Blockchain Papers

Tri A Sundara, Ideva Gaputra, Siska Aulia

Blockchain as a distributed ledger system which provide underlying technology behind Bitcoin. Blockchain paradigm can be extended to provide a generalized framework for implementing decentralized compute resources. Some attempts has been made to visualize Blockchain transaction flow. This research aims to assess those attempts through systematic review.

Jacky Akoka, Isabelle Comyn-Wattiau

No abstract is available for this record.

Friedrich Holotiuk, Francesco Pisani, Jürgen Moormann

Because of its potentially disruptive influence on business models (BMs), blockchain technology has sparked a lively debate among researchers. Our Delphi study sets out to explore the impact of blockchain in payments, which represents a major cornerstone of banking and the cradle of this technology. The results, grouped around four areas of thoughts, indicate that blockchain allows the offering of new services and renders some of the current ones obsolete. This consequently impacts the financial structure of firms in the payments industry and further generates great potential for new BMs while making some existing ones obsolete. Eventually, new players, which are better able to leverage the po-tential of blockchain, will give a strong impulse to this development. Our findings contribute to the literature by providing new insights about the impact of innova-tive technologies on BMs and have further practical implications by presenting a better understanding of future BMs in payments.

Jennifer Hongbo Jiang

Thesis: S.M. in Management of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2017.

Kari Korpela, Jukka Hallikas, Tomi Dahlberg

Digital supply chain integration is becoming \ increasingly dynamic. Access to customer demand \ needs to be shared effectively, and product and service \ deliveries must be tracked to provide visibility in the \ supply chain. Business process integration is based on \ standards and reference architectures, which should \ offer end-to-end integration of product data. \ Companies operating in supply chains establish \ process and data integration through the specialized \ intermediate companies, whose role is to establish \ interoperability by mapping and integrating companyspecific \ data for various organizations and systems. \ This has typically caused high integration costs, and \ diffusion is slow. This paper investigates the \ requirements and functionalities of supply chain \ integration. Cloud integration can be expected to offer \ a cost-effective business model for interoperable \ digital supply chains. We explain how supply chain \ integration through the blockchain technology can \ achieve disruptive transformation in digital supply \ chains and networks.

Sönke Bartling, Benedikt Fecher

<em>Blockchain</em> technology has the capacity to make digital goods immutable, transparent, externally provable, decentralized, and distributed. Besides the initial experiment or data acquisition, all remaining parts of the research cycle could take place within a <em>blockchain system</em>. Attribution, data, data postprocessing, publication, research evaluation, incentivisation, and research fund distribution would thereby become comprehensible, open (at will) and provable to the external world. Currently, scientists must be trusted to provide a true and useful representation of their research results in their final publication; <em>blockchain</em> would make much larger parts of the research cycle open to scientific self-correction. This bears the potential to be a technical solution to the current reproducibility crisis in science, and could ‘reduce waste and make more research results true’.

Vincenzo Morabito

No abstract is available for this record.

Wietse Kuipers

Enterprise systems play a central role in the business processes and management of data within an organization. However it is not uncommon for organizations to posses a multitude of autonomous systems. This thesis examines the way organizations can integrate financial data from different autonomous source systems and examines different factors that can have an impact on data integration processes. The empirical findings were gathered through a case study at Sandvik, a large Swedish industrial firm, making use of qualitative research techniques. The findings contribute to create an in-depth understanding of financial data integration processes. The empirical findings show how an organization can accomplish financial data integration without tight coupling of autonomous systems. Moreover the research contributes by describing various organization and technological factors that impact data integration. The findings indicate that a decentralized organizational structure and singular system architecture play an important role in financial data integration processes. Hereby the research helps to further explore the topic integration within enterprise system research and provides context behind the organizational and technological factors that influence financial data integration processes.

Erik Pärlstrand, Otto Rydén

In this thesis there will be an attempt to model the market price of cryptocurrencies. Since 2010 cryptocurrencies have gone from being fairly unknown to being familiar amongst the general public which increases the need for knowledge on what affects the market price of cryptocurrencies. These connections will be found by statistical analysis and be applied on cryptocurrency data from January 2012 to January 2015. The data will be modeled by linear regression and implemented in R after the data have been formating in Excel. The results suggest that the price of cryptocurrencies depends heavily on the search traffic on the specific cryptocurrency name on Google’s search engine.

