This paper presents a protocol aiming at proving that an encryption system contains structural weaknesses without disclosing any information on those weaknesses. A verifier can check in a polynomial time that a given property of the cipher system output has been effectively realized. This property has been chosen by the prover in such a way that it cannot been achieved by known attacks or exhaustive search but only if the prover indeed knows some undisclosed weaknesses that may effectively endanger the cryptosystem security. This protocol has been denoted zero-knowledge-like proof of cryptanalysis. In this paper, we apply this protocol to the Bluetooth core encryption algorithm E0, used in many mobile environments and thus we suggest that its security can seriously be put into question.
The background of this research is the fall of the New Order Regime which occurred in 1998, followed closely behind by the creation of local autonomy policy. This policy was issued based on Law Numer 22/1999 (Local Government) and Law Numer 25/1999 (Intergovernmental Finance). Both laws have changed the local public administration from a centralized into a decentralized system and also caused reform in some components such as planning, organization, personnel, and finance. Even though Law Number 22/1999 had been implemented for four years, the reform seemed very tardy. In fact, several regions showed a progress tendency that was the reverse of the expectation. For this reason, the question that will be formulated in this research is 'Why was there a different level of performance of local public administration reform after the local autonomy implementation in Indonesia?' The conceptual framework of this research is outlined as follows: it is presumed that the performance of Local Public Administration Reform is determinedby two major independent variables that are interrelated. These are the Central Government Role Variable and the Response of Local Government and its Environment toward the Reform. The Central Government Role consists of two variables Decentralization as an Architecture Reform Variable and the Policy Reform Variable. Both major variables interrelate with some varibles at the local level such as the Mayor/Regent's Role, the Response of Bureaucrats and Politicians to Local Public Administration Reform, and the Response of Civil Society to the Reform.
Deepak Singh highlights one of the emerging approaches to global data, Freebase. Recall that at scifoo we also heard about Google's offer to host scientific data: I am attracted by Freebase/Metaweb and also DBPedia/openlink. These are technologies which build ontological-supported repositories where large amounts of metadata can be centrally stored.
The institutional environment of elementary education funding in Brazil suffered several modifications in the last decades, mainly during the 1990's. In order to join the prioritization of elementary education to the decentralization of educational public policies – leading it to local level – the federal government promoted a deep reform in the legal framework, even through constitutional amendments that became important rules for education funding. One of the major changes was the creation of the 'Elementary Education Development and Maintenance and Teachers Valorization Fund' (Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento do Ensino Fundamental e Valorização do Magistério – FUNDEF) destined to the financing of elementary education in Brazil. Despite these reforms, the situation of elementary education in Brazil is still extremely precarious: neither does it fulfills the needs of its people, nor is compatible with Brazilian State economical capacities. From the analytical standpoint, with basis on the 'New Institutional Economy' theoretical reference, the creation of earmarked revenues for education policies is considered the main financing rule for elementary education, and served to reduce several transaction costs. These costs are associated to the discontinuity of actions and to the opportunistic behavior of the players involved in the public policies’ scenario. Among these players are representatives of the executive, legislative and public powers, state bureaucracy and civil society. This thesis seeks to evaluate if this set of education financing strategies - created by earmarked revenues mainly for elementary education - is sufficient condition to achieve the efficiency required to carry out those education policies, or if other effects, linked to the strategy or not, contribute to the maintenance of inefficiencies. This thesis uses as theoretical reference the 'New Institutional Economy', which is mainly based in the works by North (1988 and 1990), Williamson (1985) and Miller (1992). This reference focuses on the central role of institutions in the evaluation of social-economical problems. Thus, the first session of the thesis aims at describing the core elements of this theory, such as the concepts of formal and informal rules, transaction costs and governance structures. Based on this initial structure, the theoretical model used in the thesis is built and can be considered as an adaptation of the New Institution Economy approach for organizations in the public sector. This model takes into consideration important elements and characteristics of institutions, players and governance structures that should be accounted for when analyzing public organizations. Under the light of this theoretical model, the institutional array developed for elementary education financing in Brazilian cities is analyzed into further detail; comprehending the institutional scenario, that is, the rules of the game, and the behavior of the players face to these rules. In order to empirically test the theoretical assumptions of this thesis, a case study is carried out in the city of São Paulo. The present thesis aims at contributing to the discussions on the necessary changes on education policies, with special emphasis in the institutional adequacy between the formal rules established to the policies and the characteristics, values and skills of the players involved in the implementation of these rules. The very institutional theory anticipates that the disregard of these factors implies the possibility of occurring transaction costs associated to public manager control costs and to the opportunistic behavior of the players involved in the public policies’ scenario. Therefore, even in the existence of earmarked revenues, the efficient conduction of public education policies will not be guarantied.
