WorldWideScience

Sample records for ecology based decentralized

  1. The Bases of Federalism and Decentralization in Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Ornelas

    2003-05-01

    Full Text Available This essay uses the Weberian-type ideal to define the conceptual bases of federalism and the decentralization of education. Classic federalism, ficticious federalism (corporativism, the origins and the indigenous version of the new federalism are discussed. We conclude that Mexican constitutional federalism is baroque and ambiguous. Based on theory and the experiences of various countries, bureaucratic centralism and its main characteristics are defined. As a contrast, a typology of educational decentralization is developed. Taken into account are its political, judicial and administrative definitions; a distinction is made between delegation and decentralization. It is argued that with the signing of the Agreement for the Modernization of Basic Education, the Mexican government sought to increase its legitimacy without losing control of education.

  2. Research on calculation of the IOL tilt and decentration based on surface fitting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Lin; Wang, Ke; Yan, Yan; Song, Xudong; Liu, Zhicheng

    2013-01-01

    The tilt and decentration of intraocular lens (IOL) result in defocussing, astigmatism, and wavefront aberration after operation. The objective is to give a method to estimate the tilt and decentration of IOL more accurately. Based on AS-OCT images of twelve eyes from eight cases with subluxation lens after operation, we fitted spherical equation to the data obtained from the images of the anterior and posterior surfaces of the IOL. By the established relationship between IOL tilt (decentration) and the scanned angle, at which a piece of AS-OCT image was taken by the instrument, the IOL tilt and decentration were calculated. IOL tilt angle and decentration of each subject were given. Moreover, the horizontal and vertical tilt was also obtained. Accordingly, the possible errors of IOL tilt and decentration existed in the method employed by AS-OCT instrument. Based on 6-12 pieces of AS-OCT images at different directions, the tilt angle and decentration values were shown, respectively. The method of the surface fitting to the IOL surface can accurately analyze the IOL's location, and six pieces of AS-OCT images at three pairs symmetrical directions are enough to get tilt angle and decentration value of IOL more precisely.

  3. Research on Calculation of the IOL Tilt and Decentration Based on Surface Fitting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lin Li

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The tilt and decentration of intraocular lens (IOL result in defocussing, astigmatism, and wavefront aberration after operation. The objective is to give a method to estimate the tilt and decentration of IOL more accurately. Based on AS-OCT images of twelve eyes from eight cases with subluxation lens after operation, we fitted spherical equation to the data obtained from the images of the anterior and posterior surfaces of the IOL. By the established relationship between IOL tilt (decentration and the scanned angle, at which a piece of AS-OCT image was taken by the instrument, the IOL tilt and decentration were calculated. IOL tilt angle and decentration of each subject were given. Moreover, the horizontal and vertical tilt was also obtained. Accordingly, the possible errors of IOL tilt and decentration existed in the method employed by AS-OCT instrument. Based on 6–12 pieces of AS-OCT images at different directions, the tilt angle and decentration values were shown, respectively. The method of the surface fitting to the IOL surface can accurately analyze the IOL’s location, and six pieces of AS-OCT images at three pairs symmetrical directions are enough to get tilt angle and decentration value of IOL more precisely.

  4. Towards a (Decentralization-Based Typology of Peer Production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melanie Dulong de Rosnay

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Online peer-production platforms facilitate the coordination of creative work and services. Generally considered as empowering participatory tools and a source of common good, they can also be, however, alienating instruments of digital labour. This paper proposes a typology of peer-production platforms, based on the centralization/decentralization levels of several of their design features. Between commons-based peer-production and crowdsourced, user-generated content “enclosed” by corporations, a wide range of models combine different social, political, technical and economic arrangements. This combined analysis of the level of (decentralization of platform features provides information on emancipation capabilities in a more granular way than a market-based qualification of platforms, based on the nature of ownership or business models only. The five selected features of the proposed typology are: ownership of means of production, technical architecture/design, social organization/governance of work patterns, ownership of the peer-produced resource, and value of the output.

  5. Shorter Decentralized Attribute-Based Encryption via Extended Dual System Groups

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    Jie Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Decentralized attribute-based encryption (ABE is a special form of multiauthority ABE systems, in which no central authority and global coordination are required other than creating the common reference parameters. In this paper, we propose a new decentralized ABE in prime-order groups by using extended dual system groups. We formulate some assumptions used to prove the security of our scheme. Our proposed scheme is fully secure under the standard k-Lin assumption in random oracle model and can support any monotone access structures. Compared with existing fully secure decentralized ABE systems, our construction has shorter ciphertexts and secret keys. Moreover, fast decryption is achieved in our system, in which ciphertexts can be decrypted with a constant number of pairings.

  6. Agent-based Decentralization of Applications in Distributed Smart Grid Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kienesberger, Georg; Xypolytou, Evangelia; Marchgraber, Jurgen

    2015-01-01

    systems (DMACS) and aims to give an overview on the different requirements and challenges on the way from current centralized control systems to DMACS. Therefore, different ICT scenarios and MAS topologies are employed to discuss the decentralization of three exemplary smart grid applications: voltage......Smart grid technology promises to prepare today’s power systems for the challenges of the future by extensive integration of information and communication technology (ICT). One key aspect is the control paradigm which will have to be shifted from completely centralized control systems to more...... dezentralized concepts in order to adapt to the distributed nature of smart grids. Multi-agent systems (MAS) are a very promising approach for designing distributed, decentralized systems, naturally also in the field of smart grids. This work introduces the notion of decentralized multi-agent-based control...

  7. Decentralization in Air Transportation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Udluft, H.

    2017-01-01

    In this work,we demonstrate that decentralized control can result in stable, efficient, and robust operations in the Air Transportation System. We implement decentralized control for aircraft taxiing operations and use Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation to analyze the resulting system behavior

  8. (DeCentralization of the Global Informational Ecosystem

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    Johanna Möller

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Centralization and decentralization are key concepts in debates that focus on the (antidemocratic character of digital societies. Centralization is understood as the control over communication and data flows, and decentralization as giving it (back to users. Communication and media research focuses on centralization put forward by dominant digital media platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and governments. Decentralization is investigated regarding its potential in civil society, i.e., hacktivism, (encryption technologies, and grass-root technology movements. As content-based media companies increasingly engage with technology, they move into the focus of critical media studies. Moreover, as formerly nationally oriented companies now compete with global media platforms, they share several interests with civil society decentralization agents. Based on 26 qualitative interviews with leading media managers, we investigate (decentralization strategies applied by content-oriented media companies. Theoretically, this perspective on media companies as agents of (decentralization expands (decentralization research beyond traditional democratic stakeholders by considering economic actors within the “global informational ecosystem” (Birkinbine, Gómez, & Wasko, 2017. We provide a three-dimensional framework to empirically investigate (decentralization. From critical media studies, we borrow the (decentralization of data and infrastructures, from media business research, the (decentralization of content distribution.

  9. A decentralized receptance-based damage detection strategy for wireless smart sensors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jang, Shinae; Spencer Jr, Billie F; Sim, Sung-Han

    2012-01-01

    Various structural health monitoring strategies have been proposed recently that can be implemented in the decentralized computing environment intrinsic to wireless smart sensor networks (WSSN). Many are based on changes in the experimentally determined flexibility matrix for the structure under consideration. However, the flexibility matrix contains only static information; much richer information is available by considering the dynamic flexibility, or receptance, of the structure. Recently, the stochastic dynamic damage locating vector (SDDLV) method was proposed based on changes of dynamic flexibility matrices employing centrally collected output-only measurements. This paper investigates the potential of the SDDLV method for implementation on a network of wireless smart sensors, where a decentralized, hierarchical, in-network processing approach is used to address issues of scalability of the SDDLV algorithm. Two approaches to aggregate results are proposed that provide robust estimates of damage locations. The efficacy of the developed strategy is first verified using wired sensors emulating a wireless sensor network. Subsequently, the decentralized damage detection strategy is implemented on MEMSIC’s Imote2 smart sensor platform and validated experimentally on a laboratory scale truss bridge. (paper)

  10. Decentralized neural control application to robotics

    CERN Document Server

    Garcia-Hernandez, Ramon; Sanchez, Edgar N; Alanis, Alma y; Ruz-Hernandez, Jose A

    2017-01-01

    This book provides a decentralized approach for the identification and control of robotics systems. It also presents recent research in decentralized neural control and includes applications to robotics. Decentralized control is free from difficulties due to complexity in design, debugging, data gathering and storage requirements, making it preferable for interconnected systems. Furthermore, as opposed to the centralized approach, it can be implemented with parallel processors. This approach deals with four decentralized control schemes, which are able to identify the robot dynamics. The training of each neural network is performed on-line using an extended Kalman filter (EKF). The first indirect decentralized control scheme applies the discrete-time block control approach, to formulate a nonlinear sliding manifold. The second direct decentralized neural control scheme is based on the backstepping technique, approximated by a high order neural network. The third control scheme applies a decentralized neural i...

  11. Iterative learning-based decentralized adaptive tracker for large-scale systems: a digital redesign approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Jason Sheng-Hong; Du, Yan-Yi; Huang, Pei-Hsiang; Guo, Shu-Mei; Shieh, Leang-San; Chen, Yuhua

    2011-07-01

    In this paper, a digital redesign methodology of the iterative learning-based decentralized adaptive tracker is proposed to improve the dynamic performance of sampled-data linear large-scale control systems consisting of N interconnected multi-input multi-output subsystems, so that the system output will follow any trajectory which may not be presented by the analytic reference model initially. To overcome the interference of each sub-system and simplify the controller design, the proposed model reference decentralized adaptive control scheme constructs a decoupled well-designed reference model first. Then, according to the well-designed model, this paper develops a digital decentralized adaptive tracker based on the optimal analog control and prediction-based digital redesign technique for the sampled-data large-scale coupling system. In order to enhance the tracking performance of the digital tracker at specified sampling instants, we apply the iterative learning control (ILC) to train the control input via continual learning. As a result, the proposed iterative learning-based decentralized adaptive tracker not only has robust closed-loop decoupled property but also possesses good tracking performance at both transient and steady state. Besides, evolutionary programming is applied to search for a good learning gain to speed up the learning process of ILC. Copyright © 2011 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Subsecond Tsunamis and Delays in Decentralized Electronic Systems

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    Pedro D. Manrique

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Driven by technological advances and economic gain, society’s electronic systems are becoming larger, faster, more decentralized and autonomous, and yet with increasing global reach. A prime example are the networks of financial markets which—in contrast to popular perception—are largely all-electronic and decentralized with no top-down real-time controller. This prototypical system generates complex subsecond dynamics that emerge from a decentralized network comprising heterogeneous hardware and software components, communications links, and a diverse ecology of trading algorithms that operate and compete within this all-electronics environment. Indeed, these same technological and economic drivers are likely to generate a similarly competitive all-electronic ecology in a variety of future cyberphysical domains such as e-commerce, defense and the transportation system, including the likely appearance of large numbers of autonomous vehicles on the streets of many cities. Hence there is an urgent need to deepen our understanding of stability, safety and security across a wide range of ultrafast, large, decentralized all-electronic systems—in short, society will eventually need to understand what extreme behaviors can occur, why, and what might be the impact of both intentional and unintentional system perturbations. Here we set out a framework for addressing this issue, using a generic model of heterogeneous, adaptive, autonomous components where each has a realistic limit on the amount of information and processing power available to it. We focus on the specific impact of delayed information, possibly through an accidental shift in the latency of information transmission, or an intentional attack from the outside. While much remains to be done in terms of developing formal mathematical results for this system, our preliminary results indicate the type of impact that can occur and the structure of a mathematical theory which may

  13. Performance Analysis of the Decentralized Eigendecomposition and ESPRIT Algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suleiman, Wassim; Pesavento, Marius; Zoubir, Abdelhak M.

    2016-05-01

    In this paper, we consider performance analysis of the decentralized power method for the eigendecomposition of the sample covariance matrix based on the averaging consensus protocol. An analytical expression of the second order statistics of the eigenvectors obtained from the decentralized power method which is required for computing the mean square error (MSE) of subspace-based estimators is presented. We show that the decentralized power method is not an asymptotically consistent estimator of the eigenvectors of the true measurement covariance matrix unless the averaging consensus protocol is carried out over an infinitely large number of iterations. Moreover, we introduce the decentralized ESPRIT algorithm which yields fully decentralized direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimates. Based on the performance analysis of the decentralized power method, we derive an analytical expression of the MSE of DOA estimators using the decentralized ESPRIT algorithm. The validity of our asymptotic results is demonstrated by simulations.

  14. Game-Based Virtual Worlds as Decentralized Virtual Activity Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scacchi, Walt

    There is widespread interest in the development and use of decentralized systems and virtual world environments as possible new places for engaging in collaborative work activities. Similarly, there is widespread interest in stimulating new technological innovations that enable people to come together through social networking, file/media sharing, and networked multi-player computer game play. A decentralized virtual activity system (DVAS) is a networked computer supported work/play system whose elements and social activities can be both virtual and decentralized (Scacchi et al. 2008b). Massively multi-player online games (MMOGs) such as World of Warcraft and online virtual worlds such as Second Life are each popular examples of a DVAS. Furthermore, these systems are beginning to be used for research, deve-lopment, and education activities in different science, technology, and engineering domains (Bainbridge 2007, Bohannon et al. 2009; Rieber 2005; Scacchi and Adams 2007; Shaffer 2006), which are also of interest here. This chapter explores two case studies of DVASs developed at the University of California at Irvine that employ game-based virtual worlds to support collaborative work/play activities in different settings. The settings include those that model and simulate practical or imaginative physical worlds in different domains of science, technology, or engineering through alternative virtual worlds where players/workers engage in different kinds of quests or quest-like workflows (Jakobsson 2006).

  15. Research on Calculation of the IOL Tilt and Decentration Based on Surface Fitting

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Lin; Wang, Ke; Yan, Yan; Song, Xudong; Liu, Zhicheng

    2013-01-01

    The tilt and decentration of intraocular lens (IOL) result in defocussing, astigmatism, and wavefront aberration after operation. The objective is to give a method to estimate the tilt and decentration of IOL more accurately. Based on AS-OCT images of twelve eyes from eight cases with subluxation lens after operation, we fitted spherical equation to the data obtained from the images of the anterior and posterior surfaces of the IOL. By the established relationship between IOL tilt (decentrati...

  16. A Decentralized Eigenvalue Computation Method for Spectrum Sensing Based on Average Consensus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammadi, Jafar; Limmer, Steffen; Stańczak, Sławomir

    2016-07-01

    This paper considers eigenvalue estimation for the decentralized inference problem for spectrum sensing. We propose a decentralized eigenvalue computation algorithm based on the power method, which is referred to as generalized power method GPM; it is capable of estimating the eigenvalues of a given covariance matrix under certain conditions. Furthermore, we have developed a decentralized implementation of GPM by splitting the iterative operations into local and global computation tasks. The global tasks require data exchange to be performed among the nodes. For this task, we apply an average consensus algorithm to efficiently perform the global computations. As a special case, we consider a structured graph that is a tree with clusters of nodes at its leaves. For an accelerated distributed implementation, we propose to use computation over multiple access channel (CoMAC) as a building block of the algorithm. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate the performance of the two algorithms.

  17. Model-Based Design of Tree WSNs for Decentralized Detection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashraf Tantawy

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The classical decentralized detection problem of finding the optimal decision rules at the sensor and fusion center, as well as variants that introduce physical channel impairments have been studied extensively in the literature. The deployment of WSNs in decentralized detection applications brings new challenges to the field. Protocols for different communication layers have to be co-designed to optimize the detection performance. In this paper, we consider the communication network design problem for a tree WSN. We pursue a system-level approach where a complete model for the system is developed that captures the interactions between different layers, as well as different sensor quality measures. For network optimization, we propose a hierarchical optimization algorithm that lends itself to the tree structure, requiring only local network information. The proposed design approach shows superior performance over several contentionless and contention-based network design approaches.

  18. A multi-agent decentralized energy management system based on distributed intelligence for the design and control of autonomous polygeneration microgrids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karavas, Christos-Spyridon; Kyriakarakos, George; Arvanitis, Konstantinos G.; Papadakis, George

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • A decentralized energy management system based on multi agent systems theory. • A decentralized energy management system is technically feasible. • A decentralized approach utilizes the devices better than a centralized one. • A decentralized energy management system is economically competitive. - Abstract: The autonomous polygeneration microgrid topology has been developed in order to cover holistically needs in a remote area such as electrical energy, space heating and cooling, potable water through desalination and hydrogen as fuel for transportation. The existence of an advanced energy management system is essential for the operation of an autonomous polygeneration microgrid. So far, energy management systems based on a centralized management and control have been developed for the autonomous polygeneration microgrid topology based on computational intelligence approaches. A decentralized management and control energy management system can have important benefits, when taking into consideration the autonomous character of these microgrids. This paper presents the design and investigation of a decentralized energy management system for the autonomous polygeneration microgrid topology. The decentralized energy management system gives the possibility to control each unit of the microgrid independently. The most important advantage of using a decentralized architecture is that the managed microgrid has much higher chances of partial operation in cases when malfunctions occur at different parts of it, instead of a complete system breakdown. The designed system was based on a multi-agent system and employed Fuzzy Cognitive Maps for its implementation. It was then compared through a case study with an existing centralized energy management system. The technical performance of the decentralized solution performance is on par with the existing centralized one, presenting improvements in financial and operational terms for the implementation and

  19. Partially Decentralized Control Architectures for Satellite Formations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carpenter, J. Russell; Bauer, Frank H.

    2002-01-01

    In a partially decentralized control architecture, more than one but less than all nodes have supervisory capability. This paper describes an approach to choosing the number of supervisors in such au architecture, based on a reliability vs. cost trade. It also considers the implications of these results for the design of navigation systems for satellite formations that could be controlled with a partially decentralized architecture. Using an assumed cost model, analytic and simulation-based results indicate that it may be cheaper to achieve a given overall system reliability with a partially decentralized architecture containing only a few supervisors, than with either fully decentralized or purely centralized architectures. Nominally, the subset of supervisors may act as centralized estimation and control nodes for corresponding subsets of the remaining subordinate nodes, and act as decentralized estimation and control peers with respect to each other. However, in the context of partially decentralized satellite formation control, the absolute positions and velocities of each spacecraft are unique, so that correlations which make estimates using only local information suboptimal only occur through common biases and process noise. Covariance and monte-carlo analysis of a simplified system show that this lack of correlation may allow simplification of the local estimators while preserving the global optimality of the maneuvers commanded by the supervisors.

  20. Decentralization and the local development state

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Emmenegger, Rony Hugo

    2016-01-01

    This article explores the politics of decentralization and state-peasant encounters in rural Oromiya, Ethiopia. Breaking with a centralized past, the incumbent government of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) committed itself to a decentralization policy in the early 1990......s and has since then created a number of new sites for state-citizen interactions. In the context of electoral authoritarianism, however, decentralization has been interpreted as a means for the expansion of the party-state at the grass-roots level. Against this backdrop, this article attempts...... between the 2005 and 2010 elections. Based on ethnographic field research, the empirical case presented discloses that decentralization and state-led development serve the expansion of state power into rural areas, but that state authority is simultaneously constituted and undermined in the course...

  1. A Decentralized Multi-Agent-Based Approach for Low Voltage Microgrid Restoration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ebrahim Rokrok

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Although a well-organized power system is less subject to blackouts, the existence of a proper restoration plan is nevertheless still essential. The goal of a restoration plan is to bring the power system back to its normal operating conditions in the shortest time after a blackout occurs and to minimize the impact of the blackout on society. This paper presents a decentralized multi-agent system (MAS-based restoration method for a low voltage (LV microgrid (MG. In the proposed method, the MG local controllers are assigned to the specific agents who interact with each other to achieve a common decision in the restoration procedure. The evaluation of the proposed decentralized technique using a benchmark low-voltage MG network demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed restoration plan.

  2. Policy Implementation Decentralization Government in Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kardin M. Simanjuntak

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Decentralization in Indonesia is that reforms not completed and until the current implementation is not maximized or have not been successful. The essence of decentralization is internalising cost and benefit' for the people and how the government closer to the people. That's the most important essence of essence 'decentralization’. However, the implementation of decentralization in Indonesia is still far from the expectations. It is shown that only benefits of decentralization elite and local authorities, decentralization is a neo-liberal octopus, decentralization of public services are lacking in character, decentralization without institutional efficiency, decentralization fosters corruption in the area, and quasi-fiscal decentralization.

  3. Mapping the potential for decentralized energy generation based on RES in Western Balkans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Schneider Daniel R.

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Although the countries of the Western Balkans are mostly electrified, there are still regions which do not have access to the electricity network or where the network capacity is insufficient. For the most part such areas are under special care of the state (i. e. underdeveloped, devastated by war, depopulated, on islands or in mountainous regions. Since the decentralized energy generation covers a broad range of technologies, including many renewable energy technologies that provide small-scale power at sites close to the users, such concept could be of interest for these locations. This paper identifies the areas in Western Balkans where such systems could be applied. Consideration is given to geographical locations as well as possible applications. Wind, hydro, solar photovoltaic, and biomass conversion systems were taken into consideration. Since the renewable energy sources data for Western Balkans region are rather scarce, the intention was to give a survey of the present situation and an estimate of future potential for decentralized energy generation based on renewable energy sources. The decentralized energy generation based on renewable energy sources in Western Balkans will find its niche easier for the users that will produce electricity for their own needs and for the users located in remote rural areas (off-grid applications.

  4. Towards a Decentralized Magnetic Indoor Positioning System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasmi, Zakaria; Norrdine, Abdelmoumen; Blankenbach, Jörg

    2015-01-01

    Decentralized magnetic indoor localization is a sophisticated method for processing sampled magnetic data directly on a mobile station (MS), thereby decreasing or even avoiding the need for communication with the base station. In contrast to central-oriented positioning systems, which transmit raw data to a base station, decentralized indoor localization pushes application-level knowledge into the MS. A decentralized position solution has thus a strong feasibility to increase energy efficiency and to prolong the lifetime of the MS. In this article, we present a complete architecture and an implementation for a decentralized positioning system. Furthermore, we introduce a technique for the synchronization of the observed magnetic field on the MS with the artificially-generated magnetic field from the coils. Based on real-time clocks (RTCs) and a preemptive operating system, this method allows a stand-alone control of the coils and a proper assignment of the measured magnetic fields on the MS. A stand-alone control and synchronization of the coils and the MS have an exceptional potential to implement a positioning system without the need for wired or wireless communication and enable a deployment of applications for rescue scenarios, like localization of miners or firefighters. PMID:26690145

  5. Towards a Decentralized Magnetic Indoor Positioning System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zakaria Kasmi

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Decentralized magnetic indoor localization is a sophisticated method for processing sampled magnetic data directly on a mobile station (MS, thereby decreasing or even avoiding the need for communication with the base station. In contrast to central-oriented positioning systems, which transmit raw data to a base station, decentralized indoor localization pushes application-level knowledge into the MS. A decentralized position solution has thus a strong feasibility to increase energy efficiency and to prolong the lifetime of the MS. In this article, we present a complete architecture and an implementation for a decentralized positioning system. Furthermore, we introduce a technique for the synchronization of the observed magnetic field on the MS with the artificially-generated magnetic field from the coils. Based on real-time clocks (RTCs and a preemptive operating system, this method allows a stand-alone control of the coils and a proper assignment of the measured magnetic fields on the MS. A stand-alone control and synchronization of the coils and the MS have an exceptional potential to implement a positioning system without the need for wired or wireless communication and enable a deployment of applications for rescue scenarios, like localization of miners or firefighters.

  6. ADRES : autonomous decentralized regenerative energy systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brauner, G.; Einfalt, A.; Leitinger, C.; Tiefgraber, D. [Vienna Univ. of Technology (Austria)

    2007-07-01

    The autonomous decentralized regenerative energy systems (ADRES) research project demonstrates that decentralized network independent microgrids are the target power systems of the future. This paper presented a typical structure of a microgrid, demonstrating that all types of generation available can be integrated, from wind and small hydro to photovoltaic, fuel cell, biomass or biogas operated stirling motors and micro turbines. In grid connected operation the balancing energy and reactive power for voltage control will come from the public grid. If there is no interconnection to a superior grid, it will form an autonomous micro grid. In order to reduce peak power demand and base energy, autonomous microgrid technology requires highly efficient appliances. Otherwise large collector design, high storage and balancing generation capacities would be necessary, which would increase costs. End-use energy efficiency was discussed with reference to demand side management (DSM) strategies that match energy demand with actual supply in order to minimize the storage size needed. This paper also discussed network controls that comprise active and reactive power. Decentralized robust algorithms were investigated with reference to black-start ability and congestion management features. It was concluded that the trend to develop small decentralized grids in parallel to existing large systems will improve security of supply and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Decentralized grids will also increase energy efficiency because regenerative energy will be used where it is collected in the form of electricity and heat, thus avoiding transport and the extension of transmission lines. Decentralized energy technology is now becoming more economic by efficient and economic mass production of components. Although decentralized energy technology requires energy automation, computer intelligence is becoming increasingly cost efficient. 2 refs., 4 figs.

  7. Decentralized load- and feed-in-management using a market based agent system; Dezentrales Last- und Einspeisemanagement mittels eines marktbasierten Agentensystems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Linnenberg, T.; Wior, I.; Schreiber, S.; Fay, A. [Helmut-Schmidt-Univ., Hamburg (Germany). Inst. fuer Automatisierungstechnik

    2012-07-01

    As a result of the increasing amount of decentralized electricity generation classical, centralized control concepts are taken to their limits. At present, two approaches are being followed to deal with these problems: the expansion of the electricity network and the extension of reserve capacities. The ''DEcentralized MArket based POwer control System'' (DEMAPOS) approach presented in this article, illustrates ways to solve these problems by means of a decentralized, market based control. With a focus on easy expandability and the possibility to cooperate with project partners a methodic and comprehensible development process was used along with open standards and free software. The Validation of the approach was carried out simulation based on real world data. (orig.)

  8. Decentralized Traffic Management: A Synchronization-Based Intersection Control --- Extended Version

    OpenAIRE

    Tlig , Mohamed; Buffet , Olivier; Simonin , Olivier

    2014-01-01

    Controlling the vehicle traffic in large networks remains an important challenge in urban environments and transportation systems. Autonomous vehicles are today considered as a promising approach to deal with traffic control. In this paper, we propose a synchronization-based intersection control mechanism to allow the autonomous vehicle-agents to cross without stopping, i.e., in order to avoid congestions (delays) and energy loss. We decentralize the problem by managing the traffic of each in...

  9. Decentralized flight trajectory planning of multiple aircraft

    OpenAIRE

    Yokoyama, Nobuhiro; 横山 信宏

    2008-01-01

    Conventional decentralized algorithms for optimal trajectory planning tend to require prohibitive computational time as the number of aircraft increases. To overcome this drawback, this paper proposes a novel decentralized trajectory planning algorithm adopting a constraints decoupling approach for parallel optimization. The constraints decoupling approach is formulated as the path constraints of the real-time trajectory optimization problem based on nonlinear programming. Due to the parallel...

  10. Application of Transfer Matrix Approach to Modeling and Decentralized Control of Lattice-Based Structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cramer, Nick; Swei, Sean Shan-Min; Cheung, Kenny; Teodorescu, Mircea

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a modeling and control of aerostructure developed by lattice-based cellular materials/components. The proposed aerostructure concept leverages a building block strategy for lattice-based components which provide great adaptability to varying ight scenarios, the needs of which are essential for in- ight wing shaping control. A decentralized structural control design is proposed that utilizes discrete-time lumped mass transfer matrix method (DT-LM-TMM). The objective is to develop an e ective reduced order model through DT-LM-TMM that can be used to design a decentralized controller for the structural control of a wing. The proposed approach developed in this paper shows that, as far as the performance of overall structural system is concerned, the reduced order model can be as e ective as the full order model in designing an optimal stabilizing controller.

  11. Decentralized Quasi-Newton Methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eisen, Mark; Mokhtari, Aryan; Ribeiro, Alejandro

    2017-05-01

    We introduce the decentralized Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (D-BFGS) method as a variation of the BFGS quasi-Newton method for solving decentralized optimization problems. The D-BFGS method is of interest in problems that are not well conditioned, making first order decentralized methods ineffective, and in which second order information is not readily available, making second order decentralized methods impossible. D-BFGS is a fully distributed algorithm in which nodes approximate curvature information of themselves and their neighbors through the satisfaction of a secant condition. We additionally provide a formulation of the algorithm in asynchronous settings. Convergence of D-BFGS is established formally in both the synchronous and asynchronous settings and strong performance advantages relative to first order methods are shown numerically.

  12. Federalism and Decentralization of Education in Argentina. Unintended Consequences of Decentralization of Expenditures in a Federal Country.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falleti, Tulia G.

    By analyzing the process of decentralization of education in Argentina, this paper complements the existing literature on decentralization and federalism in two ways: (1) it studies the impact of federal institutions on the origins and evolution of decentralization; and (2) it analyzes a case of decentralization of education that, in a way not…

  13. DECENTRALIZATION IN THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ECONOMY MANAGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stepaniuk Nataliia

    2018-03-01

    and promote development of human and resource potential, responsibility of the authorities, increase quality provision of state and public services, consolidation of society, solving of economic, environmental, legal, political and other issues. But in general, decentralization plays an important role at the development of democracy and positive changes in society, the transition to institutions based on the initiative and responsibility of the community and the individual.

  14. The Two Edge Knife of Decentralization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Khoirul Umam

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available A centralistic government model has become a trend in a number of developing countries, in which the ideosycretic aspect becomes pivotal key in the policy making. The situation constitutes authoritarianism, cronyism, and corruption. To break the impasse, the decentralized system is proposed to make people closer to the public policy making. Decentralization is also convinced to be the solution to create a good governance. But a number of facts in the developing countries demonstrates that decentralization indeed has ignite emerges backfires such as decentralized corruption, parochialism, horizontal conflict, local political instability and others. This article elaborates the theoretical framework on decentralization's ouput as the a double-edge knife. In a simple words, the concept of decentralization does not have a permanent relationship with the creation of good governance and development. Without substantive democracy, decentralization is indeed potential to be a destructive political instrument threating the state's future.

  15. Decentralized Interleaving of Paralleled Dc-Dc Buck Converters: Preprint

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Johnson, Brian B [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Rodriguez, Miguel [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sinha, Mohit [University of Minnesota; Dhople, Sairaj [University of Minnesota; Poon, Jason [University of California at Berkeley

    2017-09-01

    We present a decentralized control strategy that yields switch interleaving among parallel connected dc-dc buck converters without communication. The proposed method is based on the digital implementation of the dynamics of a nonlinear oscillator circuit as the controller. Each controller is fully decentralized, i.e., it only requires the locally measured output current to synthesize the pulse width modulation (PWM) carrier waveform. By virtue of the intrinsic electrical coupling between converters, the nonlinear oscillator-based controllers converge to an interleaved state with uniform phase-spacing across PWM carriers. To the knowledge of the authors, this work represents the first fully decentralized strategy for switch interleaving of paralleled dc-dc buck converters.

  16. EFFECT OF FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION ON CAPITAL EXPENDITURE, GROWTH, AND WELFARE

    OpenAIRE

    Badrudin, Rudy

    2013-01-01

    This research analyzes the influence of fiscal decentralization on capital expenditure, economic growth, and social welfare of 29 regencies and 6 cities in Central Java Province based on the data of year 2004 to 2008. The method used to analyze the hypotheses is the Partial Least Square. The results showes that fiscal decentralization has no significant effect on capital expenditure; fiscal decentralization has significant effect on economic growth and social welfare; capital expenditure has ...

  17. Organizational decentralization in radiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aas, I H Monrad

    2006-01-01

    At present, most hospitals have a department of radiology where images are captured and interpreted. Decentralization is the opposite of centralization and means 'away from the centre'. With a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and broadband communications, transmitting radiology images between sites will be far easier than before. Qualitative interviews of 26 resource persons were performed in Norway. There was a response rate of 90%. Decentralization of radiology interpretations seems less relevant than centralization, but several forms of decentralization have a role to play. The respondents mentioned several advantages, including exploitation of capacity and competence. They also mentioned several disadvantages, including splitting professional communities and reduced contact between radiologists and clinicians. With the new technology decentralization and centralization of image interpretation are important possibilities in organizational change. This will be important for the future of teleradiology.

  18. Decentralized Budgeting: Getting the Most Out of Disbursements of Funds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jefferson, Anne L.

    1995-01-01

    Decentralizing educational budgets allows the disbursement of funds aimed at maximizing student development. Three strategies for decentralizing budgets are program budgeting, which eliminates line-item budgeting and allows administrators to address questions regarding the relative value of educational programs; zero-based budgeting, which allows…

  19. Decentralization in Ethiopia

    OpenAIRE

    Gemechu, Mulugeta Debebbe

    2012-01-01

    Ethiopia officially launched the District Level Decentralization Program (DLDP) by the year 2002. The program flagged core objectives such as institutionalizing viable development centers at local levels, deepening devolution of power, enhancing the democratization process through broad-based participatory strategy, promoting good governance and improving service delivery. Since the inception of this program two strategic planning terms (one strategic term is five years) have already elapsed ...

  20. Decentralized H∞ Control of Interconnected Systems with Time-varying Delays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amal Zouhri

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on the problem of delay dependent stability/stabilization of interconnected systems with time-varying delays. The approach is based on a new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional. A decentralized delay-dependent stability analysis is performed to characterize linear matrix inequalities (LMIs based on the conditions under which every local subsystem of the linear interconnected delay system is asymptotically stable. Then we design a decentralized state-feedback stabilization scheme such that the family of closedloop feedback subsystems enjoys the delay-dependent asymptotic stability for each subsystem. The decentralized feedback gains are determined by convex optimization over LMIs. All the developed results are tested on a representative example and compared with some recent previous ones.

  1. Decentralized production management: telecommunication and coordination schemes validation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caire, R.; Retiere, N.; Hadjsaid, N.

    2005-01-01

    Decentralized production development is a reality in the majority of the power networks all over the world. The deregulation of the market of energy, ecological constraints as well as the technological developments of small power production encourage this development. Distribution networks represent the portion of the power system where the development of this production is the most awaited. Some studies carried out on the interconnection of decentralized production on a large scale ratio have shown significant effects and impacts on operation of the entire electric system. Indeed, the entire distribution network is going to be deeply modified by the introduction of new functions of remote control, of specific architectures, of intelligent protection systems and of telecommunication and information technologies. With these new paradigms the ability of testing and simulating the Distribution Management Systems is more and more necessary. Also, this is a crucial requirement for new communication means in order to better define the new management strategies of the production units within the distribution networks. The aim of this paper is to present a new real time experimental bench able to validate control strategies and communication devices included in Distribution Management Systems (DMS). (authors)

  2. An ecological vegetation-activated sludge process (V-ASP) for decentralized wastewater treatment: system development, treatment performance, and mathematical modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Jiajia; Dong, Wenyi; Sun, Feiyun; Li, Pu; Zhao, Ke

    2016-05-01

    An environment-friendly decentralized wastewater treatment process that is comprised of activated sludge process (ASP) and wetland vegetation, named as vegetation-activated sludge process (V-ASP), was developed for decentralized wastewater treatment. The long-term experimental results evidenced that the vegetation sequencing batch reactor (V-SBR) process had consistently stable higher removal efficiencies of organic substances and nutrients from domestic wastewater compared with traditional sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The vegetation allocated into V-SBR system could not only remove nutrients through its vegetation transpiration ratio but also provide great surface area for microorganism activity enhancement. This high vegetation transpiration ratio enhanced nutrients removal effectiveness from wastewater mainly by flux enhancement, oxygen and substrate transportation acceleration, and vegetation respiration stimulation. A mathematical model based on ASM2d was successfully established by involving the specific function of vegetation to simulate system performance. The simulation results on the influence of operational parameters on V-ASP treatment effectiveness demonstrated that V-SBR had a high resistance to seasonal temperature fluctuations and influent loading shocking.

  3. Decentralized control of complex systems

    CERN Document Server

    Siljak, Dragoslav D

    2011-01-01

    Complex systems require fast control action in response to local input, and perturbations dictate the use of decentralized information and control structures. This much-cited reference book explores the approaches to synthesizing control laws under decentralized information structure constraints.Starting with a graph-theoretic framework for structural modeling of complex systems, the text presents results related to robust stabilization via decentralized state feedback. Subsequent chapters explore optimization, output feedback, the manipulative power of graphs, overlapping decompositions and t

  4. What supervisors want to know about decentralization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boissoneau, R; Belton, P

    1991-06-01

    Many organizations in various industries have tended to move away from strict centralization, yet some centralization is still vital to top management. With 19 of the 22 executives interviewed favoring or implementing some form of decentralization, it is probable that traditionally centralized organizations will follow the trend and begin to decentralize their organizational structures. The incentives and advantages of decentralization are too attractive to ignore. Decentralization provides responsibility, clear objectives, accountability for results, and more efficient and effective decision making. However, one must remember that decentralization can be overextended and that centralization is still viable in certain functions. Finding the correct balance between control and autonomy is a key to decentralization. Too much control and too much autonomy are the primary reasons for decentralization failures. In today's changing, competitive environment, structures must be continuously redefined, with the goal of finding an optimal balance between centralization and decentralization. Organizations are cautioned not to seek out and install a single philosopher-king to impose unified direction, but to unify leadership goals, participation, style, and control to develop improved methods of making all responsible leaders of one mind about the organization's needs and goals.

  5. Emergent Semantics Interoperability in Large-Scale Decentralized Information Systems

    CERN Document Server

    Cudré-Mauroux, Philippe

    2008-01-01

    Peer-to-peer systems are evolving with new information-system architectures, leading to the idea that the principles of decentralization and self-organization will offer new approaches in informatics, especially for systems that scale with the number of users or for which central authorities do not prevail. This book describes a new way of building global agreements (semantic interoperability) based only on decentralized, self-organizing interactions.

  6. Decentralized portfolio management

    OpenAIRE

    Coutinho, Paulo; Tabak, Benjamin Miranda

    2003-01-01

    We use a mean-variance model to analyze the problem of decentralized portfolio management. We find the solution for the optimal portfolio allocation for a head trader operating in n different markets, which is called the optimal centralized portfolio. However, as there are many traders specialized in different markets, the solution to the problem of optimal decentralized allocation should be different from the centralized case. In this paper we derive conditions for the solutions to be equiva...

  7. Wage Dispersion and Decentralization of Wage Bargaining

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dahl, Christian Møller; le Maire, Christian Daniel; Munch, Jakob R.

    2013-01-01

    This article studies how decentralization of wage bargaining from sector to firm level influences wage levels and wage dispersion. We use detailed panel data covering a period of decentralization in the Danish labor market. The decentralization process provides variation in the individual worker......'s wage-setting system that facilitates identification of the effects of decentralization. We find a wage premium associated with firm-level bargaining relative to sector-level bargaining and that the return to skills is higher under the more decentralized wage-setting systems. Using quantile regression......, we also find that wages are more dispersed under firm-level bargaining compared to more centralized wage-setting systems....

  8. Decentralization and Governance in Indonesia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Holzhacker, Ronald; Wittek, Rafael; Woltjer, Johan

    2016-01-01

    I. Theoretical Reflections on Decentralization and Governance for Sustainable Society 1. Decentralization and Governance for Sustainable Society in Indonesia Ronald Holzhacker, Rafael Wittek and Johan Woltjer 2. Good Governance Contested: Exploring Human Rights and Sustainability as Normative Goals

  9. A contingency approach to decentralization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fleurke, F.; Hulst, J.R.

    2006-01-01

    After decades of centralization, in 1980 the central government of the Netherlands embarked upon an ambitious project to decentralize the administrative system. It proclaimed a series of general decentralization measures that aimed to improve the performance of the administrative system and to boost

  10. Bidirectional decentralized energy management in the low voltage grid based on centralized and decentralized informations; Bidirektionales dezentrales Energiemanagement im Niederspannungsnetz auf Basis zentraler und dezentraler Informationen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bendel, C.; Nestle, D.; Ringelstein, J. [Inst. fuer Solare Energieversorgungstechnik e.V., Verein an der Univ. Kassel (Germany)

    2006-07-01

    Decentralized electrical generation units (DG units) are connected to the network in Europe with an increasing number and generation capacity. This includes renewable energy sources with fluctuating generation characteristics as well as more controllable generation from biomass and co-generation. Severe problems with grid operation are expected among experts when the share of DG without controllability exceeds approx. 20 to 25% of the total generation within the power system, so a new strategy for the integration of DG into grid operation will be required. This strategy will include energy management with controllable generators as well as controllable loads. Today, however, this potential in most cases cannot be activated due to lack of standards and missing economical incentives. In the concept presented in this work the grid connection point is extended by intelligent components to a Bidirectional Energy Management Interface (BEMI). This allows a technically efficienct design of an energy management system and avoids fundamental organizational changes to the current grid regime. The concept of decentralized decision based on information from a central control station covers the requirements of the system operators as well as the local customer. Using the same concept the management of a pool of devices, containing BEMI-equipped households as well as other decentralized resources is possible. This is expected to bring additional benefits for both system operators and local customers. Therefore an approach for upscaling the existing BEMI technology is outlined as an outlook. (orig.)

  11. On Decentralization and Life Satisfaction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørnskov, Christian; Dreher, Axel; Fischer, Justina A.V.

    2008-01-01

    We empirically analyze the impact of fiscal and political decentralization on subjective well-being in a cross-section of 60,000 individuals from 66 countries. More spending or revenue decentralization raises well-being while greater local autonomy is beneficial only via government consumption sp...

  12. Wage Dispersion and Decentralization of Wage Bargaining

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dahl, Christian M.; Le Maire, Christian Daniel; Munch, Jakob Roland

    in the individual worker's wage-setting system that facilitates identification of the effects of decentralization. Consistent with predictions we find that wages are more dispersed under firm-level bargaining compared to more centralized wage-setting systems. However, the differences across wage-setting systems......This paper studies how decentralization of wage bargaining from sector to firm level influences wage levels and wage dispersion. We use a detailed panel data set covering a period of decentralization in the Danish labor market. The decentralization process provides exogenous variation...

  13. Decentralized Procurement in Light of Strategic Inventories

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frimor, Hans; Arya, Anil; Mittendorf, Brian

    2015-01-01

    The centralization versus decentralization choice is perhaps the quintessential organizational structure decision. In the operations realm, this choice is particularly critical when it comes to the procurement function. Why firms may opt to decentralize procurement has been often studied and conf......The centralization versus decentralization choice is perhaps the quintessential organizational structure decision. In the operations realm, this choice is particularly critical when it comes to the procurement function. Why firms may opt to decentralize procurement has been often studied...... and confirmed to be a multifaceted choice. This paper complements existing studies by detailing the trade-offs in the centralization versus decentralization decision in light of firm's decision to cede procurement choices to its individual devisions can help moderate inventory levels and provide a natural salve...

  14. Decentralized State-Observer-Based Traffic Density Estimation of Large-Scale Urban Freeway Network by Dynamic Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuqi Guo

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available In order to estimate traffic densities in a large-scale urban freeway network in an accurate and timely fashion when traffic sensors do not cover the freeway network completely and thus only local measurement data can be utilized, this paper proposes a decentralized state observer approach based on a macroscopic traffic flow model. Firstly, by using the well-known cell transmission model (CTM, the urban freeway network is modeled in the way of distributed systems. Secondly, based on the model, a decentralized observer is designed. With the help of the Lyapunov function and S-procedure theory, the observer gains are computed by using linear matrix inequality (LMI technique. So, the traffic densities of the whole road network can be estimated by the designed observer. Finally, this method is applied to the outer ring of the Beijing’s second ring road and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed approach.

  15. Wind Farm Decentralized Dynamic Modeling With Parameters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Soltani, Mohsen; Shakeri, Sayyed Mojtaba; Grunnet, Jacob Deleuran

    2010-01-01

    Development of dynamic wind flow models for wind farms is part of the research in European research FP7 project AEOLUS. The objective of this report is to provide decentralized dynamic wind flow models with parameters. The report presents a structure for decentralized flow models with inputs from...... local models. The results of this report are especially useful, but not limited, to design a decentralized wind farm controller, since in centralized controller design one can also use the model and update it in a central computing node.......Development of dynamic wind flow models for wind farms is part of the research in European research FP7 project AEOLUS. The objective of this report is to provide decentralized dynamic wind flow models with parameters. The report presents a structure for decentralized flow models with inputs from...

  16. Ubiquitous consultation tool for decentral knowledge workers

    OpenAIRE

    Nazari Shirehjini, A.A.; Rühl, C.; Noll, S.

    2003-01-01

    The special issue of this initial study is to examine the current work situation of consulting companies, and to elaborate a concept for supporting decentralized working consultants. The concept addresses significant challenges of decentralized work processes by deploying the Peer-to-Peer methodology to decentralized expert and Knowledge Management, cooperation, and enterprise resource planning.

  17. Query Optimizations over Decentralized RDF Graphs

    KAUST Repository

    Abdelaziz, Ibrahim; Mansour, Essam; Ouzzani, Mourad; Aboulnaga, Ashraf; Kalnis, Panos

    2017-01-01

    Applications in life sciences, decentralized social networks, Internet of Things, and statistical linked dataspaces integrate data from multiple decentralized RDF graphs via SPARQL queries. Several approaches have been proposed to optimize query

  18. Decentralization of health care systems and health outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores; García-Gómez, Pilar

    2017-09-01

    While many countries worldwide are shifting responsibilities for their health systems to local levels of government, there is to date insufficient evidence about the potential impact of these policy reforms. We estimate the impact of decentralization of the health services on infant and neonatal mortality using a natural experiment: the devolution of health care decision making powers to Spanish regions. The devolution was implemented gradually and asymmetrically over a twenty-year period (1981-2002). The order in which the regions were decentralized was driven by political factors and hence can be considered exogenous to health outcomes. In addition, we exploit the dynamic effect of decentralization of health services and allow for heterogeneous effects by the two main types of decentralization implemented across regions: full decentralization (political and fiscal powers) versus political decentralization only. Our difference in differences results based on a panel dataset for the 50 Spanish provinces over the period 1980 to 2010 show that the lasting benefit of decentralization accrues only to regions which enjoy almost full fiscal and political powers and which are also among the richest regions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Decentralized or Centralized Systems for Colleges and Universities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heydinger, Richard B.; Norris, Donald M.

    1979-01-01

    Arguments for and against decentralization of data management, analysis, and planning systems are presented. It is suggested that technological advances have encouraged decentralization. Caution in this direction is urged and the development of an articulated decentralization program is proposed. (SF)

  20. Analysis for corruption and decentralization (Case study: earlier decentralization era in Indonesia)

    OpenAIRE

    Haryanto, Joko Tri; Astuti S.A., Esther Sri

    2017-01-01

    In many countries, relationship between decentralization of government activities and the extent of rent extraction by private parties is an important element in the recent debate on institutional design. The topic of corruption was actively, openly and debated in Indonesia by government, its development partners, and a broadly based group of political and civil society leaders are engaged in meetings and exchange on a daily basis. In the ongoing debate on corruption a lot of attention is pai...

  1. Decentralization and Economic Growth per capita in Europe

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Crucq, Pieter; Hemminga, Hendrik-Jan

    2007-01-01

    In this paper the relationship between decentralization and economic growth is investigated. The focus is on decentralization from the national government to the highest substate level in a country, which we define as regional decentralization. Section 2 discusses the different dimensions of

  2. MACROECONOMIC IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emilia Cornelia STOICA

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The concept of decentralization has a variety of expressions, but the meaning generally accepted refers to the transfer of authority and responsibility of the public functions from central government to sub-national public entities or even to the private sector. Decentralization process is complex, affecting many aspects of social and economic life and public management, and its design and implementation cover several stages, depending on the cyclical and structural developments of the country. From an economic perspective, decentralization is seen as a means of primary importance in terms of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of public services and macroeconomic stability due to the redistribution of public finances while in a much closer logic of the government policy objectives. But the decentralization process behaves as well some risks, because it involves the implementation of appropriate mechanisms for the establishment of income and expenditure programming at the subnational level, which, if is not correlated with macroeconomic policy imperatives can lead to major imbalances, both financially as in termes of economic and social life. Equally, ensuring the balance of the budget at the local level is imperative to fulfill, this goal imposing a legal framework and specific procedures to size transfers of public funds, targeted or untargeted. Also, public and local authorities have to adopt appropriate laws and regulations such that sub-national public entities can access loans - such as bank loans or debentures from domestic or external market - in terms of a strict monitoring national financial stability. In all aspects of decentralization - political, administrative, financial -, public authorities should develop and implement the most effective mechanisms to coordinate macroeconomic objectives and both sectoral and local interests and establish clear responsibilities - exclusive or shared - for all parties involved in the

  3. Decentralized Economic Dispatch Scheme With Online Power Reserve for Microgrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nutkani, I. U.; Loh, Poh Chiang; Wang, P.

    2017-01-01

    Decentralized economic operation schemes have several advantages when compared with the traditional centralized management system for microgrids. Specifically, decentralized schemes are more flexible, less computationally intensive, and easier to implement without relying on communication...... costs, their power ratings, and other necessary constraints, before deciding the DG dispatch priorities and droop characteristics. The proposed scheme also allows online power reserve to be set and regulated within the microgrid. This, together with the generation cost saved, has been verified...... infrastructure. Economic operation of existing decentralized schemes is also usually achieved by either tuning the droop characteristics of distributed generators (DGs) or prioritizing their dispatch order. For the latter, an earlier scheme has tried to prioritize the DG dispatch based on their no...

