Ahmed E. Kosba, Andrew Miller, Elaine Shi, Zikai Alex Wen · 5 authors
Emerging smart contract systems over decentralized cryptocurrencies allow mutually distrustful parties to transact safely without trusted third parties. In the event of contractual breaches or aborts, the decentralized blockchain ensures that honest parties obtain commensurate compensation. Existing systems, however, lack transactional privacy. All transactions, including flow of money between pseudonyms and amount transacted, are exposed on the blockchain. We present Hawk, a decentralized smart contract system that does not store financial transactions in the clear on the blockchain, thus retaining transactional privacy from the public's view. A Hawk programmer can write a private smart contract in an intuitive manner without having to implement cryptography, and our compiler automatically generates an efficient cryptographic protocol where contractual parties interact with the blockchain, using cryptographic primitives such as zero-knowledge proofs. To formally define and reason about the security of our protocols, we are the first to formalize the blockchain model of cryptography. The formal modeling is of independent interest. We advocate the community to adopt such a formal model when designing applications atop decentralized blockchains.
The Malaysian state is usually portrayed as centralized, top-heavy, and far-reaching. Bureaucrats in the powerful Prime Minister 's Office or Economic Planning Unit design ambitious programmes for the country, then government agencies headquartered in the nation's capital implement them in all corners of Malaysia, from Perlis to Sabah. While true to a certain extent, this depiction overlooks the fact that Malaysia has a federal government structure. In addition to a central government centred in Putrajaya, the country has thirteen state governments that are responsible for particular jurisdictions; receive revenue from specific sources; and have constitutionally-stipulated responsibilities. They are important providers of goods and services, and can play a role in creating an enabling environment for business. However, Malaysia's governance structure is heavily weighted towards the federal government, which receives the bulk of revenue and is responsible for most public services. In fact, the country is one of the world's most centralized federations, with the centre receiving almost 90 per cent of all government revenue. And, above and beyond duties for fiscal, monetary, and trade policy, the federal government is responsible for most types of infrastructure, science and technology policy, and all levels of education. While the image of a strong central state may hold appeal, an excessive concentration of responsibilities may not always be optimal. Public finance literature holds that an appropriate attribution of responsibilities and revenue sources between levels of government can enhance welfare. For example, while some services benefit from economies of scale and are best provided nationally, others require detailed knowledge of local conditions and are best supplied locally. Over the past thirty years, a “Silent Revolution” of decentralization has swept the globe, as sub-national governments have been empowered with additional responsibilities, autonomy, and revenue. However, Malaysia constitutes an important exception. Unlike neighbouring Philippines or Indonesia, that had to construct new levels of government to decentralize, it already has an established federal system. Despite this, Malaysia has continued to centralize responsibilities at the national level. If it continues, this trend will stifle the vital role that state governments can play in creating an enabling environment for business and leveraging local-level knowledge to foster economic growth.
This article examines whether hitherto marginalized actors, industries and innovations – such as women, services industries and service innovations – could be acknowledged by the use of a bottom-up approach in innovation research in a way that helps make public innovation support more inclusive. It is scrutinized whether the relation between context, organization and outcomes in publically financed innovation networks such as clusters and innovation systems serves to highlight how more inclusive innovation support could be designed. Four regional innovation networks promoting women’s entrepreneurship and innovation in Sweden are analyzed by a bottom-up approach, since while emphasizing decentralization and inclusion in theory, most innovation theories and policies are in practice characterized by a top-down approach, ascribing superiority to certain actors, industries and innovations while marginalizing others in a distinct – often gendered – pattern. The bottom-up approach makes it possible to expose that being a marginalized actor in public innovation support is related to the organization of entrepreneurial types of innovation systems, based on contacts established ad hoc and resources gathered from scratch, making a wider range of actors, industries and innovations relevant than in insti-tutional types of innovation systems favored in prevalent public innovation support. By acknowledging both types of innovation systems, more inclusive innovation policies could be designed and more nuanced innovation theories could be developed.
During 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department evoked the first use of the 2001 Patriot Act to exclude virtual currency provider Liberty Reserve from the U.S. financial system. This article will discuss: the regulation of virtual currencies; cybercrimes and payment systems; darknets, Tor and the “deep web;” Bitcoin; Liberty Reserve; Silk Road and Mt. Gox. Virtual currencies have quickly become a reality, gaining significant traction in a very short period of time, and are evolving rapidly. Virtual currencies present particularly difficult law enforcement challenges because of their: ability to transcend national borders in the fraction of a second; unique jurisdictional issues; and anonymity due to encryption. Due primarily to their anonymous characteristic, virtual currencies have been linked to numerous types of crimes, including facilitating marketplaces for: assassins; attacks on businesses; child exploitation (including pornography); corporate espionage; counterfeit currencies; drugs; fake IDs and passports; high yield investment schemes (Ponzi schemes and other financial frauds); sexual exploitation; stolen credit cards and credit card numbers; and weapons. Innovation in the pace of development of new currencies and technologies continue to create ongoing challenges for responsible users of technology and regulators alike. While technological advances create great opportunities to improve the health, living conditions, and general wellbeing of mankind; new technologies also create great challenges for nation states.
