The cut polytope of a graph arises in many fields. Although much is known about facets of the cut polytope of the complete graph, very little is known for general graphs. The study of Bell inequalities in quantum information science requires knowledge of the facets of the cut polytope of the complete bipartite graph or, more generally, the complete k-partite graph. Lifting is a central tool to prove certain inequalities are facet inducing for the cut polytope. In this paper we introduce a lifting operation, named triangular elimination, applicable to the cut polytope of a wide range of graphs. Triangular elimination is a specific combination of zero-lifting and Fourier-Motzkin elimination using the triangle inequality. We prove sufficient conditions for the triangular elimination of facet inducing inequalities to be facet inducing. The proof is based on a variation of the lifting lemma adapted to general graphs. The result can be used to derive facet inducing inequalities of the cut polytope of various graphs from those of the complete graph. We also investigate the symmetry of facet inducing inequalities of the cut polytope of the complete bipartite graph derived by triangular elimination.
OBJECTIVE: To identify the effects of decentralization on health financing and governance policies in Mexico from the perspective of users and providers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in four states that were selected according to geopolitical and administrative criteria. Four indicators were assessed: changes and effects on governance, financing sources and funds, the final destination of resources, and fund allocation mechanisms. Data collection was performed using in-depth interviews with health system key personnel and community leaders, consensus techniques and document analyses. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by thematic segmentation. RESULTS: The results show different effectiveness levels for the four states regarding changes in financing policies and community participation. Effects on health financing after decentralization were identified in each state, including: greater participation of municipal and state governments in health expenditure, increased financial participation of households, greater community participation in low-income states, duality and confusion in the new mechanisms for coordination among the three government levels, absence of an accountability system, lack of human resources and technical skills to implement, monitor and evaluate changes in financing. CONCLUSIONS: In general, positive and negative effects of decentralization on health financing and governance were identified. The effects mentioned by health service providers and users were related to a diversification of financing sources, a greater margin for decisions around the use and final destination of financial resources and normative development for the use of resources. At the community level, direct financial contributions were mentioned, as well as in-kind contributions, particularly in the form of community work.
In this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Petti and colleagues [1] highlight the need for increased investment in laboratory services to avoid compromising patient care. Health care professionals are waking up to the realization that the development of new drugs and treatment strategies has far outstripped the ability of health care systems to deliver them to individuals who need them. The decision has been made by leading global health care funders that cost should not be a deterrent to providing effective treatment, even in the poorest countries. As a result, there are major drives to rapidly increase availability of antiretroviral drugs and antimalarial combination therapies. A similar and potentially stronger argument for prioritizing effectiveness over cost pertains to the provision of accurate frontline diagnostic services. Yet, as Petti and colleagues [1] illustrate, there is widespread use of “empiricism without laboratory support for diagnosing disease” in sub-Saharan Africa, which would not be tolerated in resource-plenty countries. What can be done to redress the imbalance and bring investments in diagnostics to a level that will support cost-effective deployment of available treatment regimens in sub-Saharan Africa? Let us consider how this might be achieved by exploring opportunities within the major areas of concern discussed by Petti et al. [1]: clinical misdiagnosis, inadequate health care infrastructure, and laboratory capability and diagnostic accuracy. Almost none of these opportunities can be realized by laboratory services in isolation; they depend on close partnerships between technical and clinical professionals and local and national health care managers. For many common infections in sub-Saharan Africa, including severe and nonsevere malaria and septicemia, clinical diagnosis is not adequately sensitive or specific. Because malarial and bacterial infections share similar presenting features, syndromic management [2] results in overtreatment of both conditions, increasing the expense and threatening the longevity of the limited repertoire of inexpensive antimicrobials. Often, frontline medical personnel have to make immediate clinical decisions on the basis of a limited number of diagnostic tests. Equally important are the refinement of this initial diagnosis and the targeting of therapies over the ensuing hours and days, which is greatly facilitated by good diagnostic facilities; thus, the laboratory is the most important determinant in this process. Ideally, rapid and accurate diagnostic testing would be available at the first consultation, to enable personnel to make the correct diagnosis and to avoid the waste of resources and increased ill health associated with incorrect initial diagnoses. In some cases, such diagnostic tools are available but are not in routine use, because they are considered to be too expensive or because they have not been adequately evaluated in real-life situations. Such tools include rapid dipstick