Blockchain Papers

Oded Goldreich, Eyal Kushilevitz

No abstract is available for this record.

Uriel Feige, Dror Lapidot, Adi Shamir

In the present study, we investigated how the symmetry/asymmetry of cell division in mitotic CD34(+) cells can be evaluated by determining the plane of cell division and the potential distribution of proteins between daughter cells. The orientation of the mitotic spindle is dependent upon the positioning of the centrosomes, which determine the plane of cell division and the sharing of proteins. If the functions of unequally shared proteins are relevant to the kinetics of cell division, they could determine whether the daughter cells undergo self-renewal or differentiation. The kinetic function of the proteins of interest was investigated using a colony-replating assay and carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) staining. We used Notch/Numb as a model system, since they have a role in balancing symmetric/asymmetric divisions. Mitotic cells were examined microscopically and centrosomal markers γ-tubulin/pericentrin were used with activated Notch-1 and Numb. We monitored the first crucial divisions by CFSE staining and found an inverse relationship between activated Notch and Numb expression, suggesting a reciprocal regulation. We suggest that the subpopulations expressing activated Notch or Numb have different cell fates. To determine the influence of Notch signaling on progenitor cell self-renewal, we used the γ-secretase inhibitor N-[N-(3,5-Difluorophenacetyl-L-alanyl)]-S-phenylglycine t-Butyl ester (DAPT). DAPT influences self-renewal/differentiation outcome by affecting the frequency of symmetric renewal divisions without affecting the rate of divisions. Overall, the purpose of this study was to establish a cellular system for predicting the symmetry/asymmetry of hematopoietic progenitor divisions at the level of centrosomes and protein distribution and to investigate the influence of these proteins on progenitor cell kinetics.

Ellen M. Hufnagel, Jacob G. Birnberg, Joseph M. Katz

Problems can arise in decentralized organizations when usage-based chargeback systems are implemented to control computing resources. A case study of a company that is changing from negotiated pricing to full cost pricing illustrates the fact that concerns about fairness can arise not only with respect to specific characteristics of the chargeback system (e.g., understandability, controllability), but also as a result of central management policies governing internal transactions between the users and MIS. In particular, this examination identifies three factors that affect the fairness perceptions of autonomous divisional managers: (1) a high degree of interdependence between user divisions and MIS such that the behavior of MIS could have a significant impact on divisional performance; (2) restrictions on divisional managers’ freedom to purchase computer services from external sources; and (3) the tendency for full cost to exceed market prices early in the life of a data center. A dual pricing approach may be an interim solution to reduce conflict and improve user perceptions of fairness.

Andrew Campbell, Arndt Sorge, Mark J. Warner

No abstract is available for this record.

Katherine Samolyk

Although the recent performance of the U.S. macroeconomy is being hailed as "the longest modern peacetime expansion s n failures of depository institutions have been closely linked to certain depressed productive sectors in the country. The most stark examples can be found in the depressed farm-belt and oil-producing regions. Observations indicate that financial firms do not or cannot diversify against industry-specific risk when choosing their loan portfolios. Such behavior may be explained by extensive government regulation of the industry's scale and scope or by technological costs of intermediating credit that encourage specialized lending by region or by industry. This paper does not attempt to formally explain why depository institutions engage in specialized lending; rather, it examines some implications of regional and sectoral banking in terms of macroeconomic perf~rmance.~ It considers the short-run implications of bank-capital immobility when banks produce real services in channeling the flow of funds into investments. We illustrate how regional banking conditions can affect the mix of aggregate investment and the level of future aggregate output in the absence of macroeconomic fluctuations. Given the current deregulatory trend in structural policy changes, the nature of the financial services industries has come under intense scrutiny. Recent banking literature has formalized how financial contracts are related to imperfect information. A recurring theme has been that when information is costly, the quantity and nature of external finance has allocative consequences. Diamond (1984) demonstrates how financial intermediaries (hereafter referred to as banks) can improve the efficiency of capital markets by diversifying and thus minimizing information costs; however, perfect diversification makes bank capital and the dispersion of bank asset returns irrelevant to bank portfolio choice. These strong informational assumptions allow the intermediation process to work more smoothly than we observe. If these conditions are not met, bank capital and the risk of bank assets affect bank profitability. Bernanke and Gertler (1987) show how the inability to eliminate variability in portfolio returns implies that "health" of a'bank's balance sheet can affect the flow of funds to risky bank investments. In their model, depositors cannot observe the ex-post returns on bank projects at any cost and bank capital must absorb random asset returns; insufficient bank capital may constrain banks from investing in risky but profitable investments. In a similar framework, Samolyk (1989) examines how the interest-rate risk associated with the maturity transformation in bank portfolios affects bank asset management. This paper will analyze the implications of imperfect information for investment in a decentralized banking ~ystern.~ We present an intertemporal model of banking similar to that of Bernanke and Gertler. Bankers possess a specialized technology that allows them to channel resources to investment projects that would not be funded in direct credit markets. They also have information about their portfolio returns. Unlike Bernanke and Gertler , this analysis attempts to incorporate the notion that there is more than one productive sector in the economy. We assume that in the short run, bank

Mike Burmester, Yvo Desmedt

The proof of soundness for many zero-knowledge schemes has been given in an incomplete way. We discuss the consequences.

