes combined through conventional breeding is the of the transgenes and their products. This the development of food and feed safety. A safety assessment for a food or feed crop produced by conventional breeding of GE events first the likelihood of interactions if they do they might safety. the events are to no additional assessment be to a safety determination for the GE stack, because each individual event has independent safety When interactions are to the effects can be based on and safety assessment of the individual parental events. When there is a biological to an interaction, the of the interactions be evaluated to determine if there be an impact on food or feed safety. there is no impact of the interaction on food or feed no additional testing be to the GE if the identified interaction be to impact food or feed the GE stack would a food and feed on the specific interaction The need for such a further assessment and the used be on a on the specific interaction identified and into account the Codex Alimentarius principles for safety assessment (Codex Alimentarius Commission, 2009). International Life Sciences International Food and Plant and and and for and during the The also International Life Sciences and for their in this to also the of and in the of this The and would also to the for in the and for many and de de and of Standards Commission on of of of of Food and of and of of of Agriculture and and Plant Food and of and and genetically engineered genetically modified
Alcohol is the drug of choice among youth, with 12% of 8th-graders, 22% of 10th-graders, and 29% of 12th-graders reporting heavy episodic drinking. Although prevalence rates are at historic lows, alcohol use continues to be widespread among adolescents, and pediatricians must screen for underage and family alcohol use in health assessment visits.After completing this article, readers should be able to:National surveys make it clear that the use of alcohol among adolescents is both widespread and harmful. By the 12th grade, close to three-quarters of adolescents in high school report ever having an alcoholic drink, and more than one-quarter report having their first drink before age 13 years. Data from Monitoring the Future, an annual survey of youth in the United States, show that 71% of high school seniors reported some experience with alcohol in the past; 41% reported use in the last 30 days and, of great concern, 3% reported daily use. More than one-half (58%) of 10th-graders and more than one-third (36%) of 8th-graders report having consumed alcohol at some point in their lives, and more than one-third of 10th-graders (37%) and one of six 8th-graders (16%) report having been drunk in the past. (1) The good news is that the use of alcohol by teens, as well as the use of many of the illicit drugs, has declined over the past decade. The bad news is that, although these declines are encouraging, alcohol remains the drug of choice among youth.The pattern of alcohol use that is exhibited by many adolescents is one of drinking too much and at too early an age, thereby creating problems for themselves, for people around them, and for society as a whole. Underage drinking is a leading public health problem in this country. Underage drinkers consume, on average, four to five drinks per occasion approximately six times per month. By comparison, older adult drinkers, ages 26 and older, consume, on average, two to three drinks per occasion approximately nine times per month. A particularly worrisome trend is the high prevalence of heavy episodic or binge drinking in adolescents, which is defined often as five or more drinks in a row in a single episode. Monitoring the Future data show that 12% of 8th-graders, 22% of 10th-graders, and 29% of 12th-graders report engaging in heavy episodic drinking.Studies find that drinking alcohol often starts at very young ages. Moreover, studies indicate that the younger children and adolescents are when they begin to drink, the more likely they are to engage in behaviors that can harm themselves and others. Those who start to drink before age 13 years, for example, are nine times more likely to binge drink frequently as high school students than those who begin drinking later. Data from recent surveys show that approximately 10% of 9- to 10-year-olds have already started drinking; nearly one third of youth begin drinking before age 13, and more than one in four 14-year-olds report drinking within the past year. (2)(3)A number of studies show that the early onset of alcohol use, as well as the escalation of drinking in adolescence, are risk factors for the development of alcohol-related problems in adulthood. Initiating alcohol use earlier in adolescence or in childhood is a marker for later problems, including heavier use of alcohol and other drugs. Individuals who report initiation of alcohol use before age 15 years were four times more likely to meet criteria for alcohol dependence and two times more likely to meet criteria for alcohol abuse as those individuals who began drinking after age 21 years. (4)The consequences of underage drinking include a range of physical, academic, and social problems. Perhaps most frightening is the fact that alcohol is the leading contributor to morbidity and mortality in youth. Alcohol use is the leading contributor to death due to injuries, the primary cause of death in individuals younger than 21 years of age. Annually, 5,000 youth die of alcohol-related injuries that involve underage drinking. This includes injuries sustained in motor vehicle crashes (∼1,900), homicides (∼1,600), and suicides (∼300), as well as unintentional injuries not related to motor vehicle crashes. Among studies