Following the completion of the process of decentralization of the public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented so far by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes in the methods of financing and management of the local authorities was the transfer of culture and national heritage-related tasks to a group of the own tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralization process, the local government units in Poland were given a significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditure on culture. At the same time they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenue. This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditure on culture covered by the provincial budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types in the years 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2012. To illustrate the diversity of the expenditure on culture by the type of the institutions in particular provinces, one applied the location quotient (LQ), which reflects a spatial distribution of expenditure on culture in relation to reference expenses incurred by the cultural institutions in Poland.
In a periodic K-times anonymous authentication system, user can anonymously show credential at most K times in one time period. In the next time period, user can automatically get another K-times authentication permission. If a user tries to show credential beyond K times in one time period, anyone can identify the dishonest user (the violator). But identifying violators is not enough for some systems, where it is also desirable to revoke violators' credentials for preventing them from abusing the anonymous property again. However, the problem of revoking credential without trusted third party has not been solved efficiently and practically. To solve it, we present an efficient scheme with efficient revocation of violator's credential. In fact, our method also solves an interesting problem-leaking information in a statistic zero-knowledge way, so our solution to the revocation problem outperforms all prior solutions. For achieving it, we use the special zero-knowledge proof with special information leak for revoking the violator's credential, but it can still be proven to be perfect statistic zero knowledge for guaranteeing the honest user's anonymity. Comparing with existing schemes, our scheme is efficient, and moreover, our method of revoking violator's credential is more practical with the least additional costs.
This research aims to analys the progress of district finance ability to support the autonomy of natuna among 2009-2013. The type of thies research is descritive comparative. Data of this research are based on APBD and then analys by the ratio of local financial autonomy, the degree of fiscal decentralization, routine ability index, the ratio of harmony and growth ratios. Based on the results of the analysis has been done obtained the following results: Based on the ratio of local financial autonomy was performe the ability to pay a goverment programe, development and service to the society that have paid tax and retibution as a source of income of the district. the ratio of local financial autonomy is 2.11%. It meant the value of the ratio of local financial autonomy is too low. The degree of fiscal decentralization of Natuna District among 5 years is average of 2.70%. it meant the ability of Natuna ability goverment to increasing PAD and pay the expences of development still bad. Routine ability index ratio of Natuna District among 5 years is average of 2.73%. It meant the value of the Routine ability index ratio is too low. The ratio of harmony have a result that routine expenditure is bigger than the development expenditure. It meant the goverment's fund still priorited to support a routine expenditure, so that the development expenditure will be small relatively. While growth ratios desciptive an ability iof district goverment to proof and increase the success from period to another period. Growth ratios among 5 years are 3 times positive growth suce as 2011, 2012 and 2013 but once negative growth in 2010. Key Word : ratio of local financial autonomy, the degree of fiscal decentralization, routine ability index, the ratio of harmony and growth ratios.
Mastering Bitcoin is essential reading for everyone interested in learning about bitcoin basics, the technical operation of bitcoin, or if you're building the next great bitcoin killer app or business. From using a bitcoin wallet to buy a cup of coffee, to running a bitcoin marketplace with hundreds of thousands of transactions, or collaboratively building new financial innovations that will transform our understanding of currency and credit, this book will help you engineer money. You're about to unlock the API to a new economy. This book is your key. This book will help you learn everything you need to know about decentralized digital money, which is one of the most exciting technical revolutions in decades. Just as the Internet has transformed dozens of industries - from media and entertainment to retailing, travel and many more - decentralized digital money, in the form of crypto-currencies, has the ability to transform the foundations of money, credit and financial services. It also has the power to transform other social activities and institutions that we don't usually associate directly with money, such as corporations, governance, voting and the law. As the first successful digital currency, bitcoin is the natural starting point for anyone interested in decentralized digital money, its implications and applications. Mastering Bitcoin describes the technical foundations of bitcoin and other cryptographic currencies, from cryptography basics, such as keys and addresses, to the data structures, network protocols and the consensus mechanism (mining) that underpin bitcoin. Each technical topic is explained with user stories, elegant analogies and examples, and code snippets illustrating the key concepts. The first two chapters offer a broad and accessible introduction to bitcoin that is intended for all audiences, from new non-technical users to investors and business executives seeking to better understand bitcoin. The remainder of the book dives into the technical details of bitcoin's operation and is aimed at professional developers, engineers, software and systems architects, systems administrators and technically-minded people interested in the inner workings of bitcoin and comparable crypto-currencies. Mastering Bitcoin is intended to be used as a reference book for technical professionals, as a self-study guide for bitcoin entrepreneurs, and as a textbook for university courses on bitcoin and digital currencies. Bitcoin is still in its infancy, and yet it has already spawned a multi-billion dollar, global economy that is growing exponentially. Both new and established companies are adding bitcoin as a payment method, and investors are funding a flurry of new bitcoin and related startups. Mastering Bitcoin can help you become part of this vibrant new economy. The time to get started is now.