malaria tests, anemia and HIV tests, and fingerprick hemoglobinometric tests. Much more investment is needed to evaluate and adapt existing tools and to develop new diagnostic approaches for common conditions. This is likely to be most effectively achieved through partnerships between researchers, policy makers, and commercial companies that are similar to the programs that have been used for drug development (e.g., Medicines for Malaria Venture). The availability of such diagnostic tools is not likely to greatly impact clinical care unless their use is underpinned by evidence-based guidelines that are implemented, supervised, audited, and embedded within local practice. The process of producing guidelines is based on the synthesis of published evidence from diverse sources and then adaptation to suit local circumstances, and it needs to involve collaboration between clinicians and laboratory professionals. A proposal to simplify the complex process of guideline development has been proposed recently by Raine et al. [3]. Laboratory services are one of the most neglected areas of health care provision in sub-Saharan Africa and are disproportionately affected by the staff shortages, poor communications, inadequate equipment, low morale, and lack of training that impinge on all those involved in delivering health care in poorer African countries. The reforms currently underway in the health care sector in many sub-Saharan African countries and the consequent decentralization of planning and financing could be used as an opportunity for laboratory services to move up on the priority list of essential services. This will only happen if laboratories represent themselves on key decision-making bodies, rather than being represented by other sections of health care services, such as pharmacy. Within top-level management, the voice of clinicians is generally much more powerful than that of laboratory professionals. Clinicians therefore have a responsibility to support and advocate for their technical colleagues in the laboratory service, to ensure that they are involved in decisions affecting the laboratory at all levels, and to promote, facilitate, and demand high-quality and responsive laboratory support for effective patient care. The fact that a test was done by a senior technician or that it was performed on a sophisticated piece of equipment in no way guarantees the accuracy of the results. Establishing, maintaining, and demonstrating the accuracy of diagnostic tests is a major challenge for most laboratories in sub-Saharan Africa. To do this, they need to have the skills and resources to institute regular internal quality checks for each test, reliable documentation processes, and access to an external reference center that is itself linked to and accredited by international quality-assessment networks. Laboratories must be able to show that they perform well in such an external quality-assessment scheme before clinicians can be confident that the results of tests they request will be accurate. The complexity and cost of setting up and maintaining such a quality-assurance system means that only a very few laboratories, almost exclusively those that are tertiary or privately owned, can provide evidence that their results are accurate. There are a few examples of innovative local schemes for simple external quality checks on key laboratory tests—for instance, sending blood samples, malaria slides, or sputum smears for tuberculosis diagnosis to neighboring laboratories and then meeting regularly to compare results and to reflect on any discrepancies. In addition, there are particularly good examples of local quality-assurance systems designed to evaluate testing in tuberculosis control programs that could be expanded to include the malaria test (another microscopy-based test) and further extended to other essential laboratory investigations, such as hemoglobin and transfusion-related tests. Even these local schemes require a high degree of motivation and organization by the laboratory staff, as well as support from clinicians and regional or national health care managers. Qualityassurance networks are one of the areas in which nongovernmental organizations and the private sector could play a much greater role, particularly in places where governmental health care systems are ineffective or dysfunctional. Outsourcing external quality assessment to such agencies would bring many mutual benefits, especially because many of the public-sector laboratory staff also work in the private sector. The current international focus on rapidly widening the access to antiretrovirals can be perceived as either a threat to or an opportunity for laboratory services in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a potential threat because strong vertical programs concerned with HIV care and management focus on the HIV-related aspects of laboratory services, thereby fragmenting the service and diverting scarce resources, particularly human resources, away from important non-HIV tests, such as those for malaria, anemia, and tuberculosis. On the other hand, if laboratory aspects of HIV programs are able to integrate into and strengthen existing systems, they will provide a unique opportunity to build the capacity of long-neglected laboratory services in sub-Saharan Africa. It is very surprising that the article by Petti et al. [1], which is wholly concerned with the provision of laboratory services in sub-Saharan Africa, does not include an African author. Is this indicative of the dearth of indigenous laboratory advocates in sub-Saharan Africa? As treatment costs for common conditions increase in poorer countries, the balance must shift away from syndromic management toward achievement of specific diagnoses. Laboratory services will have an increasingly important role to play in improving the quality and effectiveness of patient care, but, to do this, laboratories and their advocates need to be given a much louder voice on the international health care stage. Potential conflicts of interest. I.B. and K.M.: no conflicts.