George Cybenko

No abstract is available for this record.

Richard Pomfret

ASIAN PERSPECTIVE, Vol. 13, No. 2, Fall-Winter 1989, pp. 35-53 TEN YEARS OF DIRECT FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN CHINA Richard Pomfret In the late 1970s the People's Republic of China (PRC) re­ versed its economic development strategy, ending three decades of economic isolation by adopting the Open Door policy. The most dramatic component of the new strategy was the June 1979 Law on Equity Joint Ventures which permitted direct foreign investment (DFI) in the PRC for the first time. Foreign capital had, of course, played a significant role in other coun­ tries' economic development before 1979, but the PRC decision came at a time when many developing countries were rejecting foreign investors or, if they sought foreign funds, they preferred loans, which did not pose the same perceived threat to economic independence as DFI involving foreign control. In this respect China was ahead of the times, as the post-1982 Debt Crisis revealed the dangers of loans as sources of external finance and stimulated a more favorable reassessment of DFI by capital­ scarce nations. China also led the way among communist coun­ tries in permitting DFI, and the path has been followed since by the USSR, other East European countries, and the communist nations of Indochina.1 The Chinese experience with DFI is thus of interest both in itself, as a new move by the world's largest nation, and for its lessons for developing countries and for communist states. Because DFI involves a time horizon measured in years rather than months and because the inevitable initial uncertainty slowed foreign investors' response to the 1979 Law, some time had to elapse before an assessment of the Chinese experience 1. The USSR passed a joint venture law in January 1987. Vietnam adopted a law permitting DFI in June 1988 and Laos followed in the next month. 36 Richard Pomfret with DFI could be made. Ten years is an arbitrary but reasonable length. Moreover, the tenth anniversary of the June 1979 Law was marred by the massacre in Tiananmen Square and subsequent repression, which may change the DFI situation as potential foreign investors reassess their views of the PRC as a place to do business. This paper describes and evaluates the Chinese experience with DFI between 1979 and 1989. Many features are, of course, specific to China—the lure of the billion person market, the absence of direct colonial experience, etc.—but others are predictable consequences of China's resource endowment, level of economic development and policy choices. The paper examines the types of joint ventures (JVs) which have been formed, their characteristics in terms of size distribution, type of activity, nationality of foreign partners, determinants of success, and the role of policy in all this. The situation has changed over time as foreign investors have learned more about operating in China and as Chinese attitudes and policies have changed; the most useful distinction in this respect is between the situation before and after October 1986 when important modifications in the Joint Venture Law were announced. China's Open Door Policy Adoption of the Open Door policy represented a dramatic shift from China's previous inward-oriented development strategy. This section describes the four elements of the new strategy: trade policy, the Joint Venture Law, exchange rate and macroeco­ nomic policies, and the spatial dimension. Meanwhile, China was also undertaking far-reaching domestic reforms in agriculture and industry which were changing the organization of produc­ tion and the role of central planning. This paper is not concerned with these economic reforms, but they are important back­ ground events. Before 1979 China's trade policy was driven by imports and was highly centralized. Exports were determined by the amount needed to pay for imports, which were the shortfall between planned needs and domestic availability of each good. International trade was conducted by twelve foreign trade cor­ porations (FTCs), who insulated the domestic economy with its fixed prices from market-determined world prices. In Decern- Ten Years of Direct Foreign Investment in China 37 ber 1978 the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party rejected this approach, and by 1984 foreign trade decisions had been decentralized and controls over imports and exports...

