A study of the process of administrative decentralization in the period of 1950 - 1983 is the subject of the present article. The substantial part of the discussion is devoted to presentation of actions undertaken after 1981, i.e. in the course of changes brought about by presidential and parliamentary elections. As far as the period to 1931 is concerned, the authors view its organizational moves as a manifestation of deconcentration of power tendencies, rather that a genuine decentralization. Legal acts enacted after 1981 prove a real will of the legislator to carry out a decentralization process. The article discusses in detail all acts and decrees regulating a new competence division between local communities and the state, changes in executive powers in regions and departments, new functions of regions,, new role of state representatives in communities, principles of financing and control a posteriori, possibilities of communities intervention in economic and social matters. All that results in eliminating the state's tutelage on local communities in the respect of administration and financing. The period which has passed since 1981 is too short to allow drawing any far reaching conclusions. It is therefore advised to undertake an attempt at resuming that new stage of decentralization after a certain time.
Governmental capacity consists of three major components. First, institutions at all levels, central, local, public, and private, must have sufficient authority to undertake their assigned roles. Second, adequate financing is necessary to implement governmental responsibilities. Third, good leadership is needed to assure that authority and resources are used wisely. Governments seeking to decentralize must consider many fundamental issues regarding allocations of authority and finances, the strength of local leadership, and the structuring of central institutions.
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Agriculture Market Analysis Ukraine
Digitalization and Economic Development in Agriculture
Self-reliance and the new ACP-EEC Convention Or again, to distinguish between a self-reliant development strategy and previous development strategies: 'The current development policy debate on improving the terms of trade, stab1Lizing export earnings, the new world economic order and so forth, does not go to the heart of the development problem.The primary obstacle to development is not mono-cultures, high export dependence, the high proportion of raw materials in exports, or fluctuating export revenue, but the~ in which such exports are produced, the~ export revenue is used and the internal structures which such activities produce.From the foregoing historical analysis it may be assumed that every effort to improve the external economic position of Third World countries merely through the use of external economic mechanisms will remain fruitless if that effort is not backed up by promotion of development through a far.reachingtransformation of the domestic, social and political systems of such countries'.<Dieter Senghas, Autocentric Development on the European Model, paper to the German Society for Peace and Conflict Research, No 37 p.18).A more eloquent expression than these definitions, couched in the language of political science, may be found in descriptions of what self-reliance means in practice, contained in important documents produced by the regional conferences or organizations to which the ACP countries belong.For instance: 'b~1-~~-Q~il9 QQ_~b~!-~~-b!~~ and let development plans do likewise' <Prime Minister Mara of Fiji to the Pacific Islands Conference: Development the Pacific Way, Honolulu, March 1980, Conference Papers p.74).At this conference of leading politician~mainly from the Pacific Island State~ attention focused on strategies designed, as the final communique puts it, to achieve self-sufficienty meeting basic human needs allow for control of our destinies speak with a united voice in international forums promote national development, and enhance regional cooperation, in order to 'achieve a quality of life based on what exists in each Island society, and through the "Pacific Way".Regional cooperation, cult1~ral identity ('If you don't know whence you have sailed, how can you know where you are going?',T~lese~proverb.)and decentralized problem-solving as close as possible to the individual citizen have an essential role to play in this.-7 -PE 85.143/fin. -In the Lagos Plan of Action for the economic developmen\ of Africa 1980-2000 of the OAU (quoted here in the edition of the International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva 1981, and referred to hereinafter as the Lagos Plan> the preamble states inter alia:'Africa must cultivate the virtue of self-reliance.This is not to say that the country should totally cut itself off from outside contributions.However, these outside contributions should only supplement our own effort And:'As a consequence of the need for increased self-reliance Africa must mobilize her entire hu~an and material resources for her development'.At the same time, the importance is stressed of ensuring that 'our development policies reflect adequately our socio-cultural values in order to reinforce our cultural identity', and repeated reference is made to such terms as autonomous capacity, self-sufficiency internally Located development, and indigenous abilities.Here again, then, emphasis is laid on mobilizing the country's own resources, both human and material, there is a desire for the country to rely to a greater extent on itself, and for the basic needs of the local population to be respected in the context of its own cultural identity -all this goes hand in hand with a substantial reappraisal of the regional approach to the ultimate objective of an African common market.This objective has already taken contractual form for the Caribbean countries in the Treaty establishing the Caribbean Community (Caricom) of 1973.It is PE 85.143/fin.Sources of Lagging Growth Ccontd.