For many observers of contemporary American politics, the Republican Party's nomination of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964 signaled the arrival of Sunbelt conservatism as a potent political force. Once dismissed as historically insignificant given the magnitude of his loss to Lyndon Johnson, Goldwater now appears to many as the forerunner to Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and George W. Bush. There are indeed important roots of the contemporary Republican Party in the early 1960s, but narratives of conservative triumphalism overstate the degree of conservatives’ success within the party and the nation. Scholars must avoid painting too straight a line between Goldwater and later politics and policy. Rather, the history of the Republican Party in the mid-1960s should be viewed from the starting point of Goldwater's defeat rather than through the prism of subsequent Republican success. Such an approach foregrounds a sense of contingency and shows that conservatives’ takeover of the party, though real in the long run, was neither inevitable nor immediate. Sectional and ideological tension remained strong well after 1964. Goldwater made a breakthrough with conservatives across the nation and especially among whites in the Deep South, but, as Richard Nixon and others astutely realized, his approach could not be copied directly if the GOP wanted to overtake the Democrats as the majority party. This article will look at divisions within the Republican Party between 1965 and 1968 over racial matters. Race was one of several issues that figured prominently in a vigorous debate about the party's identity and future. In recent years, numerous scholars have crafted a rich history of the grassroots rise of Goldwater and battles to control the party in the early 1960s, but they have paid too little attention to the political and ideological tug-of-war within the GOP after 1964. The image of Goldwater delegates at the 1964 Republican convention booing Governor Nelson Rockefeller (New York) as he called for a more progressive stand on race and other matters symbolizes to many the death of liberal Republicanism. That was a moment of conservative triumph, but the next four years were a time of ebb and flow as various factions battled to define and control the party. Sunbelt conservatives, led at first by Goldwater and then by figures such as Strom Thurmond (South Carolina) and Ronald Reagan (California), scored some notable gains, but liberal Republicans, including figures such as Senator Jacob Javits (New York) and Governor George Romney (Michigan), continued to shape civil rights in and about the of race in Republican political such as and Senator to a with the of Richard Goldwater wanted to the of the party and not an on several including civil on racial issues from his conservative of the The Arizona was not a he and for the and with he in the he with by to that Goldwater was one of Republican to the 1964 of a he the and on the rights of and Goldwater more than Goldwater to a political by the to his that among whites across the Goldwater his party in to in the as some in of the Goldwater's that in the GOP from rather than political in the South, as with the Democrats to the and was to a though not to the South, and the Goldwater in a of Republican little for the of Goldwater the Republican the early 1960s, the of whites through to in the and the Goldwater across the from party in the for convention at the convention they to have the GOP a rights Goldwater racial matters for of the of a over in the of in several but in the he and in and of at a with Strom a over the stand on Goldwater's was on other racial but many whites to as an Goldwater among of the and the Republican by of racial and to in a Republican in to a Lyndon with The Republican Party in a at that and of of in and from the after the the American in several to American by that not be if they in with the on such as American at the to the for the Democrats by to to in on the Goldwater's to party in the and the in the of the 1964 that a between the on racial That the Republican Party one of the in American political Goldwater in the Deep and of the The Arizona were the South, and of were in conservative the a racial that Democrats in the but such to Richard Nixon in Goldwater in and among a than Goldwater of the a from the Nixon and the by in Republican well the of the as the party a of and in and the of by in and Goldwater's loss a debate over the Republican Party's identity as well as for to the for the Arizona as a to a Goldwater in the were by his in and the of was the first time that the GOP The first Republican in the to in the than in the Goldwater a majority of in across the Deep from the in one in and of the 1964 conservatives that Goldwater and a for the party in on and a conservative of The party, they to Goldwater's to in the and such as that was whites and are of will for then that one of will for should time and Republicans, to a strong for the on racial matters and from the that the that the were too on race and several other that Goldwater than Nixon in GOP in as on racial they viewed for civil rights especially the 1964 as with the of and for success. The of the to in the as well as in American that the Goldwater approach continued in the GOP a party. The a of Republican in that Goldwater's stand on civil rights more than his approach to other after the Javits an article for the that the party was at ebb Goldwater's of and as a for and for a of on civil will be the 1964 for years to if not to he Governor to that they are not Republican of the of for the 1964 in of the were There were many but to they the of a racial as an force. several defeat in on a defeat in the have to the party from an not to the South, the GOP that in the conservatives, continued as to a party that the for four of the years, Senator of a strong civil rights in 1965 that the party be to and in the of the to majority if the that to in that the GOP not control the of of the in the of the The Republicans, to look to the to in other of the that the arrival of the with conservatives on to Republican in the they that the party This was in by a to racial but by political with his of in and The that by 1968 an American the Goldwater of and to the Democrats the GOP The of American across the the and continued that a the will be as important to the as the in the in the in The party to of the to be he that could not to the of Democrats on racial a progressive Republican party could at some of the American as they in the first were to be an of the Republican the liberal to the party's to they as an Goldwater his success in and the Deep Thurmond well in his but he than in and Nixon in in and other that Republican at and in 1964. liberal Republicans, Goldwater the of the to to in the and in and was the of politics, the from on race as the continued and political with the of the nation. on the of have a will be paid in over the next several the not a the in 1965 he have to and the for were that whites in the and a Republican Party too with nor conservatives were to control of the party in the of Goldwater's Rather, remained of the from and the was for The Goldwater continued to in the Deep in The GOP a that to was to in the party and Goldwater's the of in after the Democrats of his for his of The Republican to a in the Republican to Republican he civil rights on the to in with and to from his he later to to liberal be of the of party were to success they could the conservative by to shape the party in after the 1964 Thurmond Nelson Rockefeller and other to the in the of 1965 that an from was the Governor that were they of to as in they the for he the of Republican was of several liberal as of and the of the and party to the party's stand on civil rights from of such as This a from of liberal he on to a Republican as long as he a Republican and the of his over party for at the in in 1965 by with to a Goldwater over the first a for the he a that that Nixon to a in that in in to through a was more in party than in in the ideological between and to the in and then to the of the to on the and to more attention and to American a in but he to the rather than a about in Republican not to a of to for the Party for and are to with For the was the to This liberal Republicans, that by the the for and the one liberal could the conservatives’ to in the by and progressive whites a that the then that was in to racial he Goldwater the of a but conservative across the nation in that was a but real of in the for for The Deep remained conservative but the to be more In the party from from the to the 1964 In GOP party of the to the The Republican for of of the on his to in In for the a Republican of the in and the first Republican to in the the 1964 through the of the of with of the In of on his to in the Goldwater's among and a liberal as that the party's among not and to in the South, in that the GOP to to some of that to not in but among progressive whites and across the nation as in American of the civil rights and over 1965 more for the of the party with the continued to In for and Republican a on the GOP and the The was a after the 1964 by of the Senator to Goldwater The in was of and at and to The liberal about was the to to a and