This paper describes the Brazilian health system, which includes a public sector covering almost 75% of the population and an expanding private sector offering health services to the rest of the population. The public sector is organized around the Sistema Unico de Saude (SUS) and it is financed with general taxes and social contributions collected by the three levels of government (federal, state and municipal). SUS provides health care through a decentralized network of clinics, hospitals and other establishments, as well as through contracts with private providers. SUS is also responsible for the coordination of the public sector. The private sector includes a system of insurance schemes known as Supplementary Health which is financed by employers and/or households: group medicine (companies and households), medical cooperatives, the so called Self-Administered Plans (companies) and individual insurance plans. The private sector also includes clinics, hospitals and laboratories offering services on out-of-pocket basis mostly used by the high-income population. This paper also describes the resources of the system, the stewardship activities developed by the Ministry of Health and other actors, and the most recent policy innovations implemented in Brazil, including the programs saude da Familia and Mais Saude.
<p>Successful cultural politics in Russia may be carried out on the basis of its management decentralization principle. Regional and municipal culture development is not possible without common national cultural aims and priorities. The state should play an essential role, however<br />regional cultures should be given self-development possibilities. Culture management decentralization should not get reduced to the financing issues. Decentralization priority aim should be improvement in efficiency of both cultural organizations and governmental authorities of the<br />federal and local levels.</p>
Zeev Dvir, Dan Gutfreund, Guy N. Rothblum, Salil Vadhan
Abstract: We investigate the complexity of the following computational problem: Polynomial Entropy Approximation (PEA): Given a low-degree polynomial mapping p: Fn â Fm, where F is a finite field, approximate the output entropy H(p(Un)), where Un is the uniform distribution on Fn and H may be any of several entropy measures. We show: âą Approximating the Shannon entropy of degree 3 polynomials p: Fn 2 â Fm 2 over F2 to within an additive constant (or even n.9) is complete for SZKPL, the class of problems having statistical zero-knowledge proofs where the honest verifier and its simulator are computable in logarithmic space. (SZKPL contains most of the natural problems known to be in the full class SZKP.) âą For prime fields F = F2 and homogeneous quadratic polynomials p: Fn â Fm, there is a probabilistic polynomial-time algorithm that distinguishes the case that p(Un) has entropy smaller than k from the case that p(Un) has min-entropy (or even Renyi entropy) greater than (2 + o(1))k. âą For degree d polynomials p: Fn 2 â Fm 2, there is a polynomial-time algorithm that distinguishes the case that p(Un) has max-entropy smaller than k (where the max-entropy of a random variable is the logarithm of its support size) from the case that p(Un) has max-entropy at least (1 + o(1)) · kd (for fixed d and large k).
The collection of household waste is the only sector that is the full responsibility of municipalities in Jordan. Lise Debout gives a highly original analysis, dealing with the emergence of public-private partnerships and the role of NGOs and private contractors. The author explains that the public service of collecting household waste is an element of the relationship between citizens and government, then she describes the scope of the Jordanian government in the process of privatization and decentralization of this little-studied sector, which leads her to address the issue of state sovereignty. With 255kg to 310kg per capita per year, or about 1.46 million tons per year, the amount of waste produced in Jordan is higher than the average in low-income countries, by virtue of its high rate of urbanization, but 56% of this waste is organic. Under the 1955 Municipalities Act, the collection of household waste is the responsibility of municipalities, along with the financing thereof. It is the only public utility that is their full responsibility. The service is managed by the Department of the Environment and Public Health within municipalities. However, there is a conflict with the new Ministry of the Environment.Institutional reforms have been limited lest they undermine national stability. Thus the autonomy of municipalities is a risk factor for the Jordanian government, as shown by the amalgamation reforms which provided for the autonomy of senior municipalities, but which has not been implemented in Irbid or Zarqa. This is also why programs of municipal development and decentralization are doomed to failure. The Jordanian State wishes to maintain its sovereignty while its people are reluctant to accept privatization measures which are seen as interference by foreign powers.