>The internal "structural" problems and the external factors 'impeding African economic growth have been exacerbated by domestic policy inadequacies, of which three are critical.First, trade and exchange-rate policies have overprotected industry, held back agriculture, and absorbed much administrative capacity.Second, too Little attention has been paid to administrative constraints in mobilizing and managing resources for development; given the widespread weakness of.planning,decisionmaking, and management capacities, public sectors frequently become overextended.Third, there has been a consistent bias against agriculture in price, tax and exchange-rate policies.' From'Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa' World Bank 1981, p.4.The Tongalese Prime Minister: 'There is confusion caused by the Pacific Communities being constantly confronted by an industrial model.There is heavy stress on economic development at the expense of social and appropriate cultural pgorammes.Colonial domination has exposed Pacific peoples to the standar-ds derived from living in other countries.These standards are being used as a yardstick in measuring development.Since most Western countries are industrialized, there is the risk that standards for cultural development in the Pacific may be based on these western values', Pacific Conference papers, p.39. Industrialization programme for Africa, p.28, point 7: 'Industrial activities initiated by foreign investors have failed to meet the basic needs of the population: they have not made for an integrated economy nor have they contributed to the modernization of African society.The legacy of Colonialism has perpetuated at best an economic structure featuring a comparatively small modern sector and a large backward agricultural sector ', and 'The capital-intensive manufacture of sophisticated products has heightened the regions' dependence on foreign manpower, capital and technology'.-14 -PE 85.143/fin.'---'into account by the Co11munity and the ACP between th"is meeting dr.d 1 September''.Let us hope that the European Parliament's own-init1at1ve report will contribute to that end.-36 -PE 85.143/fin.
In Saskatchewan, the community colleges, as introduced in lQ73, were heralded as being unique.Politicians, government civil servants and others stressed the unique philosophy and principles upon which these new institutions were to be based.This dream of something new, yet readily applicable to Saskatchewan, caught the imagination of many Saskatchewanians along with a good number of people outside Saskatchewan.Lifelong learning, access to educational opportunities and the worthiness of learning were to become the pillars for enhancing peoples' personal growth and development.These colleges would facilitate the decentralization of learning opportunities to rural Saskatchewan.The learner would determine the location, the type of services and programs offered through community colleges.These colleges would be autonomous within the designed system in order to accommodate the particular demands of individuals, organizations and communities.The college would be the community and the community would be the college.Government and its agencies would work in support of this idea.iii Colleges have operated for nearly ten years.In these years there has come to be a certain emptiness about colleges, their philosophy and how this philosophy has been implemented.This unique system was to have accomplished so much, but by the end of the first decade, there even appeared to be confusion over what the original philosophy was, what it meant and how it was to be carried out.The original architects of the Saskatchewan community college system were interviewed to determine their vision and thinking related to community colleges for Saskatchewan.Other people linked to this ideal were subjected to the same process.An extensive literature search supplemented the interviews and provided further background and explanation for the development of community colleges.
This thesis is an attempt to generalise to the odd orthogonal group Γ_K, over an Infinite field K not of characteristic two, the work of Schur [S], and more recently Green [G], on the general linear group G_K using the approach of Weyl [W] in characteristic zero. The special feature here is that we treat Γ_K as merely a group of matrices defined by the vanishing of polynomials in its coefficients (the classical view) rather than a group generated by elements derived from an associated Lie algebra, the approach used initially by Chevalley and adopted by most authors in recent times. \n \nAfter generalising Green's [G] Schur algebra for G_K to Γ_K in §0 we prove in §1 Chevalley's famous theorem on the 'Big Cell' in G_K and then, by an easy extension, prove it for the Big Cell in Γ_K. Chevalley's original proof uses representations of Lie algebras, ours requires nothing but a little knowledge of the coordinate ring K_+[G] of all 'polynomial' functions on G_K . We define K[Γ], the coordinate ring of Γ_K, to be the space of all polynomial functions on G_K restricted to Γ_K and in §2 give a generating set of the kernel of the restriction map ψ_K:K_+ [G]→K[Γ]. This generalises Weyl's result in characteristic zero. In §3 we use this result to show that the family, or 'scheme', of rings K[Γ] (K varying over all infinite fields not of characteristic two) is 'defined over Z' ; in fact K[Γ] is naturally isomorphic to K θ Z[Γ_Q], where Z[Γ_Q] is the subring of Q[Γ] spanned by 'monomial' functions. This enables us to formulate a 'modular' representation theory for Γ which connects polynomial representations of Γ_Q with those of Γ_K. \n \nIn §4 we investigate the Schur algebras of Γ_Q following Weyl [W] and in §5 find a complete set of irreducibles for each of them, once again following the lead of Weyl. In §6 we attempt to 'reduce' these modules modulo p to obtain 'Weyl' modules for Γ_K, a task only partially completed.
