Blockchain Papers

Cheng Kai-ming

No abstract is available for this record.

Wei-Lun Kao, R.K. Iyer

This paper presents a distributed fault injection and monitoring environment (DEFINE) as a tool to evaluate system dependability, to investigate fault propagation, and to validate fault-tolerant mechanisms. DEFINE can inject both hardware faults (hardware-induced software errors) and software faults into any process running in a distributed system, either in user mode or in supervisor mode, and monitor the fault impact and propagation in software systems and among machines. It employs two fault injection techniques: (i) using hardware clock interrupts to control the time of fault injection and activation, and (ii) using software traps to inject all the faults except communication faults and memory faults in the data/stack segment. Experiments on six Sun SPARCstations to study the system behavior under faults are conducted to demonstrate the application of DEFINE.

Lora Bowman, J. B. Forrest, Robert J. Taylor, Bill Seelig

ABSTRACT A means of providing high efficiency driven plate anchors to satisfy Naval requirements for hurricane moorings in congested, confined or complex seafloor areas is under development. Driven plate anchors resist loading in any direction, including uplift, and offer extremely high holding capacity to size ratios. Where space is limited and drag or clump anchors or stake piles are unsuitable, small, inexpensive plate anchor configurations can provide very large holding capacities and be installed with readily available marine equipment. Driven plate anchors can be fabricated from common structural steel configurations and materials. Anchor installation is achieved by attaching the plate anchor to a structural member, called a follower, and driving it vertically into the seafloor using standard pile driving techniques. The follower is retrieved and the anchor is then loaded to properly position it in the seafloor and verify it's capacity. This paper describes plate anchor theory, installation techniques and the results of proof tests in a number of different seafloor soils. These include soft organic silts, over-consolidated clays, dense sands, glaciated soils and corals. Also included is a brief overview of completed installations and a design guide currently in development by the Navy. INTRODUCTION Downsizing of the Fleet is taxing the Navy's ability to provide secure moorings for the Inactive Fleet. These moorings must be designed for hurricane conditions, and often occur in congested areas and at sites with complex seafloor conditions. Conventional drag and pile anchors are either unsuitable for the site conditions or are extremely expensive. In light of today's shrinking economy and the urgent need to provide new moorings, technology for designing and installing simple plate anchors using common pile driving equipment and marine gear is being developed by the Navy. The technology is proven through many mooring installations, resulting in substantial savings to the Navy. Plate anchors installed using standard pile driving techniques (Pile-Driven Plate Anchors) provide an alternative to conventional anchors that can be used today by the offshore industry. This report is an effort to introduce this new technology to the Offshore Industry. PLATE ANCHOR THEORY Plate anchors are driven into the seafloor with the plate parallel to the direction of driving and then rotated or "keyed" by pulling on the anchor line (Figure 1). The anchor is connected to a structural member called a follower and driven vertically into the seafloor using a pile-driving hammer. The follower is retrieved and the anchor is proof loaded. This can be accomplished either vertically from the installation platform immediately after installation or later by pulling horizontally against another anchor leg. The proofing process keys or rotates the anchor plate to a more resistive position, near-normal to the loading direction. Fig. 1- Driven plate anchor - concept of operation.(Available in full paper) Current techniques for determining the holding capacity of plate anchors have been adapted from conventional foundation design practice. For cohesionless soils (c = O), static anchor holding capacity, F, can be determined by the simplified relationship. (Available in full paper)

Kin K. Leung, David M. Lucantoni

No abstract is available for this record.

Brian J. Cuffel, David Wait, Tom Head

OBJECTIVE: In 1990 the state of Arkansas shifted financial responsibility for state hospital services to community mental health centers; through a policy known as "bed buy-back," centers now authorize all state hospital admissions and prospectively purchase bed days for their patients. Characteristics of patients hospitalized before and after implementation of the policy were examined to determine how the policy affected hospital admission rates, types of patients admitted, and the amount of contact between CMHC and hospital staff about admitted patients, as well as how these elements were affected differently in rural and urban areas. METHODS: Changes in the types of patients admitted over the 13 months before and 14 months after the change in financing were studied through retrospective chart review of 648 patients. Administrative data were used to examine changes in numbers of admissions for 30 months before and 26 months afterward. Data were analyzed by piecewise regression, least-squares, and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: After financial decentralization, state hospital use was reduced in both urban and rural areas, although the reduction in urban areas was proportionally greater. Contrary to expectation, admissions were not limited to the most severely ill, disruptive, or substance-abusing patients, nor were they more likely to be readmitted. For patients who were admitted, communication between the community and the state hospital was greater than before financial decentralization. CONCLUSIONS: Shifting financial responsibility for patient care significantly reduced state hospital use, did not affect patient mix, and apparently increased coordination of care between community and hospital. Whether bed buy-back has affected the kind or quality of services delivered in the community awaits further study.

