Blockchain Papers

Paivi Tripp

No abstract is available for this record.

Debbie Erickson

No abstract is available for this record.

Janusz Wierzbicki

The author explains mechanism of local economy functioning and distinguishes three sets in this mechanism: decentralized, centralized and mixed sets. Taking into account conditions of local economy functioning, in which local authorities are decisive subjects (local administration and people's councils) the author formulates an opinion that postulates on decentralization, which are stated in discussions, practically refer to substitution of centralized set with mixed set — and not decentralized one — of local economy. Centralized set can not be fully abolished even when mixed set is a predominating set of local economy functioning. Anyway it does not eliminate the possibility of competence expansion of leading local authorities. In such situation decentralized set of local economy functioning, in strict meaning of the word, can play a marginal role only. The author considers in a broad way the role played by financial factor in local economy functioning. A special attention is paid to dissimilarity of financing principles in particular sets of this economy, because efficiency of the reform considerably depends on proper knowledge about these principles.

Josef M. Broder

No abstract is available for this record.

Alan Hoffer

Each year we ask many of our first-year students at the University of Oregon to list the mathematical subjects or topics that they liked best and topics they liked least in their precollege classes. Although several subjects were “favorites,” the subject that was almost universalJy disliked was geome- try in high school.

Ruy de Queiroz, Luiz Carlos Pereira, Edward Hermann Hæusler

This volume contains the Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Logic, Language, Information and Computation (WoLLIC'2003). The Workshop was held in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil from July 29 to August 1, 2003, in the Escola de Minas of the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto ( UFOP ). WoLLIC is a series of workshops which started in 1994 with the aim of fostering interdisciplinary research in pure and applied logic . The idea is to provide a forum which is large enough in the number of possible interactions between logic and the sciences related to information and computation, and yet is small enough to allow for concrete and useful interaction among participants. Previous versions were held at: Recife (Pernambuco, Brazil) in 1994 and 1995; Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) in 1996; Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil) in 1997; São Paulo (Brazil) in 1998; Itatiaia (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in 1999; Natal (Rio Grande do Norte) in 2000; Brasília (Distrito Federal, Brazil) in 2001; Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2002. Scientific sponsorship comes from the Interest Group in Pure and Applied Logics ( IGPL ), the European Association for Logic, Language and Information ( FoLLI ), the Association for Symbolic Logic ( ASL ), European Association for Theoretical Computer Science ( EATCS ), the Sociedade Brasileira de Computação ( SBC ), and the Sociedade Brasileira de Lógica ( SBL ). Funding was kindly given by:(i) CNPq ( Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico , the scientific and technological development council of the Brazilian Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia ) (grant 450709/2003-5);(ii) CAPES ( Fundação Coordenação de Apoio ao Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior , a Foundation for the Development of Higher-Education under the Brazilian Ministério da Educação e do Desporto ) (grant PAEP0565/03);(iii) FAPEMIG ( Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais , the Minas Gerais state foundation for the support of scientific research);(iv) Escola de Minas da UFOP ( Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto ). Contributions were received in the form of short papers in all areas related to logic, language, information and computation, including:pure logical systems, proof theory, model theory, algebraic logic, type theory, category theory, constructive mathematics, lambda and combinatorial calculi, program logic and program semantics, logics and models of concurrency, logic and complexity theory, proof complexity, foundations of cryptography (zero-knowledge proofs), descriptive complexity, nonclassical logics, nonmonotonic logic, logic and language, discourse representation, logic and artificial intelligence, automated deduction, foundations of logic programming, logic and computation, and logic engineering. Apart from the contributed papers (15), and the invited talks (5), the programme includes 5 tutorial lectures: 1. Algorithmic Randomness and Derandomization by Eric Allender (Department of Computer Science, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA) 2. Generalized Quantifiers by Lauri Hella (Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Philosophy, University of Tampere, Finland) 3. Implicit computational complexity by Jean-Baptiste Joinet (Preuves-Programmes-Systèmes, Université Paris 7, France) 4. Proof search foundations for logic programming by Dale Miller (INRIA/Futurs/Saclay, and Laboratoire d'Informatique, École Polytechnique, France) 5. Iterated theory change by Hans Rott (Institut für Philosophie, Universität Regensburg, Germany) All papers in the volume were reviewed by the program committee consisting of Mauricio Ayala-Rinóon ( Departamento de Matemática, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil ) Argimiro Arratia ( Depto. Matematicas, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela ) Alessandra Carbone ( Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, and Université de Paris XII, France ) Marcelo Coniglio ( Centro de Lógica e Epistemologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil ) Gilles Dowek ( INRIA, France ) Arnaud Fleury ( Facoltà di Scienze, Università di Verona, Italy ) Dexter Kozen ( Cornell University, USA ) Maarten Marx ( ILLC, Faculty of Science, Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands ) Anto˚nio Carlos da Rocha Costa ( Escola de Informática, Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Brazil ) Dieter Spreen ( Fachbereich Mathematik, Theoretische Informatik, Universität Siegen, Germany ) Luiz Carlos Pereira ( Departamento de Filosofia, PUC-Rio and UFRJ, Brazil ) Jouko Väänänen ( Department of Mathematics, University of Helsinki, Finland ) Renata Wassermann ( Departamento de Cie˚ncia da Computação, Instituto de Matemática e Estatística, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil ) The organising committee consisted of Lucília Figueiredo ( Departamento de Computação, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Brazil ) Fred Ulisses Maranhão ( Centro de Informática, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil ) Anjolina Grisi de Oliveira ( Center of Informatics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil ) Elaine Pimentel ( Departamento de Matemática, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil ) (Co-Chair) Ruy de Queiroz ( Center of Informatics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil ) (Co-Chair) Maria Angela Weiss ( Departamento de Matemática, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil ) The volume will be published as volume 84 in the series Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science ( ENTCS ). This series is published electronically through the facilities of Elsevier B.V. and its auspices. The volumes in the ENTCS series can be accessed at the URL http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/entcs A printed version of the current volume has been distributed to the participants at the workshop in Ouro Preto. We are very grateful to the following persons, whose help has been crucial for the success of WoLLIC'2003: Mike Mislove, one of the Managing Editors of the ENTCS series, for his assistance with the use of the ENTCS style files; Thanks are also due to the Department of Mathematics of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and the Department of Computing of the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, which has provided the logistic support to the organising committee. August 2, 2003 Ruy de Queiroz, Elaine Pimentel, Lucilia Figueiredo