Kinga Kądziołka

No abstract is available for this record.

Hari Krishnan, Sai Saketh, Venkata Tej

Cryptocurrency, a form of digital currency that has an open and decentralized system and uses cryptography to enhance security and control the creation of new units, is touted to be the next step from conventional monetary transactions. Many cryptocurrencies exist today, with Bitcoin being the most prominent of them. Cryptocurrencies are generated by mining, as a fee for validating any transaction. The rate of generating hashes, which validate any transaction, has been increased by the use of specialized machines such as FPGAs and ASICs, running complex hashing algorithms like SHA-256 and Scrypt, thereby leading to faster generation of cryptocurrencies. This arms race for cheaper-yet-efficient machines has been on since the day the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was introduced in 2009. However, with more people venturing into the world of virtual currency, generating hashes for this validation has become far more complex over the years, with miners having to invest huge sums of money on employing multiple high performance ASICs. Thus the value of the currency obtained for finding a hash did not justify the amount of money spent on setting up the machines, the cooling facilities to overcome the enormous amount of heat they produce and electricity required to run them. The next logical step in this is to utilize the power of cloud computing. Miners leasing super computers that generate hashes at astonishing rates that have a high probability of profits, with the same machine being leased to more than one person on a time bound basis is a win-win situation to both the miners, as well as the cloud service providers. This paper throws light on the nuances of cryptocurrency mining process, the traditional machines used for mining, their limitations, about how cloud based mining is the logical next step and the advantage that cloud platform offers over the traditional machines.

Erol Kazan, Chee‐Wee Tan, Eric T.K. Lim

Cryptocurrency networks have given birth to a diversity of start-ups and attracted a huge influx of venture capital to invest in these start-ups for creating and capturing value within and between such networks. Synthesizing strategic management and information systems (IS) literature, this study advances a unified theoretical framework for identifying and investigating how cryptocurrency companies configure value through digital business models. This framework is then employed, via multiple case studies, to examine digital business models of companies within the bitcoin network. Findings suggest that companies within the bitcoin network exhibits six generic digital business models. These six digital business models are in turn driven by three modes of value configurations with their own distinct logic for value creation and mechanisms for value capturing. A key finding of this study is that value-chain and value-network driven business models commercialize their products and services for each value unit transfer, whereas commercialization for value-shop driven business models is realized through the subsidization of direct users by revenue generating entities. This study contributes to extant literature on value configurations and digital businesses models within the emerging and increasingly pervasive domain of cryptocurrency networks.

I Putu Gde Sukerta, Gede Sri Darma

The purpose of this study was 1) to determine and analyze the implementation and useof information systems technology in the integrated financial information and data processingservices that result in hospital inefficiency and decrease operational performance(management control). 2) To determine and analyze the impact of Integrated InformationSystem Technology to the performance as well as improved quality of service FinanceDepartment (Mobilization Fund) 2) To identify and analyze the factors that constrain andsupport the implementation of an integrated system of information technology in improving theperformance and quality of service parts Finance (Mobilization Fund) to the customer.The results found that iplementasi integrated information system in Sanglah GeneralHospital Center which has lasted from the 2000s to the present in dasrnya has been goingaccording to the plan set out in the master plan for the development of integrated informationsystems at General Hospital Center. In the implementation of an integrated information systemis currently still searching for the best format because there are many drawbacks encounteredin the design of the integrated information system implementation. Also encountered in thisstudy that the implementation of an integrated information system, the units appears to be stillrunning their own separate themselves so visible. This means that the implementation ofintegrated information systems tend to be at the start of the aspects of technology instead ofinstitutional aspects. Other findings generated relating to the above conclusion is fruitionGeneral Hospital Center in order to decentralize information, achieving accuracy andcompleteness of information, prevention of Informat on a particular group has been realizedin the implementation of integrated information systems at General Hospital Center..Keywords: technology information systems