Christian Decker, Jochen Seidel, Roger Wattenhofer
The Bitcoin system only provides eventual consistency. For everyday life, the time to confirm a Bitcoin transaction is prohibitively slow. In this paper we propose a new system, built on the Bitcoin blockchain, which enables strong consistency. Our system, PeerCensus, acts as a certification authority, manages peer identities in a peer-to-peer network, and ultimately enhances Bitcoin and similar systems with strong consistency. Our extensive analysis shows that PeerCensus is in a secure state with high probability. We also show how Discoin, a Bitcoin variant that decouples block creation and transaction confirmation, can be built on top of PeerCensus, enabling real-time payments. Unlike Bitcoin, once transactions in Discoin are committed, they stay committed.
India today needs to have around 2,OO,OOO MW of power to meet its current energy needs, but it is able to provide only about two third of it. Additional finances are difficult to come by and the infrastructure is often not available to make it reach the remote areas. Heavy roistering in city areas has been a perpetual feature in some states. Many of the dwellers of small cities have come to depend on what is called an 'inverter' and its associated battery based storage system to cope up with the frequent power outages. Seen from another perspective these systems only lack the solar panels to become completely self contained power systems. Thus addition of solar panels to these will be only an incremental cost. By encouraging this approach several problems can be solved all the same time. First of all this additional investment will be from the users themselves. Next the power generated will be environmentally friendly and the regular power supply and the grid may need to be used sparingly. These storage based systems may become parts of Smart Grids for the future as they may be further evolved to feed power into the grid.Evaluation of the performance of these systems has been studied through simulation and the economics of the system has been investigated under various conditions for typical users. The proposed system has been compared with the early telecom systems in India that were based on land lines and could not be expanded fast enough. Later the privatized and decentralized wireless based approach provided the desirable solutions.
Catherine Leigh, Alex Bush, Evan T. Harrison, Susie S. Ho · 7 authors
Summary Climate extremes and their physical impacts – including droughts, fires, floods, heat waves, storm surges and tropical cyclones – are important structuring forces in riverine ecosystems. Climate change is expected to increase the future occurrence of extremes, with potentially devastating effects on rivers and streams. We synthesise knowledge of extremes and their impacts on riverine ecosystems in Australia, a country for which projected changes in event characteristics reflect global trends. Hydrologic extremes play a major structuring role in river ecology across Australia. Droughts alter water quality and reduce habitat availability, driving organisms to refugia. Extreme floods increase hydrological connectivity and trigger booms in productivity, but can also alter channel morphology and cause disturbances such as hypoxic blackwater events. Tropical cyclones and post‐cyclonic floods damage riparian vegetation, erode stream banks and alter water quality. Cyclone‐induced delivery of large woody debris provides important instream habitat, although the wider ecological consequences of tropical cyclones are uncertain. Wildfires destroy catchment vegetation and expose soils, increasing inputs of fine sediment and nutrients to streams, particularly when followed by heavy rains. Research on the impacts of heat waves and storm surges is scarce, but data on temperature and salinity tolerances, respectively, may provide some insight into ecological responses. We identify research gaps and hypotheses to guide future research on the ecology of extreme climate events in Australia and beyond. A range of phenomenological, experimental and modelling approaches is needed to develop a mechanistic understanding of the ecological impact of extreme events and inform prediction of responses to future change.