Open access
Advanced Algebra and Geometry
Finite Group Theory Research
Advanced Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems
The author explains mechanism of local economy functioning and distinguishes three sets in this mechanism: decentralized, centralized and mixed sets. Taking into account conditions of local economy functioning, in which local authorities are decisive subjects (local administration and people's councils) the author formulates an opinion that postulates on decentralization, which are stated in discussions, practically refer to substitution of centralized set with mixed set — and not decentralized one — of local economy. Centralized set can not be fully abolished even when mixed set is a predominating set of local economy functioning. Anyway it does not eliminate the possibility of competence expansion of leading local authorities. In such situation decentralized set of local economy functioning, in strict meaning of the word, can play a marginal role only. The author considers in a broad way the role played by financial factor in local economy functioning. A special attention is paid to dissimilarity of financing principles in particular sets of this economy, because efficiency of the reform considerably depends on proper knowledge about these principles.
Ruy de Queiroz, Luiz Carlos Pereira, Edward Hermann Hæusler
This volume contains the Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Logic, Language, Information and Computation (WoLLIC'2003). The Workshop was held in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil from July 29 to August 1, 2003, in the Escola de Minas of the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto ( UFOP ). WoLLIC is a series of workshops which started in 1994 with the aim of fostering interdisciplinary research in pure and applied logic . The idea is to provide a forum which is large enough in the number of possible interactions between logic and the sciences related to information and computation, and yet is small enough to allow for concrete and useful interaction among participants. Previous versions were held at: Recife (Pernambuco, Brazil) in 1994 and 1995; Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) in 1996; Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil) in 1997; São Paulo (Brazil) in 1998; Itatiaia (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in 1999; Natal (Rio Grande do Norte) in 2000; Brasília (Distrito Federal, Brazil) in 2001; Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2002. Scientific sponsorship comes from the Interest Group in Pure and Applied Logics ( IGPL ), the European Association for Logic, Language and Information ( FoLLI ), the Association for Symbolic Logic ( ASL ), European Association for Theoretical Computer Science ( EATCS ), the Sociedade Brasileira de Computação ( SBC ), and the Sociedade Brasileira de Lógica ( SBL ). Funding was kindly given by:(i) CNPq ( Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico , the scientific and technological development council of the Brazilian Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia ) (grant 450709/2003-5);(ii) CAPES ( Fundação Coordenação de Apoio ao Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior , a Foundation for the Development of Higher-Education under the Brazilian Ministério da Educação e do Desporto ) (grant PAEP0565/03);(iii) FAPEMIG ( Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais , the Minas Gerais state foundation for the support of scientific research);(iv) Escola de Minas da UFOP ( Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto ). Contributions were received in the form of short papers in all areas related to logic, language, information and computation, including:pure logical systems, proof theory, model theory, algebraic logic, type theory, category theory, constructive mathematics, lambda and combinatorial calculi, program logic and program semantics, logics and models of concurrency, logic and complexity theory, proof complexity, foundations of cryptography (zero-knowledge proofs), descriptive complexity, nonclassical logics, nonmonotonic logic, logic and language, discourse representation, logic and artificial intelligence, automated deduction, foundations of logic programming, logic and computation, and logic engineering. Apart from the contributed papers (15), and the invited talks (5), the programme includes 5 tutorial lectures: 1. Algorithmic Randomness and Derandomization by Eric Allender (Department of Computer Science, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA) 2. Generalized Quantifiers by Lauri Hella (Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Philosophy, University of Tampere, Finland) 3. Implicit computational complexity by Jean-Baptiste Joinet (Preuves-Programmes-Systèmes, Université Paris 7, France) 4. Proof search foundations for logic programming by Dale Miller (INRIA/Futurs/Saclay, and Laboratoire d'Informatique, École Polytechnique, France) 