  4. Decentralized Optimization for a Novel Control Structure of HVAC System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shiqiang Wang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available A decentralized control structure is introduced into the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC system to solve the high maintenance and labor cost problem in actual engineering. Based on this new control system, a decentralized optimization method is presented for sensor fault repair and optimal group control of HVAC equipment. Convergence property of the novel method is theoretically analyzed considering both convex and nonconvex systems with constraints. In this decentralized control system, traditional device is fitted with a control chip such that it becomes a smart device. The smart device can communicate and operate collaboratively with the other devices to accomplish some designated tasks. The effectiveness of the presented method is verified by simulations and hardware tests.

  5. Distributed and decentralized control architectures for converter-interfaced microgrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dragicevic, Tomislav; Wu, Dan; Shafiee, Qobad

    2017-01-01

    This paper gives a summary on recently available technologies for decentralized and distributed control of microgrids. They can be classified into two general categories: 1) power line communication based architectures and 2) multi-agent based architectures. The essential control methods and info......This paper gives a summary on recently available technologies for decentralized and distributed control of microgrids. They can be classified into two general categories: 1) power line communication based architectures and 2) multi-agent based architectures. The essential control methods...... and information sharing algorithms applied in these architectures are reviewed and examined in a hierarchical manner, in order to point out benefits they will bring to future microgrid applications. The paper is concluded with a summary on existing methods and a discussion on future development trends....

  6. (De)centralization of the global informational ecosystem

    OpenAIRE

    Möller, Johanna; Rimscha, M. Bjørn von

    2017-01-01

    Centralization and decentralization are key concepts in debates that focus on the (anti)democratic character of digital societies. Centralization is understood as the control over communication and data flows, and decentralization as giving it (back) to users. Communication and media research focuses on centralization put forward by dominant digital media platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and governments. Decentralization is investigated regarding its potential in civil society, i.e., h...

  7. The influence of decentralization on effectiveness of extension ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Against the background of frequent organisational changes and restructuring, often based on impulsive decisions rather than structured feasibility studies or evaluations, this article examines the influence of decentralization on the performance of an extension organization. Based on a survey of 353 respondents from ...

  8. Decentralized control using compositional analysis techniques

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kerber, F.; van der Schaft, A. J.

    2011-01-01

    Decentralized control strategies aim at achieving a global control target by means of distributed local controllers acting on individual subsystems of the overall plant. In this sense, decentralized control is a dual problem to compositional analysis where a global verification task is decomposed

  9. Marine Ecological Environment Management Based on Ecological Compensation Mechanisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qunzhen Qu

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The level of marine environmental management is a key factor in the successful implementation of marine power strategies. The improvement in management levels of marine environments requires innovation in marine management. In other words, the transformation of marine environmental management into marine ecological environment management must be done in order to achieve sustainable development of the marine economy. As an environmental economic policy that combines both administrative and market measures, ecological compensation mechanisms have significant advantages in marine ecological environment management. Based on the study of the current development of ecological compensation mechanisms in China, through the analysis of the connotation of marine ecological civilization, existing marine ecological protection practices and marine environmental management methods, this paper posits that the current marine ecological environment management in China should be established on the basis of ecological compensation mechanisms. At present, a lack of laws and regulations for overall marine ecological environment management is the key factor restricting the practice of marine ecological environment management. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the current path of marine ecological environment management in China from the perspective of the construction of legal system of ecological compensation law, the establishment of ecological compensation fees, ecological taxes and ecological compensation fund systems, and the clear status for a marine ecological management and supervision body.

  10. Decentralization of Health System in Islamic Republic of Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MJ Kabir

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Decentralization is the process of dispersing decision-making closer to the point of peripheral area, service or action. Basically decentralized governance, if properly planned and implemented, offers important opportunities for enhanced human development. The studies about this issue in different countries show that most of the decentralizations have been implemented in European countries and in comparison, the Middle East countries have been utilized lower degrees of the decentralization process. In fact, decentralization in the health system is a policy pursued for a variety of purposes including; increase in service delivery effectiveness and equity, improving efficiency and quality, fairness of financial contribution and planning for choosing the most appropriate interventions for the health priorities in peripheral regions. To implement decentralized governance, there is a spectrum of different choices that the government should regulate their degrees. Providing an appropriate atmosphere for decentralization is essential, otherwise lack of planning and achievement can result in complications for the system.

  11. Centralized vs. de-centralized multinationals and taxes

    OpenAIRE

    Nielsen, Søren Bo; Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis; Schjelderup, Guttorm

    2005-01-01

    The paper examines how country tax differences affect a multinational enterprise's choice to centralize or de-centralize its decision structure. Within a simple model that emphasizes the multiple conflicting roles of transfer prices in MNEs – here, as a strategic pre-commitment device and a tax manipulation instrument –, we show that (de-)centralized decisions are more profitable when tax differentials are (small) large. Keywords: Centralized vs. de-centralized decisions, taxes, MNEs. ...

  12. Sustainability evaluation of decentralized electricity generation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karger, Cornelia R.; Hennings, Wilfried

    2009-01-01

    Decentralized power generation is gaining significance in liberalized electricity markets. An increasing decentralization of power supply is expected to make a particular contribution to climate protection. This article investigates the advantages and disadvantages of decentralized electricity generation according to the overall concept of sustainable development. On the basis of a hierarchically structured set of sustainability criteria, four future scenarios for Germany are assessed, all of which describe different concepts of electricity supply in the context of the corresponding social and economic developments. The scenarios are developed in an explorative way according to the scenario method and the sustainability criteria are established by a discursive method with societal actors. The evaluation is carried out by scientific experts. By applying an expanded analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multicriteria evaluation is conducted that identifies dissent among the experts. The results demonstrate that decentralized electricity generation can contribute to climate protection. The extent to which it simultaneously guarantees security of supply is still a matter of controversy. However, experts agree that technical and economic boundary conditions are of major importance in this field. In the final section, the article discusses the method employed here as well as implications for future decentralized energy supply. (author)

  13. Decentralized Decision Making Toward Educational Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monahan, William W.; Johnson, Homer M.

    This monograph provides guidelines to help those school districts considering a more decentralized form of management. The authors discuss the levels at which different types of decisions should be made, describe the changing nature of the educational environment, identify different centralization-decentralization models, and suggest a flexible…

  14. Development of a completely decentralized control system for modular continuous conveyors

    OpenAIRE

    Mayer, Stephan H.

    2009-01-01

    To increase the flexibility of application of continuous conveyor systems, a completely decentralized control system for a modular conveyor system is introduced in the paper. This system is able to carry conveyor units without any centralized infrastructure. Based on existing methods of decentralized data transfer in IT networks, single modules operate autonomously and, after being positioned into the required topology, independently connect together to become a functioning conveyor system.

  15. Decentralized Software Architecture

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Khare, Rohit

    2002-01-01

    .... While the term "decentralization" is familiar from political and economic contexts, it has been applied extensively, if indiscriminately, to describe recent trends in software architecture towards...

  16. Lyapunov-based decentralized control of a rougher flotation phenomenological simulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benaskeur, A.R.; Desbiens, A.

    1999-01-01

    In this paper a new approach to decentralized control of linear two-by-two plants is presented. The novelty lies in the use of a modified control function of Lyapunov and the introduction of an integral action in each manipulated variable, to ensure zero tracking errors. An appropriate choice of the regulated errors, allows the elimination of the cross terms in the obtained backstepping-based multivariable controller. It will be proven that if the H ∞ -norm of the plant interaction quotient is less than one, the centralized controller can be split up into two independent scalar output feedback regulators. Under these conditions, the global stability and zero tracking errors will still be guaranteed. The developed scheme is successfully applied to the control of a rougher flotation phenomenological simulator. (author)

  17. Computing for Decentralized Systems (lecture 1)

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2018-01-01

    With the rise of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies it is becoming apparent the paradigm shift towards decentralized computing. Computer engineers will need to understand this shift when developing systems in the coming years. Transferring value over the Internet is just one of the first working use cases of decentralized systems, but it is expected they will be used for a number of different services such as general purpose computing, data storage, or even new forms of governance. Decentralized systems, however, pose a series of challenges that cannot be addressed with traditional approaches in computing. Not having a central authority implies truth must be agreed upon rather than simply trusted and, so, consensus protocols, cryptographic data structures like the blockchain, and incentive models like mining rewards become critical for the correct behavior of decentralized system. This series of lectures will be a fast track to introduce these fundamental concepts through working examples and pra...

  18. Computing for Decentralized Systems (lecture 2)

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2018-01-01

    With the rise of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies it is becoming apparent the paradigm shift towards decentralized computing. Computer engineers will need to understand this shift when developing systems in the coming years. Transferring value over the Internet is just one of the first working use cases of decentralized systems, but it is expected they will be used for a number of different services such as general purpose computing, data storage, or even new forms of governance. Decentralized systems, however, pose a series of challenges that cannot be addressed with traditional approaches in computing. Not having a central authority implies truth must be agreed upon rather than simply trusted and, so, consensus protocols, cryptographic data structures like the blockchain, and incentive models like mining rewards become critical for the correct behavior of decentralized system. This series of lectures will be a fast track to introduce these fundamental concepts through working examples and pra...

  19. Centralized Control/Decentralized Execution: A Valid Tenet of Airpower

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Santicola, Henry J

    2005-01-01

    ...) and Effects-Based Operations (EBO). This paper examines the history of the concept of centralized control/decentralized execution from the advent of modern warfare through Operation Enduring Freedom...

  20. Decentralization or centralization: striking a balance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirschel, K M

    1994-09-01

    An Executive Vice President for Nursing can provide the necessary link to meet diverse clinical demands when encountering centralization--decentralization decisions. Centralized communication links hospital departments giving nurses a unified voice. Decentralization acknowledges the need for diversity and achieves the right balance of uniformity through a responsive communications network.

  1. Decentralized Bribery and Market Participation

    OpenAIRE

    Popov, Sergey V.

    2012-01-01

    I propose a bribery model that examines decentralized bureaucratic decision-making. There are multiple stable equilibria. High levels of bribery reduce an economy's productivity because corruption suppresses small business, and reduces the total graft, even though the size of an individual bribe might increase. Decentralization prevents movement towards a Pareto-dominant equilibrium. Anticorruption efforts, even temporary ones, might be useful to improve participation, if they lower the bribe...

  2. Decentralized substations for low-temperature district heating with no Legionella risk, and low return temperatures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Xiaochen; Li, Hongwei; Svendsen, Svend

    2016-01-01

    . From the results, realizing LTDH by the decentralized substation unit, 30% of the annual distribution heat loss inside the building can be saved compared to a conventional system with medium-temperature district heating. Replacing the bypass pipe with an in-line supply pipe and a heat pump...... with domestic hot water (DHW) circulation. In this study, a system with decentralized substations was analysed as a solution to this problem. Furthermore, a modification for the decentralized substation system were proposed in order to reduce the average return temperature. Models of conventional system...... with medium-temperature district heating, decentralized substation system with LTDH, and innovative decentralized substation system with LTDH were built based on the information of a case building. The annual distribution heat loss and the operating costs of the three scenarios were calculated and compared...

  3. Query Optimizations over Decentralized RDF Graphs

    KAUST Repository

    Abdelaziz, Ibrahim

    2017-05-18

    Applications in life sciences, decentralized social networks, Internet of Things, and statistical linked dataspaces integrate data from multiple decentralized RDF graphs via SPARQL queries. Several approaches have been proposed to optimize query processing over a small number of heterogeneous data sources by utilizing schema information. In the case of schema similarity and interlinks among sources, these approaches cause unnecessary data retrieval and communication, leading to poor scalability and response time. This paper addresses these limitations and presents Lusail, a system for scalable and efficient SPARQL query processing over decentralized graphs. Lusail achieves scalability and low query response time through various optimizations at compile and run times. At compile time, we use a novel locality-aware query decomposition technique that maximizes the number of query triple patterns sent together to a source based on the actual location of the instances satisfying these triple patterns. At run time, we use selectivity-awareness and parallel query execution to reduce network latency and to increase parallelism by delaying the execution of subqueries expected to return large results. We evaluate Lusail using real and synthetic benchmarks, with data sizes up to billions of triples on an in-house cluster and a public cloud. We show that Lusail outperforms state-of-the-art systems by orders of magnitude in terms of scalability and response time.

  4. Decentralization in Zambia: resource allocation and district performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bossert, Thomas; Chitah, Mukosha Bona; Bowser, Diana

    2003-12-01

    Zambia implemented an ambitious process of health sector decentralization in the mid 1990s. This article presents an assessment of the degree of decentralization, called 'decision space', that was allowed to districts in Zambia, and an analysis of data on districts available at the national level to assess allocation choices made by local authorities and some indicators of the performance of the health systems under decentralization. The Zambian officials in health districts had a moderate range of choice over expenditures, user fees, contracting, targeting and governance. Their choices were quite limited over salaries and allowances and they did not have control over additional major sources of revenue, like local taxes. The study found that the formula for allocation of government funding which was based on population size and hospital beds resulted in relatively equal per capita expenditures among districts. Decentralization allowed the districts to make decisions on internal allocation of resources and on user fee levels and expenditures. General guidelines for the allocation of resources established a maximum and minimum percentage to be allocated to district offices, hospitals, health centres and communities. Districts tended to exceed the maximum for district offices, but the large urban districts and those without public district hospitals were not even reaching the minimum for hospital allocations. Wealthier and urban districts were more successful in raising revenue through user fees, although the proportion of total expenditures that came from user fees was low. An analysis of available indicators of performance, such as the utilization of health services, immunization coverage and family planning activities, found little variation during the period 1995-98 except for a decline in immunization coverage, which may have also been affected by changes in donor funding. These findings suggest that decentralization may not have had either a positive or

  5. Centralized or decentralized electricity production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boer, H.A. de.

    1975-01-01

    Because of low overall efficiency in electric power generation, it is argued that energy provision based on gas, combined with locally decentralized electricity production, saves for the Netherlands slightly more fossile fuel than nuclear technologies and makes the country independent of uranium resources. The reason the Netherlands persues this approach is that a big part of the energy is finally used for heating in the normal or moderate temperatures

  6. A microeconomic analysis of decentralized small scale biomass based CHP plants—The case of Germany

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wittmann, Nadine; Yildiz, Özgür

    2013-01-01

    Alternative energy sources, such as biomass CHP plants, have recently gained significantly in importance and action is due both on the large scale corporate level and on the small scale. Hence, making the scope and economic outline of such projects easily intelligible without losing relevant details seems a key factor to further promote the necessary developments. The model setup presented in this paper may therefore serve as a starting point for generating numerical results based on real life cases or scenarios. Its focus lies on the economic analysis of decentralized biomass CHP plants. It presents a new approach to analyzing the economic aspects of biomass CHP plants implementing a formal microeconomic approach. As Germany claims a leading role in the market for renewable energy production, the paper also takes a closer look on the effects of German energy policy with respect to biomass CHP plants. - Highlights: • A formal microeconomic model is used to analyse a decentralized biomass CHP plant. • Model setup is used to generate numerical results based on real life scenarios. • Nested CES production function is a new approach to model economics of biomass CHP. • Analysis presents insight into microeconomics and cost drivers of biomass CHP. • Evaluation of energy policy design with respect to environmental policy goals

  7. Coordinating a multi-retailer decentralized distribution system with random demand based on buyback and compensation contracts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinyu Ren

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to set up the coordinating mechanism for a decentralized distribution system consisting of a manufacturer and multiple independent retailers by means of contracts. It is in the two-stage supply chain system that all retailers sell an identical product made by the manufacturer and determine their order quantities which directly affect the expected profit of the supply chain with random demand. Design/methodology/approach: First comparison of the optimal order quantities in the centralized and decentralized system shows that the supply chain needs coordination. Then the coordination model is given based on buyback cost and compensation benefit. Finally the coordination mechanism is set up in which the manufacturer as the leader uses a buyback policy to incentive these retailers and the retailers pay profit returns to compensate the manufacturer. Findings: The results of a numerical example show that the perfect supply chain coordination and the flexible allocation of the profit can be achieved in the multi-retailer supply chain by the buyback and compensation contracts. Research limitations: The results based on assumptions might not completely hold in practice and the paper only focuses on studying a single product in two-stage supply chain. Practical implications: The coordination mechanism is applicable to a realistic supply chain under a private information setting and the research results is the foundation of further developing the coordination mechanism for a realistic multi-stage supply chain system with more products. Originality/value: This paper focused on studying the coordination mechanism for a decentralized multi-retailer supply chain by the joint application of the buyback and compensation contracts. Furthermore the perfect supply chain coordination and the flexible allocation of the profit are achieved.

  8. Decentralized Consistency Checking in Cross-organizational Workflows

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wombacher, Andreas

    Service Oriented Architectures facilitate loosely coupled composed services, which are established in a decentralized way. One challenge for such composed services is to guarantee consistency, i.e., deadlock-freeness. This paper presents a decentralized approach to consistency checking, which

  9. Decentralized Energy from Waste Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Blanca Antizar-Ladislao

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In the last five years or so, biofuels have been given notable consideration worldwide as an alternative to fossil fuels, due to their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by partial replacement of oil as a transport fuel. The production of biofuels using a sustainable approach, should consider local production of biofuels, obtained from local feedstocks and adapted to the socio-economical and environmental characteristics of the particular region where they are developed. Thus, decentralized energy from waste systems will exploit local biomass to optimize their production and consumption. Waste streams such as agricultural and wood residues, municipal solid waste, vegetable oils, and algae residues can all be integrated in energy from waste systems. An integral optimization of decentralized energy from waste systems should not be based on the optimization of each single process, but the overall optimization of the whole process. This is by obtaining optimal energy and environmental benefits, as well as collateral beneficial co-products such as soil fertilizers which will result in a higher food crop production and carbon dioxide fixation which will abate climate change.

  10. Decentralized energy from waste systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Antizar-Ladislao, B.; Turrion-Gomez, J. L.

    2010-01-01

    In the last five years or so, biofuels have been given notable consideration worldwide as an alternative to fossil fuels, due to their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by partial replacement of oil as a transport fuel. The production of biofuels using a sustainable approach, should consider local production of biofuels, obtained from local feedstocks and adapted to the socio-economical and environmental characteristics of the particular region where they are developed. Thus, decentralized energy from waste systems will exploit local biomass to optimize their production and consumption. Waste streams such as agricultural and wood residues, municipal solid waste, vegetable oils, and algae residues can all be integrated in energy from waste systems. An integral optimization of decentralized energy from waste systems should not be based on the optimization of each single process, but the overall optimization of the whole process. This is by obtaining optimal energy and environmental benefits, as well as collateral beneficial co-products such as soil fertilizers which will result in a higher food crop production and carbon dioxide fixation which will abate climate change. (author)

  11. Decentralization and Participatory Rural Development: A Literature Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Shakil Ahmad

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Most of the developing nations are still struggling for efficient use of their resources. In order to overcome physical and administrative constraints of the development, it is necessary to transfer the power from the central government to local authorities. Distribution of power from improves the management of resources and community participation which is considered key to sustainable development. Advocates of decentralization argue that decentralized government is source to improve community participation in rural development. Decentralized government is considered more responsive towards local needs and development of poor peoples. There are many obstacles to expand the citizen participation in rural areas. There are many approaches for participatory development but all have to face the same challenges. Current paper highlights the literature about Decentralization and participatory rural development. Concept and modalities of Decentralization, dimensions of participation, types of rural participation and obstacles to participation are also the part of this paper.

  12. Trends in research on forestry decentralization policies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lund, Jens Friis; Rutt, Rebecca Leigh; Ribot, Jesse

    2018-01-01

    institutions; studies focusing on power and the role of elites in forestry decentralization, and; studies that historicize and contextualize forestry decentralization as reflective of broader societal phenomena. We argue that these strands reflect disciplinary differences in values, epistemologies, and methods...

  13. Comparison of centralized and decentralized energy supply systems

    OpenAIRE

    Pfeifer, Thomas; Fahl, Ulrich; Voß, Alfred

    1991-01-01

    Communal energy programs are often embedded in a conception of a decentralized energy supply system where electricity is produced by a number of smaller power plants. For a comprehensive survey the question arises whether these decentralized systems are more advantageous than centralized systems with regard to the criterions energy consumption, safety of supply, environmental compatibility and economy. In the following, after a definition of the term "decentralized", the present structure of ...

  14. Decentralized Control of Autonomous Vehicles

    Science.gov (United States)

    2003-01-01

    Autonomous Vehicles by John S. Baras, Xiaobo Tan, Pedram Hovareshti CSHCN TR 2003-8 (ISR TR 2003-14) Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704...AND SUBTITLE Decentralized Control of Autonomous Vehicles 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT...Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 Decentralized Control of Autonomous Vehicles ∗ John S. Baras, Xiaobo Tan, and Pedram

  15. Robust Decentralized Formation Flight Control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhao Weihua

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Motivated by the idea of multiplexed model predictive control (MMPC, this paper introduces a new framework for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs formation flight and coordination. Formulated using MMPC approach, the whole centralized formation flight system is considered as a linear periodic system with control inputs of each UAV subsystem as its periodic inputs. Divided into decentralized subsystems, the whole formation flight system is guaranteed stable if proper terminal cost and terminal constraints are added to each decentralized MPC formulation of the UAV subsystem. The decentralized robust MPC formulation for each UAV subsystem with bounded input disturbances and model uncertainties is also presented. Furthermore, an obstacle avoidance control scheme for any shape and size of obstacles, including the nonapriorily known ones, is integrated under the unified MPC framework. The results from simulations demonstrate that the proposed framework can successfully achieve robust collision-free formation flights.

  16. Decentralization: Another Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapman, Robin

    1973-01-01

    This paper attempts to pursue the centralization-decentralization dilemma. A setting for this discussion is provided by noting some of the uses of terminology, followed by a consideration of inherent difficulties in conceptualizing. (Author)

  17. Decentralized central heating

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Savic, S.; Hudjera, A.

    1994-08-04

    The decentralized central heating is essentially based on new technical solutions for an independent heating unit, which allows up to 20% collectible energy savings and up to 15% savings in built-in-material. These savings are already made possible by the fact that the elements described under point A are thus eliminated from the classical heating. The thus superfluous made elements are replaced by new technical solutions described under point B - technical problem - and point E - patent claim. The technical solutions described in detail under point B and point E form together a technical unit and are essential parts of the invention protected by the patent. (author)

  18. Patient Experiences of Decentralized HIV Treatment and Care in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria: A Qualitative Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grace O. Kolawole

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background. Decentralization of care and treatment for HIV infection in Africa makes services available in local health facilities. Decentralization has been associated with improved retention and comparable or superior treatment outcomes, but patient experiences are not well understood. Methods. We conducted a qualitative study of patient experiences in decentralized HIV care in Plateau State, north central Nigeria. Five decentralized care sites in the Plateau State Decentralization Initiative were purposefully selected. Ninety-three patients and 16 providers at these sites participated in individual interviews and focus groups. Data collection activities were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were inductively content analyzed to derive descriptive categories representing patient experiences of decentralized care. Results. Patient participants in this study experienced the transition to decentralized care as a series of “trade-offs.” Advantages cited included saving time and money on travel to clinic visits, avoiding dangers on the road, and the “family-like atmosphere” found in some decentralized clinics. Disadvantages were loss of access to ancillary services, reduced opportunities for interaction with providers, and increased risk of disclosure. Participants preferred decentralized services overall. Conclusion. Difficulty and cost of travel remain a fundamental barrier to accessing HIV care outside urban centers, suggesting increased availability of community-based services will be enthusiastically received.

  19. Distribution of decentralized renewable energy resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bal, J.L.; Benque, J.P.

    1996-01-01

    The existence of a great number of inhabitants without electricity, living in areas of low population density, with modest energy requirements and low income provides a major potential market for decentralized renewable energy sources. Ademe and EDF in 1993 made two agreements concerning the development of Renewable Energy Sources. The first aims at promoting their decentralized use in France in pertinent cases. The second agreement concerns other countries and has two ambitions: facilitate short-term developments and produce in the longer term a standardised proposal for decentralized energy production using Renewable Energy Sources to a considerable extent. These ideas are explained, and the principles behind the implementation of both Ademe-EDF agreements as well as their future prospects are described. (R.P.)

  20. Towards Automatic Decentralized Control Structure Selection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    for decentralized control is determined automatically, and the resulting decentralized control structure is automatically tuned using standard techniques. Dynamic simulation of the resulting process system gives immediate feedback to the process design engineer regarding practical operability of the process......A subtask in integration of design and control of chemical processes is the selection of a control structure. Automating the selection of the control structure enables sequential integration of process and controld esign. As soon as the process is specified or computed, a structure....... The control structure selection problem is formulated as a special MILP employing cost coefficients which are computed using Parseval's theorem combined with RGA and IMC concepts. This approach enables selection and tuning of large-scale plant-wide decentralized controllers through efficient combination...

  1. Towards Automatic Decentralized Control Structure Selection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, John Bagterp; Jørgensen, Sten Bay

    2000-01-01

    for decentralized control is determined automatically, and the resulting decentralized control structure is automatically tuned using standard techniques. Dynamic simulation of the resulting process system gives immediate feedback to the process design engineer regarding practical operability of the process......A subtask in integration of design and control of chemical processes is the selection of a control structure. Automating the selection of the control structure enables sequential integration of process and control design. As soon as the process is specified or computed, a structure....... The control structure selection problem is formulated as a special MILP employing cost coefficients which are computed using Parseval's theorem combined with RGA and IMC concepts. This approach enables selection and tuning of large-scale plant-wide decentralized controllers through efficient combination...

  2. Decentral Smart Grid Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schäfer, Benjamin; Matthiae, Moritz; Timme, Marc; Witthaut, Dirk

    2015-01-01

    Stable operation of complex flow and transportation networks requires balanced supply and demand. For the operation of electric power grids—due to their increasing fraction of renewable energy sources—a pressing challenge is to fit the fluctuations in decentralized supply to the distributed and temporally varying demands. To achieve this goal, common smart grid concepts suggest to collect consumer demand data, centrally evaluate them given current supply and send price information back to customers for them to decide about usage. Besides restrictions regarding cyber security, privacy protection and large required investments, it remains unclear how such central smart grid options guarantee overall stability. Here we propose a Decentral Smart Grid Control, where the price is directly linked to the local grid frequency at each customer. The grid frequency provides all necessary information about the current power balance such that it is sufficient to match supply and demand without the need for a centralized IT infrastructure. We analyze the performance and the dynamical stability of the power grid with such a control system. Our results suggest that the proposed Decentral Smart Grid Control is feasible independent of effective measurement delays, if frequencies are averaged over sufficiently large time intervals.

  3. Decentral Smart Grid Control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schäfer, Benjamin; Matthiae, Moritz; Timme, Marc; Witthaut, Dirk

    2015-01-01

    Stable operation of complex flow and transportation networks requires balanced supply and demand. For the operation of electric power grids—due to their increasing fraction of renewable energy sources—a pressing challenge is to fit the fluctuations in decentralized supply to the distributed and temporally varying demands. To achieve this goal, common smart grid concepts suggest to collect consumer demand data, centrally evaluate them given current supply and send price information back to customers for them to decide about usage. Besides restrictions regarding cyber security, privacy protection and large required investments, it remains unclear how such central smart grid options guarantee overall stability. Here we propose a Decentral Smart Grid Control, where the price is directly linked to the local grid frequency at each customer. The grid frequency provides all necessary information about the current power balance such that it is sufficient to match supply and demand without the need for a centralized IT infrastructure. We analyze the performance and the dynamical stability of the power grid with such a control system. Our results suggest that the proposed Decentral Smart Grid Control is feasible independent of effective measurement delays, if frequencies are averaged over sufficiently large time intervals. (paper)

  4. Policy Recommendations on Decentralization, Local Power and ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2010-12-22

    Policy Recommendations on Decentralization, Local Power and Women's Rights. December 22, 2010. Image. The present document comprises a set of policy recommendations that define a global agenda on gender and decentralization. It emerged from the analysis and experiences shared during the Conference and the ...

  5. Rethinking Decentralization in Education in terms of Administrative Problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vasiliki Papadopoulou

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The general purpose of this study is to thoroughly examine decentralization in education according to the literature and previous research, and to discuss the applicability of educational decentralization practices in Turkey. The literature was reviewed for the study and findings reported. It has been observed that decentralization in education practices were realized in many countries after the 1980’s. It is obvious that the educational system in Turkey has difficulty in meeting the needs, and encounters many problems due to its present centralist state. Educational decentralization can provide effective solutions for stakeholder engagement, educational financing and for problems in decision making and operation within the education system. However, the present state of local governments, the legal framework, geographical, cultural and social features indicate that Turkey’s conditions are not ready for decentralization in education. A decentralization model realized in the long run according to Turkey’s conditions, and as a result of a social consensus, can help resolve the problems of the Turkish education system.

  6. Feedback-linearization and feedback-feedforward decentralized control for multimachine power system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Tuglie, Enrico [Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell' Ambiente, e per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile - DIASS, Politecnico di Bari, Viale del Turismo 8, 74100 Taranto (Italy); Iannone, Silvio Marcello; Torelli, Francesco [Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, ed Elettronica - DEE, Politecnico di Bari, Via Re David 200, 70125 Bari (Italy)

    2008-03-15

    In this paper a decentralized nonlinear controller for large-scale power systems is investigated. The proposed controller design is based on the input-output feedback linearization methodology. In order to overcome computational difficulties in adopting such methodology, the overall interconnected nonlinear system, given as n-order, is analyzed as a cascade connection of an n{sub 1}-order nonlinear subsystem and an n{sub 2}-order linear subsystem. The controller design is obtained by applying input-output feedback linearization to the nonlinear subsystem and adopting a tracking control scheme, based on feedback-feedforward technique, for the linear subsystem. In the assumed system model, which is characterised by an interconnected structure between generating units, a decentralised adaptive controller is implemented by decentralizing these constraints. The use of a totally decentralised controller implies a system performance decay with respect to performance when the system is equipped with a centralised controller. Fortunately, the robustness of the proposed controller, based on input-output feedback procedure, guarantees good performance in terms of disturbance even when disturbances are caused by decentralization of interconnection constraints. Test results, provided on the IEEE 30 bus test system, demonstrate the effectiveness and practical applicability of proposed methodology. (author)

  7. Decentralized substations for low-temperature district heating with no Legionella risk, and low return temperatures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Xiaochen; Li, Hongwei; Svendsen, Svend

    2016-01-01

    To improve energy efficiency and give more access to renewable energy sources, low-temperature district heating (LTDH) is a promising concept to be realized in the future. However, concern about Legionella proliferation restricts applying low-temperature district heating in conventional systems with domestic hot water (DHW) circulation. In this study, a system with decentralized substations was analysed as a solution to this problem. Furthermore, a modification for the decentralized substation system were proposed in order to reduce the average return temperature. Models of conventional system with medium-temperature district heating, decentralized substation system with LTDH, and innovative decentralized substation system with LTDH were built based on the information of a case building. The annual distribution heat loss and the operating costs of the three scenarios were calculated and compared. From the results, realizing LTDH by the decentralized substation unit, 30% of the annual distribution heat loss inside the building can be saved compared to a conventional system with medium-temperature district heating. Replacing the bypass pipe with an in-line supply pipe and a heat pump, the innovative decentralized substation system can reduce distribution heat loss by 39% compared to the conventional system and by 12% compared to the normal decentralized substation system with bypass. - Highlights: • The system of decentralized substations can realize low-temperature district heating without running the risk of Legionella. • Decentralized substations help reduce the distribution heat loss inside the building compared to conventional system. • A new concept that can reduce the return temperature for district heating is proposed and analysed.

  8. Energy and air emission implications of a decentralized wastewater system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shehabi, Arman; Stokes, Jennifer R; Horvath, Arpad

    2012-01-01

    Both centralized and decentralized wastewater systems have distinct engineering, financial and societal benefits. This paper presents a framework for analyzing the environmental effects of decentralized wastewater systems and an evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with two currently operating systems in California, one centralized and one decentralized. A comparison of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and criteria air pollutants from the systems shows that the scale economies of the centralized plant help lower the environmental burden to less than a fifth of that of the decentralized utility for the same volume treated. The energy and emission burdens of the decentralized plant are reduced when accounting for high-yield wastewater reuse if it supplants an energy-intensive water supply like a desalination one. The centralized facility also reduces greenhouse gases by flaring methane generated during the treatment process, while methane is directly emitted from the decentralized system. The results are compelling enough to indicate that the life-cycle environmental impacts of decentralized designs should be carefully evaluated as part of the design process. (letter)

  9. Community Development in the context of the power decentralization in Ukraine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. P. Berezinskiy

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the study is to define opportunities of development of the community in the implementation of the power decentralization reform in Ukraine. It has been shown that the principle of decentralization provides for territorial and political unity of the state by a legal delimitation of powers between central government agencies and regional public authorities (or local authorities. It makes it clear that the issue of power decentralization in Ukraine has a constitutional and legal framework, as the Main Law states that the power system is based on a combination of centralization and decentralization. The requirement of power decentralization has been constitutionally justified. It has been revealed that according to the State Regional Development Strategy, the following priorities of the state regional policy are: increase of the competitiveness of regions; territorial socio-economic integration and spatial development; effective governance in regional development. It has been disclosed that in Ukraine the deepening of the decentralization is aimed at the strengthening of the role of local self-government, empowerment of the representative authorities of local communities to get more authority for managing local affairs, deprivation of local power authorities for the preparation and fulfilment of budgets in regions, the transfer of significant powers and financial resources from government to local self-governmental authorities. It has been proved that decentralization contributes to the democratization of the local government and the development of local community as the ultimate goals of the reform of the power decentralization are the creation and maintenance of good living environment for citizens. This reform should correspond to interests of citizens in all spheres of life, and it must support on the relevant territory. In this regard, series of legislative acts were adopted («On a voluntary association of local communities»,

  10. Decentralization in Botswana: the reluctant process | Dipholo ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Botswana\\'s decentralization process has always been justified in terms of democracy and development. Consequently, the government has always argued that it is fully committed to decentralization in order to promote popular participation as well as facilitating sustainable rural development. Yet the government does not ...

  11. Decentralized robust control design using LMI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dušan Krokavec

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with application of decentralized controllers for large-scale systems with subsystems interaction and system matrices uncertainties. The desired stability of the whole system is guaranteed while at the same time the tolerable bounds in the uncertainties due to structural changes are maximized. The design approach is based on the linear matrix inequalities (LMI techniques adaptation for stabilizing controller design.

  12. Decentralizing conservation and diversifying livelihoods within Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, Nepal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Pete; Thapa, Brijesh; Jacob, Aerin

    2015-12-01

    To alleviate poverty and enhance conservation in resource dependent communities, managers must identify existing livelihood strategies and the associated factors that impede household access to livelihood assets. Researchers increasingly advocate reallocating management power from exclusionary central institutions to a decentralized system of management based on local and inclusive participation. However, it is yet to be shown if decentralizing conservation leads to diversified livelihoods within a protected area. The purpose of this study was to identify and assess factors affecting household livelihood diversification within Nepal's Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project, the first protected area in Asia to decentralize conservation. We randomly surveyed 25% of Kanchenjunga households to assess household socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and access to livelihood assets. We used a cluster analysis with the ten most common income generating activities (both on- and off-farm) to group the strategies households use to diversify livelihoods, and a multinomial logistic regression to identify predictors of livelihood diversification. We found four distinct groups of household livelihood strategies with a range of diversification that directly corresponded to household income. The predictors of livelihood diversification were more related to pre-existing socioeconomic and demographic factors (e.g., more landholdings and livestock, fewer dependents, receiving remittances) than activities sponsored by decentralizing conservation (e.g., microcredit, training, education, interaction with project staff). Taken together, our findings indicate that without direct policies to target marginalized groups, decentralized conservation in Kanchenjunga will continue to exclude marginalized groups, limiting a household's ability to diversify their livelihood and perpetuating their dependence on natural resources. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Decentralized indirect methods for learning automata games.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilak, Omkar; Martin, Ryan; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis

    2011-10-01

    We discuss the application of indirect learning methods in zero-sum and identical payoff learning automata games. We propose a novel decentralized version of the well-known pursuit learning algorithm. Such a decentralized algorithm has significant computational advantages over its centralized counterpart. The theoretical study of such a decentralized algorithm requires the analysis to be carried out in a nonstationary environment. We use a novel bootstrapping argument to prove the convergence of the algorithm. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such analysis has been carried out for zero-sum and identical payoff games. Extensive simulation studies are reported, which demonstrate the proposed algorithm's fast and accurate convergence in a variety of game scenarios. We also introduce the framework of partial communication in the context of identical payoff games of learning automata. In such games, the automata may not communicate with each other or may communicate selectively. This comprehensive framework has the capability to model both centralized and decentralized games discussed in this paper.

  14. The effects of fiscal decentralization in Albania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr.Sc. Blerta Dragusha

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available “Basically decentralization is a democratic reform which seeks to transfer the political, administrative, financial and planning authority from central to local government. It seeks to develop civic participation, empowerment of local people in decision making process and to promote accountability and reliability: To achieve efficiency and effectiveness in the collection and management of resources and service delivery”1 The interest and curiosity of knowing how our country is doing in this process, still unfinished, served as a motivation forme to treat this topic: fiscal decentralization as a process of giving 'power' to local governments, not only in terms of rights deriving from this process but also on the responsibilities that come with it. Which are the stages before and after decentralization, and how has it affected the process in several key indicators? Is decentralization a good process only, or can any of its effects be seen as an disadvantage?

  15. Decentralization's impact on the health workforce: Perspectives of managers, workers and national leaders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kolehmainen-Aitken Riitta-Liisa

    2004-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Designers and implementers of decentralization and other reform measures have focused much attention on financial and structural reform measures, but ignored their human resource implications. Concern is mounting about the impact that the reallocation of roles and responsibilities has had on the health workforce and its management, but the experiences and lessons of different countries have not been widely shared. This paper examines evidence from published literature on decentralization's impact on the demand side of the human resource equation, as well as the factors that have contributed to the impact. The elements that make such an impact analysis exceptionally complex are identified. They include the mode of decentralization that a country is implementing, the level of responsibility for the salary budget and pay determination, and the civil service status of transferred health workers. The main body of the paper is devoted to examining decentralization's impact on human resource issues from three different perspectives: that of local health managers, health workers themselves, and national health leaders. These three groups have different concerns in the human resource realm, and consequently, have been differently affected by decentralization processes. The paper concludes with recommendations regarding three key concerns that national authorities and international agencies should give prompt attention to. They are (1 defining the essential human resource policy, planning and management skills for national human resource managers who work in decentralized countries, and developing training programs to equip them with such skills; (2 supporting research that focuses on improving the knowledge base of how different modes of decentralization impact on staffing equity; and (3 identifying factors that most critically influence health worker motivation and performance under decentralization, and documenting the most cost-effective best

  16. Decentralization's impact on the health workforce: Perspectives of managers, workers and national leaders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolehmainen-Aitken, Riitta-Liisa

    2004-05-14

    Designers and implementers of decentralization and other reform measures have focused much attention on financial and structural reform measures, but ignored their human resource implications. Concern is mounting about the impact that the reallocation of roles and responsibilities has had on the health workforce and its management, but the experiences and lessons of different countries have not been widely shared. This paper examines evidence from published literature on decentralization's impact on the demand side of the human resource equation, as well as the factors that have contributed to the impact. The elements that make such an impact analysis exceptionally complex are identified. They include the mode of decentralization that a country is implementing, the level of responsibility for the salary budget and pay determination, and the civil service status of transferred health workers.The main body of the paper is devoted to examining decentralization's impact on human resource issues from three different perspectives: that of local health managers, health workers themselves, and national health leaders. These three groups have different concerns in the human resource realm, and consequently, have been differently affected by decentralization processes. The paper concludes with recommendations regarding three key concerns that national authorities and international agencies should give prompt attention to. They are (1) defining the essential human resource policy, planning and management skills for national human resource managers who work in decentralized countries, and developing training programs to equip them with such skills; (2) supporting research that focuses on improving the knowledge base of how different modes of decentralization impact on staffing equity; and (3) identifying factors that most critically influence health worker motivation and performance under decentralization, and documenting the most cost-effective best practices to improve them

  17. Subsidiarity in Principle: Decentralization of Water Resources Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryan Stoa

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The subsidiarity principle of water resources management suggests that water management and service delivery should take place at the lowest appropriate governance level. The principle is attractive for several reasons, primarily because: 1 the governance level can be reduced to reflect environmental characteristics, such as the hydrological borders of a watershed that would otherwise cross administrative boundaries; 2 decentralization promotes community and stakeholder engagement when decision-making is localized; 3 inefficiencies are reduced by eliminating reliance on central government bureaucracies and budgetary constraints; and 4 laws and institutions can be adapted to reflect localized conditions at a scale where integrated natural resources management and climate change adaptation is more focused. Accordingly, the principle of subsidiarity has been welcomed by many states committed to decentralized governance, integrated water resources management, and/or civic participation. However, applications of decentralization have not been uniform, and in some cases have produced frustrating outcomes for states and water resources. Successful decentralization strategies are heavily dependent on dedicated financial resources and human resource capacity. This article explores the nexus between the principle of subsidiarity and the enabling environment, in the hope of articulating factors likely to contribute to, or detract from, the success of decentralized water resources management. Case studies from Haiti, Rwanda, and the United States’ Florida Water Management Districts provide examples of the varied stages of decentralization.

  18. FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION IN THE DRC: EVIDENCE OFREVENUE ASSIGNMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angelita Kithatu-Kiwekete

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The rationalefor central government to devolve resources for service provisionhas been debated in decentralization literature. Decentralization enhancesdemocracy,encouragesparticipation in local development initiativesandpromotes local political accountability.This discourse has been complemented bythe implementation of fiscal decentralization to increase the ability of sub-nationalgovernment in financing municipal service delivery. Fiscal decentralization hasoften been adopted by African statessince the onset ofthe New PublicManagement erain an effortto improvethe standard ofgovernance. The concernis that African states have taken minimal steps to adopt fiscal devolution thatpromotes revenue assignment which in turn limits sub-nationalgovernments’ability to generate own source revenues.This article examines the revenue assignment function of fiscal decentralization inthe Democratic Republic of Congo(DRCinthelight of decentralizationconcerns that have been raised by civil society, as the country charts its course todemocracy. The article is a desktop study that will consider documents andpoliciesin theDRCon thenational, provincialand locallevel as far asstaterevenue sourcesare concerned. Revenue assignment should enable DRC’sprovinces and local authoritiestogeneratesignificantrevenueindependently.However, post-conflict reconstruction and development efforts in the Great Lakesregion and in the DRC have largely isolated decentralization which wouldotherwise entrench local fiscalautonomy infinancing for local services anddevelopment. The article concludes that revenue generation for local authoritiesandtheprovinces in the DRC is still very centralised by the national government.Thearticleproposes policy recommendations that will be useful for the country toensurethatdecentralization effortsinclude fiscal devolution toenhance thefinancing for local development initiatives.

  19. Dynamic Output Feedback Based Active Decentralized Fault-Tolerant Control for Reconfigurable Manipulator with Concurrent Failures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuanchun Li

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this paper is to describe an active decentralized fault-tolerant control (ADFTC strategy based on dynamic output feedback for reconfigurable manipulators with concurrent actuator and sensor failures. Consider each joint module of the reconfigurable manipulator as a subsystem, and treat the fault as the unknown input of the subsystem. Firstly, by virtue of linear matrix inequality (LMI technique, the decentralized proportional-integral observer (DPIO is designed to estimate and compensate the sensor fault online; hereafter, the compensated system model could be derived. Then, the actuator fault is estimated similarly by another DPIO using LMI as well, and the sufficient condition of the existence of H∞ fault-tolerant controller in the dynamic output feedback is presented for the compensated system model. Furthermore, the dynamic output feedback controller is presented based on the estimation of actuator fault to realize active fault-tolerant control. Finally, two 3-DOF reconfigurable manipulators with different configurations are employed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in simulation. The main advantages of the proposed scheme lie in that it can handle the concurrent faults act on the actuator and sensor on the same joint module, as well as there is no requirement of fault detection and isolation process; moreover, it is more feasible to the modularity of the reconfigurable manipulator.

  20. Optimal placement and decentralized robust vibration control for spacecraft smart solar panel structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang, Jian-ping; Li, Dong-xu

    2010-01-01

    The decentralized robust vibration control with collocated piezoelectric actuator and strain sensor pairs is considered in this paper for spacecraft solar panel structures. Each actuator is driven individually by the output of the corresponding sensor so that only local feedback control is implemented, with each actuator, sensor and controller operating independently. Firstly, an optimal placement method for the location of the collocated piezoelectric actuator and strain gauge sensor pairs is developed based on the degree of observability and controllability indices for solar panel structures. Secondly, a decentralized robust H ∞ controller is designed to suppress the vibration induced by external disturbance. Finally, a numerical comparison between centralized and decentralized control systems is performed in order to investigate their effectiveness to suppress vibration of the smart solar panel. The simulation results show that the vibration can be significantly suppressed with permitted actuator voltages by the controllers. The decentralized control system almost has the same disturbance attenuation level as the centralized control system with a bit higher control voltages. More importantly, the decentralized controller composed of four three-order systems is a better practical implementation than a high-order centralized controller is

  1. Decentralized control of the COFS-I Mast using linear dc motors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindner, Douglas K.; Celano, Tom; Ide, Eric

    1989-01-01

    Consideration is given to a decentralized control design for vibration suppression in the COFS-I Mast using linear dc motors for actuators. The decentralized control design is based results from power systems using root locus techniques that are not well known. The approach is effective because the loop gain is low due to low actuator authority. The frequency-dependent nonlinearities of the actuator are taken into account. Because of the tendency of the transients to saturate the the stroke length of the actuator, its effectiveness is limited.

  2. A three-level atomicity model for decentralized workflow management systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-Shaul, Israel Z.; Heineman, George T.

    1996-12-01

    A workflow management system (WFMS) employs a workflow manager (WM) to execute and automate the various activities within a workflow. To protect the consistency of data, the WM encapsulates each activity with a transaction; a transaction manager (TM) then guarantees the atomicity of activities. Since workflows often group several activities together, the TM is responsible for guaranteeing the atomicity of these units. There are scalability issues, however, with centralized WFMSs. Decentralized WFMSs provide an architecture for multiple autonomous WFMSs to interoperate, thus accommodating multiple workflows and geographically-dispersed teams. When atomic units are composed of activities spread across multiple WFMSs, however, there is a conflict between global atomicity and local autonomy of each WFMS. This paper describes a decentralized atomicity model that enables workflow administrators to specify the scope of multi-site atomicity based upon the desired semantics of multi-site tasks in the decentralized WFMS. We describe an architecture that realizes our model and execution paradigm.

  3. Ecological risk assessment of hydropower dam construction based on ecological network analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Chen, Shaoqing; Fath, Brian D.; Chen, Bin

    2010-01-01

    Dam construction is regarded as one of the major factors contributing to significant modifications of the river ecosystems, and the ecological risk (ER) assessment of dam construction has received growing attention in recent years. In the present study, we explored the potential ecological risk caused by dam project based on the general principles of the ecological risk assessment. Ecological network analysis was proposed as the usable analytic method for the implement of ecological risk asse...

  4. Least-cost network evaluation of centralized and decentralized contributions to global electrification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Levin, Todd; Thomas, Valerie M.

    2012-01-01

    The choice between centralized and decentralized electricity generation is examined for 150 countries as a function of population distribution, electricity consumption, transmission cost, and the cost difference between decentralized and centralized electricity generation. A network algorithm is developed to find the shortest centralized transmission network that spans a given fraction of the population in a country. The least-cost combination of centralized and decentralized electricity that serves the country is determined. Case studies of Botswana, Uganda, and Bangladesh illustrate situations that are more and less suited for decentralized electrification. Specific maps for centralized and decentralized generation are presented to show how the least-cost option varies with the relative costs of centralized and decentralized generation and transmission cost. Centralized and decentralized fractions are calculated for 150 countries. For most of the world's population, centralized electricity is the least-cost option. For a number of countries, particularly in Africa, substantial populations and regions may be most cost-effectively served by decentralized electricity. - Highlights: ► Centralized and decentralized electrification are compared for 150 countries. ► A cost-optimized network algorithm finds the least-cost electrification system. ► Least-cost infrastructures combine centralized and decentralized portions. ► For most people, centralized electricity is cheapest option. ► In much of Africa, decentralized electricity may be cheaper than centralized.

  5. Responsiveness and flexibility in a Decentralized Supply Chain

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Kristian Rasmus; Bilberg, Arne; Hadar, Ronen

    Today’s supply chains are not capable of managing the instabilities that is the case in the market. Instead, there is a need to develop supply chains that are capable of adapting to changes. Through a case study of LEGO, the authors suggest a possible solution: a decentralized supply chain serving...... independent and self-sufficient local factories. The decentralized supply chain is provided with materials, parts and pre-assembled elements from local suppliers and supplies the local market in return. Keywords: Decentralize, Responsiveness, Flexibility...

  6. DECENTRALIZATION OF PUBLIC AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lyudmila Pron’ko

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of research is to examine the purpose of a modern system of local government in Ukraine, scientific analysis of the feasibility and benefits of implemented reforms for decentralization and subsidiary of local authorities, decentralization of public power and public control, and the need to strengthen the political status of local governments. Methodology. The methodological base for research on decentralization and local government reforms to strengthen the political status of local government and decentralization of public power is the Constitution of Ukraine, Laws of Ukraine, Decrees of the President of Ukraine, as well as publications on these issues of domestic and foreign authors. As a result (Results study determined that according to Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “On local government in Ukraine” The elements of local government are: local community; Village, town, city council; Village, town, city mayor; executive bodies of village, town and city councils; district (in the city Council, created in cities with district division by the decision of the territorial community, or city council; district and regional councils, which represent common interests of territorial communities of villages, towns and cities; BSP; system of government in Ukraine is not fulfilling the role assigned to it, because there is twofold subordination and uncertainty powers of representative and executive bodies. Today there is a three-level administrative division: basic level (village, town or city, district level and level area. There is a local government council and executive body (all the decisions and programs approved by the Regional Council performed by RSA, those public authorities. Thus there is a need for continued reform of local government on the principles of decentralization and subsidiary principle because they are building the foundation of the state; One of the hallmarks of a modern democratic society has become political

  7. Decentralized Portfolio Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin Miranda Tabak

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available We use a mean-variance model to analyze the problem of decentralized portfolio management. We find the solution for the optimal portfolio allocation for a head trader operating in n different markets, which is called the optimal centralized portfolio. However, as there are many traders specialized in different markets, the solution to the problem of optimal decentralized allocation should be different from the centralized case. In this paper we derive conditions for the solutions to be equivalent. We use multivariate normal returns and a negative exponential function to solve the problem analytically. We generate the equivalence of solutions by assuming that different traders face different interest rates for borrowing and lending. This interest rate is dependent on the ratio of the degrees of risk aversion of the trader and the head trader, on the excess return, and on the correlation between asset returns.