Tamás Bácskai

The Hungarian banking system developed from the first third of the nineteenth century along the continental path, leading to the predominance of universal banks, the department stores of finance. This system of a large number of small banks with numerous branches, a sizable part of them at county and town levels, was controlled by a handful of big banks that were tightly intertwined with large foreign banks. This situation created many well-trained and broadly-skilled bank officers because, especially in the provincial banks and in branches with a limited staff, the bank employees had to be jacks of all trades, mastering all banking and stock exchange operations. Due to the fact that the Association of Banking Employees, a trade-union-like organization, had a strong left-wing audience which had considerable influence among bankers, the higher echelons of banking staffs consisted largely of pro-Allies liberals who had not been associated with Nazism. Thus, to a considerable extent, the new regime was able to draw its banking cadres from professionally well-trained, and politically loyal or neutral people. From 1949 on, even after the filling of the controlling posts with cadres of the labor movement, the lion's share of the former banking staff remained in lower posts as deputies of the new upper-level managerial staff, or in influential advisory jobs. Thus, the correctness and the professionality of banking operations, accounting, calculation, compilation of balance sheets, correspondence, both domestic and foreign, has been maintained at very high standards. Nevertheless, by having eliminated former top-level managers to a large extent, there was and is a scarcity of bankers who are specialists in allocating loans so as to optimize the safety and profitability of a portfolio. This lack was not obvious until the present decentralization because, even after the reform of the economic mechanism in 1968, the autonomy of the banks continued to be severely curtailed. There is a justified hope that Hungary can fill this gap since, from 1951 on, there has been university training for banking, and

Christopher Bond, Cynthia L. Raehl, Todd Franke

This study evaluated hospital demographics, staffing, pharmacy variables, health care outcomes measures (severity of illness-adjusted mortality rates, drug costs, total cost of care, and length of stay) and medication errors. A database was constructed from the 1992 American Hospital Association's Abridged Guide to the Health Care Field, the 1992 National Clinical Pharmacy Services database, and 1992 mortality data from the Health Care Financing Administration. Simple statistical tests and a severity of illness-adjusted multiple regression analysis were employed. The study population consisted of 1116 hospitals that reported information on medication errors and 913 hospitals that reported information on medication errors that adversely affected patient care outcomes. We evaluated factors associated with the 430,586 medication errors and 17,338 medication errors that adversely affected patient care outcomes. Medication errors occurred in 5.07% of the patients admitted each year to these hospitals. Each hospital experienced a medication error every 22.7 hours (every 19.73 admissions). Medication errors that adversely affected patient care outcomes occurred in 0.25% of all patients admitted to these hospitals/year. Each hospital experienced a medication error that adversely affected patient care outcomes every 19.23 days (or every 401 admissions). The following factors were associated with increased medication errors/occupied bed/year: lack of pharmacy teaching affiliation (slope = 0.8875, p=0.0416), centralized pharmacists (slope = 1.0942, p=0.0001), number of registered nurses/occupied bed (slope = 1.624, p=0.032), number of registered pharmacists/occupied bed (slope = 25.0573, p=0.0001), hospital mortality rate (slope = 2.8017, p=0.0192), and total cost of care/occupied bed/year (slope = 0.01432, p=0.0091). Factors associated with decreased medication errors were location in the Mid-Atlantic census region (slope = -1.5182, p=0.03), affiliation with a pharmacy teaching program (slope = -1.0252, p=0.0349), decentralized pharmacists (slope = -0.9843, p=0.0037), and number of medical residents/occupied bed (slope = -1.478, p=0.0014). There was a 45% decrease in medication errors (1.81-fold decrease) in hospitals that had decentralized pharmacists, compared with hospitals that had centralized pharmacists. In addition, there was a 94% decrease in medication errors that adversely affected patient care outcomes (16.88-fold decrease) in hospitals that had decentralized pharmacists compared with hospitals that had only centralized pharmacists. Based on previous field studies and our findings in 1116 hospitals, it appears that one of the most effective ways to prevent or reduce medication errors is to decentralize pharmacists to patient care areas. The results of this study should help hospitals reduce the number of medication errors that occur each year.

Robert P. Inman

No abstract is available for this record.

Robert P. Inman

No abstract is available for this record.

Charles Kleiber

No abstract is available for this record.

Joe Kilian, Silvio Micali, Rafail Ostrovsky

No abstract is available for this record.

Gian Carlo Guarda

This paper discusses urban services finance in the Latin American context of rapid urbanization, severe fiscal constraints and democratization of administrative systems. Analyzing the situation in thirteen different countries, it draws several conclusions which may be helpful in the design of new lending operations. The report's main theme is that the World Bank's approach to the urban sector needs to be re-directed. The structure of the report is as follows: first it reviews the rising demand for urban services, noting the positive correlations of rapid urban growth with national development, but also the corresponding, incremental fiscal pressures. The macro-economic constraints to urban expenditures are summarized and the adverse circumstances limiting new capital formation and service provision in Latin American cities is mentioned. The report also discusses whether Latin American governments are truly decentralizing and reviews the strategies to relieve the fiscal gap of subnational governments, including changes in the existing systems of revenue sharing, reassignment of public service functions, pricing adjustments, deregulation or privatization of certain services, technical assistance, and restructuring of institutional credit. The main findings and recommendations are organized according to three main groups: country concerns; theoretical concerns; and operational concerns. The text is accompanied by three case studies in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

H. J. Mittendorf

The paper provides a brief overview of the problems of physical agricultural marketing infrastructure in Africa, with particular reference to rural roads and marketing facilities, such as storage, processing and market centres. In order to overcome these constraints, it is necessav to strengthen macro policy changes, with particular reference to commodity marketing, rural finance and government decentralization policies with the obiective of providing more incentives to marketing enterprises and local authorities to promote infrastructure development. Changes in macro policies have to be supported by adequate training programmes, support to institution building and adjustment of aid strategies to encourage self-help in developing marketing infrastructure.