5. Iterated theory change by Hans Rott (Institut für Philosophie, Universität Regensburg, Germany) All papers in the volume were reviewed by the program committee consisting of Mauricio Ayala-Rinóon ( Departamento de Matemática, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil ) Argimiro Arratia ( Depto. Matematicas, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela ) Alessandra Carbone ( Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, and Université de Paris XII, France ) Marcelo Coniglio ( Centro de Lógica e Epistemologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil ) Gilles Dowek ( INRIA, France ) Arnaud Fleury ( Facoltà di Scienze, Università di Verona, Italy ) Dexter Kozen ( Cornell University, USA ) Maarten Marx ( ILLC, Faculty of Science, Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands ) Anto˚nio Carlos da Rocha Costa ( Escola de Informática, Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Brazil ) Dieter Spreen ( Fachbereich Mathematik, Theoretische Informatik, Universität Siegen, Germany ) Luiz Carlos Pereira ( Departamento de Filosofia, PUC-Rio and UFRJ, Brazil ) Jouko Väänänen ( Department of Mathematics, University of Helsinki, Finland ) Renata Wassermann ( Departamento de Cie˚ncia da Computação, Instituto de Matemática e Estatística, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil ) The organising committee consisted of Lucília Figueiredo ( Departamento de Computação, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Brazil ) Fred Ulisses Maranhão ( Centro de Informática, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil ) Anjolina Grisi de Oliveira ( Center of Informatics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil ) Elaine Pimentel ( Departamento de Matemática, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil ) (Co-Chair) Ruy de Queiroz ( Center of Informatics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil ) (Co-Chair) Maria Angela Weiss ( Departamento de Matemática, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil ) The volume will be published as volume 84 in the series Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science ( ENTCS ). This series is published electronically through the facilities of Elsevier B.V. and its auspices. The volumes in the ENTCS series can be accessed at the URL http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/entcs A printed version of the current volume has been distributed to the participants at the workshop in Ouro Preto. We are very grateful to the following persons, whose help has been crucial for the success of WoLLIC'2003: Mike Mislove, one of the Managing Editors of the ENTCS series, for his assistance with the use of the ENTCS style files; Thanks are also due to the Department of Mathematics of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and the Department of Computing of the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, which has provided the logistic support to the organising committee. August 2, 2003 Ruy de Queiroz, Elaine Pimentel, Lucilia Figueiredo
This article constructs a decentralized growth model with two production sectors, one having competitive firms and the other oligopolists. Since capitalized pure profits for the latter sector constitute an asset which household savings must finance, we show that imperfect competition can reduce steady-state national output through both a "static effect" on allocative efficiency and a "dynamic effect" on aggregative capital accumulation. After presenting a theoretical analysis, we generate several numerical examples. The latter suggest that the "dynamic effect" of monopoly may be significantly larger than the "static effect" in practice.
Stephen T. Miller, Roger Vander Zwagg, Melanie Joyner, John W. Runyan
Observations of a publicly-financed system for the medical care of a large number of persons with chronic diseases have been made over seven years. The system combines decentralized, nurse-staffed neighborhood clinics, operated by a public health department, with a central referral clinic for consultations and the management of complicated problems. After seven years in the chronic disease program 55% of 1,004 patients with diagnoses of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiac diseases were still receiving care, 19% had died, and 26% had been lost to the program. In the seventh year, the mean diastolic blood pressure in hypertensives was 84 mm Hg and the mean serum glucose in diabetics was 203 mg/dl. For the group under care, hospital days/1000/year were 74% of the rate during the year before referral to the program and out-patient visits/1000/year were approximately the same as before referral. However, two-thirds of the visits, formerly made to a public hospital, were now being made to neighborhood clinics. The system appears to be an effective method of providing medical services for persons who formerly used the public hospital as their source of outpatient care.
