Blockchain Papers

Dror Irony, Sivan Toledo, Alexander Tiskin

No abstract is available for this record.

貢 角田, Mitsugu Kakuta

No abstract is available for this record.

Schahram Dustdar

Web services can be seen as a newly emerging research area for Service-oriented Computing and their implementation in Service-oriented Architectures. Web services are self-contained, self-describing modular applications or components providing services. Web services may be dynamically aggregated, composed, and enacted as Web services Workflows. This requires frameworks and interaction protocols for their co-ordination and transaction support. In a Service-oriented Computing setting, transactions are more complex, involve multiple parties (roles), span many organizations, and may be long-running, consisting of a highly decentralized service partner and performed by autonomous entities. A Service-oriented Transaction Model has to provide comprehensive support for long-running propositions including negotiations, conversations, commitments, contracts, tracking, payments, and exception handling. Current transaction models and mechanisms including their protocols and primitives do not sufficiently cater for quality-aware and long running transactions comprising loosely-coupled (federated) service partners and resources. Web services transactions require co-ordination behavior provided by a traditional transaction mechanism to control the operations and outcome of an application. Furthermore, Web services transactions require the capability to handle the co-ordination of processing outcomes or results from multiple services in a more flexible manner. This requires more relaxed forms of transactions—those that do not strictly have to abide by the ACID properties—such as loosely-coupled collaboration and workflows. Furthermore, there is a need to group Web services into applications that require some form of correlation, but do not necessarily require transactional behavior. The purpose of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art review and overview of some proposed standards surrounding Web services composition, co-ordination, and transaction. In particular the Business Process Execution Language for Web services (BPEL4WS), its co-ordination, and transaction frameworks (WS-Co-ordination and WS-Transaction) are discussed.

Kellee S. Tsai

No abstract is available for this record.

Stephen Fenner, Yong Zhang

We study two group theoretic problems, GROUP INTERSECTION and DOUBLE COSET MEMBERSHIP, in the setting of black-box groups, where DOUBLE COSET MEMBERSHIP generalizes a set of problems, including GROUP MEMBERSHIP, GROUP FACTORIZATION, and COSET INTERSECTION. No polynomial-time classical algorithms are known for these problems. We show that for solvable groups, there exist efficient quantum algorithms for GROUP INTERSECTION if one of the underlying solvable groups has a smoothly solvable commutator subgroup, and for DOUBLE COSET MEMBERSHIP if one of the underlying solvable groups is smoothly solvable. We also study the decision versions of STABILIZER and ORBIT COSET, which generalizes GROUP INTERSECTION and DOUBLE COSET MEMBERSHIP, respectively. We show that they reduce to ORBIT COSET under certain conditions. Finally, we show that DOUBLE COSET MEMBERSHIP and DOUBLE COSET NONMEMBERSHIP have zero knowledge proof systems.

Bente Rasmussen

One of the strategies of the modernization of public services is the decentralization of responsibilities and organizing work in autonomous co‐ operative teams with varied tasks. The empowerment of the public service workers in the front line is therefore a strategy in local government in Norway today. Under the assumption that women have ‘natural’ skills in caring, workers on the lowest levels are given responsibility for care and nursing. A study of the decentralization of public care for the elderly in their homes showed that being given interesting tasks and increased responsibility mobilized the efforts of the care workers. However, since the power of resources has been centralized, this has led to an intensification of work. In gendering the relevant discourses by explaining women's experiences of an over‐heavy workload as a result of their ‘mothering’ and their inability to set limits, women care workers were constructed by their managers as unprofessional and not to be taken seriously. This has made the public care organization a greedy organization for the women care workers.

이재원

The Local Financial Analysis and Diagnosis System is one of the major tool for the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs to manage the soundness and efficiency of Korean local finance. This paper tried to make a new approach for the system in view of financial decentralization and performance-oriented initiatives. At first, I investigated the critical issues of the current system. And then, I suggested four alternative models for monitoring the local financial trends based on financial decentralization : from Analysis Diagnosis to Analysis-Evaluation System.

Luiz Carlos Bresser‐Pereira

Abstract Executive and regulatory agencies are decentralized state organizations that implement policies. When the law clearly defines the policy, we have a state policy; when it leaves the precise definition to the incumbent administration, we have a government policy. Regulatory agencies are supposed to execute state policies and be more autonomous from the administration, whereas executive agencies will be less autonomous politically but equally independent in administrative terms. Policies introduced by executive agencies are supposed to change the moment that the opposition political party or political coalition wins an election and a new administration begins, whereas the policies introduced by regulatory policies do not change so easily. Government policies may be changed either by the parliament or by the executive, whereas state policies may be changed only by the parliament. Executive agencies are supposed to have administrative autonomy, regulatory agencies, decision autonomy, but policies are not or should not be their responsibility.

