Steps in modular specifications for concurrent modules

© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.The specification of a concurrent program module is a difficult problem. The specifications must be strong enough to enable reasoning about the intended clients without reference to the underlying module implementation. We survey a range of verification techniques for specifying concurrent modules, in particular highlighting four key concepts: auxiliary state, interference abstraction, resource ownership and atomicity. We show how these concepts combine to provide powerful approaches to specifying concurrent modules

Online Resource Ownership, Control, and Use Policy

The purpose of this policy is to: A. Establish policies to ensure that Georgia Southern University (University) online resources (e.g., internet domains, websites, user uploaded content, web or mobile apps, and official social media accounts) are consistent with the University’s identity standards and reflect the University’s official brand and messaging and comply with Board of Regents and University policy, and all applicable laws and regulations, including those related to accessibility. B. Establish processes by which Georgia Southern University’s online resources are created and reviewed for compliance with established policy, standards, and guidelines

A Concurrent Perspective on Smart Contracts

In this paper, we explore remarkable similarities between multi-transactional behaviors of smart contracts in cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and classical problems of shared-memory concurrency. We examine two real-world examples from the Ethereum blockchain and analyzing how they are vulnerable to bugs that are closely reminiscent to those that often occur in traditional concurrent programs. We then elaborate on the relation between observable contract behaviors and well-studied concurrency topics, such as atomicity, interference, synchronization, and resource ownership. The described contracts-as-concurrent-objects analogy provides deeper understanding of potential threats for smart contracts, indicate better engineering practices, and enable applications of existing state-of-the-art formal verification techniques.Comment: 15 page

On Shore Natural Resource Ownership: Atlantic Canada Perspective

Disputes over the ownership of resources off both the east and west coasts of Canada have recently been determined by the Supreme Court in favour of collective ownership by all Canadians, through federal Canada, rather than separate collective ownership by the adjacent citizens through their respective provinces.\u27 These offshore disputes have involved state-province constitutional conflict and represent a higher plane application of common law concepts favouring individual ownership

Property Rights and Environmental Conflicts in Africa: An Exploration of the Main Issues

Shared resources often engender environmental conflict. This is because the activities of some groups of users of a resource are often detrimental to others. This paper discusses the relationship between property rights and environmental conflicts in Africa. It illustrates this relationship both at intra-state as well as at inter-state levels. Gender relations and property rights are also discussed given that women, who undertake about 80% of farm work on the continent, are not accorded equal say as men in resource ownership and resource management. The paper suggests how the problem of resource ownership can be addressed in order to minimize or preventenvironmental conflicts and promote development at country as well as at continental level

Fishery Policies and their Impact on the New Zealand Maori

The introduction of innovative fishery policies in New Zealand has recently attracted international attention. The introduction of an ITQ system was premised on the notion of Crown ownership of fishery resources. Conflict has accompanied these policies as Maori people have challenged the government over ownership of fishery resources and declaimed the skewed impact of the fishery policies. This paper examines the source of these problems focussing particularly on the Treaty of Waitangi negotiated in 1840 between the Crown and heads of Maori tribes. The Treaty guaranteed to Maori the full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of their fisheries and other properties, guarantees which were until recently ignored. The Crown has subsequently ceded some authority over and ownership of fishery resources to Maori.New Zealand fisheries policies, Treaty of Waitangi, resource ownership, distributional impact, Maori unemployment rate, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Abandoned Side of the Internet: Hijacking Internet Resources When Domain Names Expire

The vulnerability of the Internet has been demonstrated by prominent IP prefix hijacking events. Major outages such as the China Telecom incident in 2010 stimulate speculations about malicious intentions behind such anomalies. Surprisingly, almost all discussions in the current literature assume that hijacking incidents are enabled by the lack of security mechanisms in the inter-domain routing protocol BGP. In this paper, we discuss an attacker model that accounts for the hijacking of network ownership information stored in Regional Internet Registry (RIR) databases. We show that such threats emerge from abandoned Internet resources (e.g., IP address blocks, AS numbers). When DNS names expire, attackers gain the opportunity to take resource ownership by re-registering domain names that are referenced by corresponding RIR database objects. We argue that this kind of attack is more attractive than conventional hijacking, since the attacker can act in full anonymity on behalf of a victim. Despite corresponding incidents have been observed in the past, current detection techniques are not qualified to deal with these attacks. We show that they are feasible with very little effort, and analyze the risk potential of abandoned Internet resources for the European service region: our findings reveal that currently 73 /24 IP prefixes and 7 ASes are vulnerable to be stealthily abused. We discuss countermeasures and outline research directions towards preventive solutions.Comment: Final version for TMA 201

International exchange of genetic resources, the role of information and implications for ownership: the case of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System

"Changing perceptions of resource ownership have altered international exchange of genetic resources. After summarizing the role of genebanks and issues related to property regimes, this paper presents an empirical study of one of the largest national genebanks, the U.S. National Germplasm System. The demand for its genetic resources appears to be substantial, both domestically and internationally. Utilization rates are higher than suggested by past studies. The role of information in enhancing the usefulness of NPGS resources is explored with an econometric model that indicates that accompanying data make germplasm more useful. U.S. requestors account for most of the germplasm demanded, but developing countries appear to make greater use of these resources, proportionally, in terms of overall usefulness, secondary sharing, and the presence of useful data. Demand for public germplasm is likely to increase in the future, particularly from developing countries." Authors' AbstractCrop genetic resources, Genebanks, Germplasm collection, Genetic resource management, Developing countries,

Decentralising Governance of Natural Resources in India: A review

This paper provides a broad overview of the past and ongoing efforts at decentralising the governance of natural resources (DGNR) in India. The focus is on ‘governance’, which includes both day-to-day management as well as broader decision-making regarding resource ownership, access and use, and associated legal, administrative and fiscal arrangements. We assume that more decentralisation than what prevails today is better, but emphasise the need for multi-layered governance as well