racial among The over a Republican Party in the Deep and on Such a gains, they but that civil rights not the loss of to of racial they a strong for such as and as the continued in the to in the political The that the race a political in the of a of politics was at for the of a Republican Party the long of race as an in the of the that the rise of a Republican Party to racial to the of and to a the a for the party. such as to more to from Democrats the party if they and the made by The in the to an to party and a civil rights in the in as a the of a progressive Republican Party in The they to vigorous with and and liberal to conservative with a of The and for a of in the GOP and The the divisions over race in 1964 by in of racial Democrats but to liberal they the party. the political was in the and the and was time for the to a The of racial politics Republican the in that that Republican in as racial though he that the in the Deep was more must after the in the as well as in the he of the could be in a on by the Republican The to American and political in of the and and the GOP to more for through in the Deep continued to the of the Republican that the of the they The of are of the that are There are in the Republican party in the as the party Democrats for several and delegates at Republican in a by that in he called for a GOP from the that several for liberal were in the over and as and whites they as American for that they whites at they viewed as to to but to that whites that was too was strong in the South, of that some and for are many more to The rights on as for in several the to be The that of the the was too was the the in that especially whites in about for and as a for and other and at in the well to and that the to the GOP as the party in the and The as the of but was more of a strong racial was the astutely with the the Ronald Reagan the in the of in the race the from to civil rights in and over especially well in though race was not a in many of for liberal of the American That was from the the party in but from the Goldwater years The party of to 1964 among in several of the Republican were from the party's progressive and of the first American to in the in he the a in the for the 1964 was too to In the at the time was as a racial a George Romney and Nelson Rockefeller of American in the and to the from with of the of strong rights liberal Republicans, the from 1964 and were Republican by a though not a of American civil rights not from the line to at of the liberal Republican of be continued to in the Deep convention a and the of in to his racial an of in from Richard Nixon and other that be the Republican for in the made the a for civil rights he was with not conservative on racial conservative was The Republican Party was too across the to in many of the the point in for Republican between and were in the Deep South, but and across remained Deep Republicans, including and as well as such as as they could not to the of on racial matters. for in the was from in and in the South, Goldwater of that the of racial such as between and of the in a in a civil rights of the in his in and Rockefeller of Governor Nelson in a in the The over the party's on race was in the for the 1968 Republican from the liberal of the party George Romney and Nelson to Ronald Reagan, Richard the a given contemporary of the GOP by Romney many and at the time as a strong for the Rockefeller that he not for the Romney the of the liberal of the party. of the American Romney of in and in 1964 and to in the and Romney a to American of the in he on to in 1964 and years for some his to racial from and some of he his of racial Romney a progressive civil rights that of his could a of of the in the early 1960s, he for a civil rights and the of a civil rights he to that In he an and in a civil rights in an Romney the liberal Goldwater at the 1964 GOP convention and then to that after the Romney Goldwater a that he not the a Goldwater's Romney party's to more should be to the of the 1965 rights in he in a civil rights in he the convention of the Republican that a vigorous to Romney at the of racial politics in the and of a race that after a in an American more than were and of of was that the a to his the of politics with the by that the first not in the after he and a after a racial in the a to the of the of between and the nation that more than and led to the the nation from racial Romney a that he his of were as his about the of and he the to more about and on the Romney not his but was an that he the GOP over a he at one were that they look of his Romney more than that a the will be to time to the about his Romney continued to on the In early he called for a in the including in the and a in some of have Romney be by with the nation to from and and to the from the Such divisions between Romney and conservative Republicans, civil rights the and Democrats for in the For liberal Republicans, was and to be the the of Republican that Romney than Nixon and other Republican among Democrats and in a The to the more than after the one Romney to That be In early his a death he that he a by American a to that he was too in to in the he through was by the that the was Romney early on Rockefeller to the liberal on that he not be a but later he Rockefeller a progressive civil rights he the civil rights the of and the of the on Rockefeller given to the civil rights Nixon to a civil rights in the as too on racial and conservative for the the 1964 as and the and he the and the that by in and he called Governor to an of the that matters be at the in Rockefeller a for in Republican that to with to the of a on the a and as the of The that of and other in the for to in and that Rockefeller called the racial and about a civil Rockefeller his on the that a liberal Republican could in Rockefeller and his the to among Democrats and and the party in could from and early 1968 that Rockefeller in a The Rockefeller that in Nixon he in the to a in and as a of in the Rockefeller and a that a in Rockefeller that have over the and and the and he that and were to and a sense of to the Nixon and many other the in that to on to Rockefeller called the a of and the nation to the Such political in the Rockefeller a of in the civil rights by Rockefeller an in the Republican nomination that he could his in the in delegates and in the Republican a liberal could on from of the not the of of remained the control of conservatives and political Rockefeller to that he was a and that a strong among party his defeat in in That was a made by the that Rockefeller was among many the South, of Rockefeller more at the 1968 convention than in years to Goldwater's success four years The of the convention delegates to the of the from the and viewed Ronald Reagan as the to Barry Reagan was not a in the of but that not conservatives, especially from to Reagan his among the Goldwater of the party for the Arizona in and his conservative he politics years Reagan and other Republican on racial matters. was to the of Reagan the 1964 and the of his he the rise in civil rights of civil for a in civil as and and called for a of he as an on the rights of the that in the of Reagan continued to civil and called for a of and dismissed the as a and and an American that to have other but to a and for Democrats made that could not he For Reagan, the the for Richard Nixon the the conservative and liberal on racial Nixon a strong conservative stand on and by a for and for and be with Nixon and other including some liberal and that from and wanted a of civil many and to have racial viewed at in as on civil rights and American Nixon to through crafted that to rather than through to he the of by in in the next he in a that the nation to be and to with if and that the and of will be and the Nixon was civil Nixon the on as the of as on but the he a of by civil rights and Democrats with the of the that Nixon that the more to in the than the for on Nixon from Romney with for in the of 1968 that the as the and that the too the Nixon conservative on and must not from a he in to the Reagan in the for continued and The nation to for too Nixon and could not in given other he that not but for Nixon a of in and of a but in through to in the and to American and to the of the Nixon that the be and in the sense of that Nixon that to the Republican Party they that the of were and the not The of conservative was his of in the at a in though he than four years that the for the GOP by Republican in several In the of Goldwater's strong in the Deep and Nixon a line on racial issues in the one he continued to his for the the 1964 and the In he to and to to the George and to the of political from the of racial The Nixon were the party of racial conservatism for to such as and of and of Nixon that a in the and from and other liberal by that was and for the to of from his in the by for Republican in in 1965 and Nixon continued his to in the of 1968 by of to to and and by the that to and that he not for was more of the on he in with party and that he conservative to the the of from that were in and to the on his of a The next Nixon the of Strom to on his by to from Reagan at the Republican convention and his as an in the Nixon at a liberal on especially on matters. and he were issues that the of but not