Frank Hanel, Garry Martin

No abstract is available for this record.

Robert W. Rider

primed to give unduly consistent or instrument-induced responses clearly suggested by the rather substantial variation among service categories shown in Table 2 above. 11. Joel D. Aberbach and Jack L. Walker, Attitudes of Blacks and Whites Toward City Services: Implications for Public in J. Crecine (ed.), Financing the Metropolis (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1970), pp. 519-537; Angus Campbell and Howard Schuman, Racial Attitudes in Fifteen American Cities, in Supplemental Studies for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (New York: Praeger, 1968), pp. 3-67; Floyd J. Fowler, Jr., op. cit.; John P. Pelissero, Citizen Evaluations of Cotmmnunity Services in Oklahoma (Norman, Okla.: Bureau of Government and Research, 1978). is Race an Important Factor? in H. Hahn (ed.), People and Politics in Urban Societv (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1972), pp. 369-392; Francis X. Tannian with Kevin Dawson, Views of Neighborhoods, Commuters, and Businesses Concerning the Productivity of City Services (Newark: University of Delaware, College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, 1977); Thomas J. Williams, Citizzen Evaluations of Local Government Services in a Southern Community (Washington, D.C.: National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, 1977). 12. In interpreting these correlations we limit ourselves to considering two variables related only when their coefficient of sufficient magnitude to be statistically significant at the .05 level of probability; i.e., there only a 5 percent or less probability that the variables are actually unrelated in the population as a whole. An important preliminary consideration in the interpretation of any multiple regression analysis the possibility that the results are compromised because of the problem of multicollinearity; i.e., very high correlations between two or more of the predictor (independent) variables in the equation. Very high correlations in this context have been considered by H. F. Weisberg and B. D. Bowen, An Introduction to Survev Research and Data Analvsis (San Francisco: Freeman, 1975) to be those greater than .70 (p. 214). K. B. Rai and J. C. Blydenburgh, Political Science Statistics (Boston: Holbrook, 1973), p. 232, consider multicollinearity present when coefficients greater than .80 are found between independent variables. In either case, none of the simple correlations between the independent variables in this analysis approach such a level. 13. See Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR), 1978: The Year of the New Populism, Intergovernmnental Perspective, Vol. 5 (Winter 1979), pp. 4-5. 14. As quoted in ACIR, States Tackle Tough Fiscal Issues, Intergovernmental Perspectmve, Vol. 5 (Winter 1979), p. 7.