Kay Noyen, Dirk Volland, Dominic Wörner, Elgar Fleisch

Sensing-as-a-Service (S2aaS) is an emerging Internet of Things (IOT) business\nmodel pattern. To be technically feasible and to effectively allow for broad\nadoption, S2aaS implementations have to overcome manifold systemic hurdles,\nspecifically regarding payment and sensor identification. In an effort to\novercome these hurdles, we propose Bitcoin as protocol for S2aaS networks. To\nlay the groundwork and start the conversation about disruptive changes that\nBitcoin technology could bring to S2aaS concepts and IOT in general, we\nidentify and discuss the core characteristics that could drive those changes.\nWe present a conceptual example and describe the basic process of exchanging\ndata for cash using Bitcoin.\n

Parth Chandarana, M. Vijayalakshmi

Big Data concerns massive, heterogeneous, autonomous sources with distributed and decentralized control. These characteristics make it an extreme challenge for organizations using traditional data management mechanism to store and process these huge datasets. It is required to define a new paradigm and re-evaluate current system to manage and process Big Data. In this paper, the important characteristics, issues and challenges related to Big Data management has been explored. Various open source Big Data analytics frameworks that deal with Big Data analytics workloads have been discussed. Comparative study between the given frameworks and suitability of the same has been proposed.