Dirk Engels, P Mpitabakana

In Burundi, the intestinal parasite, Schistosoma mansoni, inhabits the waters of the Rusizi Plain (1 of the worst affected areas), the Capital Bujumbura, the Imbo-Sud, and around Lake Cohoha. It continues to cause illness in these regions. In 1985, the Lutte Contre la Schistosomiase project implemented a control program in these regions, chiefly involving chemotherapy. In addition, the European Development Fund had financed integration of safe water supply and environmental sanitation efforts into the program. To further reduce the incidence of schistosomiasis, the control program has introduced a training program for auxiliary health workers and health education campaigns. These efforts assist the program in decentralizing schistosomiasis control to health services and communities. Auxiliary health workers in primary schools, health centers, and subcommittees for sociosanitary development are responsible for educating the public about schistosomiasis. Program workers have developed educational material which allows the educators to address consistent messages to all audiences yet also allows for flexibility. The material consists of posters demonstrating how the disease is transmitted and other preventive measures, a film on schistosomiasis control, and a flip chart. Eventually health centers will be responsible for epidemiological surveillance of schistosomiasis. Communal subcommittees for sociosanitary development play an important role in informing local authorities of needed actions to control the disease and in setting priorities.

Andrew Thomason

No abstract is available for this record.

Roméo Ortega, Gustavo Sanchez Galindo

A complete proof is given of global convergence to zero of the prediction error and asymptotic optimality for a direct adaptive controller is established based on multistep quadratic cost minimization with a receding horizon philosophy. The only substantial assumptions are that the controller designed when the parameters are known, stabilizes the plant and the exact knowledge of the first N y (N y -optimization horizon) impulse response coefficients of the plant. The technical hurdles for the development of a comprehensive convergence theory of this type of controller are also highlighted.

Norman F. Johnson

Abstract The different forms of privatization all imply some diminution of the state's role in the provision, financing or regulation of welfare. Privatisation does not simply mean the sale of public assets and greater reliance on private enterprise and competitive markets; it also means the transfer of welfare responsibilities from the state to the voluntary and informal sectors. This is partly an ideological issue, concerning the state's relationship with individual citizens and social groups, and partly a matter of practicalities. Welfare pluralism implies a less dominant role for the state in the provision (as opposed to the financing and regulation) of welfare services: its major themes are decentralization and participation. Some doubt is cast on the capacity and the desirability of the informal and voluntary sectors substituting for the state in social service provision. The family is undergoing substantial changes which may reduce its capacity to provide care and, at the same time, the number of dependents is increasing. The voluntary sector is beset with problems of uneven and incomplete coverage, equity, fragmentation and accountability. The chief consequence of welfare pluralism has been the rapid development of the commercial sector.

Bernard H. Baum, Teri Strenski

Abstract Thailand's public health system is in transition, reflecting the economic status of the country. The decentralized system has made great strides in improving the health of its people. But paradoxes exist. While some urban areas have an oversupply of CT Scanners, rural villages still cope with hygiene‐related illnesses. Malaria and Yellow Fever no longer dominate health resources. Now AIDs, heart disease and accidents top the problem list. Like other countries, Thailand also struggles with health financing to address the unmet needs.

Jan H.M. Korst, Emile H.L. Aarts

No abstract is available for this record.

Charles Collins

Abstract The public sector in Latin America has been characterized by the proliferation of national semi‐autonomous bodies known as ‘decentralized agencies’. This article focuses on such agencies in Colombia from the 1960s onwards. Attention will be paid to their institutional proliferation and how this affected local government, particularly in the fields of water and sanitation. Such changes in state organization have not been problem free. The growth of ‘decentralized agencies’ has been associated with problems of inefficiency, administrative confusion and problems of social and political unrest. Indeed, such contradictions have resulted in the issue of decentralization being placed on the political agenda and the development of innovative and administrative reforms that could breathe new life into local government.

Donald R. Winkler

Evaluating decentralization in terms of three economic criteria - social efficiency, technical efficiency, and equity - the paper argues that some decisionmaking (about finance and teacher recruitment) should be provided for at the local level, and some (about school organization and curriculum) at the regional level. A system of central government grants should be used to correct problems of equity and inefficiency inherent in a decentralized system. Little is known about the economic and educational consequences of decentralization, despite a wide variety of country experiences. The effects of decentralization are difficult to isolate, so scholars have focused instead on issues of implementation.