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To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 for gender equality by 2030, it is crucial for health and development professionals and governmental officials to understand how legal systems empower or oppress populations on the basis of gender worldwide, including opportunities and challenges of statutory provisions created by legal pluralism. Using Ethiopia as a case study, this paper examines how local laws applied in Sharia and Customary Dispute Resolution courts impact gender equality and the health of women and girls inspite of the inculcation of human rights statutes into national legislation, including the Constitution. We identify several key issues with the substantive law and its enforcement. First, laws which have been instituted at the national level to improve gender equally have been poorly enforced at the local level. Second, there is a sustained enforcement of laws that oppress women and that protect male perpetrators of gender-based violations. Third, local courts limit female representation and uphold patriarchy. To improve the health of women and girls, stakeholders must take into consideration the ways in which legal systems uphold harmful gender norms and obstruct and/or advance progress towards equal representation, opportunities, and constitutionally-mandated protections for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Given India's high patient load on the existing healthcare setup, as well as political, social, and organizational challenges, the nursing sector is facing various problems, therefore leading to substandard nursing experiences leading to poor patient care at the parallel healthcare setups, specifically homecare. This paper presents self-managed organizations (SMOs) characterized by a horizontal management structure as an effective alternative to existing hierarchical management structures overladen with bureaucracy. Therefore, we are exploring the strategies at self-managed homecare organizations that can make nursing a better and more productive experience. Method: This study utilized Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT), employing semi-structured interviews to explore nursing dynamics in horizontal organizational structures. It delved into crucial aspects like finances, organizational structure, value systems, information flow, and conflict resolution within SMOs. The methodology involved theoretical sampling, prioritizing expert self-management knowledge over mere representativeness. Seven nurses, twelve management members, and fifteen patients from self-managed homecare organizations contributed to the examination of nursing experiences. Constant comparative analysis of data led to the identification of the Qualitative Success Enablers (QSEs), revealing three themes: Insightfulness, Enhancing Nursing Experience through Job Enrichment, and Autonomy-Enabled Intrapreneurship. Results: The findings indicate that the horizontal management structure represented by the studied organization in India has shown considerable success in times laden with uncertainties during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the delta wave, which revealed the frailty of existing healthcare infrastructure. The organization successfully maintained a better nursing experience and gained patient and employee satisfaction, as revealed by in-depth semi-structured interviews and constant comparative analysis. Conclusion: In a world of unique challenges, we stand on the brink of significant transformations. SMOs are vital in India's homecare sector for enhancing nursing experiences and overall organizational performance. Fostering a trust-based environment within SMOs is integral to delivering effective services. The autonomy to design nursing jobs, insightfulness, and innovativeness in the nursing job through suitable training activities, various job enrichment methods, and finding meaningfulness in a job through softer aspects of caregiving result in an enhanced nursing experience at SMOs. This groundbreaking approach can be extended to other homecare organizations in India, relieving the strain on the existing healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Chihuum Piiuywmk Inach/A Gathering of Good Minds project, which explores the role of the data analysis phase in community-engaged research and emphasizes anti-oppressive methodologies aligned with indigenist approaches. The paper discusses the challenges of decolonizing research methodologies, particularly in the analysis phase, and contributes to the conversation on decentering colonial and institutional systems of oppression in research.