Despite the predominance of liberal ideology in the United States since its formation as an independent nation, the US has consistently expanded its capacity to finance and support the efforts of the private sector to create and commercialize new technologies in strategic sectors. As such, this study aims to identify and describe the characteristics of interventions by the American state to foster economic development. It also seeks to analyze how these characteristics fit within the different typologies of the Developmental State. A case study was conducted on the nanotechnology sector in the US, complemented by mini case studies on the computation, semiconductor, and biotechnology sectors. The empirical findings were compared to the ideal types of the Regulatory State, the Developmental Bureaucratic State, and the Developmental Network State. These ideal types were constructed using the Weberian model using concepts from the literature pertaining to the Developmental State. This study concludes that the American Developmental State has adopted a model that is closely related to the Developmental Network State, acting in a fragmented and decentralized manner, dedicated to promoting collaboration and joint action with the private sector. This is in line with the triple helix model (industry, academia, and government) with the intention of fostering development and growth of high-technology sectors, which are considered economically, scientifically, or militarily strategic. Furthermore, the State also carries out various actions designed to facilitate transforming technological innovations into commercialized products, with the idea of ensuring the country's scientific and technological leadership, its international competitiveness, the vitality of its domestic industry, and the dynamism of the national economy.
This paper reviews the waves of democratization and the development of the public administration and public finances in Hungary, with special attention municipalities caused by the changes in sub-national finance regulation since 2010. During the transition yeas, Hungary was very forward looking and the first among CEE countries to end central planning and to introduce market rules into the economy. Everybody expected the decentralization to be a success story. 25 years later, Hungary not only failed to meet the expectations, but also undergone though a situation in 2008 to start a massive recentralization process. This paper puts fiscal decentralization in Hungary in a historical context while critically investigating the findings of recent literatures on decentralization process in Hungary. The critical investigation of past experiences and reform steps of the current government suggest possible reform measures to solve the financial problems of Hungarian municipalities.
Open access
Local Government Finance and Decentralization
Regional Development and Policy
Hungarian Social, Economic and Educational Studies
One of the main indicators to measure the performance of regional economic development is the growth rate. Economic growth is the increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of real continuous sourced from within the region. Local Government authorities to leverage the potential of local finance in local revenue as a form of decentralization. In addition to local revenue, the expenditure also affect economic growth. Spending the area in question in this research is capital expenditure. This research was conducted to determine whether the independent variable is local revenues have an impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and capital expenditures. The data use in this research is a secondary data that obtained from the Central Statistics Agency of Bali, which is and then analyzed with multiple linear analysis method of intervening variables.The results showed a positive and significant effect of local revenue on capital expenditures and (GDP), capital expenditures no significant effect on GDP, and local revenue has no significant effect on GDP through capital expenditures.
The expansion of higher education across the globe is among the most profound developments of the last century, 1 with deep and broad ranging impact on societies, national economies, culture, attitudes and values. In 1900, about half a million students were enrolled in colleges and universities globally, or about 1% of the global college-aged population. By the end of the century, over 100 million students were enrolled, nearly 20% of the population of eligible youth. 2 Economic development is a significant factor in this massive expansion: “governments in many countries have come to believe that higher education is an engine of economic development,” and there is abundant evidence to support the belief. 3 Almost all countries host at least one national university, and these are usually considered central institutions for training the workforce and preserving cultural traditions and heritage. Among the Arab states of the Persian Gulf generally, the combination of a massive labor deficit, the abundance of discretionary wealth, and the overall lackluster performance of indigenous higher education systems propelled the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain to pursue “bold policy implementation” in the higher education arena. 4 Across the Persian Gulf, the higher education sector has become “a fertile zone of experimentation and entrepreneurship.” 5 The boldest — and by far the most expensive and prominent — of these initiatives has been the pursuit of international branch campuses (IBCs) of universities in the U.S. and Europe. IBCs have been in existence for nearly sixty years. While the UAE introduced the first IBC to the Gulf, and supports the largest number of them by far anywhere in the world, Qatar's Education City is an altogether new organizational form — an assemblage of 8 international branch campuses of U.S. and European universities combined into a single hub. In a region where much of what is considered innovative involves borrowing or importing from other contexts, Education City is a completely unprecedented development in the field of IBCs and global higher education. multiple IBCs operated by foreign universities from different sending countries formally de-coupled from each other but loosely affiliated through joint programs and research projects, cross-registration of students, administrative consultation, and other collaborations; complete autonomy over curriculum, hiring, admissions, and other core functions of the university's mission; equivalence between the curriculum and degrees conferred on the home campus and through the IBC; the existence of an integrative