The availability of abundant renewable resources, lack of fossil fuels and difficult geographical terrain for grid line extensions contribute to the advantages of renewable based decentralized rural electrification in Ne-pal. Solar home system (SHS) and micro-hydro are the most commonly adopted off-grid renewable energy technologies in the country. This dis-sertation examines the market of renewable energy based rural electrifi-cation within prevailing policy and programmes framework. The study verifies whether the market has been able to serve the poor in Nepal. It also captures the perception of various stakeholders (e.g. private sup-ply/installation companies, NGOs, financial institutions and the donorâs programme) regarding the business, financing issues and the role of gov-ernment policy on the market development. In addition, the study dis-cusses and analyses renewable based rural electrification supply models, the economics behind rural electrification, market drivers and market distribution in the rural areas of Nepal. The financial mix in the off-grid rural electrification is generally charac-terized by subsidy, equity and credit. The study shows that awareness about renewable energy technologies and willingness to pay for electricity access has increased considerably. However, there is a huge financial gap between the cost of electrification and affordability among the poor. The distribution analysis shows there is significant increment in the extensive growth but decrease in the intensive growth rate of rural electrification thus indicating market expansion with uneven penetration among the ru-ral people. Solar PV technology is still not in the reach of the economic poor. Access to credit and cumbersome subsidy delivery mechanisms have been perceived as the major factors affecting the expansion of rural electrification by the stakeholders, requiring innovation in the credit and subsidy delivery system so that a larger rural population can be given ac-cess to electrification.
In the last three decades, the supply of housing in Argentina has not kept pace with demand. This study analyzes the main drivers of Argentina's housing market and relates them to the macroeconomic environment in order to advance a policy agenda for housing policy reform. The demand for housing was calculated and tenure choice was analyzed. Structural characteristics affecting Argentina's housing market include the high concentration of the urban population in a few large metropolitan areas, te association of urban poverty with the housing deficit, and overcrowding. The mortgage market lost its appeal following the 2001-02 crisis due to widespread breaches of contract legitimized through protective legislation (still in place), insufficient long-term financing, and high inflation. The housing deficit could be eliminated in five to eight years if well-coordinated policy initiatives to develop the mortgage market and provide low-income housing were adopted under a decentralized, demand-driven, subsidized program.
We construct a model of endogenous investment specific techological change in which the stock of public capital influences the real price of capital goods. We show that the growth and welfare maximizing tax rates coincide in the planned economy. When factor income taxes finance public investment infintely many tax-subsidy combinations can decentralize the planner's allocations. The optimal capital income tax can be positive in this environment. We then augment the model to incorporate administrative costs. A unique combination of factor income taxes now decentralizes the planner's allocations. A simple calibration exercise suggests that changes in factor income taxes does not cause a significant change in the optimal growth rate or welfare. Our framework broadens the environment in which investment specific technological change occurs, and characterizes the role of optimal factor income taxation in raising long run growth and welfare.
Over the past twenty years, important changes in the Italian health system have led to different approaches in organizing, delivering and financing health services throughout the regions of the country. This study aims to examine the impact these factors have had on efficiency. The methodology adopted is based on the developments in bootstrapping Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In particular, employing a two-stage procedure, we analyzed the impact that political interventions have produced on healthcare efficiency. The data, which were at the local health unit level for the period 2004-2005, were aggregated to the provincial level in order to take into account patient mobility. The study reveals that the organizational model adopted by the Lombardia region allows for the best results in healthcare efficiency. Second, administrative decentralization from the regional governments to local health units is a source of inefficiency. Third, adjusting the cost of delivering care, by taking into consideration regional health characteristics, improves efficiency. Finally, future policy interventions should make careful valuations of the impacts of patient mobility on healthcare efficiency.