  8. Decentralization, Local Rights and the Construction of Women's ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Decentralization, Local Rights and the Construction of Women's Citizenship : a Comparative Study in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda - Phase II. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have adopted new land laws, policies and institutional arrangements to accommodate decentralization of land administration and management.

  9. Decentralized Blended Acquisition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berkhout, A.J.

    2013-01-01

    The concept of blending and deblending is reviewed, making use of traditional and dispersed source arrays. The network concept of distributed blended acquisition is introduced. A million-trace robot system is proposed, illustrating that decentralization may bring about a revolution in the way we

  10. Blockchain technology and decentralized governance: Is the state still necessary?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcella Atzori

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The core technology of Bitcoin, the blockchain, has recently emerged as a disruptive innovation with a wide range of applications, potentially able to redesign our interactions in business, politics and society at large. Although scholarly interest in this subject is growing, a comprehensive analysis of blockchain applications from a political perspective is severely lacking to date. This paper aims to fill this gap and it discusses the key points of blockchain-based decentralized governance, which challenges to varying degrees the traditional mechanisms of State authority, citizenship and democracy. In particular, the paper verifies to which extent blockchain and decentralized platforms can be considered as hyper-political tools, capable to manage social interactions on large scale and dismiss traditional central authorities. The analysis highlights risks related to a dominant position of private powers in distributed ecosystems, which may lead to a general disempowerment of citizens and to the emergence of a stateless global society. While technological utopians urge the demise of any centralized institution, this paper advocates the role of the State as a necessary central point of coordination in society, showing that decentralization through algorithm-based consensus is an organizational theory, not a stand-alone political theory.

  11. The Two Edge Knife of Decentralization

    OpenAIRE

    Umam, Ahmad Khoirul

    2011-01-01

    A centralistic government model has become a trend in a number of developing countries, in which the ideosycretic aspect becomes pivotal key in the policy making. The situation constitutes authoritarianism, cronyism, and corruption. To break the impasse, the decentralized system is proposed to make people closer to the public policy making. Decentralization is also convinced to be the solution to create a good governance. But a number of facts in the developing countries demonstrates that dec...

  12. Decentralization : Local Partnerships for Health Services in the ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Cameroon, like most other sub-Saharan African countries, has adopted laws devolving various responsibilities to local administrations. In the local political discourse, decentralization is seen as bringing essential services closer to the users, especially those in greatest need. However, the national decentralization program ...

  13. Decentralization and financial autonomy: a challenge for local public authorities in the Republic of Moldova

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatiana MANOLE

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This article reflects the decentralization process currently taking place in the Republic of Moldova. The purpose of the research is to acquaint readers with the fundamental concept of decentralization, with the areas of administrative decentralization, with the forms of manifestation of financial decentralization: fiscal decentralization and budget decentralization. The priorities of the decentralization process are identified.

  14. Study on autonomous decentralized-cooperative function monitoring system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuoka, Takeshi; Numano, Masayoshi; Someya, Minoru; Fukuto, Junji; Mitomo, Nobuo; Miyazaki, Keiko; Matsukura, Hiroshi; Tanba, Yasuyuki

    1999-01-01

    In this study, a study further advanced on a base of results of study on artificial intelligence for nuclear power', one of nuclear basis crossover studies, conducted at five years planning from 1989 fiscal year was executed. Here was conducted on study on a system technology for supplying cooperation, judgement process, judgement results, and so forth between decentralized artificial intelligent elements (agents) to operation managers (supervisors) by focussing a system for monitoring if autonomous decentralized system containing plant operation and robot group action functioned appropriately. In 1997 fiscal year, by mainly conducting development for displaying working state of robot group, some investigations on integrated management of each function already development and maintained were executed. Furthermore, some periodical meetings on realization of its integration with operation control system and maintenance system with other research institutes were conducted. (G.K.)

  15. Decentralized Feedback Controllers for Exponential Stabilization of Hybrid Periodic Orbits: Application to Robotic Walking*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamed, Kaveh Akbari; Gregg, Robert D.

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents a systematic algorithm to design time-invariant decentralized feedback controllers to exponentially stabilize periodic orbits for a class of hybrid dynamical systems arising from bipedal walking. The algorithm assumes a class of parameterized and nonlinear decentralized feedback controllers which coordinate lower-dimensional hybrid subsystems based on a common phasing variable. The exponential stabilization problem is translated into an iterative sequence of optimization problems involving bilinear and linear matrix inequalities, which can be easily solved with available software packages. A set of sufficient conditions for the convergence of the iterative algorithm to a stabilizing decentralized feedback control solution is presented. The power of the algorithm is demonstrated by designing a set of local nonlinear controllers that cooperatively produce stable walking for a 3D autonomous biped with 9 degrees of freedom, 3 degrees of underactuation, and a decentralization scheme motivated by amputee locomotion with a transpelvic prosthetic leg. PMID:27990059

  16. Decentralized cooperative spectrum sensing for ad-hoc disaster relief network clusters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pratas, Nuno; Marchetti, Nicola; Prasad, Neeli R.

    2010-01-01

    cooperative schemes becomes essential. A cluster based decentralized orchestration cooperative sensing scheme is proposed, where each node in the cluster decides which spectrum it should monitor, according to the past sensing decisions of all the cluster nodes. The proposed scheme performance is evaluated...... through a framework, which allows gauging the accuracy of multi narrow-band spectrum sensing cooperative schemes as well as to gauge the error in the estimation of each of the channels un-occupancy. Through that evaluation it is shown that the proposed decentralized scheme performance reaches...... the performance of the correspondent centralized scheme while outperforming the Round Robin scheme....

  17. Centralized, Decentralized, and Hybrid Purchasing Organizations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bals, Lydia; Turkulainen, Virpi

    This paper addresses one of the focal issues in purchasing and supply management – global sourcing – from an organizational design perspective. In particular, we elaborate the traditional classification of global sourcing organization designs into centralized, decentralized, and hybrid models. We...... organization we can identify organization designs beyond the classical centralization-decentralization continuum. We also provide explanations for the observed organization design at GCC. The study contributes to research on purchasing and supply management as well as research on organization design....

  18. DECENTRALIZATION OF MUNICIPAL SERVICES – LEARNING BY DOING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina Elena NICOLESCU

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Public services decentralization is a major concern for policy makers when it comes to identifying the optimum model for reorganizing these services, in light of the 3Es of the organizational performance. The field experiences show that this process is different both from one state to another, and depending on the targeted activity sector, out of which the local transport service is distinguished as an ‘institutional orphan’. Taking into account one of the smart-cities’ recognition criteria, the urban mobility, the paper aims at substantiating that, despite the specific incrementalism of the public services decentralization, having a negative impact upon the services’ efficiency, in the case of local transport service, recognizing the right to mobility and the need to ensuring the environment for exercising this right, impels the ‘bureaucratic apparatus’ to accelerate and consolidate the decentralization of this service. Therefore, the paper puts forward a case study on the impact of decentralization upon the local public transport service of Bucharest municipality.

  19. Decentralization: A panacea for functional education and national ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Decentralization of power from the federal government to state and local governments is the way to go, especially in the management of our education system. Education can be best delivered at the state and local government levels. Decentralization of educational management in Nigeria will encourage creativity and ...

  20. Is the Korean public willing to pay for a decentralized generation source? The case of natural gas-based combined heat and power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Hyo-Jin; Lim, Seul-Ye; Yoo, Seung-Hoon

    2017-01-01

    Natural gas (NG)-based combined heat and power (CHP) plants can be installed near electricity-consuming areas and do not require large-scale and long-distance power transmission facilities. This paper attempts to assess the public's additional willingness to pay (WTP) for substituting consumption of a unit of electricity generated from nuclear power plant, currently a dominant power generation source in Korea, with that produced from NG-based CHP plant in terms of decentralized generation using the contingent valuation (CV) method. To this end, a CV survey of 1,000 households was implemented. The results show that the mean additional WTP for substituting nuclear power plant by NG-based CHP plant is estimated to be KRW 55.3 (USD 0.047) per kWh of electricity, which is statistically significant at the 1% level. This value amounts to 44.7% of the average price for electricity, KRW 123.69 (USD 0.106) in 2015, which implies that the public are ready to shoulder a significant financial burden to achieve the substitution. Moreover, the value can be interpreted as an external cost of nuclear power generation relative to NG-based CHP generation, or as an external benefit of NG-based CHP generation relative to nuclear power generation with a view to decentralized generation. - Highlights: • Combined heat and power (CHP) is a representative decentralized generation source. • Nuclear power requires large-scale and long-distance power transmission facilities. • We assess people's additional willingness to pay (WTP) for CHP over nuclear power. • We conduct a contingent valuation survey of 1,000 households in Korea. • The mean additional WTP amounts to 44.2% of the average price for electricity.

  1. Coordinating decentralized optimization of truck and shovel mining operations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cheng, R.; Fraser Forbes, J. [Alberta Univ., Edmonton, AB (Canada). Dept. of Chemical and Materials Engineering; San Yip, W. [Suncor Energy, Fort McMurray, AB (Canada)

    2006-07-01

    Canada's oil sands contain the largest known reserve of oil in the world. Oil sands mining uses 3 functional processes, ore hauling, overburden removal and mechanical maintenance. The industry relies mainly on truck-and-shovel technology in its open-pit mining operations which contributes greatly to the overall mining operation cost. Coordination between operating units is crucial for achieving an enterprise-wide optimal operation level. Some of the challenges facing the industry include multiple or conflicting objectives such as minimizing the use of raw materials and energy while maximizing production. The large sets of constraints that define the feasible domain pose as challenge, as does the uncertainty in system parameters. One solution lies in assigning truck resources to various activities. This fully decentralized approach would treat the optimization of ore production, waste removal and equipment maintenance independently. It was emphasized that mine-wide optimal operation can only be achieved by coordinating ore hauling and overburden removal processes. For that reason, this presentation proposed a coordination approach for a decentralized optimization system. The approach is based on the Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition and auction-based methods that have been previously used to decompose large-scale optimization problems. The treatment of discrete variables and coordinator design was described and the method was illustrated with a simple truck and shovel mining simulation study. The approach can be applied to a wide range of applications such as coordinating decentralized optimal control systems and scheduling. 16 refs., 3 tabs., 2 figs.

  2. Decentralized energy: technology assessment and systems description. [Potential for implementation for years 2000 and 2025

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reckard, M K

    1979-06-01

    Decentralized energy systems and their characteristic features are examined in the report. These systems have been divided into six groups for the purpose of analysis: solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal, and coproduction (total energy). The technical and economic potential for the implementation of these systems is discussed for the years 2000 and 2025. The results of a comparison of base-case and decentralized scenarios for the year 2000, using a computer systems model, are presented. Social and institutional factors are also addressed, both as motivations for and results of energy system decentralization. Appendices are included with more detailed technical information on each of the systems groups.

  3. U-Form vs. M-Form: How to Understand Decision Autonomy Under Healthcare Decentralization?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bustamante, Arturo Vargas

    2016-01-01

    For more than three decades healthcare decentralization has been promoted in developing countries as a way of improving the financing and delivery of public healthcare. Decision autonomy under healthcare decentralization would determine the role and scope of responsibility of local authorities. Jalal Mohammed, Nicola North, and Toni Ashton analyze decision autonomy within decentralized services in Fiji. They conclude that the narrow decision space allowed to local entities might have limited the benefits of decentralization on users and providers. To discuss the costs and benefits of healthcare decentralization this paper uses the U-form and M-form typology to further illustrate the role of decision autonomy under healthcare decentralization. This paper argues that when evaluating healthcare decentralization, it is important to determine whether the benefits from decentralization are greater than its costs. The U-form and M-form framework is proposed as a useful typology to evaluate different types of institutional arrangements under healthcare decentralization. Under this model, the more decentralized organizational form (M-form) is superior if the benefits from flexibility exceed the costs of duplication and the more centralized organizational form (U-form) is superior if the savings from economies of scale outweigh the costly decision-making process from the center to the regions. Budgetary and financial autonomy and effective mechanisms to maintain local governments accountable for their spending behavior are key decision autonomy variables that could sway the cost-benefit analysis of healthcare decentralization. PMID:27694684

  4. Ecology and basic laws

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mayer-Tasch, P.C.

    1980-01-01

    The author sketches the critical relation between ecology and basic law - critical in more than one sense. He points out the incompatibility of constitutional states and atomic states which is due to constitutional order being jeopardised by nuclear policy. He traces back the continuously rising awareness of pollution and the modern youth movement to their common root i.e. the awakening, the youth movement of the turn of the century. Eventually, he considers an economical, political, and social decentralization as a feasible alternative which would considerably relieve our basic living conditions from the threatening forms of civilization prevailing. (HSCH) [de

  5. A comparison of decentralized, distributed, and centralized vibro-acoustic control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frampton, Kenneth D; Baumann, Oliver N; Gardonio, Paolo

    2010-11-01

    Direct velocity feedback control of structures is well known to increase structural damping and thus reduce vibration. In multi-channel systems the way in which the velocity signals are used to inform the actuators ranges from decentralized control, through distributed or clustered control to fully centralized control. The objective of distributed controllers is to exploit the anticipated performance advantage of the centralized control while maintaining the scalability, ease of implementation, and robustness of decentralized control. However, and in seeming contradiction, some investigations have concluded that decentralized control performs as well as distributed and centralized control, while other results have indicated that distributed control has significant performance advantages over decentralized control. The purpose of this work is to explain this seeming contradiction in results, to explore the effectiveness of decentralized, distributed, and centralized vibro-acoustic control, and to expand the concept of distributed control to include the distribution of the optimization process and the cost function employed.

  6. Decentralization : Local Partnerships for Health Services in the ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    However, the national decentralization program is having a hard time getting on track. In the face of day-to-day difficulties Zenü Network, a nongovernmental organization, would like to make a contribution to this social project. The Network would like to demonstrate that civil society can work with decentralized government ...

  7. Incentivizing Decentralized Sanitation: The Role of Discount Rates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Alison; Blackhurst, Michael; Garland, Jay L; Lawler, Desmond F

    2016-06-21

    In adoption decisions for decentralized sanitation technologies, two decision makers are involved: the public utility and the individual homeowner. Standard life cycle cost is calculated from the perspective of the utility, which uses a market-based discount rate in these calculations. However, both decision-makers must be considered, including their differing perceptions of the time trade-offs inherent in a stream of costs and benefits. This study uses the discount rate as a proxy for these perceptions and decision-maker preferences. The results in two case studies emphasize the dependence on location of such analyses. Falmouth, Massachusetts, appears to be a good candidate for incentivizing decentralized sanitation while the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority service area in Pennsylvania appears to have no need for similar incentives. This method can be applied to any two-party decision in which the parties are expected to have different discount rates.

  8. Decentralized energy conversion of biomass from Amstelland. The feasibility of decentralized use of energy from green wastes in the municipality Amstelveen and its environs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brouwer, H.D.

    1997-10-01

    The aim of the study on the title subject is to determine the enviro-technical and economical feasibility of decentralized biomass conversion as part of the green area and energy infrastructure of the region Amstelland, Netherlands. The parts of the study concern a regional inventory of green wastes in Amstelland, an energy demand analysis of conversion sites in the region, a logistic analysis, an evaluation of technical options (cogeneration, combustion, gasification), business economical analysis of the investments, determining the support and willingness to contribute and cooperate, and drafting a final report. Based on the results of the report decisions can be made whether or not the design and installation of a decentralized biomass conversion system should be elaborated in detail. 16 refs

  9. Convergent Double Auction Mechanism for a Prosumers’ Decentralized Smart Grid

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tadahiro Taniguchi

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a novel automated double auction mechanism called convergent linear function submission-based double-auction (CLFS-DA for a prosumers’ decentralized smart grid. The target decentralized smart grid is a regional electricity network that consists of many prosumers that have a battery and a renewable energy-based generator, such as photovoltaic cells. In the proposed double-auction mechanism, each intelligent software agent representing each prosumer submits linear demand and supply functions to an automated regional electricity market where they are registered. It is proven that the CLFS-DA mechanism is guaranteed to obtain one of the global optimal price profiles in addition to it achieving an exact balance between demand and supply, even through the learning period. The proof of convergence is provided on the basis of the theory of LFS-DA, which gives a clear bridge between a function submission-based double auction and a dual decomposition (DD-based real-time pricing procedure. The performance of the proposed mechanism is demonstrated numerically through a simulation experiment.

  10. Driving up Standards: Civil Service Management and Decentralization: Case Study of Uganda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lazarus Nabaho

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available There is a consensus that decentralization by devolution leads to improved service delivery, but debate on the appropriate type of personnel arrangements for delivering decentralized services is far from over. Put differently, the discourse on whether civil service management should be decentralized or devolved still rages on. Little wonder that countries which started off with decentralized civil service management models in the 1990s are currently centralizing some aspects of personnel management while others are having centralized and decentralized personnel arrangements operating side by side in sub-national governments. The paper argues that civil service management should be decentralized whenever a country chooses the path of decentralization by devolution. Using Uganda’s example, the paper highlights two major challenges of managing the civil service under separate personnel arrangements: civil service appointments devoid of merit, and the perennial failure to attract and retain qualified human resource. The paper presents proposals on how to ensure meritocracy in appointments and how to bolster attraction and retention of human capital in local governments.

  11. Making decentralization work for women in Uganda

    OpenAIRE

    Lakwo, A.

    2009-01-01

    This book is about engendering local governance. It explores the euphoria with which Uganda's decentralization policy took centre stage as a sufficient driver to engender local development responsiveness and accountability. Using a case study of AFARD in Nebbi district, it shows first that decentralized governance is gendered and technocratic as grassroots women's effective participation is lacking. Second, it shows that the insertion of women in local governance is merely a symbolic politica...

  12. The stimulative effect of an unconditional block grant on the decentralized provision of care

    OpenAIRE

    Mark Kattenberg; Wouter Vermeulen

    2015-01-01

    Understanding the impact of central government grants on decentralized health care provision is of crucial importance for the design of grant systems, yet empirical evidence on the prevalence of flypaper effects in this domain is rare. We study the decentralization of home care in the Netherlands and exploit the gradual introduction of formula-based equalization to identify the effect of exogenous changes in an unconditional block grant on local expenditure and utilization. A one euro increas...

  13. Implementation of a decentralized community-based treatment program to improve the management of Buruli ulcer in the Ouinhi district of Benin, West Africa.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arnaud Setondji Amoussouhoui

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Mycobacterium ulcerans infection, commonly known as Buruli ulcer (BU, is a debilitating neglected tropical disease. Its management remains complex and has three main components: antibiotic treatment combining rifampicin and streptomycin for 56 days, wound dressings and skin grafts for large ulcerations, and physical therapy to prevent functional limitations after care. In Benin, BU patient care is being integrated into the government health system. In this paper, we report on an innovative pilot program designed to introduce BU decentralization in Ouinhi district, one of Benin's most endemic districts previously served by centralized hospital-based care.We conducted intervention-oriented research implemented in four steps: baseline study, training of health district clinical staff, outreach education, outcome and impact assessments. Study results demonstrated that early BU lesions (71% of all detected cases could be treated in the community following outreach education, and that most of the afflicted were willing to accept decentralized treatment. Ninety-three percent were successfully treated with antibiotics alone. The impact evaluation found that community confidence in decentralized BU care was greatly enhanced by clinic staff who came to be seen as having expertise in the care of most chronic wounds.This study documents a successful BU outreach and decentralized care program reaching early BU cases not previously treated by a proactive centralized BU program. The pilot program further demonstrates the added value of integrated wound management for NTD control.

  14. A simulation model of a coordinated decentralized linear supply chain

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ashayeri, Jalal; Cannella, S.; Lopez Campos, M.; Miranda, P.A.

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a simulation-based study of a coordinated, decentralized linear supply chain (SC) system. In the proposed model, any supply tier considers its successors as part of its inventory system and generates replenishment orders on the basis of its partners’ operational information. We

  15. Centralization vs. Decentralization: A Location Analysis Approach for Librarians

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raffel, Jeffrey; Shishko, Robert

    1972-01-01

    An application of location theory to the question of centralized versus decentralized library facilities for a university, with relevance for special libraries is presented. The analysis provides models for a single library, for two or more libraries, or for decentralized facilities. (6 references) (Author/NH)

  16. The Rhetoric of Decentralization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ravitch, Diane

    1974-01-01

    Questions the rationale for and possible consequences of political decentralization of New York City. Suggests that the disadvantages--reduced level of professionalism, increased expense in multiple government operation, "stabilization" of residential segregation, necessity for budget negotiations because of public disclosure of tax…

  17. Decentralized energy supply and electricity market structures

    OpenAIRE

    Weber, Christoph; Vogel, Philip

    2005-01-01

    Small decentralized power generation units (DG) are politically promoted because of their potential to reduce GHG-emissions and the existing dependency on fossil fuels. A long term goal of this promotion should be the creation of a level playing field for DG and conventional power generation. Due to the impact of DG on the electricity grid infrastructure, future regulation should consider the costs and benefits of the integration of decentralized energy generation units. Without an adequate c...

  18. Decentralized electricity production. v. 1 and 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-01-01

    The first part of the symposium is concerned with market analysis, case studies and prospectives for the decentralized production of electricity in France: cogeneration, heat networks, municipal waste incineration, etc. Financing systems and microeconomical analysis are presented. The second part is devoted to macroeconomical outlooks (France and Europe mainly) on decentralized electricity production (cogeneration, small-scale hydroelectric power plants), to other countries experience (PV systems connected to the grid, cogeneration, etc.) and to price contracts and regulations

  19. FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE-TERRITORIAL ENTITY IN THE LIGHT OF DECENTRALIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatiana MANOLE

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available „Should we head towards ‘self-government’ required by many of the participants, would that be a selfgovernmentof the citizens or the elect representatives? Whatever would happen, decentralization is, ina way, the book of our society, a book in which we find its aspirations, discrepancies and questions…It is well led from above, but it is well administered from the bottom.”(Xavier Frège, Paris, 1986 This article presents the results of study regarding the decentralization process, which is currentlyunderway in the Republic of Moldova. The purpose of the study is to highlight the fundamental concept ofdecentralization, the areas of administrative decentralization, the forms of manifestation of financialdecentralization (fiscal decentralization and budget decentralization, to identify the priorities of thedecentralization process, and to establish the indicators for measuring the degree of decentralization. Inbase of the statistical analysis and synthesis method, it was determined the current state of the art in theadministrative-territorial entities in the course of the decentralization process in relation to the publicfinance management reform. It were formulate proposals to accelerate the process of financialdecentralization and self-government.

  20. FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION IN ALBANIA: EFFECTS OF TERRITORIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariola KAPIDANI

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The principle of decentralization is a fundamental principle for the establishment and operation of local government. It refers to the process of redistributing the authority and responsibility for certain functions from central government to local government units. In many countries, particularly in developing countries, fiscal decentralization and local governance issues are addressed as highly important to the economic development. According to Stigler (1957, fiscal decentralization brings government closer to the people and a representative government works best when it is closer to the people. Albania is still undergoing the process of decentralization in all aspects: political, economic, fiscal and administrative. Decentralization process is essential to sustainable economic growth and efficient allocation of resources to meet the needs of citizens. Albania has a fragmented system of local government with a very large number of local government units that have neither sufficient fiscal or human capacity to provide public services at a reasonable level (World Bank. However, recent administrative and territorial reform is expected to have a significant impact in many issues related to local autonomy and revenue management. This paper is focused on the progress of fiscal decentralization process in Albania, stating key issues and ongoing challenges for an improved system. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of recent territorial reform, identifying problems and opportunities to be addressed in the future.

  1. Decentralizing decision making in modularization strategies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Israelsen, Poul; Jørgensen, Brian

    2011-01-01

    which distorts the economic effects of modularization at the level of the individual product. This has the implication that decisions on modularization can only be made by top management if decision authority and relevant information are to be aligned. To overcome this problem, we suggest a solution...... that aligns the descriptions of the economic consequences of modularization at the project and portfolio level which makes it possible to decentralize decision making while making sure that local goals are congruent with the global ones in order to avoid suboptimal behaviour. Keywords: Modularization......; Accounting; Cost allocation; Decision rule; Decentralization...

  2. Near optimal decentralized H_inf control

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stoustrup, J.; Niemann, Hans Henrik

    It is shown that foir a class of decentralized control problems there does not exist a sequence of controllers of bounded order which obtains near optimal control. Neither does there exist an infinity dimentional optimal controller. Using the insight of the line of proof of these results, a heuri......It is shown that foir a class of decentralized control problems there does not exist a sequence of controllers of bounded order which obtains near optimal control. Neither does there exist an infinity dimentional optimal controller. Using the insight of the line of proof of these results...

  3. DECENTRALIZED ORCHESTRATION OF COMPOSITE OGC WEB PROCESSING SERVICES IN THE CLOUD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. Xiao

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Current web-based GIS or RS applications generally rely on centralized structure, which has inherent drawbacks such as single points of failure, network congestion, and data inconsistency, etc. The inherent disadvantages of traditional GISs need to be solved for new applications on Internet or Web. Decentralized orchestration offers performance improvements in terms of increased throughput and scalability and lower response time. This paper investigates build time and runtime issues related to decentralized orchestration of composite geospatial processing services based on OGC WPS standard specification. A case study of dust storm detection was demonstrated to evaluate the proposed method and the experimental results indicate that the method proposed in this study is effective for its ability to produce the high quality solution at a low cost of communications for geospatial processing service composition problem.

  4. Using the decentralized and liberalized electricity market microworld (LEMM) as an educational tool

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pasaoglu, Guezay

    2011-01-01

    Decentralized and liberalized electricity market involves a great deal of interdisciplinary concepts, including economic, commercial, environmental and technological issues. Consequently, the system is complicated. Accordingly, nowadays introductory courses focusing on the electricity market dynamics have been added to the curriculum at many universities. However, as the electricity market dynamics are complicated, it is not straightforward for students to understand. A teaching tool to assist students to better understand strategic behaviors in the market is thus in high demand. Due to these reasons, Liberalized Electricity Market Microworld (LEMM), incorporating a system dynamics based simulation model, is developed. The LEMM's contribution to the students learning and understanding of the decentralized and liberalized electricity market dynamics have been explored by organizing game sessions with the LEMM for totally 49 students who participated in 'Energy Policy and Planning' course in Bogazici University. The findings obtained from the exploratory study reveal that the students improved their understanding of the liberalized and decentralized electricity market through the game session with the LEMM. In this paper, the general characteristics of the LEMM and the underlying model are presented, the microworlds', particularly the LEMM's potential contribution to learning and teaching is discussed. - Research highlights: → LEMM describes realistically the dynamics of liberalized and decentralized electricity markets. → LEMM is a system dynamics based microworld used as a teaching tool in universities. → The study reveals that student's learning and understanding improves significantly using LEMM. → Future target groups of the LEMM are energy policy makers and decision makers. → To improve the performance of the training, microworld based game sessions should be used.

  5. The political economy of decentralization of health and social services in Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsalikis, G

    1989-01-01

    A trend to decentralization in Canada's 'welfare state' has received support from the Left and from the Right. Some social critics of the Left expect decentralization to result in holistic services adjusted to local needs. Others, moreover, feel we are in the dawn of a new epoch in which major economic transformations are to bring about, through new class alliances and conflict, decentralization of power and a better quality of life in communities. These assumptions and their theoretical pitfalls are discussed here following an historical overview of the centralization/decentralization issue in Canadian social policy. It is argued that recent proposals of decentralization are a continuation of reactionary tendencies to constrain social expenditures, but not a path to better quality of life.

  6. The interplay between decentralization and privacy: the case of blockchain technologies

    OpenAIRE

    De Filippi , Primavera

    2016-01-01

    International audience; Decentralized architectures are gaining popularity as a way to protect one's privacy against the ubiquitous surveillance of states and corporations. Yet, in spite of the obvious benefits they provide when it comes to data sovereignty, decentralized architectures also present certain characteristics that—if not properly accounted for—might ultimately impinge upon users' privacy. While they are capable of preserving the confidentiality of data, decentralized architecture...

  7. Local Government Systems and Decentralization: Evidence from Pakistan’s Devolution Plan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Shakil Ahmad

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available The discourse of governance and development practitioners continues to embrace community participation and community empowerment as an elementary means of building local capacity for poverty reduction, development and change at the local level. This article is a review of the decentralization initiatives of local government systems after the announcement of the devolution plan in Pakistan. It evaluates the initiatives’ participatory methods to ascertain the extent to which they have improved the process of community development at the local level. This article also measures the impact of community empowerment on the sustainability of community-driven projects implemented under the decentralization initiative through community-based organizations known as Citizen Community Boards (CCBs. Document analysis and literature review methodologies were employed to gain further insight into the decentralization phenomenon in Pakistan. The results describe human development, improvements in community empowerment and the sustainability of local projects; however, the sense of community has yet to be translated into shared benefits for rural communities. The fundamental goal of decentralization seems to be elusive because only power was transferred to the local level, whereas there is little support for community capacity building and community access to resources and the elites still control the electoral process. It is argued that community development initiatives in Pakistan require continuous support from local governments to boost local rural economies. Likewise, community-local government participatory development strategies can lead to strong local ownership and empowerment in rural communities.

  8. Centralization Versus Decentralization: A Location Analysis Approach for Librarians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shishko, Robert; Raffel, Jeffrey

    One of the questions that seems to perplex many university and special librarians is whether to move in the direction of centralizing or decentralizing the library's collections and facilities. Presented is a theoretical approach, employing location theory, to the library centralization-decentralization question. Location theory allows the analyst…

  9. Corruption and government spending : The role of decentralization

    OpenAIRE

    Korneliussen, Kristine

    2009-01-01

    This thesis points to a possible weakness of the empirical literature on corruption and government spending. That corruption affects the composition of government spending, and in particular that it affects education and health spending adversely, seems to be empirically well established. However, there exist additional literature closely related to corruption and government spending, treating(i) a relationship between corruption and decentralization, and (ii) a relationship between decentral...

  10. On Deciding How to Decide: To Centralize or Decentralize.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaffee, Ellen Earle

    Issues concerning whether to centralize or decentralize decision-making are addressed, with applications for colleges. Centralization/decentralization (C/D) must be analyzed with reference to a particular decision. Three components of C/D are locus of authority, breadth of participation, and relative contribution by the decision-maker's staff. C/D…

  11. Decentralized Ground Staff Scheduling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, M. D.; Clausen, Jens

    2002-01-01

    scheduling is investigated. The airport terminal is divided into zones, where each zone consists of a set of stands geographically next to each other. Staff is assigned to work in only one zone and the staff scheduling is planned decentralized for each zone. The advantage of this approach is that the staff...... work in a smaller area of the terminal and thus spends less time walking between stands. When planning decentralized the allocation of stands to flights influences the staff scheduling since the workload in a zone depends on which flights are allocated to stands in the zone. Hence solving the problem...... depends on the actual stand allocation but also on the number of zones and the layout of these. A mathematical model of the problem is proposed, which integrates the stand allocation and the staff scheduling. A heuristic solution method is developed and applied on a real case from British Airways, London...

  12. Implementation of the Decentralization Reform in Ukraine: Current Issues of Public Administration Modernization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yaroshenko Igor V.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The need of all parts of the modern Ukrainian society for structural transformations determines the direction of development of the country and its territories. One of such priority vectors is the decentralization reform, efficiency of which is inextricably linked with the changes that occur in all vital for the development of society and every individual public areas: public administration, judicial system, law enforcement bodies, deregulation and development of business, banking and financial sectors, innovation and trade policies, education, medicine and other sectors of the economy and social sphere. The initiated in Ukraine transformations, including the decentralization of public power, require further legislative changes and desire of all public institutions to ensure their effective implementation through public initiative and public support. Monitoring the course of the decentralization reform in Ukraine has demonstrated little actual results of its implementation. Today an adequate legislation framework concerning the powers, resources and responsibilities has not been established yet. It is advisable to carry out a profound theoretical and practical study of the world and Ukrainian experience, develop and introduce an own science-based system of power decentralization with consideration for historical, ideological, cultural, social, economic, geographical and other features of the country, while taking into account the best practices, which can be effectively used.

  13. The Wolf and the Caribou: Coexistence of Decentralized Economies and Competitive Markets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreas Freund

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Starting with BitTorrent and then Bitcoin, decentralized technologies have been on the rise over the last 15+ years, gaining significant momentum in the last 2+ years with the advent of platform ecosystems such as the Blockchain platform Ethereum. New projects have evolved from decentralized games to marketplaces to open funding models to decentralized autonomous organizations. The hype around cryptocurrency and the valuation of innovative projects drove the market cap of cryptocurrencies to over a trillion dollars at one point in 2017. These high valued technologies are now enabling something new: globally scaled and decentralized business models. Despite their valuation and the hype, these new business ecosystems are frail. This is not only because the underlying technology is rapidly evolving, but also because competitive markets see a profit opportunity in exponential cryptocurrency returns. This extracts value from these ecosystems, which could lead to their collapse, if unchecked. In this paper, we explore novel ways for decentralized economies to protect themselves from, and coexist with, competitive markets at a global scale utilizing decentralized technologies such as Blockchain.

  14. Analysis and design of robust decentralized controllers for nonlinear systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schoenwald, D.A.

    1993-07-01

    Decentralized control strategies for nonlinear systems are achieved via feedback linearization techniques. New results on optimization and parameter robustness of non-linear systems are also developed. In addition, parametric uncertainty in large-scale systems is handled by sensitivity analysis and optimal control methods in a completely decentralized framework. This idea is applied to alleviate uncertainty in friction parameters for the gimbal joints on Space Station Freedom. As an example of decentralized nonlinear control, singular perturbation methods and distributed vibration damping are merged into a control strategy for a two-link flexible manipulator.

  15. Design of an autonomous decentralized MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Hoesel, L.F.W.; Dal Pont, L.; Havinga, Paul J.M.

    In this document the design of a MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks is discussed. The autonomous decentralized TDMA based MAC protocol minimizes power consumtion by efficiency implementing unicast/omnicast, scheduled rendezvous times and wakeup calls. The MAC protocol is an ongoing research

  16. A Formally Verified Decentralized Key Management Architecture for Wireless Sensor Networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Law, Y.W.; Corin, R.J.; Etalle, Sandro; Hartel, Pieter H.

    We present a decentralized key management architecture for wireless sensor networks, covering the aspects of key deployment, key refreshment and key establishment. Our architecture is based on a clear set of assumptions and guidelines. Balance between security and energy consumption is achieved by

  17. Fair decentralized data-rate congestion control for V2V communications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Belagal Math, C.; Li, H.; Heemstra De Groot, S.M.; Niemegeers, I.G.M.M.

    2017-01-01

    Channel congestion is one of the most critical issues in IEEE 802.11p-based vehicular ad hoc networks because congestion may lead to unreliability of applications. As a counter measure, the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI), proposes a mandatory Decentralized Congestion Control

  18. Decentralizing provision of mental health care in Sri Lanka.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernando, Neil; Suveendran, Thirupathy; de Silva, Chithramalee

    2017-04-01

    In the past, mental health services in Sri Lanka were limited to tertiary-care institutions, resulting in a large treatment gap. Starting in 2000, significant efforts have been made to reconfigure service provision and to integrate mental health services with primary health care. This approach was supported by significant political commitment to establishing island-wide decentralized mental health care in the wake of the 2004 tsunami. Various initiatives were consolidated in The mental health policy of Sri Lanka 2005-2015, which called for implementation of a comprehensive community-based, decentralized service structure. The main objectives of the policy were to provide mental health services of good quality at primary, secondary and tertiary levels; to ensure the active involvement of communities, families and service users; to make mental health services culturally appropriate and evidence based; and to protect the human rights and dignity of all people with mental health disorders. Significant improvements have been made and new cadres of mental health workers have been introduced. Trained medical officers (mental health) now provide outpatient care, domiciliary care, mental health promotion in schools, and community mental health education. Community psychiatric nurses have also been trained and deployed to supervise treatment adherence in the home and provide mental health education to patients, their family members and the wider community. A total of 4367 mental health volunteers are supporting care and raising mental health literacy in the community. Despite these important achievements, more improvements are needed to provide more timely intervention, combat myths and stigma, and further decentralize care provision. These, and other challenges, will be targeted in the new mental health policy for 2017-2026.

  19. Decentralized control and communication

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Bakule, Lubomír; Papík, Martin

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 36, č. 1 (2012), s. 1-10 ISSN 1367-5788 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LG12014 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : decentralization * communication * large-scale complex systems Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory Impact factor: 1.289, year: 2012

  20. A Mixed Method Research for Finding a Model of Administrative Decentralization

    OpenAIRE

    Tahereh Feizy; Alireza Moghali; Masuod Geramipoor; Reza Zare

    2015-01-01

    One of the critical issues of administrative decentralization in translating theory into practice is understanding its meaning. An important method to identify administrative decentralization is to address how it can be planned and implemented, and what are its implications, and how it would overcome challenges. The purpose of this study is finding a model for analyzing and evaluating administrative decentralization, so a mixed method research was used to explore and confirm the model of Admi...

  1. Beyond the Diversity Crisis Model: Decentralized Diversity Planning and Implementation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Damon A.

    2008-01-01

    This article critiques the diversity crises model of diversity planning in higher education and presents a decentralized diversity planning model. The model is based on interviews with the nation's leading diversity officers, a review of the literature and the authors own experiences leading diversity change initiatives in higher education. The…

  2. Ecological security pattern construction based on ecological protection redlines in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zou, Changxin

    2017-04-01

    China is facing huge environmental problems with its current rapid rate of urbanization and industrialization, thus causing biodiversity loss, ecosystem service degradation on a major scale. Against this background, three previous examples (the nature reserve policy, the afforestation policy, and the zoning policy) are implemented in China. These all play important roles in protecting natural ecosystems, although they can sometimes cause new problems and lack rigorous targets for environmental outcomes. To overcome current management conflicts, China has proposed a new "ecological protection redlines" policy (EPR). EPR can be defined as the ecological baseline area needed to provide ecosystem services to guarantee and maintain ecological safety. This study analyzed the scope, objectives and technical methods of delineating EPR in China, and put forward the proposed scheme for the ecological security pattern based on EPR. We constructed three kinds of redlines in China, including key ecological function area redlines, ecological sensitive or fragile areas redlines, and forbidden development areas redlines. For the key ecological function area redlines, a total of 38 water conservation functional zones have been designated, covering a total area of 3.23 million km2; 14 soil conservation zones have been designated, covering a total area of 881700 km2; wind-prevention and sand-fixation zones across the country cover a total area of about 1.73 million km2, accounting for 57.13% of the total land area of the whole country. With respect to the ecologically vulnerable redlines, 18 ecologically vulnerable zones has been designated across the country, covering 2.19 million km2, accounting for 22.86% of the total land area of the whole country. Forbidden development areas redlines covered a total area of 3.29 million km2, accounting for 34.3% of the total land area of the whole country. We also suggest to form a complete ecological security pattern including patterns of

  3. Investigating the interactions of decentralized and centralized wastewater heat recovery systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sitzenfrei, Robert; Hillebrand, Sebastian; Rauch, Wolfgang

    2017-03-01

    In the urban water cycle there are different sources for extracting energy. In addition to potential and chemical energy in the wastewater, thermal energy can also be recovered. Heat can be recovered from the wastewater with heat exchangers that are located decentralized and/or centralized at several locations throughout the system. It can be recovered directly at the source (e.g. in the showers and bathrooms), at building block level (e.g. warm water tanks collecting all grey water), in sewers or at the wastewater treatment plant. However, an uncoordinated installation of systems on such different levels can lead to competing technologies. To investigate these interactions, a modelling environment is set up, tested and calibrated based on continuous sewer temperature and flow measurements. With that approach different heat recovery scenarios on a household level (decentralized) and of in-sewer heat recovery (centralized) are investigated. A maximum performance drop of 40% for a centralized energy recovery system was estimated when all bathrooms are equipped with decentralized recovery systems. Therefore, the proposed modelling approach is suitable for testing different future conditions and to identify robust strategies for heat recovery systems from wastewater.

  4. Decentralization can help reduce deforestation when user groups engage with local government

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Glenn D.; Gibson, Clark C.; Evans, Tom P.

    2016-01-01

    Policy makers around the world tout decentralization as an effective tool in the governance of natural resources. Despite the popularity of these reforms, there is limited scientific evidence on the environmental effects of decentralization, especially in tropical biomes. This study presents evidence on the institutional conditions under which decentralization is likely to be successful in sustaining forests. We draw on common-pool resource theory to argue that the environmental impact of decentralization hinges on the ability of reforms to engage local forest users in the governance of forests. Using matching techniques, we analyze longitudinal field observations on both social and biophysical characteristics in a large number of local government territories in Bolivia (a country with a decentralized forestry policy) and Peru (a country with a much more centralized forestry policy). We find that territories with a decentralized forest governance structure have more stable forest cover, but only when local forest user groups actively engage with the local government officials. We provide evidence in support of a possible causal process behind these results: When user groups engage with the decentralized units, it creates a more enabling environment for effective local governance of forests, including more local government-led forest governance activities, fora for the resolution of forest-related conflicts, intermunicipal cooperation in the forestry sector, and stronger technical capabilities of the local government staff. PMID:27956644

  5. Decentralization can help reduce deforestation when user groups engage with local government.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Glenn D; Andersson, Krister P; Gibson, Clark C; Evans, Tom P

    2016-12-27

    Policy makers around the world tout decentralization as an effective tool in the governance of natural resources. Despite the popularity of these reforms, there is limited scientific evidence on the environmental effects of decentralization, especially in tropical biomes. This study presents evidence on the institutional conditions under which decentralization is likely to be successful in sustaining forests. We draw on common-pool resource theory to argue that the environmental impact of decentralization hinges on the ability of reforms to engage local forest users in the governance of forests. Using matching techniques, we analyze longitudinal field observations on both social and biophysical characteristics in a large number of local government territories in Bolivia (a country with a decentralized forestry policy) and Peru (a country with a much more centralized forestry policy). We find that territories with a decentralized forest governance structure have more stable forest cover, but only when local forest user groups actively engage with the local government officials. We provide evidence in support of a possible causal process behind these results: When user groups engage with the decentralized units, it creates a more enabling environment for effective local governance of forests, including more local government-led forest governance activities, fora for the resolution of forest-related conflicts, intermunicipal cooperation in the forestry sector, and stronger technical capabilities of the local government staff.

  6. Centralized vs. Decentralized Nursing Stations: An Evaluation of the Implications of Communication Technologies in Healthcare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayramzadeh, Sara; Alkazemi, Mariam F

    2014-01-01

    This study aims to explore the relationship between the nursing station design and use of communication technologies by comparing centralized and decentralized nursing stations. The rapid changes in communication technologies in healthcare are inevitable. Communication methods can change the way occupants use a space. In the meantime, decentralized nursing stations are emerging as a replacement for the traditional centralized nursing stations; however, not much research has been done on how the design of nursing stations can impact the use of communication technologies. A cross sectional study was conducted using an Internet-based survey among registered nurses in a Southeastern hospital in the United States. Two units with centralized nursing stations and two units with decentralized nursing stations were compared in terms of the application of communication technologies. A total of 70 registered nurses completed the survey in a 2-week period. The results revealed no significant differences between centralized and decentralized nursing stations in terms of frequency of communication technologies used. However, a difference was found between perception of nurses toward communication technologies and perceptions of the use of communication technologies in decentralized nursing stations. Although the study was limited to one hospital, the results indicate that nurses hold positive attitudes toward communication technologies. The results also reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each nursing station design with regard to communication technologies. Hospital, interdisciplinary, nursing, technology, work environment.

  7. Development of a pharmacy resident rotation to expand decentralized clinical pharmacy services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, John D; Williams, Jonathan P; Barnes, Julie F; Greenlee, Katie M; Cardiology, Bcps-Aq; Leonard, Mandy C

    2017-07-15

    The development of a pharmacy resident rotation to expand decentralized clinical pharmacy services is described. In an effort to align with the initiatives proposed within the ASHP Practice Advancement Initiative, the department of pharmacy at Cleveland Clinic, a 1,400-bed academic, tertiary acute care medical center in Cleveland, Ohio, established a goal to provide decentralized clinical pharmacy services for 100% of patient care units within the hospital. Patient care units that previously had no decentralized pharmacy services were evaluated to identify opportunities for expansion. Metrics analyzed included number of medication orders verified per hour, number of pharmacy dosing consultations, and number of patient discharge counseling sessions. A pilot study was conducted to assess the feasibility of this service and potential resident learning opportunities. A learning experience description was drafted, and feedback was solicited regarding the development of educational components utilized throughout the rotation. Pharmacists who were providing services to similar patient populations were identified to serve as preceptors. Staff pharmacists were deployed to previously uncovered patient care units, with pharmacy residents providing decentralized services on previously covered areas. A rotating preceptor schedule was developed based on geographic proximity and clinical expertise. An initial postimplementation assessment of this resident-driven service revealed that pharmacy residents provided a comparable level of pharmacy services to that of staff pharmacists. Feedback collected from nurses, physicians, and pharmacy staff also supported residents' ability to operate sufficiently in this role to optimize patient care. A learning experience developed for pharmacy residents in a large medical center enabled the expansion of decentralized clinical services without requiring additional pharmacist full-time equivalents. Copyright © 2017 by the American Society of

  8. Conceptual bases of land managment planning for urban land use in conditions of decentralization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.M. Tretyak

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The place and role of the plans of the land-economic system as a tool of land managment planning of urban land use development in the conditions of decentralization of power in replacement of general plans as not a market type of documentation is substantiated

  9. Blockchain Based Decentralized Management of Demand Response Programs in Smart Energy Grids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pop, Claudia; Cioara, Tudor; Antal, Marcel; Anghel, Ionut; Salomie, Ioan; Bertoncini, Massimo

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we investigate the use of decentralized blockchain mechanisms for delivering transparent, secure, reliable, and timely energy flexibility, under the form of adaptation of energy demand profiles of Distributed Energy Prosumers, to all the stakeholders involved in the flexibility markets (Distribution System Operators primarily, retailers, aggregators, etc.). In our approach, a blockchain based distributed ledger stores in a tamper proof manner the energy prosumption information collected from Internet of Things smart metering devices, while self-enforcing smart contracts programmatically define the expected energy flexibility at the level of each prosumer, the associated rewards or penalties, and the rules for balancing the energy demand with the energy production at grid level. Consensus based validation will be used for demand response programs validation and to activate the appropriate financial settlement for the flexibility providers. The approach was validated using a prototype implemented in an Ethereum platform using energy consumption and production traces of several buildings from literature data sets. The results show that our blockchain based distributed demand side management can be used for matching energy demand and production at smart grid level, the demand response signal being followed with high accuracy, while the amount of energy flexibility needed for convergence is reduced. PMID:29315250

  10. Blockchain Based Decentralized Management of Demand Response Programs in Smart Energy Grids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pop, Claudia; Cioara, Tudor; Antal, Marcel; Anghel, Ionut; Salomie, Ioan; Bertoncini, Massimo

    2018-01-09

    In this paper, we investigate the use of decentralized blockchain mechanisms for delivering transparent, secure, reliable, and timely energy flexibility, under the form of adaptation of energy demand profiles of Distributed Energy Prosumers, to all the stakeholders involved in the flexibility markets (Distribution System Operators primarily, retailers, aggregators, etc.). In our approach, a blockchain based distributed ledger stores in a tamper proof manner the energy prosumption information collected from Internet of Things smart metering devices, while self-enforcing smart contracts programmatically define the expected energy flexibility at the level of each prosumer, the associated rewards or penalties, and the rules for balancing the energy demand with the energy production at grid level. Consensus based validation will be used for demand response programs validation and to activate the appropriate financial settlement for the flexibility providers. The approach was validated using a prototype implemented in an Ethereum platform using energy consumption and production traces of several buildings from literature data sets. The results show that our blockchain based distributed demand side management can be used for matching energy demand and production at smart grid level, the demand response signal being followed with high accuracy, while the amount of energy flexibility needed for convergence is reduced.

  11. Blockchain Based Decentralized Management of Demand Response Programs in Smart Energy Grids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia Pop

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we investigate the use of decentralized blockchain mechanisms for delivering transparent, secure, reliable, and timely energy flexibility, under the form of adaptation of energy demand profiles of Distributed Energy Prosumers, to all the stakeholders involved in the flexibility markets (Distribution System Operators primarily, retailers, aggregators, etc.. In our approach, a blockchain based distributed ledger stores in a tamper proof manner the energy prosumption information collected from Internet of Things smart metering devices, while self-enforcing smart contracts programmatically define the expected energy flexibility at the level of each prosumer, the associated rewards or penalties, and the rules for balancing the energy demand with the energy production at grid level. Consensus based validation will be used for demand response programs validation and to activate the appropriate financial settlement for the flexibility providers. The approach was validated using a prototype implemented in an Ethereum platform using energy consumption and production traces of several buildings from literature data sets. The results show that our blockchain based distributed demand side management can be used for matching energy demand and production at smart grid level, the demand response signal being followed with high accuracy, while the amount of energy flexibility needed for convergence is reduced.