structure operated by the host country that mobilizes IBCs for joint educational programs, collective research initiatives, and other campus-by-campus collaborations, as well as manage some common administrative functions like financial aid and capital development; and complete funding by the host country for all personnel, building and operating expenses. This paper will examine some of the forces responsible for and describe the evolution of the IBC cluster model in Doha. After setting the context for Education City's role in Qatar's higher education strategy, we will review the unique constraints on small states as they develop a system of higher education. We will also situate Qatar's choice to pursue an IBC strategy within the development of IBCs globally and in the MENA region, before reviewing what little is known or can be surmised 7 about the factors that influenced Qatar's choice to devise a new model for national education. Finally, we will consider what all of this tells us about the ongoing process of educational innovation in Qatar. Like many developing societies, Qatar has turned to education as a primary vehicle for addressing the challenges of national development. The vision of education among Qatar's elite, however, is considerably more ambitious than most developing societies. 8 As first laid out in the Qatar National Vision 2030, Qatar's leadership expects that educational expansion and reform will transform Qatar's carbon economy to a “post-carbon” economy, or a “knowledge economy.” Educational and research institutions will not only train the workforce, they will become the workforce. Qatar created an institutional complex, Education City, which is intended to spearhead this transformation of the economy. … the Arab Gulf States are still generally considered to be part of the educational ‘periphery’ on the basis that they lack developed knowledge-based economies and embedded research culture, and because they rely on imported products such as materials, services, and expertise from the centre. 9 For these reasons and more, the choice of a “knowledge economy” as a development strategy is an implausible one for Qatar except for one important (and obvious) social fact — Qatar is staggeringly wealthy. As the world's largest producer of liquefied natural gas, in a few short years, Qatar has begun to top the list of countries ranked by GDP per capita when purchasing power parity is factored, according to the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (separately). 10 While growth rates since 2004 have fluctuated, most years saw annual growth at rates between 12% and 21%. 11 Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, controlled by the Qatar Investment Authority, is estimated well in excess of USD $100 billion as of February 2014 and is commonly thought to be the largest such fund in the world. 12 Qatar's wealth, then, compensates for the deficits in its labor pool by allowing it to attract millions of manual laborers and professional expatriates to serve the economy and pursue its ambitious plans for development. The capital city, Doha, now a metropolis with more than 2 million residents, had less than 500,000 residents in 1995. This is more than a four-fold increase in less than 25 years (and most of that growth has occurred since 2005, when the population was about 821,000). 13 This rapid increase is not the result of natural population growth, but rather a highly planned effort to recruit workers from around the world. The constraints on Qatar's development choices pushed the leadership to adapt a mixed strategy of traditional and innovative approaches to educational development. Qatar invested substantially in reforms of the elementary and secondary school system. It also invested heavily in the national university, Qatar University, to expand access, improve its educational programs, adapt them to the needs of Qatar's society and workforce, and expand its capacity to conduct research. It recruited global education professionals — most notably the RAND Corporation — to advise and assist with development and reform plans for the entire educational system. It also paid close attention to global educational benchmarks and standards set by UNESCO, OECD, and the World Bank. 14 School reforms, of a national university, and of global are among the most common higher education development among states in the developing world, most states not Qatar's Education City, Qatar massive educational is the largest single educational anywhere in the world. in on the of the Doha, Education City a nearly complete of educational for through to elementary and secondary school a highly school an international school on the International model a school for with needs an which school for and the an educational training and The of the “knowledge however, is in its of international branch Education City is of international branch campuses operated by and European campuses degrees but a few and one a the first and only U.S. to be the United The IBCs of Education City University, University, University, School of University, of and Education City also supports universities operated by Qatar the Qatar of and Education City is by Qatar which also a for international students and a with the and years for all higher education institutions in Qatar as of of and in Qatar with Education City Education City is also among the most expensive national education in the world. for the are not to the but the annual for capital projects, personnel, and was of billion in The annual operating for in was to be an of USD million for years, with an between USD and million to in with operating an The of Education City, however, is less significant than the innovation it in the evolution of international branch While IBCs have been in since not Education City had multiple IBCs been into a combined “a of Qatar's because of its small it a set of In this we will review some of the small states as they a system of higher education. states a significant of the world's While of small states from to 5 of the states of the United of 3 million or less in states have been as of to of development from the of states around the This is less when of and institutions of higher education. education is and in small economies than in This be were the in small states as in In however, are usually in small states first because institutions have to and because they it to economies of In of the national educational systems of countries with a population of million or less in and that countries at the end of the population some on support … the of small states this of is 25 This in a of and training by in or out of the host of national by foreign