Open access
Efficiency Analysis Using DEA
Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
Smartmeters report the current electricity consumption over the internet back to their energy providers. Finely-sampled power consumption enables the energy provider to learn the habits of the customer's household in which the smart meter is installed. This paper presents a protocol which preserves customer privacy but also allows the detection of unregistered smart meters and prevents spamming and replay attacks. A trusted-third-party is not needed. This protocol, whose security proof relies on the strong RSA assumption and the random oracle model, is based on zero-knowledge techniques. The protocol has been implemented on different hardware platforms and benchmark results are given.
Open access
Cryptography and Data Security
Smart Grid Security and Resilience
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
The present study describes and explains the changing role of the state in the Italian healthcare system since the beginning of the 1970s, with a particular focus on developments following 1978 when the healthcare system was transformed from a social insurance system into a national health service. In order to address these changes in a systematic way, we track healthcare system development along three dimensions: regulation, financing, and service provision. With regard to regulation, we observe a relative retreat of the state due to decentralization processes and internal market mechanisms. Quantitative measures for the financing and service provision dimension also indicate a modest relative retreat of the state. Taking regional data into account, we identify a clear North-South-divide in the public/private mix of financing and service provision. Although the focus of the paper is to describe the changing role of the state in the Italian healthcare system, we also offer preliminary explanations. We seek to identify the role of exogenous shocks such as economic crises versus endogenous stressors specific to the healthcare system itself (i.e. inherent inefficiencies) on healthcare system change. Therefore, the paper aims to provide a tentative, yet dynamic account of healthcare system change that is both descriptive and explanatory.
The new era of forest governance in Indonesia was marked by publication of the Act 22, 1999 about District Autonomy, which led to shift from the old centralized forest management to decentralized one. The decentralized forest governance is expected to improve the overall of forest governance. It is evident, however, that the degradation of forest has actually increased under the decentralized governance. Why does this uncontrolled destruction of forest occur? The aims of the study are to research and understand dynamics and complexity of the monitoring administration for forest gavernance in local autonomous era in Indonesia, taking on case of West Java Province. The study also to detect variables having effects on the success of forest governance monitoring administration. The study was conducted using qualitative research method, employing in-depth interview techniques, combined with aspect of legislation and library study. The key informans was interviewed such as the stakeholders of senior foresters of Forestry Services of the Regency, Province, Forestry Department, Forestry Researcher Team, Non Government Organization, Government Forestry Bussiness, Forestry Lecturer, and the Local Community. The number of key informan of 23 persons, and have expertise more than 15 years at Bandung City, Bandung Regency, West Bandung Regency , Bogor Regency, Purwakarta Regency and Jakarta. This study found that the decentralized model only adds more destruction and complexity to the forest governance. The complexity of the problem is deteriorated by reformation euphoria and autonomous sentiments. The success of forest governance monitoring is determined by several major variables are: (i) Regulation, comprising of law and supporting rules,policy, and institution; (ii)Infrastructure comprising of financing, technology, information system, communication, coordination, and societal Involvement, and (iii) Human Resources, comprising of feasibility, perception, and integrity. The success of the forest governance monitoring is affected by secondary variables: The Quality of Forest Governance Planning and the prevailing Political Situation. For conclusion, the results of the study were contributing to theory, practice, and politics for improving the understanding and knowledge of the decentralization of forest governance.
We propose a coin-flip protocol which yields a string of strong, random coins and is fully simulatable against poly-sized quantum adversaries on both sides. It can be implemented with quantum-computational security without any set-up assumptions, since our construction only assumes mixed commitment schemes which we show how to construct in the given setting. We then show that the interactive generation of random coins at the beginning or during outer protocols allows for quantum-secure realizations of classical schemes, again without any set-up assumptions. As example applications we discuss quantum zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge and quantum-secure two-party function evaluation. Both applications assume only fully simulatable coin-flipping and mixed commitments. Since our framework allows to construct fully simulatable coin-flipping from mixed commitments, this in particular shows that mixed commitments are complete for quantum-secure two-party function evaluation. This seems to be the first completeness result for quantum-secure two-party function evaluation from a generic assumption.