of adolescent trauma victims, alcohol is reported in 32% to 45% of hospital admissions. The association between alcohol use and violent behavior is well documented. Numerous studies of adolescents report that alcohol use is linked to both violent behavior and to violence-related injuries. (5)(6)Other harmful behaviors and negative consequences frequently related to excessive drinking among adolescents are high-risk sexual behaviors (unplanned and unprotected intercourse); sexual misconduct, including rape; and assaults. Having multiple sexual partners, failing to use condoms, and performing other high-risk sexual behaviors have been associated with alcohol use in adolescents. Furthermore, alcohol use by the offender, victim, or both has been linked to sexual assault, including date rape.As youth move from adolescence to young adulthood, they encounter dramatic physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Developmental transitions, such as puberty and increasing independence, have been associated with alcohol use. Because drinking is so widespread among adolescents, simply being an adolescent may be a key risk factor for initiation of alcohol use, as well as for drinking dangerously.Data from imaging studies show that the brain continues developing well into the twenties, during which time it continues to establish important communication connections and further refines its function. Many believe that this lengthy developmental period may help to explain some of the behaviors characteristic of adolescence, such as the propensity to seek out new and potentially dangerous situations. For some adolescents, thrill-seeking includes experimenting with alcohol use. Developmental changes also may offer a possible physiologic explanation for why teens act so impulsively, often not recognizing that their actions—such as drinking—have consequences.How adolescents view alcohol and its effects also influences their drinking behavior, including whether they begin to drink and how much. An adolescent who expects drinking to be a pleasurable experience is more likely to drink than one who does not. Beliefs about alcohol are established very early in life, even before entering elementary school. Before age 9 years, children generally view alcohol negatively and see drinking as bad and associated with adverse effects. By approximately age 13 years, however, their expectancies shift, becoming more positive. Accordingly, adolescents who drink the most also place the greatest emphasis on the positive and arousing effects of alcohol.Differences between the adult brain and the brain of the maturing adolescent may explain why many young drinkers are able to consume much larger amounts of alcohol than adults before experiencing the negative consequences of drinking, such as drowsiness, lack of coordination, and withdrawal or hangover effects. This unusual tolerance may help to explain the high rates of binge drinking among many adolescents and young adults. At the same time, adolescents appear to be particularly sensitive to the positive effects of drinking, such as feeling more at ease in social situations, and young people may drink more than adults because of these positive social experiences.Children who begin to drink at a very early age (before age 12 years) often share similar personality characteristics that may make them more likely to start drinking. Young people who are disruptive, hyperactive, and aggressive—often referred to as having conduct problems or being antisocial—as well as those who are depressed, withdrawn, or anxious, may be at greatest risk for alcohol problems. Other behavior problems associated with alcohol use include rebelliousness, difficulty avoiding harm or harmful situations, and a host of other traits seen in young people who act out without regard for rules or the feelings of others (ie, disinhibition).Some of the behavioral and physiologic factors that converge to increase or decrease a person’s risk for alcohol problems, including tolerance to alcohol’s effects, may be linked directly to genetic factors. For example, being a child of an alcoholic or having several alcoholic family members places a person at greater risk for alcohol problems. Children of alcoholics (COAs) are between 4 and 10 times more likely to become alcoholics themselves than are children who have no close relatives with alcoholism. (7) COAs also are more likely to begin drinking at a young age and to progress to drinking problems more quickly.Research shows that COAs may have subtle brain differences that could be markers for developing later alcohol problems. For example, by the use of newer brain-imaging techniques, scientists have found that COAs have a distinctive feature in one brainwave pattern (called a P300 response) that could be a marker for later alcoholism risk. (8) Some studies suggest that these brain differences may be particularly evident in people who also have certain behavioral traits, such as signs of conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, sensation-seeking, or poor impulse control. (9)Drinking and alcohol-related problem behavior reflect a complex interplay between inherited and social-environmental factors, the implications of which are only beginning to be explored in adolescents. And although even more is understood about the role and contribution of genetics, this knowledge still does not tell the entire story.Social and environmental factors, such as the influence of parents and peers, also play a role in alcohol use. For example, parents who drink more and who view drinking favorably may have children who drink more. Other influences, such as the impact of the media, have been