Blockchain Papers

Zvi Griliches. Chicago

No abstract is available for this record.

Lev Freinkman, С А Титов

No abstract is available for this record.

Timothy Lane

No abstract is available for this record.

Giovanni Di Crescenzo

No abstract is available for this record.

Jacques Stern

No abstract is available for this record.

Walid Raad

“Beyrouth, á la Folie” 1 Walid Ra’ad H ORS LA VIE by Maroun Baghdadi, the French official selection to the 1991 Cannes film festival, is about a Frenchman’s ordeal in Beirut as a “ Western hostage.” Inspired by the real-life account written by Roger Auque, Hors la Vie proposes a complex and original treatment of the episode in Franco-Lebanese relations referred to as “ PAffaire des Otages.” 2 This treatment clarifies some aspects of the complex nature of France’s historical relations with Lebanon, and chal­ lenges the hitherto narrowly geopolitical analyses of the Western hostage crisis.3In this essay, I will concentrate on the following questions: How does the film’s treatment of a French photojournalist’s “ ordeal” as a Western hostage contest France’s historical ties to Lebanon? And what is at stake in Baghdadi’s emphasis on reading the Western hostage crisis through specific representations of the Lebanese capital? Paris o f the Middle East—Hors la Vie’s opening sequence, praised by critics as presenting “the truth of this city [Beirut] and of this war [the Lebanese civil war],” offers two very familiar images.4The first is that of the photojournalist hero in the figure of Patrick Perrault, and the second is that of the Lebanon of the past 17 years, the Lebanon that has become synonymous with anarchy and destruction. I propose first that Hors la Vie relies on a popular conception of photojournalism in order to present Perrault as a politically and ideo­ logically neutral witness to the civil war, and subsequently to offer his account as the uncontested proof of the inability of the Lebanese and the Arabs to govern themselves. Both instances, I will argue, function, on the one hand, to displace French complicity in the abduction of French nationals in Beirut and the socio-political turmoil in Lebanon and, on the other, to justify France’s colonial intervention in Lebanon. Having qualified as “ the hot spot” in the world from the mid-seven­ ties on, Lebanon witnessed a deluge of Western correspondents seeking to provide news agencies and institutions with a bank of images and analyses that, it would seem, could just as easily have been borrowed from previous Third World “ hot spot” civil wars—Biafra, Benin, Chad, Bangladesh, or Katanga. However, Lebanon and the Lebanese civil war came to represent not just another Third World “ hot spot.” The naming Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 31 L ’E spr it C réa te u r and visualizing of the Lebanon of the past two decades betrayed an ambivalence that fluctuated between “ nostalgia and regret” and “’fear and loathing.” I can but marvel and be baffled by the avalanche of terms and images that have come to dominate the bank of descriptions and characterizations of Lebanese subjects and spaces, both in and outside of Lebanon.5Indeed, Beirut for some Western reporters was not only “ the most important story for quite a while,” 6but it was also “ exciting, it was intoxicating, it was journalistic paradise” (Gersh 9), “ the Casablanca, the center for the Middle East correspondents” (10). Steve Hagey of United Press International comments, “ The dirty little secret about Beirut is what fun it was. It was often scary and creepy, but it was absolutely hilarious fun. I can’t remember anything that was as much fun or as exhilarating” (Gersh 11). That correspondents should unabash­ edly extol the joys of working in war-torn terrain should not come as much of a surprise. One only needs to be reminded of the statements of such heralded war photojournalists as Don McCullin boasting that he “ used to be a war a year man, but now it is not enough. I need two a year.” 7 Such statements highlight a seldom publicly acknowledged aspect of photojournalism and photojournalists’ interests in war, an aspect that challenges the popular conception which holds that: (1) war photojournalists are neutral observers, faithful and uncorrupted wit­ nesses to the situations and events of the world; (2) that they are commit­ ted, humanly and morally, to the stories they cover and are willing to put themselves in situations of extreme danger in order to record and report on the oppression...

