Cyprus as the Lighthouse of the East Mediterranean: Shaping EU Accession and Reunification Together. CEPS Paperback. April 2002

For over a quarter of a century, Cyprus has been a divided island, with Europe’s last remaining ‘Berlin Wall’ separating its Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. This stalemate between the regions, however, is finally beginning to dissolve. Negotiations are currently underway to resolve the Cyprus conflict, re-unify the island and secure the accession of the whole of Cyprus to the EU in the near future. This CEPS report explores the ways in which these developments might come about. The authors argue that simultaneous action could transform the political structures and interests that have up until now made it impossible to resolve the division of the island

Overview of Polkadot and its Design Considerations

In this paper we describe the design components of the heterogenous multi-chain protocol Polkadot and explain how these components help Polkadot address some of the existing shortcomings of blockchain technologies. At present, a vast number of blockchain projects have been introduced and employed with various features that are not necessarily designed to work with each other. This makes it difficult for users to utilise a large number of applications on different blockchain projects. Moreover, with the increase in number of projects the security that each one is providing individually becomes weaker. Polkadot aims to provide a scalable and interoperable framework for multiple chains with pooled security that is achieved by the collection of components described in this paper

Enhancing Blockchain Performance and Security: Pushing the Limits of Decentralized Applications

Decentralized Applications (DApps) have seen exponential growth in the past decade leading to a new paradigm known as Web3. Web3 is the ecosystem formed by the execution of multiple DApps. Blockchains offer a platform for DApp executions. However, the performance and security of current blockchains is limited and impair the adoption of Web3. More specifically, for demanding DApp workloads, modern blockchains perform poorly or lose transactions. This thesis presents various contributions to enhance blockchain performance and security to widen the adoption of Web3. To enhance blockchain performance for DApp executions, we first present the Smart Redbelly Blockchain (SRBB). SRBB enhances DApp performance by reducing blockchain congestion. SRBB alone is not sufficient to service multiple demanding DApp workloads. Therefore, we introduce a DApp-oriented dynamic transparent sharding mechanism that concurrently execute DApps in separate shards. To boost the DApp performance of SRBB, we present a decoupled variant of SRBB known as Collachain. While blockchain performance is critical, existing blockchain designs are vulnerable to the formation of an oligarchy in the governance that can dictate the outcome of the protocol. Such an oligarchy can lead to the insecure execution of DApps, impairing the adoption of Web3. To mitigate the formation of an oligarchy in blockchain governance, we finally present a proportional governance protocol that proportionally elects a diverse set of governors to mitigate an oligarchy in the governance process