Joel G. Breman, Martin Alilio, Anne Mills

Each year, up to three million deaths due to malaria and close to five billion episodes of clinical illness possibly meriting antimalarial therapy occur throughout the world, with Africa having more than 90% of this burden. Almost 3% of disability adjusted life years are due to malaria mortality globally, 10% in Africa. New information is presented in this supplement on malaria-related perinatal mortality, occurrence of human immunodeficiency virus in pregnancy, undernutrition, and neurologic, cognitive, and developmental sequelae. The entomologic determinants of transmission and uses of modeling for program planning and disease prediction and prevention are discussed. New data are presented from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe on the increasing urban malaria problem and on epidemic malaria. Between 6% and 28% of the malaria burden may occur in cities, which comprise less than 2% of the African surface. Macroeconomic projections show that the costs are far greater than the costs of individual cases, with a substantial deleterious impact of malaria on schooling of patients, external investments into endemic countries, and tourism. Poor populations are at greatest risk; 58% of the cases occur in the poorest 20% of the world's population and these patients receive the worst care and have catastrophic economic consequences from their illness. This social vulnerability requires better understanding for improving deployment, access, quality, and use of effective interventions. Studies from Ghana and elsewhere indicate that for every patient with febrile illness assumed to be malaria seen in health facilities, 4-5 episodes occur in the community. Effective actions for malaria control mandate rational public policies; market forces, which often drive sales and use of drugs and other interventions, are unlikely to guarantee their use. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for malaria is rapidly gaining acceptance as an effective approach for countering the spread and intensity of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to chloroquine, sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine, and other antimalarial drugs. Although costly, ACT ($1.20-2.50 per adult treatment) becomes more cost-effective as resistance to alternative drugs increases; early use of ACT may delay development of resistance to these drugs and prevent the medical toll associated with use of ineffective drugs. The burden of malaria in one district in Tanzania has not decreased since the primary health care approach replaced the vertical malaria control efforts of the 1960s. Despite decentralization, this situation resulted, in part, from weak district management capacity, poor coordination, inadequate monitoring, and lack of training of key staff. Experience in the Solomon Islands showed that spraying with DDT, use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs), and health education were all associated with disease reduction. The use of nets permitted a reduction in DDT spraying, but could not replace it without an increased malaria incidence. Baseline data and reliable monitoring of key outcome indicators are needed to measure whether the ambitious goals for the control of malaria and other diseases has occurred. Such systems are being used for evidence-based decision making in Tanzania and several other countries. Baseline cluster sampling surveys in several countries across Africa indicate that only 53% of the children with febrile illness in malarious areas are being treated; chloroquine (CQ) is used 84% of the time, even where the drug may be ineffective. Insecticide-treated bed nets were used only 2% of the time by children less than five years of age. Progress in malaria vaccine research has been substantial over the past five years; 35 candidate malaria vaccines are in development, many of which are in clinical trials. Development of new vaccines and drugs has been the result of increased investments and formation of public-private partnerships. Before malaria vaccine becomes deployed, consideration must be given to disease burden, cost-effectiveness, financing, delivery systems, and approval by regulatory agencies. Key to evaluation of vaccine effectiveness will be collection and prompt analysis of epidemiologic information. Training of persons in every aspect of malaria research and control is essential for programs to succeed. The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) is actively promoting research capacity strengthening and has established networks of institutions and scientists throughout the African continent, most of whom are now linked by modern information-sharing networks. Evidence over the past century is that successful control malaria programs have been linked to strong research activities. To ensure effective coordination and cooperation between the growing number of research and control coalitions forming in support of malaria activities, an umbrella group is needed. With continued support for scientists and control workers globally, particularly in low-income malarious countries, the long-deferred dream of malaria elimination can become a reality.

Samuel S. Lieberman, Joseph J. Capuno, Hoàng Văn Minh

This paper examines decentralization experiences in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam during the last 18 years (1985-2003). The analysis suggests that decentralization dividends so far have been modest and concentrated in some areas in the country. This is partly macroeconomic and political context in which decentralization was introduced. More importantly, however, current arrangements within the health sector have not worked well as hoped, including ensuring access for the poor to quality health services. To improve the gains, a stewardship role for the MOH is suggested. In this role, the MOH would focus on critical health functions, namely: communicable disease surveillance and control; standard setting and quality assurance for devolved health services; and pharmaceuticals; ensuring access of the poor to health services; and, sustaining health financing.

Luiz Carlos Bresser‐Pereira

Abstract Besides decentralization to executive agencies and social organizations, public management reform involves devolution to sub-national units of activities and the corresponding fiscal resources to finance them. It involves also making public managers more autonomous and more accountable. In synthesis, decentralization–delegating authority to lower levels–is crucial to managerial public administration. Decentralization is a public management strategy, but devolution is a political decision with managerial consequences. Decentralization is often decided top-down and is a strategy for increasing the head-offices’ capacity to achieve proposed objectives, but devolution is usually a response to demands for more local or regional autonomy to which government officials in the central government reluctantly accede.