  12. Centralization or decentralization of facial structures in Korean young adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoo, Ja-Young; Kim, Jeong-Nam; Shin, Kang-Jae; Kim, Soon-Heum; Choi, Hyun-Gon; Jeon, Hyun-Soo; Koh, Ki-Seok; Song, Wu-Chul

    2013-05-01

    It is well known that facial beauty is dictated by facial type, and harmony between the eyes, nose, and mouth. Furthermore, facial impression is judged according to the overall facial contour and the relationship between the facial structures. The aims of the present study were to determine the optimal criteria for the assessment of gathering or separation of the facial structures and to define standardized ratios for centralization or decentralization of the facial structures.Four different lengths were measured, and 2 indexes were calculated from standardized photographs of 551 volunteers. Centralization and decentralization were assessed using the width index (interpupillary distance / facial width) and height index (eyes-mouth distance / facial height). The mean ranges of the width index and height index were 42.0 to 45.0 and 36.0 to 39.0, respectively. The width index did not differ with sex, but males had more decentralized faces, and females had more centralized faces, vertically. The incidence rate of decentralized faces among the men was 30.3%, and that of centralized faces among the women was 25.2%.The mean ranges in width and height indexes have been determined in a Korean population. Faces with width and height index scores under and over the median ranges are determined to be "centralized" and "decentralized," respectively.

  13. Economic Inequalities and the Level of Decentralization in European Countries: Cluster Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laboutková Šárka

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This submitted article identifies relations between the degree of decentralization and economic imbalances on the basis of a cluster (exploratory analysis. Two indicators have been chosen for measuring economic inequalities: an indicator of dispersion of regional GDP per capita as representative of the performance imbalances within countries (it measures the economic development gap among regions in European countries; and a multidimensional inequality-adjusted human development index as representative of inequalities in the distribution of wealth in the countries. Decentralization is measured by means of a decentralization index, which contains both quantitative and qualitative components. Although groups of countries characterised by a high degree of decentralization do not necessarily show the lowest degrees of economic imbalances, it is however possible to conclude that the countries in groups with a higher degree of decentralization are among those countries with more favourable values of the economic imbalances indicators monitored. As a part of the research, two clusters of countries were identified which are identical in their degree of decentralization, but differ in the results connected with economic imbalances. The differences are caused by different institutional qualities in the two groups.

  14. Decentralized guaranteed cost static output feedback vibration control for piezoelectric smart structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang, Jian-ping; Li, Dong-xu

    2010-01-01

    This paper is devoted to the study of the decentralized guaranteed cost static output feedback vibration control for piezoelectric smart structures. A smart panel with collocated piezoelectric actuators and velocity sensors is modeled using a finite element method, and then the size of the model is reduced in the state space using the modal Hankel singular value. The necessary and sufficient conditions of decentralized guaranteed cost static output feedback control for the reduced system have been presented. The decentralized and centralized static output feedback matrices can be obtained from solving two linear matrix inequalities. A comparison between centralized control and decentralized control is performed in order to investigate their effectiveness in suppressing vibration of a smart panel. Numerical results show that when the system is subjected to initial displacement or white noise disturbance, the decentralized and centralized controls are both very effective and the control results are very close

  15. [Analysis of the healthcare service decentralization process in Côte d'Ivoire].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soura, B D; Coulibaly, S S

    2014-01-01

    The decentralization of healthcare services is becoming increasingly important in strategies of public sector management. This concept is analyzed from various points of view, including legal, economic, political, and sociological. Several typologies have been proposed in the literature to analyze this decentralization process, which can take different forms ranging from simple deconcentration to more elaborate devolution. In some instances, decentralization can be analyzed by the degree of autonomy given to local authorities. This article applies these typologies to analyze the healthcare system decentralization process in Cote d'Ivoire. Special attention is paid to the new forms of community healthcare organizations. These decentralized structures enjoy a kind of autonomy, with characteristics closer to those of devolution. The model might serve as an example for population involvement in defining and managing healthcare problems in Cote d'Ivoire. We end with proposals for the improvement of the process.

  16. Decentralized supply of electricity is a favorable development. Analysis of system options and effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Faber, A.; Ros, J.; De Boer-Meulman, P.; In 't Groen, B.

    2010-01-01

    Decentralised electricity systems can provide a significant contribution to the development of environment-friendly techniques such as solar power and electric vehicles. However, there are also some obstacles and uncertainties. Not only does the balancing of supply and demand constitute an important challenge; the development of smart grids is also crucial to the improvement of reliability and system efficiency of the decentralized grids. Especially the distribution of investment costs is a decisive factor for the success rate of decentralized electricity systems. What is more, it is still uncertain whether an extensive decentralized system would have a higher score in cleanliness, affordability and reliability than a future central system. The system variants can be distinguished based on the deployment of six possible energy technologies for the future: PV (solar power), micro-CHP, small-scale wind energy in the built environment (urban wind), heat pumps, electric vehicles and air-conditioning. [nl

  17. Decentralized Gauss-Newton method for nonlinear least squares on wide area network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Lanchao; Ling, Qing; Han, Zhu

    2014-10-01

    This paper presents a decentralized approach of Gauss-Newton (GN) method for nonlinear least squares (NLLS) on wide area network (WAN). In a multi-agent system, a centralized GN for NLLS requires the global GN Hessian matrix available at a central computing unit, which may incur large communication overhead. In the proposed decentralized alternative, each agent only needs local GN Hessian matrix to update iterates with the cooperation of neighbors. The detail formulation of decentralized NLLS on WAN is given, and the iteration at each agent is defined. The convergence property of the decentralized approach is analyzed, and numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

  18. A Review of Characteristics and Experiences of Decentralization of Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mwinjuma, Juma Saidi; Kadir, Suhaida bte Abd.; Hamzah, Azimi; Basri, Ramli

    2015-01-01

    This paper scrutinizes decentralization of education with reference to some countries around the world. We consider discussion on decentralization to be complex, critical and broad question in the contemporary education planning, administration and politics of education reforms. Even though the debate on and implementation of decentralization…

  19. [Mechanisms for allocating financial resources after decentralization in the state of Jalisco].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Núñez, Ricardo; Arredondo-López, Armando; Pelcastre, Blanca

    2006-01-01

    To analyze, from the decision maker's perspective, the financial resource allocation process of the health services of the state of Jalisco (SSJ, per its abbreviation in spanish), within the context of decentralization. Through a qualitative approximation using semi-structured individual interviews of key personnel in managerial positions as the method for compiling information, the experience of the SSJ in financial resource allocation was documented. From September to November 2003, the perception of managers and administrators regarding their level of autonomy in decision-making was explored as well as the process they follow for the allocation of financial resources, in order to identify the criteria they use and their justifications. From the point of view of decision-makers, autonomy of the SSJ has increased considerably since decentralization was implemented, although the degree of decision-making freedom remains limited due mainly to high adminstrative costs associated with salaries. In this sense, the implications attributable to labor situations that are still centralized are evident. Some innovative systems for financial resource allocation have been established in the SSJ for the sanitary regions and hospitals based upon administrative-managerial and productivity incentives. Adjustments were also made for degree of marginalization and population lag, under the equity criterion. General work conditions and decision-making autonomy of the sanitary regions constitute outstanding aspects pending decentralization. Although decentralization has granted more autonomy to the SSJ, the level of decision-making freedom for allocating financial resources has been held within the highest hierarchical levels.

  20. Decentralized energy studies: compendium of international studies and research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wallace, C.

    1980-03-01

    The purpose of the compendium is to provide information about research activities in decentralized energy systems to researchers, government officials, and interested citizens. The compendium lists and briefly describes a number of studies in other industrialized nations that involve decentralized energy systems. A contact person is given for each of the activities listed so that interested readers can obtain more information.

  1. The Politics of Fiscal Decentralization Revisited: a Typology and Comparative Evidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jorge P. Gordin

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Although the practice of fiscal decentralization is worldwide and its implementation and effects vary from country to country, its political significance has been often neglected, or worse, treated as implicit to decentralization. This study considers the sources of politicization of fiscal decentralization, focusing on the determination and manipulation of intergovernmental transfers. It develops a new index of fiscal politicization and proposes an explanatory typology that takes into account subnational transfer dependency and the extent to which transfers are politically determined. This analysis renders a conceptual tool that captures nuanced facts about the intergovernmental level of conflict to a larger extent than conventional measures of fiscal decentralization do. We found that the effects of fiscal dependency are intertwined with political asymmetries derived from legislative overrepresentation of territorial units and intergovernmental bargaining strategies.

  2. Wide-Area Robust Decentralized Coordinated Control of HVDC Power System Based on Polytopic System Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shiyun Xu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study proposes a hierarchical wide-area decentralized coordinated control framework for HVDC power system that is robust to multiple operating conditions. The upper level wide-area coordinated controller is designed in the form of dynamic output feedback control that coordinates the lower level HVDC supplementary controller, PSS, and SVC. In order to enhance the robustness of the designed controller under various operating conditions, the polytopic model is introduced such that the closed-loop control system can be operated under strong damping mode in virtue of the stability criterion based on damping ratio. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controller design algorithm is capable of enhancing the system damping over four different conditions.

  3. Regional Development and Decentralization – two Options to Overcome Lack of Funding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dubravka JURLINA ALIBEGOVIC

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Decentralization can be generally described as a process in which selected functions are assigned to sub-national units. The literature identifies a number of positive consequences of decentralization which all lead to a better satisfaction of citizens’ needs for public services. Although the decentralization process in Croatia started more than ten years ago, it has not yet been completed. While leading to a new allocation of authorities and responsibilities to local government units, the level of fiscal decentralization remained lower than in the EU countries.In this paper we analyze the fiscal capacity of local government units to provide an insight into the main problems of decentralization in Croatia. We show that most local government units have very low fiscal capacity, which is insufficient for financing basic public functions with their own resources. The paper presents the results of a survey relating to the decentralization process conducted among local councilors at the regional level in Croatia. We explore how local councilors at the regional level evaluate different goals of decentralization. With the lack of fiscal capacity in mind, we identify two possible solutions for an optimal provision of public functions. The first one is the level of political will for a joint provision of public functions by different local units, and the second one is a change in the territorial organization of the country. We measure the difference in the attitudes toward these questions across counties.

  4. Decentralized control: An overview

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Bakule, Lubomír

    2008-01-01

    Roč. 32, č. 1 (2008), s. 87-98 ISSN 1367-5788 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR(CZ) IAA200750802; GA MŠk(CZ) LA 282 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : decentralized control * large-scale systems * decomposition Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory Impact factor: 1.109, year: 2008

  5. Decentralized energy management strategy based on predictive controllers for a medium voltage direct current photovoltaic electric vehicle charging station

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Torreglosa, Juan P.; García-Triviño, Pablo; Fernández-Ramirez, Luis M.; Jurado, Francisco

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Electric vehicle charging station supplied by photovoltaic, batteries and grid connection is analyzed. • The bus voltage is the key parameter for controlling the system by decentralized approach. • Decentralized control approach facilities the enlargement of the system. • Photovoltaic and battery systems are controlled by model predictive controllers. • Response by model predictive controllers improves that by PI controllers. - Abstract: The use of distributed charging stations based on renewable energy sources for electric vehicles has increased in recent years. Combining photovoltaic solar energy and batteries as energy storage system, directly tied into a medium voltage direct current bus, and with the grid support, results to be an interesting option for improving the operation and efficiency of electric vehicle charging stations. In this paper, an electric vehicle charging station supplied by photovoltaic solar panels, batteries and with grid connection is analysed and evaluated. A decentralized energy management system is developed for regulating the energy flow among the photovoltaic system, the battery and the grid in order to achieve the efficient charging of electric vehicles. The medium voltage direct current bus voltage is the key parameter for controlling the system. The battery is controlled by a model predictive controller in order to keep the bus voltage at its reference value. Depending on the state-of-charge of the battery and the bus voltage, the photovoltaic system can work at maximum power point tracking mode or at bus voltage sustaining mode, or even the grid support can be needed. The results demonstrate the proper operation and energy management of the electric vehicle charging station under study.

  6. Economic analysis of centralized vs. decentralized electronic data capture in multi-center clinical studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walden, Anita; Nahm, Meredith; Barnett, M Edwina; Conde, Jose G; Dent, Andrew; Fadiel, Ahmed; Perry, Theresa; Tolk, Chris; Tcheng, James E; Eisenstein, Eric L

    2011-01-01

    New data management models are emerging in multi-center clinical studies. We evaluated the incremental costs associated with decentralized vs. centralized models. We developed clinical research network economic models to evaluate three data management models: centralized, decentralized with local software, and decentralized with shared database. Descriptive information from three clinical research studies served as inputs for these models. The primary outcome was total data management costs. Secondary outcomes included: data management costs for sites, local data centers, and central coordinating centers. Both decentralized models were more costly than the centralized model for each clinical research study: the decentralized with local software model was the most expensive. Decreasing the number of local data centers and case book pages reduced cost differentials between models. Decentralized vs. centralized data management in multi-center clinical research studies is associated with increases in data management costs.

  7. Reliable Decentralized Control of Fuzzy Discrete-Event Systems and a Test Algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Fuchun; Dziong, Zbigniew

    2013-02-01

    A framework for decentralized control of fuzzy discrete-event systems (FDESs) has been recently presented to guarantee the achievement of a given specification under the joint control of all local fuzzy supervisors. As a continuation, this paper addresses the reliable decentralized control of FDESs in face of possible failures of some local fuzzy supervisors. Roughly speaking, for an FDES equipped with n local fuzzy supervisors, a decentralized supervisor is called k-reliable (1 ≤ k ≤ n) provided that the control performance will not be degraded even when n - k local fuzzy supervisors fail. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of k-reliable decentralized supervisors of FDESs is proposed by introducing the notions of M̃uc-controllability and k-reliable coobservability of fuzzy language. In particular, a polynomial-time algorithm to test the k-reliable coobservability is developed by a constructive methodology, which indicates that the existence of k-reliable decentralized supervisors of FDESs can be checked with a polynomial complexity.

  8. Decentralization and Distribution Primary Education Access in Indonesia 2014

    OpenAIRE

    Benita, Novinaz

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines decentralisation and distribution of access to primary school in Indonesia. Data come from Indonesia National Socio Economic Survey 2014, and statistic reports from Ministry of education, Ministry Of Finance, and General Election Commision. Descriptive statistic is used to describe spatial distribution of decentralization in primary education system and distribution of primary education access. The results show there are districts disparities in decentralization of primary...

  9. On decentralized adaptive full-order sliding mode control of multiple UAVs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiang, Xianbo; Liu, Chao; Su, Housheng; Zhang, Qin

    2017-11-01

    In this study, a novel decentralized adaptive full-order sliding mode control framework is proposed for the robust synchronized formation motion of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) subject to system uncertainty. First, a full-order sliding mode surface in a decentralized manner is designed to incorporate both the individual position tracking error and the synchronized formation error while the UAV group is engaged in building a certain desired geometric pattern in three dimensional space. Second, a decentralized virtual plant controller is constructed which allows the embedded low-pass filter to attain the chattering free property of the sliding mode controller. In addition, robust adaptive technique is integrated in the decentralized chattering free sliding control design in order to handle unknown bounded uncertainties, without requirements for assuming a priori knowledge of bounds on the system uncertainties as stated in conventional chattering free control methods. Subsequently, system robustness as well as stability of the decentralized full-order sliding mode control of multiple UAVs is synthesized. Numerical simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control framework to achieve robust 3D formation flight of the multi-UAV system. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Influence of the Budgetary Decentralization on the Economic Growth of Regions of Ukraine: Statistical Estimation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Voznyak Halyna V.

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to define, determine and analyze the interrelationships between the budgetary decentralization and the economic growth of regions of Ukraine under conditions of reforming the power and financial resources. A statistical estimation of the influence of the budgetary decentralization on the economic growth of regions of Ukraine for 2015-2016 is carried out. The application of the panel data modeling allowed to build econometric models that made it possible to determine the ambiguous nature of the budgetary decentralization and identify key factors of its influence. It is shown that in terms of the income and expenditures the budgetary decentralization is positively associated with the economic growth of regions of Ukraine during the chosen time range of the study. The dynamic growth of the own revenues of local budgets is not a catalyst for the economic development of the regions. A strong negative effect of transfers on the dependent variable is confirmed. Among the variables included in the model and additionally characterizing the budgetary decentralization, the single tax and subsidies for the socio-economic development of individual territories attract attention. As a result of the study, the author justifies the need to minimize the transfer dependence of the regions at a simultaneous increasing of their own revenue base with local taxes and fees serving as a reliable basis for a long-term planning and development.

  11. (De)Centralization of Public Procurement at the Local Level in the EU

    OpenAIRE

    Boštjan BREZOVNIK; Žan Jan OPLOTNIK; Borut VOJINOVIĆ

    2015-01-01

    The so-called decentralization of public procurement in EU Member States is accepted as the most suitable design of the public procurement system, often justifi ed by greater economic effi ciency and by the possibility of boosting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, which act on the public procurement market as providers of goods, services and works. Despite the existence of highly decentralized public procurement systems which refl ect the decentralization of administrativ...

  12. Principles for ecologically based invasive plant management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeremy J. James; Brenda S. Smith; Edward A. Vasquez; Roger L. Sheley

    2010-01-01

    Land managers have long identified a critical need for a practical and effective framework for designing restoration strategies, especially where invasive plants dominate. A holistic, ecologically based, invasive plant management (EBIPM) framework that integrates ecosystem health assessment, knowledge of ecological processes, and adaptive management into a successional...

  13. Development of an automated system for the decentral fractioning of municipal wastes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heiko Vesper

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: There is a growing problem of the increasing amount of unsorted municipal wastes with the resulting consequences for the environment. The aim of this study was to present a new solutions of the system for the decentral fractioning of municipal wastes, which enable simplification and improvement of the process together with the reduction of total costs. Methods: The description of  the problem of the increasing amount of unsorted municipal wastes with the resulting consequences for the environment as well as an alternative solution for the decentral fractioning of such wastes was presented. The influence onto the environment as well as the efficiency of the costly mechanical sorting of wastes was queried. The nowadays used principles of sorted and unsorted waste disposal were elucidated and their advantages and disadvantages evaluated. Results and conclusions: Based on this evaluation an innovative and future oriented development of an automated system for the decentral fractioning of municipal wastes was presented. The new developed systems aim at the achievement of an easier, less costly and environment-friendlier process for the disposal of municipal wastes from apartment buildings.

  14. Jealousy Graphs: Structure and Complexity of Decentralized Stable Matching

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    REPORT Jealousy Graphs: Structure and Complexity of Decentralized Stable Matching 14. ABSTRACT 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: The stable matching...Franceschetti 858-822-2284 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) Standard Form 298 (Rev 8/98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 - Jealousy Graphs: Structure and...market. Using this structure, we are able to provide a ner analysis of the complexity of a subclass of decentralized matching markets. Jealousy

  15. Computational State Transfer: An Architectural Style for Decentralized Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Gorlick, Michael Martin

    2016-01-01

    A decentralized system is a distributed system that operates under multiple, distinct spheres of authority in which collaboration among the principals is characterized by mutual distrust. Now commonplace, decentralized systems appear in a number of disparate domains: commerce, logistics, medicine, software development, manufacturing, and financial trading to name but a few. These systems of systems face two overlapping demands: security and safety to protect against errors, omissions and thre...

  16. Decentralized investment management: evidence from the pension fund industry

    OpenAIRE

    Blake, David; Timmermann, Allan; Tonks, Ian; Wermers, Russ

    2010-01-01

    The past few decades have seen amajor shift from centralized to decentralized investment management by pension fund sponsors, despite the increased coordination problems that this brings. Using a unique, proprietary dataset of pension sponsors and managers, we identify two secular decentralization trends: sponsors switched (i) from generalist (balanced) to specialist managers across asset classes and (ii) from single to multiple competing managers within each asset class. We study the effe...

  17. A decentralized control scheme for an effective coordination of phasic and tonic control in a snake-like robot

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, Takahide; Kano, Takeshi; Ishiguro, Akio

    2012-01-01

    Autonomous decentralized control has attracted considerable attention because it enables us to understand the adaptive and versatile locomotion of animals and facilitates the construction of truly intelligent artificial agents. Thus far, we have developed a snake-like robot (HAUBOT I) that is driven by a decentralized control scheme based on a discrepancy function, which incorporates phasic control. In this paper, we investigate a decentralized control scheme in which phasic and tonic control are well coordinated, as an extension of our previous study. To verify the validity of the proposed control scheme, we apply it to a snake-like robot (HAUBOT II) that can adjust both the phase relationship between its body segments and the stiffness at each joint. The results indicate that the proposed control scheme enables the robot to exhibit remarkable real-time adaptability over various frictional and inclined terrains. These findings can potentially enable us to gain a deeper insight into the autonomous decentralized control mechanism underlying the adaptive and resilient locomotion of animals.

  18. Do Decentralized Innovation Systems Promote Agricultural Technology Adoption? Experimental Evidence from Africa

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pamuk, Haki; Bulte, Erwin|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/141315245; Adekunle, Adewale A.

    2014-01-01

    We use experimental data collected in 8 African countries to investigate whether a decentralized approach can promote the adoption of agricultural innovations. This participatory model is based on the creation of so-called ‘innovation platforms’ where local stakeholders meet and seek to identify

  19. Decentralized energy policy turnaround. Opportunities and challenges; Dezentrale Energiewende. Chancen und Herausforderungen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eiselt, Juergen

    2012-07-01

    This book supplies a comprehensive inventory of an already beginning decentralized energy policy turnaround. The potentials of an effective energy policy turnaround are described by means of present structures, technologies and scientifically proven results. The book presents new technologies and effective concepts in order to replace the centralised energy supply by decentralized structures. The reduction of expenses and energy-autonomous systems up to the zero-tariff heating are the main impulses for the utilization of decentralized forms of energy.

  20. Decentralized control: Status and outlook

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Bakule, Lubomír

    2014-01-01

    Roč. 38, č. 1 (2014), s. 71-80 ISSN 1367-5788 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-02149S Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : decentralized control * networked control systems * event-triggered approach Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory Impact factor: 2.518, year: 2014

  1. Decentralization – the way of democratization and modernization of the Republic of Moldova

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iurie ŢAP

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Decentralization as a way of organizing a state represents the path to its democratization and effectiveness. Furthermore, territorial decentralization establishes the relations between state and local communities, and in order to be efficient some fundamental theoretic conditions should be respected, guidelines followed and two great balances achieved. Generally, an appropriate decentralization can be a catalyst for development and a remedy to overcome internal crises.

  2. Web-based service portal for decentral power supply systems. Remote monitoring and support of billing; Webbasiertes Service-Portal fuer dezentrale Energieanlagen. Fernueberwachung und Abrechnungsunterstuetzung

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Silberg, Peter [EUS GmbH, Holzwickede (Germany); Bernemann, Andrew [MVV Energiedienstleistungen GmbH West, Solingen (Germany); Hillmann, Georg [Tema AG, Berlin (Germany)

    2010-01-15

    Web-based teleservice portals are a good basis for operating data acquisition and control of decentral power generation systems. They also provide a low-cost solution if open-source products are used. The authors present the teleservice portal of MVV Energiedinstleistungen GmbH that was developed by EUS GmbH. (orig.)

  3. Cover crop-based ecological weed management: exploration and optimization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kruidhof, H.M.

    2008-01-01

    Keywords: organic farming, ecologically-based weed management, cover crops, green manure, allelopathy, Secale cereale, Brassica napus, Medicago sativa

    Cover crop-based ecological weed management: exploration and optimization. In organic farming systems, weed control is recognized as one

  4. Corruption, accountability, and decentralization: theory and evidence from Mexico

    OpenAIRE

    Goodspeed, Timothy J.

    2011-01-01

    One of the fundamental tenets of fiscal federalism is that, absent various sorts of externalities, decentralized governments that rely on own-source revenues should be more fiscally efficient than decentralized governments that rely on grant financing. The argument relies in part on the idea that sub-national governments, being closer to the people, are more accountable to its citizens. Accountability to citizens is also important in understanding the presence of corruption in government. Thi...

  5. Bioflocculation of grey water for improved energy recovery within decentralized sanitation concepts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández Leal, L; Temmink, H; Zeeman, G; Buisman, C J N

    2010-12-01

    Bioflocculation of grey water was tested with a lab-scale membrane bioreactor in order to concentrate the COD. Three concentration factors were tested based on the ratio of sludge retention time (SRT) and hydraulic retention time (HRT): 3, 8 and 12. COD concentration factor was up to 7.1, achieving a final concentration of 7.2 g COD L(-1). Large fractions of suspended COD were recovered in the concentrate (57%, 81% and 82% at SRT/HRT ratios of 3, 8 and 12, respectively) indicating a strong bioflocculation of grey water. A maximum of 11% of COD mineralization of grey water was measured at the longest SRT tested (1 d). The integration of bioflocculation of grey water in decentralized sanitation concepts may increase the overall production of methane by 73%, based on the biogas produced by black water only. Therefore, bioflocculation is a promising grey water pre-treatment step for energy recovery within decentralized sanitation concepts. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Decentralized energy aware co-optimization of mobility and communication in multiagent systems

    KAUST Repository

    Jaleel, Hassan

    2017-01-05

    Our goal is to design decentralized coordination strategies that enable agents to achieve global performance guarantees while minimizing the energy cost of their actions with an emphasis on feasibility for real-time implementation. As a motivating scenario that illustrates the importance of introducing energy awareness at the agent level, we consider a team of mobile nodes that are assigned the task of establishing a communication link between two base stations with minimum energy consumption. We formulate this problem as a dynamic program in which the total cost of each agent is the sum of both mobility and communication costs. To ensure that the solution is decentralized and real time implementable, we propose multiple suboptimal policies based on the concepts of approximate dynamic programming. To provide performance guarantees, we compute upper bounds on the performance gap between the proposed suboptimal policies and the global optimal policy. Finally, we discuss merits and demerits of the proposed policies and compare their performance using simulations.

  7. Peer Matcher : Decentralized Partnership Formation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bozdog, Nicolae Vladimir; Voulgaris, Spyros; Bal, Henri; van Halteren, Aart

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents Peer Matcher, a fully decentralized algorithm solving the k-clique matching problem. The aim of k-clique matching is to cluster a set of nodes having pair wise weights into k-size groups of maximal total weight. Since solving the problem requires exponential time, Peer Matcher

  8. Music Libraries: Centralization versus Decentralization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuyper-Rushing, Lois

    2002-01-01

    Considers the decision that branch libraries, music libraries in particular, have struggled with concerning a centralized location in the main library versus a decentralized collection. Reports on a study of the Association of Research Libraries that investigated the location of music libraries, motivation for the location, degrees offered,…

  9. PeerMatcher: Decentralized Partnership Formation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bozdog, N.V.; Voulgaris, S.; Bal, H.E.; van Halteren, A.

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents PeerMatcher, a fully decentralized algorithm solving the k-clique matching problem. The aim of k-clique matching is to cluster a set of nodes having pairwise weights into k-size groups of maximal total weight. Since solving the problem requires exponential time, PeerMatcher

  10. [Territory and decentralization in the agenda for productive transformation with equity].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sojo, A

    1991-08-01

    The regional perspective and the decentralization in Latin American and Caribbean countries was examined in light of technological changes and transformation of economic production to boost productivity. National population policies were not the major cause of redistribution of the population, rather such transformation significantly changed the comparative regional and urban advantages in the use of territory affecting the spatial distribution of the population. Hypotheses were advanced using the transformation of production, regional development, and decentralization on the retention, attraction, and migration of population in different areas with varying economic conditions. Spurious competitiveness means global strategies of enterprises that establish foreign operations by means of factor sourcing. Flexible specialization is a company strategy of permanent innovation based on flexible equipment and a qualified work force. The increasing transnationalization of capital is the source of skills and technology that sustain competitive advantages. Decentralization can resolve local demand, facilitate access to information, mobilize resources, and exercise control over local operations. In Japan, Germany, and Italy vs. the US and France there is a social contract among companies, trade unions, universities, and regional administrations in the interest of capital and the work force. There is no direct relationship between technology and region, the industrial cluster exhibits systemic competitiveness in developed countries (the Emilian model in Italy affirms the ability of small enterprises to develop new products), the regional impact is diverse relative to new technologies (some deprived rural economic areas have potential as in central and northern Italy), and population and region are linked (regional and rural-urban differences in the growth of population and migratory flows account for spatial distribution of the population). Decentralization and systemic

  11. Centralized vs. decentralized nursing stations: effects on nurses' functional use of space and work environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zborowsky, Terri; Bunker-Hellmich, Lou; Morelli, Agneta; O'Neill, Mike

    2010-01-01

    Evidence-based findings of the effects of nursing station design on nurses' work environment and work behavior are essential to improve conditions and increase retention among these fundamental members of the healthcare delivery team. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate how nursing station design (i.e., centralized and decentralized nursing station layouts) affected nurses' use of space, patient visibility, noise levels, and perceptions of the work environment. Advances in information technology have enabled nurses to move away from traditional centralized paper-charting stations to smaller decentralized work stations and charting substations located closer to, or inside of, patient rooms. Improved understanding of the trade-offs presented by centralized and decentralized nursing station design has the potential to provide useful information for future nursing station layouts. This information will be critical for understanding the nurse environment "fit." The study used an exploratory design with both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative data regarding the effects of nursing station design on nurses' health and work environment were gathered by means of focus group interviews. Quantitative data-gathering techniques included place- and person-centered space use observations, patient visibility assessments, sound level measurements, and an online questionnaire regarding perceptions of the work environment. Nurses on all units were observed most frequently performing telephone, computer, and administrative duties. Time spent using telephones, computers, and performing other administrative duties was significantly higher in the centralized nursing stations. Consultations with medical staff and social interactions were significantly less frequent in decentralized nursing stations. There were no indications that either centralized or decentralized nursing station designs resulted in superior visibility. Sound levels measured in all

  12. The Dynamics of Decentralization Arrangements in Indonesia Constitutional System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haposan Siallagan

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Local autonomy has long been implemented in Indonesia and has been experiencing a number of phases within governmental system. This writing is intended to fathom the dynamics of decentralization arrangement indeed. The discussion it-self shows that according to the substances in a number of decentralization policy which had/has been issued, the dynamics of local autonomy arrangements (as regulated in many decentralization policies are inclining to be captured in a broad meaning, which is frequently known as a broadest local autonomy. Through local autonomy mechanism, local governments are given a flexibility in order to manage and administer their own domestic household. In order to maximize the implementation of widest local autonomy, local government has to be pushed to be well prepared in handling many local governmental tasks. Such preparations are related to human resources capacity, the competences in running the tasks, and financial management capacity.

  13. Centralized vs. decentralized child mental health services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, M S

    1977-09-01

    One of the basic tenets of the Community Mental Health Center movement is that services should be provided in the consumers' community. Various centers across the country have attempted to do this in either a centralized or decentralized fashion. Historically, most health services have been provided centrally, a good example being the traditional general hospital with its centralized medical services. Over the years, some of these services have become decentralized to take the form of local health centers, health maintenance organizations, community clinics, etc, and now various large mental health centers are also being broken down into smaller community units. An example of each type of mental health facility is delineated here.

  14. Decentralized Services Orchestration Using Intelligent Mobile Agents with Deadline Restrictions

    OpenAIRE

    Magalhães , Alex; Lung , Lau Cheuk; Rech , Luciana

    2010-01-01

    International audience; The necessity for better performance drives service orchestration towards decentralization. There is a recent approach where the integrator - that traditionally centralizes all corporative services and business logics - remains as a repository of interface services, but now lacks to know all business logics and business workflows. There are several techniques using this recent approach, including hybrid solutions, peer-to-peer solutions and trigger-based mechanisms. A ...

  15. Proof-of-Concept System for Opportunistic Spectrum Access in Multi-user Decentralized Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sumit J. Darak

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Poor utilization of an electromagnetic spectrum and ever increasing demand for spectrum have led to surge of interests in opportunistic spectrum access (OSA based paradigms like cognitive radio and unlicensed LTE. In OSA for decentralized networks, frequency band selection from wideband spectrum is a challenging task since secondary users (SUs do not share any information with each other. In this paper, a new decision making policy (DMP has been proposed for OSA in the multi-user decentralized networks. First contribution is an accurate characterization of frequency bands using Bayes-UCB algorithm. Then, a novel SU orthogonization scheme using Bayes-UCB algorithm is proposed replacing randomization based scheme. At the end, USRP testbed has been developed for analyzing the performance of DMPs using real radio signals. Experimental results show that the proposed DMP offers significant improvement in spectrum utilization, fewer subband switching and collisions compared to other DMPs.

  16. Decentralized Sliding Mode Observer Based Dual Closed-Loop Fault Tolerant Control for Reconfigurable Manipulator against Actuator Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Bo; Li, Yuanchun

    2015-01-01

    This paper considers a decentralized fault tolerant control (DFTC) scheme for reconfigurable manipulators. With the appearance of norm-bounded failure, a dual closed-loop trajectory tracking control algorithm is proposed on the basis of the Lyapunov stability theory. Characterized by the modularization property, the actuator failure is estimated by the proposed decentralized sliding mode observer (DSMO). Moreover, the actuator failure can be treated in view of the local joint information, so its control performance degradation is independent of other normal joints. In addition, the presented DFTC scheme is significantly simplified in terms of the structure of the controller due to its dual closed-loop architecture, and its feasibility is highly reflected in the control of reconfigurable manipulators. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed DFTC scheme is demonstrated using simulations. PMID:26181826

  17. Decentralized Sliding Mode Observer Based Dual Closed-Loop Fault Tolerant Control for Reconfigurable Manipulator against Actuator Failure.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Zhao

    Full Text Available This paper considers a decentralized fault tolerant control (DFTC scheme for reconfigurable manipulators. With the appearance of norm-bounded failure, a dual closed-loop trajectory tracking control algorithm is proposed on the basis of the Lyapunov stability theory. Characterized by the modularization property, the actuator failure is estimated by the proposed decentralized sliding mode observer (DSMO. Moreover, the actuator failure can be treated in view of the local joint information, so its control performance degradation is independent of other normal joints. In addition, the presented DFTC scheme is significantly simplified in terms of the structure of the controller due to its dual closed-loop architecture, and its feasibility is highly reflected in the control of reconfigurable manipulators. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed DFTC scheme is demonstrated using simulations.

  18. Decentralized control of discrete-time linear time invariant systems with input saturation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Deliu, C.; Deliu, Ciprian; Malek, Babak; Roy, Sandip; Saberi, Ali; Stoorvogel, Antonie Arij

    We study decentralized stabilization of discrete-time linear time invariant (LTI) systems subject to actuator saturation, using LTI controllers. The requirement of stabilization under both saturation constraints and decentralization impose obvious necessary conditions on the open-loop plant, namely

  19. Decentralized control of discrete-time linear time invariant systems with input saturation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Deliu, Ciprian; Deliu, C.; Malek, Babak; Roy, Sandip; Saberi, Ali; Stoorvogel, Antonie Arij

    2009-01-01

    We study decentralized stabilization of discrete time linear time invariant (LTI) systems subject to actuator saturation, using LTI controllers. The requirement of stabilization under both saturation constraints and decentralization impose obvious necessary conditions on the open-loop plant, namely

  20. Principles, Economic and Institutional Prerequisites for Fiscal Decentralization under Conditions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vishnevsky Valentine P.

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to study principles, economic and institutional prerequisites for fiscal decentralization on post-conflict territories. It is determined that fiscal decentralization is one of the main ways to solve problems of post-conflict areas. There justified principles, economic and institutional prerequisites of fiscal decentralization on post-conflict territories with regard to the specificity of individual spheres of fiscal relations. Moreover, different spheres of fiscal relations require different approaches: the sphere of public revenues — providing economic efficiency with the formation of the tax structure contributing to the expansion of the tax base; the sphere of public spending — ensuring social justice and transparency in allocation of social cost at the local level; the sphere of subsidies — narrowing the scope of application of intergovernmental transfers with organizing the redistribution of financial resources under the principle of «center - post-conflict regions - post-conflict recipients»; the sphere of external assistance — ensuring proper coordination for cultivation of new co-operative institutions.

  1. Decentralized control and filtering in interconnected dynamical systems

    CERN Document Server

    Mahmoud, Magdi S

    2011-01-01

    Based on the many approaches available for dealing with large-scale systems (LSS), Decentralized Control and Filtering in Interconnected Dynamical Systems supplies a rigorous framework for studying the analysis, stability, and control problems of LSS. Providing an overall assessment of LSS theories, it addresses model order reduction, parametric uncertainties, time delays, and control estimator gain perturbations. Taking readers on a guided tour through LSS, the book examines recent trends and approaches and reviews past methods and results from a contemporary perspective. It traces the progre

  2. THE DECENTRALIZATION PROCESS IN ROMANIA HAS BEEN AFFECTED BY THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OR NOT; ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OR AGAINST DECENTRALIZATION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    OLIVIA MANOLE

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Typically, the decentralization process is extremely complicated and involves many challenges, if we were to take into account local conflicts, the interests of the central government and the complexity of simultaneous decentralization in administrative, political and economic plan. The financial crisis has added another dimension to the complexity of this phenomenon, misbalancing the economy and creating a fiscal pressure both at central and local level. In this context it rises the problem whether the management of the financial crisis can be better realised within a decentralized system or whether it may lay pressure on the return to the centralized government form.

  3. Decentralized Utilitarian Mechanisms for Scheduling Games

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cole, R.; Correa, J.; Gkatzelis, V.; Mirrokni, V.; Olver, N.K.

    2015-01-01

    Game Theory and Mechanism Design are by now standard tools for studying and designing massive decentralized systems. Unfortunately, designing mechanisms that induce socially efficient outcomes often requires full information and prohibitively large computational resources. In this work we study

  4. The entropy problem of the decentralized solar and nuclear heat generation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seifritz, W.

    1984-01-01

    Parallel to the energy fluxes the entropy fluxes of decentralized hot-water systems based on solar collectors coupled with an electrical auxiliary heating installation are also deduced. As an important result the fact emerges that this kind of solar energy has to remain very restricted, not only for quantitative-energetic reasons, but also for entropy ones, and that a solar hot-water system will always have to rely on an energy system of low entropy. In contrast to this, the provision of heat for space heating sector with the help of the 'nuclear short-distance concept', which practically does not need any external energy, is not subject to these restrictions. This concept is introduced briefly, as well as the heat prices which presumably can be achieved by it. Concluding comments summarize the reasons once again that speak against the installation of a decentralized solar heat supply system. (orig.) [de

  5. Decentralized forest governance in central Vietnam

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tran Nam, T.; Burgers, P.P.M.

    2012-01-01

    A major challenge in decentralized forest governance in Vietnam is developing a mechanism that would support both reforestation and poverty reduction among people in rural communities. To help address this challenge, Forest Land Allocation (FLA) policies recognize local communities and individuals

  6. Decentralized Channel Decisions of Green Supply Chain in a Fuzzy Decision Making Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shengju Sang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper considers the greening policies in a decentralized channel between one manufacturer and one retailer in a fuzzy decision making environment. We consider the manufacturing cost and the parameters of demand function as the fuzzy variables. Based on the different market structures, we develop three different fuzzy decentralized decision models. For each case, the expected value, optimistic value and pessimistic value models are formulated, and their optimal solutions are also derived through the fuzzy set theory. Finally, three numerical examples are solved to examine the effectiveness of fuzzy models. The effects of the confidence level of the supply chain memberrs profits and the fuzziness of parameters on optimal prices, level of green innovation, and fuzzy expected profits of actors are also analyzed.

  7. A Retrospective Analysis of the Development of Fiscal Decentralization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rekova Nataliia Yu.

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The study forms the theoretical basis for the implementation of fiscal decentralization in Ukraine on the basis of determining the correspondence between the evolution of scientific approaches to the formation of an effective model of public administration and the degree of power centralization at a particular stage of the development of society. The views of thinkers of the ancient states of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Rome, Greece are generalized, and the priority of centralized public administration without segregation of centralization forms is determined. The degree of centralization in the period of development of feudal states is characterized. The scientific views of representatives of the neoinstitutional direction of economic thought are analyzed in detail, and the stages of the formation of decentralization, in particular fiscal, as a separate theory, are defined. The stages of and the corresponding organizational and legislative documents for the implementation of decentralization in Ukraine are outlined, and its results are characterized.

  8. Decentralization Challenges for Management of Cultural Patrimony in Ecuador

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr.C. Carlos Leonel Escudero-Sánchez

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available In Latin America  the new  decentralization policies in  the forms of government  challenging  institutional  processes  and management  practices.  In the context of  Ecuador  responds to  a constitutional  mandate expressed in  the reformulation of  the powers of the  municipal  autonomous governments. Consequently, the main  purpose of the article  is to present  the main  principles  expressed  in the  protection, evaluation and dissemination of cultural heritage.  Therefore  the  exercise of autonomy  and decentralization  is governed  by the principles  of solidarity, subsidiarity,  territorial equity, integration and participation.  Hence,  the main results  are  part of  the systematization of  such  socio-economic, institutional, governance  and participation, legal and financial  management of cultural heritage contexts.Keywords: decentralization, cultural heritage, cultural management, citizen participation.

  9. Asynchronous decentralized method for interconnected electricity markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang, Anni; Joo, Sung-Kwan; Song, Kyung-Bin; Kim, Jin-Ho; Lee, Kisung

    2008-01-01

    This paper presents an asynchronous decentralized method to solve the optimization problem of interconnected electricity markets. The proposed method decomposes the optimization problem of combined electricity markets into individual optimization problems. The impact of neighboring markets' information is included in the objective function of the individual market optimization problem by the standard Lagrangian relaxation method. Most decentralized optimization methods use synchronous models of communication to exchange updated market information among markets during the iterative process. In this paper, however, the solutions of the individual optimization problems are coordinated through an asynchronous communication model until they converge to the global optimal solution of combined markets. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed asynchronous method over the existing synchronous methods. (author)

  10. Staffing, qualification and organization for centralized and decentralized training

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holyoak, R.H.

    1985-01-01

    This paper covers an extensive area. First a brief history of the training at Commonwealth Edison is presented so that the reader can get some idea of why some of the problems mentioned exist. Next is a discussion of the centralized and decentralized Commonwealth Edison production training organization. A brief review of the development of the Instructor Qualification Program and the training of instructors follows. Finally, a review of the problems and some solutions related to managing a centralized/decentralized training system is included

  11. A set of decentralized PID controllers for an n–link robot manipulator

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    A class of stabilizing decentralized proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers for an -link robot manipulator system is proposed. The range of decentralized PID controller parameters for an -link robot manipulator is obtained using Kharitonov theorem and stability boundary equations. Basically, the proposed design ...

  12. Decentralized Reinforcement Learning of robot behaviors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leottau, David L.; Ruiz-del-Solar, Javier; Babuska, R.

    2018-01-01

    A multi-agent methodology is proposed for Decentralized Reinforcement Learning (DRL) of individual behaviors in problems where multi-dimensional action spaces are involved. When using this methodology, sub-tasks are learned in parallel by individual agents working toward a common goal. In

  13. Satellite Power System (SPS) centralization/decentralization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naisbitt, J.

    1978-01-01

    The decentralization of government in the United States of America is described and its effect on the solution of energy problems is given. The human response to the introduction of new technologies is considered as well as the behavioral aspects of multiple options.

  14. Decentralized vs. centralized economic coordination of resource allocation in grids

    OpenAIRE

    Eymann, Torsten; Reinicke, Michael; Ardáiz Villanueva, Óscar; Artigas Vidal, Pau; Díaz de Cerio Ripalda, Luis Manuel; Freitag, Fèlix; Meseguer Pallarès, Roc; Navarro Moldes, Leandro; Royo Vallés, María Dolores; Sanjeevan, Kanapathipillai

    2003-01-01

    Application layer networks are software architectures that allow the provisioning of services requiring a huge amount of resources by connecting large numbers of individual computers, like in Grid or Peer-to-Peer computing. Controlling the resource allocation in those networks is nearly impossible using a centralized arbitrator. The network simulation project CATNET will evaluate a decentralized mechanism for resource allocation, which is based on the economic paradigm of th...

  15. Decentralized Opportunistic Spectrum Resources Access Model and Algorithm toward Cooperative Ad-Hoc Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Ming; Xu, Yang; Mohammed, Abdul-Wahid

    2016-01-01

    Limited communication resources have gradually become a critical factor toward efficiency of decentralized large scale multi-agent coordination when both system scales up and tasks become more complex. In current researches, due to the agent’s limited communication and observational capability, an agent in a decentralized setting can only choose a part of channels to access, but cannot perceive or share global information. Each agent’s cooperative decision is based on the partial observation of the system state, and as such, uncertainty in the communication network is unavoidable. In this situation, it is a major challenge working out cooperative decision-making under uncertainty with only a partial observation of the environment. In this paper, we propose a decentralized approach that allows agents cooperatively search and independently choose channels. The key to our design is to build an up-to-date observation for each agent’s view so that a local decision model is achievable in a large scale team coordination. We simplify the Dec-POMDP model problem, and each agent can jointly work out its communication policy in order to improve its local decision utilities for the choice of communication resources. Finally, we discuss an implicate resource competition game, and show that, there exists an approximate resources access tradeoff balance between agents. Based on this discovery, the tradeoff between real-time decision-making and the efficiency of cooperation using these channels can be well improved. PMID:26727504

  16. Decentralized Opportunistic Spectrum Resources Access Model and Algorithm toward Cooperative Ad-Hoc Networks.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming Liu

    Full Text Available Limited communication resources have gradually become a critical factor toward efficiency of decentralized large scale multi-agent coordination when both system scales up and tasks become more complex. In current researches, due to the agent's limited communication and observational capability, an agent in a decentralized setting can only choose a part of channels to access, but cannot perceive or share global information. Each agent's cooperative decision is based on the partial observation of the system state, and as such, uncertainty in the communication network is unavoidable. In this situation, it is a major challenge working out cooperative decision-making under uncertainty with only a partial observation of the environment. In this paper, we propose a decentralized approach that allows agents cooperatively search and independently choose channels. The key to our design is to build an up-to-date observation for each agent's view so that a local decision model is achievable in a large scale team coordination. We simplify the Dec-POMDP model problem, and each agent can jointly work out its communication policy in order to improve its local decision utilities for the choice of communication resources. Finally, we discuss an implicate resource competition game, and show that, there exists an approximate resources access tradeoff balance between agents. Based on this discovery, the tradeoff between real-time decision-making and the efficiency of cooperation using these channels can be well improved.

  17. Unifying ecology and macroevolution with individual-based theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosindell, James; Harmon, Luke J; Etienne, Rampal S

    2015-05-01

    A contemporary goal in both ecology and evolutionary biology is to develop theory that transcends the boundary between the two disciplines, to understand phenomena that cannot be explained by either field in isolation. This is challenging because macroevolution typically uses lineage-based models, whereas ecology often focuses on individual organisms. Here, we develop a new parsimonious individual-based theory by adding mild selection to the neutral theory of biodiversity. We show that this model generates realistic phylogenies showing a slowdown in diversification and also improves on the ecological predictions of neutral theory by explaining the occurrence of very common species. Moreover, we find the distribution of individual fitness changes over time, with average fitness increasing at a pace that depends positively on community size. Consequently, large communities tend to produce fitter species than smaller communities. These findings have broad implications beyond biodiversity theory, potentially impacting, for example, invasion biology and paleontology. © 2015 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS.

  18. Fiscal Decentralization and Delivery of Public Services: Evidence from Education Sector in Pakistan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rauf Abdur

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Fiscal Decentralization is the devolution of fiscal assignments to lower governments for high growth and better delivery of public services. The current study covering the period from 1972 to 2009 is an attempt to find out the impacts of fiscal decentralization on public services deliveries in Pakistan. Public services are proxy by Gross enrollment at primary school level while fiscal decentralization by fiscal transfer and expenditure sides of devolution. Using time series data, it is found that the individual impacts of fiscal transfer are although insignificant but still support the theoretical proposition regarding fiscal decentralization and public services relationship while delegation of expenditure responsibilities helps in improving the gross enrollment at primary school level. Furthermore the study evident that complete delegation of fiscal responsibilities to lower governments enhance enrollment ratio in Pakistan.

  19. Spectrum Allocation for Decentralized Transmission Strategies: Properties of Nash Equilibria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter von Wrycza

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The interaction of two transmit-receive pairs coexisting in the same area and communicating using the same portion of the spectrum is analyzed from a game theoretic perspective. Each pair utilizes a decentralized iterative water-filling scheme to greedily maximize the individual rate. We study the dynamics of such a game and find properties of the resulting Nash equilibria. The region of achievable operating points is characterized for both low- and high-interference systems, and the dependence on the various system parameters is explicitly shown. We derive the region of possible signal space partitioning for the iterative water-filling scheme and show how the individual utility functions can be modified to alter its range. Utilizing global system knowledge, we design a modified game encouraging better operating points in terms of sum rate compared to those obtained using the iterative water-filling algorithm and show how such a game can be imitated in a decentralized noncooperative setting. Although we restrict the analysis to a two player game, analogous concepts can be used to design decentralized algorithms for scenarios with more players. The performance of the modified decentralized game is evaluated and compared to the iterative water-filling algorithm by numerical simulations.