the of was the of Nixon some in for the he as of the on The was to in with the time he the Nixon of were at not that in Nixon signaled for racial by from the that in the have to have more than an and should be given a to for and in Nixon a that the 1964 and the 1965 were a that of but was now time for of through Nixon on in his were as as he in were more conservative than the by but they signaled a between Nixon and such as stand Nixon with conservative by of liberal on civil rights was in his for for the in the of Nixon continued to that a of especially among Reagan his as the Republican convention in in Nixon the by that he a in that the to more on racial and a not the party. that Nixon a liberal such as were with his of of and the Thurmond delegates to The Nixon paid as he the nomination was in of political nomination was not from the control of Republican first to Romney and then to Nixon to Nixon was among first was to were by party were to in the party by The was a in Nixon to at some if he were to be the the Nixon the racial he in the his for the and the civil rights of and but he on to he with the of and through such as and the of for was the and for the in and and not to racial and about and the Nixon that for and were not and that were not for the and of of his of to in but were to that some to but approach many American and liberal such as at one was by the of that he with Nixon about but he in one that on to the with an especially strong in the the South, and the among at Nixon liberal and conservative civil rights in and other the of on he an racial that was to liberal than to not as the important Republican of the racial politics and policy. Scholars have that approach to race in the 1968 a to an political to the political with George to his and liberal to his That as as but civil rights roots in the within the Republican Party Goldwater's a of the party's that conservative was to the but he that to a Goldwater on race in the was a were not as conservative on civil rights as Goldwater and not as to the the Arizona The of a a in the Goldwater of 1964 than Nixon conservative from the of That was in by the of in but not a Nixon have the conservative with more rights and but were and over and and the he with an approach that on and signaled a between whites in the and on racial matters. he was not a The debate within the Republican Party on the of the party's on the the as to political from grassroots In political to racial across the There to but the was a of and must be as of a political the could the in the of a the of the was not at that an of conservative within the party, and subsequent success in politics, was The with the of the Deep South, in 1964 racial across the nation. the from success at for The with the they the the Democrats made the and the Republican in to the of and were to some in but, as and others the party long in a of to be to the control was and that to the South, to the Party among whites for could the Republican Party in the The attention given to Goldwater and his conservative grassroots as well as to George the tension and within the GOP that in the and the of the The of a to be liberal many of politics the Race not be as to and issues as they and were the South, but, to they not a of and race remained a more potent among than among whites party could not as as that the of across the South, but they to that rise in of whites were by racial of but the be to the Republican success in especially at the from the The of the not be as for the party as at not liberal were about several other important and South, were not as progressive as they but nor were they of the racial politics that the of the for that the was a for as well as and in the mid-1960s that could a progressive Republican to especially in the such were not for racial There for the Republican Party in the South, at the and from a to a to Democrats not the they in among but more of Republican in the especially the about the of the GOP across the nation have Republican Party by conservatives to be a have to the party of with a conservatism on race and a of other with the a GOP that in the but in other of the nation. The in recent and the of the Republican Party in the in not have Jacob Javits Nelson whites have the especially in the George W. a majority of the in and in the political the Democrats not have a with have a he In the early the Republican with a as and to in an nation. and was not an that the Republican Party to at convention and that the made to that and in especially the of have the GOP to avoid the of liberal about contingency in the political history of the were after of to the more liberal of the party, but they were not Goldwater a of conservative important in the Republican Party in the and the point of 1968 and the early of the four for the 1968 Republican nomination and the Goldwater on race and other matters. was by that conservatism was the of the for the Nixon too liberal on race for the conservatives the party for the of Romney and Rockefeller in 1968 a to the Republican Party more progressive if not to of they in the that Nixon and in several Romney an Nixon for the party's 1968 but he several of about that a with Nixon Thurmond and his among party have long the in the Party the 1960s, as and a that figures such as Lyndon and should that divisions in the GOP well the Goldwater success of 1964. In the first scholars have divisions within the party of over race and should divisions over more in of the
Across the broad issues of decentralized governance in the Philippines, the process of fiscal decentralization continues to require thoroughgoing analysis vis-à-vis the incessant protests against purportedly unfair distribution and use of the country’s fiscal resources. This paper analyzes the institutional framework defining the country’s intergovernmental fiscal relations that would highlight the critical role of central-local political structures in shaping fiscal decentralization. It examines how the policy standardization, resource coordination and allocation, and monitoring and evaluation in the country’s intergovernmental finance affect the distribution, generation and use of fiscal resources. Key issues noted include : 1) limited devolution of budget; 2) constrained intergovernmental fiscal transfer system (insufficient and unlawful allocation of funds; lack of transparency and exercise of discretionary powers in the use of fiscal resources); and 3) low levels of local revenue generation. These issues intersect along a contradiction of powers between the local and central government politicians which predominates in an intergovernmental fiscal structure evaluated in this study as lacking in meaningful institutionalization. The basic paradigm of this paper is based on the assumption that decentralization as a political process can best be operated within the framework of centrally-led institutionalization.
Paul Gertler, Harry Anthony Patrinos, Marta Rubio Codina
Mexico's Compensatory education programs provide extra resources to primary schools that enroll students in highly disadvantaged rural communities, thus increasing the supply of education.By reducing the price of schooling through school stipends conditional on school attendance and performance, Oportunidades is increasing the demand for schooling amongst its eligible beneficiary households.This study exploits the different phasing-in over time and space across these interventions to test their degree of complementarity (or substitutability).We focus on the effects on intermediate school quality indicators (failure, repetition and dropout) of teacher training, provision of supplies, and empowerment and financing of parent associations -on the supply side; and conditional on attendance cash transfers -on the demand side.Difference-in-difference estimates prove reducing the opportunity cost of schooling and decentralizing school management at the lower level as effective measures in improving educational outcomes.No robust evidence of synergies between the two interventions is found.
The issue of hospital autonomy has aroused considerable international interest since the mid-1990’s, especially with regard to its linkage to governmental decentralization processes and reform of the health field. Non-profit hospitals have increasingly been obliged to become more autonomous as they compete for funding with private institutions. Objective: to understand how autonomy expresses itself through key management processes in non-profit and for-profit hospitals both in Medellín, the second largest city of Colombia, and its metropolitan area. Different institutional factors—political, administrative and economic—influencing autonomy are examined. Methods: a grounded theory method was used, consisting of semi-structured interviews with managers in six hospitals. Results: findings suggest that autonomy is perceived more as an ideal to aspire to, which would enable the hospital management to make free decisions, providing services in a manner that ensures financial sustainability. In practical terms, however, the degree of administrative and financial autonomy is circumscribed by both internal organizational factors associated with hospitals characteristics and external factors associated with institutional environment.