Mercy Tembon

The government of Cameroon like that of many Sub-S aharan African countries is
\nfaced with dwindling revenues and cannot provide the required fmances for the education
\nsector. Since many other developing countries are facing similar fmancial constraints,
\npolicy options have been proposed for the recovery of costs as a way of revitalizing and
\nimproving the quality of education in these countries. The introduction of user charges is
\none of the more prominent options that applies to all levels of education. In light of the
\neducational financing situation in Cameroon, this study sets out to assess the possibility
\nof implementing this option. It therefore seeks to analyze how secondary schools are
\nfmanced and to measure private direct costs of secondary education so as to determine
\nparental willingness to spend on schooling.
\nA household and a school survey were conducted in Mezam Division of the North
\nWest Province of Cameroon. 335 households in urban and rural areas were involved in
\nthe household survey, while 16 principals and 750 students, selected from 16 secondary
\nschools, took part in the school survey. Results from these surveys indicate that in
\ngovernment secondary schools, although tuition is provided free, parents are obliged to
\nmeet the costs of books and uniforms. Moreover, because government funding is
\ninadequate, by default, parents are obliged to contribute further towards the provision of
\nadditional facilities in these schools through the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). Thus
\nparents incur substantial costs for their children's education, in relation to household
\nincome and Gross National per Capita Income. The study also reveals that in the private
\neducational sector, fees and other parental contributions, including PTA levies, form an
\nimportant source of finance for secondary schools. Parents of government school students
\nvalue the education of their children highly, and therefore indicated willingness to pay
\nmore, even though they already incur substantial costs. The findings further indicate that
\nwillingness to pay will be increased if the quality of education is improved. However,
\nability to pay is related to family income and number of children, which have important
\nimplications for equity which are discussed in the thesis. Finally the study reveals that the
\nhighly centralized financing policy and practice in government secondary schools does not
\ntake into account the fmancial capacity of communities and private individuals
\nsufficiently.
\nThe thesis argues that, in order to improve access, quality and efficiency of
\neducational provision, an appropriate cost-sharing strategy needs to be developed to
\nfinance government secondary schools, with provision of scholarships or other selective
\nassistance to the most needy. The thesis suggests further that, efforts be made to explore
\nparental willingness and the inherent self help tradition of the people, by encouraging
\nlocal management and fmancing of schools. Hence support from individual users and
\ncontributions from local communities through Parent-Teacher-Associations should be
\nactively solicited. It also suggests that the decentralization of educational management of
\nschools will go a long way towards enhancing educational quality and efficiency. This
\nwill require some adjustments to the existing financing structures, and changes in the
\nregulation and management of the education system. The successful implementation of
\nthese recommendations require immense political will on the part of the policy makers.

Kostas Gavroglu

No abstract is available for this record.

Tony L Eng

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.

Hyungong Shin

In cryptography, the notion of zero-knowledge is important. It is also related to complexity theory. In this paper we briefly survey the zero-knowledge proofs in the literature. 1987 Maathematics Subject Classification: 69D56, 69E30, 69F21, Keywords and phrases: interactive proofs, zero-kniwledge, cryptography, complexity theiry.

Eduardo Martinez Espinoza

The Chilean vocational training system is essentially different from the typical Latin American model where services are provided by an official, largely monopolistic, Vocational Training Institution (VTI), financed mainly by a payroll levy on firms. Instead, Chile has a legally established, market oriented system in which many private training agencies compete to sell their services to private firms and government-sponsored public training programmes.

Alfredo De Santis, Giovanni Di Crescenzo, Giuseppe Persiano

No abstract is available for this record.

Jacques Stern

No abstract is available for this record.

Joan Boyar, René Peralta

We show how to construct a "zero-knowledge proof" that a circuit of size m is satisfiable. The proof is a string of length O(m lg m) which is constructed (and can be verified) using a trusted random string of length O(m lg m). The probability of failure or of cheating is exponentially small in a security parameter which is defined independently Supported in part by NSF Grant CCR-9207204. of the circuit size. Our methods assume that a Quadratic Residuosity Bit Commitment Scheme is available as a primitive and does not consider the cost of establishing this scheme, only the cost of using it. Thus, these "proofs" are essentially non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs, with a couple of changes to the standard definition, though they can easily be modified to fit the standard definition. The techniques used yield more efficient "proofs" than those previously known. 1 Introduction A non-interactive zero-knowledge proof system is a protocol that allows a prover to convince a verifier tha...

Jeni Klugman

No abstract is available for this record.

Jeni Klugman

Decentralization has been a popular theme in development thinking and practice due to the impact of decentralisation of government expenditures and revenues upon human development. This survey explores the extensive literature on decentralisation, revealing the lack of quantitative and rigorous studies. A detailed analysis of the various dimensions of decentralisation - participation, financing and comparative priorities - and of the relevant effects upon efficiency, resource availability and equity, enable the author to draw some interesting lessons from its theory and practice.

Marios Avgousti, Antony N. Beris

No abstract is available for this record.