  20. Spatial optimization for decentralized non-potable water reuse

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kavvada, Olga; Nelson, Kara L.; Horvath, Arpad

    2018-06-01

    Decentralization has the potential to reduce the scale of the piped distribution network needed to enable non-potable water reuse (NPR) in urban areas by producing recycled water closer to its point of use. However, tradeoffs exist between the economies of scale of treatment facilities and the size of the conveyance infrastructure, including energy for upgradient distribution of recycled water. To adequately capture the impacts from distribution pipes and pumping requirements, site-specific conditions must be accounted for. In this study, a generalized framework (a heuristic modeling approach using geospatial algorithms) is developed that estimates the financial cost, the energy use, and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with NPR (for toilet flushing) as a function of scale of treatment and conveyance networks with the goal of determining the optimal degree of decentralization. A decision-support platform is developed to assess and visualize NPR system designs considering topography, economies of scale, and building size. The platform can be used for scenario development to explore the optimal system size based on the layout of current or new buildings. The model also promotes technology innovation by facilitating the systems-level comparison of options to lower costs, improve energy efficiency, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

  1. The recent process of decentralization and democratic management of education in Brazil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos Filho, José Camilo Dos

    1993-09-01

    Brazilian society is beginning a new historical period in which the principle of decentralization is beginning to predominate over centralization, which held sway during the last 25 years. In contrast to recent Brazilian history, there is now a search for political, democratic and participatory decentralization more consonant with grass-roots aspirations. The first section of this article presents a brief analysis of some decentralization policies implemented by the military regime of 1964, and discusses relevant facts related to the resistance of civil society to state authoritarianism, and to the struggle for the democratization and organization of civil society up to the end of the 1970s. The second section analyzes some new experiences of democratic public school administration initiated in the 1970s and 1980s. The final section discusses the move toward decentralization and democratization of public school administration in the new Federal and State Constitutions, and in the draft of the new Law of National Education.

  2. Decentralized Networked Control of Building Structures

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Bakule, Lubomír; Rehák, Branislav; Papík, Martin

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 31, č. 11 (2016), s. 871-886 ISSN 1093-9687 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-02149S Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : decentralized control * networked control * building structures Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory Impact factor: 5.786, year: 2016

  3. Decentralized Development Planning and Fragmentation of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Using the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) as a case study, this paper argues that the proliferation of autonomous local government areas within the context of urban sprawl and other challenges have inhibited metropolitan-wide development planning. Keywords: Decentralization; local government; urban growth; ...

  4. From Elements to Function: Toward Unifying Ecological Stoichiometry and Trait-Based Ecology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cédric L. Meunier

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The theories developed in ecological stoichiometry (ES are fundamentally based on traits. Traits directly linked to cell/body stoichiometry, such as nutrient uptake and storage, as well as the associated trade-offs, have the potential to shape ecological interactions such as competition and predation within ecosystems. Further, traits that indirectly influence and are influenced by nutritional requirements, such as cell/body size and growth rate, are tightly linked to organismal stoichiometry. Despite their physiological and ecological relevance, traits are rarely explicitly integrated in the framework of ES and, currently, the major challenge is to more closely inter-connect ES with trait-based ecology (TBE. Here, we highlight four interconnected nutrient trait groups, i.e., acquisition, body stoichiometry, storage, and excretion, which alter interspecific competition in autotrophs and heterotrophs. We also identify key differences between producer-consumer interactions in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. For instance, our synthesis shows that, in contrast to aquatic ecosystems, traits directly influencing herbivore stoichiometry in forested ecosystems should play only a minor role in the cycling of nutrients. We furthermore describe how linking ES and TBE can help predict the ecosystem consequences of global change. The concepts we highlight here allow us to predict that increasing N:P ratios in ecosystems should shift trait dominances in communities toward species with higher optimal N:P ratios and higher P uptake affinity, while decreasing N retention and increasing P storage.

  5. Joint Utility-Based Power Control and Receive Beamforming in Decentralized Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Feistel

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses the problem of joint resource allocation in general wireless networks and its practical implementation aspects. The objective is to allocate transmit powers and receive beamformers to the users in order to maximize a network-wide utility that represents the attained QoS and is a function of the signal-to-interference ratios. This problem is much more intricate than the corresponding QoS-based power control problem. In particular, it is not known which class of utility functions allows for a convex formulation of this problem. In case of perfect synchronization, the joint power and receiver control problem can be reformulated as a power control problem under optimal receivers. Standard gradient projection methods can be applied to solve this problem. However, these algorithms are not applicable in decentralized wireless networks. Therefore, we decompose the problem and propose a convergent alternate optimization that is amenable to distributed implementation. In addition, in real-world networks noisy measurements and estimations occur. Thus, the proposed algorithm has to be investigated in the framework of stochastic approximation. We discuss practical implementation aspects of the proposed stochastic algorithm and investigate its convergence properties by simulations.

  6. Decentralized computerized process control system (CPCS) of the Kozloduy NPP water treatment unit based on programmable automata

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shervashidze, N; Slavov, S; Hristakudis, N; Terziev, V [Energoproekt, Sofia (Bulgaria)

    1987-01-01

    The system performs the following control functions: program management of discrete processes (in mechanical and ion filters); direct digital maintenance of continuous processes; data acquisition, processing, displaying and printing of the control data; internal system functions as operator error protection, control equipment diagnostics, devices fault protection and signalling, etc. The system is based on six basic programmable automata (BPA), four of them control various functional groups of instruments and processes, one is a supervisor and one provides the interconnection with the mainframe. Based on the experience gained, the authors pointed out the major advantages, some drawbacks and associated problems of designing and implementation of the distributed decentralized CPCS as a whole. Special attention is paid to the problem of distribution between the functions of the conventional and microprocessor part of CPCS. 1 fig, 2 tabs, 2 refs.

  7. Decentralized Hypothesis Testing in Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarighati, Alla; Gross, James; Jalden, Joakim

    2017-09-01

    We consider the problem of decentralized hypothesis testing in a network of energy harvesting sensors, where sensors make noisy observations of a phenomenon and send quantized information about the phenomenon towards a fusion center. The fusion center makes a decision about the present hypothesis using the aggregate received data during a time interval. We explicitly consider a scenario under which the messages are sent through parallel access channels towards the fusion center. To avoid limited lifetime issues, we assume each sensor is capable of harvesting all the energy it needs for the communication from the environment. Each sensor has an energy buffer (battery) to save its harvested energy for use in other time intervals. Our key contribution is to formulate the problem of decentralized detection in a sensor network with energy harvesting devices. Our analysis is based on a queuing-theoretic model for the battery and we propose a sensor decision design method by considering long term energy management at the sensors. We show how the performance of the system changes for different battery capacities. We then numerically show how our findings can be used in the design of sensor networks with energy harvesting sensors.

  8. A set of decentralized PID controllers for an n – link robot manipulator

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    The solution of decentralized tracking control problem for robot manipulator is slightly comp- lex since we .... Figure 1 shows decentralized control scheme for the ith joint of system (10). ...... Automatic Control 49(11): 2081–2084. Gahinet P ...

  9. COOPERATION AND TRUST IN THE CONTEXT OF DECENTRALIZATION REFORMS IN RURAL TANZANIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zacharia S. Masanyiwa

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates the impact of decentralization reforms on cooperation andtrust at the village level in Tanzania, using a gender perspective. The paper drawson survey and qualitative data from ten villages intwo rural districts. The findingsshow that the reforms have revitalized 'formal’ cooperative efforts and socialnetworks and groups aimed at improving public services and poverty reduction.Citizen’s participation in decision-making processes and users’ satisfaction withpublic services are significantly related to socialand political trust, in whichgender plays a role as well. There is a two-way interface between trust and decent-ralization reforms. ‘Good’ decentralization outcomes generate trust while ‘bad’outcomes decrease trust.

  10. Blockchain technology and decentralized governance: Is the state still necessary?

    OpenAIRE

    Marcella Atzori

    2017-01-01

    The core technology of Bitcoin, the blockchain, has recently emerged as a disruptive innovation with a wide range of applications, potentially able to redesign our interactions in business, politics and society at large. Although scholarly interest in this subject is growing, a comprehensive analysis of blockchain applications from a political perspective is severely lacking to date. This paper aims to fill this gap and it discusses the key points of blockchain-based decentralized governance,...

  11. Centralized vs decentralized contests

    OpenAIRE

    Beviá, Carmen; Corchón, Luis C.

    2015-01-01

    We compare two contests, decentralized in which there are several independent contests with non overlapping contestants and centralized in which all contestants fight for a unique prize which is the sum of all prizes in the small contests. We study the relationship between payoffs and efforts between these two contests. The first author acknowledges financial support from ECO2008-04756 (Grupo Consolidado-C), SGR2014-515 and PROMETEO/2013/037. The second author acknowledges financial suppor...

  12. Micro perspectives for decentralized energy supply. Proceedings of the international conference

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schaefer, Martina; Kebir, Noara; Philipp, Daniel (eds.)

    2011-07-01

    Within the proceedings of the international conference at the Technical University Berlin (Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany) between 7th and 8th April, 2011 the following scientific papers were presented: (1) Renewables in residential development: An integrated GIS-based multicriteria approach for decentralized micro renewable energy production in new settlement development (C. Palmas); (2) Optimisation of off-grid-energy systems by combined use of renewable energy and storage devices (F. Huneke); (3) Decentralized electricity production from renewable sources as a chance for local economic development? Qualitative study of two pioneer regions in Germany (B. Klagge); (4) An analytical model for small-scale rural bioenergy systems (M. Gaul); (5) Reality check: Biomass as a fuel for small-scale electricity supply in developing countries (E. Dimpl v.L.); (6) Influential factors for the implementation of biogas plants in rural areas of Burkina Faso (A. Aschaber); (7) Policy and regulatory framework conditions for small hydro power in sub-saharian Africa (F. Koelling); (8) Current status of village level hydropower in eastern and southern Africa (W. Janker-Klunne), (9) Water desalination in micro grids based on renewable energies (K. Bognar); (10) The internal sphere of influence of peasant family farms in using biogas plants as part of sustainable development in rural areas of Germany (A. Bischoff); (11) A basic design for a multicriteria approach to efficient bioenergy production at regional level (Z. Hagen); (12) Ecological and economical evaluation of biogas feedstock from intercrops (N. Niemitz); (13) Energy recovery from sisal residues: A sustainable option for Tanzania? (J.C. Pfaff); (14) Opportunities and challenges for solar home systems in Tanzania for rural electrification (P.J. John); (15) The contribution of microenergy systems towards poverty reduction: Case study of an implementation strategy for solar home systems in Sri Lanka (D. Laufer); (16) Multi

  13. Centralized vs decentralized lunar power system study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metcalf, Kenneth; Harty, Richard B.; Perronne, Gerald E.

    1991-09-01

    Three power-system options are considered with respect to utilization on a lunar base: the fully centralized option, the fully decentralized option, and a hybrid comprising features of the first two options. Power source, power conditioning, and power transmission are considered separately, and each architecture option is examined with ac and dc distribution, high and low voltage transmission, and buried and suspended cables. Assessments are made on the basis of mass, technological complexity, cost, reliability, and installation complexity, however, a preferred power-system architecture is not proposed. Preferred options include transmission based on ac, transmission voltages of 2000-7000 V with buried high-voltage lines and suspended low-voltage lines. Assessments of the total cost associated with the installations are required to determine the most suitable power system.

  14. DQM: Decentralized Quadratically Approximated Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mokhtari, Aryan; Shi, Wei; Ling, Qing; Ribeiro, Alejandro

    2016-10-01

    This paper considers decentralized consensus optimization problems where nodes of a network have access to different summands of a global objective function. Nodes cooperate to minimize the global objective by exchanging information with neighbors only. A decentralized version of the alternating directions method of multipliers (DADMM) is a common method for solving this category of problems. DADMM exhibits linear convergence rate to the optimal objective but its implementation requires solving a convex optimization problem at each iteration. This can be computationally costly and may result in large overall convergence times. The decentralized quadratically approximated ADMM algorithm (DQM), which minimizes a quadratic approximation of the objective function that DADMM minimizes at each iteration, is proposed here. The consequent reduction in computational time is shown to have minimal effect on convergence properties. Convergence still proceeds at a linear rate with a guaranteed constant that is asymptotically equivalent to the DADMM linear convergence rate constant. Numerical results demonstrate advantages of DQM relative to DADMM and other alternatives in a logistic regression problem.

  15. Decentralization, healthcare access, and inequality in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winchester, Margaret S; King, Brian

    2018-04-27

    Healthcare access and utilization remain key challenges in the Global South. South Africa represents this given that more than twenty years after the advent of democratic elections, the national government continues to confront historical systems of spatial manipulation that generated inequities in healthcare access. While the country has made significant advancements, governmental agencies have mirrored international strategies of healthcare decentralization and focused on local provision of primary care to increase healthcare access. In this paper, we show the significance of place in shaping access and health experiences for rural populations. Using data from a structured household survey, focus group discussions, qualitative interviews, and clinic data conducted in northeast South Africa from 2013 to 2016, we argue that decentralization fails to resolve the uneven landscapes of healthcare in the contemporary period. This is evidenced by the continued variability across the study area in terms of government-sponsored healthcare, and constraints in the clinics in terms of staffing, privacy, and patient loads, all of which challenge the access-related assumptions of healthcare decentralization. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Design of a decentralized detection of interacting LTI systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shankar Shamanth

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the problem of designing a decentralized detection filter for a large homogeneous collection of LTI systems is considered. The collection of systems considered here draws inspiration from platoons of vehicles, and the considered interactions amongst systems in the collection are banded and lower triangular, mimicking the typical “look-ahead” nature of interactions in a platoon of vehicles. A fault in a system propagates to other systems in the collection via such interactions. The decentralized detection filter for the collection is composed of interacting detection filters, one for each system. The feasibility of communicating the state estimates to other systems in the collection is assumed here. An important concern is the propagation of state estimation errors. In order that the state estimation errors not amplify as they propagate, a ℋ ∞ constraint on the state estimation error propagation dynamics is imposed. A sufficient condition for constructing a decentralized detection filter for the collection is presented. An example is provided to illustrate the design procedure.

  17. STRATEGIC PURCHASING IN A PROJECT- BASED COMPANY – TO CENTRALIZE OR DECENTRALIZE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eva Donociková

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Organizations all lie on a spectrum, at one end of which are firms with complete centralization of purchasing, and at the other end are firms with complete decentralization. Most firms lie somewhere between the two extremes, and we have already mentioned the most common model that has certain decisions centralized (perhaps strategy design, selection of suppliers, purchasing of major capital equipment, training, co-ordination, communications, etc. and bulk of purchasing devolved to local buyers. There are many variations on the type of activities that are either centralized or decentralized. In the last 12 years purchasing has noticed two radical changes in the majority of facilities. First change was the reverse of supplier – customer relationships where the role of purchasers changed from persuading and begging the suppliers to ever deliver, preferably with minimum delay (for fixed prices, to standard purchase activities where the purchaser can choose from many suppliers and negotiate prices with vendors to achieve the best conditions for his buyer. The second change was the establishing of a modern IT system that made purchasing activities more effective, more automatic and transparent to a considerable extent. It is good to realize whether all changes have led to improvement or whether these changes have caused a stop or a slowdown of the project purchasing – whether it is possible or even necessary to take into account global as well as local suppliers or to combine them. This Case Study demonstrates how a project - managed organization could look like, where it is necessary to take into account customer´s wishes and benefit.

  18. COINSTAC: Decentralizing the future of brain imaging analysis [version 1; referees: 2 approved

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jing Ming

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available In the era of Big Data, sharing neuroimaging data across multiple sites has become increasingly important. However, researchers who want to engage in centralized, large-scale data sharing and analysis must often contend with problems such as high database cost, long data transfer time, extensive manual effort, and privacy issues for sensitive data. To remove these barriers to enable easier data sharing and analysis, we introduced a new, decentralized, privacy-enabled infrastructure model for brain imaging data called COINSTAC in 2016. We have continued development of COINSTAC since this model was first introduced. One of the challenges with such a model is adapting the required algorithms to function within a decentralized framework. In this paper, we report on how we are solving this problem, along with our progress on several fronts, including additional decentralized algorithms implementation, user interface enhancement, decentralized regression statistic calculation, and complete pipeline specifications.

  19. On the applicability of the decentralized control mechanism extracted from the true slime mold: a robotic case study with a serpentine robot

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, Takahide; Kano, Takeshi; Ishiguro, Akio

    2011-01-01

    A systematic method for an autonomous decentralized control system is still lacking, despite its appealing concept. In order to alleviate this, we focused on the amoeboid locomotion of the true slime mold, and extracted a design scheme for the decentralized control mechanism that leads to adaptive behavior for the entire system, based on the so-called discrepancy function. In this paper, we intensively investigate the universality of this design scheme by applying it to a different type of locomotion based on a 'synthetic approach'. As a first step, we implement this design scheme to the control of a real physical two-dimensional serpentine robot that exhibits slithering locomotion. The experimental results show that the robot exhibits adaptive behavior and responds to the environmental changes; it is also robust against malfunctions of the body segments due to the local sensory feedback control that is based on the discrepancy function. We expect the results to shed new light on the methodology of autonomous decentralized control systems.

  20. Factors influencing flap and INTACS decentration after femtosecond laser application in normal and keratoconic eyes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ertan, Aylin; Karacal, Humeyra

    2008-10-01

    To compare accuracy of LASIK flap and INTACS centration following femtosecond laser application in normal and keratoconic eyes. This is a retrospective case series comprising 133 eyes of 128 patients referred for refractive surgery. All eyes were divided into two groups according to preoperative diagnosis: group 1 (LASIK group) comprised 74 normal eyes of 72 patients undergoing LASIK with a femtosecond laser (IntraLase), and group 2 (INTACS group) consisted of 59 eyes of 39 patients with keratoconus for whom INTACS were implanted using a femtosecond laser (IntraLase). Decentration of the LASIK flap and INTACS was analyzed using Pentacam. Temporal decentration was 612.56 +/- 384.24 microm (range: 30 to 2120 microm) in the LASIK group and 788.33 +/- 500.34 microm (range: 30 to 2450 microm) in the INTACS group. A statistically significant difference was noted between the groups in terms of decentration (P decentration of the LASIK flap and INTACS correlated with the central corneal thickness in the LASIK group and preoperative sphere and cylinder in the INTACS group, respectively. Decentration with the IntraLase occurred in most cases, especially in keratoconic eyes. The applanation performed for centralization during IntraLase application may flatten and shift the pupil center, and thus cause decentralization of the LASIK flap and INTACS. Central corneal thickness in the LASIK group and preoperative sphere and cylinder in the INTACS group proved to be statistically significant parameters associated with decentration.

  1. Governing decentralization in health care under tough budget constraint: what can we learn from the Italian experience?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tediosi, Fabrizio; Gabriele, Stefania; Longo, Francesco

    2009-05-01

    In many European countries, since the World War II, there has been a trend towards decentralization of health policy to lower levels of governments, while more recently there have been re-centralization processes. Whether re-centralization will be the new paradigm of European health policy or not is difficult to say. In the Italian National Health Service (SSN) decentralization raised two related questions that might be interesting for the international debate on decentralization in health care: (a) what sort of regulatory framework and institutional balances are required to govern decentralization in health care in a heterogeneous country under tough budget constraints? (b) how can it be ensured that the most advanced parts of the country remain committed to solidarity, supporting the weakest ones? To address these questions this article describes the recent trends in SSN funding and expenditure, it reviews the strategy adopted by the Italian government for governing the decentralization process and discusses the findings to draw policy conclusions. The main lessons emerging from this experience are that: (1) when the differences in administrative and policy skills, in socio-economic standards and social capital are wide, decentralization may lead to undesirable divergent evolution paths; (2) even in decentralized systems, the role of the Central government can be very important to contain health expenditure; (3) a strong governance of the Central government may help and not hinder the enforcement of decentralization; and (4) supporting the weakest Regions and maintaining inter-regional solidarity is hard but possible. In Italy, despite an increasing role of the Central government in steering the SSN, the pattern of regional decentralization of health sector decision making does not seem at risk. Nevertheless, the Italian case confirms the complexity of decentralization and re-centralization processes that sometimes can be paradoxically reinforcing each other.

  2. Decentralization and centralization in a federal system: the case of democratic Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Hermínia Tavares de Almeida

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the contradictory impulses towards decentralization and centralization in Brazil during the 1990s and early 2000s. After discussing the analytical issues related to the specific nature of decentralization in federal systems, the paper examines two sets of policy issues: those regulating the fiscal relations between national and sub-national governments and those redefining responsibilities for social services provision (basic education, health care, social assistance. Against conventional academic wisdom, it sustains that although there has been some re-centralization of fiscal decisions and of targeted income transfer programs, a clear re-centralization tendency cannot be siad to exist. Decentralization and centralization trends coexist propelled by different forces, with different motives and different outcomes.

  3. Centralized and decentralized global outer-synchronization of asymmetric recurrent time-varying neural network by data-sampling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Wenlian; Zheng, Ren; Chen, Tianping

    2016-03-01

    In this paper, we discuss outer-synchronization of the asymmetrically connected recurrent time-varying neural networks. By using both centralized and decentralized discretization data sampling principles, we derive several sufficient conditions based on three vector norms to guarantee that the difference of any two trajectories starting from different initial values of the neural network converges to zero. The lower bounds of the common time intervals between data samples in centralized and decentralized principles are proved to be positive, which guarantees exclusion of Zeno behavior. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the efficiency of the theoretical results. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Decentralized Development Planning and Fragmentation of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Using the GAMA as a case study, this paper examines the proliferation of .... These spatial definitions give territorial meaning to decentralization as dis- ... Formulated and implemented under a military regime, the Provisional ..... increased to four in 2004 following the creation of new districts in the country, and as part of.

  5. FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION DETERMINANTS AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN EU COUNTRIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anca Florentina GAVRILUŢĂ (VATAMANU

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This work aims to assess the impact of fiscal decentralization on local (regional development in the EU Member States while controlling for macroeconomic and local autonomy specific factors. Using a panel data approach with dynamic effects, we examined the implications of fiscal decentralization on local development across European Union countries over the 1990-2004 period. The novelty of the study is emphasized by including in the analysis a variable which tests local fiscal discipline, more exactly, Fiscal Rule Strength Index for local level of government. Our findings suggest that prosperity of regions, measured in GDP growth depends on variables such as characteristics of decentralization undertaken by each country or local fiscal discipline, confirming our primary hypothesis. This supports the view that recently implemented reforms aiming to enforce fiscal discipline following-up the Fiscal Compact strengthened the local budgetary framework and restrained, therefore, the local discretionary power to act towards development.

  6. Decentralized DC Microgrid Monitoring and Optimization via Primary Control Perturbations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angjelichinoski, Marko; Scaglione, Anna; Popovski, Petar; Stefanovic, Cedomir

    2018-06-01

    We treat the emerging power systems with direct current (DC) MicroGrids, characterized with high penetration of power electronic converters. We rely on the power electronics to propose a decentralized solution for autonomous learning of and adaptation to the operating conditions of the DC Mirogrids; the goal is to eliminate the need to rely on an external communication system for such purpose. The solution works within the primary droop control loops and uses only local bus voltage measurements. Each controller is able to estimate (i) the generation capacities of power sources, (ii) the load demands, and (iii) the conductances of the distribution lines. To define a well-conditioned estimation problem, we employ decentralized strategy where the primary droop controllers temporarily switch between operating points in a coordinated manner, following amplitude-modulated training sequences. We study the use of the estimator in a decentralized solution of the Optimal Economic Dispatch problem. The evaluations confirm the usefulness of the proposed solution for autonomous MicroGrid operation.

  7. Integrating centralized and decentralized organization structures: an education and development model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheriff, R; Banks, A

    2001-01-01

    Organization change efforts have led to critically examining the structure of education and development departments within hospitals. This qualitative study evaluated an education and development model in an academic health sciences center. The model combines centralization and decentralization. The study results can be used by staff development educators and administrators when organization structure is questioned. This particular model maximizes the benefits and minimizes the limitations of centralized and decentralized structures.

  8. Decentralized stabilization of semi-active vibrating structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pisarski, Dominik

    2018-02-01

    A novel method of decentralized structural vibration control is presented. The control is assumed to be realized by a semi-active device. The objective is to stabilize a vibrating system with the optimal rates of decrease of the energy. The controller relies on an easily implemented decentralized switched state-feedback control law. It uses a set of communication channels to exchange the state information between the neighboring subcontrollers. The performance of the designed method is validated by means of numerical experiments performed for a double cantilever system equipped with a set of elastomers with controlled viscoelastic properties. In terms of the assumed objectives, the proposed control strategy significantly outperforms the passive damping cases and is competitive with a standard centralized control. The presented methodology can be applied to a class of bilinear control systems concerned with smart structural elements.

  9. Financial management systems under decentralization and their effect on malaria control in Uganda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kivumbi, George W; Nangendo, Florence; Ndyabahika, Boniface Rutagira

    2004-01-01

    A descriptive case study with multiple sites and a single level of analysis was carried out in four purposefully selected administrative districts of Uganda to investigate the effect of financial management systems under decentralization on malaria control. Data were primarily collected from 36 interviews with district managers, staff at health units and local leaders. A review of records and documents related to decentralization at the central and district level was also used to generate data for the study. We found that a long, tedious, and bureaucratic process combined with lack of knowledge in working with new financial systems by several actors characterized financial flow under decentralization. This affected the timely use of financial resources for malaria control in that there were funds in the system that could not be accessed for use. We were also told that sometimes these funds were returned to the central government because of non-use due to difficulties in accessing them and/or stringent conditions not to divert them to other uses. Our data showed that a cocktail of bureaucratic control systems, corruption and incompetence make the financial management system under decentralization counter-productive for malaria control. The main conclusion is that good governance through appropriate and efficient financial management systems is very important for effective malaria control under decentralization.

  10. Nonlinear decentralized robust governor control for hydroturbine-generator sets in multi-machine power systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Qiang Lu; Yusong Sun; Yuanzhang Sun [Tsinghua University, Beijing (China). Dept. of Electrical Engineering; Felix F Wu; Yixin Ni [University of Hong Kong (China). Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Yokoyama, Akihiko [University of Tokyo (Japan). Dept. of Electrical Engineering; Goto, Masuo; Konishi, Hiroo [Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo (Japan). Power System Div.

    2004-06-01

    A novel nonlinear decentralized robust governor control for hydroturbine-generator sets in multi-machine power systems is suggested in this paper. The nonelastic water hammer effect and disturbances are considered in the modeling. The advanced differential geometry theory, nonlinear robust control theory and the dynamic feedback method are combined to solve the problem. The nonlinear decentralized robust control law for the speed governor of hydroturbine-generators has been derived. The input signals to the proposed controller are all local measurements and independent to the system parameters. The derived control law guarantees the integrated system stability with disturbance attenuation, which is significant to the real power system application. Computer tests on an 8-machine, 36-bus power system show clearly the effectiveness of the new control strategy in transient stability enhancement and disturbance attenuation. The computer test results based on the suggested controller are compared favorably with those based on the conventional linear governor control. (author)

  11. GIS Based Measurement and Regulatory Zoning of Urban Ecological Vulnerability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaorui Zhang

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Urban ecological vulnerability is measured on the basis of ecological sensitivity and resilience based on the concept analysis of vulnerability. GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA methods are used, supported by the spatial analysis tools of GIS, to define different levels of vulnerability for areas of the urban ecology. These areas are further classified into different types of regulatory zones. Taking the city of Hefei in China as the empirical research site, this study uses GIS-MCDA, including the index system, index weights and overlay rules, to measure the degree of its ecological vulnerability on the GIS platform. There are eight indices in the system. Raking and analytical hierarchy process (AHP methods are used to calculate index weights according to the characteristics of the index system. The integrated overlay rule, including selection of the maximum value, and weighted linear combination (WLC are applied as the overlay rules. In this way, five types of vulnerability areas have been classified as follows: very low vulnerability, low vulnerability, medium vulnerability, high vulnerability and very high vulnerability. They can be further grouped into three types of regulatory zone of ecological green line, ecological grey line and ecological red line. The study demonstrates that ecological green line areas are the largest (53.61% of the total study area and can be intensively developed; ecological grey line areas (19.59% of the total area can serve as the ecological buffer zone, and ecological red line areas (26.80% cannot be developed and must be protected. The results indicate that ecological green line areas may provide sufficient room for future urban development in Hefei city. Finally, the respective regulatory countermeasures are put forward. This research provides a scientific basis for decision-making around urban ecological protection, construction and sustainable development. It also provides theoretical method

  12. The Paradox of Decentralizing Schools: Lessons from Business, Government, and the Catholic Church.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Jerome T.

    1989-01-01

    By the year 2000, school decentralization could become another unfortunate, ineffectual pendulum swing. According to this article, a dynamic, ever-changing system of decentralization and centralization balances the benefits of local administrative autonomy with the pursuit of unified goals and helps each leadership level understand its…

  13. Capacity investment and competition in decentralized electricity markets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fehr, Nils-Henrik von der; Harbord, David Cameron

    1997-11-01

    With particular reference to the recently deregulated and market-based electricity industries in Norway, the UK and elsewhere the report analyses oligopoly entry and capacity investment decisions as a non-cooperative game in a decentralized electricity market. A two-stage game is considered, with multiple capacity types and uncertain demand, in which capacity decisions are made prior to spot-market, or price competition. Equilibrium outcomes for different pricing mechanisms or regulatory regimes are analysed. The following questions are dealt with in particular: Will industry capacity be sufficient to ensure adequate supply security? Does imperfect competition in the spot-market lead to an inefficient mix of base-load and peak-load technologies? How do different regulatory policies affect the market outcomes? 24 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.

  14. Decentralized provenance-aware publishing with nanopublications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tobias Kuhn

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Publication and archival of scientific results is still commonly considered the responsability of classical publishing companies. Classical forms of publishing, however, which center around printed narrative articles, no longer seem well-suited in the digital age. In particular, there exist currently no efficient, reliable, and agreed-upon methods for publishing scientific datasets, which have become increasingly important for science. In this article, we propose to design scientific data publishing as a web-based bottom-up process, without top-down control of central authorities such as publishing companies. Based on a novel combination of existing concepts and technologies, we present a server network to decentrally store and archive data in the form of nanopublications, an RDF-based format to represent scientific data. We show how this approach allows researchers to publish, retrieve, verify, and recombine datasets of nanopublications in a reliable and trustworthy manner, and we argue that this architecture could be used as a low-level data publication layer to serve the Semantic Web in general. Our evaluation of the current network shows that this system is efficient and reliable.

  15. Platform Architecture for Decentralized Positioning Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zakaria Kasmi

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available A platform architecture for positioning systems is essential for the realization of a flexible localization system, which interacts with other systems and supports various positioning technologies and algorithms. The decentralized processing of a position enables pushing the application-level knowledge into a mobile station and avoids the communication with a central unit such as a server or a base station. In addition, the calculation of the position on low-cost and resource-constrained devices presents a challenge due to the limited computing, storage capacity, as well as power supply. Therefore, we propose a platform architecture that enables the design of a system with the reusability of the components, extensibility (e.g., with other positioning technologies and interoperability. Furthermore, the position is computed on a low-cost device such as a microcontroller, which simultaneously performs additional tasks such as data collecting or preprocessing based on an operating system. The platform architecture is designed, implemented and evaluated on the basis of two positioning systems: a field strength system and a time of arrival-based positioning system.

  16. Organizational precedents for ownership and management of decentralized renewable-energy systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meunier, R.; Silversmith, J.A.

    1981-03-01

    Three existing organizational types that meet the decentralization criteria of local consumer ownership and control - cooperatives, Rural Electric Cooperatives, and municipal utilities - are examined. These three organizational precedents are analyzed in terms of their histories, structures, legal powers, sources of capital, and social and political aspects. Examples of related experiments with renewable energy technologies are given, and inferences are drawn regarding the organizations' suitability as vehicles for future implementation of decentralized renewable energy systems.

  17. Decentralized vs. centralized scheduling in wireless sensor networks for data fusion

    OpenAIRE

    Mitici, M.A.; Goseling, Jasper; de Graaf, Maurits; Boucherie, Richardus J.

    2014-01-01

    We consider the problem of data estimation in a sensor wireless network where sensors transmit their observations according to decentralized and centralized transmission schedules. A data collector is interested in achieving a data estimation using several sensor observations such that the variance of the estimation is below a targeted threshold. We analyze the waiting time for a collector to receive sufficient sensor observations. We show that, for sufficiently large sensor sets, the decentr...

  18. A reference electrode based on polyvinyl butyral (PVB) polymer for decentralized chemical measurements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guinovart, Tomàs [Departament de Química Orgànica i Química Analítica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Carrer Marcellí Domingo s/n 43007 Tarragona (Spain); Crespo, Gastón A. [Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, University of Geneva, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, CH-1211 Geneva (Switzerland); Rius, F. Xavier [Departament de Química Orgànica i Química Analítica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Carrer Marcellí Domingo s/n 43007 Tarragona (Spain); Andrade, Francisco J., E-mail: franciscojavier.andrade@urv.cat [Departament de Química Orgànica i Química Analítica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Carrer Marcellí Domingo s/n 43007 Tarragona (Spain)

    2014-04-01

    Highlights: • A disposable solid-contact reference electrode for potentiometry is presented. • The device shows unsensitivity to most ions, redox potential and light. • Low-cost and good stability, ideal to build disposable potentiometric sensors. • Nanopores formed in the membrane control the flux of ions with the solution. Abstract: A new solid-state reference electrode using a polymeric membrane of polyvinyl butyral (PVB), Ag/AgCl and NaCl to be used in decentralized chemical measurements is presented. The electrode is made by drop-casting the membrane cocktail onto a glassy carbon (GC) substrate. A stable potential (less than 1 mV dec⁻¹ over a wide range of concentrations for the several chemical species tested is obtained. No significant influence to changes in redox potential, light and pH are observed. The response of this novel electrode shows good correlation when compared with a conventional double-junction reference electrode. Also good long-term stability (90 ± 33 μV/h) and a lifetime of approximately 4 months are obtained. Aspects related to the working mechanisms are discussed. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) studies reveal the presence of nanopores and channels on the surface, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) of optimized electrodes show low bulk resistances, usually in the kΩ range, suggesting that a nanoporous polymeric structure is formed in the interface with the solution. Future applications of this electrode as a disposable device for decentralized measurements are discussed. Examples of the utilization on wearable substrates (tattoos, fabrics, etc) are provided.

  19. A reference electrode based on polyvinyl butyral (PVB) polymer for decentralized chemical measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guinovart, Tomàs; Crespo, Gastón A.; Rius, F. Xavier; Andrade, Francisco J.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • A disposable solid-contact reference electrode for potentiometry is presented. • The device shows unsensitivity to most ions, redox potential and light. • Low-cost and good stability, ideal to build disposable potentiometric sensors. • Nanopores formed in the membrane control the flux of ions with the solution. - Abstract: A new solid-state reference electrode using a polymeric membrane of polyvinyl butyral (PVB), Ag/AgCl and NaCl to be used in decentralized chemical measurements is presented. The electrode is made by drop-casting the membrane cocktail onto a glassy carbon (GC) substrate. A stable potential (less than 1 mV dec −1 ) over a wide range of concentrations for the several chemical species tested is obtained. No significant influence to changes in redox potential, light and pH are observed. The response of this novel electrode shows good correlation when compared with a conventional double-junction reference electrode. Also good long-term stability (90 ± 33 μV/h) and a lifetime of approximately 4 months are obtained. Aspects related to the working mechanisms are discussed. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) studies reveal the presence of nanopores and channels on the surface, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) of optimized electrodes show low bulk resistances, usually in the kΩ range, suggesting that a nanoporous polymeric structure is formed in the interface with the solution. Future applications of this electrode as a disposable device for decentralized measurements are discussed. Examples of the utilization on wearable substrates (tattoos, fabrics, etc) are provided

  20. To decentralize or to continue on the centralization track: The cases of authoritarian regimes in Russia and Kazakhstan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina Busygina

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Decisions on decentralization versus centralization come as a result of strategic choices made by politicians after weighing their costs and benefits. In authoritarian regimes, the highest-priority political task is that of restraining political competition and securing power in the hands of the incumbent. This task incentivizes politicians to restrict political decentralization (or at least block reforms promoting such decentralization. At the same time, external economic pressures (e.g. globalization place the task of national competitiveness in the global markets on the agenda, and increase incentives for fiscal and administrative decentralization. Thus, political and economic pressures create contradicting incentives, and in weighing costs and benefits, politicians in different authoritarian regimes make different choices that lead to variation in the form, degree and success of decentralization/centralization policies. In this article we compare authoritarian decentralization in Russia and Kazakhstan.

  1. Decentralization and public expenditure: Does special local autonomy affect regional economic growth?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martapina Anggai

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the relationship between public expenditure within regional autonomy policy and economic growth in West Papua and Papua provinces. We distinguish two kinds of expenditure’s decentralization – operational and capital – and also private expenditures. We use an unbalanced panel data over the period of 2007-2010 to investigate those expenditures, whether they enhance regional economic growth or not. We find that the government’s operating and private expenditures have a positive effect on local economic growth, but there is no relationship between capital expenditure’s decentralization on economic growth. The findings did not conform to a-priori efficiency expectations, which suggest needing to reform regional autonomy and fiscal decentralization policy in both provinces.

  2. [Food and nutritional security: situation analysis of decentralization in the national public policy].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vasconcellos, Ana Beatriz Pinto de Almeida; Moura, Leides Barroso Azevedo de

    2018-03-01

    The aim of this study was to analyze the situation with the decentralization of the Brazilian National System of Food and Nutritional Security (SISAN), created in 2006 under the Brazilian National Food and Nutritional Security Act (LOSAN). Based on the criteria for joining SISAN, as set out in Decree 7,272 of August 25, 2010, the authors analyzed data from the basic information surveys of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, 2014 (Estadic e Munic/2014). The results show that decentralization of SISAN is still incipient at the municipal level, although all the states of Brazil have already joined the system. The social assistance sector has played an outstanding role in coordinating SISAN at the state and municipal levels, while in the latter the health sector has also played a relevant role. The analysis of food and nutritional security activities conducted to date, based on the sources of federal, state, and municipal funds, further shows that the federal sphere has still not played a strong inductive role capable of leading the expansion of SISAN. More effective funding mechanisms and the assignment of responsibilities to the states and municipalities are relevant factors for consolidating the system's state-level base and expanding the municipal base in the search for an identity and capillarity for SISAN.

  3. Ecological balance between supply and demand based on cultivated land ecological footprint method in Guizhou Province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qian, Qinghuan; Zhou, Dequan; Bai, Xiaoyong; Xiao, Jianyong; Chen, Fei; Zeng, Cheng

    2018-01-01

    In order to construct the indicators of the balance between supply and demand of the cultivated land ecological carrying capacity, basing on the relation of the cultivated land ecological carrying capacity supply and demand, applying the model of Cultivated Land Ecological Footprints and the method of CIS and considering the factors of cultivated land production, taking the statistical data of 2015 as an example, and then made a systematic evaluation of the balance between supply and demand of the cultivated land ecological carrying capacity in Guizhou Province. The results show that (1) the spatial distribution of supply and demand of cultivated land ecological carrying capacity in Guizhou is unbalanced, and the northern and eastern parts are the overloading area, the middle, the south and the west parts are the balance area. (2) From the perspective of cultivated land structure, the crops with ecological carrying capacity surplus were rice, vegetables and peanuts, among which rice was the highest and the ecological balance index was 0.7354. The crops with ecological carrying capacity overload were potato, wheat, maize, rapeseeds, soybeans and cured tobacco, of which the index of potato up to 7.11, other types of indices are less than 1.5. The research can provide the ecological security early warning, the overall plan of land use and sustainable development of the area cultivated land with scientific evidence and decision support.

  4. Making decentralization work for women in Uganda

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lakwo, A.

    2009-01-01

    This book is about engendering local governance. It explores the euphoria with which Uganda's decentralization policy took centre stage as a sufficient driver to engender local development responsiveness and accountability. Using a case study of AFARD in Nebbi district, it shows first that

  5. Decentralized data fusion with inverse covariance intersection

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Noack, B.; Sijs, J.; Reinhardt, M.; Hanebeck, U.D.

    2017-01-01

    In distributed and decentralized state estimation systems, fusion methods are employed to systematically combine multiple estimates of the state into a single, more accurate estimate. An often encountered problem in the fusion process relates to unknown common information that is shared by the

  6. Comment on ‘Energy and air emission implications of a decentralized wastewater system’

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vedachalam, Sridhar; Riha, Susan J

    2013-01-01

    In the article ‘Energy and air emission implications of a decentralized wastewater system’ published in Environmental Research Letters (2012 Environ. Res. Lett. 7 024007), Shehabi et al compared a decentralized and a centralized system on the basis of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants, and claimed that economies of scale lower the environmental impacts from a centralized system on a per-volume basis. In this comment, we present literature and data from New York State, USA to argue that the authors’ comparison between a small decentralized system (0.015 MGD) and a large centralized system (66.5 MGD) is unconventional and inappropriate. (comment)

  7. The Operation Method of Smarter City Based on Ecological Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, C.; Fan, H. Y.

    2017-10-01

    As the city and urbanization’s accelerated pace has caused galloping population, the urban framework is extending with increasingly complex social problems. The urban management tends to become complicated and the governance seems more difficult to pursue. exploring the urban management’s new model has attracted local governments’ urgent attention. tcombines the guiding ideology and that management’s practices based on ecological theory, explains the Smarter city Ecology Managementmodel’s formation, makes modern urban management’s comparative analysis and further defines the aforesaid management mode’s conceptual model. Based on the smarter city system theory’s ecological carrying capacity, the author uses mathematical model to prove the coordination relationship between the smarter city Ecology Managementmode’s subsystems, demonstrates that it can improve the urban management’s overall level, emphasizes smarter city management integrity, believing that urban system’s optimization is based on each subsystem being optimized, attaching the importance to elements, structure, and balance between each subsystem and between internal elements. Through the establishment of the smarter city Ecology Managementmodel’s conceptual model and theoretical argumentation, it provides a theoretical basis and technical guidance to that model’s innovation.

  8. Centralization vs. Decentralization in Medical School Libraries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crawford, Helen

    1966-01-01

    Does the medical school library in the United States operate more commonly under the university library or the medical school administration? University-connected medical school libraries were asked to indicate (a) the source of their budgets, whether from the central library or the medical school, and (b) the responsibility for their acquisitions and cataloging. Returns received from sixtyeight of the seventy eligible institutions showed decentralization to be much the most common: 71 percent of the libraries are funded by their medical schools; 79 percent are responsible for their own acquisitions and processing. The factor most often associated with centralization of both budget and operation is public ownership. Decentralization is associated with service to one or two rather than three or more professional schools. Location of the medical school in a different city from the university is highly favorable to autonomy. Other factors associated with these trends are discussed. PMID:5945568

  9. Centralization vs. decentralization in medical school libraries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crawford, H

    1966-07-01

    Does the medical school library in the United States operate more commonly under the university library or the medical school administration? University-connected medical school libraries were asked to indicate (a) the source of their budgets, whether from the central library or the medical school, and (b) the responsibility for their acquisitions and cataloging. Returns received from sixtyeight of the seventy eligible institutions showed decentralization to be much the most common: 71 percent of the libraries are funded by their medical schools; 79 percent are responsible for their own acquisitions and processing. The factor most often associated with centralization of both budget and operation is public ownership. Decentralization is associated with service to one or two rather than three or more professional schools. Location of the medical school in a different city from the university is highly favorable to autonomy. Other factors associated with these trends are discussed.

  10. Papers by the Decentralized Wastewater Management MOU Partnership

    Science.gov (United States)

    Four position papers for state, local, and tribal government officials and interested stakeholders. These papers include information on the uses and benefits of decentralized wastewater treatment and examples of its effective use.

  11. Introducing local property tax for fiscal decentralization and local authority autonomy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dimopoulos, Thomas; Labropoulos, Tassos; Hadjimitsis, Diafantos G.

    2015-06-01

    Charles Tiebout (1956), in his work "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures", provides a vision of the workings of the local public sector, acknowledging many similarities to the features of a competitive market, however omitting any references to local taxation. Contrary to other researchers' claim that the Tiebout model and the theory of fiscal decentralization are by no means synonymous, this paper aims to expand Tiebout's theory, by adding the local property tax in the context, introducing a fair, ad valorem property taxation system based on the automated assessment of the value of real estate properties within the boundaries of local authorities. Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal methodology integrated with Remote Sensing technology and GIS analysis is applied to local authorities' property registries and cadastral data, building a spatial relational database and providing data to be statistically processed through Multiple Regression Analysis modeling. The proposed scheme accomplishes economy of scale using CAMA procedures on one hand, but also succeeds in making local authorities self-sufficient through a decentralized, fair, locally calibrated property taxation model, providing rational income administration.

  12. Decentralized Planning for Pre-Conflict and Post-Conflict ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Decentralized Planning for Pre-Conflict and Post-Conflict Management in the Bawku Municipal ... institutional arrangements for conflict monitoring and evaluation. Such processes are 'sine qua non' to pre-conflict and post-conflict prevention.

  13. Decentralized Control of Unmanned Aerial Robots for Wireless Airborne Communication Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deok-Jin Lee

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a cooperative control strategy for a team of aerial robotic vehicles to establish wireless airborne communication networks between distributed heterogeneous vehicles. Each aerial robot serves as a flying mobile sensor performing a reconfigurable communication relay node which enabls communication networks with static or slow-moving nodes on gorund or ocean. For distributed optimal deployment of the aerial vehicles for communication networks, an adaptive hill-climbing type decentralized control algorithm is developed to seek out local extremum for optimal localization of the vehicles. The sensor networks estabilished by the decentralized cooperative control approach can adopt its configuraiton in response to signal strength as the function of the relative distance between the autonomous aerial robots and distributed sensor nodes in the sensed environment. Simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed decentralized cooperative control technique for robust communication networks.

  14. Decentring the Creative Self

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Glaveanu, Vlad Petre; Lubart, Todd

    2014-01-01

    to themes depicting the interaction between these different others and the creator. Findings reveal both similarities and differences across the five domains in terms of the specific contribution of others to the creative process. Social interactions play a key formative, regulatory, motivational...... and informational role in relation to creative work. From ‘internalized’ to ‘distant’, other people are an integral part of the equation of creativity calling for a de-centring of the creative self and its re-centring in a social space of actions and interactions....

  15. Decentralization and Living Conditions in the EU

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vries, M.S. de; Goymen, K.; Sazak, O.

    2014-01-01

    This paper investigates the effects of decentralization on living conditions in core cities in the European Union. It uses data from the Urban Audit to investigate whether the level of local expenditures relative to central government expenditures has an impact on the subjective appreciation of

  16. Decentralization Fails Women in Sudan | IDRC - International ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2010-11-05

    Nov 5, 2010 ... In Sudan, decentralization is a process that has occurred over time and is ... In northern Sudan, some women travel three days to reach the nearest hospital. ... Accord stipulate that basic education is free, “in real life, it is not.”.

  17. Centralized vs. De-centralized Multinationals and Taxes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Søren Bo; Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis; Schjelderup, Guttorm

    2005-01-01

    The paper examines how country tax differences affect a multinational enterprise's choice to centralize or de-centralize its decision structure. Within a simple model that emphasizes the multiple conflicting roles of transfer prices in MNEs - here, as a strategic pre-commitment device and a tax...

  18. SADA: Ecological Risk Based Decision Support System for Selective Remediation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance (SADA) is freeware that implements terrestrial ecological risk assessment and yields a selective remediation design using its integral geographical information system, based on ecological and risk assessment inputs. Selective remediation ...

  19. Replication of urban innovations - prioritization of strategies for the replication of Dhaka's community-based decentralized composting model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yedla, Sudhakar

    2012-01-01

    Dhaka's community-based decentralized composting (DCDC) is a successful demonstration of solid waste management by adopting low-cost technology, local resources community participation and partnerships among the various actors involved. This paper attempts to understand the model, necessary conditions, strategies and their priorities to replicate DCDC in the other developing cities of Asia. Thirteen strategies required for its replication are identified and assessed based on various criteria, namely transferability, longevity, economic viability, adaptation and also overall replication. Priority setting by multi-criteria analysis by applying analytic hierarchy process revealed that immediate transferability without long-term and economic viability consideration is not advisable as this would result in unsustainable replication of DCDC. Based on the analysis, measures to ensure the product quality control; partnership among stakeholders (public-private-community); strategies to achieve better involvement of the private sector in solid waste management (entrepreneurship in approach); simple and low-cost technology; and strategies to provide an effective interface among the complementing sectors are identified as important strategies for its replication.

  20. A Decentralized Fuzzy C-Means-Based Energy-Efficient Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Osama Moh’d Alia

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Energy conservation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs is a vital consideration when designing wireless networking protocols. In this paper, we propose a Decentralized Fuzzy Clustering Protocol, named DCFP, which minimizes total network energy dissipation to promote maximum network lifetime. The process of constructing the infrastructure for a given WSN is performed only once at the beginning of the protocol at a base station, which remains unchanged throughout the network’s lifetime. In this initial construction step, a fuzzy C-means algorithm is adopted to allocate sensor nodes into their most appropriate clusters. Subsequently, the protocol runs its rounds where each round is divided into a CH-Election phase and a Data Transmission phase. In the CH-Election phase, the election of new cluster heads is done locally in each cluster where a new multicriteria objective function is proposed to enhance the quality of elected cluster heads. In the Data Transmission phase, the sensing and data transmission from each sensor node to their respective cluster head is performed and cluster heads in turn aggregate and send the sensed data to the base station. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol improves network lifetime, data delivery, and energy consumption compared to other well-known energy-efficient protocols.