Achim Thomzig, Sashko Spassov, Manuela Friedrich, Dieter Naumann · 5 authors

For the surveillance of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in animals and humans, the discrimination of different TSE strains causing scrapie, BSE, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease constitutes a substantial challenge. We addressed this problem by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy of pathological prion protein PrP27–30. Different isolates of hamster-adapted scrapie (263K, 22A-H, and ME7-H) and BSE (BSE-H) were passaged in Syrian hamsters. Two of these agents, 22A-H and ME7-H, caused TSEs with indistinguishable clinical symptoms, neuropathological changes, and electrophoretic mobilities and glycosylation patterns of PrP27–30. However, FT-IR spectroscopy revealed that PrP27–30 of all four isolates featured different characteristics in the secondary structure, allowing a clear distinction between the passaged TSE agents. FT-IR analysis showed that phenotypic information is mirrored in β-sheet and other secondary structure elements of PrP27–30, also in cases where immunobiochemical typing failed to detect structural differences. If the findings of this study hold true for nonexperimental TSEs in animals and humans, FT-IR characterization of PrP27–30 may provide a versatile tool for molecular strain typing without antibodies and without restrictions to specific TSEs or mammalian species. For the surveillance of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in animals and humans, the discrimination of different TSE strains causing scrapie, BSE, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease constitutes a substantial challenge. We addressed this problem by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy of pathological prion protein PrP27–30. Different isolates of hamster-adapted scrapie (263K, 22A-H, and ME7-H) and BSE (BSE-H) were passaged in Syrian hamsters. Two of these agents, 22A-H and ME7-H, caused TSEs with indistinguishable clinical symptoms, neuropathological changes, and electrophoretic mobilities and glycosylation patterns of PrP27–30. However, FT-IR spectroscopy revealed that PrP27–30 of all four isolates featured different characteristics in the secondary structure, allowing a clear distinction between the passaged TSE agents. FT-IR analysis showed that phenotypic information is mirrored in β-sheet and other secondary structure elements of PrP27–30, also in cases where immunobiochemical typing failed to detect structural differences. If the findings of this study hold true for nonexperimental TSEs in animals and humans, FT-IR characterization of PrP27–30 may provide a versatile tool for molecular strain typing without antibodies and without restrictions to specific TSEs or mammalian species. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) 1The abbreviations used are: TSE, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy; BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy; FT-IR, Fourier-transform infrared; mAb, monoclonal antibody; TBS, Tris-buffered saline; BE, brain equivalents; TME, transmissible mink encephalopathy; dpi, days postinfection. such as scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans are invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorders of the central nervous system. After the initial reports on the emergence of BSE and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, in 1986 and 1996, respectively, compelling evidence has gradually accumulated that the latter can most likely be attributed to transmissions, presumably via contaminated food, of BSE agent from cattle to man (1Bruce M.E. Will R.G. Ironside J.W. McConnell I. Drummond D. Suttie A. McCardle L. Chree A. Hope J. Birkett C. Cousens S. Fraser H. Bostock C.J. Nature. 1997; 389: 498-501Crossref PubMed Scopus (1727) Google Scholar, 2Cousens S.N. Linsell L. Smith P.G. Chandrakumar M. Wilesmith J.W. Knight R.S.G. Zeidler M. Stewart G. Will R.G. Lancet. 1999; 353: 18-21Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar, 3Hill A.F. Desbruslais M. Joiner S. Sidle K.C. Gowland I. Collinge J. Doey L.J. Lantos P. Nature. 1997; 389: 448-526Crossref PubMed Scopus (1208) Google Scholar, 4Scott M.R. Will R. Ironside J. Nguyen H.O.B. Tremblay P. DeARmond S.J. Prusiner S.B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1999; 96: 15137-15142Crossref PubMed Scopus (462) Google Scholar). Therefore, effective infection control measures for the containment and repression of BSE have become a matter of crucial importance to public health. According to the present state of knowledge, the countermeasures implemented in response to the BSE epidemic are expected to minimize or even eliminate the risk of new primary variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease infections of humans directly originating from bovines (5Bradley R. Rabenau H.F. Cinatl J. Doerr H.W. Prions: A Challenge for Science, Medicine, and the Public Health System. S. Karger AG, Basel, Switzerland2004: 146-185Google Scholar). However, further challenges in the area of infection control arise from the hypothetical risk that the BSE agent might have spread via contaminated feed such as meat and bone meal to sheep (5Bradley R. Rabenau H.F. Cinatl J. Doerr H.W. Prions: A Challenge for Science, Medicine, and the Public Health System. S. Karger AG, Basel, Switzerland2004: 146-185Google Scholar) and that BSE, like scrapie, might now be sustained in the ovine population. The clinical symptoms of scrapie, which has been endemic in sheep for centuries without any apparent association with human disease, cannot be reliably distinguished from those exhibited by experimentally challenged BSE-infected ovines. “While it is possible to demonstrate the presence of a TSE by several laboratory techniques using microscopy, electron microscopy, or immunological methods which detect the abnormal form of the prion protein, distinguishing between one strain of scrapie and another, and between BSE and scrapie, is not straightforward” (6, Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (1999) http://www.seac.gov.uk/publicats/sub-rep.pdf,Google Scholar). So far, reliable differentiation of BSE and scrapie in sheep has required time-consuming and expensive strain-typing in mice using lesion profiles (7Fraser H. Dickinson A.G. J. Comp. Pathol. 1973; 83: 29-40Crossref PubMed Scopus (279) Google Scholar). Therefore, the development of new methods for an inexpensive, robust, and rapid discrimination between BSE and scrapie constitutes a topical challenge in the surveillance of ovine TSEs addressed in a variety of studies (8Baron T.G. Madec J.Y. Calavas D. J. Clin. Microbiol. 