Otto Keck

No abstract is available for this record.

John Laitner

This article constructs a decentralized growth model with two production sectors, one having competitive firms and the other oligopolists. Since capitalized pure profits for the latter sector constitute an asset which household savings must finance, we show that imperfect competition can reduce steady-state national output through both a "static effect" on allocative efficiency and a "dynamic effect" on aggregative capital accumulation. After presenting a theoretical analysis, we generate several numerical examples. The latter suggest that the "dynamic effect" of monopoly may be significantly larger than the "static effect" in practice.

Robert Mullen

No abstract is available for this record.

WIILIAM J. LEDGER

No abstract is available for this record.

Andreu Mas‐Colell

Some basic facts of public goods theory are presented in the primitive set-up of a collection of projects devoid of any linear structure. There is a single private good. Characterizations of Pareto optimal and core states in terms of valuation functions (i.e. supporting “prices”) are obtained. Voluntary financing schemes are discussed.

Stephen T. Miller, Roger Vander Zwagg, Melanie Joyner, John W. Runyan

Observations of a publicly-financed system for the medical care of a large number of persons with chronic diseases have been made over seven years. The system combines decentralized, nurse-staffed neighborhood clinics, operated by a public health department, with a central referral clinic for consultations and the management of complicated problems. After seven years in the chronic disease program 55% of 1,004 patients with diagnoses of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiac diseases were still receiving care, 19% had died, and 26% had been lost to the program. In the seventh year, the mean diastolic blood pressure in hypertensives was 84 mm Hg and the mean serum glucose in diabetics was 203 mg/dl. For the group under care, hospital days/1000/year were 74% of the rate during the year before referral to the program and out-patient visits/1000/year were approximately the same as before referral. However, two-thirds of the visits, formerly made to a public hospital, were now being made to neighborhood clinics. The system appears to be an effective method of providing medical services for persons who formerly used the public hospital as their source of outpatient care.

A. T. Ariyaratne

This paper describes the development and activities of the Sarvodaya Movement, a grass-roots mutual-aid movement based on traditional Buddhist social values. Started by high school students and teachers in 1947 as a community-service organization the Movement is open to all individuals and has attracted thousands of volunteers in 1200 villages. Sarvodaya Shramadana emphasizes improvement in the standard of living through the development of local resources by the community itself, strengthening of the family and the village unit, discouragement of large-scale industrialization and removal of forms of exploitation, such as caste, race discrimination, large-scale land ownership, and so on. Key to all of the Movement's activities is the concept of self-reliance, self-realization, nondependence at both the individual and the village level. The mutual sharing of labor not only accomplishes the work of the community, creating the physical infrastructure for economic improvement, but serves as a revolutionary technique to awaken people to their own potential. The movement organizes villages into functional groups by age and occupation and trains community workers who are chosen by the villages themselves. In each village, work starts on short-term strategies to relieve debt, provide health care and educate the population and long-term strategies to generate sustained, unified community spirit and sufficient income to avoid use of outside credit. The Movement's specific projects include surveys of nutritional deficiencies, the community kitchen program, preschool program, day care centers, children's library service and community health programs. The Movement is now changing from a centrally-coordinated organization toward decentralized organization based in 52 Extension Centers and run, at the national level, by an Executive Council of 35, a 6-man board and 9 coordinators. The Movement was self-financed by members for the 1st 10 years but has used outside financing in the last 10 years. Through establishment of economic activities, the Movement hopes to be self-reliant by 1985.

Donald W. Green

No abstract is available for this record.

