A System for Distributed Mechanisms: Design, Implementation and Applications

We describe here a structured system for distributed mechanism design appropriate for both Intranet and Internet applications. In our approach the players dynamically form a network in which they know neither their neighbours nor the size of the network and interact to jointly take decisions. The only assumption concerning the underlying communication layer is that for each pair of processes there is a path of neighbours connecting them. This allows us to deal with arbitrary network topologies. We also discuss the implementation of this system which consists of a sequence of layers. The lower layers deal with the operations that implement the basic primitives of distributed computing, namely low level communication and distributed termination, while the upper layers use these primitives to implement high level communication among players, including broadcasting and multicasting, and distributed decision making. This yields a highly flexible distributed system whose specific applications are realized as instances of its top layer. This design is implemented in Java. The system supports at various levels fault-tolerance and includes a provision for distributed policing the purpose of which is to exclude `dishonest' players. Also, it can be used for repeated creation of dynamically formed networks of players interested in a joint decision making implemented by means of a tax-based mechanism. We illustrate its flexibility by discussing a number of implemented examples.Comment: 36 pages; revised and expanded versio

Darwin, Victorian Literature, and the Great Web: Analyzing and Dismantling the Human Superiority Complex

In my essay, I will argue that the discrimination and cruelty humans project towards other humans mirrors the discrimination and cruelty humans project towards other species. A moral justification exists behind the need to discriminate against another human or animal. Therefore, the concept of “morality,” which has long been thought to be the root of man‟s “higher” mental capabilities, and which is, I will propose, the cause of racism, sexism, classism, and speciesism, is not an advantageous, or “higher,” trait. Instead, “morality,” if we classify it in Darwinian terms, is a disadvantageous trait that could potentially lead to our devolution and extinction. I will also claim that Darwin was the first major opponent of speciesism and an anthropocentric model of thinking. Darwin‟s plea to sympathize with other animals (as opposed to “moralizing” power over them), is not only written from the viewpoint of a scientist working in the interest of mankind, but also written from the viewpoint of a humanist calling for kinship among all earthlings. Darwin initiated a debate not only scientific, but also humanistic and literary in nature. Consequently, Victorian fiction writers began emulating Darwin‟s sympathetic, anti-anthropocentric undertones. Ouida‟s A Dog of Flanders (1872) and Anna Sewell‟s Black Beauty (1877) provide Victorian readers with a revolutionary narrative style, one that takes viewpoint of a non-human animal. Despite the works of Darwin, Ouida, and Sewell, however, speciesism is still practiced today on an even greater level than in Victorian England. This is evident through the global practices of medical experimentation, factory farming, and animal labor. Ultimately, this essay enters into a discussion with public perception and seeks to dismantle a set of anthropocentric attitudes and values still with us today. Using The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871), A Dog of Flanders, Black Beauty, and contemporary scholarship, I will show, through a textual and a critical analysis of each work, how human beings are not at the top of a ladder, but instead part of an interconnected web

A Model of the EGRET Source at the Galactic Center: Inverse Compton Scattering Within Sgr A East and its Halo

Continuum low-frequency radio observations of the Galactic Center reveal the presence of two prominent radio sources, Sgr A East and its surrounding Halo, containing non-thermal particle distributions with power-law indices around 2.5-3.3 and 2.4, respectively. The central 1-2 pc region is also a source of intense (stellar) UV and (dust-reprocessed) far-IR radiation that bathes these extended synchrotron-emitting structures. A recent detection of gamma-rays (2EGJ1746-2852) from within around 1 degree of the Galactic Center by EGRET onboard the Compton GRO shows that the emission from this environment extends to very high energies. We suggest that inverse Compton scatterings between the power-law electrons inferred from the radio properties of Sgr A East and its Halo, and the UV and IR photons from the nucleus, may account for the possibly diffuse gamma-ray source as well. We show that both particle distributions may be contributing to the gamma-ray emission, though their relevant strength depends on the actual physical properties (such as the magnetic field intensity) in each source. If this picture is correct, the high-energy source at the Galactic Center is extended over several arcminutes, which can be tested with thenext generation of gamma-ray and hard X-ray missions.Comment: latex, 14 pages, 3 figures (accepted for publication in ApJ

Global Trends And Debt Relief For Asia, Latin America, And Africa: A Multiple Discriminant Analysis

Emerging country debt levels are at an all time high.  There seems to be a great need to find a solution to the mounting level of external debt in the continents of Asia, South America and Africa.  Utilizing multiple discriminant analysis this study looks at whether indebted countries in the various continents responded differently to macroeconomic factors and whether the level of debt made those economies respond to macroeconomic measures.  This study supports the notion that Asian countries are more affected by debt factors influencing their economies than countries in Latin America or Africa.   The study further shows that various debt levels; e.g.; high, medium, versus low have a significant influence on macroeconomic factors.  Therefore this article strongly supports policies for country debt reduction worldwide.