examined and are felt to play an important role. Today, alcohol is widely available and aggressively promoted through television, radio, billboards, and the Internet.Although the severe health problems associated with harmful alcohol use are not as common in adolescents as they are in adults, studies show that adolescents who drink heavily may put themselves at risk for a range of health problems.Chronic heavy drinking during adolescence and into young adulthood appears to be associated with detrimental effects on brain development, brain functioning, and neuropsychological performance. Recent evidence suggests that heavy drinking during adolescence is associated with poorer neurocognitive functioning during the young adult years and is associated particularly with impairment of attention and visuospatial skills. (10)Brain imaging and studies of event-related potentials have demonstrated subtle but significant abnormalities in brain structure and function. In a recent study, researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to determine the effects of heavy drinking on the changing brain structure of teens and young adults with alcohol use disorders. Hippocampal volumes were smaller in youths with alcohol use disorders than in matched controls and correlated with the onset of alcohol use disorder and with the duration of alcohol use disorder. (11) The earlier an individual developed an alcohol use disorder and the longer the duration of the alcohol use disorder, the smaller was the volume of his or her hippocampus. (12) Other studies have looked at the effect of alcohol on the structure of white matter and have demonstrated that white matter integrity was reduced in the corpus callosum of youths with alcohol use disorders.Research studies indicate that a number of factors seem to influence how and to what extent alcohol affects the brain, including:Elevated liver enzymes, indicating some degree of liver damage, have been found in some adolescents who drink Young drinkers who are or liver enzymes, even with only of both and puberty is a period associated with including in the and in increase of other and factors, which are for alcohol during this period of and development (ie, before or during may the for development of and are the in the in of At the same time, they experience high rates of mortality and morbidity because of their behavior, including the use of many including adolescence is a time of risk and for many young people in some of that alcohol use. 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Bid validity proof and verification is an efficiency bottleneck and privacy drawback in homomorphic e‐auction. The existing bid validity proof technique is inefficient and only achieves honest‐verifier zero knowledge (ZK). In this study, an efficient proof and verification technique is proposed to guarantee bid validity in homomorphic e‐auction. The new proof technique is mainly based on hash function operations and only needs a very small number of costly public key cryptographic operations. Moreover, it can handle untrusted verifiers and achieve perfect ZK. As a result, efficiency and privacy of homomorphic e‐auction applications are significantly improved. To the best of authors’ knowledge, it proof technique is the first to handle untrusted verifiers in e‐auction applications.
Gover Barja Daza, Sergio Villarroel Böhrt, David Zavaleta Castellón
The second generation fiscal federalism (sGff) approach is used as a reference to analyze the political and fiscal institutional design of Bolivia’s decentralization model and its evolution. subnational public finance data up to 2008 is used to verify that decentralization of expenditure was higher than that of revenue, establishing a context of vertical fiscal imbalance that increased due to growing fiscal transfers during the positive external shock (boom) period. consequently, the subnational fiscal surplus was not a result of internal efficiency but of excess revenues from such transfers. Panel models were estimated to identify and assess the implicit incentives embedded in fiscal institutions of the decentralization model. findings at the municipal level are: i) misalignment of local spending with local interests due to dominance of transfers over own revenue (dominance of central government development policies); ii) incentive to spend transfers faster than own revenue (flypaper effect); iii) greater marginal contribution of own revenue to positive fiscal balances compared to transfers, thus introducing the seed for a soft budget constraint but hidden by the fiscal surplus; iv) disincentive to generate own revenue (tax and non-tax) due to the size and growth of transfers (disincentive to the culture of contributing to own revenue). findings at the prefecturall level are: i) misalignment with regional interests given the dominance of transfers over own revenue due to absolute lack of tax powers (until 2009); ii) high tendency to a soft budget constraint and, eventually, also fiscal bail-out, hidden by the fiscal surplus; iii) in only two departments collection of national-level taxes were higher, compared to transfers received in the same departments; iv) disincentive to pay the VAt (national-level tax) due to higher royalty transfers received, an effect not extended to other national-level taxes; v) high dependence from hydrocarbon-based transfers, and fiscal risk when this natural resource declines (both in volume and prices) due to volatility of international oil prices. Also, as a result of the decentralization model a positive and significant impact was found on education-coverage indicators, an important development objective of the national government.