R.F. Hemphill, M.J. Maguire

An early evaluation o the Home Insulation Program indicates that it is possible to carry on major conservation programs that result in a substantial saving to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) customers both from reduced electric bills and from reduction in electric system cost. The evidence from the TVA program strongly indicates that many utilities could realize benefits for themselves and their customers by implementing a comprehensive program for decentralized electricity, load management, cogeneration, and conservation. Of course, any financial benefit to the utility would be contingent on the treatment of costs associated with these programs on the balance sheet, on the income statement, and in allowable rate of return calculations. In particular, utility financing of customer installation of energy conservation and renewable energy systems must be treated in a manner that allows the utility to earn an acceptable rate of return. The Pacific Power and Light (PPL) Residential Energy Efficiency Rider is an example of how this can be handled. The program is beneficial to the utility because the entire cost of the weatherization measure can be added to the rate base with the customer paying the carrying charges on the capital. The customer benefits from the borrowing at themore » utility's cost of capital until the time of sale, at which time the value of the improvements is realized as a higher sale price for the house. While the value of such programs must be calculated on an individual basis, the authors feel that many utilities, particularly those that are in a position that makes it difficult to add new conventional capacity, could profit from the implementation of these programs. 1 reference, 2 figures, 6 tables.« less

Lee Soderstom

People in the United States have generally ignored Canada's long experience with extensive public financing and management of its health system. This is unfortunate because the two countries are similar in so many ways that Canada's experience is very pertinent to the continuing debate in the United States over increasing government involvement in health care. Two lessons emerge from Canada's experience. First, while many in the United States are dubious about more government involvement in health care, Canada's overall experience has been favorable. Second, Canada's experience suggests some specific forms that such public involvement should take to improve the performance of the health system. One important reason for Canada's favorable experience has been the decentralization of government decision-making. Constitutionally, the ten provinces have jurisdiction over most health services, so they are key decision-makers. The federal government, however, has had an important role in the shaping of Canada's health system, most importantly by offering subsidies to provinces willing to establish certain health programs that meet its standards. Canada's extensive public financing of health services is the most striking difference between its health system and that of the United States. In each province all medically necessary physician services and most inpatient and outpatient hospital services are publicly financed for all residents. Hospital services have been publicly financed for more than twenty years and physician services for more than ten years. Provincial agencies administer the programs, reimbursing physicians predominantly on a fee-for-service basis. Hospitals typically receive biweekly payments based on their provincially approved budgets. The provincial plans are financed jointly by the federal and provincial governments, largely from their general revenues. Few now bother to collect premiums or special health taxes, and minimal use is made of deterrent charges. The provinces vary considerably in the extent to which other personal health services are publicly financed. For example, some finance dental services for children; some, prescription drugs for people aged sixty-five years and over.

Je Van Aken

No abstract is available for this record.

Donatus C.I. Okpala

With the increasingly rapid urban growth in Nigeria in recent decades, and with its consequent multiplication and complication of the urban problems of traffic and transport, housing, health, and sanitation, the need for a more purposeful planning and management of cities has come to attract increased public policy attention. The institutional and organizational setting for city planning and management, particularly the role of municipal governments in these activities, still remain colonial and therefore ill-suited to the demands of present urban developments. City planning and management responsibilities are so fragmented among so many institutions and organizations that the municipal local governments have had very little authority over what happens in the city. The overlapping responsibilities of the various institutions make for conflicts and the net result is general inefficiency in the planning and management of many cities. The recent (1976) Local Government Reforms which aimed at decentralizing some functions from the state and federal governments to local governments do not seem to have altered the weak position of municipal governments in city planning and city management matters. The aim of this paper is to put the origin of the weak position of municipal governments in city planning and management into political and historical perspective. It also seeks to argue that until city planning and management responsibilities are centralized on strong, autonomous municipal governments, headed by popularly elected urban chief executives, the present chaos in Nigerian cities is likely to continue.

Keiko Komi

<p>“Web3” is now part of our collective imaginaries, even if the specifics of what the buzzword entails remain murky and inaccessible to many. Originally coined in 2014 by Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, to describe “a decentralised internet ecosystem based on blockchain,” the term took off after the NFT boom of 2021, catalysed by the embrace of the crypto ecosystem by the likes of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).</p>\n<p>Like other social technologies, the swirl of narrative, attention and capital around web3 are as much part of its utility as the tools themselves. Mainstream discourses around “the web3 space”—and the blockchains, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, decentralised web (dweb) frameworks that make it up—have been shaped by a cacophony of criticism, partiality and hype, played out over the past five years on Twitter and Discord.</p>\n<p><em>Future Art Ecosystems 3: Art x Decentralised Tech (FAE3)</em> attempts to take a long(er) view on the impact of decentralised technologies and imaginaries on the structures and processes that underpin the development of 21st-century cultural infrastructure, specifically art and advanced technologies (AxAT). The downward slope of the hype cycle towards another “crypto winter”—as well as a market correction in the wider tech industry—is a good time to take a sober view of the lessons, potentials and affordances that have been generated over these years of energetic innovation and speculative boom and bust…</p>\n

J.C. Phillips

No abstract is available for this record.