Open access
Primary Care and Health Outcomes
Chronic Disease Management Strategies
Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
<p>&#8220;Web3&#8221; is now part of our collective imaginaries, even if the specifics of what the buzzword entails remain murky and inaccessible to many. Originally coined in 2014 by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, to describe &#8220;a decentralised internet ecosystem based on blockchain,&#8221; the term took off after the NFT boom of 2021, catalysed by the embrace of the crypto ecosystem by the likes of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).</p>\n<p>Like other social technologies, the swirl of narrative, attention and capital around web3 are as much part of its utility as the tools themselves. Mainstream discourses around &#8220;the web3 space&#8221;—and the blockchains, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, decentralised web (dweb) frameworks that make it up—have been shaped by a cacophony of criticism, partiality and hype, played out over the past five years on Twitter and Discord.</p>\n<p><em>Future Art Ecosystems 3: Art x Decentralised Tech (FAE3)</em> attempts to take a long(er) view on the impact of decentralised technologies and imaginaries on the structures and processes that underpin the development of 21st-century cultural infrastructure, specifically art and advanced technologies (AxAT). The downward slope of the hype cycle towards another &#8220;crypto winter&#8221;—as well as a market correction in the wider tech industry—is a good time to take a sober view of the lessons, potentials and affordances that have been generated over these years of energetic innovation and speculative boom and bust&#8230;</p>\n
The reaction of public utilities to the addition (and competitive) sources of energy supplied by solar technologies will have a significant impact on the commercialization of solar energy. Decentralized applications of solar energy need utility-produced power to back up the energy produced by solar means. The cost and availability of this power will largely determine the acceptance of solar energy. There are three legal issues surrounding the role of utilities in the solar commercialization effort: (1) the extent to which utilities may own, sell, lease, finance, or service solar devices for utility customers; (2) the degree to which solar-powered utilities may be able to compete with existing utilities; and (3) the degree to which various utility rate structures will be allowed to penalize decentralized solar users. The impact of state constitutional and statutory provisions upon these issues is examined, along with relevant federal constitutional doctrines. Finally, the statutes of the National Energy Act, many of which specifically address the above issues, are discussed.
This paper presents a preliminary exploration of the design and deployment of solidarity primitives for Web3 social security, based on insights generated during Other Internet&#8217;s Web3 Work Forum held in July 2023. The paper proposes a modular framework to develop solidarity primitives addressing the three dimensions of security for DAO contributors: psychosocial stability, financial stability, and regulatory clarity. Additionally, it outlines a range of on-chain and off-chain mechanisms and improvement proposals specific to each dimension. Lastly, it discusses current challenges to implementation.\n
A currently popular systems research project is to explore the possibilities and problems for computer system organization that arise from the rapidly falling cost of computing hardware. Interconnecting fleets of mini- or micro-computers and putting intelligence in terminals and concentrators to produce so-called &quot;distributed systems &quot; has recently been a booming development activity. While these efforts range from ingenious to misguided, many seem to miss a most important aspect of the revolution in hardware costs: that more than any other factor, the en_ ~ cost of acquiring and operating a free-standing, complete computer system has dropped and continues to drop rapidly. Where a decade ago the capital outlay required to install a computer system ranged from $150,000 up into the millions, today the low end of that range is below $15,000 and dropping. The consequence of this particular observation for system structure comes from the next level of analysis. In most organizations, decisions to make capital acquisitions tend to be more centralized for larger capita] amounts,
We study a two-level system having N local systems in the lower level subordinate to a central system in the higher one, such that both central and local systems have decision-making units. The central system is a coordinating agency and the local ones are semi-autonomous operating devisions. The basic principle of planning for this organization is that the central system allocates resources so as to optimize its own objective, while the local ones optimize their own objectives using the given resources. A local objective function, fn, is a function of the lower level decision variable vector x=(x1,・・・, xN) and the higher level one a=(a1,・・・, aN), where an is a resource vector allocated to the local system n. Since the functions ■ are mutually independent, the lower level composes a multi-objective system, in which the lower level decision-makers minimize a vector objective function f =(f1,・・・,fN) with respect to x in cooperation with each other. Thus, the lower level generates a set of noninferior (i.e. Pareto optimal) solutions ■(a) being parametric with respect to a. The central decision-maker, then, chooses the optimal resource allocation a⁰ and the best noninferior solution ■⁰ corresponding to a⁰ from among a set of ■(a). The above problem becomes a decentralized two-level optimization, when the local system contains only its own variables (xn, an). Several theorems and iterative algorithms for the formulated problems are obtained by use of mathematical programming techniques.
We are concerned with a class of organizations composed of a coordinating central system and plural semi-autonomous subsystems, such that each of them has a decision-making unit. Such a problem is regarded as that of a decentralized two-level optimization. The basic principle of planning for this organization is that the central system allocates resources so as to optimize its own objective, while the subsystems optimize their own objectives using the given resources.Within this framework of decision making, we consider a transportation problem in which N transport agents transport their own commodity. Each transport agent n, n=1, …, N, finds optimal flow patterns of the associated commodity n so that the transportation cost is minimized based on its own objective function under the arc capacity restriction imposed by the central agent. The coordinating central agent governs the transport agents through the way of allocating the arc capacity so that the optimality of whole network system is achieved. Here, the lower level problem is composed of a set of single commodity minimum cost flow problems of the transport agents, each of which can be easily solved separately by the subsystem.The decentralized optimization problem is solved in principle by a parametric approach. A feasible direction algorithm using directional derivative and application of a constraint simplex method are proposed to solve the formulated network flow problem.