Structural reforms focusing on decentralization of power have allowed local governments to undertake a broader range of cultural activities than ever before. However, such activities are mainly financed with subsidies from the national government and donations from companies, because local governments do not have sufficient sources of revenue on their own. Meanwhile, the 21st century is being called the era of art and culture. Although local citizens are impacted mentally as well as economically by the deteriorating employment situation, they are mentally encouraged by artistic and cultural activities. Moreover, there have been a growing number of cases where local communities are revitalized by artistic and cultural activities.This research is designed to identify activities that local citizens can experience in daily life in an effort to see if the local communities have gained control over cultural activities that used to be shackled by subsidies, guidance and advice from the national government (in other words, to see if such local cultural activities meet the needs of this era of decentralization). The data reflect financial aspects of these activities quite accurately. Having said that, each local government takes different measures for the target activities, from improving local cultural standards (e.g., increasing the number of local citizens who appreciate such activities), preserving traditional performing arts, enhancing publicity, increasing the number of people engaged in exchange programs, to community development (e.g., measures against depopulation). It is worth noting that most of these activities are undertaken by municipalities and non-profit organizations.While the 21st century has been dubbed the era of decentralization with the 1999 passage of the Law Concerning Decentralization of Government Authority, local governments receive subsidies exceeding 50% of their budgets from the Japan Foundation for Regional Art Activities under the control of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.JEL classification: R51, R53, Z11
This book addresses a variety of issues \n relating to intergovernmental finance and the provision and \n financing of local services including budgeting and \n financial management, the institutional framework for the \n conduct of intergovernmental relations, appropriate methods \n of service delivery in metropolitan agglomerations and \n remote rural areas, local government enterprises, user \n charges, property taxes, income and value-added taxes, \n natural resource taxes, and local business taxes. \n Throughout, the authors draw on experience both in Canada \n and in other decentralized countries and consider to varying \n extents the special problems facing Russia and other large \n transitional economies.
This thesis describes an electronic voting system based on Damg\\aa rd, Jurik and Nielsen's generalization of Paillier's probabilistic public key system. A threshold variant of this homomorphic cryptosystem is used to provide universally verifiable elections, where zero-knowledge proofs are used for proving correctness of votes.\n\nUsing this cryptosystem, an electronic voting system that supports voting for 1 out of $L$ candidates is described. Two types of encoding may be used to prove the validity of the votes. The number of proofs needed using normal encoding is linear in $L$, while the number of proofs needed using binary encoding is logarithmic in $L$. It is shown how to extend the system to allow casting a vote for $t$ out of $L$ candidates. This method may easily be used to carry out elections with weighted votes without any added complexity to the system.\n\nThe system is shown to satisfy the requirements for elections at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). A fully functional implementation of the electronic voting system as a distributed system, using Java Remote Method Invocation, is presented. The implementation is used to analyze the feasibility of using this voting system for future elections at NTNU. The implementation is tested using various keylengths and various election parameters. With a keylength of 1024 bits, the simulated time for verification of complex elections is small enough to be considered universally verifiable.
The usual manner of describing inequality in a population, involves income distributions. China has experienced rapid income growth, led by reforms which have exacerbated income inequalities. Other components of well-being have been affected as well. Education and health care have become less accessible due to increased costs linked to the decentralization of the financing of such services. The changing face of inequality in China is therefore not confined to income. As such this paper applies new tools to the measure of multidimensional inequalities on wages, education and health. The multidimensional aspect is critical because there may be compensating effects of one form of inequality with respect to others which can change the evolution of overall inequality. Results are submitted to the values of parameters which are included in the formulation of new indices and which translate the Chinese population's aversion to inequalities and the weight it gives to the different dimensions considered. My results show that there has been a significant increase in inequality in China between 1997 and 2000, irrespective of the dimensions one focus on, and that this increase is robust to reasonable variations in the underlying parameters.