  1. A decentralized fuzzy C-means-based energy-efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alia, Osama Moh'd

    2014-01-01

    Energy conservation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a vital consideration when designing wireless networking protocols. In this paper, we propose a Decentralized Fuzzy Clustering Protocol, named DCFP, which minimizes total network energy dissipation to promote maximum network lifetime. The process of constructing the infrastructure for a given WSN is performed only once at the beginning of the protocol at a base station, which remains unchanged throughout the network's lifetime. In this initial construction step, a fuzzy C-means algorithm is adopted to allocate sensor nodes into their most appropriate clusters. Subsequently, the protocol runs its rounds where each round is divided into a CH-Election phase and a Data Transmission phase. In the CH-Election phase, the election of new cluster heads is done locally in each cluster where a new multicriteria objective function is proposed to enhance the quality of elected cluster heads. In the Data Transmission phase, the sensing and data transmission from each sensor node to their respective cluster head is performed and cluster heads in turn aggregate and send the sensed data to the base station. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol improves network lifetime, data delivery, and energy consumption compared to other well-known energy-efficient protocols.

  2. A Decentralized Fuzzy C-Means-Based Energy-Efficient Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Energy conservation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a vital consideration when designing wireless networking protocols. In this paper, we propose a Decentralized Fuzzy Clustering Protocol, named DCFP, which minimizes total network energy dissipation to promote maximum network lifetime. The process of constructing the infrastructure for a given WSN is performed only once at the beginning of the protocol at a base station, which remains unchanged throughout the network's lifetime. In this initial construction step, a fuzzy C-means algorithm is adopted to allocate sensor nodes into their most appropriate clusters. Subsequently, the protocol runs its rounds where each round is divided into a CH-Election phase and a Data Transmission phase. In the CH-Election phase, the election of new cluster heads is done locally in each cluster where a new multicriteria objective function is proposed to enhance the quality of elected cluster heads. In the Data Transmission phase, the sensing and data transmission from each sensor node to their respective cluster head is performed and cluster heads in turn aggregate and send the sensed data to the base station. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol improves network lifetime, data delivery, and energy consumption compared to other well-known energy-efficient protocols. PMID:25162060

  3. Threshold-Based Random Charging Scheme for Decentralized PEV Charging Operation in a Smart Grid.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Ojin; Kim, Pilkee; Yoon, Yong-Jin

    2016-12-26

    Smart grids have been introduced to replace conventional power distribution systems without real time monitoring for accommodating the future market penetration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). When a large number of PEVs require simultaneous battery charging, charging coordination techniques have become one of the most critical factors to optimize the PEV charging performance and the conventional distribution system. In this case, considerable computational complexity of a central controller and exchange of real time information among PEVs may occur. To alleviate these problems, a novel threshold-based random charging (TBRC) operation for a decentralized charging system is proposed. Using PEV charging thresholds and random access rates, the PEVs themselves can participate in the charging requests. As PEVs with a high battery state do not transmit the charging requests to the central controller, the complexity of the central controller decreases due to the reduction of the charging requests. In addition, both the charging threshold and the random access rate are statistically calculated based on the average of supply power of the PEV charging system that do not require a real time update. By using the proposed TBRC with a tolerable PEV charging degradation, a 51% reduction of the PEV charging requests is achieved.

  4. Remembering the Future of Centralized Control-Decentralized Execution

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Sheets, Patrick

    2003-01-01

    ... concepts which should drive system development. To realize the significance of the USAF C2 tenet of "centralized control-decentralized execution," one must understand how C2 is executed, in contingency theaters of operation...

  5. Agent-based modeling in ecological economics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heckbert, Scott; Baynes, Tim; Reeson, Andrew

    2010-01-01

    Interconnected social and environmental systems are the domain of ecological economics, and models can be used to explore feedbacks and adaptations inherent in these systems. Agent-based modeling (ABM) represents autonomous entities, each with dynamic behavior and heterogeneous characteristics. Agents interact with each other and their environment, resulting in emergent outcomes at the macroscale that can be used to quantitatively analyze complex systems. ABM is contributing to research questions in ecological economics in the areas of natural resource management and land-use change, urban systems modeling, market dynamics, changes in consumer attitudes, innovation, and diffusion of technology and management practices, commons dilemmas and self-governance, and psychological aspects to human decision making and behavior change. Frontiers for ABM research in ecological economics involve advancing the empirical calibration and validation of models through mixed methods, including surveys, interviews, participatory modeling, and, notably, experimental economics to test specific decision-making hypotheses. Linking ABM with other modeling techniques at the level of emergent properties will further advance efforts to understand dynamics of social-environmental systems.

  6. Event-triggered decentralized adaptive fault-tolerant control of uncertain interconnected nonlinear systems with actuator failures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Yun Ho; Yoo, Sung Jin

    2018-06-01

    This paper investigates the event-triggered decentralized adaptive tracking problem of a class of uncertain interconnected nonlinear systems with unexpected actuator failures. It is assumed that local control signals are transmitted to local actuators with time-varying faults whenever predefined conditions for triggering events are satisfied. Compared with the existing control-input-based event-triggering strategy for adaptive control of uncertain nonlinear systems, the aim of this paper is to propose a tracking-error-based event-triggering strategy in the decentralized adaptive fault-tolerant tracking framework. The proposed approach can relax drastic changes in control inputs caused by actuator faults in the existing triggering strategy. The stability of the proposed event-triggering control system is analyzed in the Lyapunov sense. Finally, simulation comparisons of the proposed and existing approaches are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical result in the presence of actuator faults. Copyright © 2018 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Individual-based modeling of ecological and evolutionary processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeAngelis, Donald L.; Mooij, Wolf M.

    2005-01-01

    Individual-based models (IBMs) allow the explicit inclusion of individual variation in greater detail than do classical differential-equation and difference-equation models. Inclusion of such variation is important for continued progress in ecological and evolutionary theory. We provide a conceptual basis for IBMs by describing five major types of individual variation in IBMs: spatial, ontogenetic, phenotypic, cognitive, and genetic. IBMs are now used in almost all subfields of ecology and evolutionary biology. We map those subfields and look more closely at selected key papers on fish recruitment, forest dynamics, sympatric speciation, metapopulation dynamics, maintenance of diversity, and species conservation. Theorists are currently divided on whether IBMs represent only a practical tool for extending classical theory to more complex situations, or whether individual-based theory represents a radically new research program. We feel that the tension between these two poles of thinking can be a source of creativity in ecology and evolutionary theory.

  8. [Measuring water ecological carrying capacity with the ecosystem-service-based ecological footprint (ESEF) method: Theory, models and application].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiao, Wen-jun; Min, Qing-wen; Li, Wen-hua; Fuller, Anthony M

    2015-04-01

    Integrated watershed management based on aquatic ecosystems has been increasingly acknowledged. Such a change in the philosophy of water environment management requires recognizing the carrying capacity of aquatic ecosystems for human society from a more general perspective. The concept of the water ecological carrying capacity is therefore put forward, which considers both water resources and water environment, connects socio-economic development to aquatic ecosystems and provides strong support for integrated watershed management. In this paper, the authors proposed an ESEF-based measure of water ecological carrying capacity and constructed ESEF-based models of water ecological footprint and capacity, aiming to evaluate water ecological carrying capacity with footprint methods. A regional model of Taihu Lake Basin was constructed and applied to evaluate the water ecological carrying capacity in Changzhou City which located in the upper reaches of the basin. Results showed that human demand for water ecosystem services in this city had exceeded the supply capacity of local aquatic ecosystems and the significant gap between demand and supply had jeopardized the sustainability of local aquatic ecosystems. Considering aqua-product provision, water supply and pollutant absorption in an integrated way, the scale of population and economy aquatic ecosystems in Changzhou could bear only 54% of the current status.

  9. Poster abstract: A decentralized routing scheme based on a zero-sum game to optimize energy in solar powered sensor networks

    KAUST Repository

    Dehwah, Ahmad H.; Tembine, Hamidou; Claudel, Christian G.

    2014-01-01

    This poster is aimed at solving the problem of maximizing the energy margin of a solar-powered sensor network at a fixed time horizon, to maximize the network performance during an event to monitor. Using a game theoretic approach, the optimal routing maximizing the energy margin of the network at a given time under solar power forcing can be computed in a decentralized way and solved exactly through dynamic programming with a low overall complexity. We also show that this decentralized algorithm is simple enough to be implemented on practical sensor nodes. Such an algorithm would be very useful whenever the energy margin of a solar-powered sensor network has to be maximized at a specific time. © 2014 IEEE.

  10. Poster abstract: A decentralized routing scheme based on a zero-sum game to optimize energy in solar powered sensor networks

    KAUST Repository

    Dehwah, Ahmad H.

    2014-04-01

    This poster is aimed at solving the problem of maximizing the energy margin of a solar-powered sensor network at a fixed time horizon, to maximize the network performance during an event to monitor. Using a game theoretic approach, the optimal routing maximizing the energy margin of the network at a given time under solar power forcing can be computed in a decentralized way and solved exactly through dynamic programming with a low overall complexity. We also show that this decentralized algorithm is simple enough to be implemented on practical sensor nodes. Such an algorithm would be very useful whenever the energy margin of a solar-powered sensor network has to be maximized at a specific time. © 2014 IEEE.

  11. Dynamical Orders of Decentralized H-infinity Controllers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stoustrup, Jakob; Niemann, Hans Henrik

    1996-01-01

    The problem of decentralized control is addressed, i.e. theproblem of designing a controller where each control input is allowedto use only some of the measurements. It is shown that such problemsthere does not always exist a sequence of controllers of bounded orderwhich obtains near optimal cont...

  12. Women's Political Representation and Participation in Decentralized ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Huairou Commission User

    facilitate people's participation in national development through ensuring sound local level politics. • RC evolved into local councils which then led to the implementation of decentralization through the local government act (1997). • This policy has provided opportunities for women to participate in local leadership from.

  13. Of decentralization of public power Ukrainian land that belonged to Lithuanian (XIII – the early XVII century

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. V. Manuilova

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available A comprehensive crisis in Ukraine and continued military confrontation in the Donbass demonstrated the urgent need to establish effective governance, which would imply decentralization of public power. Note that in implementing the decentralization of power in Ukraine insists the International Monetary Fund; United Nations Development Program; the transfer of authority to the field and decentralization of power in Ukraine is one of the points of the Minsk agreements and obligations of Ukraine to the EU. The article deals with the Ukrainian lands topical issue features the decentralization of public power in the XIII - the beginning of XVII century. The importance of the topic due to the need to study the historical experience of the implementation of decentralization. It was, emphasized that the success of the reforms depends largely because of the historical experience and features of the decentralization of public power in the past. Characterized by the development of local government in the Ukrainian lands was part of the Lithuanian state. The purpose of the article is to clarify the characteristics of decentralization of public authority on Ukrainian lands were part of the Lithuanian state during the XVII century XIII. To address this goal, outline decentralization of public power in the state; analyze, competence of local government in the Ukrainian lands that belonged to the Lith uanian State; determine how close to the power of the people. The level of decentralization of public power in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XIII - the beginning of XVII century was high. It was, found that Lithuania had not established a centralized state. It is, noted that the Board of the nobility limited the princely power. The effect of delegated deputies from different parts of the Lithuanian statehood solutions nobility Council.Clarified the facts that confirm the existence of decentralization of public power in Lithuania: the functioning of local

  14. Remote handling of decentralized power generation plants; Fernwirken von dezentralen Energieerzeugungsanlagen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Conrad, Michael [IDS GmbH, Ettlingen (Germany). Geschaeftsbereich Entwicklung-Prozessautomatisierung; Thomas, Ralf [IDS GmbH, Ettlingen (Germany). Bereich Business Development und Marketing

    2011-05-15

    The incresing number of decentral power generation systems requires new grid solutions, i.e. the so-called smart grids. One important function is the monitoring and control, e.g. of decentral PV, wind power and cogeneration systems. The data interfaces used are highly diverse and as a rule are taken from measuring and automation technology, i.e. they must be adapted to the data models and transmission procedures of remote control and guidance systems. A compact protocol gateway enables standardized control and diagnosis.

  15. Engaging Social Capital for Decentralized Urban Stormwater Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Decentralized approaches to urban stormwater management, whereby installations of green infrastructure (e.g., rain gardens, bioswales, and constructed wetlands) are dispersed throughout a management area, are cost-effective solutions with co-benefits beyond water abatement. Inste...

  16. Decentralized and Modular Electrical Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elisabelar, Christian; Lebaratoux, Laurence

    2014-08-01

    This paper presents the studies made on the definition and design of a decentralized and modular electrical architecture that can be used for power distribution, active thermal control (ATC), standard inputs-outputs electrical interfaces.Traditionally implemented inside central unit like OBC or RTU, these interfaces can be dispatched in the satellite by using MicroRTU.CNES propose a similar approach of MicroRTU. The system is based on a bus called BRIO (Bus Réparti des IO), which is composed, by a power bus and a RS485 digital bus. BRIO architecture is made with several miniature terminals called BTCU (BRIO Terminal Control Unit) distributed in the spacecraft.The challenge was to design and develop the BTCU with very little volume, low consumption and low cost. The standard BTCU models are developed and qualified with a configuration dedicated to ATC, while the first flight model will fly on MICROSCOPE for PYRO actuations and analogue acquisitions. The design of the BTCU is made in order to be easily adaptable for all type of electric interface needs.Extension of this concept is envisaged for power conditioning and distribution unit, and a Modular PCDU based on BRIO concept is proposed.

  17. Centralization and Decentralization: An International Viewpoint on an American Dilemma. A Special CASEA Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, William G.

    This report outlines the history of the centralization-decentralization dilemma in the goverance of organizations, discusses two types of centralization-decentralization continua, and suggests further research. The first type of continuum discussed -- the traditional American -- refers to decisionmaking in the areas of public debate and partisan…

  18. Enforcement and Environmental Quality in a Decentralized Emission Trading System

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    D' Amato, Alessio (Univ. of Rome, ' Tor Vergata' , Rome (Italy)); Valentini, Edilio (Univ. G. D' Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara, DEST, Fac. di Economia, Pescara (Italy))

    2008-07-01

    This paper addresses the issue of whether the powers of monitoring compliance and allocating allowances under emissions trading within an economic union should be centralized or delegated to single states. To this end, we develop a two stage game played by two governments choosing allowances and monitoring effort to achieve full compliance, and their respective polluting industries. We show that cost advantage in favor of national states is not sufficient to justify decentralization. Nevertheless, cost differential in monitoring violations can imply lower emissions and greater welfare under a decentralized institutional setting than under a centralized one

  19. Fiscal Decentralization and Disparity of Access to Primary Education in Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shinta Doriza

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available In education, one crusial issue of development is the disparity of primary education access. Using 440 regions database from 2005-2009, this study is aim to analize the impact of fiscal decentralization in reducing the enrolement of primary education in Indonesia. Three factors were included, i.e fiscal decentralization, socioeconomic factors and regional characteristics. The result of panel data estimation using fixed-effect approach on this study is that DAK for Education, DAK Non Education, and PAD have significant impact in reducing education acess disparity along with poverty and regional characteristic such as Java-non Java regions. For education level, another variable was also found significant including education of the society and regional characteristic such as proliferated-non proliferated regions. In general there is a facts and proves that fiscal decentralization improve education access equality, but several effort need to done to optimalize the equalization of primary education access in Indonesia.

  20. [Health care reform, decentralization, prevention and control of vector-borne diseases].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmunis, G A; Dias, J C

    2000-01-01

    Economic policies are changing Latin American health programs, particularly promoting decentralization. Numerous difficulties thus arise for the control of endemic diseases, since such activities traditionally depend on vertical, and centralized structures. Theoretical arguments in favor of decentralization notwithstanding, no such tradition exists at the county level. The lack of program expertise at peripheral levels, intensive staff turnover, and even corruption are additional difficulties. Hence, the simple bureaucratic transfer of activities from the Federal to county level is often irresponsible. The loss of priority for control of endemic diseases in Latin America may mean the inexorable extinction of traditional control services. Malaria, dengue fever, and Chagas disease programs are examples of the loss of expertise and effectiveness in Latin America. A better strategy for responsible decentralization is required. In particular, a shared transition involving all governmental levels is desirable to effectively modernize programs. Maintenance of regional reference centers to ensure supervision, surveillance, and training is suggested.

  1. Fully decentralized control of a soft-bodied robot inspired by true slime mold.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Umedachi, Takuya; Takeda, Koichi; Nakagaki, Toshiyuki; Kobayashi, Ryo; Ishiguro, Akio

    2010-03-01

    Animals exhibit astoundingly adaptive and supple locomotion under real world constraints. In order to endow robots with similar capabilities, we must implement many degrees of freedom, equivalent to animals, into the robots' bodies. For taming many degrees of freedom, the concept of autonomous decentralized control plays a pivotal role. However a systematic way of designing such autonomous decentralized control system is still missing. Aiming at understanding the principles that underlie animals' locomotion, we have focused on a true slime mold, a primitive living organism, and extracted a design scheme for autonomous decentralized control system. In order to validate this design scheme, this article presents a soft-bodied amoeboid robot inspired by the true slime mold. Significant features of this robot are twofold: (1) the robot has a truly soft and deformable body stemming from real-time tunable springs and protoplasm, the former is used for an outer skin of the body and the latter is to satisfy the law of conservation of mass; and (2) fully decentralized control using coupled oscillators with completely local sensory feedback mechanism is realized by exploiting the long-distance physical interaction between the body parts stemming from the law of conservation of protoplasmic mass. Simulation results show that this robot exhibits highly supple and adaptive locomotion without relying on any hierarchical structure. The results obtained are expected to shed new light on design methodology for autonomous decentralized control system.

  2. Location Based Services for Outdoor Ecological Learning System: Design and Implementation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsiao, Hsien-Sheng; Lin, Chih-Cheng; Feng, Ruei-Ting; Li, Kun Jing

    2010-01-01

    This paper aimed to demonstrate how location-based services were implemented in ubiquitous outdoor ecological learning system. In an elementary school in northern Taiwan, two fifth grade classes on an ecology project were randomly selected: The experimental group could access the ecological learning system on hand-held devices while the control…

  3. Decentralized control of multi-agent aerial transportation system

    KAUST Repository

    Toumi, Noureddine

    2017-01-01

    and Landing aircraft (VTOL) transportation system. We develop a decentralized method. The advantage of such a solution is that it can provide better maneuverability and lifting capabilities compared to existing systems. First, we consider a cooperative group

  4. Quotas and Decentralization (Indonesia) | CRDI - Centre de ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Over the past decade, the Government of Indonesia has taken steps to enhance the participation of women in public office. One element of the strategy is decentralization, promoted under the slogan, "local autonomy for people empowerment and welfare." Support for gender mainstreaming was proclaimed and in 2003 an ...

  5. Promoting Research for Policymaking under Decentralization in ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Major reforms in governance carried out in Peru during the early 2000s saw the decentralization of functions and resources from the central government in Lima to elected regional governments. Today, regional governments account for the majority of public investment, but show limited capacity to cope with the ...

  6. Critical Systems Thinking on Decentralization: the Corporate ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This article calls for the devolution of power by large organizations to their subsidiaries or subordinate units – mainly Strategic Business Units (SBUs). It proposes more decentralized models of management and outlines a new theory taking a critical systems thinking approach. Corporations are advised to attack and ...

  7. RE-ENGINEERING GOVERNANCE; E-GOVERNMENT AS A TOOL FOR DECENTRALIZATION; GHANA AS A CASE STUDY

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gyaase, Patrick Ohemeng Kwadwo

    This research was undertaken to study the diffusion of E-government as a tool for decentralization, using Ghana as a case study. E-governance has been credited with the potency of facilitating good governance in countries with appreciable level of E-government maturity. Much attention is being...... espoused by E-government. This research therefore assesses the diffusion of E-government as a tool for decentralization in Ghana. The research was carried out using mixed-methods and was approached from four theoretical perspectives namely Innovation Diffusion theory the TOE framework for technological....... Qualitative data was used to assess the factors affecting the diffusion of e-government as a tool for decentralization and the results pointed to vendor and donor led diffusion as affecting E-government implementation. There is also the absence of convergence between the E-government, the decentralization...

  8. Optimizing decentralized production-distribution planning problem in a multi-period supply chain network under uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nourifar, Raheleh; Mahdavi, Iraj; Mahdavi-Amiri, Nezam; Paydar, Mohammad Mahdi

    2017-09-01

    Decentralized supply chain management is found to be significantly relevant in today's competitive markets. Production and distribution planning is posed as an important optimization problem in supply chain networks. Here, we propose a multi-period decentralized supply chain network model with uncertainty. The imprecision related to uncertain parameters like demand and price of the final product is appropriated with stochastic and fuzzy numbers. We provide mathematical formulation of the problem as a bi-level mixed integer linear programming model. Due to problem's convolution, a structure to solve is developed that incorporates a novel heuristic algorithm based on Kth-best algorithm, fuzzy approach and chance constraint approach. Ultimately, a numerical example is constructed and worked through to demonstrate applicability of the optimization model. A sensitivity analysis is also made.

  9. Decentralized Urban Solid Waste Management in Indonesia | CRDI ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Urban areas of Indonesia generate about 55 000 tonnes of solid waste per day, ... four models of decentralized solid waste management in low-income urban ... En partenariat avec l'Organization for Women in Science for the Developing ...

  10. Evaluation and demonstration of decentralized space and water heating versus centralized services for new and rehabilitated multifamily buildings. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belkus, P. [Foster-Miller, Inc., Waltham, MA (US); Tuluca, A. [Steven Winter Associates, Inc., Norwalk, CT (US)

    1993-06-01

    The general objective of this research was aimed at developing sufficient technical and economic know-how to convince the building and design communities of the appropriateness and energy advantages of decentralized space and water heating for multifamily buildings. Two main goals were established to guide this research. First, the research sought to determine the cost-benefit advantages of decentralized space and water heating versus centralized systems for multifamily applications based on innovative gas piping and appliance technologies. The second goal was to ensure that this information is made available to the design community.

  11. A combined fair decentralized message-rate and data-rate congestion control for V2V communication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Belagal Math, Chetan; Li, Hong; De Groot, Sonia Heemstra; Niemegeers, Ignas

    2018-01-01

    Channel congestion Is one of the most critical Issues In IEEE 802.11p-based vehicular ad hoc networks as it leads to unreliability of safety applications. As a counter measure, the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI), proposes a mandatory Decentralized Congestion Control (DCC)

  12. Fusion-supported decentralized nuclear energy system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jassby, D.L.

    1979-04-01

    A decentralized nuclear energy system is proposed comprising mass-produced pressurized water reactors in the size range 10 to 300 MW (thermal), to be used for the production of process heat, space heat, and electricity in applications where petroleum and natural gas are presently used. Special attention is given to maximizing the refueling interval with no interim batch shuffling in order to minimize fuel transport, reactor downtime, and opportunity for fissile diversion. These objectives demand a substantial fissile enrichment (7 to 15%). The preferred fissile fuel is U-233, which offers an order of magnitude savings in ore requirements (compared with U-235 fuel), and whose higher conversion ratio in thermal reactors serves to extend the period of useful reactivity and relieve demand on the fissile breeding plants (compared with Pu-239 fuel). Application of the neutral-beam-driven tokamak fusion-neutron source to a U-233 breeding pilot plant is examined. This scheme can be extended in part to a decentralized fusion energy system, wherein remotely located large fusion reactors supply excess tritium to a distributed system of relatively small nonbreeding D-T reactors

  13. Blockchain to Rule the Waves - Nascent Design Principles for Reducing Risk and Uncertainty in Decentralized Environments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nærland, Kristoffer; Müller-Bloch, Christoph; Beck, Roman

    2017-01-01

    Many decentralized, inter-organizational environments such as supply chains are characterized by high transactional uncertainty and risk. At the same time, blockchain technology promises to mitigate these issues by introducing certainty into economic transactions. This paper discusses the findings...... of a Design Science Research project involving the construction and evaluation of an information technology artifact in collaboration with Maersk, a leading international shipping company, where central documents in shipping, such as the Bill of Lading, are turned into a smart contract on blockchain. Based...... on our insights from the project, we provide first evidence for preliminary design principles for applications that aim to mitigate the transactional risk and uncertainty in decentralized environments using blockchain. Both the artifact and the first evidence for emerging design principles are novel...

  14. Dynamical orders of decentralized H-infinity controllers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stoustrup, Jakob; Niemann, H.H.

    1999-01-01

    The problem of decentralized control is addressed, i.e. the problem of designing a controller where each control input is allowed to use only some of the measurements. It is shown that, for such problems, there does not always exist a sequence of controllers of bounded order which obtains near-op...

  15. 8-8-08 International Conference on Decentralization, local power ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    hallas

    2008-08-08

    Aug 8, 2008 ... The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in collaboration ... To set an agenda on decentralization/ local governance that ... researchers, representatives of multilateral and bilateral agencies, media and others.

  16. Decentralized Heat Supply – Alternative to Centralized One

    OpenAIRE

    V. I. Nazarov; L. A. Tarasevich; А. L. Burov

    2012-01-01

    The paper presents a concrete example that shows comparative characteristics of decentralized and centralized heat supply. It has been shown in the paper that selection of this or that variant of heat supply significantly depends on losses in heat supply networks.

  17. Land use and environmental impacts of decentralized solar energy use

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Twiss, R.H.; Smith, P.L.; Gatzke, A.E.; McCreary, S.T.

    1980-01-01

    The physical, spatial and land-use impacts of decentralized solar technologies applied at the community level by the year 2000 are examined. The results of the study are intended to provide a basis for evaluating the way in which a shift toward reliance on decentralized energy technologies may eventually alter community form. Six land-use types representative of those found in most US cities are analyzed according to solar penetration levels identified in the maximum solar scenario for the year 2000. The scenario is translated into shares of end use demand in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. These proportions become the scenario goals to be met by the use of decentralized solar energy systems. The percentage of total energy demand is assumed to be 36.5 percent, 18.8 percent and 22.6 percent in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors respectively. The community level scenario stipulated that a certain percentage of the total demand be met by on-site solar collection, i.e. photovoltaic and thermal collectors, and by passive design. This on-site solar goal is 31.9 percent (residential), 16.8 percent (commercial) and 13.1 percent (industrial).

  18. Institutional arrangements for decentralized water and health services delivery in rural Tanzania: differences and constraints

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Masanyiwa, Z.S.; Niehof, A.; Termeer, C.J.A.M.

    2013-01-01

    In recent years, decentralization has been upheld by governments, donors and policy makers in many developing countries as a means of improving public services although opinion is divided on the link between decentralization and service delivery. This article reviews recent literature and research

  19. Supplier’s Joint Investments in Cost Reduction and Quality Improvement in a Decentralized Supply Chain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hengyun Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available We consider a decentralized supply chain with a downstream manufacturer and an upstream supplier. The upstream supplier sells a product to the manufacturer, who faces a quality and price sensitive demand. The supplier has a chance to invest in both cost reduction and quality improvement of its product. We derive the optimal investment and pricing decisions for the supply chain members. We do so in both the centralized and the decentralized supply chains. We show that the optimal investment and pricing decisions in the decentralized supply chain may deviate from that in the centralized supply chain. We develop a mechanism to coordinate the decentralized supply chain. The developed mechanism contains four policies: wholesale price, sharing of revenue, sharing of cost reduction investment cost, and sharing of quality improvement investment cost. We also show that the developed coordination mechanism can lead to Pareto improvement.

  20. Problems in decentralized data acquisition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eder, R.

    1985-04-01

    This paper describes INIS (International Nuclear Information System) which is operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in collaboration with 73 Member States and 14 international organizations. INIS is a computerized system for collecting, processing and disseminating nuclear information. The collection and scanning of literature, input preparation and the dissemination of output are completely decentralized, the checking and merging of the information data are centralized. This paper shows the structure, management, processing and problem areas of this system. (Author)

  1. Ecological literacy and beyond: Problem-based learning for future professionals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewinsohn, Thomas M; Attayde, José Luiz; Fonseca, Carlos Roberto; Ganade, Gislene; Jorge, Leonardo Ré; Kollmann, Johannes; Overbeck, Gerhard E; Prado, Paulo Inácio; Pillar, Valério D; Popp, Daniela; da Rocha, Pedro L B; Silva, Wesley Rodrigues; Spiekermann, Annette; Weisser, Wolfgang W

    2015-03-01

    Ecological science contributes to solving a broad range of environmental problems. However, lack of ecological literacy in practice often limits application of this knowledge. In this paper, we highlight a critical but often overlooked demand on ecological literacy: to enable professionals of various careers to apply scientific knowledge when faced with environmental problems. Current university courses on ecology often fail to persuade students that ecological science provides important tools for environmental problem solving. We propose problem-based learning to improve the understanding of ecological science and its usefulness for real-world environmental issues that professionals in careers as diverse as engineering, public health, architecture, social sciences, or management will address. Courses should set clear learning objectives for cognitive skills they expect students to acquire. Thus, professionals in different fields will be enabled to improve environmental decision-making processes and to participate effectively in multidisciplinary work groups charged with tackling environmental issues.

  2. Leadership and the Decentralized Control of Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinberg, Matthew P.

    2013-01-01

    This review examines the literature related to leadership and the decentralized control of schools. It first considers the distinctive goals of public and private agencies, the specific constraints that shape the autonomy of leaders in different sectors, and the ways in which new models of public management are infusing public agencies with…

  3. Decentralization for National development in Nigeria from a ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    National development of a multicultural setting requires a decentralized appropriation of diverse contributions of various constituent subsets. Improvement of multicultural settings calls for social negotiation and economic merger, and compression of individual resources of the various units to enhance egalitarian level of ...

  4. Decentralized Coordinated Control Strategy of Islanded Microgrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wu, Dan

    as grid voltage/frequency regulation. In order to enhance the reliability of overall islanded Microgrid operation, basic functions of coordinated control which taking into account the state of charge (SoC) limitation and power availability of renewable energy sources is implemented in a distributed level...... control strategies in this thesis, in order to promote the decentralization of the overall system. Especially the consensus algorithm based secondary level is investigated in the thesis in order to simplify the communication configuration which only flood information through the neighboring units......Facing the challenges brought by the traditional large power system concerning the environmental and economic issues, along recent years distributed generation is considered as an alternative solution to provide clean energy in a local manner. In this context, Microgrid which performing as a local...

  5. Decentralized energy planning and consensus in energy policy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wilbanks, T. J.

    1980-05-02

    This paper explores the following three propositions and their relationships: (1) that, in our pluralistic policymaking environment, we cannot solve our nation's energy problems unless we can reach agreement among a diverse group of interested parties about specific actions; (2) that, short of a manifest emergency, such a consensus is difficult to reach unless the scale of the decision-making unit is relatively small; and therefore (3) that one of the keys to an effective energy policy in the United states is to rely heavily on local and regional energy planning and decision-making. First, the paper reviews our problem of irresolution and its roots, and it summaries the policy options for resolving it. Then it explores one of those options, decentralized planning, in a little more detail. Finally, it offers some speculations about the viability of a decentralized approach to energy planninng.

  6. CONDITION OF DECENTRALIZATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEGAL FORMS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONS OF UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GLOBAL EXPERIENCE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadiia Kulchytska

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In the article the modern condition of decentralization and organizational legal forms of sustainable development of regions of Ukraine in the context of the global experience are analyzed, possible ways to overcome regional disparities are proved. A special place in scientific research article takes a significant number of modern researchers analyzed the theoretical and methodological foundations of a system of financial support of local authorities in the transition to decentralization of public administration. In this regard, particular relevance is the problem of defining the role of decentralization principles in forming the financial support of local government. The importance of decentralization in the process of local government reform is proved. The ways implementing decentralization in modern Ukraine are shown. The scientific approaches to determining the meaning and role of decentralization in a market economy are analyzed and summarized. Key words: decentralization, deconcentration of power, the territorial organization of government, local communities, dotatsiynist, sustainable development. JEL: H 70, R 58

  7. Between Gorleben life and city life. Experience from three years of resistance in Wendland and in decentralized actions. Zwischen Gorleben und Stadtleben. Erfahrungen aus drei Jahren Widerstand im Wendland und in dezentralen Aktionen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Halbach, D; Panzer, G

    1980-01-01

    The authors lived for quite a long time in Wendland , the village of opponents of atomic energy at Gorleben. They regard the conflict on the issue of Gorleben and atomic energy as being located within the fundamental conflict existing between various ways of life: between the rather traditional region with the centralistic model of the atomic state and their hopes for decentralized ecological communities. They report on the practical development of this resistance and point out its forms of struggle which have to be proportionate to the atomic antagonist, friends and foes in the region as well as to their own requirements and objectives concerning an ecological and independent way of life.

  8. Metropolitan Schools: Administrative Decentralization vs. Community Control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ornstein, Allan C.

    This book is divided into four chapters. The first examines the concepts and issues related to understanding social systems and how the schools can be viewed as a social system. The differences between centralization and decentralization, as well as systems-analysis and management-control approaches are also explored. In the next chapter, we are…

  9. Strategies for organizing training: centralized or decentralized

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kanous, L.E.

    1979-01-01

    STudies were conducted in the Detroit Edison Company for the purpose of determining effectiveness of training. A systems approach from the corporate perspective was found to be needed and worthwhile. At the conclusion of these studies a decision was made to move in the direction of a centralized vs decentralized organizational strategy for training

  10. Empirical Research on Ecological Development Level of Resource-based Industries-Base on the data of the Silk Road Economic Belt Core Zone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Lei; Yan, Min

    2017-11-01

    Industrial ecology is the epitome of sustainable development in industry level, is one effective gateway to realizing green transformation. On the basis of industrial ecology development, including resource efficiency and environmental efficiency of ecological evaluation index system, this paper evaluates the level of industrial ecology development of resource-based industries in Xinjiang using entropy method. Research shows that the overall ecological development level of resource-based industries has remained at continuous improved trend with slow improvement in resource efficiency, and relative faster improvement in environmental efficiency. With economic development entering into the period of new normal at the end of the “twelfth five year plan”, the resource efficiency of ecological development of resource-based industries demonstrated a downward trend. The overall level of industrial ecology also faced with certain fluctuations, various ecological development level of resource-based industries also presented a downward trend. To promote ecological development of resource-based industries in Xinjiang, countermeasures and suggestions are initiated.

  11. A Module-Based Environmental Science Course for Teaching Ecology to Non-Majors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Geoffrey R.

    2010-01-01

    Using module-based courses has been suggested to improve undergraduate science courses. A course based around a series of modules focused on major environmental issues might be an effective way to teach non-science majors about ecology and ecology's role in helping to solve environmental problems. I have used such a module-based environmental…

  12. Decentralized approaches to wastewater treatment and management: applicability in developing countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Massoud, May A; Tarhini, Akram; Nasr, Joumana A

    2009-01-01

    Providing reliable and affordable wastewater treatment in rural areas is a challenge in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. The problems and limitations of the centralized approaches for wastewater treatment are progressively surfacing. Centralized wastewater collection and treatment systems are costly to build and operate, especially in areas with low population densities and dispersed households. Developing countries lack both the funding to construct centralized facilities and the technical expertise to manage and operate them. Alternatively, the decentralized approach for wastewater treatment which employs a combination of onsite and/or cluster systems is gaining more attention. Such an approach allows for flexibility in management, and simple as well as complex technologies are available. The decentralized system is not only a long-term solution for small communities but is more reliable and cost effective. This paper presents a review of the various decentralized approaches to wastewater treatment and management. A discussion as to their applicability in developing countries, primarily in rural areas, and challenges faced is emphasized all through the paper. While there are many impediments and challenges towards wastewater management in developing countries, these can be overcome by suitable planning and policy implementation. Understanding the receiving environment is crucial for technology selection and should be accomplished by conducting a comprehensive site evaluation process. Centralized management of the decentralized wastewater treatment systems is essential to ensure they are inspected and maintained regularly. Management strategies should be site specific accounting for social, cultural, environmental and economic conditions in the target area.

  13. Reinforcing loose foundation stones in trait-based plant ecology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shipley, Bill; De Bello, Francesco; Cornelissen, J Hans C; Laliberté, Etienne; Laughlin, Daniel C; Reich, Peter B

    2016-04-01

    The promise of "trait-based" plant ecology is one of generalized prediction across organizational and spatial scales, independent of taxonomy. This promise is a major reason for the increased popularity of this approach. Here, we argue that some important foundational assumptions of trait-based ecology have not received sufficient empirical evaluation. We identify three such assumptions and, where possible, suggest methods of improvement: (i) traits are functional to the degree that they determine individual fitness, (ii) intraspecific variation in functional traits can be largely ignored, and (iii) functional traits show general predictive relationships to measurable environmental gradients.

  14. Contesting sharia : state law, decentralization and Minangkabau custom

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huda, Yasrul

    2013-01-01

    This book explains how Sharia, commonly called Perda Sharia (Sharia by-law) in Indonesia, was legislated on the provincial, regional and municipal level in West Sumatra. This process began after the government started a decentralization policy in 2000. Although the law of local autonomy prescribes

  15. Decentralized Heat Supply – Alternative to Centralized One

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. I. Nazarov

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents a concrete example that shows comparative characteristics of decentralized and centralized heat supply. It has been shown in the paper that selection of this or that variant of heat supply significantly depends on losses in heat supply networks.

  16. Health system performance at the district level in Indonesia after decentralization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Choi Yoonjoung

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Assessments over the last two decades have showed an overall low level of performance of the health system in Indonesia with wide variation between districts. The reasons advanced for these low levels of performance include the low level of public funding for health and the lack of discretion for health system managers at the district level. When, in 2001, Indonesia implemented a radical decentralization and significantly increased the central transfer of funds to district governments it was widely expected that the performance of the health system would improve. This paper assesses the extent to which the performance of the health system has improved since decentralization. Methods We measured a set of indicators relevant to assessing changes in performance of the health system between two surveys in three areas: utilization of maternal antenatal and delivery care; immunization coverage; and contraceptive source and use. We also measured respondents' demographic characteristics and their living circumstances. These measurements were made in population-based surveys in 10 districts in 2002-03 and repeated in 2007 in the same 10 districts using the same instruments and sampling methods. Results The dominant providers of maternal and child health in these 10 districts are in the private sector. There was a significant decrease in birth deliveries at home, and a corresponding increase in deliveries in health facilities in 5 of the 10 districts, largely due to increased use of private facilities with little change in the already low use of public facilities. Overall, there was no improvement in vaccination of mothers and their children. Of those using modern contraceptive methods, the majority obtained them from the private sector in all districts. Conclusions There has been little improvement in the performance of the health system since decentralization occurred in 2001 even though there have also been significant increases in

  17. Analysis of Decentralized Control for Absorption Cycle Heat Pumps

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vinther, Kasper; Just Nielsen, Rene; Nielsen, Kirsten Mølgaard

    2015-01-01

    Email Print Request Permissions This paper investigates decentralized control structures for absorption cycle heat pumps and a dynamic nonlinear model of a single-effect LiBr-water absorption system is used as case study. The model has four controllable inputs, which can be used to stabilize...... the operation of the heat pump under different load conditions. Different feasible input-output pairings are analyzed by computation of relative gain array matrices and scaled condition numbers, which indicate the best pairing choice and the potential of each input-output set. Further, it is possible...... to minimize the effect of cross couplings and improve stability with the right pairing of input and output. Simulation of selected candidate input-output pairings demonstrate that decentralized control can provide stable operation of the heat pump....

  18. Decentralized safety concept for closed-loop controlled intensive care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kühn, Jan; Brendle, Christian; Stollenwerk, André; Schweigler, Martin; Kowalewski, Stefan; Janisch, Thorsten; Rossaint, Rolf; Leonhardt, Steffen; Walter, Marian; Kopp, Rüdger

    2017-04-01

    This paper presents a decentralized safety concept for networked intensive care setups, for which a decentralized network of sensors and actuators is realized by embedded microcontroller nodes. It is evaluated for up to eleven medical devices in a setup for automated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) therapy. In this contribution we highlight a blood pump supervision as exemplary safety measure, which allows a reliable bubble detection in an extracorporeal blood circulation. The approach is validated with data of animal experiments including 35 bubbles with a size between 0.05 and 0.3 ml. All 18 bubbles with a size down to 0.15 ml are successfully detected. By using hidden Markov models (HMMs) as statistical method the number of necessary sensors can be reduced by two pressure sensors.

  19. Impact of Fiscal Decentralization on Motor Vehicle Taxation in the Slovak Republic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Konečný Vladimír

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the motor vehicle tax in relation with fiscal decentralization, particularly from 2005 with competence delegated to the self-governing regions in the area of motor vehicle tax. The result of this provision in the field of fiscal decentralization is increasing of differences in the motor vehicle tax burden in self-governing regions of Slovakia. The paper is the result of solving a series of impact studies solved by the authors in this field. Gradually over time from the transfer of competences in setting tax rates on motor vehicles to self-governing regions and usage of the incomes of this tax can realistically assess the development and impact of this element of fiscal decentralization in the Slovak Republic as well as propose a solution of resulting situation. The aim is to eliminate differences in motor vehicle tax burden at regional and interstate level while maintaining the current level of tax revenues of self-governing regions.

  20. Resource allocation and budgetary mechanisms for decentralized health systems: experiences from Balochistan, Pakistan.

    OpenAIRE

    Green, A.; Ali, B.; Naeem, A.; Ross, D.

    2000-01-01

    This paper identifies key political and technical issues involved in the development of an appropriate resource allocation and budgetary system for the public health sector, using experience gained in the Province of Balochistan, Pakistan. The resource allocation and budgetary system is a critical, yet often neglected, component of any decentralization policy. Current systems are often based on historical incrementalism that is neither efficient nor equitable. This article describes technical...

  1. [Land layout for lake tourism based on ecological restraint].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jian-Ying; Li, Jiang-Feng; Zou, Li-Lin; Liu, Shi-Bin

    2012-10-01

    To avoid the decrease and deterioration of lake wetlands and the other ecological issues such as lake water pollution that were caused by the unreasonable exploration of lake tourism, a land layout for the tourism development of Liangzi Lake with the priority of ecological security pattern was proposed, based on the minimal cumulative resistance model and by using GIS technology. The study area was divided into four ecological function zones, i. e., core protection zone, ecological buffer zone, ecotone zone, and human activity zone. The core protection zone was the landscape region of ecological source. In the protection zone, new tourism land was forbidden to be increased, and some of the existing fundamental tourism facilities should be removed while some of them should be upgraded. The ecological buffer zone was the landscape region with resistance value ranged from 0 to 4562. In the buffer zone, expansion of tourism land should be forbidden, the existing tourism land should be downsized, and human activities should be isolated from ecological source by converting the human environment to the natural environment as far as possible. The ecotone zone was the landscape region with resistance value ranged from 4562 to 30797. In this zone, the existing tourism land was distributed in patches, tourism land could be expanded properly, and the lake forestry ecological tourism should be developed widely. The human activity zone was the landscape region with resistance value ranged from 30797 to 97334, which would be the key area for the land layout of lake tourism. It was suggested that the land layout for tourism with the priority of landscape ecological security pattern would be the best choice for the lake sustainable development.

  2. Near Optimal Decentralized H-infinity Control: Bounded vs. Unbounded Controller Order

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stoustrup, Jakob; Niemann, H.H.

    1997-01-01

    It is shown that for a class of decentralized control problems there does not exist a sequence of controllers of bounded order which obtains near optimal control. Neither does there exist an infinite dimensional optimal controller. Using the insight of the line of proof of these results, a heuris......It is shown that for a class of decentralized control problems there does not exist a sequence of controllers of bounded order which obtains near optimal control. Neither does there exist an infinite dimensional optimal controller. Using the insight of the line of proof of these results...

  3. A Low Cost Concept for Data Acquisition Systems Applied to Decentralized Renewable Energy Plants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fábio T. Brito

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The present paper describes experiences of the use of monitoring and data acquisition systems (DAS and proposes a new concept of a low cost DAS applied to decentralized renewable energy (RE plants with an USB interface. The use of such systems contributes to disseminate these plants, recognizing in real time local energy resources, monitoring energy conversion efficiency and sending information concerning failures. These aspects are important, mainly for developing countries, where decentralized power plants based on renewable sources are in some cases the best option for supplying electricity to rural areas. Nevertheless, the cost of commercial DAS is still a barrier for a greater dissemination of such systems in developing countries. The proposed USB based DAS presents a new dual clock operation philosophy, in which the acquisition system contains two clock sources for parallel information processing from different communication protocols. To ensure the low cost of the DAS and to promote the dissemination of this technology in developing countries, the proposed data acquisition firmware and the software for USB microcontrollers programming is a free and open source software, executable in the Linux and Windows® operating systems.

  4. Electrical Load Survey and Forecast for a Decentralized Hybrid ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Electrical Load Survey and Forecast for a Decentralized Hybrid Power System at Elebu, Kwara State, Nigeria. ... Nigerian Journal of Technology ... The paper reports the results of electrical load demand and forecast for Elebu rural community ...

  5. An empirical analysis of the green paradox in China: From the perspective of fiscal decentralization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Kun; Zhang, Zong-Yong; Liang, Qiao-Mei

    2017-01-01

    While it is generally recognized that the introduction of environmental policy can effectively control carbon emissions, the green paradox hypothesis puts forth a new warning about the validity of this policy's implementation. This study uses panel data on 29 Chinese provinces from 1995 to 2012 to investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the functional mechanisms of environmental policy while controlling for the spatial correlations of carbon emission. The empirical results indicate that environmental policy alone can achieve the objective of reducing carbon emissions. However, the Chinese style fiscal decentralization makes the environmental policy significantly promote carbon emissions, leading to a green paradox. Moreover, we find that the impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental policy varies greatly among different geographical regions and the direct-controlled municipalities. In addition, our study confirms the spatial correlations in China's carbon emissions by using a spatial integration term. Finally, we recommend that emission reduction efforts should be incorporated into the local government's performance evaluation system to improve the institutional environment. Further, differentiated environmental policies and measures should be considered for different provinces to maximize the emission reduction potential. - Highlights: • We consider the spatial correlations of carbon emissions in neighboring provinces. • The impacts of environmental regulation on carbon emissions are examined. • Fiscal decentralization is not beneficial to environmental policy implementation. • The effects of fiscal decentralization vary greatly among different regions.

  6. Decentralized electricity generation from renewable sources as a chance for local economic development. A qualitative study of two pioneer regions in Germany

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Klagge, Britta; Brocke, Tobias [Osnabrueck Univ. (Germany). Inst. of Geography

    2012-12-15

    Empirical research on the local economic effects associated with decentralized electricity generation from renewable sources has only just started. So far, most studies focus on quantifying economic effects and neglect the conditions and constellations which support and enable local economic development based on decentralized electricity generation. This, however, is the focus of this paper which looks at these issues, employing the value chain concept in combination with a governance perspective. Empirically, we take a qualitative approach and analyze two case studies of pioneer regions, in which decentralized electricity generation from renewable sources has developed very dynamically. The case study regions are Soltau, with a special focus on biogas production, and Emden, where wind energy plays a special role. Based on the early activities of some pioneers, these regions have developed specific actor constellations and organizational structures and have entered development paths in which renewable energies became an important economic factor. The analysis highlights the importance of institutional context and supportive governance structures for an early advancement of decentralized electricity generation from renewable sources, with a key role of local actors and governance constellations. It also points to the importance of cooperative relationships among local business actors for creating a competitive advantage for (some) regional firms. Our analysis shows that with the geographical proliferation of electricity generation from renewable sources, specialized firms tend to reach beyond their regions, thus offering first-mover advantages for firms in pioneer regions in comparison with latecomers.

  7. Technologies for Decentralized Fluoride Removal: Testing Metallic Iron-based Filters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arnaud Igor Ndé-Tchoupé

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Since the realization in the 1930s that elevated fluoride concentrations in drinking water can have detrimental effects on human health, new methods have been progressively developed in order to reduce fluoride to acceptable levels. In the developing world the necessity for filtration media that are both low-cost and sourced from locally available materials has resulted in the widespread use of bone char. Since the early 1990s metallic iron (Fe0 has received widespread use as both an adsorbent and a reducing agent for the removal of a wide range of contaminant species from water. The ion-selectivity of Fe0 is dictated by the positively charged surface of iron (hydroxides at circumneutral pH. This suggests that Fe0 could potentially be applied as suitable filter media for the negatively charged fluoride ion. This communication seeks to demonstrate from a theoretical basis and using empirical data from the literature the suitability of Fe0 filters for fluoride removal. The work concludes that Fe0-bearing materials, such as steel wool, hold good promise as low-cost, readily available and highly effective decentralized fluoride treatment materials.

  8. Assessment of the Successes and Failures of Decentralized Energy Solutions and Implications for the Water–Energy–Food Security Nexus: Case Studies from Developing Countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dawit Diriba Guta

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Access to reliable and affordable energy is vital for sustainable development. In the off-grid areas of developing countries, decentralized energy solutions have received increasing attention due to their contributions to reducing poverty. However, most of the rural population in many developing countries still has little or no access to modern energy technologies. This paper assesses the factors that determine the successes and failures of decentralized energy solutions based on local harmonized case studies from heterogeneous contexts from Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America. The case studies were analyzed through the coupled lenses of energy transition and the Water–Energy–Food Security (WEF Nexus. The findings indicate that access to modern decentralized energy solutions has not resulted in complete energy transitions due to various tradeoffs with the other domains of the WEF Nexus. On the other hand, the case studies point at the potential for improvements in food security, incomes, health, the empowerment of women, and resource conservation when synergies between decentralized energy solutions and other components of the WEF Nexus are present.

  9. Measures of precision for dissimilarity-based multivariate analysis of ecological communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Marti J; Santana-Garcon, Julia

    2015-01-01

    Ecological studies require key decisions regarding the appropriate size and number of sampling units. No methods currently exist to measure precision for multivariate assemblage data when dissimilarity-based analyses are intended to follow. Here, we propose a pseudo multivariate dissimilarity-based standard error (MultSE) as a useful quantity for assessing sample-size adequacy in studies of ecological communities. Based on sums of squared dissimilarities, MultSE measures variability in the position of the centroid in the space of a chosen dissimilarity measure under repeated sampling for a given sample size. We describe a novel double resampling method to quantify uncertainty in MultSE values with increasing sample size. For more complex designs, values of MultSE can be calculated from the pseudo residual mean square of a permanova model, with the double resampling done within appropriate cells in the design. R code functions for implementing these techniques, along with ecological examples, are provided. © 2014 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS.