Recently, there have been considerable efforts towards the convergence between P2P and Grid computing in order to reach a solution that takes the best of both worlds by exploiting the advantages that each offers. Augmenting the peer-to-peer model to the services of the Grid promises to eliminate bottlenecks and ensure greater scalability, availability, and fault-tolerance. The Grid Information Service (GIS) directly influences quality of service for grid platforms. Most of the proposed solutions for decentralizing the GIS are based on completely flat overlays. The main contributions for this paper are: the investigation of a novel resource discovery framework for Grid implementations based on a hierarchy of structured peer-to-peer overlay networks, and introducing a discovery algorithm utilizing the proposed framework. Validation of the framework-s performance is done via simulation. Experimental results show that the proposed organization has the advantage of being scalable while providing fault-isolation, effective bandwidth utilization, and hierarchical access control. In addition, it will lead to a reliable, guaranteed sub-linear search which returns results within a bounded interval of time and with a smaller amount of generated traffic within each domain.
This article analyses the relationship between decentralization and the extent of fiscal discipline in the Swiss cantons between 1984 and 2000. From a theoretical point of view, decentralization and federalism can be associated with both an expansive and a dampening effect on government debt. On the one hand, decentralized structures have been argued to lead to a reduction of debt due to inherent competition between the member states and the multitude of veto positions which restrict public intervention. On the other hand, decentralization has been claimed to contribute to an increase of public debt as it involves expensive functional and organizational duplications as well as cost-intensive, often debt-financed, compromise solutions between a large number of actors that operate in an uncoordinated and contradictory way. Our empirical results show that in periods of prosperous economic development, the architecture of state structure has no impact on debt. However, the degree of decentralization influences debt in economically poor times: In phases of economic recession, administratively decentralized cantons implement a more economical budgetary policy than centralized Swiss member states.
Christine Lao Peña, Ariadna García‐Prado, Olympia Icochea
In recent years, Central American countries have been implementing strategies to expand basic health services to remote and poor rural areas. In most cases, health extension services have been carried out by contracting with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other nonpublic entities to manage or deliver health services. However, contracting with non-state providers has not been easily accepted in these countries as it is often seen as arising out of an ideological desire to privatize publicly financed health services or ultimately to limit or end government involvement in health care. This is what is happening in Honduras, where the Ministry of Health is promoting the extension of services with a community based approach within a decentralization strategy framework. The new health services extension models in Honduras rely on organizational and management arrangements that differ from the traditional Ministry of Health (MOH) health facility model. In particular, the facilities are managed by their communities under different legal and institutional arrangements, depending upon their organizational structures. Their staff are not civil servants, and, as a result, their management has considerably more flexibility in hiring and firing workers. In addition, they have multiple sources of financing. Patients contribute to the financing of these arrangements either with co-payments or pre-payments according to level of income (the sliding scale is determined by the community). The purpose of this study is to identify and compare the costs, efficiency, quality and coverage, as well as the institutional arrangements and organizational structure of the alternative models with one another, and with the traditional services delivery approach of the MOH to determine the feasibility of scaling-up these innovative models of extension of health services. To this purpose, we conducted a health facility survey to collect information on (i) Perceived quality, (ii) Technical quality, (iii) Accessibility (with regards to providers), (iv) Accessibility to communities, and (v) Price/out of pocket payments from users. In addition, the cost of providing key elements of the service package is estimated, including: (i) coverage for vaccination, well-baby care, prenatal care and curative consultations for acute respiratory infection and diarrheic disease, (ii) use of iron supplementation among pregnant women, (iii) knowledge and use of oral re-hydration among women, and (iv) use of vaccination cards for infants. Information on outputs produced have been collected based on these components, as well as their inputs over the last 3 months at each of the facilities. The cost of providing selected components of the basic package of health services in each type of facility was calculated. Results from our analysis show that even though the overall cost of service delivery in the new community models is higher, access to basic health services and quality of care, both technical and perceived, are generally better than in the traditional public health care facilities. Findings also indicate that the new models are more cost efficient than the traditional MOH health care centers suggesting the feasibility of either scaling up these new models and/or alternatively reforming certain aspects of the traditional health care facilities.
Interactive hashing, introduced by Naor, Ostrovsky, Venkatesan, and Yung (J. Cryptol. 11(2):87–108, 1998 ), plays an important role in many cryptographic protocols. In particular, interactive hashing is a major component in all known constructions of statistically hiding commitment schemes and of statistical zero-knowledge arguments based on general one-way permutations/functions. Interactive hashing with respect to a one-way function f is a two-party protocol that enables a sender who knows y = f ( x ) to transfer a random hash z = h ( y ) to a receiver such that the sender is committed to y : the sender cannot come up with x and x ′ such that f ( x )≠ f ( x ′), but h ( f ( x ))= h ( f ( x ′))= z . Specifically, if f is a permutation and h is a two-to-one hash function, then the receiver does not learn which of the two preimages { y , y ′}= h −1 ( z ) is the one the sender can invert with respect to f . This paper reexamines the notion of interactive hashing, and proves the security of a variant of the Naor et al. protocol, which yields a more versatile interactive hashing theorem. When applying our new proof to (an equivalent variant of) the Naor et al. protocol, we get an alternative proof for this protocol that seems simpler and more intuitive than the original one, and achieves better parameters (in terms of how security preserving the reduction is).