Providing financial resources for public funds is difficult to effectuate and the central government and local government level. Since local budgets do not own income sufficient to ensure the financing of all expenditures on behalf of local collectivities, then the state budget provides funding for social, economic local destinations. Decentralization of public services is accompanied by financial descentralization. In this paper we present some aspects of VAT revenue from the state budget used to support certain activities at the local level, the evolution of these allocations in the context of current budgetary constraints due to financial crisis.
This report describes the process of shrinkage as it has occurred within the city of Leipzig. It examines the reasons, dynamics and patterns of change as well as the consequences for different fields of urban development and planning. The period covered in the report runs from the 1980s to the present day; in particular cases, longer or shorter time periods are considered. Over this time, Leipzig has moved from a (more or less rapidly) shrinking city until the late 1990s to a point where ist population stabilized and even returned to a slight growth during the last few years. Today, Leipzig is no longer a shrinking city. When one looks only at the total population numbers, Leipzig represents one of a few large cities in eastern Germany that have undergone reurbanization processes (Haase, A. et al. 2010). However, urban shrinkage continues to be an important topic for the city. The city is still facing the consequences of long-term shrinkage and will have to cope with it during the years to come. At the same time, shrinkage still affects some parts of the city and will also do so in the future. Moreover, Leipzig awaits a new wave of shrinkage due to ageing and a decrease in households after 2015.
Population should be in the central focus of local community institutions and the local community may constitute its population policy which will supplement state population policy measures, considering the local specific various traditions, values and models of living. The paper's basic goal is to critically perceive the characteristics, significance and role of local self-governments in the current population policy of Serbia. Social situation and social policy characteristics in Serbia are analyzed in the context of the population policy. It is pointed out that poverty, unemployment, the economic crisis, the process of privatization, the issue of system decentralization and social expectations of the population, as current expressions of transition, all have a consequence on the demographic development and population policy. A critical estimation of the activities in the field of population policies which are carried out by local and provincial self-governments in Serbia in the last decade are brought into focus, with a special review to the activities of provincial and local governments in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. As a result of the analysis it is pointed out that the population and social policy measures have been separated since the year 2000 and that they have been directed only to stimulating births and not child raising and that solutions regarding maternity leave brought improvements, however shortened maternity leave for the third child. The new conception of the population policy brought a whole series of restrictions such as: suspension of aid for newborn essentials; discontinuance of the right to maternity allowance; abolishing of compensation for preschool expenses for the third child; children?s allowance lost its population measures character along with considerable tightening of the census and decreasing of amount; the activities of preschool facilities have been reduced only to an educational function, and the terms for realizing rights to preschool education for children without parents and children with special needs have been tightened. The authors point out to the values and principles on which a contemporary population policy of local self-governments in Serbia should be established, such as: stability of established measures, a clear message on the needs of society, compatibility and not uniformity with measures of other bodies, compassion and uniformity with aspirations of couples and individuals, respect for the rights and freedom of man, information availability, equality of birth and raising children in measures. The establishment of population policy municipality funds is suggested and that local population policy measures are both material and non-material type, as well as in the form of organizational measures which could use the existing resources in a better way. The municipal assembly should create organizational suppositions by appointing a Population Policy Commission as its permanent body. The Commission would propose to the Municipal Assembly to adopt a strategic document - the Population Policy Strategy in the municipality. The Municipality Assembly should adopt the Action Plan for carrying out of the population policy every year, which would define the measures, bearers, terms and methods of evaluating measures with a plan for the following year. The population policy of the local self-government should be a constant process which manages, follows and evaluates, which is public and which understands the engagement of competent people, participation of citizens-volunteers and civil organizations.