1999; 37: 3701-3704Crossref PubMed Google Scholar, 9Hope J. Wood S.C. Birkett C.R. Chong A. Bruce M.E. Cairns D. Goldmann W. Hunter N. Bostock C.J. J. Gen. Virol. 1999; 80: 1-4Crossref PubMed Scopus (145) Google Scholar). During the past few years, considerable progress has been achieved in this field of TSE research, predominantly by using immunobiochemical techniques (10Kuczius T. Groschup M.H. Mol. Med. 1999; 5: 406-418Crossref PubMed Google Scholar, 11Stack M.J. Chaplin M.J. Clark J. Acta Neuropathol. 2002; 104: 279-286Crossref PubMed Scopus (182) Google Scholar, 12Lezmi S. Martin S. Simon S. Comoy E. Bencsik A. Deslys J.P. Grassi J. Jeffrey M. Baron T. J. Virol. 2004; 78: 3654-3662Crossref PubMed Scopus (70) Google Scholar, 13Thuring C.M. Erkens J.H. Jacobs J.G. Bossers A. Van Keulen L.J. Garssen G.J. Van Zijderveld F.G. Ryder S.J. Groschup M.H. Sweeney T. Langeveld J.P. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2004; 42: 972-980Crossref PubMed Scopus (114) Google Scholar). However, apart from having some practical intricacies (14Notari S. Capellari S. Giese A. Westner I. Baruzzi A. Ghetti B. Gambetti P. Kretzschmar H.A. Parchi P. J. Biol. Chem. 2004; 279: 16797-16804Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (123) Google Scholar), these approaches require specific adjustments for each individual combination of TSE strain and host species. Therefore, alternative methods of strain differentiation, which do not require specific antibodies and can also be applied to a broad spectrum of TSEs and host species, would substantially improve our means for the molecular typing of TSE agents not only in sheep but also potentially in cattle and humans. The causative agent of TSEs is widely considered to represent a new biological principle of infection. The prion hypothesis (15Prusiner S.B. Science. 1982; 216: 136-144Crossref PubMed Scopus (4106) Google Scholar) holds that TSE agents (“prions”) consist essentially not of prion protein The of this protein is in and other of According to the of the prion TSE agents a molecular in which as a or which prion protein and it structure a S.B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). that the phenotypic of different scrapie and other TSE agents, of which have been in different of mice M.E. Med. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar), be in the or structure of or in specific and only β-sheet structure, is substantially of and a A. D. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, M. R. Prusiner S.B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, M. Nguyen J. M. A. D. I. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). Therefore, the of the of the prion the secondary structure the of as for the phenotypic characteristics of TSE During the past few it has been that several different TSE strains can be distinguished by immunobiochemical typing of the electrophoretic mobilities and glycosylation characteristics of in the J. Sidle K.C. J. Ironside J. A.F. Nature. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, P. R. Capellari S. Ghetti B. M. Gambetti P. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, P. Capellari S. Gambetti P. N. P. T. J. Giese A. Kretzschmar H. Nature. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, Chong A. Birkett C.R. Wood S.C. Hope J. Nature. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). strains of hamster-adapted transmissible mink encephalopathy and the of PrP27–30 from and by with exhibited different apparent molecular of and J. Virol. PubMed Google Scholar). evidence for the presence of in and most be for by in the of the prion protein that were from with an with these a has further evidence that from and as as from other hamster-adapted TSE strains have in the structure of J. H. D. H. M. Prusiner S.B. Med. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy used to directly the structure of prion with different TSE the were and substantially by that from and in different β-sheet B. G.J. J. Biol. Chem. Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). as as to phenotypic information of TSE agents or mirrored in the secondary structure of FT-IR structural of or PrP27–30, a that in the secondary structure of the protein, as a tool for the molecular typing and differentiation of TSE agents. this the in this to in laboratory animals TSE agents that TSEs and the challenge of distinguishing isolates that can be by the clinical symptoms or neuropathological by the immunobiochemical of For this Syrian were as animals as have the between different TSE strains and and of such isolates in the it is possible to reliably and other TSE agents by FT-IR structural characterization of PrP27–30 from the the on an that FT-IR of PrP27–30 potentially a for the differentiation of TSE agents, those that are or even to by a variety of approaches for strain the animals used in our study have information this may be of a that the rapid and reliable discrimination of strains in nonexperimental TSEs of animals and humans. TSE and of hamster-adapted scrapie strains ME7-H, and 22A-H and of a new hamster-adapted BSE by infection of Syrian with of in from scrapie strain J. Gen. Virol. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) by R. H. and has been passaged for in our and 22A-H by and in Fraser H. J. Gen. Virol. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar), were by the for of and of 22A-H were used for the of these TSE agents the in our laboratory one of BSE agent from cattle in mice and to hamsters. H. and M. in of brain in from a BSE in a from the were between and days to fatal disease with clinical symptoms of transmissible spongiform of brain in from a were hamsters. symptoms between and in For the present all were on the of ME7-H, and 22A-H in our which showed of and days as the of disease, respectively, and on a of with an of in further not of ME7-H, and 22A-H the in our hamsters. were for clinical symptoms and by the of After the were and further as were in for with for to in for and After in an were in from the were and in for The of as (7Fraser H. Dickinson A.G. J. Comp. Pathol. 1973; 83: 29-40Crossref PubMed Scopus (279) Google Scholar). of S. N. W. D. Giese A. Groschup M.H. Kretzschmar H.A. J. Pathol. Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) of brain as M. Bruce M. H. Kretzschmar H.A. M. J. Virol. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). were in for with for to in for and using a brain After in an were in were on and for For to S. N. W. D. Giese A. Groschup M.H. Kretzschmar H.A. J. Pathol. Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus Google Scholar), were in TBS, with and with in a and for were in in in and with R. M. R. H. J. Virol. PubMed Google After with the secondary for were with and to the The were for using a For brain were in of to with secondary of of brain in TBS, were with of and of and for M. E. S. H. P. P. J. Gen. Virol. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). The by of in and and for of the to of brain were in a Nature. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) or in and using the The were with in for and with in bovine in After in and for with the secondary in bovine in a for used After the in TBS, to using a of and as The of and in each were by for a of the glycosylation were in for each with from four animals with 22A-H, and the of to Different of brain in from with the four different TSE strains the of were in to of and were with as a of for After the by and for were to and with as FT-IR of and prion protein PrP27–30 from the of Syrian the of disease, using a by H. M. M. Simon D. I. M. Ironside J.W. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) with some were used of as each of the that required of new were used of by in of in to of the protein with from the The in of to with and and and of brain and in a using a for The and the protein were For of the protein were with of and for The protein by with as M. E. S. H. P. P. J. Gen. Virol. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). The of the protein by and as M. E. S. H. P. P. J. Gen. Virol. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar), and PrP27–30 also by using as The of protein in the in the of FT-IR of PrP27–30 were with a FT-IR applied for a and a of used an of For each spectrum were and FT-IR were and between and the with to The FT-IR were in the of an FT-IR with a For FT-IR of in the protein from and using a for in of in to a protein to of from the of the were used to for from the protein The of PrP27–30 were from in with a of were to an from in one of which a with a PrP27–30 from of ME7-H, 22A-H, and were each For and the were between and to of the were using a the study on approaches for the characterization and discrimination of TSE agents in would also be for a strain differentiation field such as the or techniques such as strain typing by lesion in mice (7Fraser H. Dickinson A.G. J. Comp. Pathol. 1973; 83: 29-40Crossref PubMed Scopus (279) Google Scholar, M.E. Med. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) as and the for and with scrapie showed and of animals were and in by and which and and from a animals challenged with or 22A-H scrapie agent exhibited with and scrapie and animals were and not by or and to from a of or as in scrapie were not but the animals showed of with were also to and in a and However, in to the and apparent to by and as in and 22A-H scrapie, exhibited from a and an to to the which showed of and without the scrapie were to from a and not and and symptoms to scrapie and from each other as as from and However, a discrimination between the latter not clinical the lesion profiles caused by ME7-H, 22A-H, and profiles provide a tool for the typing of TSE strains in mice by the and the of in brain (7Fraser H. Dickinson A.G. J. Comp. Pathol. 1973; 83: 29-40Crossref PubMed Scopus (279) Google Scholar). For with or lesion profiles showed but between each other and with to and 22A-H with the latter scrapie the most were in the and in the and for or in the the and the and for the other scrapie isolates and 22A-H patterns of in the of which are of to the analysis for brain from our animals were also for the of for strain differentiation S.J. A. R. A. D. Prusiner S.B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) using the S. N. W. D. Giese A. Groschup M.H. Kretzschmar H.A. J. Pathol. Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). For each of the four TSE isolates passaged in our of brain from that revealed patterns for ME7-H, 22A-H, and The most in the and of were the four in with in which by not any or for the four different TSE of the findings in of as a tool for the phenotypic characterization of TSE agents. our this to a distinction between and and to of these isolates from and However, as with lesion that would a of and 22A-H not be of the revealed by in brain of with ME7-H, 22A-H, or of in ME7-H, and 22A-H for it and of the of in ME7-H, and 22A-H for it and in a new of to the electrophoretic mobilities and glycosylation characteristics of PrP27–30, brain from with the four different TSE isolates were with to and using the which is in for molecular differentiation of TSE strains J. Sidle K.C. J. Ironside J. A.F. Nature. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, P. R. Capellari S. Ghetti B. M. Gambetti P. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, P. Capellari S. Gambetti P. N. P. T. J. Giese A. Kretzschmar H. Nature. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar), revealed glycosylation patterns of PrP27–30 for and and For these the of the protein PrP27–30 with and agent cannot be by the glycosylation or it can be distinguished by the different electrophoretic of the and of and by to in the protein structure protein PrP27–30 from exhibited characteristics a of the and a molecular of the A.F. Desbruslais M. Joiner S. Sidle K.C. Gowland I. Collinge J. Doey L.J. Lantos P. Nature. 1997; 389: 448-526Crossref PubMed Scopus (1208) Google Scholar, J. Sidle K.C. J. Ironside J. A.F. Nature. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, P. Capellari S. Gambetti P. N. P. T. J. Giese A. Kretzschmar H. Nature. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, T.G. Madec J.Y. Calavas D. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) for infections in a variety of other species. PrP27–30 from and showed or from those for and and and exhibited electrophoretic patterns for all PrP27–30 and immunobiochemical typing of pathological prion protein not to a distinction between and the of to Different the of to by a further for the distinction of TSE agents J.Y. A. A. J. P. Baron T. Virol. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, R. S. 42: PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). this brain from with ME7-H, and 22A-H were to different between and to and using revealed profiles for the of to as in this it possible to and from each as as of from and 22A-H the scrapie showed a of with gradually and For from the other TSE agents, the most to in the of from showed or by of and and with from and 22A-H but it also that from with scrapie and However, also in this be for and 22A-H scrapie and FT-IR of to information the secondary structure of from the different TSE agents on a molecular PrP27–30 from each by FT-IR the from PrP27–30 of ME7-H, 22A-H, and in the secondary between The used for the of pathological prion protein from brain has been for scrapie to PrP27–30 in which the of with other is not H. M. M. Simon D. I. M. Ironside J.W. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). by and revealed only such as H. M. M. Simon D. I. M. Ironside J.W. 1997; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) and in the of for the PrP27–30 of ME7-H, 22A-H, and some in with to the of this not substantially the FT-IR for the four different TSE several different of evidence that the FT-IR from our in structural of PrP27–30 those of different The essentially from of of the protein and is the most for secondary structure studies of by FT-IR spectroscopy S. J. Chem. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, J. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). this PrP27–30 from the four different TSE isolates exhibited specific patterns as by in the and of the and by in individual of secondary structure characteristics by FT-IR spectroscopy of PrP27–30 from of with ME7-H, 22A-H, and agent for in only in a new strains in showed in the of which can be attributed to different β-sheet H. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, M. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, N. M. E. J. Chem. Scopus Google Scholar). A for all TSE agents the but the β-sheet for each of the individual isolates for for ME7-H, for and for the β-sheet were in the of and ME7-H, for the is only for the 22A-H, the as a of the β-sheet these that the PrP27–30 from the different TSE agents in β-sheet and respectively, TSE agents (263K, and which to PrP27–30 from and showed also and respectively, which might be attributed to the of β-sheet J. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, H. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). strains showed a with which is to D. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, H. of Scholar). and were for 22A-H and such be in the of and The of this have been to from structure in several H. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). However, the might also an structure to by between and or by the of to S. J. Chem. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, D. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). with the FT-IR in our study secondary structure are not our revealed in the patterns of PrP27–30 from the four passaged TSE agents. evidence that PrP27–30 from and featured in β-sheet and other secondary structure elements and to all passaged TSE agents from each For our typing used different scrapie strains passaged in (263K, 22A-H, and ME7-H) and an of hamster-adapted BSE agent in our Two of the passaged agents, 22A-H and ME7-H, to TSEs with indistinguishable and clinical symptoms, indistinguishable lesion and indistinguishable electrophoretic mobilities or glycosylation patterns of PrP27–30. methods for neuropathological or differentiation, such as analysis of the or typing of pathological prion protein different respectively, were a reliable discrimination between and 22A-H not the latter strains only with to but this would not provide a field in our animals and 22A-H by Fraser H. J. Gen. Virol. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). The for this is but might be for by of the agents to our of Syrian hamsters. with the or immunobiochemical methods all four and 22A-H, be by FT-IR characterization of pathological prion on the that PrP27–30 from or showed attributed to in β-sheet structure but also to in other secondary structure TSE with in the past few a of has several of evidence that with TSE agents in the and with different J. Sidle K.C. J. Ironside J. A.F. Nature. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, P. R. Capellari S. Ghetti B. M. Gambetti P. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, J. Virol. PubMed Google Scholar, J. H. D. H. M. Prusiner S.B. Med. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). has also been by FT-IR on PrP27–30 from different TSE strains B. G.J. J. Biol. Chem. Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). to the study by B. G.J. J. Biol. Chem. Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus Google Scholar), the of PrP27–30 from our this has the of the of to secondary structure may be by the of A. D. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, H. of Scholar). our characteristics in the for PrP27–30 from scrapie that were to FT-IR A. D. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). The the and the β-sheet and were and in the secondary structure of PrP27–30, which by different methods in from hamsters. However, the β-sheet in our from PrP27–30 of in is not by the β-sheet and in the by A. D. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar). might be caused by in the of to our study were to the FT-IR by B. G.J. J. Biol. Chem. Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) with a different of scrapie strains and a hamster-adapted BSE this be substantially by for the in the FT-IR of PrP27–30 from TSE and 22A-H, which showed indistinguishable electrophoretic mobilities or glycosylation patterns and this progress not have been achieved without FT-IR from of PrP27–30 in which a any our findings that phenotypic information of different hamster-adapted TSE agents is mirrored in β-sheet and other secondary structure elements of also immunobiochemical typing to detect structural in the pathological prion the of also in this study with ME7-H, 22A-H, and provide the molecular for phenotypic characteristics of different TSE strains J. Virol. PubMed Google Scholar, G.J. S. B. Nature. PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) or the of an as or in the agent to be of this study the of FT-IR spectroscopy for TSE strain that structural characterization of pathological prion protein is to of PrP27–30 from different TSE agents, which can be by immunobiochemical The and of FT-IR spectroscopy in this have to be by of the to a spectrum of TSE agents, host species, and possible in this to scrapie and BSE agents from sheep, such studies also isolates from with different of or human the emergence of new BSE in cattle has been from and A.G. Ryder S. Baron T. 2004; 5: PubMed Scopus Google Scholar, C. G. P. S. L. S. M. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2004; PubMed Scopus Google Scholar) and the as as public FT-IR of pathological prion protein a tool that not only to the further of the isolates these BSE cases but would potentially improve the surveillance of TSE agents in as as We for and this by and We also and A. for for in to scrapie strains and 22A-H and for the BSE to mice and hamsters.