Catharine Randall

I. Readings of Porete: Past and Present Marguerite Porete's critics, ecclesiastical and legal authorities in the main, adamantly misread her work. They took passages out of context, fracturing the unity of her work and distorting her confessional perspective. They then declared both her and her work to be heretical. Ultimately, they burned her, along with her book, at the stake. Such misinterpretation obviously abuses both Porete's theological import and her literary expertise. Similarly, modern assessments of Porete's work differ, either admitting to a sense of defeat before the disparate composition of her text Le Miroir des ames simples et aneanties, or asserting thematics based on the examination merely of a part of a whole. Peter Dronke and Robert Cottrell have performed the most provocative readings of Porete's work in recent years. Dronke postulates the significance of an emergent (and, to my mind, acontextual) feminism arising from incidents of what he calls in Le Miroir. He finds that Marguerite expresses personal concerns through the eruption of poetry embedded in prose: Marguerite... uses a 'bound' form... The canzone is her prologue, her first 'manifesto'; the rondeau comes near the close, and is perhaps the most effective crystallization of her thoughts. The other lyrical passages occur at high points, at the most climatic moments [This shows] a greatly increased subjectivity.(1) While such an interpretation importantly lobbies for a notion of 'selfhood' in her work, it does not grapple with the theological issues which so clearly motivate the construction of Porete's text. Robert Cottrell develops a sophisticated Lacanian reading of Le Miroir, taking as his emblem for the interpretive process an introductory allegorical incident. Porete describes a maiden yearning for her far-away lover. Attempting to capture his image and bring him closer, she commissions a painting. Through the contemplation of this painting, she not only succeeds in representing her lover, she actually effects his presence. Referring to the 'mirror stage,' Cottrell talks about the apprehension of the 'other.' Once totality with the 'other' is achieved, voice is extraneous; speech subsides into a non-Logos. Cottrell examines the structure of language in Porete, demonstrating that it enacts a form of linguistic via negativa. While Dronke spoke of selfhood, Cottrell obviates personal intervention in the text. He cites Porete: ... cette parole depasse nos ecritures, si bien que nous ne pouvons pas [la] comprendre.(2) Cottrell's stimulating study, however, still skims the surface of theological concerns. The theological dimension of the text is everywhere present, yet incessantly eludes critical focus.(3) Significantly, Marguerite Porete sent the first copies of Le Miroir to clerics and to the Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne. The proof that a theological interpretation lies at the crux of her textual production is the irony that her self-selected readership should turn inquisitorial; they take her word as a confessional statement embodying distortion and heresy. Marguerite was called before the inquisitorial tribunal of Haute Lorraine, then remanded to the Inquisition in Paris; on May 30,1310 she was publicly burned. Her theological perspective was judged derivative of the teachings of Meister Eckhard, themselves labelled heretical in 1311, and also deemed representative of teachings of the heretical sect of the Free Spirits.(4) II. Theological Parameters One way to try to come to terms with the theological component of Porete's work is to examine traditional doctrine, applying it as an interpretive grid outlining the parameters which her work exceeds. My contention is that rather than producing an heretical document, Porete in fact entered into a prolonged and thoughtful dialogue with church doctrine, exercising literary techniques to illustrate, empower, and sometimes, to expand, traditional theological positions. …

Fredrik Carlsen

No abstract is available for this record.