James Devaney

Quality Control in Fact-Finding is, above all else, a very welcome addition to the literature on international fact-finding. Whilst there has been a marked increase in the number of fact-finding inquiries established in the last couple of decades,1 this has not been matched by a similar increase in the number of scholarly studies of such inquiries.2 In light of both the number and high-profile nature of such inquiries, the absence of scholarship focusing squarely on the contemporary role of inquiries up to the present day seems like an oversight. This collection, published in open access format by Florence-based, not-for-profit ‘academic EPublisher’ Torkel Opsahl (named after the late Professor Opsahl who himself briefly chaired the Commission of Experts for the Former Yugoslavia until his untimely death in 1993), attempts to address this lack of academic attention. The collection ostensibly sets out to ‘make a contribution to the emerging discourse on fact-finding mechanisms’ by ‘focusing specifically on quality awareness and quality improvement in non-criminal justice fact-work’ (at viii). Its accessible style, open access format, and the breadth of topics covered will attract the attention not only of international legal scholars, but practitioners and policy-makers too. In the opening chapter Marina Aksenova and Morten Bergsmo provide a helpful overview of the concept of international fact-finding itself and of the fact-finding missions established in recent decades. The authors define the concept of fact-finding broadly as a method of ascertaining facts used in international relations for differing purposes (at 2), before noting that traditionally there are three main purposes for establishing facts in international law. The first is the narrow purpose of fact-finding ‘in cases where differences of opinion on factual matters underlie a dispute between parties’, for which a procedure of inquiry was set out in the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, and which has fallen into desuetude.3 The second purpose is that of supervising the execution of international agreements typically carried out by the UN Specialized Agencies, and the third purpose is fact-finding for the purposes of Article 34 of the UN Charter, namely the power of the Security Council to investigate any situation or dispute that may endanger international peace and security. The overview of fact-finding missions established by principal UN organs, subsidiary organs, national governments, and various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), helpfully set out in the form of a table in the opening chapter, provides a valuable introduction to the subject. Commentators in the past have lamented the lack of a standard operating procedure for fact-finding missions.4 However, a recurring theme of this collection is caution against standardization in light of the inherently context-specific nature of international fact-finding inquiries. Richard Goldstone states that ‘[i]t is folly to generalise about fact-finding missions. Each situation will have its unique features. What works with regard to one may well fail if applied to another’ (at 52). Similarly, Martin Scheinin argues in favour of the maintenance of clear functional distinctions between inquiries, in particular asserting that the ‘various mechanisms of mainstream human rights bodies that seek to establish state responsibility for human rights violations should not be subjected to the evidence requirements typical for determining individual criminal accountability’ (at 54). Particularly insightful contributions to the collection are those in which the authors are able to draw on their own practical experience, such as the chapters by Goldstone, Scheinin, Chris Mahony, and David Re. Goldstone’s contribution provides a potentially crucial insight into the mind of a man who has been heavily involved in a number of landmark fact-finding missions, both domestic and international. Much of Goldstone’s account focuses on two domestic inquiries that he led in South Africa, namely the Sithole Inquiry into the death of a member of the ANC in detention shortly before the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in February 1990, and the Sebokeng Inquiry into the action of police during a mass protest-match in March 1990. The relevance of the discussion of these domestic inquiries to a collection on international fact-finding is perhaps not immediately apparent; however Goldstone’s vast experience allows him to make a number of broad proposals for improving the quality of future international fact-finding missions. Amongst them the lessons learned from the Sithole Inquiry in which the transparent nature of the inquiry (which was held in a Johannesburg City Hall instead of a courtroom with no visible security and large public galleries) created a more ‘public-friendly’ atmosphere and insulated it from political interference, and the proposals for opening the appointment process for members of commissions to public scrutiny, are amongst the most helpful and practical proposals. Goldstone’s contribution is also instructive regarding his involvement in the UN Human Rights Council’s Gaza inquiry in 2009, as it illuminates the political machinations ‘behind the scenes’ that led to the formation of the inquiry and possibly is indicative of the political process that has led to the establishment of other commissions of inquiry. Similarly interesting is the issue of consent and cooperation – the refusal of Israel to cooperate with the inquiry clearly impeded the Commission’s operation and was apparently the cause of many of the ‘sleepless nights’ that Goldstone subsequently suffered (at 50). The lack of cooperation, coupled with new facts subsequently coming to light, put Goldstone in the position where he felt he had to row back on some of the inquiry’s factual findings in a Washington Post opinion-editorial. This episode cautions against reliance on any findings-of-fact derived from an inquiry with restricted access to the area investigated, and a resultant need to rely to a much greater extent on secondary sources and press reports. The critical remarks of Wu Xiaodan that Goldstone’s change of heart and the furore surrounding Professor Christine Chinkin’s alleged bias had cast some doubt on the credibility and impartiality of the Goldstone Report provide a useful counterpoint to Goldstone’s chapter (at 201) although an even more robust critique was perhaps warranted. Similarly, Scheinin draws on decades of practical experience in his contribution dealing with fact-finding in the context of treaty-based human rights mechanisms and the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. Scheinin’s contribution provides a helpful typology of the fact-finding apparatus and organizational structure of treaty-based fact-finding mechanisms, including the reporting procedure, individual complaints, and inquiries. Perhaps the most useful part of this contribution is the section dealing with Special Procedures in which the thoughts of an experienced practitioner are key, given the nature of the topic that would otherwise be largely impenetrable to most. For instance, the contribution explores the two fact-finding functions of Special Rapporteurs, namely communications (letters) to governments and country visits. Scheinin is critical of the communications function, noting that the response rate to letters is low and the information gained from communications is such that they cannot be considered a fact-finding mechanism at all. However, Scheinin is able to draw on his own experience as Special Rapporteur, having paid visits to states such as Turkey and Tunisia, and is positive about governmental compliance with requests made by Special Rapporteurs, access to areas under investigation, and ultimately even the uncovering of facts that could later be used for a number of purposes including criminal prosecution. Among the most important contributions to the collection is that of Mahony dealing with the security implications