Pei Cao, Zhe Wang

No abstract is available for this record.

正輝 森, 孝夫 三浦, 勇 塩谷

本稿では、Webページ集合からの事象抽出及び自動解釈を行うための新しいWebマイニングの手法を提案する。Webページを調査し有効時間を抽出しK-meansクラスタリングにより事象の抽出を行う。TDTのアプローチをWeb環境に適応し、提案する手法が時制Webページに対して有効であることをいくつかの実験により示す。

Ellen Waldman, Marybeth Herald

In his decade-long exploration of female sexuality, Sigmund Freud professed to be on a mission to answer the elusive question: What do women want? Unfortunately, the 19th-century psychiatrist was unable to separate that question from the one he ultimately answered: What do men want women to want? In some sense, Freud's inquiries provide an apt metaphor for the medical profession's stance toward female experience. When confronted with the difference presented by the female body as well as women's unique life experiences, the medical field has responded with approaches that range from bemusement to hostility to intense indifference. Although the pernicious effect of gender bias on healthcare delivery is well-known, less attention has been paid to its secondary effects. Disinterest in or hostility to the female experience leads to an informational vacuum that allows for the development of ideas, theories, and assumptions founded on cognitive bias, rationalization, and wishful thinking rather than empirically-based knowledge. These biases, then, are imported into the legal field where they undergird juridical movements that serve to disadvantage women. This essay explores how, in the medical context, the stunted development of knowledge about women, becomes, in the legal context, a dangerous thing. In examining the interplay between medical and social science information and legal dogma, this essay will discuss how bodies of knowledge are selectively pursued, exploited, or ignored in the service of patriarchal assumptions that achieve expression in legal responses to emerging social dilemmas. Selective information flows between the medical and legal professions result in untoward consequences in a wide variety of settings. Here, we limit our focus to two such untoward consequences. The first part of the essay discusses the impoverished medical discourse on female sexuality and how inattention to female sexual fulfillment has led to legal rules that disproportionately affect women's expression as sexual beings. The second part examines available social science data detailing the distinction between psychological and genetic parenthood and shows how that data has been ignored in favor of judicial presumptions that privilege men and disadvantage women in disputes over frozen embryos. A close look at these contested arenas of sexuality and reproduction demonstrates the difficulty of charting women's progress toward equality. On the surface, in both law and medicine, norms of gender equity command facial allegiance. Medicine disavows its earlier efforts to exclude women from the profession, while law proffers the equal protection doctrine as proof that sexist behavior can be rooted out in a zero-tolerance legal culture. Under the waterline, though, unconscious beliefs and stereotypes hold sway. These unruly currents lead to rationalizations and cognitive errors that elude rigorous examination, but affect women at work, at home, and in the bedroom.

恭子 石川, 達也 有澤, 元道 遠山

No abstract is available for this record.

正輝 森, 孝夫 三浦, 勇 塩谷

No abstract is available for this record.

伸介 中島, 克己 田中

No abstract is available for this record.