V. S. Naipaul's bookA Way in the World (1994) is perhaps most strikingly about obsession—about historical figures obsessed by an idea: dreams of new worlds, the fulfillment of large schemes, and the universal failure of such visions. In his long chapter “In the Gulf of Desolation: An Unwritten Story,” Naipaul imagines the wasted year that the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco Miranda spent on the island of Trinidad in 1806, marooned after an abortive insurrection across the gulf on the mainland. Nine years before Miranda's arrival in Port of Spain, Trinidad was part of the Spanish empire, but now it is British. The island is dominated by plantations: “no place for a metropolitan man like Miranda,” writes Naipaul.1 And yet his work turns on the often hidden or forgotten exchanges between metropolitan spaces of empire and subjugated spaces of colonization. At Port of Spain, Miranda is met by General Thomas Hislop, the British governor. “Hislop is a man of jangled nerves,” Naipaul tells readers. And for good reason. The brutal repression of incipient slave revolt—“the hangings and the mutilations”—has raised legal questions back in London. Much of the chapter centers on imagined conversations between Miranda and Hislop. Hislop is deeply troubled by uncertainties, by the shaky foundations of Britain's Trinidad regime and his responsibility for actions, inhumane and possibly illegal, taken to maintain order. Most particularly, he is anxious about the investigation of General Thomas Picton, the island's first British governor, and by Picton's conviction in the court of King's Bench. “Strange,” Hislop observes, “that all the bigger charges of hanging and theft should have been thrown out, and this case of petty theft should have brought Picton down. Signing the order that the very respectable magistrate brought him for the torture of the young mulatto girl.”2 In fact, this glancing reference to an anonymous “young mulatto girl” marks a return, a reworking of themes and characters that Naipaul introduced twenty-five years earlier in The Loss of El Dorado: A History (1969). As he notes, his earlier book “is made up of two forgotten stories,” two moments when his native Trinidad “was touched by ‘history’” or was brought within European historical consciousness.3 The first story marks the final chapter in the search for El Dorado with Sir Walter Raleigh's return to Trinidad in 1617; the second is that of Louisa Calderon, the young mulatto girl whose torture brought Governor Picton to trial and whose case became a cause célèbre. Calderon now appears at the fringes of British history, given a walk-on part in histories of Trinidad.4 Picton is generally remembered not as a colonial governor but for his role in the Peninsular Campaign and as the highest-ranking officer killed at the Battle of Waterloo; his portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, and his heroic death is commemorated by a statue erected in St. Paul's Cathedral.5 In his Nobel Prize lecture for 2001, Naipaul describes growing up without a sense of his own family's historical past: “All children, I suppose, come into the world like that, not knowing who they are. But for the French child, say, that knowledge is waiting. That knowledge will be all around them … In Trinidad, bright boy though I was, I was surrounded by areas of darkness.” Those “areas of darkness … became my subjects,” writes Naipaul, and that darkness sent him “to the documents in the British Museum and elsewhere, to get the true feel of the history of the colony.”6 The “postcolonial” moment has been one of recovery, as well as one for redrawing boundaries and identities. The blurring of cultural and spatial boundaries has led historians, as well as novelists and other writers, to rethink our own work, sending us back to the archives to get “the true feel,” or at least a new sense, of history. As Antoinette Burton explains, “the imperial turn” “is not a turn toward empire so as a return to the between and and the and the of the on to the case of Picton and the cause of Calderon, with new historical questions and of us who work on British have Picton's case legal that an of In my own A Way in the World and it to a to the to the trial the and the the But as historians, our or the documents after the of the and with other and to the story deeply on And Britain's historical is of the of that history, the by Picton's trial In or British about empire, it is on the of empire as a in empire in on the of colonial to the between a of and the of colonial As cause but one in the long and history of colonial one of The and us of the of empire and of the of exchanges between and this the of British in the and metropolitan about the of that by Picton's trial for Louisa Calderon colonial for a the of as observes, metropolitan was on of colonial the of often the between and and the of on was to The Picton's most the of cultural of and that the and of of to be the of and to and The of was The dominated British an of all British in this that the was an and of and not the the of British and French they the most A of in in all the British and of and a was by and the French of with of of and as the Trinidad was of a The island's and the of very with who French the of of and the island to a Spanish Trinidad became an and the slave to was a large of of who The British Trinidad in but after the of was it to the British Trinidad and it the of with the Spanish British in the and French Trinidad a for the of In the of the General Picton in of Trinidad with a he was governor in and to the of Picton and his within the of a thrown into by and the of the the the of or legal to in a by British his of Picton was by a with long that the of the in the of the him or of Picton this to it in of his was the he was brought to after the of on 1806, Picton's case before and a in the court of King's Bench. Picton was for a the to be Calderon, a in The case first before King's two years in but been sent on to Port of for the case has a the trial was a of a one in a legal The case the as it of death brought a to for or the In Picton been taken into in order to charges before the case was the charges of and was brought to King's for other that Picton was of and of the and of the by Picton around the that Calderon was Most at least for the was the that he without a young of and a of the case in on to when Picton was all charges and his of Picton's case was, in fact, part of a the of British colonial in the A colonial the In the of Picton as governor of Trinidad and him with a by with Picton as second and as and Picton of colonial and Picton was a of his own in and to a In this he was of with British for for and the who was to in to the as an of of imperial responsibility been at an earlier moment of imperial he as a the as an of and a of Picton was a who his at was a of the his at he as to the British in at he and as a of the of and he on in and in The between Picton and and a with a of in that documents at into The of the and to the imperial us to King's the of the the court was to have been a of the to after The trial was for Picton was brought to court on the the trial as the for him to the of the case to As in the the case Picton was of the most to our and has for a of Picton was he was the of the case was by the role of a for his who led the The was brought and by the the the case raised questions about Spanish or British the British of And Spanish was the legal and the case questions about of and the of colonial was the case by his that Picton, in his role as of our and governor of one of our colonial and to his … has the to he was been by the of the of that after the British Spanish to be but to the to his Picton's of British introduced the of Louisa At the of or been by “to with him as his to the court that such to us in this … yet in that the of is it is for them to at the of at that they or into a of with Calderon “was in an with one to him to of a of and Calderon taken into to in the and at the of the or Picton the the torture was first brought to the of and two or who to the on a of and a British governor for the first torture into a British as a for and and as a of a this Calderon in at the was The of torture was The was by one to a other was to and was by of a a the of on The for to by to this was that but was of a that the torture not be for an Calderon but was up but not to the was The the torture was for Louisa Calderon on the The of Governor Picton for