  10. Decentralized Consistent Network Updates in SDN with ez-Segway

    KAUST Repository

    Nguyen, Thanh Dang; Chiesa, Marco; Canini, Marco

    2017-01-01

    We present ez-Segway, a decentralized mechanism to consistently and quickly update the network state while preventing forwarding anomalies (loops and black-holes) and avoiding link congestion. In our design, the centralized SDN controller only pre-computes

  11. Communication network for decentralized remote tele-science during the Spacelab mission IML-2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christ, Uwe; Schulz, Klaus-Juergen; Incollingo, Marco

    1994-01-01

    The ESA communication network for decentralized remote telescience during the Spacelab mission IML-2, called Interconnection Ground Subnetwork (IGS), provided data, voice conferencing, video distribution/conferencing and high rate data services to 5 remote user centers in Europe. The combination of services allowed the experimenters to interact with their experiments as they would normally do from the Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) at MSFC. In addition, to enhance their science results, they were able to make use of reference facilities and computing resources in their home laboratory, which typically are not available in the POCC. Characteristics of the IML-2 communications implementation were the adaptation to the different user needs based on modular service capabilities of IGS and the cost optimization for the connectivity. This was achieved by using a combination of traditional leased lines, satellite based VSAT connectivity and N-ISDN according to the simulation and mission schedule for each remote site. The central management system of IGS allows minimization of staffing and the involvement of communications personnel at the remote sites. The successful operation of IGS for IML-2 as a precursor network for the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) has proven the concept for communications to support the operation of the COF decentralized scenario.

  12. Community Based Ecological Monitoring of Non Timber Forest ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Community Based Ecological Monitoring of Non Timber Forest Products in the Nilgiri ... This project will allow Keystone Foundation to design, implement and test a ... traders, forest department officials and other stakeholders in the process.

  13. Administrative Decentralization in School Systems and Its Effect on the Organization of Media Services. Atlanta Public Schools: A Case Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, R. David

    This study reviews the literature on public school administration and on decentralization to establish the groundwork for an analysis of the administration of a decentralized school system and its media services, discusses some of the confusion in the centralization vs. decentralization debate, and presents a heuristic study of the administration…

  14. A Logic for Auditing Accountability in Decentralized Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Corin, R.J.; Etalle, Sandro; den Hartog, Jeremy; Lenzini, Gabriele; Staicu, I.

    We propose a language that allows agents to distribute data with usage policies in a decentralized architecture. In our framework, the compliance with usage policies is not enforced. However, agents may be audited by an authority at an arbitrary moment in time. We design a logic that allows audited

  15. Decentralized School vs. Centralized School. Investigation No. 3.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paseur, C. Herbert

    A report is presented of a comparative investigation of a decentralized and a centralized school facility. Comparative data are provided regarding costs of the facilities, amount of educational area provided by the facilities, and types of educational areas provided. Evaluative comments are included regarding cost savings versus educational…

  16. A STUDY ON THE SHAREHOLDERS’ BEHAVIOR OF LISTED COMPANIES BASED ON SYMBIOSIS THEORY: A RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

    OpenAIRE

    YANG Songling; LIU Tingli; CHEN Fang

    2014-01-01

    Research on shareholder’s behavior is a hot topic in recent years. Most researches are based on the theory of agency, which proposal that equity decentralization is the major way to solve the conflict problem between large shareholders and minority stockholders. Actually, major shareholder will never be eliminated. This paper introduces the symbiosis theory-ecology theory-to explain the motives and consequences of the behavior of different type shareholders in China’s from a new perspective. ...

  17. A techno-economic analysis of decentralized electrolytic hydrogen production for fuel cell vehicles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Prince-Richard, S.; Whale, M.; Djilali, N. [Victoria Univ., Inst. for Integrated Energy Systems, Victoria, BC (Canada)

    2005-09-01

    Hydrogen from decentralized water electrolysis is one of the main fuelling options considered for future fuel cell vehicles. In this study, a model is developed to determine the key technical and economic parameters influencing the competitive position of decentralized electrolytic hydrogen. This model incorporates the capital, maintenance and energy costs of water electrolysis, as well as a monetary valuation of the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is used to analyze the competitive position of electrolytic hydrogen in three specific locations with distinct electricity mix: Vancouver, Los Angeles and Paris. Using local electricity prices and fuel taxes, electrolytic hydrogen is found to be commercially viable in Vancouver and Paris. Hydrogen storage comes out as the most important technical issue. But more than any technical issue, electricity prices and fuel taxes emerge as the two dominant issues affecting the competitive position of electrolytic hydrogen. The monetary valuation of GHG emissions, based on a price of $20/ton of CO{sub 2}, is found to be generally insufficient to tilt the balance in favor of electrolytic hydrogen. (Author)

  18. Performance of centralized versus decentralized tuberculosis treatment services in Southern Brazil, 2006-2015.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheffer, Mara Cristina; Prim, Rodrigo Ivan; Wildner, Leticia Muraro; Medeiros, Taiane Freitas; Maurici, Rosemeri; Kupek, Emil; Bazzo, Maria Luiza

    2018-04-25

    Tuberculosis (TB) control programs face the challenges of decreasing incidence, mortality rates, and drug resistance while increasing treatment adherence. The Brazilian TB control program recommended the decentralization of patient care as a strategy for combating the disease. This study evaluated the performance of this policy in an area with high default rates, comparing epidemiological and operational indicators between two similar municipalities. This study analyzed epidemiological and operational indicators on new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis reported in the Brazilian Notifiable Diseases Information System between 2006 and 2015. In addition, to characterize differences between the populations of the two studied municipalities, a prospective cohort study was conducted between 2014 and 2015, in which patients with new cases of culture-confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis were interviewed and monitored until the disease outcome. A descriptive analysis, the chi-square test, and a Poisson regression model were employed to compare TB treatment outcomes and health care indicators between the municipalities. Two thousand three hundred nine cases were evaluated, of which 207 patients were interviewed. Over the 2006-2015 period, TB incidence per 100,000 population in the municipality with decentralized care was significantly higher (39%, 95% CI 27-49%) in comparison to that of the municipality with centralized care. TB treatment default rate (45%, 95% CI 12-90%) was also higher in the municipality with decentralized care. During the two-year follow-up, significant differences were found between patients in centralized care and those in decentralized care regarding treatment success (84.5 vs. 66.1%), treatment default (10.7 vs. 25.8%), illicit drug use (27.7 vs. 45.9%), and homelessness (3.6 vs. 12.9%). The operational indicators revealed that the proportion of control smear tests, medical imaging, and HIV tests were all significantly higher in the centralized care

  19. Decentralized Wastewater Management Solutions for Improved Public Health Protection and Reclamation: Optimization and Application

    OpenAIRE

    Naik, Kartiki Shirish

    2014-01-01

    Centralized wastewater treatment, widely practiced in developed areas, involves transporting wastewater from large urban or industrial areas to a large capacity plant using a single network of sewers. Alternatively, the concept of wastewater collection, treatment and reuse at or near its point of generation is called decentralized wastewater treatment. Smaller decentralized plants with energy-efficient reclaimed water pumping, modularization of expansion and minimum capital investment can mee...

  20. Fears of Redistribution, Decentralization and Secession: Evidence from Bolivia’s Referendum for Departmental Autonomy

    OpenAIRE

    Werner L. Hernani-Limarino

    2006-01-01

    Recent years have witnessed strong movements toward decentralization and secession. The former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovaquia and Serbia and Montenegro have disintegrated. Movements for regional autonomy and even independence have gained larger support in Bolivia, Canada, Spain, France and Italy. What is the importance of redistributive politics in explaining decentralization and secession outcomes in a democratic polity? This paper attempts to answer this question building a simpl...

  1. Financial decentralization and its impact on local finance system of Ukraine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. V. Mizina

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The article researches the influence of the process of financial decentralization system on local finance system in Ukraine. Author determined the basic transformations of local finances system as a result of reform measures and ways to adapt to new conditions. The basic characteristics of the changing role of public authorities and local governments, their relationships and relationships in the system, strengthening public participation in decision­making of local importance are revealed. The main requirements of local finances taking into account the impact of fiscal decentralization processes are formulated. They include the formation of an effective and sustainable framework for the mobilization of financial resources within each territorial community; providing sufficient resources for sustainable and dynamic development at the local level; improve management of local finances with the application process and project approaches. An action plan to change the system of local finance Ukraine in the context of fiscal decentralization on a 5­year period is proposed. The action plan envisages normalization of regulatory provisions in the area of local finance, training local government officials, development resources, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the current system of local finance.

  2. RIGHT TO ACCESS INFORMATION IN DECENTRALIZED INDONESIA: A SOCIO-LEGAL INQUIRY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Herlambang Perdana Wiratraman

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Indonesia is no longer an authoritarian country, and no longer centralized government. Decentralization processes since 1999 has changed local democratization in a wider participation. Nevertheless, the culture of openness and incorrupt have been far from the more ideal situation. Bribery, corruption and unresponsive public services have been continuously and more systematic taking place. In that context, the Government of Indonesia enacted Law No. 14 of 2008 concerning Public Information Openness (Keterbukaan Informasi Publik or called PIO Law, which is implemented since 30 April 2010. The PIO law is believed to contribute to the better decentralization processes and economic-political democratization at local level. Nevertheless, although right to access information was guaranteed by law, but it has been applied in limited process. Such situation actually gives clear evidence that decentralized Indonesia should be questioned, especially in terms of how the right to access information has been applied in a meaningful way after the enactment PIO Law in 2008 and, what the dominant problems in implementing right to access information are. This article will elaborate the norms and practices of PIO Law by using the rule of law point of view.

  3. The Role of Delay and Connectivity in Throughput Reduction of Cooperative Decentralized Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmed Alkhayyat

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available We proposed a multiple relay selection protocol for decentralized wireless networks. The proposed relays selection protocol aims to address three issues: (1 selecting relays within the coverage area of the source and destination to ensure that the relays are positioned one hop away from the destination, (2 ensuring that the best node (best relays with less distance and attenuation from the destination access the channel first, and (3 ensuring that the proposed relays selection is collision-free. Our analysis also considers three important characteristics of decentralized wireless networks that are directly affected by cooperation: delay, connectivity, and throughput. The main goal of this paper is to demonstrate that improving connectivity and increasing number of relays reduce the throughput of cooperative decentralized wireless networks; consequently, a trade-off equation has been derived.

  4. Coalition or decentralization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mahdiraji, Hannan Amoozad; Govindan, Kannan; Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras

    2014-01-01

    retailers. The Nash equilibrium and definition are used bearing in mind inventory and pricing and marketing cost as decision variables for this matter. This paper studies a three-echelon supply chain network and focuses on the value of integrating a pair of partners in the chain. In the decentralized case......, the supplier sets its own price, the manufacturer points out order quantity, wholesale price and backorder quantity, and the retailer charges the final retail price of the product and marketing product. Though there are multiple players at a single echelon level, each manufacturer supplies only a specific...... to enforce marketing effort any more. Supplier-manufacturer integration brings similar benefits. Under each scenario, all parties involved simultaneously set their strategies. Through a numerical experiment, 17 design cases (through designing experiments) have been developed and the total profit...

  5. Environmental aspects of decentralized electricity production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henry, J.P.

    1991-01-01

    Renewable energy sources are the focus of considerable interest because they do not place future generations at risk; the development of cogeneration has been favorably received on the whole because it uses energy that would otherwise be lost. Difficulties are sometimes encountered in the development of small-scale hydroelectric facilities (older facilities negative aspects, over production impression in France, etc.). Environmental protection regulations do not distinguish between centralized and decentralized electricity production, but between large and small production facilities

  6. Witnet: A Decentralized Oracle Network Protocol

    OpenAIRE

    de Pedro, Adán Sánchez; Levi, Daniele; Cuende, Luis Iván

    2017-01-01

    Witnet is a decentralized oracle network (DON) that connects smart contracts to the outer world. Generally speaking, it allows any piece of software to retrieve the contents published at any web address at a certain point in time, with complete and verifiable proof of its integrity and without blindly trusting any third party. Witnet runs on a blockchain with a native protocol token (called Wit), which miners-called witnesses-earn by retrieving, attesting and delivering web contents for clien...

  7. Impact on continuity of care of decentralized versus partly centralized mental health care in Northern Norway

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lars Henrik Myklebust

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: The issue of continuity of care is central in contemporary psychiatric services research. In Norway, inpatient admissions are mainly to take place locally, in a system of small bed-units that represent an alternative to traditional central psychiatric hospitals. This type of organization may be advantageous for accessibility and cooperation, but has been given little scientific attention.Aims: To study whether inpatients' utilization of outpatient services differ between an area with a decentralized care model in comparison to an adjacent area with a partly centralized model.  Method: The study was based on data from a one-year registered prevalence sample, drawing on routinely sampled data supplemented with data from medical records. Service-utilization for 247 inpatients was analyzed. The results were controlled for diagnosis, demographic variables, type of service system, localization of inpatient admissions, and length of hospitalization. Results: Most inpatients in the area with the decentralized care model also utilized outpatient consultations, whereas a considerable number of inpatients in the area with a partly centralized model did not enter outpatient care at all. Type of service system, localization of inpatient admission, and length of hospitalization predicted inpatients' utilization of outpatient consultations. The results are discussed in the light of systems integration, particularly management-arrangements and clinical bridging over the transitional phase from inpatient to outpatient care. Conclusion: Inpatients' utilization of outpatient services differed between an area with a decentralized care model in comparison to an adjacent area with a partly centralized care model. In the areas studied, extensive decentralization of the psychiatric services positively affected coordination of inpatient and outpatient services for people with severe psychiatric disorders. Small, local-bed units may therefore represent a

  8. Impact on continuity of care of decentralized versus partly centralized mental health care in Northern Norway

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lars Henrik Myklebust

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: The issue of continuity of care is central in contemporary psychiatric services research. In Norway, inpatient admissions are mainly to take place locally, in a system of small bed-units that represent an alternative to traditional central psychiatric hospitals. This type of organization may be advantageous for accessibility and cooperation, but has been given little scientific attention. Aims: To study whether inpatients' utilization of outpatient services differ between an area with a decentralized care model in comparison to an adjacent area with a partly centralized model.   Method: The study was based on data from a one-year registered prevalence sample, drawing on routinely sampled data supplemented with data from medical records. Service-utilization for 247 inpatients was analyzed. The results were controlled for diagnosis, demographic variables, type of service system, localization of inpatient admissions, and length of hospitalization.  Results: Most inpatients in the area with the decentralized care model also utilized outpatient consultations, whereas a considerable number of inpatients in the area with a partly centralized model did not enter outpatient care at all. Type of service system, localization of inpatient admission, and length of hospitalization predicted inpatients' utilization of outpatient consultations. The results are discussed in the light of systems integration, particularly management-arrangements and clinical bridging over the transitional phase from inpatient to outpatient care.  Conclusion: Inpatients' utilization of outpatient services differed between an area with a decentralized care model in comparison to an adjacent area with a partly centralized care model. In the areas studied, extensive decentralization of the psychiatric services positively affected coordination of inpatient and outpatient services for people with severe psychiatric disorders. Small, local-bed units may therefore

  9. Impact on continuity of care of decentralized versus partly centralized mental health care in Northern Norway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myklebust, Lars Henrik; Olstad, Reidun; Bjorbekkmo, Svein; Eisemann, Martin; Wynn, Rolf; Sørgaard, Knut

    2011-01-01

    Background The issue of continuity of care is central in contemporary psychiatric services research. In Norway, inpatient admissions are mainly to take place locally, in a system of small bed-units that represent an alternative to traditional central psychiatric hospitals. This type of organization may be advantageous for accessibility and cooperation, but has been given little scientific attention. Aims To study whether inpatients’ utilization of outpatient services differ between an area with a decentralized care model in comparison to an adjacent area with a partly centralized model. Method The study was based on data from a one-year registered prevalence sample, drawing on routinely sampled data supplemented with data from medical records. Service-utilization for 247 inpatients was analyzed. The results were controlled for diagnosis, demographic variables, type of service system, localization of inpatient admissions, and length of hospitalization. Results Most inpatients in the area with the decentralized care model also utilized outpatient consultations, whereas a considerable number of inpatients in the area with a partly centralized model did not enter outpatient care at all. Type of service system, localization of inpatient admission, and length of hospitalization predicted inpatients’ utilization of outpatient consultations. The results are discussed in the light of systems integration, particularly management-arrangements and clinical bridging over the transitional phase from inpatient to outpatient care. Conclusion Inpatients’ utilization of outpatient services differed between an area with a decentralized care model in comparison to an adjacent area with a partly centralized care model. In the areas studied, extensive decentralization of the psychiatric services positively affected coordination of inpatient and outpatient services for people with severe psychiatric disorders. Small, local-bed units may therefore represent a favourable alternative

  10. A Novel Decentralized Economic Operation in Islanded AC Microgrids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hua Han

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Droop schemes are usually applied to the control of distributed generators (DGs in microgrids (MGs to realize proportional power sharing. The objective might, however, not suit MGs well for economic reasons. Addressing that issue, this paper proposes an alternative droop scheme for reducing the total active generation costs (TAGC. Optimal economic operation, DGs’ capacity limitations and system stability are fully considered basing on DGs’ generation costs. The proposed scheme utilizes the frequency as a carrier to realize the decentralized economic operation of MGs without communication links. Moreover, a fitting method is applied to balance DGs’ synchronous operation and economy. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed scheme are verified through simulations and experiments.

  11. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF TAX ADMINISTRATION IN THE CONDITIONS OF DECENTRALIZATION IN EUROPE AND UKRAINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonid Mogilevskyi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is a comparative analysis of the administrative and legal regulation of tax administration in European countries and in Ukraine and the definition of ways to improve domestic legislation in this field on this basis. The subject of the study is the administrative and legal principles of tax administration in the conditions of decentralization of state power. Methodology. The study is based on a comparison of the foreign experience of legal regulation and collection of local taxes by using the example of European states with the current state of the process of introducing tax decentralization in Ukraine. Due to the use of this amount of general scientific and specialscientific methods and methods of scientific knowledge, the content of the administrative and legal foundations of tax administration, as well as legal phenomena such as tax decentralization, were characterized and defined. The conclusions that we made helped us to determine the specifics of their administrative-legal regulation in some countries of Europe and in Ukraine. The results of the conducted comparative legal study made it possible to prove the direct impact of tax decentralization on the mechanism of tax administration and the systematic organization of tax authorities. These processes have a predominantly positive impact on macroeconomic processes, they broaden the rights and opportunities of local authorities regarding the use of funds by local governments, forecasting and approving regional budgets, and managing taxes and fees. Practical impact. The administration of taxes in the conditions of decentralization in Europe can be characterized by a high level of efficiency and functionality of the work of the territorial tax-control bodies. This experience is really necessary for Ukraine, where the activities of local self-government in some areas are limited by the central apparatus. Value/originality. A comparative legal study of world experience in

  12. Assessment and evaluation of PV based decentralized rural electrification: An overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chaurey, Akanksha; Kandpal, Tara Chandra

    2010-01-01

    The challenges of providing electricity to rural households are manifold. Ever increasing demand-supply gap, crumbling electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, high cost of delivered electricity are a few of these. Use of renewable energy technologies for meeting basic energy needs of rural communities has been promoted by the Governments world over for many decades. Photovoltaic (PV) technology is one of the first among several renewable energy technologies that was adopted globally as well as in India for meeting basic electricity needs of rural areas that are not connected to the grid. This paper attempts at reviewing and analyzing PV literature pertaining to decentralized rural electrification into two main categories - (1) experiences from rural electrification and technology demonstration programmes covering barriers and challenges in marketing and dissemination; institutional and financing approaches; and productive and economic applications, (2) techno-economic aspects including system design methodologies and approaches; performance evaluation and monitoring; techno-economic comparison of various systems; and environmental implications and life cycle analysis. The paper discusses the emerging trends in its concluding remarks. (author)

  13. Quantifying risk for decentralized offensive cyber operations

    OpenAIRE

    Klipstein, Michael S.

    2017-01-01

    Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited Includes supplementary material. Reissued 7 Sep 2017 with corrections to committee titles. Computer networks and the amount of information stored within government computer networks have become ubiquitous. With the possible decentralization of authorities to conduct offensive cyber operations, leaders and their respective staffs of organizations below the national level cannot adequately assess risks and consequences of these ope...

  14. Decentralized Local Services for Improvement of Quality of Life in the Republic of Macedonia, Case Study Tetovo Municipality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Memet Memeti

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available The process of decentralization in Macedonia began in July 2005, after the adaption of theconstitutional amendments made which triggered the process of the decentralization in the Republic ofMacedonia. Having in mind that the decentralization implied structural changes in the Macedonian politicalsystem and in relations between the central and the local government, the implementation of the process ofthe decentralization was designed with a phased approach in order to accommodate the local governmentinstitutions with the new competencies. Among others the process of decentralization had an objective tobring the local authorities closer to the citizens through provision of quality local services. In addition it aimsto provide an opportunity for broader participation and representation of the citizens in their communities.This paper attempts to answer three main questions related to quality public services: - The process ofdecentralization has helped to improve the quality of public services? - What areas of public services undermunicipal jurisdiction are satisfied with it? - How much would you like to be informed about communityactivities? In this paper we are going to analyze the findings from the field research about the quality ofpublic service that provide the municipality of Tetovo of R. Macedonia. The paper focuses on the satisfactionon the public services and provides recommendations for future improvement of the decentralized publicservices in the Republic of Macedonia.

  15. Centralization versus decentralization as a risk-return trade-off

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Arcuri, A.; Dari-Mattiacci, G.

    2010-01-01

    This paper characterizes the choice between centralization and decentralization as a risk‐return trade‐off and examines it in a model that integrates ideas from committee decision‐making and portfolio theories. Centralization, by pooling expertise, rarely yields erroneous decisions; however, when it

  16. Toward decentralized analysis of mercury (II) in real samples. A critical review on nanotechnology-based methodologies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Botasini, Santiago; Heijo, Gonzalo; Méndez, Eduardo

    2013-10-24

    In recent years, it has increased the number of works focused on the development of novel nanoparticle-based sensors for mercury detection, mainly motivated by the need of low cost portable devices capable of giving fast and reliable analytical response, thus contributing to the analytical decentralization. Methodologies employing colorimetric, fluorometric, magnetic, and electrochemical output signals allowed reaching detection limits within the pM and nM ranges. Most of these developments proved their suitability in detecting and quantifying mercury (II) ions in synthetic solutions or spiked water samples. However, the state of art in these technologies is still behind the standard methods of mercury quantification, such as cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma techniques, in terms of reliability and sensitivity. This is mainly because the response of nanoparticle-based sensors is highly affected by the sample matrix. The developed analytical nanosystems may fail in real samples because of the negative incidence of the ionic strength and the presence of exchangeable ligands. The aim of this review is to critically consider the recently published innovations in this area, and highlight the needs to include more realistic assays in future research in order to make these advances suitable for on-site analysis. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. The contribution of fiscal/financial decentralization to the debt expansion of the local financing platform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huayang, Yin; Di, Zhou; Bing, Cui

    2018-02-01

    Using soft budget theory to explore the formation mechanism and the deep institutional incentive of the local financing platform debt expansion from the perspective of fiscal / financial decentralization, construct theoretical framework which explain the expansion of local debt financing platform and conduct an empirical test, the results showed that the higher the degree of fiscal decentralization, fiscal autonomy as a soft constraint body of local government the stronger, local financing platform debt scale is greater; the higher the degree of financial decentralization, local government and financial institutions have the higher autonomy with respect to the central, local financing platform debt scale is bigger; financial synergy degree is stronger, local government financial mutual supervision prompted the local government debt more transparency, local debt financing platform size is smaller.

  18. Individual-based modeling of ecological and evolutionary processes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    DeAngelis, D.L.; Mooij, W.M.

    2005-01-01

    Individual-based models (IBMs) allow the explicit inclusion of individual variation in greater detail than do classical differential and difference equation models. Inclusion of such variation is important for continued progress in ecological and evolutionary theory. We provide a conceptual basis

  19. Landscape ecological security assessment based on projection pursuit in Pearl River Delta.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Yang; Wu, Zhifeng; Lou, Quansheng; Huang, Huamei; Cheng, Jiong; Chen, Zhangli

    2012-04-01

    Regional landscape ecological security is an important issue for ecological security, and has a great influence on national security and social sustainable development. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) in southern China has experienced rapid economic development and intensive human activities in recent years. This study, based on landscape analysis, provides a method to discover the alteration of character among different landscape types and to understand the landscape ecological security status. Based on remotely sensed products of the Landsat 5 TM images in 1990 and the Landsat 7 ETM+ images in 2005, landscape classification maps of nine cities in the PRD were compiled by implementing Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System technology. Several indices, including aggregation, crush index, landscape shape index, Shannon's diversity index, landscape fragile index, and landscape security adjacent index, were applied to analyze spatial-temporal characteristics of landscape patterns in the PRD. A landscape ecological security index based on these outcomes was calculated by projection pursuit using genetic algorithm. The landscape ecological security of nine cities in the PRD was thus evaluated. The main results of this research are listed as follows: (1) from 1990 to 2005, the aggregation index, crush index, landscape shape index, and Shannon's diversity index of nine cities changed little in the PRD, while the landscape fragile index and landscape security adjacent index changed obviously. The landscape fragile index of nine cities showed a decreasing trend; however, the landscape security adjacent index has been increasing; (2) from 1990 to 2005, landscape ecology of the cities of Zhuhai and Huizhou maintained a good security situation. However, there was a relatively low value of ecological security in the cities of Dongguan and Foshan. Except for Foshan and Guangzhou, whose landscape ecological security situation were slightly improved, the cities had reduced

  20. From centralization to decentralization in Chinese higher education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaohong Qian

    2004-12-01

    Full Text Available Since the late 1970’s, the Chinese government has been gradually changing its traditional policy for providing higher education and has begun to emphasize the comprehensiveness of the universities. Interdisciplinary cooperation and the synergization of resources are being promoted, and institutional autonomy is gradually increasing. Schools and faculties have been restored in universities, and new research institutions, research schools, research centers and the like have been established. From a unitary three-level model— university/department/ teaching and research group—before the reform, the organizational structures of the universities have developed a new organizational structure that is more flexible and more open. This more adaptable structure is intended to meet the developmental demands of modern universities with close links being created between their work and regional economic and social development. China has moved from a very centralized educational system in which the main decisions were taken by the central government to a decentralized educational system. This reform is also taking place within the institutions of higher education, and their internal organizational structure has also become more decentralized.

  1. U-Form vs. M-Form: How to Understand Decision Autonomy Under Healthcare Decentralization? Comment on "Decentralisation of Health Services in Fiji: A Decision Space Analysis".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bustamante, Arturo Vargas

    2016-06-07

    For more than three decades healthcare decentralization has been promoted in developing countries as a way of improving the financing and delivery of public healthcare. Decision autonomy under healthcare decentralization would determine the role and scope of responsibility of local authorities. Jalal Mohammed, Nicola North, and Toni Ashton analyze decision autonomy within decentralized services in Fiji. They conclude that the narrow decision space allowed to local entities might have limited the benefits of decentralization on users and providers. To discuss the costs and benefits of healthcare decentralization this paper uses the U-form and M-form typology to further illustrate the role of decision autonomy under healthcare decentralization. This paper argues that when evaluating healthcare decentralization, it is important to determine whether the benefits from decentralization are greater than its costs. The U-form and M-form framework is proposed as a useful typology to evaluate different types of institutional arrangements under healthcare decentralization. Under this model, the more decentralized organizational form (M-form) is superior if the benefits from flexibility exceed the costs of duplication and the more centralized organizational form (U-form) is superior if the savings from economies of scale outweigh the costly decision-making process from the center to the regions. Budgetary and financial autonomy and effective mechanisms to maintain local governments accountable for their spending behavior are key decision autonomy variables that could sway the cost-benefit analysis of healthcare decentralization. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

  2. On the efficiency of decentralized exchange with resale possibilities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Groes, Ebbe; Tranæs, Torben

    1999-01-01

    . If resale is possible and transaction costs are negligible, we would nevertheless expect an efficient allocation to result from decentralized exchange. This paper suggests that this depends on the nature of the commodity; while the allocation of a durable good will be efficient, the allocation...

  3. Strategic Alignment: Recruiting Students in a Highly Decentralized Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levin, Richard

    2016-01-01

    All enrollment managers face some level of challenge related to decentralized decision making and operations. Policies and practices can vary considerably by academic area, creating administrative complexity, restricting the scope and speed of institutional initiatives, and limiting potential efficiencies. Central attempts to standardize or…

  4. Mountainous areas and decentralized energy planning: Insights from Greece

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Katsoulakos, Nikolas M.; Kaliampakos, Dimitris C.

    2016-01-01

    Mountainous areas have particular characteristics, whose influence on energy planning is explored in this paper, through a suitably tailored methodology applied to the case of Greece. The core element of the methodology is a linear optimization model with a “total cost” objective function, which includes financial, as well as external costs and benefits. Altitude proves to have decisive influence on energy optimization results, because it affects energy demand. The improvement of local energy systems provides greater socioeconomic benefits in mountainous settlements, due to the high shares of renewables and energy efficiency interventions in the optimal solutions. Energy poverty can be alleviated by redesigning local energy systems and the structure of the energy market. However, spatial and aesthetic restrictions, presented often in mountainous settlements, may affect the operational costs of energy systems, which is a crucial parameter for confronting energy poverty. Furthermore, the study indicates that it could be better to electrify remote areas, far from electricity grids, by decentralized systems than by grid expansion. The results of this study and the assumptions made about the way in which energy market should function, could be utilized for reconsidering energy policy measures, aiming at supporting sensitive societies to improve their development perspectives. - Highlights: •The influence of mountains' characteristics on energy planning was analyzed. •Optimal energy solutions present differentiations with respect to altitude. •Greater socioeconomic benefits by energy optimization in mountainous areas. •Remoteness favors the development of decentralized energy systems. •The study is based on data from Greece.

  5. Participatory scenario planning in place-based social-ecological research

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rozas, Elisa Oteros; Martín-López, Berta; Daw, Tim M.

    2015-01-01

    Participatory scenario planning (PSP) is an increasingly popular tool in place-based environmental research for evaluating alternative futures of social-ecological systems. Although a range of guidelines on PSP methods are available in the scientific and grey literature, there is a need to reflect......, hence facilitating the appropriate uptake of such scenario tools in the future. We analyzed 23 PSP case studies conducted by the authors in a wide range of social-ecological settings by exploring seven aspects: (1) the context; (2) the original motivations and objectives; (3) the methodological approach...... of PSP, particularly when tailored to shared objectives between local people and researchers, has enriched environmental management and scientific research through building common understanding and fostering learning about future planning of social-ecological systems. However, PSP still requires greater...

  6. The role of various actors in achieving the administrative decentralization process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatiana CASTRAŞAN

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Under the current conditions, when all attention is paid to primary tasks of rule of law, cultural and economic development, strengthening of rule of law in society, role of public administration prevail as the main task of the state. The public administrations system it is inseparably linked to the implementation of state policy through the activities they perform. In particular, it emphasizes the role of local authorities as a basic factor of the localities development and achieving a set of objectives, which implies a special responsibility submitted to elected officials and civil servants. As an activity, local administration have the aim to obtain some certain political values expressed by law. And the most important is to satisfy the general interest of a local community. Thereby, the phenomenon of administrative decentralization reaches the maximum attention , because the essence of a local government is that it is closer to the citizen and it serves him. The need of local authorities appear when exist a local community with common interests. That’s why, it is an analyze why this problem of decentralization it is permanently a current topic. Local autonomy and decentralization are the corner stones of organization and functioning of local public administration authorities.

  7. Unifying ecology and macroevolution with individual-based theory

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rosindell, James; Harmon, Luke J.; Etienne, Rampal S.

    A contemporary goal in both ecology and evolutionary biology is to develop theory that transcends the boundary between the two disciplines, to understand phenomena that cannot be explained by either field in isolation. This is challenging because macroevolution typically uses lineage-based models,

  8. FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF DECENTRALIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Bilyk

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper studies issues of strengthening the financial basis of regional development as a component of economic security policy and one of the most important areas of administrative decentralization in Ukraine. Main problems of regional development financing identified, ineffectiveness of inter-budget relations proved and the obstacles for accumulation of financial resources of local communities determined. It has been shown that main consequence of regional financial “weakness” was the inability to concentrate resources for prior investment projects and activities of regional development. The measures for strengthening of the financial security of regions in the context of regional policy objectives and according to the announced decentralization and fiscal reforms in regions offered. It is proved that for strengthening the financial base of support for regional development and ensuring self-sufficiency of territorial communities, in terms of the objectives of the new regional policy, it is necessary: to gradually expand the list of instruments used by local authorities to increase the amount of cool tools; disseminate program-target method of compilation and execution of local budgets with the aim of increasing transparency and efficiency of use of budgetary funds; to organize intergovernmental relations, to increase the share of targeted funding, to ensure the formation of horizontal intergovernmental relations; to provide for the expansion of the revenue base of local budgets, transfer of shares separate national taxes, the search for extra-budgetary financial resources.

  9. [Ecological risk assessment of Taihu Lake basin based on landscape pattern].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Xiao Ping; Chen, Zhi Cong; Wang, Fang; Bai, Mao Wei; Xu, Wen Yang

    2017-10-01

    Taihu Lake basin was selected as the study site. Based on the landscape data of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, the Markov and CLUE-S models were used to simulate the landscape types with different scenarios in 2030, and landscape ecological risk index was constructed. The shift of gravity center and spatial statistics were used to reveal landscape ecological risk of Taihu Lake basin with temporal and spatial characteristics. The results showed that the ecological risk mainly was at medium and low levels in Taihu Lake basin, and the higher ecological risk areas were mainly distributed at the Taihu Lake area during 2000 to 2015, and the low ecological risk was transferred from the southwest and south of Taihu Lake to the developed areas in the northern part of Taihu Lake area. Spatial analysis showed that landscape ecological risk had negative correlation with natural factors, which was weakened gradually, while the correlation with socioeconomic factors trended to become stronger, with human disturbance affecting the landscape ecological risk significantly. The impact of socioeconomic factors on landscape ecological risks differed in different urbanization stages. In the developing area, with the economic development, the landscape was increasingly fragmented and the ecological risk was correspondingly increased. While in the developed area, with the further development of the economy, the aggregation index was increased, and fragmentation and separation indexes were decreased, ecological construction was restored, and the landscape ecological risk began to decline. CLUE-S model simulation showed that the ecological risk of Taihu Lake basin would be reduced in future, mainly on the low and relatively low levels. Taihu Lake area, both in history and the future, is a high ecological risk zone, and its management and protection should be strengthened.

  10. Integrating Collaborative and Decentralized Models to Support Ubiquitous Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbosa, Jorge Luis Victória; Barbosa, Débora Nice Ferrari; Rigo, Sandro José; de Oliveira, Jezer Machado; Rabello, Solon Andrade, Jr.

    2014-01-01

    The application of ubiquitous technologies in the improvement of education strategies is called Ubiquitous Learning. This article proposes the integration between two models dedicated to support ubiquitous learning environments, called Global and CoolEdu. CoolEdu is a generic collaboration model for decentralized environments. Global is an…

  11. Users' perspectives on decentralized rural water services in Tanzania

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Masanyiwa, Z.S.; Niehof, A.; Termeer, C.J.A.M.

    2015-01-01

    This article examines the impact of decentralization reforms on improving access to domestic water supply in the rural districts of Kondoa and Kongwa, Tanzania, using a users' and a gender perspective. The article addresses the question whether and to what extent the delivery of gender-sensitive

  12. Macroeconomic aspects of decentralized electricity production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Percebois, J.

    1991-01-01

    The development of decentralized electricity production should be viewed first and foremost as a means of adapting production resources to meet the needs of the users between 1995 and 1997. Consumer production and cogeneration are not, however, simply stopgap solutions operating on the fringe of electricity production. These methods serve to highlight a problem that has already been raised in the past: the real advantages and disadvantages of centralized systems managed by companies that exercise a virtual monopoly in either the public or private sector

  13. Constitutional framework of the process of decentralization and public administration reform in Serbia and Croatia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Čiplić Svetozar M.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The work is devoted to the comparative analyze of the processes of the decentralization reorganization and reform of the public administration at the level of the horizontal governance organization in Serbia and Croatia. At the first part of the work the authors analyze the decentralization and devolution as well as their demarcation in the sense of their related but not similar meanings. The second part is devoted to the historical experiences and genesis foundations of the common state where Serbia and Croatia were joined. The particular historical developments of Serbia and Croatia influenced the present attitude of their political elites toward decentralization. The third, final part/conclusion, is dedicated to a comparative analyses of the constitutional solutions in Serbia and Croatia which are related to the vertical organization. .

  14. UnLynx: A Decentralized System for Privacy-Conscious Data Sharing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Froelicher David

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Current solutions for privacy-preserving data sharing among multiple parties either depend on a centralized authority that must be trusted and provides only weakest-link security (e.g., the entity that manages private/secret cryptographic keys, or leverage on decentralized but impractical approaches (e.g., secure multi-party computation. When the data to be shared are of a sensitive nature and the number of data providers is high, these solutions are not appropriate. Therefore, we present UnLynx, a new decentralized system for efficient privacy-preserving data sharing. We consider m servers that constitute a collective authority whose goal is to verifiably compute on data sent from n data providers. UnLynx guarantees the confidentiality, unlinkability between data providers and their data, privacy of the end result and the correctness of computations by the servers. Furthermore, to support differentially private queries, UnLynx can collectively add noise under encryption. All of this is achieved through a combination of a set of new distributed and secure protocols that are based on homomorphic cryptography, verifiable shuffling and zero-knowledge proofs. UnLynx is highly parallelizable and modular by design as it enables multiple security/privacy vs. runtime tradeoffs. Our evaluation shows that UnLynx can execute a secure survey on 400,000 personal data records containing 5 encrypted attributes, distributed over 20 independent databases, for a total of 2,000,000 ciphertexts, in 24 minutes.

  15. Human resources for health and decentralization policy in the Brazilian health system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pierantoni Celia

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Brazilian health reform process, following the establishment of the Unified Health System (SUS, has had a strong emphasis on decentralization, with a special focus on financing, management and inter-managerial agreements. Brazil is a federal country and the Ministry of Health (MoH, through the Secretary of Labour Management and Health Education, is responsible for establishing national policy guidelines for health labour management, and also for implementing strategies for the decentralization of management of labour and education in the federal states. This paper assesses whether the process of decentralizing human resources for health (HRH management and organization to the level of the state and municipal health departments has involved investments in technical, political and financial resources at the national level. Methods The research methods used comprise a survey of HRH managers of states and major municipalities (including capitals and focus groups with these HRH managers - all by geographic region. The results were obtained by combining survey and focus group data, and also through triangulation with the results of previous research. Results The results of this evaluation showed the evolution policy, previously restricted to the field of 'personnel administration', now expanded to a conceptual model for health labour management and education-- identifying progress, setbacks, critical issues and challenges for the consolidation of the decentralized model for HRH management. The results showed that 76.3% of the health departments have an HRH unit. It was observed that 63.2% have an HRH information system. However, in most health departments, the HRH unit uses only the payroll and administrative records as data sources. Concerning education in health, 67.6% of the HRH managers mentioned existing cooperation with educational and teaching institutions for training and/or specialization of health workers. Among them

  16. Human resources for health and decentralization policy in the Brazilian health system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierantoni, Celia Regina; Garcia, Ana Claudia P

    2011-05-17

    The Brazilian health reform process, following the establishment of the Unified Health System (SUS), has had a strong emphasis on decentralization, with a special focus on financing, management and inter-managerial agreements. Brazil is a federal country and the Ministry of Health (MoH), through the Secretary of Labour Management and Health Education, is responsible for establishing national policy guidelines for health labour management, and also for implementing strategies for the decentralization of management of labour and education in the federal states. This paper assesses whether the process of decentralizing human resources for health (HRH) management and organization to the level of the state and municipal health departments has involved investments in technical, political and financial resources at the national level. The research methods used comprise a survey of HRH managers of states and major municipalities (including capitals) and focus groups with these HRH managers - all by geographic region. The results were obtained by combining survey and focus group data, and also through triangulation with the results of previous research. The results of this evaluation showed the evolution policy, previously restricted to the field of 'personnel administration', now expanded to a conceptual model for health labour management and education-- identifying progress, setbacks, critical issues and challenges for the consolidation of the decentralized model for HRH management. The results showed that 76.3% of the health departments have an HRH unit. It was observed that 63.2% have an HRH information system. However, in most health departments, the HRH unit uses only the payroll and administrative records as data sources. Concerning education in health, 67.6% of the HRH managers mentioned existing cooperation with educational and teaching institutions for training and/or specialization of health workers. Among them, specialization courses account for 61.4% and short

  17. Decentralized manufacturing of cell and gene therapies: Overcoming challenges and identifying opportunities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrison, Richard P; Ruck, Steven; Medcalf, Nicholas; Rafiq, Qasim A

    2017-10-01

    Decentralized or "redistributed" manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the manufacturing approach for cell and gene therapies (CGTs), moving away from the "Fordist" paradigm, delivering health care locally, customized to the end user and, by its very nature, overcoming many of the challenges associated with manufacturing and distribution of high volume goods. In departing from the traditional centralized model of manufacturing, decentralized manufacturing divides production across sites or geographic regions. This paradigm shift imposes significant structural and organisational changes on a business presenting both hidden challenges that must be addressed and opportunities to be embraced. By profoundly adapting business practices, significant advantages can be realized through a democratized value chain, creation of professional-level jobs without geographic restriction to the central hub and a flexibility in response to external pressures and demands. To realize these potential opportunities, however, advances in manufacturing technology and support systems are required, as well as significant changes in the way CGTs are regulated to facilitate multi-site manufacturing. Decentralized manufacturing is likely to be the manufacturing platform of choice for advanced health care therapies-in particular, those with a high degree of personalization. The future success of these promising products will be enhanced by adopting sound business strategies early in development. To realize the benefits that decentralized manufacturing of CGTs has to offer, it is important to examine both the risks and the substantial opportunities present. In this research, we examine both the challenges and the opportunities this shift in business strategy represents in an effort to maximize the success of adoption. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. On sustainable development of uranium mining industry in China based on the concept of ecological security

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Shali; Tai Kaixuan

    2011-01-01

    Ecological security is an important issue for sustainable development of mining industry, on which the development of nuclear industry and nuclear power is based. But uranium mining and processing has larger effect on ecological environment which mainly include tailings, waste rock, waste water, and radiation effects. In this paper, the dialectical relationship between ecological security and sustainable relationship is analyzed, the ecological safety concept at home and abroad is compared and the role that ecological safety plays in the sustainable development of uranium mining based on analysis of restricting factors on uranium mining in China from the perspective of ecological security is also probed into. To achieve sustainable development of the uranium mining industry in China, an ecological security concept from four aspects must be established: 1) the concept of ecological security management; 2) the scientific concept of ecological security; 3) the concept of ecological security investment; and 4) the concept of ecological security responsibility. (authors)

  19. Decentralizing the Team Station: Simulation before Reality as a Best-Practice Approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charko, Jackie; Geertsen, Alice; O'Brien, Patrick; Rouse, Wendy; Shahid, Ammarah; Hardenne, Denise

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to share the logistical planning requirements and simulation experience of one Canadian hospital as it prepared its staff for the change from a centralized inpatient unit model to the decentralized design planned for its new community hospital. With the commitment and support of senior leadership, project management resources and clinical leads worked collaboratively to design a decentralized prototype in the form of a pod-style environment in the hospital's current setting. Critical success factors included engaging the right stakeholders, providing an opportunity to test new workflows and technology, creating a strong communication plan and building on lessons learned as subsequent pod prototypes are launched.

  20. Coordination in the Decentralized Assembly System with Dual Supply Modes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xu Guan

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates a decentralized assembly system that consists of one assembler and two independent suppliers; wherein one supplier is perfectly reliable for the production, while the other generates yield uncertainty. Facing the random market demand, the assembler has to order the components from one supplier in advance and meanwhile requires the other supplier to deliver the components under VMI mode. We construct a Nash game between the supplier and the assembler so as to derive their equilibrium procurement/production strategies. The results show that the channel’s performance is highly undermined by the decentralization between players and also the combination of two supply modes. Compared to the centralized system, we propose an advance payment contract to perfectly coordinate the supply chain performance. The numerical examples indicate some management implications on the supply mode comparison and sensitivity analysis.

  1. Decentralized control of transmission rates in energy-critical wireless networks

    KAUST Repository

    Xia, Li

    2013-06-01

    In this paper, we discuss the decentralized optimization of delay and energy consumption in a multi-hop wireless network. The goal is to minimize the energy consumption of energy-critical nodes and the overall packet transmission delay of the network. The transmission rates of energy-critical nodes are adjustable according to the local information of nodes, i.e., the length of packets queued. The multi-hop network is modeled as a queueing network.We prove that the system performance is monotone w.r.t. (with respect to) the transmission rate, thus the “bang-bang” control is an optimal control. We also prove that there exists a threshold type control policy which is optimal. We propose a decentralized algorithm to control transmission rates of these energy-critical nodes. Some simulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

  2. Decentralized control of transmission rates in energy-critical wireless networks

    KAUST Repository

    Xia, Li; Shihada, Basem

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we discuss the decentralized optimization of delay and energy consumption in a multi-hop wireless network. The goal is to minimize the energy consumption of energy-critical nodes and the overall packet transmission delay of the network. The transmission rates of energy-critical nodes are adjustable according to the local information of nodes, i.e., the length of packets queued. The multi-hop network is modeled as a queueing network.We prove that the system performance is monotone w.r.t. (with respect to) the transmission rate, thus the “bang-bang” control is an optimal control. We also prove that there exists a threshold type control policy which is optimal. We propose a decentralized algorithm to control transmission rates of these energy-critical nodes. Some simulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

  3. Influence of cardiac decentralization on cardioprotection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John G Kingma

    Full Text Available The role of cardiac nerves on development of myocardial tissue injury after acute coronary occlusion remains controversial. We investigated whether acute cardiac decentralization (surgical modulates coronary flow reserve and myocardial protection in preconditioned dogs subject to ischemia-reperfusion. Experiments were conducted on four groups of anesthetised, open-chest dogs (n = 32: 1- controls (CTR, intact cardiac nerves, 2- ischemic preconditioning (PC; 4 cycles of 5-min IR, 3- cardiac decentralization (CD and 4- CD+PC; all dogs underwent 60-min coronary occlusion and 180-min reperfusion. Coronary blood flow and reactive hyperemic responses were assessed using a blood volume flow probe. Infarct size (tetrazolium staining was related to anatomic area at risk and coronary collateral blood flow (microspheres in the anatomic area at risk. Post-ischemic reactive hyperemia and repayment-to-debt ratio responses were significantly reduced for all experimental groups; however, arterial perfusion pressure was not affected. Infarct size was reduced in CD dogs (18.6 ± 4.3; p = 0.001, data are mean ± 1 SD compared to 25.2 ± 5.5% in CTR dogs and was less in PC dogs as expected (13.5 ± 3.2 vs. 25.2 ± 5.5%; p = 0.001; after acute CD, PC protection was conserved (11.6 ± 3.4 vs. 18.6 ± 4.3%; p = 0.02. In conclusion, our findings provide strong evidence that myocardial protection against ischemic injury can be preserved independent of extrinsic cardiac nerve inputs.

  4. U-Form vs. M-Form: How to Understand Decision Autonomy Under Healthcare Decentralization?; Comment on “Decentralisation of Health Services in Fiji: A Decision Space Analysis”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arturo Vargas Bustamante

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available For more than three decades healthcare decentralization has been promoted in developing countries as a way of improving the financing and delivery of public healthcare. Decision autonomy under healthcare decentralization would determine the role and scope of responsibility of local authorities. Jalal Mohammed, Nicola North, and Toni Ashton analyze decision autonomy within decentralized services in Fiji. They conclude that the narrow decision space allowed to local entities might have limited the benefits of decentralization on users and providers. To discuss the costs and benefits of healthcare decentralization this paper uses the U-form and M-form typology to further illustrate the role of decision autonomy under healthcare decentralization. This paper argues that when evaluating healthcare decentralization, it is important to determine whether the benefits from decentralization are greater than its costs. The U-form and M-form framework is proposed as a useful typology to evaluate different types of institutional arrangements under healthcare decentralization. Under this model, the more decentralized organizational form (M-form is superior if the benefits from flexibility exceed the costs of duplication and the more centralized organizational form (U-form is superior if the savings from economies of scale outweigh the costly decision-making process from the center to the regions. Budgetary and financial autonomy and effective mechanisms to maintain local governments accountable for their spending behavior are key decision autonomy variables that could sway the cost-benefit analysis of healthcare decentralization.

  5. Grey water reclamation by decentralized MBR prototype

    OpenAIRE

    Santasmasas Rubiralta, Carme; Rovira Boixaderas, Miquel; Clarens Blanco, Frederic; Valderrama Angel, César Alberto

    2013-01-01

    Grey water treatment and reuse for non-drinking water requirements has become of great interest in arid and semi-arid zones where water resources are becoming both quantitatively and qualitatively scarce. In this study a decentralized and automatic MBR prototype has been designed and installed in the REMOSA facilities for treatment of low-load grey water to be recycled in flushing-toilet application. The recycling treatment of grey water comprises four stages: screening, biological oxidation,...