캄보디아 국가 올림픽위원회의 훌륭한 거버넌스 평가

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 사범대학 체육교육과,글로벌스포츠매니지먼트전공, 2017. 8. 이충근.Good Governance Assessment in National Olympic Committee of Cambodia Sophoan Buy Global Sport Management, Department of Physical Education The Graduate School Seoul National University This research aimed to identify the degree of good governance in the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC). At the same time, it attempted to discover the strengths and weaknesses of NOCC governance practices in order to identify the opportunities for improvement in the organization. The first four research questions were developed to measure the current good governance level of the organization then investigate what area within NOCC that needs to be improved in parallel with good governance theoretical framework and followed by a basic set of recommendations for good governance practices. Qualitative research method approach was recognized as the suitable research method and research was conducted accordingly. Document analysis was used to identify the current level of good governance in NOCC by applying the Sports Governance Observer (SGO) self-evaluation tool developed by Play the Games and Danish Institute for Sports Studies. The SGO consists of four most important components with regard to good governance concept, namely transparency, democracy, checks and balances, and solidarity. Then, the study continued with the semi-structured interview in order to answer the fifth research question, which identifies what frameworks should be taken to enhance good governance practices within the organization. The analysis indicated that the result of NOCCs good governance is unsatisfactory. Two out of the four dimensions, namely democratic process and solidarity, of good governance assessment tool managed to score above average. The other two dimensions received very low scores, meaning that these dimensions need the extra effort and the focus to improve its practices. The study designed appropriate conceptual frameworks to improve the two dimensions that received the lowermost scores, namely transparency and checks and balances. To ensure that the proposed conceptual frameworks are successfully applied, the governing body of NOCC, particularly Executive Committee should be held accountable for the implementation because it is ultimately obliged to supervise and monitor the administration and management of the organization to assure prosperity of the organization it governs. Keywords : Good governance, Sport governance, Sport organizations, Non-profit organizations, Good governance in Cambodia sport organizations Student Number: 2015-22358Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Current Context 1 1.2. Research Significance 4 1.3. Research Purposes 6 1.4. Research Questions 7 1.5. Thesis Structure 7 Chapter 2. Literature Review 9 2.1. NOCC Organizational Structure 9 2.2. Theoretical Perspective of Governance 14 2.2.1. Economic Origins – Corporate Governance 15 2.2.2. Political Origins – Good Governance 16 2.3. Corporate and Non-Profit Governance 18 2.4. Sport Governance 20 2.5. Principles of Good Governance in Sport 24 2.6. Sport Governance Observer 27 Chapter 3. Research Methodology 31 3.1. Overview 31 3.2. The Sports Governance Observer – Suitability and Modification 32 3.3. Analyzing Data 33 3.4. Interview 34 3.4.1. Semi-Structure Interview 35 3.5. Population and Sample 37 Chapter 4. Result 39 4.1. Results of the Sport Governance Observer 39 4.2. Sport Governance Observer Scores 41 Chapter 5. Discussion and Conclusion 47 5.1. Comparison of the Sport Governance Observer Scores 47 5.2. Semi-Structured Interview Discussion 50 5.2.1 Transparency 51 5.2.2. Checks and Balances 57 5.2.3. Recommendations 62 5.3. Future Research 68 5.4. Conclusion 69 5.5. Limitations of the Research 70 Bibliography 72 Appendix A 77 Appendix B 107 국 문 초 록 109Maste

INForum 2017: Atas do Nono Simpósio de Informática

Este volume contém as atas da 9.a edição do Simpósio em Informática, INForum 2017, a qual decorreu no Pavilhão de Exposições de Aveiro, em Aveiro, conjuntamente com o TechDays 2017, nos dias 12 e 13 de outubro de 2017. (...

Blockchain-enabled cybersecurity provision for scalable heterogeneous network: A comprehensive survey

Blockchain-enabled cybersecurity system to ensure and strengthen decentralized digital transaction is gradually gaining popularity in the digital era for various areas like finance, transportation, healthcare, education, and supply chain management. Blockchain interactions in the heterogeneous network have fascinated more attention due to the authentication of their digital application exchanges. However, the exponential development of storage space capabilities across the blockchain-based heterogeneous network has become an important issue in preventing blockchain distribution and the extension of blockchain nodes. There is the biggest challenge of data integrity and scalability, including significant computing complexity and inapplicable latency on regional network diversity, operating system diversity, bandwidth diversity, node diversity, etc., for decision-making of data transactions across blockchain-based heterogeneous networks. Data security and privacy have also become the main concerns across the heterogeneous network to build smart IoT ecosystems. To address these issues, today’s researchers have explored the potential solutions of the capability of heterogeneous network devices to perform data transactions where the system stimulates their integration reliably and securely with blockchain. The key goal of this paper is to conduct a state-of-the-art and comprehensive survey on cybersecurity enhancement using blockchain in the heterogeneous network. This paper proposes a full-fledged taxonomy to identify the main obstacles, research gaps, future research directions, effective solutions, and most relevant blockchain-enabled cybersecurity systems. In addition, Blockchain based heterogeneous network framework with cybersecurity is proposed in this paper to meet the goal of maintaining optimal performance data transactions among organizations. Overall, this paper provides an in-depth description based on the critical analysis to overcome the existing work gaps for future research where it presents a potential cybersecurity design with key requirements of blockchain across a heterogeneous network

A new uniform voting system for elections to the European Parliament?