the on Louisa Calderon was a British but that it be a the to the torture on Calderon by the the should be “that it be by the most by it be and be as a to such the of British and history. on the of the of was Picton's that it was to have the of the of this new a conviction of the they of the they the and of British to that of to of a to to the of Picton's to the now around was the In a the that was and was that of a and that was in with a on in the of the was and two one for Spanish and one for “the the of the was to in or to with that was to the years in this and the of was that not who taken “the was to his the at who the and who the and two to an of by in the so was by the to the with to and the in … in with the and his the of the that it was an to that he his have him to “the of the of the at the to of this before the it to be with the of the the that that should be made by the Calderon the court that on the was to to in and and a was in in a between for without a to be before arrival and his of the inhumane At the of the marks of torture in the of or on two Port of Spain, or and to British the to the of of torture and the of the by that the case was not and but of the to Picton and the at In Picton's the the between and the was a whose been “the of by and the a and in a to that of Louisa was as as a in the of and in a of with in a with the court that to the and of this have met on the … a a to a of this … the is to and the is by an The not in Picton introduced the to to the to and two years to the to torture he that Picton to the order after all other been As it was that Spanish was to be British Picton's case on that Spanish and that in this he without the between and well that two of be the of our and that of the the that a who for years on the island of St. to and was taken into on charges brought by a who in court and with his and his and that his been by the as for his a was him to be for his that of the been not and the of his that a of death been a man for his a and man who this But when the to the in St. that a slave who a was to the death the an is the of Spain, but the of an and was in that a to his at At was the Spanish as it was to be in a British court was to Spanish legal the island as a of that it a for of and other Picton was “no a man of he been with order colonial As for the of torture to the of inhumane and of this The of on Calderon was as in of and the this of is for the of the of the is it who and in the and for the of was for of of Spanish the was a The was to the of Spanish to torture in the to the that Picton's torture been in A for the was was to a of as it became that he about Spanish he his to Spanish without the of a The was by who was in A in who the Spanish he that he of that The case to a the Spanish torture in the that the that Picton with As in his Picton should have not be a but was an and governor of a British who should have or him in this his for the to as to who by the of the British have and will the in the of has the of his his to for his before a court of The a of but this was the of the for a new A case that with torture in that first in King's in when it was sent on to Port of and that to King's in 1806, was two years in a it torture to be legal in Trinidad at the of the island to and Picton not to have been by Calderon of the of the as on British But the case to come to as legal on the the of In the court the the case was Picton was on the the him this of cause was Louisa At one Picton's case and the his regime in Trinidad of within a a for colonial at other the case the of a between metropolitan and colonial of between of and cause with of British own this of was legal was to be the of a British The case raised British was in to other European as well as to of the world for colonial such with Picton's torture of it about in the of a British governor the Spanish brought torture to of the of Picton's was that the and Trinidad, Trinidad to In order to of Picton's the of torture and to the death that and have in for the In was or about was a to British of to Picton's actions, the of the of Britain's own and the St. of the man with his and as a colonial British slave generally of or The trial of the of of British in the Louisa was not a but was a of to been into In to this Picton and his by of Calderon as an of Picton that a been made to the of the in of a of the and most who with a or introduced into the of “to his and him of his between two was around the of a of to the of colonial In the role of or of became a of of the of the In the in Trinidad and the of a of torture to the British of the of colonial the of or was to a for As a into own in the but as a of a long one to colonial to of as with the of of and the of the was the in Louisa to the the of the imagined of and was perhaps to the As has the of torture is In at trial and the of trial the to the of the of Louisa and when the of the torture of torture and by to the the was given the was As Louisa to the The of and to Picton's In fact, of the to the was the most of the it is to the about the of given that and British legal The that own the was in the that was by a that the in was and in a for the that in have been by the of the in and of King's Bench. Picton to in to in the and in the as “the Governor of the case to the the by the of the and the The most of the the that in The this a of in of that it not be the and the of this the this trial is to be of Picton's that he his own to the British into in order to the by the in of the of Louisa that and the and of the part of the the and and has been to such and by the of the and the of torture the been in in and in all at to and in the the and with the the on his was so so so so of all to and that he have to and taken a lecture him to to the of his and of and us to the In the of Picton and his a be about as well as for cause was of of to the to this was was with the of with the by the of by the as and As the “was not so a and as an of themes and be taken and in or The of as the of the and the first of the a for the by the of and that be to the and of The of as on on new of and a of Louisa and story in and between and often with between the and the the it was a or story was by of to and trial to the of the was the was not to be and in when the was to a of it with a of the most the As to and Louisa appears in in of the torture appears The Picton Picton the of the the of the is a of very about years of and was in The was it to the of on the first of The the is as the of a is in the of this man … was of a the of a and As the governor of a Spanish island by Spanish Picton into the of the so in The was an a of was The of Port of Spain, with and on a of darkness and to a place by an in Trinidad and the of Picton's to the first him to the of Picton's within a of he to the about “the of that In a of and was on first a of was taken the so that on and in order to to was so young at the that not the is but by years was for without trial on Picton's with of work to The colonial was by Louisa Calderon other figures in a of with slave of and the of by was and for like the for of was the and the part of the charges brought Picton to of was by the of the to with the of on large “the of was before the and as a was and … the into the it the when the in the of the and a it to of it was on the a was one of the or so who on Picton's the the of to be the least of Picton's so on the brutal of a colonial regime of to a of metropolitan the of the and the was to the of the of the … The as the of repression in slave by of out, with As of and of “to a “the to into the of such not be but to metropolitan as well as colonial At the of the in a of to the in this with the And as the of and with the in “the of The was In the case of Louisa Calderon, was a with and case on a with the of colonial As have European on be without reference to a As a mulatto Louisa was a of for mulatto a of and they often in European as by and to work, and to the of British the of not the of European but “the of and for and slave and of about boundaries of the in the of on for European and Calderon an imagined between and was a of but was an of for to be taken into as his In metropolitan of Picton's trial with of torture in order to The of one of the by is of as it Calderon with in the to to in the the torture and the around the of the the is and a of of revolutionary The on of the to the perhaps on of of a for of a the of an that became part of the In the of is the as they be by But