Mary Jane Hogan

The administrative system of England after the Norman Conquest has been described as “the adaptation of the ancient customary institutions of a decentralized system to the uses of [the Norman and Angevin kings‘] highly centralized administration”. 1 It was complex, adaptable, efficient to a high degree, and constantly changing. It had only a few of the features of a modern bureaucracy, as “government” to the medieval man did not imply anything resembling the modern state and its workings. It meant the practical expression of the rights owed to the king by his subjects and the duties of the king to his people. Its chief functions were the raising of finance and the administration of justice.

Joann P. Cobb

Joann P. Cobb PASCAL'S WAGER AND TWO MODERN LOSERS Blaise Pascal addressed his argument of the wager to the seventeenth -century sceptic confronting the failure of reason to answer the question, "Does God exist?" Pascal in his zeal for conversion of the free-thinker intended the wager on the affirmative answer as only a last-ditch appeal to self-interest and as a predisposition for the infusion of faith, and modern opinion has been influenced by Voltaire's disparaging comment that it is indecent to introduce the concept of a game involving gain and loss to the grave subject of the existence of God. But three centuries later, the wager has a relevance to the society shaped by logical positivism and existential "angst" that has not been entirely overlooked. Two modern short stories present wagerers who lose: Granny Weatherall in Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" and The Misfit in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." These contemporary gamblers illustrate an implication of the argument unexploited by Pascal, but the frequent inclusion of these stories in anthologies and textbooks testifies to the compelling pertinence of the "game." The most appropriate position in the Pense'es for the fragment containing the argument of the wager is still the subject of some debate, but most editors place it after Pascal has delineated the miseries of the human condition and the paradoxical status of mankind. A mixture of misery and greatness, man is endlessly frustrated: "We desire truth, and find within us naught but uncertainty. We seek happiness, and find only misery and death. We are incapable of not desiring truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or happiness" (p. 87). Man's greatness, for Pascal, consists in knowledge of his own misery as he confronts the human situation: "No great elevation of soul is needed to understand that here below is no true and solid satisfaction; that all our pleasures are but vanity, that our woes are infinite, and that lastly death, which threatens us every moment, must infallibly 187 188Philosophy and Literature in a few years land us in the dreadful necessity of being forever either annihilated or miserable" (p. 105). Such understanding leads to thought of the Infinite, but "if there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible" and we are incapable of knowing by the light of nature "what He is, or whether He is" (p. 117). Yet, Pascal says, "a game is on, at the other end of . . . infinite distance, and heads or tails will turn up." Pascal argues that man must wager for he is "embarked," and he cites the odds of the game's outcome as it will affect man's happiness: "Let us weigh gain and loss in calling heads that God is. Reckon these two chances: if you win, you win all; if you lose, you lose naught" (p. 119). Pascal secures the assent of the postulated listener with repeated assertions that the chances of success are even, while the possible gain is infinitely disproportionate to the stake. Pascal's "unbeliever" gives up without much fight, agreeing that he will wager though he cannot believe. In a much criticized passage, Pascal then prescribes the sceptic's course: seek a decrease of human passions, rather than an increase of divine proofs, make believe you believe by using the ritual of the Catholic religion, and this will bring you to believe. And Pascal repeats the question: "What have you to lose?" (p. 121). Pascal's answer, of course, is "nothing" (rien), and he describes the attributes of the sceptic who follows the path of the believer: "You will be faithful, honest, humble, grateful, beneficent, a good friend, true. ... I tell you that you will gain in this life, and that at every step you take on this road you will see such certainty of gain, such nothingness in what you risk, that you will at last realize that you have wagered on something certain and infinite, for which you have risked naught" (pp. 121, 123). But a modern reader is not so quick to agree that "naught" is at stake: "Unmoved by the apologist's disparagement...