T. Greenhalgh

<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> <h3>Introduction:</h3> Several countries have adopted integrated community case management (iCCM) as a strategy for improved health service delivery in areas with poor health facility coverage. Early implementation of iCCM is often run by nongovernmental organizations financed by donors through projects. Such projects risk failure to transition into programs run by the local health system upon project closure. Engagement of subnational health authorities such as district health teams (DHTs) is essential for a smooth transition. <h3>Methods:</h3> We used a repeated qualitative study design to assess the readiness of and progress made by DHTs in institutionalizing iCCM into the functions of locally decentralized health systems in 9 western Uganda districts. Readiness data were derived from structured group interviews with DHTs before iCCM policy adoption in 2010 and again in 2015. Progressive institutionalization achievements were assessed through key informant interviews with targeted DHT members and local government district planners in the same areas. <h3>Findings:</h3> In the readiness study, DHTs expressed commitment to institutionalize iCCM into the local health system through the development of district-specific iCCM activity work plans and budgets. The DHTs further suggested that they would implement district-led training, motivation, and supervision of community health workers; procurement of iCCM medicines and supplies; and advocacy activities for inclusion of iCCM indicators into the national health information systems. After iCCM policy adoption, follow-up study data findings showed that iCCM was largely not institutionalized into the local district health system functions. The poor institutionalization was attributed to lack of stewardship on how to transition from externally supported implementation to district-led programming, conflicting guidelines on community distribution of medicines, poor community-level accountability systems, and limited decision-making autonomy at the district level. <h3>Conclusion:</h3> Successful institutionalization of iCCM requires local ownership with increased coordination and cooperation among governmental and nongovernmental actors at both the national and district levels.

Anwar Dec Shah

The author reviews the conceptual basis for fiscal equalization transfers, analyzes the theoretical implications for optimal design of equalization transfers, and suggests quantitative approaches for assessing the fiscal needs of subnational governments and determining their entitlement to transfers. The author illustrates proposed methods using data for local and provincial Canadian governments. The proposed methods could be useful tools, he says, for undertaking systematic objective reviews of aggregate and sectoral public spending in developing countries. The author argues that in a decentralized federation, fiscal inefficiencies and inequities arise because of subnational governments'differing levels of ability to provide comparable public services at comparable tax rates. Fiscal equalization transfers that reduce or eliminate differentials in net fiscal benefits create a rare instance in economics when considerations of equity and efficiency coincide. These transfers must allow for differences in the spending needs and revenues-raising abilities of the various subnational governments. The author argues for a two-tiered approach to equalization. The first tier would be a federal responsibility to equalize the burden of federal taxes. The second tier would be an interprovincial equalization fund to be administered by the Council of Provincial Finance Ministers. It would entail a comprehensive equalization system that takes into account provincial spending needs. The standard of equalization would be negotiated.

Jean Dunbabin

This chapter examines the financial history of the university during the period from 1914 to 1970. Early on in the 20th century the Board of Finance sought central control over departmental funds, but this proposal was rejected in March 1915 and the university remained highly decentralized. In 1917, the Board of Finance made another attempt to centralize college finances and failed again. In terms of finances, the university's income was little more than a third of that of the colleges collectively and it did not overtake this until the early 1950s. This chapter provides statistics relevant to the income of the Oxford colleges and the expenditure per students from the 1660s to 1988.

Ph. R. Mossé

A bstract . The French health care delivery system is characterized, on the one hand, by a centralized and socialized decision making process as far as financing is concerned, yet on the other hand, the regulation of activities is highly decentralized and governed mainly by individual physicians on a private basis. Today, the health care scene seems to be stuck in a process within which each new reform leads to yet another reform, In this movement, the role played by academic health economists is increasing. The French health care delivery system and its dynamics are described and two major topics which wilt be at stake in the years to come, the remuneration of physicians and the financing of hospitals are considered. The challenge facing health economists who have to consider the system as a system, is examined. The relationships between the political arena and the researcher's ivory tower appears to be is one of the keys for the future of the health care system. It is demonstrated that, in this area too, few barriers have fallen.