programs and programs, foreign development of and in highly developed small societies, on capacity states to for In and for complete some or all of training in other In to these there is at least one significant that small states because of the of professional and educational in small states is only a few are known to each other and are in professional and social national educational — which are by and — small professional are by common professional and the of in small This can to an that of collective and as well as the of common to these This is the the list of from by and the that there is of innovation and in many small the innovative of Qatar's IBC cluster it is also to the of international branch campuses as an organizational model for higher education. The on the growth of the IBCs from the on The of a small of in the that the development of international branch on a short and by an review of the its first in by in and higher education that is in country from the which it or with some in the host and which at least one in the host country that is in the country of the of and International by for and International and The on of and IBCs by World by for and International and The on with all other the Arab states of the Gulf have been the most in the development and of The United Arab the first IBC in the Gulf region in the of by in As a result of a growth in the first of the the MENA region now for of IBCs in of these are in in the United Arab Emirates, 10 in Qatar, and 3 in in the Gulf, the MENA region generally has not the IBC model of higher education to other of the — U.S. and and the of and the of of IBCs in the MENA region with the of the world. of of IBCs in MENA by for and International and The on of the experimentation with IBCs is the of sending countries with which Gulf states have Qatar's on U.S. (and some universities is for which a of and all of the Gulf IBCs have the of with only IBCs as in the UAE of entire IBC have been in Qatar or Bahrain to according to the in from the to the is For in to the IBCs by in the plans for 7 IBCs in with 3 campuses In and countries for 10 of the largest IBCs as by population to campuses in the Gulf in and one in In among the planned by the — all of them to be in or — only one new IBC was in the MENA region at the of the — a to in the region of in In other the that the of IBCs in the Gulf and MENA for the come to an While Qatar some of the challenges as other small Qatar is also different in significant before in Qatar turned to of and foreign workers to labor deficits as the economy In across the Gulf have been for of because of the of and within the Gulf and with the The of and the of because of the of wealth and the of new As as with foreign that for the of and the and for when were not While leadership to such there was also as as when the of all foreign workers of in the labor is a with which and Gulf states have for at least a In Qatar, as with most small the higher education system was thought from the to be the for — or at least — the on foreign workers and for the of the economy to other than to the of the national liquefied natural to the of Qatar — the first and only indigenous in Qatar — the choices for to higher education were As these of in with universities in Saudi Arabia, and or the more and of education In the Qatar of Education a of and that foreign education with some to universities in the years the of the in the that and were enrolled in universities in the for students to the of and the common this not the number of students enrolled from In the and By were enrolled in higher education of Qatar, in the Arab the the and As these to Qatar, the with a as in the for higher education. As these students top in not only a of a in the but also a for building a a or in some the of Qatar in higher education more to The core of the of colleges in with foreign education at UNESCO, University, and The colleges were into of social and in to the of was in and the of about the of at a when primary and secondary school was its for more education not a for the of a national in the The Qatar to fund Qatar at and introduced a of reforms intended to for an international for and While it was the considered of by the different Gulf States at different that the of a in each Gulf was not on the basis of the small of the indigenous population and of the small number of national students eligible for all these because all these states to have national that leadership for to Qatar all had generally been In an that with for Education at Qatar at the (and now of that the primary in the of the leadership to Education City was to a education for the choice before the leadership as we on or we to other that that of IBC however, was not the first choice for the leadership of Qatar to the model was a single university, to top in and to the by Qatar to for the that universities were more to the of than the European universities that were After a and in the the on of in the United The vision was an unprecedented operated by much like campus in which not be over 10 years in the such model anywhere in the world. with in an with in when was of Qatar that Qatar of was about a that was in the top 10 but we that there was one that was at of a with in that the was by a they a for a an school and a in that to first considered the of universities of which there are in and Saudi Arabia, for on to that these were because of them had far to on the international were it that setting an and it was only to recruit an that to a education of the and was to the as that in the United In the of an of the of Qatar and Education City, it is to when the of an IBC cluster model It is the between and Qatar first with an to education in was in with School of the this was not a branch campus educational programs but it was not to a in leadership believe that the to an IBC cluster model was well the with In Qatar its with School to a branch campus and a complete that in rapid Qatar with universities to IBCs in in in in 2005, and in by with European in and in other IBCs are planned for Education The with innovation in the evolution of This was the first an a complete — and one that was on from the at the home of the Education City IBCs this The by the IBCs in are by the as the at the campuses the of that with In many the to students by the IBCs and the to and the of the home only and not the of the campus where was for the of the IBCs in to and the educational with the While not by all these and of campus with the campus in joint research between of the of to Education City students to in campus of students in with programs and that students to the and between and campus by and students for joint