Construction of Extended Steiner Systems for Information Retrieval

A multiset batch code is a variation of information retrieval where a t-multiset of items can be retrieved by reading at most one bit from each server. We study a problem at the other end of the spectrum, namely that of retrieving a t-multiset of items by accessing exactly one server. Our solution to the problem is a combinatorial notion called an extended Steiner system, which was first studied by Johnson and Mendelsohn [11]. An extended Steiner system ES(t; k; v) is a collection of k-multisets (thus, allowing repetition of elements in a block) of a v-set such that every t-multiset belongs to exactly one block. An extended triple system, with t = 2 and k = 3, has been investigated and constructed previously [3, 11]. We study extended systems over v elements with k = t + 1, denoted as ES(t, t + 1, v). We show constructions of ES(t, t + 1, v) for all t ≥ 3 and v ≥ t + 1.A multiset batch code is a variation of information retrieval where a t-multiset of items can be retrieved by reading at most one bit from each server. We study a problem at the other end of the spectrum, namely that of retrieving a t-multiset of items by accessing exactly one server. Our solution to the problem is a combinatorial notion called an extended Steiner system, which was first studied by Johnson and Mendelsohn [11]. An extended Steiner system ES(t, k , v ) is a collection of k-multisets (thus, allowing repetition of elements in a block) of a v -set such that every t-multiset belongs to exactly one block. An extended triple system, with t = 2 and k = 3, has been investigated and constructed previously [3, 11]. We study extended systems over v elements with k = t + 1, denoted as ES(t, t + 1, v ). We show constructions of ES(t, t + 1, v ) for all t 3 and v t + 1

Proceedings of the 11th Toulon-Verona International Conference on Quality in Services

The Toulon-Verona Conference was founded in 1998 by prof. Claudio Baccarani of the University of Verona, Italy, and prof. Michel Weill of the University of Toulon, France. It has been organized each year in a different place in Europe in cooperation with a host university (Toulon 1998, Verona 1999, Derby 2000, Mons 2001, Lisbon 2002, Oviedo 2003, Toulon 2004, Palermo 2005, Paisley 2006, Thessaloniki 2007, Florence, 2008). Originally focusing on higher education institutions, the research themes have over the years been extended to the health sector, local government, tourism, logistics, banking services. Around a hundred delegates from about twenty different countries participate each year and nearly one thousand research papers have been published over the last ten years, making of the conference one of the major events in the field of quality in services

Institutional arrangements and land reallocation during transition : a regional analysis of small farms in Romania

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-309).My dissertation examines an unexpected outcome of post-socialist agricultural transformation in the Central and Eastern European countries. Contrary to the initial expectations of Neoliberal transition policy-makers, various forms of agricultural associations emerged throughout the former communist countries, following the distribution of private property rights to individuals. The reallocation of land in associations occurred while this institutional arrangement was criticized in the literature and individual farming was portrayed as the panacea for these countries. The main research question that frames my dissertation is: Why do farmers still persist in joining associations despite perceived collective action problems and the availability of leasing as a close substitute? Additional questions are also examined: Why did associations emerge in some regions and not in others? What are the factors that affect landowners' choices between associations and leasing transactions? How different, or similar are associations from the old socialist collective farms? While earlier literature focused on explaining why landowners choose to farm the land individually, the choice between associations and leasing has not been previously researched. Using statistical analysis on household surveys and qualitative fieldwork I explain why and under what conditions associations are the optimal farming alternatives for landowners. Going beyond the capital constraints argument, I examine the role of institutional legacies and the effect of collectivization in explaining regional differences in land reallocation during transition.(cont.) Based on my findings, theories of institutional change that view transition as a homogeneous and atemporal process across and within countries do not fully capture the interdependencies between different factors that shape individuals' responses to the incentives and constraints imposed by transition. This research provides policy recommendations especially for land consolidation efforts. Given high transaction costs associated with participating in land markets, farming associations should be strongly emphasized as a channel for achieving land consolidation. Support measures, such as improved access to credit and marketing channels, can enhance the competitiveness of associations.by Georgeta Vidican Sgouridis.Ph.D

When is EU conditionality effective? The terms of Poland's accession.