Zero-field and high-field optical detection of magnetic resonance (ODMR), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and optical spectroscopy experiments have been performed on several systems in order to further basic knowledge of the structure, reactions, and response to radiation of atoms, molecules, and ions in their ground and/or excited electronic states. Particularly noteworthy results for the present contract year include the determination of the complete magnetic and optical properties of the lowest triplet states of 1-chloro, 1-bromo, and 1-iodonaphthalene, the development of a microscopic model for the intramolecular heavy-atom effect in the /sup 3/(..pi..,..pi..*) states of aromatic molecules, a detailed analysis of the angular dependence of the hyperfine and quadrupole structure in triplet 1-bromonaphthalene, observation of proton hyperfine structure in the hf ODMR spectra of short-lived triplet states, a definitive paper on the relative importance of spin delocalization and second-order spin-orbit coupling effects in /sup 3/(n,..pi..*) benzophenone (a phototype photochemical system), a detailed analysis of the level-anticrossing spectra of several triplet state benzophenones which exhibit hyperfine structure in the cross-relaxation region (thus permitting the determination of key magnetic parameters in the complete absence of perturbing microwave or radiofrequency fields), optical detection of ground-state NQR transitions in host crystal molecules, the observation of strong radiofrequency transitions near avoided crossing points in Zeeman energy level diagrams of photoexcited triplet states, the construction of zero-field ODMR, ODENDOR, and hf ODENDOR spectrometers, measurements of the activation parameters for ring interconversions of several free radicals containing five- and six-membered rings, and experimental proof that the triplet state of trimethylenemethane (a key reactive intermediate in organic chemistry) is the ground state.
A review of optimal control theory for linear systems with quadratic cost functions is presented. Some of the theoretical and practical limitations are discussed with special reference to distributed parameter systems. First a procedure is described for finding the optimal control by constructing a sequence of controllers that converges to the optimal; this method is valid for systems of infinite dimension provided that the operators in the state differential equation satisfy certain conditions. The proof is carried out both for the finite and infinite time interval and the connection is shown with the Riccati equation. The main problem in implementation is that one needs complete knowledge of the state at all times in order to build the optimal controller, this is almost certainly impossible for distributed parameter systems. When the state cannot be measured completely it is proved that an optimal control is realisable for time invariant finite dimensional systems. \n \nThe problems of finding this control are then investigated and computational methods discussed. If the optimal control with complete knowledge of the state cannot be implemented, a method is presented whereby one can find bounds on the possible increase in the value of the cost function arising from the use of some sub-optimal control; several examples are considered. The constrained optimal control depends on the initial state and new optimisation criteria must be put forward to deal with the case in which the initial state is unknown; the most common consist of minimising the cost that can result from the worst initial state. It is then shown how the controllers designed according to these criteria may be improved by using one's limited observation at time zero to place some constraints on the initial state. The Liapunov matrix equation plays an important part in calculating the cost of any control so reducing the computational effort in its solution is useful. It is shown how this can be done and it is of special relevance for distributed parameter systems with their states expressed as an infinite series of eigenfunctions; the results are applied to a diffusion equation example. \n \nFinally, it is shown how optimal control theory may be applied to the design of proportional-integral-derivative controllers. This is done from two standpoints and the resulting controllers are shown to be identical, though the second method of proof is valid for infinite dimensional systems. The results are then applied to a simple example and to a distributed population dynamics system. The practicality of the methods of the thesis are applied to a system with realistic parameters; recommendations are made as to the best approaches. \n
The American social welfare field is best characterized as a highly decentralized sphere of activity in which autonomous organizations define and pursue their goals in a fairly independent fashion. The complex nature of modern social problems, however, requires concerted action by a variety of organizations if effective solutions are to be developed. This conflict between the structural nature of the welfare field and the demands of the problems to be addressed has meant that social welfare planners have had to be concerned with the conditions affecting the willingness of independent organizations to engage in cooperative activities with each other. The purposes of the present paper are twofold: (1) To identify some of the major variables that affect the interorganizational activities of social welfare organizations; and (2) to describe the actual interorganizational patterns of one such organization, a county board of public assistance.