projects, and For most years of its it was not thought to the Education City and there are about the of the IBC cluster It was considered far expensive for other countries to or This will be to the in the years as IBC come — in and in for a of the planned of IBCs that each university, of which have In these campuses have begun to the cluster model as they new of For U.S. institutions all of the programs in Education the model the system of higher education. Among other this students to for and to with a more of It also the of joint programs and with of IBC in and for was from and and for from the university's on 2014 … have had to of in one has a more system of institutional in with the its more to a set of challenges for the first The most significant core of the IBC cluster in Education City are its in and and the autonomy to the While Qatar of campus and for many common services, the IBCs are only loosely by some programs, collaborations, and This a of that campuses to adapt to challenges that from the of the home the of institutional and cultural traditions of the home and the needs of the curriculum they in Doha. The challenges by and a branch campus are many and are of challenges that have been to the branch campuses of Education have to preserving between and standards on campus and the branch campus in education and the of the branch campus to a and with the and to among and Qatar While on some there is in the IBCs these they have that the and constraints that result from the home traditions and the home campuses were to in Education City, the to and of institutional many of admissions, the of and services, and and institutional review performance and and many other The IBCs in much autonomy they have to manage these and are with the home campus for and however, have generally been on the branch campuses — these the overall the branch campuses were to adapt to a for is not commonly the first of and are not nearly as to as in the U.S. of the home campuses have the for have and to a on the branch branch campuses to the of the home campus to of research with and about the of In Qatar that all research be by a and the universities were to While the of Education City is to the of the the to Qatar is Among the IBCs in Education City, there are different and is by Qatar these functions across it were the of the with Qatar is not a because of the of and that are by the and traditional of the home In to the this Qatar to these functions or to conduct or for growth or common the number of students, or in Education City because there is with this U.S. for are by the Educational and which the from with the also Qatar in for the of it has created at The IBCs are as part of the process of the home not as there is system that the IBCs or Education City as a the support of Qatar U.S. and World is its first among institutions of higher education it has in the MENA As as is for the branch it is a of for Qatar which a more campus and a for students, and as products of Education City rather than only of one campus or The of in was in part an effort by Qatar to a more role in the of the IBCs of Education The of is to programs the and in Education City through new colleges — operated by Qatar — in and and social and and As an research is also to serve Qatar's Qatar National and national development through the development of a global research in Doha. 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In Qatar the Qatar and to innovative between the research and development of global and the Qatar a of research within Education City that will and research addressing many of the national the Qatar and the Qatar and the Qatar is for a in the social The largest research in the is to in The of the Qatar National has on an that will serve as Qatar's National and plans to attract as many as to by a of years, a of an entire research system that all of the most significant — from the to and in plans that most small states not of the IBC cluster model of Education City is not in states because of the and operating as we have there are of of the IBC cluster The of these will the of the IBC cluster model and it will become a for higher education development in small and The is for and by the of this by the of the for International and at School of in Qatar, and the of the on The and in the and many about the development of higher education and research at the School of in Qatar, also with the of and the of IBC This paper in part from research that was by from the Qatar National Fund of Qatar The are the of the
Recent developments in "cryptocurrencies" and "smart contracts" are creating new opportunities for applying AI techniques. These economic technologies would benefit from greater real world knowledge and reasoning as they become integrated with everyday commerce. Cryptocurrencies and smart contracts may also provide an infrastructure for ensuring that AI systems follow specified legal and safety regulations as they become more integrated into human society.
Despite the frequent mention of Bitcoin in recent years in the press and business publications, many people are still uncertain what this cryptocurrency is or how it works. And although bitcoins (BTCs) are now an accepted medium of exchange for some businesses and not‐for‐profit organizations, no specific accounting guidance has been issued for these transactions. This article provides some basic information about BTCs and addresses six specific financial accounting issues: asset classification, mining activity, investment holdings, exchanges, merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions, and disclosure.
On March 1950, the Government Administrative Council promulgated the "Decision on Unifying the State's Fiscal and Economic Work." Apart from local surcharges, all revenues and expenditures were consolidated in the national budget. This highly centralized fiscal management system of "unified revenues and outlays" transformed the long-term situation of overdispersed management, balanced fiscal revenues and outlays, stabilized market prices, guaranteed the military funds to exterminate remnant enemy forces, and met the need to restore key economic installations. In 1953, following changes to and the abolition of the organs of the Greater Administrative Regions, the state budgetary system changed to a three-tier system involving the center, provinces, municipalities, and counties. Local public finance was under a unified system where above-budget and revenues and savings were retained by the locality for it to disburse. In 1958, fiscal power was decentralized and the fiscal management system was changed to one of "revenues determining outlays, fixed for five years."