Abstract In the last three decades, China has experienced dual decentralization in transforming its economy, resulting in decentralization and deconcentration in public administration and social service delivery. Under the policy framework of decentralization, particularly when welfare financing has been decentralized to local governments, the emergence of welfare regionalism is evident in China. This paper sets out against this policy context to examine how three local governments in eastern coastal areas in China handle changing labour welfare needs by institutionalizing social and labour protection measures to meet the local needs instead of implementing central policy. With particular reference to examine why regional variations exist in welfare provision even though the socio-economic development status is similar in these areas, this paper shows how different forms of capitals, government's governance style and diversity of industries have affected welfare arrangements for labour in China.
이 연구는 지방분권을 위한 정책수단으로 재정분권이 어떠한 방식으로 이해될 수 있으며, 왜 필요한지에 대해 시스템사고의 이론을 바탕으로 지방재정시스템을 구성하는 변수들의 상호작용관계를 분석하였다. 연구를 통해 얻어진 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 지방재정시스템을 구성하는 변수들은 상당한 수준에서상호작용관계가 형성되고 있으며, 5개의 양(+)의 피드백 루프가 중심이 되어 급속한 성장과 급속한 쇠퇴를 거듭한다는 점을 발견할 수 있었다. 둘째, 지방재정분권화의 타당성에 대한 전략 지점이 인과지도 모델링을 통해 발견되었다. 특히, 선순환구조를 악순환의 구조를 변질시키는 변수(국고보조금, 부동산거래과세, 중앙정부차원의 지방재정조정제도, 지방정부채무 등)이 지속적으로 작동함으로써 지방재정시스템을 쇠퇴시키는 것으로 나타났으며, 이를 바탕으로 전략적 정책과제가 도출 될 수 있었다. 이러한 연구는 지방재정분권에 대해 부분에 지식이 아닌 전체적 지식의 관점에서 지방재정시스템을 이해하고 지방재정의 학문적 폭을 높여 줄 것으로 판단된다. This study analyzes the interaction of variables consisting of the local finance system based on the theory of system thinking regarding how financial decentralization can be understood as the political means for local decentralization and why it is needed. The results gained from this research are as follows: first, variables consisting of the local finance system form interactional relationship in the significant level, and it has been found that rapid growth and rapid decline repeat with five positive feedback loops as the center. Second, strategic points for the validity of local finance decentralization were discovered through causal map modeling. In particular, it has been shown that the virtuous cycle structure declines the local finance system through the constant operation of variables (government subsidies, taxation for real estate transactions, central government's local finance mediation system, and local government debt, etc.) that deteriorate the vicious cycle structure. Based on this, strategic policy tasks were drawn. It is expected that this study will help the understanding of the local finance system and increase academic width for local finance from the aspects of general knowledge, not the knowledge about local finance decentralization.
OBJECTIVE: China's ongoing new health reform aims to reduce individual out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for healthcare services. The aim of this article is to analyse the impact of this reform and to draw policy implications. METHODS: Data are retrieved from the relevant government publications. Polynomial regression models are used to predict future health expenditures. An extensive sensitivity analysis is conducted to investigate the ratios of OOP payments to the total health expenditures (THEs) and to the disposable personal income (DPI) for 2009-11 under different scenarios of cost projections and personal income distributions. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are carried out to draw conclusions. RESULTS: The ratios of OOP payments to THE and DPI vary significantly across scenarios tested. Only if all committed government investments and social health expenditure are realized can China's new health reform reduce both ratios and achieve its target goals. In particular, the ratio of OOP payments to DPI can also be significantly reduced by improving income distribution. Due to the complicated interplay among different cost components in health expenditures, these two ratios may not change in the same direction, indicating that both need to be examined when evaluating the reform. CONCLUSION: The new health reform in China aims to alleviate the high OOP payments for healthcare services, but it has not yet been able to reduce both OOP-to-THE and OOP-to-DPI ratios simultaneously. Major reasons include (1) inability of local governments to fulfil their responsible investments due to health finance decentralization and uneven economic development in China and (2) a serious cost inflation in health expenditures coupled with a low level of income distribution. It is suggested that the central government should bear more financial responsibility and assist local governments to fully invest, and should improve individual incomes, in particular for the poor.