Abstract The notion of non-interactive zero-knowledge (NIZK) is of fundamental importance incryptography. Despite the vast attention the concept of NIZK has attracted since its introduction, one question has remained very resistant: Is it possible to construct NIZK schemesfor any NP-language with statistical or even perfect ZK? Groth, Ostrovsky and Sahai recently positively answers to the question by presenting a couple of elegant constructions. However,their schemes pose a limitation on the length of the proof statement to achieve adaptive soundness against dishonest provers who may choose the target statement depending on thecommon reference string (CRS). In this work, we first present a very simple and efficient adaptively-sound perfect NIZKargument system for any NP-language. Besides being the first adaptively-sound statistical NIZK argument for all NP that does not pose any restriction on the statements to be proven,it enjoys a number of additional desirable properties: it allows to re-use the CRS, it can handle arithmetic circuits, and the CRS can be set-up very efficiently without the need foran honest party. We then show an application of our techniques in constructing efficient NIZK schemes for proving arithmetic relations among committed secrets, whereas previousmethods required expensive generic NP-reductions. The security of the proposed schemes is based on a strong non-standard assumption,an extended version of the so-called Knowledge-of-Exponent Assumption (KEA) over bilinear groups. We give some justification for using such an assumption by showing that thecommonly-used approach for proving NIZK arguments sound does not allow for adaptivelysound statistical NIZK arguments (unless NP ae P/poly). Furthermore, we show that theassumption used in our construction holds with respect to generic adversaries that do not exploit the specific representation of the group elements. We also discuss how to avoid thenon-standard assumption in a pre-processing model.
The Laplace equation and the related p-Laplace equation are closely associated with Sobolev spaces. During the last 15 years people have been exploring the possibility of solving partial differential equations in general metric spaces by generalizing the concept of Sobolev spaces. One such generalization is the Newtonian space where one uses upper gradients to compensate for the lack of a derivative. All papers on this topic are written for an audience of fellow researchers and people with graduate level mathematical skills. In this thesis we give an introduction to the Newtonian spaces accessible also for senior undergraduate students with only basic knowledge of functional analysis. We also give an introduction to the tools needed to deal with the Newtonian spaces. This includes measure theory and curves in general metric spaces. Many of the properties of ordinary Sobolev spaces also apply in the generalized setting of the Newtonian spaces. This thesis includes proofs of the fact that the Newtonian spaces are Banach spaces and that under mild additional assumptions Lipschitz functions are dense there. To make them more accessible, the proofs have been extended with comments and details previously omitted. Examples are given to illustrate new concepts. This thesis also includes my own result on the capacity associated with Newtonian spaces. This is the theorem that if a set has p-capacity zero, then the capacity of that set is zero for all smaller values of p.
ACILITATING urban infrastructure development and promoting the growth of local capital markets are among the most important development objectives for Latin America.For the most part, however, multilateral development organizations such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have addressed these two development issues separately.Multilateral-sponsored infrastructure development initiatives have focused primarily on providing technical assistance, equity grants, and subsidized bank loans, while capital markets development initiatives have consisted largely of policy-based advising and advocacy of structural reforms.'This Note proposes the use of multilateral-sponsored, local-currency municipal bond insurance to the most credit-worthy Latin American municipalities as a more leveraged, holistic approach to promoting development.Of the few multilateral-sponsored credit guarantee programs that have been implemented, most are designed for private capital investments and, in limited circumstances, sovereign debt securities. 2 A multilateral-sponsored municipal bond insurance program could reduce municipalities' financing costs for specific projects and encourage decentralization within the region, while simultaneously promoting the growth of domestic capital markets by encouraging greater reliance on these markets by Latin *J.D.
Omar Khadeer Hussain, Elizabeth Chang, Farookh Khadeer Hussain, Tharam S. Dillon
Risk is present in almost every activity. Alternately speaking, almost every activity may have some undesired outcomes which the person doing the activity hopes that they do not occur when it undertakes that particular activity. The quantification of those undesired outcomes can be termed as Risk. Risk is associated with Trust, Security and Privacy. Risk is also associated with transactions, businesses, information systems, environments, networks, partnerships, etc. Generally speaking, Risk signifies the likelihood of financial loss, human casualties, business destruction and environmental damages. It is important to define Risk according to the context of the transaction in order to understand and analyse it better. In the literature Risk has been defined and discussed in areas such as security, health, finance, environment and social life, but there is no systematic study of Risk in decentralized communications, which involves e-business, computer networks and service oriented environments. Hence in this paper, a particular attention is given to define and analyse Risk in the area of Peer-to-Peer business communications, where Risk is every individual and organization?s concern. Also in this paper we develop a risk indicator scale and develop a methodology by which the Riskiness of the peer can be rated according to its behaviour in an interaction. Risk indicator gives an early warning to the party involved and helps avoid disasters.