for witnesses appearing before fact-finding commissions. This extended, detailed, contribution draws on the author’s own experience in Nepal, and both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Special Court in Sierra Leone. Whilst having a relatively narrow focus on a small number of situations, the author’s own first-hand experience and the level of detail and practical examples provided allow important conclusions to be drawn regarding means of ensuring the safety of witnesses, including details of the legal regime needed for witness protection, consideration of the crucial issue of funding, and more practical issues such as personnel and the institutional location of the programme that could potentially be of use in the context of other commissions. David Re’s contribution is based on his involvement in the criminal courts in the Former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone and poses a fundamentally important question: what did the ICTY trial and appeals chamber actually do with UN and NGO fact-finding reports? Interestingly, Re shows that relatively minimal (at least explicit) use was made of such factual findings by the ICTY chambers between 1994 and 2013. Most often such findings were utilized as investigative leads for the prosecutor (at 296). Further, Re argues that the findings-of-fact made by such inquiries are likely to be more politically and historically important than judicially influential (at 280). The conclusions to be drawn from this argument are not fully fleshed out, but it is submitted that it is fundamentally important for the future of international fact-finding that they are considered. Tackling more theoretical issues, Simon De Smet’s contribution addresses the theoretical foundations of fact-finding. He takes as his starting point that most fact-finders approach the subject intuitively; ‘[e]ven though they may display great care and circumspection in making their findings, they do not necessarily have a strongly developed understanding of what the underlying principles and concepts of fact-finding are’ (at 74). De Smet provides a helpful introduction to the epistemology of fact-finding and evidence (at 80) and takes us through important theoretical issues such as the epistemology of how beliefs can be justified, including both probabilistic or Bayesian epistemology and so-called ‘inference to best explanation’ or relative plausibility theory. In doing so De Smet seeks to provide the basis for improving the overall epistemic quality of fact-finding, without making any claims that doing so would in actual fact improve the accuracy of fact-finding in practice. De Smet tackles a wide array of the goals he has set for himself with relish, although one gets the impression that there is simply not enough space to do justice to the substantial number of important issues ranging from philosophical conceptions of probability to the epistemology of testimony, trustworthiness, competence, and cognitive consensus, to name just a few. While the author’s forthcoming monograph will provide a more in-depth analysis,5 in the context of this collection, it might have been better to choose a smaller number of discrete issues and explore them in greater detail, but this is a minor quibble. Despite claiming to deal with non-criminal justice fact-finding (at viii) international criminal law inevitably finds its way into the collection through the contribution by Dov Jacobs and Catherine Harwood which considers the use of international criminal law (ICL) by fact-finding commissions. More specifically, the contribution assesses the creep of international criminal law concepts into the work of fact-finding missions and considers the utility of ICL in general ‘outside the courtroom’. The contribution highlights a number of concerns regarding the use of such concepts in fact-finding inquiries, including the problematic use of the criminal law burden and standard of proof in non-judicial situations which raise issues of due process. For instance, cursory legal determinations of complex situations and divergent legal determinations between different commissions of inquiry have caused controversy in recent times.6 The contribution ultimately concludes that not only does the use of ICL concepts not help to solve some of the operational problems that fact-finding inquiries face, it in effect creates a number of new problems (at 353). Whilst this contribution complements excellent existing work in this field,7 the topic of fact-finding in international criminal law remains one of the most under-researched areas of fact-finding and further research in this area, where the personal liberty of individuals is at stake, is undoubtedly needed. Other contributions address selected issues including quality control in the context of truth and reconciliation (Liu Daqun at Chapter 5), how commissions of inquiry can provide international prosecutors with the background information they need on specific international criminal law situations (Lyal S. Sunga at Chapter 13), fact-finding difficulties encountered by NGOs (Wolfgang Kaleck and CarolijnTerwindt at Chapter 14), and the role of information technology in the work of fact-finding commissions (Ilia Utmelidze at Chapter 16). In the penultimate chapter Charles Garraway provides a contribution on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission established under Article 90 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which has never been used to date, but which could be of potential use in the future according to the author, although its competences are in some crucial respects limited in scope. Mention is made of these contributions in order to highlight the sheer breadth of the collection, which endeavours to cover so many discrete and diverse issues in relation to international fact-finding. Ultimately, Quality Control in Fact-Finding is a commendable attempt to address the paucity of literature in an area of international law that is seen as increasingly significant. Whilst a final concluding chapter drawing together some of the main themes and findings of the collection would have been welcome, it contains some genuinely useful contributions, in particular those in which the authors are able to draw on their own experience and those which attempt to systematize and make sense of the operation of international fact-finding. Marina Aksenova and Morten Bergsmo, Non-Criminal Justice Fact-Work in the Age of Accountability; Richard J. Goldstone, Quality Control in International Fact-Finding Outside Criminal Justice for Core International Crimes; Martin Scheinin, Improving Fact-Finding in Treaty-Based Human Rights Mechanisms and the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council; Simon De Smet, Justified Belief in the Unbelievable; Liu Daqun, Quality Control in Truth and Reconciliation Processes; Fan Yuwen, Quality Control and the Mandate of International Fact-Finding; Isabelle Lassée, Coherence in the Design and Implementation of the Mandates of International Fact-Finding Commissions: Internal and External Dimensions; Wu Xiaodan, Quality Control and the Selection of Members of International Fact-Finding Mandates; Dan Saxon, Purpose and Legitimacy in International Fact-Finding Bodies; Chris Mahony, Witness Sensitive Practices in International Fact-Finding Outside Criminal Justice: Lessons for Nepal; David Re, Fact-Finding in the Former Yugoslavia: What the Courts Did; Dov Jacobs and Catherine Harwood, International Criminal Law Outside the Courtroom: The Impact of Focusing on International Crimes for the Quality of Fact-Finding; Lyal S. Sunga, Can International Criminal Investigators and Prosecutors Afford to Ignore Information from United Nations Human Rights Sources?; Wolfgang Kaleck and Carolijn Terwindt, Non-Governmental Organisation Fact-Work: Not Only a Technical Problem; Charles Garraway, Fact-Finding and the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission; Ilia Utmelidze, Information Technology and Quality Control in Non-Criminal Justice Fact-Work.