Deborah Hauss

headlines of newspapers nationwide are ablaze with stories about wage freezes, mergers, plant closings and scandal in Corporate America. It's no wonder employees of these companies harbor anxieties about their job security and the future of their workplaces. Even when dispensing unfavorable news, forthright and timely internal communications play a major part in quelling the fears and doubts of employees. Employees seek honest answers directly from management, not speculative stories in the morning newspaper. This article shows how six companies have used employee communications to convey bad news. each case, the company has faced negative public opinion, uncomplimentary news coverage, internal shake-ups, or simply slumping profits, either recently or in the past few years. Boeing has had to handle massive layoffs. Northwest Airlines also faced cost and wage cuts, along with a public court battle over fares with a major competitor and an unfriendly media environment. Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield recently faced a scandal over its financial management and personnel changes at the top, along with 25% to 30% annual health insurance premium cost increases that had consumers and some of the press screaming. Time Warner Inc. struggled through four years of cultural upheaval caused by an expensive merger involving a hostile takeover, compounded by its production of controversial products and management maneuvering at the top of the company. And, two years ago, Citibank, Inc. embarked on a worldwide campaign to shore up its profitability. Regardless of the messages involved, all of these organizations have gone to great lengths in efforts to share up-to-the-minute controversial news with employees. They used various communications tactics and mediums, including: * Special editions of company-produced newspapers offering lengthy explanations of all pertinent events as well as progress reports in letter format from the president/CEO. * Videotaped or in-person appearances by the company's chairman of the board/CEO addressing employee concerns such as the company's financial stability, job security, opportunities for career advancement and market share erosion. * Monthly staff meetings for officers and directors during the crisis period to keep everyone abreast of the latest news. Mid-level managers are also encouraged to be there for employees they supervise to foster a we're all in this together attitude. * Town meetings, allowing open forums between the president/CEO or managers, and randomly selected employees. * A series of mental and physical health workshops aimed at helping employees deal with job-related stress on their lives. * Programs to encourage employees to stay charged and professional. Established communications systems allow for a quick turnaround of information in a highly volatile or crisis situation. But lessons in crisis communications are sometimes learned along the way. After its merger, Time Warner Inc. had to overcome the internal communications barriers between six decentralized, autonomous business divisions. It has taken but the company now has a smooth, workable total system. Two merged Kansas-based power companies learned a similar lesson when they tried to build a new, integrated culture. Northwest's spiral of turmoil Northwest Airlines had a convergence of several negative events all at once, starting in the summer of 1992, said Jeff Smith, director internal communications for the St. Paul, MN-based company. A federal court battle developed between Northwest and American Airlines after the latter made deep fare cuts. That started a spiral of bad (revenue) months for us, he said. In spring '92, we had no other alternative but to ask our labor groups to begin negotiating more than $900 million in reduced costs over three years, Smith continued. The lengthy process of those intense negotiations and all of the information and misinformation about the company caused a great deal of anxiety internally. …

Κ. William Easter

Private sector involvement and user participation in water resource management are not new, say the authors. They give examples that demonstrate how willing users and the private sector are able to improve water use and play a larger role in water resources management. User participation and private sector involvement, if properly structured, can provide the incentives needed to stabilize and improve the efficiency of irrigation and water supply systems. They can add flexibility, transparency, and accountability and can reduce the state's administrative and financial burden. A 1989 World Bank review of 21 impact evaluations of irrigation projects, for example, found cost recovery to be excellent in those projects in which water management and operations and maintenance had been entrusted to water users. Greater private sector and user participation can effectively increase user responsibility for managing and financing water projects while freeing governments to focus on broader water resource management concerns. The authors provide examples of decentralized water management in developing country water supply and irrigation systems. Governments should: more actively regulate private sector exploitation of groundwater, especially for irrigation; take measures to encourage price competition among private suppliers of water for both domestic and agricultural uses; and play an active role in organizing water user associations, especially for irrigation and rural water supply systems, and in giving them technical assistance. As numerous examples highlight, such activities should be designed to reduce the transaction costs of organizing and to establish a sense of assurance and accountability within the water user community. Once this is done, the community can deal with problems associated with excludability and unwillingness to pay.