The objective of this study is to \n explore in depth public finance issues and their impact on \n decentralized service delivery at the regional and woreda \n levels in Benishangul Gumuz (BG) region. The study is \n carried out as part of the federal and some regional case \n studies designed to examine effectiveness of public finances \n of sub-national governments. This study was expected to (i) \n review the institutional arrangement for managing public \n finances at the regional level including policies, budgetary \n institutions, systems and processes; (ii) assess the level, \n trend, and composition of public spending (both functional \n and economic classification) in per capita terms over the \n past five years and identify key achievements and \n limitations; (iii) assess the level, trend, and, composition \n of revenue at the regional level and examine the financing \n framework, including ways to increase local revenue \n generation capacity; (iv) assess the role of external aid in \n supporting decentralized service delivery and the \n sustainability of the program in absence of external aid; \n (v) review the planning and budgeting process as well as the \n quality of PFM system; and (vi) data permitting, establish \n the link between the level of spending and the outputs and \n outcomes for selected sectors. The study used standard \n public financial process review methodologies used for \n undertaking PFM assessments. The report reviewed the various \n studies, plans and performance reports of the various \n sectors in the regions between 1997 and 2001. In addition, \n key informant interviews were carried out at bureaus levels \n and woreda offices of education, health, water, agriculture \n and rural development, finance and economic development, \n revenue, General Auditor, rural road and woreda administrations.
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African history and culture analysis
Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
The objective of this study is explore \n in depth public finance issues and their impact on \n decentralized service delivery at the regional and woreda \n level in Amhara region. The study is carried out as part of \n the federal and some regional case studies designed to \n examine effectiveness of public finances of sub-national \n governments. This study was expected to (i) review the \n institutional arrangement for managing public finances at \n the regional level including policies, budgetary \n institutions, systems and processes; (ii) assess the level, \n trend, and composition of public spending (both functional \n and economic classification) in per capita terms over the \n past five years and identify key achievements and \n limitations; (iii) assess the level, trend, and, composition \n of revenue at the regional level and examine the financing \n framework, including ways to increase local revenue \n generation capacity; (iv) assess the role of external aid in \n supporting decentralized service delivery and the \n sustainability of the program in absence of external aid; \n (v) review the planning and budgeting process as well as the \n quality of PFM system; and (vi) data permitting, establish \n the link between the level of spending and the outputs and \n outcomes for selected sectors. The study used standard \n public financial process review methodologies used for \n undertaking PEFA assessments. The report reviewed the \n various studies, plans and performance reports of the \n various sectors in the regions between EFY 1997 and 2001. In \n addition, key informant interviews were carried out at \n bureaus levels and woreda offices of education, health, \n water, agriculture and rural development, finance and \n economic development, revenue, General Auditor, rural road \n and woreda administrations.