the slave is is a of on a a to the Louisa torture of Thomas Picton … Governor of the of Trinidad for Louisa Calderon by of The of the torture of a of a the of by of The The of story was that it brought the of the colonial to the between and in of and by the of colonial in such they an the on the of own into a by it at a the by the for to the and to the with to be about as it was him that cause touched on that of as a man of and on the fringes of metropolitan in the of such as he his own he at a young to the of the before at the slave he to have arrival at Port of in with A he Picton him of as a in not long for to get into at Port of Spain, cause with British for Picton him and the book in Trinidad, his return to was the most of Picton's As a of Picton's he the of a The the book as an given that the of the French of of and the the a for for as the of imperial and the a of for a such as that the by the to the and In a of other on the he the first was to a his he for in the for a in … this of his in all … the of all he is at into the of the of not Picton was of Picton brought and to Picton up with a mulatto his he to and “to Picton the for the and the this to all the in the to the of … Those who or on his became the of his of to of of and the British of the British Thomas the of on the island “is by the or of a of the has to Picton across an it was not for a colonial to a of as his or to such a was was in the in about the of and of the of as was a the of the of his was a to back the on to to the court of was an of The of figures to was a man on the he was a after his own he been to Picton's with Calderon as a of he was at Picton's trial to he have as a or at least as a British the of The of of the trial Louisa Calderon as of the of or in the of of colonial British British to the the in the of the the the slave the of The of Governor Picton General The and The is not As was in a British who not in to be as In the of the of questions with in the colonial slave in and for in in the British raised the of for in and questions about the legal and to such in Trinidad, part of the to British and an colonial about the of of and to be with revolutionary who colonial And about the an of to and to slave and other British troubled by in the as and the of in of the of as and by a of come within the of a in cultural history toward he As with work in this one the of historical it is not by of this but that and cultural As the story of torture the colonial the trial and it up cultural in of and The was to as well as to The story not in of but and it and on colonial and Calderon the of of as the case Picton the of colonial of and brought to be metropolitan The the metropolitan to colonial and the historical in a between it us to it to the as a an as of a of across made and the Britain's imperial and and about of the of imperial and the of colonial The of empire as a the of by to as the the of colonial to of to the of of the on and the as a of In fact, in the and brought before by in an to a of and to Picton's But the the place at they of and to the governor to the the of colonial in the of one the of colonial an of and the of imperial In Trinidad, Picton's as a to General Hislop, his whose regime Britain's to the a or to British legal and to The characters Picton's was in when the governor to the at of good Picton for the Peninsular Campaign on the of Miranda's the Calderon case At the Picton was an to a in part of the of the in that for the case Picton, in his to in a that the of his in the Picton a of As for Picton's him the of the of the between and and he became deeply in the most as for the of who was of before his death in A and a to the of And about Louisa is like to about at the in a Trinidad, in a my when I was that, with with his a the and about with them in they as the who was the of Picton's that the was introduced by to in be to that his young has a of by an to all his In before King's at Picton's new The St. to be and in knowledge of with and a in the that be a to return to be the as the in the of the of the in Port of as given in to an this be the of the to by A in History of Trinidad, in that Louisa Calderon of in on to Louisa As a colonial was the of became an of metropolitan and as well as in and a young of and as an within the boundaries to a of Most the world of cultural a of and perhaps Naipaul has that he one a to the the other the world that one In Louisa the of the our to or to story to a sense of that has to turn the historical to the in an to the of
This paper studies the complexity classes QZK and HVQZK of problems having a quantum computational zero-knowledge proof system and an honest-verifier quantum computational zero-knowledge proof system, respectively. The results proved in this paper include: (a) HVQZK = QZK, (b) any problem in QZK has a public-coin quantum computational zero-knowledge proof system, (c) any problem in QZK has a quantum computational zero-knowledge proof system of perfect completeness, and (d) any problem in QZK has a three-message public-coin quantum computational zero-knowledge proof system of perfect completeness with arbitrarily small constant error in soundness. All the results above are unconditional and do not rely any computational assumptions. For the classes QPZK, HVQPZK, and QSZK of problems having a quantum perfect zero-knowledge proof system, an honest-verifier quantum perfect zero-knowledge proof system, and a quantum statistical zero-knowledge proof system, respectively, the following new properties are proved: (e) HVQPZK = QPZK, (f) any problem in QPZK has a public-coin quantum perfect zero-knowledge proof system, (g) any problem in QSZK has a quantum statistical zero-knowledge proof system of perfect completeness, and (h) any problem in QSZK has a three-message public-coin quantum statistical zero-knowledge proof system of perfect completeness with arbitrarily small constant error in soundness. It is stressed that our proofs are direct and do not use complete promise problems or those equivalents. This gives a unified framework that works well for all of quantum perfect, statistical, and computational zero-knowledge proofs, and enables us to prove properties even on the computational and perfect zero-knowledge proofs for which no complete promise problems are known.
This paper studies the effects of stock market valuation on research investment, the rate of innovation, and welfare. In the presence of financing constraints for R&D investment, episodes of high market valuation can ease these constraints and raise the economy-wide investment in R&D and the rate of innovation. If the decentralized equilibrium rate of innovation is inefficiently low, then such episodes may lead to an increase in aggregate welfare even if the higher valuation is not entirely justified by fundamentals. We present a Schumpeterian-style growth model with a costly financial intermediation process to characterize the relationship between market value, entry of new firms, and the aggregate rate of innovation. We use the model to measure the welfare consequences of a stock market run-up that may only partly be justified by fundamentals. In particular, we apply the model to the US economy in the 1990s and calibrate the impact of the NASDAQ boom on the rate of innovation, growth and welfare. The welfare effect depends on the underlying change in fundamentals. We find that with an acceleration in US trend productivity growth from a pre-1995 rate of 1.4% to a rate of 2.0% per annum, the NASDAQ boom will have resulted in a net welfare gain of 0.55%. If the new growth rate is as high as 3%, the net gain was 1.35% of the present discounted value of consumption.
A zero-knowledge interactive proof is a protocol by which Alice can convince a polynomially-bounded Bob of the truth of some theorem without giving him any hint as to how the proof might proceed. Under cryptographic assumptions, we give a general technique for achieving this goal for every problem in NP. This extends to a presumably larger class, which combines the powers of non-determinism and randomness. Our protocol is powerful enough to allow Alice to convince Bob of theorems for which she does not even have a proof: it is enough for Alice to convince herself probabilistically of a theorem, perhaps thanks to her knowledge of some trap-door information, in order for her to be able to convince Bob as well, without compromising the trap-door in any way. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.