Urban spatial structure remains the center of quest and modeling. The decentralization concept is among the leading literature discourses that guide spatial analyses. In line with the decentralization discourse, the application of land-use optimization as a modeling method has grown significantly. Despite decentralization dominating the contemporary spatial analysis literature, no study so far explicitly declares an end to the centers (and subcenters). While centers (and subcenters) are alive, the land-use optimization has never taken this macro-morphological structure into consideration. This case study frames land-use optimization within the agglomeration and decentralization concepts based on the view that no single conceptual framework addresses spatial analysis sufficiently. On a theoretical level, the link is between coarse morphological assumption (basis of economic geography) and decentralization (basis of sustainable built environment). The paper blends these dual theories, one governing urban macro-morphological structures and the other governing decentralization literature. On a methodological modeling level, it blends centers and other discretized uses. Optimizing four objectives across the complete centralization through multiple centers of gravity to complete the decentralization of urban spatial structures applying Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II, the case study findings justify the importance of explicit modeling of the macro-morphological element. It has been observed that multicenter urban forms perform well above both the single center and the dispersed scenarios. It is, therefore, argued that an appropriate approach to land-use optimization is modeling both the macro-spatial element and fine spatial elements. The result further indicates that local land-use planning regulations place the structure of city in a suboptimal state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the workload and lack of a critical mass of trained operational researchers within their ranks, health systems and programmes may not be able to dedicate sufficient time to conducting operational research (OR). Hence, they may need the technical support of operational researchers from research/academic organisations. Additionally, there is a knowledge gap regarding implementing differentiated tuberculosis (TB) care in programme settings. In this 'how we did it' paper, we share our experience of implementing a differentiated TB care model along with an inbuilt OR component in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India. This was a health system initiative through a collaboration of the State TB cell with the Indian Council of Medical Research institutes and the World Health Organisation country office in India. The learnings are in the form of eleven tips: four broad principles (OR on priority areas and make it a health system initiative, implement simple and holistic ideas, embed OR within routine programme settings, aim for long-term engagement), four related to strategic planning (big team of investigators, joint leadership, decentralised decision-making, working in advance) and three about implementation planning (conducting pilots, smart use of e-tools and operational research publications at frequent intervals). These may act as a guide for other Indian states, high TB burden countries that want to implement differentiated care, and for operational researchers in providing technical assistance for strengthening implementation and conducting OR in health systems and programmes (TB or other health programmes). Following these tips may increase the chances of i) an enriching engagement, ii) policy/practice change, and iii) sustainable implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current state of economic development in Ukraine is characterized by the escalation of crisis processes that affected all spheres of public life. This is especially critical in rural areas. Modern approaches to crisis management in rural areas under conditions of decentralization are proposed by authors. The main concepts of the topic are considered and the authors’ definition of the concept of "crisis public-private partnership in rural areas" is proposed. Crisis public-private partnership in rural areas is interpreted as a form of crisis cooperation between state, social and private sectors, based on the recognition that all parties benefit from the pooling of resources, innovations and managerial decisions for the purpose of realization of crisis principles and socio-economic development of rural areas. The basis of this is the application of the risk factor, which characterizes the ratio of the probabilistic value of the maximum possible loss to the normative value of the socio-ecological-economical component of rural areas. The purpose of the paper is to argue the necessity of decentralization of rural areas and to introduce proposals on its practical implementation. The research on decentralization of rural areas and its practical implementation is recommended to conduct by three stages. The anti-crisis approach to rural area management in decentralization conditions, which is based on the fundamentals of the public-private partnership is proposed. It is suggested to make calculation of the decentralization ratio, which will determine the category of the crisis level for the rural area in decentralization conditions and will supply adequate suggestions for its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of increasing fiscal decentralization on the composition of public expenditures of Brazilian local governments. The research is innovative, demonstrating that the heterogeneity of expenditure scale influences the correlation between fiscal decentralization and public expenditure of local governments. The sample consisted of unbalanced panel data of 5,565 municipalities for 17 years from 2000 to 2016. The analysis used unconditional quantile regression with panel data. The main findings were: (i) fiscal decentralization affects public expenditure in Brazilian local governments. However, this effect depends on local expenditure scale and fiscal decentralization strategy. For example, the median coefficient was negative in personnel expenditures, and the effect was positive for the third quartile of local governments, when fiscal decentralization was measured by the tax revenue over total revenue. On the other hand, the effects were also positive for median and third quartile regarding