Bill Kinsey

The studies and cases reviewed by the authors suggest that settlement programs are too often designed on the assumption that all settlers will or can succeed. This had led to too much centralized administration and rigid designs, rather than reliance on decentralized approaches, flexibility in implementation, support for spontaneous settlement, and reliance on the settler's own investment capacity. Collective forms of crop production have not worked. Cropland is best allocated to individual families whose land rights must be clearly defined as ownership or long-term leases. Farm sizes must be flexibly adjusted to skills, the availability of family labor, and the families'capital ownership. Settlers should therefore be allowed to sell or rent the land to other beneficiaries. If poor settlers are to benefit or succeed, settlement cannot be based on credit finance but must include grants. Paternalistic constraints on the choice of crops or technologies, marketing, or participation in the labor force have usually not been enforceable or have had negative effects.

Paul Collins, Frederick Nixson

Abstract Mongolia is the second oldest communist regime after Russia, and its reforms have been under way since 1986. It is a land‐locked state and is characterized by its large physical size relative to a small population, an almost total historical dependence on the former‐USSR and a limited range of agricultural and mineral resources. Despite the profound effects that the collapse of the USSR and Comecon have caused, Mongolia has adopted a ‘shock therapy’ approach to reform, embarking simultaneously on a bold programme of both political and economic change. This article traces the genesis of the reform strategy, highlighting the interplay between external events and internal debate and sometimes outlining the major areas of the reform programme: the introduction of macroeconomic management to replace central planning, the improvement of incentives and an ambitious programme of privatization. The undertaking of such a programme in the Mongolia points to the importance of a social safety net and popular support for the reforms. The article then describes the complementary reforms of public administration that have been more recently introduced in the wake of a new constitution, with their emphasis on professionalization of government administration, transfer of responsibilities to provincial and local government and improved policies and institutions for national training. International technical assistance has and continues to play a significant role in supporting the above. A number of lessons are drawn with regard to strategy, particularly the need at programme level for an integrated or systems approach that can ensure linkages between different elements and at the level of training the need for imaginative approaches to design and delivery. The article draws conclusions on the prospects for success in each area of the reform programme. Critical for public administration restructuring and professionalization is the issue of institutional capacity for implementation. While the legal framework has now been laid down for decentralized government, for example, there is little prior experience in local government of many areas of functional management, finance and budgeting, investment planning and social services administration. On the economic front, the shock therapy stragegy has been adopted despite some earlier advice on the preconditions for successful privatization—with regard for example to market structure, the development of the financial sector and most crucially the continued role of the state in fostering entrepre‐neurship in a society devoid of any recent history of such.

Pamela Doty

Advanced industrial countries around the world are making or contemplating major reforms of their systems for financing and organizing long-term care for the elderly. The paper describes major reform efforts including: the pursuit of cost efficiencies from further differentiation of the acute and long-term care delivery systems, promotion of home and community-based care alternatives to traditional institutions, and ‘systems integration’ involving consolidation of responsibility for long-term care at one level of government. The paper concludes by discussing the special relevance to the long-term care reform debate in the U.S. of recent British and German decisions to, respectively, decentralize versus centralize responsibility for long-term care.

Karl P. Donfried, I. Howard Marshall

THE RHETORICAL STRUCTURE The introductory comments made about rhetoric in our discussion of 1 Thessalonians are relevant to 2 Thessalonians and we urge the reader to review that material at this time. There is wide consensus that 2 Thessalonians belongs to the deliberative genre of rhetoric. This genre includes honour and advantage as the standard topics. These topics are used in 2 Thessalonians to advise the audience concerning their present actions and the result of those actions in the future. Frank Witt Hughes provides the following analysis of the rhetorical structure of 2 Thessalonians. It is one that we accept. I Exordium (introduction) (1:1–12) A epistolary prescript (1:1–2) B thanksgiving prayer (1:3–10) C intercessory prayer (1:11–12) II Partitio (statement of the proposition) (2:1–2) A subjects to be dealt with in the probatio (2:1–2) B point of disagreement (heresy to be refuted) (2:2) III Probatio (proof) (2:3–15) A a first proof (refutatio) (2:3–12) B second proof (2:13–15) IV Peroratio (epilogue) (stated as an intercessory prayer; 2:16–18) V Exhortation (3:1–15) A command (or request) to pray for Paul (3:1–4) B intercessory prayer (3:5) C command to work (3:6–15) VI Epistolary postscript (3:16–17) A intercessory prayer (3:16) B authentication (3:17) C final blessing (3:18) Knowing that 2 Thessalonians is an example of deliberate rhetoric permits the interpreter to be sensitive to the argumentation of the letter in general, and by examining the various components of this rhetorical structure one can be made sensitive to the central issues at stake in the dialogue between this author and his audience.

Roy Radner

No abstract is available for this record.