Jonathan Fox

Latin America's Emerging Local Politics Jonathan Fox (bio) Does local democratization really matter for national politics? For those who value accountable government and civic participation, democracy at the local level is obviously important in and of itself. This essay makes a different point, however—that the degree of democratization of local government affects the prospects for national democratic governance. Most Latin American nations made the delicate transition from authoritarian to elected civilian regimes in the 1980s, but in the 1990s many still have not firmly consolidated their democratic gains. The wave of regime transitions in the 1980s created opportunities for experimentation with more honest and effective styles of governance, but so far most of the new regimes have failed to produce successful results at the national level. Traditional centralized, top-down approaches dominated national governance thoughout the region during the 1980s. Key characteristics included centralized and militarized police powers, appointed rather than elected mayors and governors, and extreme fiscal and bureaucratic centralization. These problems of top-down governance were compounded by systemic defects such as the lack of independent judicial authority and highly opaque, discretionary policy processes. Remarkably, most of these practices could be found across the entire political spectrum, from the moderate civilian governments of Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia to revolutionary Nicaragua and Cuba on the left and military-dominated El Salvador, Guatemala, and pre-1989 Chile on the right. The view that policy solutions should necessarily be national is now [End Page 105] widely questioned throughout Latin America. The role of national governments is changing in two ways: international economic integration is limiting the scope for market regulation, while on the domestic front national authorities have begun to devolve major responsibilities to local governments. For example, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia all began decentralization programs in the 1980s. Many of these decentralization plans were enshrined in new or recently reformed constitutions, though the actual resources and autonomy ceded to local authorities varied greatly.1 Decentralization does not necessarily involve the democratization of local government, however. In Chile, for example, General Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship gave huge policy responsibilities to appointed mayors. Local democratization has two dimensions. First, it involves opening up territorially based subnational governments to electoral competition (mayors and governors had traditionally been chosen by the president in many Latin American countries). Second, it entails the elimination of exclusionary political practices, including fraud, unfair limits on voter registration, the lack of ballot secrecy, voter intimidation, and vote buying. These are issues of electoral freedoms, as distinct from issues of electoral fairness (e.g., media access, campaign financing, etc.). This essay focuses on exclusionary political practices in "local" politics because that is where most citizens either gain access to or find themselves excluded from the state more generally. But authoritarian local politicians—especially those challenged from below—usually need national allies to survive. Local democratization affects the prospects for national democratic governance in four interrelated respects. First, elected civilian regimes cannot be considered democratic until authoritarian enclaves are eliminated and the entire citizenry is effectively enfranchised. Second, pluralist politics must be learned, and subnational governments make a good school. Third, rising democratic leaders can most credibly challenge the corrupt old ways if they are forearmed with successful records in local government. Fourth, the widespread transition from traditionally paternalistic social policies to more efficient and targeted programs depends on balanced partnerships among national governments, local governments, and new social and civic actors. Eliminating Authoritarian Enclaves National political conditions certainly shape the possibilities for local democratization, but the reverse is true as well. If enough authoritarian enclaves persist, democracy's consolidation at the national level may be jeopardized. Longstanding exclusionary practices will not disappear because of the signing of decrees or the transfer of the presidential sash in national capitals. [End Page 106] The persistence of authoritarian enclaves under civilian rule prevents the effective extension of basic political rights to the entire population. The proliferation of seemingly small free spaces within civil society greatly helped to weaken centralized authoritarian rule in many a Latin American dictatorship. Now one encounters a mirror image of that situation—elected civilian regimes rule nationally, but the societies...

Giovanni Di Crescenco, Giuseppe Persiano

No abstract is available for this record.

José Ramos López, Isabel Rodríguez, Pilar González Navarro, José María Peiró Silla · 6 authors

Analysis of sports-related demands of potential users of an organization is a very important aspect of its functioning and helps it cover its demands and needs. In the context of sports, analysis of demands related to planning and provision for sports areas is important for various social agents and is a relevant contribution of psychology towards development and improvement of sports management. This article presents the results of a survey from 625 users of 43 facilities in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Valencia. The survey was centred on their demands respecting provision for sports facilites. Three main aspects were considered: values and function of the practice of sport for respondents, users' preferences for the type of facility that should be used, and certain preferences and opinions about facilities' management and ownership. Outstanding results are: great centrality of sport for respondents, predominant orientation towards sport as a means of leisure and recreation, a preference for state-owned facilities, even though respondents believe private ones are better managed, consideration of in-door pavilions and covered sports centres as facilities that should get priority in local building plans, and a preference for decentralization of new facilities. This analysis can be of great help in order to plan the provision for new sports services and infrastructure, and a supporting tool in the management of facilities.

Xiaopei Yan

No abstract is available for this record.