Recent studies argue that traditional voting systems do not encourage increased voter participation due to constraints in time, location, accuracy, and, accessibility. To ensure the rights of a democratic society and to enhance and secure the voting rights of citizens by surpassing all the limitations of the traditional voting system, the development of an electronic voting system is an attractive solution. Research on secure electronic voting systems has been conducted for at least the past two decades. We propose to develop an electronic voting system, called the Rochester Institute of Technology Student Government Election System (SGEES) based on Damgard et al. This voting scheme will use efficient honest-verifier zero-knowledge, which, unlike previous election schemes, are both easy to compute and to verify for both voters and authorities. Our proposed electronic voting system will allow convenient and confident voting while maintaining the accuracy of election results. This project will address the security requirements for electronic voting over the Internet, including privacy, completeness, soundness, receipt-freeness, and universal verifiability. In particular, we will research the feasibility of the voting scheme and protocols by studying three related cryptographical theories: homomorphic encryption, efficient honest-verifier zero-knowledge proofs, and threshold decryption cryptosystem.
This paper examines the Annual Progress Report on the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. The broad thrust of the government’s strategy remains creating rural growth, accelerating private sector growth in the modern economy to create employment and incomes, and strengthening of public institutions to deliver services. The government has embarked on an aggressive program to accelerate progress as rapidly as possible, including a big push on education to create human capacity, expanding infrastructure as rapidly as financing and capacity will allow, opening the economy, building institutions, and decentralizing government.
What political factors influence the allocation of economic patronage in democracies? Answering this question is vital to improving our knowledge of how states and markets interact. In this paper, I argue that changing levels of party centralization can drive important changes in the allocation of state largess. When governing parties are centralized, national party leaders will control sources of patronage, targeting benefits to particularly influential regions and industries. By contrast, when governing parties are decentralized, influential sub-national party leaders will advocate for their constituents, allocating patronage evenly through a national logroll. I find evidence for these relationships by comparing India's distribution process for industrial licenses and government finance under a decentralized Congress Party (1954-61) to its distribution process under a centralized Congress Party (1969-75).
Serge Abiteboul, Bogdan Cautis, Amos Fiat, T. Milo
The common assumption about digital signatures is that they disallow any kind of modification on signed data. However, a more flexible approach is often needed and has been advocated lately, one in which some restricted modifications may still occur, without invalidating the data. This is made possible by offering signatures which are homomorphic with respect to some operation on the message domain. Starting from the signature(s) of some data instance(s), computed by the data owner, anybody else can derive the signature corresponding to a new data instance, if obtained only via some accepted operation from the previous one(s). More, updated signatures should be indistinguishable from the ones computed by the data owner and this updating step should be applicable as many times as needed. This paper deals with the signing of insert-only collections, in which element insertions are accepted but no removals should occur. Newly inserted elements do not have to be signed or known by the initial signer. We propose two techniques: one which transposes the insert-only problem into a delete-only one (which is already solved), and another technique based on zero-knowledge proofs. We also give performance measures and discuss applications.
Contracting out is the practice of public sector or private firms of employing and financing an outside agent to perform some specific task rather than managing it themselves.The rationale for contracting is that public providers lack the incentive to use resources efficiently, and that private (or autonomous) providers are more efficient than public providers.Contracting out clearly separates the roles of purchaser and provider, and tightly links payment to performance of the provider.According to classical economic theory, contracting stimulates competition among providers in managed markets, induces cost awareness among providers and purchasers, and enhances transparency in negotiations.Providers are forced to minimize production cost and adjust the prices to meet the demand and requirements of purchasers.All these factors contribute to efficiency.In addition, contracting would promote decentralization managerial responsibility, a shift that would translate in efficiency gains in contrast to the old highly-centralized, bureaucratic structure, considered insensitive of the cost implications of allocative decisions.As is the case with any model, contracting out approach is not a panacea to all health problems.But in light of the limited absorptive capacity of the public sector, it is an alternative strategy worth considering for increasing the coverage and the quality of services in developing countries such as Indonesia.Monitoring and evaluation is an indispensible instrument for contracting out to exhibit its relative advantages.