I. Economics.- 1. Introduction.- 1.1. Economic theory and economic environment.- 1.2. Private and public goods.- 1.3. The duality approach.- 1.4. Decentralized allocation mechanisms.- 2. Equilibrium in a system of economic relations.- 2.1. General equilibrium theory.- 2.2. Optimal allocations.- 2.3. An exchange economy.- 3. Production.- 3.1. Production sets and production multifunctions.- 3.2. Conditions in the production model.- 3.3. The price structure corresponding to a technology.- 3.4. Conditions in the price space.- 3.5. Preference orderings of inputs.- 3.6. Satiation for and dispensability of inputs.- 3.7. The demand- and the price-multifunction.- 4. Consumption and production of public goods.- 4.1. The consumption model.- 4.2. Private goods, public goods and externalities.- 4.3. Private goods, public goods and transaction costs.- 4.4. Social consumption and production.- 4.5. An economy with local public goods.- 5. Equilibrium in economies with private and public goods.- 5.1. The valuation representation of an economy.- 5.2. Equilibrium in an economy with public goods only.- 5.3. Equilibrium in an economy with private and public goods.- 5.4. The two-level price equilibrium.- 5.5. Financing the public sector.- 6. The organization of economic decisions.- 6.1. Allocation mechanisms.- 6.2. Centralization and decentralization.- 6.3. Procedures with a social preference ordering.- 6.4. Procedures with individual preference orderings.- 6.5. Multi-level organization.- 7. Extensions.- 7.1. Between values and resources.- 7.2. Theory of motion.- II. Mathematics.- 8. Basic mathematical notions and notations.- 8.1. Sets, relations and multifunctions.- 8.2. Continuity of multifunctions.- 8.3. Sets and algebraic operations in Rn.- 9. Sets and duality.- 9.1. Supporting hyperplanes and separating hyperplanes.- 9.2. Polar sets.- 9.3. Reflexive sets.- 9.4. Separation and intersection of sets.- 10. Multifunction and duality.- 10.1. Operations on multifunctions.- 10.2. Properties of multifunctions.- 10.3. Convex processes.- 10.4. Convex cone-interior processes.- 10.5. Convex star and convex aureole processes.- Summary.- References.
1. Like many other countries, Portugal is facing numerous major problems related to regional unbalance and consequently to the location of economic activity. An unfortunate tendency has long been to judge an economy almost solely from the viewpoint of national production and consumption aggregats, without reference to the geographic division of economic activity.However the questions of social justice in the distributions of the fruits of economic development are as important and as different in terms of regions as in terms of social classes.Thus, at the present, increasingly attention is not being limited to the overall results of national development; the results are being accepted as satisfactory only if they concern the whole of the country, if each region is able to contribute to and participate in the national growth..On the other hand, Government activity to guide economic and social development involves not only the activity of policies and programmes but also the losely related process of formulation of goals and means and of appraisal of the results.If planning for regional development is intended to intervene realistically upon reality, it should be a continuous process in which the various units and levels of government subject the entire process to continuous review and evaluation leading to adjustment of plans, programmes and projects whenever necessary. Review and evaluation then form the transition to a new cycle of planning and decision making, moving ahead in time on the basis of a continuous stream of feedback information. At the same time, the fact is stressed that planning is actually a combination of plan formulation and plan inplementation.Institutional framework, in the modern sense of the process of achieving intended results through organizations, is a major factor at all levels - national, regional, sectoral and local. There was a time when proposals for new development pro. jects - particularly large programmes for resource development, new industries, improved education and health services - were considered only in terms of economic and technical feasibility.. After many unfortunate failures, institutional feasibility has come to be recognized as also an important dimension of planning.For evaluating the evolution of the objectives and means which have characterized Portuguese regional planning I rely in large measure on a general policy model formulated in the light of relevant theoretical and empirical considerations from economics and related social science disciplineOne of the basic attributes of this model is its distinction among three types of analytic regions: congested, potential, and backward. The advantaSe of these distinctions over the common division between "developed" and "underdeveloped" regions is that they come to grips directly with the problem of overconcentration of population and economic activity in some areas, a problem too often neglected in favour of studying the difficulties experienced by relatively underdeveloped regions.The circumstances which have given rise to the evolution of' Portuguese regional policy are compared with the assumptions of this basic model. Attention is given to the basic theoretical notions that have animated Portuguese thought concerning regional development and urban-rural integration, as well as to concrete measures which have been undertaken or which are envisaged for the future.On the basis of these considerations an effort is made to formulate a number of generalizations regarding the potential strenghts and difficulties of regional planning policy-making and a number of operationally feasible proposale are set forth for dealing with the difficulties.2. Portuguese regional planning was initiated on the basis of a deliberated attempt to deal rationally with spatial resource allocation, namely through the policy of "ordenamento do território".In the terminology of the