Oded Hochman, David Pines, Jacques‐François Thisse

The authors show that space matters in designing the optimal provision of local public goods. Geography imposes a particular institutional structure of local governments due to the overlapping of market areas associated with different local public goods. The optimum can be decentralized through local governments that have jurisdiction over market areas of all local public good types. This implies that the appropriate suppliers of local public goods are metropolitan governments which finance them through user charges and land rent. In addition, the authors' approach invalidates the prevailing theory of fiscal federalism, according to which a layer of government should be established for each type of local public good. Copyright 1995 by American Economic Association.

Allan Odden

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Richard M. Bird

The author examines the many faces of infrastructure decentralization: the costs and benefits, the government structure (constraint or variable?), the"polycentric"approach, and how to make decentralization work (for whom?). He proposes basic principles and guidelines for policy design, for both small projects and large. Broadly, these guidelines are summed up in a few propositions. In all countries, some critical infrastructure is provided through a decentralized political structure. Current trends make that likely to be more true in the future. Decentralization, however defined, in and of itself had no necessary implications for good or evil so far as infrastructure is concerned: its effects depend on the incentives various decisionmakers face. The key to ensuring that these incentives are conducive to"good"decisions (about design, siting, timing, finance, pricing, operation, maintenance, and use of infrastructure) is to ensure that those who made the decisions bear the financial (and political) consequences, as much as possible. Politically, this means that political leaders at all levels should be responsive and responsible to their constituents, and that those constituents are fully informed about the consequences of all decisions. Making politicians bear the consequences of their own mistakes is as close as one can get to a"hard"political budget constraint. Economically, it must be difficult for local residents to shift cost to nonresidents who do not receive benefits and to make local decisionmakers fully responsible to their citizens for the use they make of revenues collected from them (through local taxes), to users of infrastructure (local or otherwise) for the use made of the revenues they contribute (through user charges of various sorts), and to taxpayers in general for the use made of any transfers (or subsidized loans) they receive. Administratively, what such a system requires is a clear set of"framework"laws (on local budgeting, financial reporting, taxation, contracting, dispute settlement, rules to be followed in designing user charges and so on), as well as adequate institutional support for localities to operate in this environment. To the extent that these conditions are not met, the perverse incentives that too often exist because of the structure and finance of the public sector in many countries will probably be exacerbated by the current tendency to decentralize more and more decisions in the public sector.

Toshiya Itoh, Atsushi Kawakubo

No abstract is available for this record.

Toshiya Itoh, Atsushi Kawakubo

No abstract is available for this record.

Eitan ALTMAN

No abstract is available for this record.

Francois M.I. Lampietti

The World Bank has announced a dramatic shift in water policy that will nearly quadruple its spending in this area while it shifts the emphasis toward sustainable development. Instead of financing project-oriented investments in irrigation, water supply, sanitation and hydropower, the Bank will lend for environmentally sustainable, river-basin-wide water resource management. Privatization and decentralization are other aspects of the new policy. The implications of water policy are particularly important in the Middle East, where in the long run peace may depend on the way in which available water is allocated; proposed projects in the region are discussed, as is the need for improved data on surface and groundwater.

Gerald K. Helleiner

Globalization is moving much more rapidly in finance than in international trade and production. The international financial system is at present undergoverned. Necessary public goods — in furtherance of the objectives of stability, order, equity and efficiency in the global economy — are undersupplied. The world economy would benefit from stronger and more democratic macroeconomic and financial management, preferably centred in the International Monetary Fund. Development finance might best be decentralized from its present over‐concentration in the World Bank. The Chrétien Government has an opportunity, as host of the Group of Seven Summit, to lead the way to a credible and representative review of global economic governance.

David W. K. Yeung

In the past decade, there is an emerging trend for the use of game theoretical framework in studying government tax plicies. The game theoretical approach allows the possibility of simultaneous interactions between government policy and decentralized private decisions. This paper develops a stochastic differential game between the government and the public. The public chooses an investment strategy to maximize the present value of income net of tax and investment expenditures. The government controls the tax system and aims at maximizing a weighted sum of tax collected, the level of bonds outstanding and income net of investment expenditures. Two dynamic processes — one for the capital formation and the other for bonds accumulation — are present in the model. The dynamic processes are subject to stochastic shocks. A feedback Nash equilibrium solution of the game is obtained. The parabolic partial differential equations characterizing the value functions of the game equilibrium is solved explicitly. Closed-from solutions of the equilibrium investment strategy and tax policy are provided. The stationary (longrun equilibrium) joint density function of capital stock and bonds is also obtained. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.