Decentralised minimal-time dynamic consensus

Abstract-This paper considers a group of agents that aim to reach an agreement on individually measured time-varying signals by local communication. In contrast to static network averaging problem, the consensus we mean in this paper is reached in a dynamic sense. A discrete-time dynamic average consensus protocol can be designed to allow all the agents tracking the average of their reference inputs asymptotically. We propose a minimal-time dynamic consensus algorithm, which only utilises minimal number of local observations of randomly picked node in a network to compute the final consensus signal. Our results illustrate that with memory and computational ability, the running time of distributed averaging algorithms can be indeed improved dramatically using local information as suggested by Olshevsky and Tsitsiklis

Decentralisation: a One-to-many Relationship. The Case of Greece

There is no doubt that even a cursory examination of the indisputable efforts for decentralization in Greece, will reveal that the main problem lies within the ever expanding bureaucratic labyrinth of its political decision making processes and the underlying political and administrative system that generates and supports them. In short, this political system seems to strive for inclusiveness and broad acceptance, rather than theoretical consistency or elegance, setting the government incapable to play a truly coordinating role and exhibit the admistrative wisdom that it implies. Seeking in this respect, to accommodate new demands as they emerge by means, insofar as possible, that leave previous arrangements (programs and administrative regulations) undisturbed, which in turn involve the least possible disruption for public enterprises, as well as the least possible inconvenience and annoyance for institutions and individuals alike, who have built their life styles around the expectation of system stability. However, in terms of its administrative system, Greece has the same characteristics and problems with most of the Mediterranean European Countries. Consequently, the potential of future decentralization policies in a regional level, as they are expressed by either the elimination of regional disparities or the formulation of regional restructuring strategies, should be seen with respect to the extended political framework within which they have to be implemented. In our study, this is defined as the Mediterranean frontier. Within this framework, this paper reviews the historical course and critically presents the results of the proclaimed decentralization efforts in Greece. Specifically, certain political and socioeconomic indicators are utilized, in order both to micro evaluate the regional disparities within the country and to generate a parallel macro comparison with the other Mediterranean member states of the European Union.Decentralization; Greece

The Federal Approach to FiscalDecentralisation: Conceptual Contours for Policy Makers

Chanchal Kumar Sharma,in his paper demonstrates that in order for fiscal decentralisation to be effective, it must be approached federally. A federal approach is not a decentralised approach but a dynamically balanced approach; one that constantly keeps on adjusting the contrasting forces of centralisation and decentralisation to create a system that can ensure good governance in accordance with the rapidly changing global and local scenario. According to the author, the good governance of the present time has to be federally flexible and dynamically decentralised and institutions of fiscal federalism are crucial for achieving such a dynamic equilibrium. Fiscal decentralisation cannot be detached from the broader principles of fiscal federalism if it is to be successful, irrespective of the fact of whether it is being carried out in a federal or non-federal country. He argues that too much decentralisation or an overly strong central federal government precludes the survival of a constitutional federal state.Federalism; Fiscal Decentralization; centralization

A Note on the Sri Lankan Experience in Poverty Reduction

‘Poverty’ is a complex, multifaceted and much investigated subject which has generated an colossal amount of literature. The situation in relation to Sri Lanka is no different—both in relation to the complexity of the subject and the investigation and literature it has generated. Within the international debates, Sri Lanka has been used extensively as a case study as in the early work on the basic needs and growth versus welfare debates, UNICEF’s work on Adjustment with a Human Face and more recently in the World Bank’s Voices of the Poor qualitative study. The domestic research and literature has been as prolific, the most recent group being the background material for the Framework on Poverty Reduction.1 This paper will not attempt to summarise the existing debates and literature or provide a comprehensive overview to poverty and its many facets in Sri Lanka. Instead it will briefly place Sri Lanka in the context of South Asia and look at the policy framework which brought about the present situation and the ongoing and envisaged policy changes. Finally it will highlight a few selected issues which are of growing interest and have received relatively less attention. A selected bibliography is provided at the end.

An approach to rollback recovery of collaborating mobile agents

Fault-tolerance is one of the main problems that must be resolved to improve the adoption of the agents' computing paradigm. In this paper, we analyse the execution model of agent platforms and the significance of the faults affecting their constituent components on the reliable execution of agent-based applications, in order to develop a pragmatic framework for agent systems fault-tolerance. The developed framework deploys a communication-pairs independent check pointing strategy to offer a low-cost, application-transparent model for reliable agent- based computing that covers all possible faults that might invalidate reliable agent execution, migration and communication and maintains the exactly-one execution property