Josefo Tuyor, L. Panner Selvam, Kenneth M. Green, Jose Tiburcio Nicolas · 6 authors

This report focuses on four decentralized projects in the World Bank country portfolio for the Philippines: (1) Agrarian Reform Communities Development (ARCDP I and II); (2) Community Based Resource Management (CBRMP); (3) Local Government Unit (LGU) Finance and Development (LOGOFIND) and (4) Rural Finance III . In these projects centralized agencies administer and allocate funds to organizations and institutions that operate at the regional or local level to implement subprojects. The central agencies are supervisors of the use of World Bank funds and are required to adhere to project objectives, loan agreements, and fiduciary, environmental, and social safeguard measures. The subprojects covered by these four projects include: water supply and sanitation; solid waste management; irrigation; agriculture; natural resource management; coastal resource management; watershed management; reforestation; fisheries; forestry; rural enterprise; farm to market roads (FMR); rural infrastructure; and natural resource management (NRM). The report gives finding and recommendentations which focus on improving project performance and environmental and social sustainability through risk reduction and quality enhancement.

Nikos Benos

This paper studies the general equilibrium implications of two types of educa-tion policy in an overlapping generations growth model with second-best policy. We examine vouchers, which augment inherited private education spending, and public investment on economy-wide human capital, that provides economy-wide externalities to individual human capital accumulation. The government deter-mines jointly the allocation of tax revenues among the two types of education policy and tax policy, subject to the competitive decentralized equilibrium. Using plausible parameter values it is shown that it is socially optimal to spend heavily on economy-wide human capital accumulation and finance government spending by a modest proportional tax on initial human capital and a low tax on inherited private education expenditures.

吉伸 島

【概要】本研究の大きな目的は, 分権化の一層の促進を目指した近年の日本企業おける組織改革が, 意図する成果を生み出しているのかを明らかにすることにある。本稿ではその予備的調査として, 社内組織構造の改革である社内カンパニー制の導入と財務的業績の関係に焦点を当てた分析を実施した。 1994年から2000年にかけて社内カンパニー制を導入した東証一部上場企業49社をサンプル企業とし, 公表財務データから導かれた2つのROAをパフォーマンス指標として, 社内カンパニー制導入前後の業績の比較・分析を行った。 その結果, 社内カンパニー制導入は企業の業績向上に結びついているとはいえず, むしろ低下させていることが判明した。 ただし, この分析結果にはリサーチ・デザインが影響しており, 組織改革が実際の財務的成果として現れるまでのタイム・ラグを考慮すると, より長期的を分析対象とするならば異なる結果が導かれる可能性があると考えられる。【Abstract】Under the pressure of 10-year long economic decline, Japanese firms are struggling to improve their profitability. As one of the ways to do it, Japanese large firms have begun to reorganize their organizational structure and process. This reorganization includes separating strategic and operational decision-making more clearly, decentralizing more decision-making authority, making divisions more autonomous and self-contained to make a prompt decision in response to market conditions at the divisional level. In this paper, the performance of reorganization is preliminarily analyzed based on the sample of 49 Japanese firms which publicized reorganization during 1994-2000. Two ROA are used as performance measures of reorganization. The results show that organizational performance declines after reorganization, but there is some possibility that a time lag exists between implementation of reorganization and its smooth functioning.

Jonathan Rodden

As authority over public expenditures has shifted from central to provincial and local governments in countries around the world over the last two decades, prevailing approaches to the study of decentralization in welfare economics and public choice from the 1970s and 1980s have given way to new political economy approaches. The first generation of theories envisioned central and lower-level governments as distinct sovereigns within their own spheres of activity. Recognizing a more complex reality, the political economy literature is rethinking the notion of sovereignty in multi-tiered systems. Motivated by recent difficulties with fiscal decentralization and fiscal discipline, this essay rethinks the notion of fiscal sovereignty, viewing it as an evolving set of beliefs in the context of a dynamic game of incomplete information played between central and subnational governments. Provincial or local governments, along with their creditors and voters, attempt to assess the credibility of the central government's commitment to abide by pre-specified intergovernmental fiscal arrangements. When higher-level governments dominate the field of taxation and take on heavy co-financing obligations—as central governments do in virtually all newly decentralizing countries—the central government's commitment not to bail out subnational governments in the event of debt-servicing crises is not credible. In other words, subnational governments without significant tax autonomy will not be viewed as sovereign borrowers, and this has important implications for their fiscal behavior.

M. T. Lacey

No abstract is available for this record.

Ellen R. Shaffer, Joseph E. Brenner

Since the 1980s, neoliberal policies have prescribed reducing the role of governments, relying on market forces to organize and provide health care and other vital human services. In this context, international trade agreements increasingly serve as mechanisms to enforce the privatization, deregulation, and decentralization of health care and other services, with important implications for democracy as well as for health. Critics contend that social austerity and "free" trade agreements contribute to the rise in global poverty and economic inequality and instability, and therefore to increased preventable illness and death. Under new agreements through the World Trade Organization that cover vital human services such as health care, water, education, and energy, unaccountable, secret trade tribunals could overrule decisions by democratically elected officials on public financing for national health care systems, licensing and training standards for health professionals, patient safety and quality regulations, occupational safety and health, control of hazardous substances such as tobacco and alcohol, the environment, and affordable access to safe water and sanitation. International negotiations in 2003 in Cancun and in Miami suggested that countervailing views are developing momentum. A concerned health care community has begun to call for a moratorium on trade negotiations on health care and water, and to reinvigorate an alternative vision of universal access to vital services.