In this decade, establishing structure-function relationships in human brain has become one of the most influential concepts in modern cognitive neuroscience since interactions among cerebral components are fundamental to explain cortical activities ([1]; [2]; [3]). \nIn literature such relationships have been defined in terms of structural, functional and effective connectivity. This distinction, mainly focused on the theoretic concept, is also related to the different measurement instruments and analytical tools used for acquiring and processing the data. The structural connectivity refers to a pattern of anatomical links among brain regions. Its analysis aims to characterize the architecture of complex networks underlying the cerebral functional organization. Magnetic Resonance Imaging and especially Diffusion Tensor Imaging can be used to convey information concerning the physical connection between neuronal populations. Functional/effective connectivity aims at identifying the presence and the strength of connections in terms of statistically significant dependency. The former is defined as the temporal correlation between neurophysiological events occurring in distributed neuronal groups and areas. The latter describes the causal influence that one neural system exerts over another either directly or indirectly in terms of temporal precedence and physical control ([4];[5]). Functional and effective connectivity can be estimated exploiting both Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiological signals, such as Electroencephalography (EEG) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG), with different advantages and drawbacks, respectively. fMRI provides high spatial resolution (mm) but poor temporal precision (s) while EEG/MEG has more limited spatial resolution (cm) and higher temporal precision (ms). Because functional and effective connectivity are largely estimated over time, EEG and MEG are more suitable for calculating such connectivity. In literature several methods have been developed to characterize brain connectivity in terms of network topology, connections strength and causality, following two main approaches: the data-driven, where topology, causality and strength are all inferred from data, and the neural model-based, where the model topology is postulated from a priori knowledge and only the connections strength is estimated from the data. \n-\tData driven approach. The data driven approach includes linear, non-linear and information-based techniques. The linear ones provide a battery of indices derived by multivariate autoregressive models (MVAR) based on Granger causality principles ([6]) or MVAR frequency response ([7]). Such are Ordinary Coherence, Partial Coherence, Directed Transfer Function (DTF) and Partial Directed Coherence (PDC). These indexes measure the strength of the linear coupling between two signals; in addition DTF and PDC provide information about causal influence ([8]). \no\tAmong the non-linear techniques, phase synchronization has been shown to be very effcient in detecting interactions between oscillators. The phase locking values approach assumes that two dynamic systems may have their phases synchronized even if their amplitude are zero correlates ([9]). \no\tThe most representative information-based technique is the cross mutual information that measures the mutual dependence between two signals by quantifying the amount of information gained about one signal from measuring the other, as a function of delay between these two signals ([10]). \n-\tNeural model based approach. Representative methods are the Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) and the Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) ([11]; [12]). They are multivariate technique used to test hypothesis regarding the influences among interacting variables, but different concepts underlies these two methods. SEM approach assumes that neuronal dynamics are very fast in relation to signals uctuations and, hence, is based on a static neuronal model. This case, the neuronal activity has reached steady-state and changes in connectivity are led directly by changes in the covariance structure of the observed time series ([13]). On the other hand, in DCM the observed time series are modelled as a deterministic dynamical system in which external inputs causes changes in neural activity and therefore in connectivity values ([14]). \nMost approaches, like those based on Granger causality principles, have been examined in literature to quantify their ability in revealing cerebral connections ([15];[16]; [11]) but their simulation studies do not provide a comprehensive analysis because they use in silico data generated by self-referential linear methods which do not reproduce the complexity of brain. To overcome this issue, an innovative simulation approach has been developed in this work, based on a nonlinear neural mass model ([17]) totally independent of SEM and MVAR linear equation and able to address the complexity of neural networks. This no-self referential approach was exploited to generate in silico network data to be used as a benchmark, to quantitatively compare obtained results with true connections. The main objective of this work was to understand limits and advantages of MVAR indexes and SEM by exploiting the simulation study. Thus, it mainly serves as a proof-of-concept for connectivity measures under ideal conditions. Our purpose was to derive from simulation results some practical procedures in order to classify different brain states to support both cognitive research and clinical activity. First, research activity was focused to address connectivity on simulated data obtained on three regions networks characterized by different strength connections and based on different levels of non linearity. Second, a dataset, made available by Department of Medicine, University of Padova was used to explore application of these methods to real data by applying the simulation study suggestions. \nThis thesis consists of three main section. \nThe ffrst one includes Chapter 1-2-3 describing in detailed the considered connectivity measures, such are those based on Multivariate Autoregressive models and the Structural Equation Modelling, and the simulation study. The second part depicts in silico results and the application to EEG data. Finally, comments are reported in Discussion and Conclusions. \nChapter 1 