The aim of my thesis is to investigate the reasons behind the mixed effectiveness of the EU pre-accession conditionality applied to the Central Eastern European candidates for membership. The process of enlargement to the East, concluded in 2004 with the accession of ten new countries, involved an unprecedented scope of EU conditionality applied to the prospective members. However, as the findings of this research demonstrate, the results of the grand European project of policy transfer to its new members have been mixed. Using a one-country cross-policy framework, I try to answer some open questions arising from the empirical analysis that the literature on conditionality has not thus far answered. The study draws on Putnam's two-level game model (Putnam 1988), analyzing international negotiations in their dual, domestic and international context. In theoretical terms, the interest of the research is in the entanglement between domestic and international policy processes. The key claim is that external pressures must be matched with the specific domestic context since none of these variables alone can explain the dynamics of adaptation. The effectiveness of EU conditionality is contingent on the type of acquis communautaire and the presence or absence of opposition to the reforms. The project aims to identify which properties of this framework or their combinations facilitate adaptation and which, to the contrary, impede prompt adjustments. The findings from the case studies challenge the conventional static approach to conditionality and demonstrate how instrumentalization of the international (EU) level of the bargain at the national level may lead to endogenous changes of the latter, namely mobilization of the social interests. This effect could explain why conditionality has not been as effective as the asymmetric bargaining power and the material advantages of compliance would lead one to expect

Forest Land Ownership Change in Europe. COST Action FP1201 FACESMAP Country Reports : Joint Volume

Publisher PD

Critical Studies in Rational Freedom: The Radical Transfiguration of the Greco-Germanic Principle of Rational Freedom

This thesis approaches 'Marx's politics' from its 'rational' origins in ancient Greek thought. Stated briefly, ‘rational freedom’ affirms a socio-relational and ethical conception of freedom in which individual liberty depends upon and is constituted by the quality of relations with other individuals. The argument of this thesis is that Marx both transforms and incorporates the 'rational' themes and values developed by Plato and Aristotle, Rousseau, Kant and Hegel. The thesis locates communism as a 'true' public within a normative philosophical concern with the appropriate regimen for the human good. This reconstructs a tradition and a concept of 'rational freedom' around principles of reciprocity, mutual respect, communication, communality, solidarity. The 'rational' here comprehends subjectivity as an intersubjectivity which secures the unity of the freedom of each and the freedom of all. This tradition rejects the atomistic model of freedom as self-cancelling in equating freedom with unrestricted individual choice and the unregulated pursuit of self-interest. The 'rational ‘ conception defines freedom as conceivable only by locating individual interactions within a network of relationships. Marx certainly realised that the automatic connection between reason and freedom under law could no longer be assumed in class society. But this led him less to abandon the 'rational' conception of freedom than to seek its material foundation in a classless society dissolves the abstracted legal-institutional form of reason into a self-organising democratic society. This thesis argues that Marx radicalised the 'rational' principle of collective and reciprocal freedom beyond the state in a new associational public. In transcending the legalistic and moralistic framework of the 'rational' tradition, This thesis demonstrates how Marx actualises rational unity of each individual with all individuals within the social world of everyday exchange, reciprocity and solidarity

The City of Reason: The City as Human Habitus

Pt1 Cities and Citizenship This part makes the case for expanding 'the political' as a public life at the expense of centralised abstract state politics through making available extensive public spaces for the exercise of local citizen power at the level of the neighbourhood, town, and city confederation. Pt2 The Philosophical Idea of the City This part grounds the conception of public life in a normative philosophical anthropology which identifies the city as a moral and social realm promoting culture and civilisation. Pt3 Universitas The City from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance This part examines attempts to establish universalism up to and including the Renaissance. Pt4 The Rationalisation of the City This part traces the evolution of reason via the processes of abstraction, quantification and commodification to define an ethic of urban justice which affirms values and structures of reciprocity, interaction and solidary exchange within the associational space of civil society. Pt5 The Economic Concept of the City The critical focus of this part is upon abstracting and diremptive tendencies within the city, particularly with respect to new symbolic and informational economic geographies. Pt6 The City as Social Movement This part addresses the problematic character of the “common good” in a modern plural world by developing a conception of urban justice. This part proceeds to examine the possibility of reasserting place-based social meaning through the principle of community control. Pt7 The Ecological Concept of the City Putting reason on a rational basis through the social and discursive constitution of the city makes it possible to develop the ecological implications of “rational” principles of scale and justice. This part shows that a genuine rationalization is characterized by the interpenetration of social and environmental justice facilitating the integration of communities in their ecological community