Abstract. Recent results show that the current implementation of He-lios, a practical e-voting protocol, does not ensure independence of the cast votes, and demonstrate the impact of this lack of independence on vote privacy. Some simple fixes seem to be available and security of the revised scheme has been studied with respect to symbolic models. In this paper we study the security of Helios using computational models. Our first contribution is a model for the property known as ballot privacy that generalizes and extends several existing ones. Using this model, we investigate an abstract voting scheme (of which the revised Helios is an instantiation) built from an arbitrary encryp-tion scheme with certain functional properties. We prove, generically, that whenever this encryption scheme falls in the class of voting-friendly schemes that we define, the resulting voting scheme provably satisfies ballot privacy. We explain how our general result yields cryptographic security guaran-tees for the revised version of Helios (albeit from non-standard assump-tions). Furthermore, we show (by giving two distinct constructions) that it is possible to construct voting-friendly encryption, and therefore voting schemes, using only standard cryptographic tools. We detail an instan-tiation based on ElGamal encryption and Fiat-Shamir non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs that closely resembles Helios and which provably satisfies ballot privacy. 1
Ivan DamgÄrd, Jakob Funder, Jesper Buus Nielsen, Louis Salvail
Attacks on classical cryptographic protocols are usually modeled by allowing an adversary to ask queries from an oracle. Security is then defined by requiring that as long as the queries satisfy some constraint, there is some problem the adversary cannot solve, such as compute a certain piece of information. In this paper, we introduce a fundamentally new model of quantum attacks on classical cryptographic protocols, where the adversary is allowed to ask several classical queries in quantum superposition. This is a strictly stronger attack than the standard one, and we consider the security of several primitives in this model. We show that a secret-sharing scheme that is secure with threshold $t$ in the standard model is secure against superposition attacks if and only if the threshold is lowered to $t/2$. We use this result to give zero-knowledge proofs for all of NP in the common reference string model. While our protocol is classical, it is sound against a cheating unbounded quantum prover and computational zero-knowledge even if the verifier is allowed a superposition attack. Finally, we consider multiparty computation and show that for the most general type of attack, simulation based security is not possible. However, putting a natural constraint on the adversary, we show a non-trivial example of a protocol that can indeed be simulated.
We present new candidates for quantum-resistant public-key cryptosystems based on the conjectured difficulty of finding isogenies between supersingular elliptic curves. The main technical idea in our scheme is that we transmit the images of torsion bases under the isogeny in order to allow the parties to construct a shared commutative square despite the noncommutativity of the endomorphism ring. Our work is motivated by the recent development of a subexponential-time quantum algorithm for constructing isogenies between ordinary elliptic curves. In the supersingular case, by contrast, the fastest known quantum attack remains exponential, since the noncommutativity of the endomorphism ring means that the approach used in the ordinary case does not apply. We give a precise formulation of the necessary computational assumptions along with a discussion of their validity, and prove the security of our protocols under these assumptions. In addition, we present implementation results showing that our protocols are multiple orders of magnitude faster than previous isogeny-based cryptosystems over ordinary curves. This paper is an extended version of [19]. We add a new zero-knowledge identification scheme, and detailed security proofs for the protocols. We also present a new, asymptotically faster, algorithm for key generation, a thorough study of its optimization, and new experimental data.
The paper presents the current state of the process of agencification in Croatia, pointing out both the process and the institutional design. The agency model in Croatia consists of several types of more or less autonomous administrative organizations, situated at different distances from the central government. The most evident pressures for agencification come from decentralization, managerial responses and Europeanization. The reversal of the process in recent years has mostly happened because of the need for rationalization of the public administration system, which is also under pressure because of the economic crisis. The key problems of the agency model are over politicization on the one hand, and insufficient and inadequate control on the other. The adequate legal framework for agencies would enhance institutionalization of the agency model, ensuring effectiveness and legal certainty and maintaining a sufficient level of independence.