explains how the connecting parameters of MVAR and SEM models are identified on EEG data and describes procedures commonly exploited to analyse connectivity. Chapter 2 reports an overview about the principal models used to generate in silico data, namely the neural mass models, and described the neural mass model exploited in this work. Finally, it characterizes network models adopted to simulate data and lists the procedure followed to generate in silico datasets. Chapter 3 summarizes the computations implemented to have more insights on our data by analysing the output of each methods. It describes the procedure used to evaluate the statistical signiffcance of each index results, such are the F-test for Granger causality index and the null distribution threshold using surrogate data for MVAR frequency indexes. Chapter 4 illustrates the results obtained with the simulation study. First, we reported the complete analysis for a representative subset of experiments, then for all datasets we showed topology and strength estimates. Chapter 6 delineates the procedure followed to study the connectivity in case of hepatic encephalopathy. Chapter 7 covers the Discussion and Conclusions. The Appendix is a parallel work aimed to understand the meaning of connectivity indexes computed via Structural Equation Modelling. By exploiting the neural mass model used to simulate cortical data, the objective is to quantify which measure its estimates represent. We demonstrated that Granger causality is a good estimator with high values both of sensitivity and specificity, while frequency indexes, DTF and PDC, are too much affected by the threshold choice and their interpretation in terms of absolute strength connection is not clear. As regard SEM, we proved the difficulty of its approach to describe just simple situations. Even if SEM is based on linear regression as well as MVAR models, it differently assumes there is no connection with past information, as if brain connectivity could describe time series relationships by the instant we observe it. Hence, it is not sufficiently robust to characterize neuronal dynamic activity. \n
Smart grids enable a two-way energy demand response capability through which a utility company offers its industrial customers various call options for energy load curtailment. If a customer has the capability to accurately determine whether to accept an offer or not, then in the case of accepting an offer, the customer can earn both an option premium to participate, and a strike price for load curtailments if requested. However, today most manufacturing companies lack the capability to make the correct contract decisions for given offers. This paper proposes a novel decision model based on activity-based costing (ABC) and stochastic programming, developed to accurately evaluate the impact of load curtailments and determine as to whether or not to accept an energy load curtailment offer. The proposed model specifically targets state-transition flexible and Quality-of-Service (QoS) flexible energy use activities to reduce the peak energy demand rate. An illustrative example with the proposed decision model under a call-option based energy demand response scenario is presented. As shown from the example results, the proposed decision model can be used with emerging smart grid opportunities to provide a competitive advantage to the manufacturing industry.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate implementation of the National Essential Medicines Scheme (NEMS) in rural China. METHODS: Two rural counties/districts in each of three provinces where NEMS had been implemented were surveyed. Information was collected from NEMS staff at the province, county/district, township and village levels; patients with chronic disease were also interviewed. Service provision, finances, prescriptions, inpatient records and the expenditures of patients with certain diagnoses were investigated in township hospitals and village clinics. The results were compared with the corresponding data recorded before NEMS was introduced. FINDINGS: Following the introduction of NEMS, drug procurement in each study location was systematized. Total drug costs declined. This, and improved prescribing, reduced the costs of outpatient and inpatient care and led, apparently, to increased uptake of health services. However, the prices of some drugs had increased and the availability of others had declined. The compensation of health-care providers for NEMS-related reductions in their incomes had been largely ineffective. As a result of the introduction of NEMS, health facilities relied more on public financing. Many health-care providers complained about higher workloads and lower incomes. CONCLUSION: Although it was well conceived, the introduction of NEMS into China's decentralized, fee-for-service system of health care has not been straightforward. It has highlighted the problems associated with attempts to modernize health care and health financing for patients' benefit. Sustainable mechanisms to compensate health-care providers for lost income are needed to ensure that NEMS is a success.
The effects of globalization are perceived in the area of public administration as well as in many other areas and shows up as delegation of duties and authorities from central to local governments. This phenomenon is called decentralization that in a way requires local governments to have fiscal autonomy. Hereby, it is common for local governments to use their autonomy in infrastructure finance in many countries. It would also be possible for our country s local governments to have fiscal autonomy if capital markets, providing long-term finance, are utilized. In this study, we discuss several models, which local governments may utilize capital markets, and try to evaluate how to improve these models. We conclude that, investment trusts specialized in infrastructure finance would play a role of a central hub, where lots of capital market models may be implemented all together.
The article deals with the state of the Orthodox education in Russia in the context of religious renaissance. The author considers dynamics of establishment of new Orthodox educational institutions of different levels, problems of educational system development (decentralization of management, insufficient financing, lack of the required legal status, deficit of teaching personnel and theological literature, etc.).