Magnus Skjegstad, Anil Madhavapeddy, Jon Crowcroft
Devices connected to the Internet today have a wide range of local communication channels available, such as wireless Wifi, Bluetooth or NFC, as well as wired backhaul. In densely populated areas it is possible to create heterogeneous, multihop communication paths using a combination of these technologies, and often transmit data with lower latency than via a wired Internet connection. However, the potential for sharing meshed wireless radios in this way has never been realised due to the lack of economic incentives to do so on the part of individual nodes. In this paper, we explore how virtual currencies such as Bitcoin might be used to provide an end-to-end incentive scheme to convince forwarding nodes that it is profitable to send packets on via the lowest latency mechanism available. Clients inject a small amount of money to transmit a datagram, and forwarding engines compete to solve a time-locked puzzle that can be claimed by the node that delivers the result in the lowest latency. This approach naturally extends congestion control techniques to a surge pricing model when available bandwidth is low. We conclude by discussing several latency-sensitive applications that would benefit for this, such as video streaming and local augmented reality systems.
Recent technological advances have given rise to the popularity and success of cloud. This new paradigm is gaining an expanding interest, since it provides cost efficient architectures that support the transmission, storage, and intensive computing of data. However, these promising storage services bring many challenging design issues, considerably due to the loss of data control. These challenges, namely data confidentiality and data integrity, have significant influence on the security and performances of the cloud system. This thesis aims at overcoming this trade-off, while considering two data security concerns. On one hand, we focus on data confidentiality preservation which becomes more complex with flexible data sharing among a dynamic group of users. It requires the secrecy of outsourced data and an efficient sharing of decrypting keys between different authorized users. For this purpose, we, first, proposed a new method relying on the use of ID-Based Cryptography (IBC), where each client acts as a Private Key Generator (PKG). That is, he generates his own public elements and derives his corresponding private key using a secret. Thanks to IBC properties, this contribution is shown to support data privacy and confidentiality, and to be resistant to unauthorized access to data during the sharing process, while considering two realistic threat models, namely an honest but curious server and a malicious user adversary. Second, we define CloudaSec, a public key based solution, which proposes the separation of subscription-based key management and confidentiality-oriented asymmetric encryption policies. That is, CloudaSec enables flexible and scalable deployment of the solution as well as strong security guarantees for outsourced data in cloud servers. Experimental results, under OpenStack Swift, have proven the efficiency of CloudaSec in scalable data sharing, while considering the impact of the cryptographic operations at the client side. On the other hand, we address the Proof of Data Possession (PDP) concern. In fact, the cloud customer should have an efficient way to perform periodical remote integrity verifications, without keeping the data locally, following three substantial aspects : security level, public verifiability, and performance. This concern is magnified by the client’s constrained storage and computation capabilities and the large size of outsourced data. In order to fulfill this security requirement, we first define a new zero-knowledge PDP proto- col that provides deterministic integrity verification guarantees, relying on the uniqueness of the Euclidean Division. These guarantees are considered as interesting, compared to several proposed schemes, presenting probabilistic approaches. Then, we propose SHoPS, a Set-Homomorphic Proof of Data Possession scheme, supporting the 3 levels of data verification. SHoPS enables the cloud client not only to obtain a proof of possession from the remote server, but also to verify that a given data file is distributed across multiple storage devices to achieve a certain desired level of fault tolerance. Indeed, we present the set homomorphism property, which extends malleability to set operations properties, such as union, intersection and inclusion. SHoPS presents high security level and low processing complexity. For instance, SHoPS saves energy within the cloud provider by distributing the computation over multiple nodes. Each node provides proofs of local data block sets. This is to make applicable, a resulting proof over sets of data blocks, satisfying several needs, such as, proofs aggregation

 
 
 This article examines whether hitherto marginalized actors, industries and innovations – such as women, services industries and service innovations – could be acknowledged by the use of a bottom-up approach in innovation research in a way that helps make public innovation support more inclusive. It is scrutinized whether the relation between context, organization and outcomes in publically financed innovation networks such as clusters and innovation systems serves to highlight how more inclusive innovation support could be designed. Four regional innovation networks promoting women’s entrepreneurship and innovation in Sweden are analyzed by a bottom-up approach, since while emphasizing decentralization and inclusion in theory, most innovation theories and policies are in practice characterized by a top-down approach, ascribing superiority to certain actors, industries and innovations while marginalizing others in a distinct – often gendered – pattern. The bottom-up approach makes it possible to expose that being a marginalized actor in public innovation support is related to the organization of entrepreneurial types of innovation systems, based on contacts established ad hoc and resources gathered from scratch, making a wider range of actors, industries and innovations relevant than in institutional types of innovation systems favored in prevalent public innovation support. By acknowledging both types of innovation systems, more inclusive innovation policies could be designed and more nuanced innovation theories could be developed.