Third Plan, the Portuguese approach maintains that the policy of "ordenamento do território" must find a practical compromise between regions depending on a policy of publicly induced growth and regions depending on a policy of induced public investment. On the one hand, it must give every opportunity, under conditions of lively competition, to strong regions whose potential benefits the whole of the country. On the other hand, it must seek to involve the weak regions in a process of development at first induced, then autonomous, in a manner which will enable them to participate in the current of modernization and expansion which characterizes our time.I try to show that the difficulties of Portuguese's backward regions are in large measure a result of a relative lack of benefits deriving from social investment. This is not to deny that economic investment in backward regions will produce advantages, but the effectiveness of such projects also depends on the degree to which the regions' human resources have been developed by social investment.Therefore, I stress that while there is official recognition of the needs to provide facilities for training surplus agricultural labor for employment in industry, there has not been adequate emphasis on the general problem of developing the human resources of these areas, despite the multitude of evidence concerning pronounced needs in this regard..On the other hand, a great deal has been said and written about moving industry and other economic activities to people, but policy-makers generally are more reluctant to urge the movement of people to job sources. Until now official Portuguese policy has been unable to oppose and to diminish the growth of a surprising number of rural individually-owned farms in the face of rapid technological change. This attitude, combined with inadequate social investment, has served to perpetuate the social and economic structures characteristic of backward agricultural regions of the center and the north including a surplus agricultural labor force.One of the principal arguments in favour of moving industry to backward regions, even at considerable expense in theform of subsidies or similar means, has been that the social costs involved in this type of action are less than the social costswhich would entail the uprooting of persons seeking employment in other regions as well as the increased congestion which would result in industrial agglomerations, However, the latter difficulty is now a necessary one, since migration can be channeled to intermediate or potential, rather than congested regions.On the other hand, the issue of uprooting residents of backward areas is a genuine problem since there is abundant evidence that the number of persons preferring to live in these regions is high in both absolute and relative terms.. Moreover, migration is not feasible for many persons because deficiencies in social investment in backward regions have limited the development of human resources and thus the possibility for their employment in other regions. Nevertheless, these arguments should not be used to discourage migration, since at the margin there are always persons ready and willing to migrate from backward regions.In general, it may be said that Portuguese regional policy has been facilitated by its distinction among three types of region, and that its over-all division of effort among the regions so as to induce growth in backward regions while limiting the growth of the Lisbon region and allowing for the expansion of potential regions has been substantially correct. Investment policywithin regions, however, must place relatively greater stress on social investment for backward regions. As to population policy, the new emphasis on encouraging interregional labor migration is a positive step away from the more conservative attitudes which prevailed heretofore.3. In any event, it is obvious that the value of the Portuguese regional development policy is related to the actual context in which it is to be applied. In this respect, the creation of regional organisms to participate in the formulation of regional priorities and in the regionalization of the government budget are of particular value in the elaboration of political ends and means.Unfortunately, earlier efforts in this direction were characterized by important defects. The prograps for regional action which were drawn up as planning guidelines for the various planning regions generally have been plans in name only. They have been for the most part inventories of regional conditions at a giventime. In addition, they have been deficient intipulating orders of priority and modes of finance for suggested future projects.Nevertheless, these programs have served to confront the Regional Planning Commissions with the need for horizontal consultation and coordination in regional terms as a complement to vertical planning by sectors; they have marked an initial, if not always successful, attempt to encourage cooperation among ministries and departments on common problems..Thus, in order to satisfy the objectives of regional development foregoing discussed, the need for reform of the structures - or at least changes in the institutional apparatus - become increasingly necessary. To avoid "sprinkling" of public funds it is not enough just to introduce new methods into the organizational bodies concerned; it becomes clear that something has to be done about the decision-making structures themselves. Two complementary requirements become apparent among others:- firstly, greater decentralization of decisions within the institutional apparatus and greater participation of people.- secondly, horizontal co-ordination in order to break up the vertical compartmentalizations and to create in that way the conditions for a better synthesis capable of inspiring better decisions.Just now, a new development Plan for Portugal is in preparation covering the period 1974-1979, Considering the methods of planning which have been employed in the country, one could