Eric Paulsen, Simon Perchun

Sammanfattning Examensarbete i företagsekonomi III, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet i Kalmar, Ekonomistyrning, 2FE71E, VT 2014. Författare: Eric Paulsen, Simon Perchun Handledare och examinator: Thomas Karlsson &amp;amp; Petter Boye Titel: Bitcoin - Risk eller möjlighet? Bakgrund: Den digitala kryptovalutan har idag blommat upp där Bitcoin står i fokus. Något som blivit uppmärksammat i bland annat media och genom politiska uttalanden. Detta har fått företag till att applicera Bitcoin som möjligt betalsätt utöver de vanliga betalmöjligheterna som exempelvis kortbetalningar. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att efter insamling av empiri kunna beskriva genom vår utvalda teoretiska referensram varför företag väljer att acceptera Bitcoin som möjligt betalmedel, samt vilka möjligheter och risker som finns förenade inom företagsbranschen, och sedan förklara vidare hur företagen hanterar dessa möjligheter och risker. Metod: För att kunna uppfylla syftet med studien så har vi utgått från en abduktiv metodsyn. Vi har samlat in empiri i form av semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer från sex olika företag som mottar Bitcoin som möjligt betalsätt. Det material som samlats in förklaras sedan utifrån vår teoretiska referensram för att kunna uppfylla syftet med studien. Slutsats: Vi kom till slut fram till att Bitcoin ger företag stora möjligheter i förhållande till den lilla risk de utsätter sig för. En ny betalmöjlighet som kan leda till konkurrensfördelar. Nyckelord: Bitcoin, ekonomi, kryptovalutor, risk, möjligheter.

A. H. Sequeira, Swathi Pai, V. Surehka

No abstract is available for this record.

Meni Rosenfeld

In this paper we describe the various scoring systems used to calculate rewards of participants in Bitcoin pooled mining, explain the problems each were designed to solve and analyze their respective advantages and disadvantages.