This thesis looks at the critical issue of electoral system reform relating to elections to the European Parliament. Directly elected since 1979, elections to the European Parliament operate on the basis of highly diverging national systems in the 27 member states, despite a mandate for electoral reform which should lead to a uniform system since the 1950s. The analysis of this thesis centres around the matters of legitimacy and the perceived democratic deficit, as surprisingly, there has been little or no discussion to date on the way the electoral system of elections to the European Parliament promotes or hinders the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. The European Union is conceptualised by the means of three different models, the EU as an international organisation, a supranational technocratic regime, and as a federal order. This thesis addresses the democratic deficit point by constructing an ideal type electoral system where it is currently lacking - in relation to a federal order. This research makes an interdisciplinary contribution by combining a value free positive political science on the one side and a normative legal approach on the other. Whereas a good deal of legal analysis is either explicitly based on a federal model of the European Union or implicitly premised on such an approach, detailed analysis of the implications of federalism for EU level democracy is much less common. Next to historic developments in the field of electoral reform in the European Parliament, the recent Duff Reports as well as the debates around them are analysed. The thesis concludes that an electoral system needs to generate competition between European parties on European matters and presents core elements of a draft European Elections Act, a new uniform voting system for elections to the European Parliament

Engaging Neighbors: Housing Strategies and Political Mobilization in Moscow\u27s Renovation

In summer 2017, residents of thousands of socialist-era apartment buildings in Moscow were invited to vote and decide whether their building should be included in the demolition and relocation program proposed by the Mayor’s Office. Renovation is an ongoing urban renewal plan, first announced in Moscow in February 2017, to demolish whole neighborhoods of socialist-era, five-story buildings and replace them with high-rises. The vast project affected more than 5,000 buildings with approximately a million inhabitants. This dissertation addresses general questions of political agency and the possibility for diverse people in urban neighborhoods to produce change: to achieve desired policy outcomes, transform the rules of political interactions and the configuration of players in the urban political field. Inevitably, the interests, aspirations, and strategies of these people differ. In this thesis, I explore how these different aspirations and different life experiences clash, overlap, and develop into collective strategies, which can transform the relationships of the urban political field. To connect the experiences of Moscow residents facing urban renewal with the longstanding sociological debates, I synthesize theories of agency and strategy, theories of strategic interaction in social movement research, and urban scholarship on citizenship. Housing is a fundamental human goal, and ways of achieving and keeping a proper home shape a person’s housing strategy. Renovation soon turned into a housing struggle. The reason it sparked a high degree of mobilization in a relatively politically apathetic society is the thing it targeted: housing is literally the issue closest to home, able to provoke even politically indifferent people to act. I seek to demonstrate that political action partly grows out of individual strategies, motivations, aspirations, and feelings. These personal strategies, too, result in turn from earlier social and cultural processes. Renovation pulled Muscovites into the urban political field, a configuration of interactive arenas where decisions about the city in general and its specific parts can be negotiated. Setting foot in one arena could also motivate citizens to further explore the outlines of the field, and engage in interactions in further linked arenas, such as municipal elections. Previously, not many Muscovites had used or even known about the different arenas of urban and local politics, but the shock of potentially losing their home in Renovation exposed those structures to more citizens than ever before. People learned and tried out individual arenas, learned about the connections between different political arenas, and created new arenas, for example, homeowners’ assemblies or meetings of the new activist communities

Building Democracy for All: Interactive Explorations of Government and Civic Life

Designed as a core or supplementary text for upper elementary, middle and high school teachers and students, Building Democracy for All offers instructional ideas, interactive resources, links to primary sources, multicultural materials, and multimodal learning materials for interest-building explorations of United States government as well as students’ roles as citizens in a democratic society. It focuses on the importance of community engagement and social responsibility as understood and acted upon by middle and high school students—core themes in the 2018 Massachusetts 8th Grade Curriculum Framework, and which are found in many state history and social studies curriculum frameworks around the country. Building Democracy for All has been developed by a collaborative writing team of higher education faculty, public school teachers, educational librarians, and college students who are preparing to become history and social studies teachers. The primary editors and curators are from the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education. Contributing teachers come from school districts in the Connecticut River valley region of western Massachusetts (Amherst, Gateway, Westfield, Hampshire Regional, and Springfield). As an open resource, the book is being revised constantly by the members of the writing team to ensure timely inclusion of online resources and information.https://scholarworks.umass.edu/tecs_ed_materials/1001/thumbnail.jp