  6. Analyzing Von Neumann machines using decentralized symmetries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Jie

    2013-10-01

    The artificial intelligence method to e-business is defined not only by the study of fiber-optic cables, but also by the unproven need for vacuum tubes. Given the current status of virtual archetypes, theorists clearly desire the exploration of semaphores, which embodies the compelling principles of cryptoanalysis. We present an algorithm for probabilistic theory (Buck), which we use to disprove that write-back caches can be made decentralized, lossless, and reliable.

  7. The effects of fiscal decentralization in Albania

    OpenAIRE

    Dr.Sc. Blerta Dragusha; Dr.Sc. Elez Osmani

    2012-01-01

    “Basically decentralization is a democratic reform which seeks to transfer the political, administrative, financial and planning authority from central to local government. It seeks to develop civic participation, empowerment of local people in decision making process and to promote accountability and reliability: To achieve efficiency and effectiveness in the collection and management of resources and service delivery”1 The interest and curiosity of knowing how our country is doing in th...

  8. ecological geological maps: GIS-based evaluation of the Geo-Ecological Quality Index (GEQUI) in Sicily (Central Mediterranean)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nigro, Fabrizio; Arisco, Giuseppe; Perricone, Marcella; Renda, Pietro; Favara, Rocco

    2010-05-01

    The condition of landscapes and the ecological communities within them is strongly related to levels of human activity. As a consequence, determining status and trends in the pattern of human-dominated landscapes can be useful for understanding the overall conditions of geo-ecological resources. Ecological geological maps are recent tools providing useful informations about a-biotic and biotic features worldwide. These maps represents a new generation of geological maps and depict the lithospheric components conditions on surface, where ecological dynamics (functions and properties) and human activities develop. Thus, these maps are too a fundamental political tool to plan the human activities management in relationship to the territorial/environmental patterns of a date region. Different types of ecological geological maps can be develop regarding the: conditions (situations), zoning, prognosis and recommendations. The ecological geological conditions maps reflects the complex of parameters or individual characteristics of lithosphere, which characterized the opportunity of the influence of lithosphere components on the biota (man, fauna, flora, and ecosystem). The ecological geological zoning maps are foundamental basis for prognosis estimation and nature defenses measures. Estimation from the position of comfort and safety of human life and function of ecosystem is given on these maps. The ecological geological prognosis maps reflect the spatial-temporary prognoses of ecological geological conditions changing during the natural dynamic of natural surrounding and the main-during the economic mastering of territory and natural technical systems. Finally, the ecological geological recommendation maps are based on the ecological geological and social-economical informations, aiming the regulation of territory by the regulation of economic activities and the defense of bio- and socio-sphere extents. Each of these maps may also be computed or in analytic or in

  9. Decentralization, Interdependence and Performance Measurement System Design : Sequences and Priorities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Abernethy, M.; Bouwens, J.F.M.G.; van Lent, L.A.G.M.

    2001-01-01

    We investigate the determinants of decentralization and performance measurement choices in multidivisional firms.We extend the research on the economics of organizational design choices by examining the impact of two important determinants of those choices, namely, subunit interdependencies and

  10. The Outward Extension of an Ecological Footprint in City Expansion: The Case of Beijing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaodi Xie

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available A biologically productive area was used in the ecological footprint method to measure the demand and impact of human activities on the natural capital, and further, to judge whether the impact is within the scope of the regional bio-capacity. In this presentation, an indicator “ecological footprint distance (Def” is proposed. The results indicated that the proposed indicator Def could identify the outward extension of a city’s ecological footprint with the city’s rapid expansion. From 2008 to 2012, the proportion of imported bio-capacity increased approximately from 48% to 64%, which implied that the ecological impact of Beijing had expanded year by year. The Def of Beijing increased from 567 km in 2008 to 677 km in 2012, with an average annual increase of about 25 km. From the perspective of seasonal change, Beijing’s ecological footprint distance in winter and spring was much higher than in summer and fall. The main features of provincial-spatial distribution of Beijing’s Def were as follows: grain and oil and meat and eggs were mainly supplied by Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei and Inner Mongolia; yet vegetable and fruit were mainly supplied by Hainan, Guangdong, Hebei and Shandong. Measures should be taken to decentralize the sources of imported bio-capacity, so as to ensure a sustainable development in Metropolitan cities.

  11. A two-level discount model for coordinating a decentralized supply chain considering stochastic price-sensitive demand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heydari, Jafar; Norouzinasab, Yousef

    2015-12-01

    In this paper, a discount model is proposed to coordinate pricing and ordering decisions in a two-echelon supply chain (SC). Demand is stochastic and price sensitive while lead times are fixed. Decentralized decision making where downstream decides on selling price and order size is investigated. Then, joint pricing and ordering decisions are extracted where both members act as a single entity aim to maximize whole SC profit. Finally, a coordination mechanism based on quantity discount is proposed to coordinate both pricing and ordering decisions simultaneously. The proposed two-level discount policy can be characterized from two aspects: (1) marketing viewpoint: a retail price discount to increase the demand, and (2) operations management viewpoint: a wholesale price discount to induce the retailer to adjust its order quantity and selling price jointly. Results of numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed policy is suitable to coordinate SC and improve the profitability of SC as well as all SC members in comparison with decentralized decision making.

  12. Decision Making Configurations: An Alternative to the Centralization/Decentralization Conceptualization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cullen, John B.; Perrewe, Pamela L.

    1981-01-01

    Used factors identified in the literature as predictors of centralization/decentralization as potential discriminating variables among several decision making configurations in university affiliated professional schools. The model developed from multiple discriminant analysis had reasonable success in classifying correctly only the decentralized…

  13. Reply to Comment on ‘Energy and air emission implications of a decentralized wastewater system’

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shehabi, Arman; Stokes, Jennifer R; Horvath, Arpad

    2013-01-01

    Complementing centralized water-related infrastructure with decentralized facilities is being considered in some communities and a life-cycle perspective is needed for informed decision making. Our 2012 study presents a framework for analyzing the environmental effects of decentralized wastewater systems. While the analysis framework could be applied to cases with a variety of sizes, we evaluated two currently operating systems in California, one decentralized and one centralized plant with a much larger capacity. The disparate scales of the two plants represent an ‘off-the-grid’ suburban neighborhood-scale system compared with a similarly sized neighborhood connecting to an adjacent large centralized plant. Deciding whether or not to connect expanding developments to nearby centralized plants is a realistic scenario for future growth, making the treatment plants evaluated in our study a realistic choice for comparison. (reply)

  14. Independence and Collaboration; Why We Should Decentralize Writing Centers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Louise Z.

    1986-01-01

    Notes the inevitable tensions that arise between centripetal writing centers and centrifugal writing across the curriculum programs. Examines the tutoring program at an eastern university as an example of a decentralized writing center that resists pressures to assume a uniform composition pedagogy and coordinates its work with many parts of the…

  15. Production of rapeseed oil fuel in decentralized oil extraction plants. Handbook. 2. new rev. and enl. ed.; Herstellung von Rapsoelkraftstoff in dezentralen Oelgewinnungsanlagen. Handbuch

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Remmele, Edgar [Technologie- und Foerderzentrum (TFZ) im Kompetenzzentrum fuer Nachwachsende Rohstoffe, Straubing (Germany)

    2009-11-15

    Increasing oil prices, the dependence on petroleum imports and the desire to reduce the CO{sub 2} emissions, are arguments to accelerate the production and utilization of biofuels. In 2007, 3.3 million tons of biodiesel and 772,000 tons of vegetable oil were used as fuel. The technically and economically successful production of rapeseed oil fuel in decentralized oil mills requires a quality assurance. Specifically, the brochure under consideration reports on the following: (1) Oilseed processing; (2) Centralized oil production in Germany; (3) Design of a decentralized oil mill; (4) Production of rapeseed oil fuel in decentralized systems; (5) Quality assurance for rapeseed oil fuel in decentralized oil mills; (6) Properties of rapeseed oil fuel; (7) Quality of rapeseed oil fuel from decentralized oil mills; (8) Economic aspects of decentralized oil extraction; (9) Legal framework conditions.

  16. Brief Report: Decentralizing ART Supply for Stable HIV Patients to Community-Based Distribution Centers: Program Outcomes From an Urban Context in Kinshasa, DRC.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogt, Florian; Kalenga, Lucien; Lukela, Jean; Salumu, Freddy; Diallo, Ibrahim; Nico, Elena; Lampart, Emmanuel; Van den Bergh, Rafael; Shah, Safieh; Ogundahunsi, Olumide; Zachariah, Rony; Van Griensven, Johan

    2017-03-01

    Facility-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) provision for stable patients with HIV congests health services in resource-limited countries. We assessed outcomes and risk factors for attrition after decentralization to community-based ART refill centers among 2603 patients with HIV in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, using a multilevel Poisson regression model. Death, loss to follow-up, and transfer out were 0.3%, 9.0%, and 0.7%, respectively, at 24 months. Overall attrition was 5.66/100 person-years. Patients with >3 years on ART, >500 cluster of differentiation type-4 count, body mass index >18.5, and receiving nevirapine but not stavudine showed reduced attrition. ART refill centers are a promising task-shifting model in low-prevalence urban settings with high levels of stigma and poor ART coverage.

  17. A Decentralized Wireless Solution to Monitor and Diagnose PV Solar Module Performance Based on Symmetrized-Shifted Gompertz Functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molina-García, Angel; Campelo, José Carlos; Blanc, Sara; Serrano, Juan José; García-Sánchez, Tania; Bueso, María C.

    2015-01-01

    This paper proposes and assesses an integrated solution to monitor and diagnose photovoltaic (PV) solar modules based on a decentralized wireless sensor acquisition system. Both DC electrical variables and environmental data are collected at PV module level using low-cost and high-energy efficiency node sensors. Data is real-time processed locally and compared with expected PV module performances obtained by a PV module model based on symmetrized-shifted Gompertz functions (as previously developed and assessed by the authors). Sensor nodes send data to a centralized sink-computing module using a multi-hop wireless sensor network architecture. Such integration thus provides extensive analysis of PV installations, and avoids off-line tests or post-processing processes. In comparison with previous approaches, this solution is enhanced with a low-cost system and non-critical performance constraints, and it is suitable for extensive deployment in PV power plants. Moreover, it is easily implemented in existing PV installations, since no additional wiring is required. The system has been implemented and assessed in a Spanish PV power plant connected to the grid. Results and estimations of PV module performances are also included in the paper. PMID:26230694

  18. A Decentralized Wireless Solution to Monitor and Diagnose PV Solar Module Performance Based on Symmetrized-Shifted Gompertz Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angel Molina-García

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes and assesses an integrated solution to monitor and diagnose photovoltaic (PV solar modules based on a decentralized wireless sensor acquisition system. Both DC electrical variables and environmental data are collected at PV module level using low-cost and high-energy efficiency node sensors. Data is real-time processed locally and compared with expected PV module performances obtained by a PV module model based on symmetrized-shifted Gompertz functions (as previously developed and assessed by the authors. Sensor nodes send data to a centralized sink-computing module using a multi-hop wireless sensor network architecture. Such integration thus provides extensive analysis of PV installations, and avoids off-line tests or post-processing processes. In comparison with previous approaches, this solution is enhanced with a low-cost system and non-critical performance constraints, and it is suitable for extensive deployment in PV power plants. Moreover, it is easily implemented in existing PV installations, since no additional wiring is required. The system has been implemented and assessed in a Spanish PV power plant connected to the grid. Results and estimations of PV module performances are also included in the paper.

  19. A Decentralized Wireless Solution to Monitor and Diagnose PV Solar Module Performance Based on Symmetrized-Shifted Gompertz Functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molina-García, Angel; Campelo, José Carlos; Blanc, Sara; Serrano, Juan José; García-Sánchez, Tania; Bueso, María C

    2015-07-29

    This paper proposes and assesses an integrated solution to monitor and diagnose photovoltaic (PV) solar modules based on a decentralized wireless sensor acquisition system. Both DC electrical variables and environmental data are collected at PV module level using low-cost and high-energy efficiency node sensors. Data is real-time processed locally and compared with expected PV module performances obtained by a PV module model based on symmetrized-shifted Gompertz functions (as previously developed and assessed by the authors). Sensor nodes send data to a centralized sink-computing module using a multi-hop wireless sensor network architecture. Such integration thus provides extensive analysis of PV installations, and avoids off-line tests or post-processing processes. In comparison with previous approaches, this solution is enhanced with a low-cost system and non-critical performance constraints, and it is suitable for extensive deployment in PV power plants. Moreover, it is easily implemented in existing PV installations, since no additional wiring is required. The system has been implemented and assessed in a Spanish PV power plant connected to the grid. Results and estimations of PV module performances are also included in the paper.

  20. Provincial-level Land Consolidation and Ecological Environment Protection Based on the Perspective of Planning

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Chen; Liu, Xin-feng; Peng, Zhe; Si, Tao; Yang, Lin-li

    2012-01-01

    Based on the understanding of current land ecological environment in Anhui Province, we mainly analyze the relationship between land consolidation planning and ecological environment, and point out the problems concerning ecological environment, such as great soil erosion, serious soil pollution, frequent geological disasters in local areas, and forest vegetation destruction. We divide the key ecological function conservation areas into the following areas: River Source Area, River and Flood ...

  1. RBCA-based approaches to ecological risk assessment for TPH-contaminated areas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hummell, R.; Vedagiri, U.

    1995-01-01

    The RBCA guidelines proposed by ASTM form an evaluation and decision-making framework for sites potentially contaminated by petroleum releases. They present a three-tiered approach of decreasing conservatism and increasing site-specificity that primarily evaluates risks to human health. While RBCA includes consideration of environmental impacts, there are no specific recommendations on how this is to be achieved. A RBCA-based ecological risk assessment approach was developed for TPH-contaminated areas in Alaska. The approach presents a habitat-based selection process for surrogate chemicals and indicator chemicals of ecological relevance, evaluation of ecotoxicity, derivation of matrix-specific Tier 1 RBSLs (including soils) and determination of Tier 2 and 3 SSTLS. Chemicals are considered by class, aquatic (freshwater and saltwater) and terrestrial habitats are evaluated independently, and chemical concentrations are screened in all media of concern (air, soil, water, sediment). Data needs and decision points specific to ecological receptors are identified for each tier of the approach. Other aspects of the approach include consideration of contaminant migration pathways and habitats that are typical of Arctic conditions. Areas where ecological and human risk concerns may overlap are identified

  2. Decentralized Receding Horizon Control and Coordination of Autonomous Vehicle Formations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Keviczky, T.; Borelli, F.; Fregene, K.; Godbole, D.; Bals, G.J.

    2008-01-01

    This paper describes the application of a novel methodology for high-level control and coordination of autonomous vehicle teams and its demonstration on high-fidelity models of the organic air vehicle developed at Honeywell Laboratories. The scheme employs decentralized receding horizon controllers

  3. The rise of governmentality in the Italian National Health System: physiology or pathology of a decentralized and (ongoing) federalist system?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lega, Federico; Sargiacomo, Massimo; Ianni, Luca

    2010-11-01

    In this paper, we aim to discuss the implications and lessons that can be learnt from the ongoing process of federalism affecting the Italian National Health System (INHS). Many countries are currently taking decisions concerning the decentralization or re-centralization of their health-care systems, with several key issues that are illustrated in the recent history of the INHS. The decentralization process of INHS has produced mixed results, as some regions took advantage of it to strengthen their systems, whereas others were not capable of developing an effective steering role. We argue that the mutual reinforcement of the decentralization and recentralization processes is not paradoxical, but is actually an effective way for the State to maintain control over the equity and efficiency of its health-care system while decentralizing at a regional level. In this perspective, we provide evidence backing up some of the assumptions made in previous works as well as new food-for thought - specifically on how governmentality and federalism should meet - to reshape the debate on decentralization in health care.

  4. Data Reduction with Quantization Constraints for Decentralized Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Weng

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The unknown vector estimation problem with bandwidth constrained wireless sensor network is considered. In such networks, sensor nodes make distributed observations on the unknown vector and collaborate with a fusion center to generate a final estimate. Due to power and communication bandwidth limitations, each sensor node must compress its data and transmit to the fusion center. In this paper, both centralized and decentralized estimation frameworks are developed. The closed-form solution for the centralized estimation framework is proposed. The computational complexity of decentralized estimation problem is proven to be NP-hard and a Gauss-Seidel algorithm to search for an optimal solution is also proposed. Simulation results show the good performance of the proposed algorithms.

  5. Distributed and decentralized state estimation in gas networks as distributed parameter systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmadian Behrooz, Hesam; Boozarjomehry, R Bozorgmehry

    2015-09-01

    In this paper, a framework for distributed and decentralized state estimation in high-pressure and long-distance gas transmission networks (GTNs) is proposed. The non-isothermal model of the plant including mass, momentum and energy balance equations are used to simulate the dynamic behavior. Due to several disadvantages of implementing a centralized Kalman filter for large-scale systems, the continuous/discrete form of extended Kalman filter for distributed and decentralized estimation (DDE) has been extended for these systems. Accordingly, the global model is decomposed into several subsystems, called local models. Some heuristic rules are suggested for system decomposition in gas pipeline networks. In the construction of local models, due to the existence of common states and interconnections among the subsystems, the assimilation and prediction steps of the Kalman filter are modified to take the overlapping and external states into account. However, dynamic Riccati equation for each subsystem is constructed based on the local model, which introduces a maximum error of 5% in the estimated standard deviation of the states in the benchmarks studied in this paper. The performance of the proposed methodology has been shown based on the comparison of its accuracy and computational demands against their counterparts in centralized Kalman filter for two viable benchmarks. In a real life network, it is shown that while the accuracy is not significantly decreased, the real-time factor of the state estimation is increased by a factor of 10. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Decentralizing Maternity Services to Increase Skilled Attendance at Birth and Antenatal Care Utilization in Rural Rwanda: A Prospective Cohort Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nathan, Lisa M.; Shi, Quihu; Plewniak, Kari; Zhang, Charles; Nsabimana, Damien; Sklar, Marc; Mutimura, Eugene; Merkatz, Irwin R.; Einstein, Mark H.; Anastos, Kathryn

    2015-01-01

    To evaluate the effectiveness of decentralizing ambulatory reproductive and intrapartum services to increase rates of antenatal care (ANC) utilization and skilled attendance at birth (SAB) in Rwanda. A prospective cohort study was implemented with one control and two intervention sites: decentralized ambulatory reproductive healthcare and decentralized intrapartum care. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed with primary outcome of lack of SAB and secondary outcome of ≥3 ANC visits. 536 women were entered in the study. Distance lived from delivery site significantly predicted SAB (p = 0.007), however distance lived to ANC site did not predict ≥3 ANC visits (p = 0.81). Neither decentralization of ambulatory reproductive healthcare (p = 0.10) nor intrapartum care (p = 0.40) was significantly associated with SAB. The control site had the greatest percentage of women receive ≥3 ANC visits (p < 0.001). Receiving <3 ANC visits was associated with a 3.98 times greater odds of not having SAB (p = 0.001). No increase in adverse outcomes was found with decentralization of ambulatory reproductive health care or intrapartum care. The factors that predict utilization of physically accessible services in rural Africa are complex. Decentralization of services may be one strategy to increase rates of SAB and ANC utilization, but selection biases may have precluded accurate analysis. Efforts to increase ANC utilization may be a worthwhile investment to increase SAB. PMID:25652061

  7. Individual-based ecology of coastal birds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stillman, Richard A; Goss-Custard, John D

    2010-08-01

    Conservation objectives for non-breeding coastal birds (shorebirds and wildfowl) are determined from their population size at coastal sites. To advise coastal managers, models must predict quantitatively the effects of environmental change on population size or the demographic rates (mortality and reproduction) that determine it. As habitat association models and depletion models are not able to do this, we developed an approach that has produced such predictions thereby enabling policy makers to make evidence-based decisions. Our conceptual framework is individual-based ecology, in which populations are viewed as having properties (e.g. size) that arise from the traits (e.g. behaviour, physiology) and interactions of their constituent individuals. The link between individuals and populations is made through individual-based models (IBMs) that follow the fitness-maximising decisions of individuals and predict population-level consequences (e.g. mortality rate) from the fates of these individuals. Our first IBM was for oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus and accurately predicted their density-dependent mortality. Subsequently, IBMs were developed for several shorebird and wildfowl species at several European sites, and were shown to predict accurately overwinter mortality, and the foraging behaviour from which predictions are derived. They have been used to predict the effect on survival in coastal birds of sea level rise, habitat loss, wind farm development, shellfishing and human disturbance. This review emphasises the wider applicability of the approach, and identifies other systems to which it could be applied. We view the IBM approach as a very useful contribution to the general problem of how to advance ecology to the point where we can routinely make meaningful predictions of how populations respond to environmental change.

  8. (DeCentralization of Public Procurement at the Local Level in the EU

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Boštjan BREZOVNIK

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The so-called decentralization of public procurement in EU Member States is accepted as the most suitable design of the public procurement system, often justifi ed by greater economic effi ciency and by the possibility of boosting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, which act on the public procurement market as providers of goods, services and works. Despite the existence of highly decentralized public procurement systems which refl ect the decentralization of administrative systems, especially after the recession, there is a stronger tendency for centralization of public procurement in the EU. The so-called aggregation of demand by contracting authorities can be done in order to achieve economies of scale, including lower prices and transaction costs as well as to improve and professionalize the management of procurement procedures (as highlighted in the Directive 2014/24/EU by the European Parliament and the EU Council. However, even in the context of public procurement centralization, local contracting authorities (i.e., public administration authorities and organizations in Member States should be provided with a suffi ciently wide range of possible (centralized organizational structures and contractual (vertical and horizontal public-public partnerships which will allow them to select the most suitable and most economically effective organizational structure for the execution of public procurement.

  9. Decentralized Formation Flying Control in a Multiple-Team Hierarchy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller, Joseph .; Thomas, Stephanie J.

    2005-01-01

    This paper presents the prototype of a system that addresses these objectives-a decentralized guidance and control system that is distributed across spacecraft using a multiple-team framework. The objective is to divide large clusters into teams of manageable size, so that the communication and computational demands driven by N decentralized units are related to the number of satellites in a team rather than the entire cluster. The system is designed to provide a high-level of autonomy, to support clusters with large numbers of satellites, to enable the number of spacecraft in the cluster to change post-launch, and to provide for on-orbit software modification. The distributed guidance and control system will be implemented in an object-oriented style using MANTA (Messaging Architecture for Networking and Threaded Applications). In this architecture, tasks may be remotely added, removed or replaced post-launch to increase mission flexibility and robustness. This built-in adaptability will allow software modifications to be made on-orbit in a robust manner. The prototype system, which is implemented in MATLAB, emulates the object-oriented and message-passing features of the MANTA software. In this paper, the multiple-team organization of the cluster is described, and the modular software architecture is presented. The relative dynamics in eccentric reference orbits is reviewed, and families of periodic, relative trajectories are identified, expressed as sets of static geometric parameters. The guidance law design is presented, and an example reconfiguration scenario is used to illustrate the distributed process of assigning geometric goals to the cluster. Next, a decentralized maneuver planning approach is presented that utilizes linear-programming methods to enact reconfiguration and coarse formation keeping maneuvers. Finally, a method for performing online collision avoidance is discussed, and an example is provided to gauge its performance.

  10. Centralization and decentralization in energy systems and associated risks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rehm, W.; Schinner, F.; Kromp, W.

    1998-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: the concept of centralization/decentralization is - considering its widespread use - surprisingly ill-defined. Within the SERF-program (Socio Economic Research on Fusion) an attempt is made to clarify the complex issue of centralization/decentralization and to analyze its expected interaction with electricity production system in the case of nuclear fusion. Fusion research at the time is a multinational, highly centralized undertaking. As a result of this, and due to the expected large energy production units, it is generally expected that fusion will be embedded in a highly centralized, international energy supply system. The degree of centralization of an energy supply system, however, is believed to have for reaching consequences on the stability of the system, and beyond that, on decision making processes in energy policy, as well as democratic structures on the national or even international level. Internationalization might require control instruments that do not exist so far. Amongst other reservations, it is the possibly unwanted consequences of such a highly centralized, international energy supply system that limit acceptance of the fusion technology in the public. Therefore, centralization and decentralization trends of energy supply systems over the years are being looked at, to study their influence on the political and social systems (and vice-versa). In a first step, an attempt is made to classify centralization. Careful analyses and evaluation of available literature revealed a broad spectrum of different forms and degrees of centralization. Various parameters describing energy production and distribution are used. A differentiation of centralization on a technical and on an organizational level seems necessary, although they are not fully independent of each other. Beyond this, the choice of parameters must depend on the questions to be addressed. A new approach defining different levels and degrees of

  11. Centralization and decentralization in energy systems and associated risks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rehm, W.; Schinner, F.; Kromp, W. [Vienna Univ., Institute of Risk Research, IRR (Austria)

    1998-07-01

    Full text of publication follows: the concept of centralization/decentralization is - considering its widespread use - surprisingly ill-defined. Within the SERF-program (Socio Economic Research on Fusion) an attempt is made to clarify the complex issue of centralization/decentralization and to analyze its expected interaction with electricity production system in the case of nuclear fusion. Fusion research at the time is a multinational, highly centralized undertaking. As a result of this, and due to the expected large energy production units, it is generally expected that fusion will be embedded in a highly centralized, international energy supply system. The degree of centralization of an energy supply system, however, is believed to have for reaching consequences on the stability of the system, and beyond that, on decision making processes in energy policy, as well as democratic structures on the national or even international level. Internationalization might require control instruments that do not exist so far. Amongst other reservations, it is the possibly unwanted consequences of such a highly centralized, international energy supply system that limit acceptance of the fusion technology in the public. Therefore, centralization and decentralization trends of energy supply systems over the years are being looked at, to study their influence on the political and social systems (and vice-versa). In a first step, an attempt is made to classify centralization. Careful analyses and evaluation of available literature revealed a broad spectrum of different forms and degrees of centralization. Various parameters describing energy production and distribution are used. A differentiation of centralization on a technical and on an organizational level seems necessary, although they are not fully independent of each other. Beyond this, the choice of parameters must depend on the questions to be addressed. A new approach defining different levels and degrees of

  12. Requirements for Secure Logging of Decentralized Cross-Organizational Workflow Executions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wombacher, Andreas; Wieringa, Roelf J.; Jonker, Willem; Knezevic, P.; Pokraev, S.; meersman, R; Tari, Z; herrero, p; Méndez, G.; Cavedon, L.; Martin, D.; Hinze, A.; Buchanan, G.

    2005-01-01

    The control of actions performed by parties involved in a decentralized cross-organizational workflow is done by several independent workflow engines. Due to the lack of a centralized coordination control, an auditing is required which supports a reliable and secure detection of malicious actions

  13. Towards Integrating Political Ecology into Resilience-Based Management

    OpenAIRE

    Amy Quandt

    2016-01-01

    One of the biggest challenges faced today is how to sustainably manage social-ecological systems for both ecological conservation and human wellbeing. This paper explores two approaches to understanding such systems: resilience thinking and political ecology. Resilience thinking is a framework that emerged over the last 40 years as a management strategy for social-ecological systems, and a resilient social-ecological system is capable of absorbing disturbances and still retaining its basic fu...

  14. From social network (centralized vs. decentralized) to collective decision-making (unshared vs. shared consensus).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sueur, Cédric; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis; Petit, Odile

    2012-01-01

    Relationships we have with our friends, family, or colleagues influence our personal decisions, as well as decisions we make together with others. As in human beings, despotism and egalitarian societies seem to also exist in animals. While studies have shown that social networks constrain many phenomena from amoebae to primates, we still do not know how consensus emerges from the properties of social networks in many biological systems. We created artificial social networks that represent the continuum from centralized to decentralized organization and used an agent-based model to make predictions about the patterns of consensus and collective movements we observed according to the social network. These theoretical results showed that different social networks and especially contrasted ones--star network vs. equal network--led to totally different patterns. Our model showed that, by moving from a centralized network to a decentralized one, the central individual seemed to lose its leadership in the collective movement's decisions. We, therefore, showed a link between the type of social network and the resulting consensus. By comparing our theoretical data with data on five groups of primates, we confirmed that this relationship between social network and consensus also appears to exist in animal societies.

  15. Study on autonomous decentralized-cooperative function monitoring system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuoka, Takeshi; Numano, Masayoshi; Someya, Minoru; Fukuto, Junji; Mitomo, Nobuo; Miyazaki, Keiko; Matsukura, Hiroshi

    1998-01-01

    In this study, on a base of result of a nuclear substrate cross-over study on 'Artificial intelligence for nuclear plant' promoted by 5 years plan since 1989 fiscal year, further developed studies are conducted. The studies are promoted by next 5 years plan on following 6 items: (1) Study on stratified expression technique of autonomous function. (2) Study on expression technique of motion state in decentralized-cooperative function. (3) Study on expression technique of decision making process. (4) Integration to operation control system. (5) Integration to maintenance system. And, (6) Comprehensive evaluation experiment. In 1996 fiscal year, improvement and investigation on automatic classification function of plant state were executed. And, preparation of development environment for expression of robot group motion state was conducted. Furthermore, communication experiment using network to realize integration to operation control and maintenance systems and periodical meetings with other institutes were conducted. (G.K.)

  16. Decentralized identification of nonlinear structure under strong ground motion using the extended Kalman filter and unscented Kalman filter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Dongwang; Li, Hui; Ma, Qiang

    2016-04-01

    Complete structure identification of complicate nonlinear system using extend Kalman filter (EKF) or unscented Kalman filter (UKF) may have the problems of divergence, huge computation and low estimation precision due to the large dimension of the extended state space for the system. In this article, a decentralized identification method of hysteretic system based on the joint EKF and UKF is proposed. The complete structure is divided into linear substructures and nonlinear substructures. The substructures are identified from the top to the bottom. For the linear substructure, EKF is used to identify the extended space including the displacements, velocities, stiffness and damping coefficients of the substructures, using the limited absolute accelerations and the identified interface force above the substructure. Similarly, for the nonlinear substructure, UKF is used to identify the extended space including the displacements, velocities, stiffness, damping coefficients and control parameters for the hysteretic Bouc-Wen model and the force at the interface of substructures. Finally a 10-story shear-type structure with multiple inter-story hysteresis is used for numerical simulation and is identified using the decentralized approach, and the identified results are compared with those using only EKF or UKF for the complete structure identification. The results show that the decentralized approach has the advantage of more stability, relative less computation and higher estimation precision.

  17. Progress and challenges in utilization of palm oil biomass as fuel for decentralized electricity generation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bazmi, Aqeel Ahmed [Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering, University Technology Malaysia, Skudai 81310, Johor Bahru, JB (Malaysia); Biomass Conversion Research Center (BCRC), Department of Chemical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore (Pakistan); Zahedi, Gholamreza; Hashim, Haslenda [Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering, University Technology Malaysia, Skudai 81310, Johor Bahru, JB (Malaysia)

    2011-01-15

    It has been broadly accepted worldwide that global warming, indeed, is the greatest threat of the time to the environment. Renewable energy (RE) is expected as a perfect solution to reduce global warming and to endorse sustainable development. Progressive release of greenhouse gases (GHG) from increasing energy-intensive industries has eventually caused human civilization to suffer. Realizing the exigency of reducing emissions and simultaneously catering to needs of industries, researchers foresee the RE as the perfect entrant to overcome these challenges. RE provides an effective option for the provision of energy services from the technical point of view while biomass, a major source of energy in the world until before industrialization when fossil fuels become dominant, appears an important renewable source of energy and researches have proven from time to time its viability for large-scale production. Being a widely spread source, biomass offers the execution of decentralized electricity generation gaining importance in liberalized electricity markets. The decentralized power is characterized by generation of electricity nearer to the demand centers, meeting the local energy needs. Researchers envisaged an increasing decentralization of power supply, expected to make a particular contribution to climate protection. This article investigates the progress and challenges for decentralized electricity generation by palm oil biomass according to the overall concept of sustainable development. (author)

  18. Challenges to the implementation of health sector decentralization in Tanzania: experiences from Kongwa district council

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frumence, Gasto; Nyamhanga, Tumaini; Mwangu, Mughwira; Hurtig, Anna-Karin

    2013-01-01

    Background During the 1990s, the government of Tanzania introduced the decentralization by devolution (D by D) approach involving the transfer of functions, power and authority from the centre to the local government authorities (LGAs) to improve the delivery of public goods and services, including health services. Objective This article examines and documents the experiences facing the implementation of decentralization of health services from the perspective of national and district officials. Design The study adopted a qualitative approach, and data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were analysed for themes and patterns. Results The results showed several benefits of decentralization, including increased autonomy in local resource mobilization and utilization, an enhanced bottom-up planning approach, increased health workers’ accountability and reduction of bureaucratic procedures in decision making. The findings also revealed several challenges which hinder the effective functioning of decentralization. These include inadequate funding, untimely disbursement of funds from the central government, insufficient and unqualified personnel, lack of community participation in planning and political interference. Conclusion The article concludes that the central government needs to adhere to the principles that established the local authorities and grant more autonomy to them, offer special incentives to staff working in the rural areas and create the capacity for local key actors to participate effectively in the planning process. PMID:23993021

  19. Progress and challenges in utilization of palm oil biomass as fuel for decentralized electricity generation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bazmi, Aqeel Ahmed; Zahedi, Gholamreza; Hashim, Haslenda

    2011-01-01

    It has been broadly accepted worldwide that global warming, indeed, is the greatest threat of the time to the environment. Renewable energy (RE) is expected as a perfect solution to reduce global warming and to endorse sustainable development. Progressive release of greenhouse gases (GHG) from increasing energy-intensive industries has eventually caused human civilization to suffer. Realizing the exigency of reducing emissions and simultaneously catering to needs of industries, researchers foresee the RE as the perfect entrant to overcome these challenges. RE provides an effective option for the provision of energy services from the technical point of view while biomass, a major source of energy in the world until before industrialization when fossil fuels become dominant, appears an important renewable source of energy and researches have proven from time to time its viability for large-scale production. Being a widely spread source, biomass offers the execution of decentralized electricity generation gaining importance in liberalized electricity markets. The decentralized power is characterized by generation of electricity nearer to the demand centers, meeting the local energy needs. Researchers envisaged an increasing decentralization of power supply, expected to make a particular contribution to climate protection. This article investigates the progress and challenges for decentralized electricity generation by palm oil biomass according to the overall concept of sustainable development. (author)

  20. On the Feasibility of Decentralized Derivatives Markets

    OpenAIRE

    Eskandari, Shayan; Clark, Jeremy; Sundaresan, Vignesh; Adham, Moe

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we present Velocity, a decentralized market deployed on Ethereum for trading a custom type of derivative option. To enable the smart contract to work, we also implement a price fetching tool called PriceGeth. We present this as a case study, noting challenges in development of the system that might be of independent interest to whose working on smart contract implementations. We also apply recent academic results on the security of the Solidity smart contract language in valida...

  1. Hungry Unlike the Wolf: Ecology, Posthumanism, Narratology in Fred Vargas’s Seeking Whom He May Devour

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Parham

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines posthumanism as a philosophical position equipped to inform ecocriticism and the potential of popular fiction to articulate ecological complexity. Posthumanism will be reappraised as a dialectical model that decentres the human in relation to ‘evolutionary, ecological, or technological coordinates’ (Wolfe 2010: xvi while nevertheless retaining a sense of the integrity of, and boundaries between, human and nonhuman species or phenomena. It will be argued that a novelistic emphasis on human being, agency, and action, coupled with devices of genre, plot, atnd narrative – are consistent with the process of human self‐examinaion engendered by posthumanism. The essay will, thereafter, illustrate and examine this approach through the French crime writer Fred Vargas’s1999 novel Seeking Whom He May Devour. Identifying two human protagonists – the Canadian conservationist Johnstone and his girlfriend Camille – an initial decentring of the human subject will be examined in relation to two equivalent, nonhuman protagonists, the French Alps and the wolf. Utilising newspaper interviews that highlight Vargas’s own posthumanist perspective (grounded in her profession as an archaeologist, I will examine a how the novel explores appropriate relationships between human and nonhuman animals; b how Vargas utilises both the generic features of the crime novel – e.g. the resolution of a ‘crime’ – and the subtle narrative manipulations of character focalisation to construct (via the preferred ‘point of iew’ offered by Camille a posthumanist position on human/animal relations which argas explicitly opposes to the inhumanism represented by Johnstone.

  2. Reaction Diffusion and Chemotaxis for Decentralized Gathering on FPGAs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bernard Girau

    2009-01-01

    and rapid simulations of the complex dynamics of this reaction-diffusion model. Then we describe the FPGA implementation of the environment together with the agents, to study the major challenges that must be solved when designing a fast embedded implementation of the decentralized gathering model. We analyze the results according to the different goals of these hardware implementations.

  3. The Relationship Between Traffic Stability and Capacity for Decentralized Airspace

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sunil, E.; Maas, J.B.; Ellerbroek, J.; Hoekstra, J.M.; Tra, M.A.P.

    2016-01-01

    The work that is presented in this paper is part of an ongoing study on the relationship between structure and capacity of decentralized airspace concepts. In this paper, the effect of traffic stability, which considers the occurrence of conflict chain reactions as a result of conflict resolution

  4. Centralization and Decentralization of Schools' Physical Facilities Management in Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikoya, Peter O.

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: This research aims to examine the difference in the availability, adequacy and functionality of physical facilities in centralized and decentralized schools districts, with a view to making appropriate recommendations to stakeholders on the reform programmes in the Nigerian education sector. Design/methodology/approach: Principals,…

  5. Fast and Reliable Primary Frequency Reserves From Refrigerators with Decentralized Stochastic Control

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vrettos, Evangelos; Ziras, Charalampos; Andersson, Goran

    2016-01-01

    in the controller to account for thermostat resolution limitations, and finally, we modify the control design to account for refrigerator door openings. Extensive simulations with actual frequency signal data and with different aggregation sizes, load characteristics, and control parameters, demonstrate......Due to increasing shares of renewable energy sources, more frequency reserves are required to maintain power system stability. In this paper, we present a decentralized control scheme that allows a large aggregation of refrigerators to provide Primary Frequency Control (PFC) reserves to the grid...... based on local frequency measurements and without communication. The control is based on stochastic switching of refrigerators depending on the frequency deviation. We develop methods to account for typical lockout constraints of compressors and increased power consumption during the startup phase...

  6. An Inquiry-Based Laboratory Design for Microbial Ecology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tessier, Jack T.; Penniman, Clayton A.

    2006-01-01

    There is a collective need to increase the use of inquiry-based instruction at the college level. This paper provides of an example of how inquiry was successfully used in the laboratory component of an undergraduate course in microbial ecology. Students were offered a collection of field and laboratory methods to choose from, and they developed a…

  7. [An emergy-ecological footprint model based evaluation of ecological security at the old industrial area in Northeast China: A case study of Liaoning Province.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Qing; Lu, Cheng Peng; Zhou, Feng; Geng, Yong; Jing, Hong Shuang; Ren, Wan Xia; Xue, Bing

    2016-05-01

    Based on the integrated model of emergy-ecological footprint approaches, the ecological security of Liaoning Province, a typical case for the old industrial area, was quantitatively evaluated from 2003 to 2012, followed by a scenario analysis on the development trend of the ecological secu-rity by employing the gray kinetic model. The results showed that, from 2003 to 2012, the value of emergy ecological-capacity per capita in Liaoning Province decreased from 3.13 hm 2 to 3.07 hm 2 , while the emergy-ecological footprint increased from 13.88 hm 2 to 21.96 hm 2 , which indicated that the ecological deficit existed in Liaoning Province and the situation was getting worse. The ecological pressure index increased from 4.43 to 7.16 during the studied period, and the alert level of ecological security changed from light to middle level. According to the development trend, the emergy ecological capacity per capita during 2013-2022 would correspondingly decrease from 3.04 hm 2 to 2.98 hm 2 , while the emergy ecological footprint would increase from 22.72 hm 2 to 35.87 hm 2 , the ecological pressure index would increase from 7.46 to 12.04, and the ecological deficit would keep increasing and the ecological security level would slide into slightly unsafe condition. The alert level of ecological security would turn to be middle or serious, suggesting the problems in ecological safety needed to be solved urgently.

  8. FBC utilization prospects in decentralized cogeneration units in Caucasus region countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Skodras George

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Great differences are encountered among Caucasus region countries with respect to energy resources reserves and economic conditions. Thermal power plants consist of obsolete and inefficient units, while the Soviet-type large heating systems in the area collapsed after 1992 and their reconstruction is considered uneconomic. Renovation needs of the power and heat sector, and the potential of Fluidised Bed Combustion implementations in decentralized cogeneration units were investigated, since operating oil and gas power plants exhibit high fuel consumption, low efficiency and poor environmental performance. Results showed significant prospects of Fluidised Bed Combustion utilization in decentralized cogeneration units in the Caucausus region heat and power sector. Their introduction constitutes an economically attractive way to cover power and heat demands and promotes utilization of domestic energy resources in all of three countries, provided that financial difficulties could be confronted.

  9. LIDERAZGO TRANSFORMACIONAL Y GESTIÓN EDUCATIVA EN CONTEXTOS (DESCENTRALIZADOS LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMACIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT IN DECENTRALIZED CONTEXTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martins Pestana Feliberto

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available Resumen:El Liderazgo transformacional como medio para desarrollar una gestión educativa en contextos educativos descentralizados, constituye un eje temático en permanente discusión para orientar la búsqueda de respuestas, tanto teóricas como pragmáticas a la problemática que subyace en torno a la gestión de los centros de Educación Básica. En este marco de referencia epistémica se ubica el presente artículo, en generar una aproximación a la Gestión Educativa fundamentada en una perspectiva holística, que integre las dimensiones de liderazgo transformacional en contextos educativos descentralizados. En efecto, la investigación en tanto a los fundamentos teóricos de soporte se apoya en los postulados del liderazgo transformacional de Bolívar (2004, y la Descentralización Educativa de Saldivia (1997 y Weiler (1996 entre otros. Finalmente, el proceso de categorización de la realidad estudiada permitió interpretar y teorizar como insumos necesarios para la construcción de la conceptualización de la gerencia educativa en contextos descentralizados.Abstract:The Leadership transformacional as way to develop an educational management in educational decentralized contexts, constitutes a thematic axis in permanent discussion to orientate the search of answers, both theoretical and pragmatic to the problematics that sublies around the management of the centers of Basic Education. In this frame of reference epistemic the present article locates, in generating an approximation to the Educational Management based on a perspective holistic, that integrates the dimensions of leadership transformacional in educational decentralized contexts. In effect, the investigation while to the theoretical foundations of support it rests on the postulates of the leadership transformacional of Bolivar (2004 and Grey-haired (2004, and the Educational Decentralization of Saldivia (1997 and Weiler (1996 between others. Finally, the process of

  10. Adaptive and Decentralized Operator Placement for In-Network Query Processing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bonfils, B; Bonnet, Philippe

    2003-01-01

    . In this paper, we show that this problem is a variant of the task assignment problem for which polynomial algorithms have been developed. These algorithms are however centralized and cannot be used in a sensor network. We describe an adaptive and decentralized algorithm that progressively refines the placement...

  11. Circulation Clusters--An Empirical Approach to Decentralization of Academic Libraries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGrath, William E.

    1986-01-01

    Discusses the issue of centralization or decentralization of academic library collections, and describes a statistical analysis of book circulation at the University of Southwestern Louisiana that yielded subject area clusters as a compromise solution to the problem. Applications of the cluster model for all types of library catalogs are…

  12. Using Systems Theory to Examine Patient and Nurse Structures, Processes, and Outcomes in Centralized and Decentralized Units.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Real, Kevin; Fay, Lindsey; Isaacs, Kathy; Carll-White, Allison; Schadler, Aric

    2018-01-01

    This study utilizes systems theory to understand how changes to physical design structures impact communication processes and patient and staff design-related outcomes. Many scholars and researchers have noted the importance of communication and teamwork for patient care quality. Few studies have examined changes to nursing station design within a systems theory framework. This study employed a multimethod, before-and-after, quasi-experimental research design. Nurses completed surveys in centralized units and later in decentralized units ( N = 26 pre , N = 51 post ). Patients completed surveys ( N = 62 pre ) in centralized units and later in decentralized units ( N = 49 post ). Surveys included quantitative measures and qualitative open-ended responses. Patients preferred the decentralized units because of larger single-occupancy rooms, greater privacy/confidentiality, and overall satisfaction with design. Nurses had a more complex response. Nurses approved the patient rooms, unit environment, and noise levels in decentralized units. However, they reported reduced access to support spaces, lower levels of team/mentoring communication, and less satisfaction with design than in centralized units. Qualitative findings supported these results. Nurses were more positive about centralized units and patients were more positive toward decentralized units. The results of this study suggest a need to understand how system components operate in concert. A major contribution of this study is the inclusion of patient satisfaction with design, an important yet overlooked fact in patient satisfaction. Healthcare design researchers and practitioners may consider how changing system interdependencies can lead to unexpected changes to communication processes and system outcomes in complex systems.

  13. Decentralization and Change in Teaching Style in Sweden: The Emergence and Expansion of the "Working Team" (arbetslag) from 1960 to 1980

    OpenAIRE

    林, 寛平

    2014-01-01

    This paper discusses the change in teaching style in Sweden from 1960 to 1980 stemming from the decentralization reform in education. This discussion is important in two ways: to focus on the Swedish case as a suggestive model for Japan and to link decentralization as an administration reform with what happened in the classrooms.Decentralization is one of the key agendas in education reform in many countries, with Sweden having received much attention as a pioneer in the field. It is importan...

  14. Decentralized supply chain network design: monopoly, duopoly and oligopoly competitions under uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seyedhosseini, Seyed Mohammad; Fahimi, Kaveh; Makui, Ahmad

    2017-12-01

    This paper presents the competitive supply chain network design problem in which n decentralized supply chains simultaneously enter the market with no existing rival chain, shape their networks and set wholesale and retail prices in competitive mode. The customer demand is elastic and price dependent, customer utility function is based on the Hoteling model and the chains produce identical or highly substitutable products. We construct a solution algorithm based on bi-level programming and possibility theory. In the proposed bi-level model, the inner part sets the prices based on simultaneous extra- and Stackleberg intra- chains competitions, and the outer part shapes the networks in cooperative competitions. Finally, we use a real-word study to discuss the effect of the different structures of the competitors on the equilibrium solution. Moreover, sensitivity analyses are conducted and managerial insights are offered.

  15. Bitcoin as a decentralized currency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dinić Vladimir

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Bitcoin is the first decentralized peer-to-peer crypto-currency founded in 2009. Its main specificity is the fact that there is no issuer of this currency. On the other hand, the supply of this currency is software-programmed and limited. Among other things, its main features are relatively secure payments, low transaction costs, anonymity, inability of counterfeiting, irreversibility of transactions, but also extremely unstable exchange rate. Despite many advantages, the use of this currency is subject of numerous discussions, as this currency offers the possibility of performing various abuses and criminal activities. The future of this and other currencies in this regard depends on both security and privacy of these currencies, and legal regulation of such payments.

  16. A new quantitative model of ecological compensation based on ecosystem capital in Zhejiang Province, China*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Yan; Huang, Jing-feng; Peng, Dai-liang

    2009-01-01

    Ecological compensation is becoming one of key and multidiscipline issues in the field of resources and environmental management. Considering the change relation between gross domestic product (GDP) and ecological capital (EC) based on remote sensing estimation, we construct a new quantitative estimate model for ecological compensation, using county as study unit, and determine standard value so as to evaluate ecological compensation from 2001 to 2004 in Zhejiang Province, China. Spatial differences of the ecological compensation were significant among all the counties or districts. This model fills up the gap in the field of quantitative evaluation of regional ecological compensation and provides a feasible way to reconcile the conflicts among benefits in the economic, social, and ecological sectors. PMID:19353749

  17. Decentralized adaptive control of manipulators - Theory, simulation, and experimentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seraji, Homayoun

    1989-01-01

    The author presents a simple decentralized adaptive-control scheme for multijoint robot manipulators based on the independent joint control concept. The control objective is to achieve accurate tracking of desired joint trajectories. The proposed control scheme does not use the complex manipulator dynamic model, and each joint is controlled simply by a PID (proportional-integral-derivative) feedback controller and a position-velocity-acceleration feedforward controller, both with adjustable gains. Simulation results are given for a two-link direct-drive manipulator under adaptive independent joint control. The results illustrate trajectory tracking under coupled dynamics and varying payload. The proposed scheme is implemented on a MicroVAX II computer for motion control of the three major joints of a PUMA 560 arm. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate that trajectory tracking is achieved despite coupled nonlinear joint dynamics.

  18. Contesting sharia: state law, decentralization and Minangkabau custom

    OpenAIRE

    Huda, Yasrul

    2013-01-01

    This book explains how Sharia, commonly called Perda Sharia (Sharia by-law) in Indonesia, was legislated on the provincial, regional and municipal level in West Sumatra. This process began after the government started a decentralization policy in 2000. Although the law of local autonomy prescribes that religious matters are excluded from the authority of local government, the legislation of Sharia by local authorities is justified by the argument that Sharia, in addition to Minangkabau custom...

  19. Presidentialism, Decentralization, and Distributive Politics in Latin America

    OpenAIRE

    Santos, Felipe Nunes dos

    2015-01-01

    My dissertation focuses on how presidents allocate discretionary funds to localities. I study national leaders who often face a dilemma about how to allocate limited distributional resources to their greatest political advantage. I argue that the president's resource allocation strategy depends on the level of decentralization in a country. Presidents wish to allocate resources to their supporters in the electorate, and in centralized countries, they can do so directly, without any interferen...

  20. Political Innovation and Institution-Building: The Experience of Decentralization Experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yates, Douglas

    The purpose of this paper is to resolve what determines the success or failure of innovations in participatory government; and, more precisely what are the dynamics of institution-building by which the ideas of participation and decentralization are implemented and enduring neighborhood institutions are established. To answer these questions, a…