Michael Whitecar

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Introduction From the simplest to the most sophisticated human activities, the power of computing has changed the way we interact individually, socially, governmentally, culturally, and globally. Yet have these influences been for the good or have they been less than positive? This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the implementation of COBOL, a.k.a. Common Business Oriented Language, one of the most well-known of computer fundamentals. COBOL arose from the profound scholarship and industry of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. Amazing Grace, as she was known, was one of the greatest American pioneers in the history of computer science. COBOL, one of the oldest programming languages, is an acronym for Common Business-Oriented Language, which defines its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. Obtaining her doctorate in mathematics at a time when such academic achievements were not the usual experience for American women, Admiral Hopper was eventually elevated to her Navy rank by a specific honor from the Congress of the United States because of her genius, dedication, forward thinking, and unprecedented discoveries. She was an inventor par excellence whose personal life sustained the price of dedicated scholarship. The reflections and contributions of Admiral Hopper can be found today throughout our information industry. Just as we now develop new software or design new data chips, Admiral Hopper discovered the path to wide-spread usability from debugging software to developing the software engineering disciplines necessary to carry out today's demand for information. Her belief in decentralization opened new thought-provoking collaborative models that have both leap-frogged the advancement of technologies and, ironically, added to the many challenges we face today in managing the application of such new technologies. Reflections and Impact: From Mathematician to Professor, to Programmer, to Icon The many contributions of Admiral Hopper are well discussed in Kurt Beyer's 2009 work published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age. Among these contributions is debugging, a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware, to make it behave as expected. The terms bug and debugging were popularly attributed to Admiral Hopper in the 1940s. While she was working on a Mark II Computer at Harvard University, her associates discovered a moth stuck in a relay, thereby impeding operation; thereupon she remarked that they were debugging the system. Sub-routines, as the name subprogram suggests, behave in much the same way as a computer program used as one step in a larger program or another subprogram. A subroutine is often coded so that it can be started (called) several times and/or from several places during a single execution of the program, including from other subroutines, and then branch back (return) to the next instruction after the call once its task is done. Sub-routines today can be found in many object-oriented programming development models known as classes which represent real world activities and objects. More famously, Admiral Hopper had a strong belief in decentralized management--a process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the users of software applications. It includes the dispersal of administration or governance in sectors like engineering, management science, political science, political economy, sociology and economics. Decentralization has enormous significance beyond software usage or computer governance. It is fundamental to contemporary organizational systems development and the structures and substructures of institutional life, including universities and research institutions. …

Jarrod Long

All bettors, including the ???House,??? experience losing streaks and winning streaks. The House typically has a ???bankroll??? that is orders of magnitude larger than that of any individual bettor, and so can survive losing streaks without going bankrupt, thus remaining solvent long enough to win. Online wagering provides a new twist to this age-old scenario. We use elementary mathematical principles together with the idea of a virtual infinite sample size and the elimination of time as a constraint to develop a fail-proof system that generates the greatest possible exponential growth of capital. Let ?? (stake) be the amount you wish to invest or wager each time and ?? (return) be your return or odds on a proposition. Let n (number) be the sum of consecutive loosing investments or number of times you can loose on an identical proposition before depleting a specified amount of investment capital called ?? ( bankroll). The resultant equation, which I call the: Investment Betters Algorithm (click on thesis to view)&#13;\nprovides the answer to remaining solvent long enough to outlast the irrationality of the simulated online ??? wagers open market ??? through a geometric progression. The augmented bankroll ?? , calculated slightly higher than the typical sum of the Geometric Series, can serve as a safeguard to capital ruin by it extreme disproportion to. Consider further the expected value of even money propositions, a virtual infinite sample size, and the elimination of time as a constraint and you have a no fail system to generate the greatest progressive exponential growth of capital. Current problems associated with financial return optimization algorithms are identified and discussed. Probable solutions to those problems are also prescribed along with improvements to diversified portfolio design.

R. Watson

As enterprises became increasingly information based, making improvements in their information activities is a top priority to assure their continuing competitiveness. A key to achieving these improvements is developing an enterprise information architecture (EIA). An EIA can be viewed as a structured set of multidimensional interrelated elements that support all information processes. The current ad hoc EIA in place within many enterprises cannot meet an organization's future needs because it has an incoherent framework, incompatibilities, missing elements, few and poorly understood standards, uneven quality and unnecessary duplications. This paper discusses the EIA developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a case study, for other information based enterprises, particularly those with decentralized and autonomous organization structures and cultures. While the technical architecture is important the organization and processes by which it is developed and sustained over time are equally important. This paper outlines the motivation for an EIA and discusses each of the interacting elements identified. It also presents an organization structure and processes for building a sustainable EIA activity.

Daniel W. Hughes

No abstract is available for this record.

M.P. Cassidy

Continuous improvement in quality has been made possible by the use of a complete quality program which fully utilizes the knowledge and capabilities of an entire workforce. The program includes formal quality policy deployment, training, a seven-step quality improvement process, and the use of poka-yoke or mistake-proofing devices. It is concluded that employees empowered to create continuous quality improvement have demonstrated that zero defects is an obtainable goal. True empowerment is only achieved by establishing quality policy based on employee involvement, establishing valid indicators, providing training to all employees, and encouraging all employees to use the latest quality improvement and mistake proofing techniques every day.>