intergovernmental transfers per capita like proxy of fiscal decentralization; (ii) the measures (proxies) of fiscal decentralization are correlated with the composition of public expenditure; (iii) in median terms, fiscal decentralization has greater effects on investment expenditures than on current and personnel expenditures; and (iv) in median terms, the tax revenue participation promotes an increase in administrative and planning expenditures instead of expenditures in social functions. Fiscal decentralization measured by intergovernmental transfer per capita has more positive effects on social functions than on legislative and administrative functions. Keywords: fiscal decentralization; public expenditures; municipalities; local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connection between fiscal decentralization and regional disparities is usually explained in two different manners. Fiscal decentralization might enhance the economic growth and optimal public good provision (and by this way might reduce regional disparities) or it can contribute to the deepening of differences among poor and rich regions. However, there is a wide empirical research of this connection in the economic literature. Despite it, in Czech and Slovak related research, there is an absence of such a literature. This paper focuses on revealing the character of relationship between fiscal decentralization and regional disparities in Czechia and Slovakia on both NUTS2 and NUTS3 levels. Regional disparities increase within both countries. Additionally, estimations results are about supporting the undesirable effect of fiscal decentralization. Statistical significant positive relationship between expenditure and revenue decentralization and regional disparities is observed in both countries, while this relationship using the measurement of tax decentralization is significant and negative only in the case of Slovakia. Unfortunately, even if the inverse estimated relationship support the hypothesis about reduction of regional disparities by tax decentralization, analysis of input data shows the trend toward decreasing the tax decentralization. It contributes to higher regional disparities, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the implications of the emergence of distributed energy resources (DERs) for competition in the electricity distribution systems. The regulations on industry structures in place today were designed in an era characterized by centralized resources and relatively price inelastic demand. In light of the decentralization of the power sector, regulators and policy makers must carefully reconsider how industry structure at the distribution level affects competition, market development, and cost efficiency. We analyze the economic characteristics of distribution network owners and operators, DER owners, and aggregators and retailers. We translate the foundational theories in industrial organization and the lessons learned during the previous wave of power system restructuring to the modern context to provide insight into three questions. First, should distribution system operations be separated from distribution network ownership in order to ensure the neutrality of the DSO role? Second, should DNOs be allowed to own and operate DERs, or should DER ownership be left exclusively to competitive actors? Third, does the emergence of DERs necessitate a reconsideration of the role of competition in the provision of aggregation services such as retailing? This paper is the first part of a two-part series on competition and coordination in rapidly evolving electricity distribution systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Promoting firms' eco-innovation through environmental regulation is of great significance to the sustainable development of China's economy. Based on the Porter Hypothesis, this paper used the panel data of 1962 listed Chinese industrial companies from 2004 to 2015 to empirically test the impact of environmental regulation on firm eco-innovation and the moderating effects of fiscal decentralization and political competition. The results showed that (1) without the influences of China's fiscal system and political promotion system, environmental regulation would likely significantly promote firms' eco-innovation as well as firms' eco-investment and eco-planning innovation. (2) Under the influence of China's fiscal decentralization system, environmental regulation has exerted a significant inhibitory impact on firms' eco-innovation as well as on firms' eco-investment and eco-planning innovation. (3) Under the influence of China's 'championship' system of political promotion, environmental regulation has exerted a significant inhibitory effect on firms' eco-innovation and on firms' eco-investment and eco-planning innovation. Finally, this paper provided detailed policy recommendations on how to optimize China's environmental regulatory policy system and how to promote firm eco-innovation. Highlights • This paper designed a web crawler in a Java programming language to collect data on firm eco-innovation. • Eco-innovation was divided into eco-investment and eco-planning innovation. • Fiscal decentralization negatively moderates the effect of environmental regulation on firm eco-innovation. • Political competition negatively moderates the positive effect of environmental regulation on firm eco-innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of urban spatial structure and its trends in the OECD between 2001 and 2011, by using a standardized definition of functional urban areas (FUAs) in 29 OECD countries. The prevalent trend is an increasing decentralization of the population, with growth taking place outside existing cores, but close to them. Overall, results are consistent with a pattern of contiguous growth. The population has grown more in relatively low‐density locations close to the main centres. Closeness to sub‐centres also proves to be a strong advantage for growth and suggests the emergence of new centralities shaping urban spatial structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In the first STROKESTOP atrial fibrillation screening study, participation was influenced by socio-demographic and geographic factors. To improve uptake in the second study, two screening sites were added, closer to low-income neighbourhoods which had very low participation in the first study. This paper aims to analyse the geographic and socio-demographic disparities in uptake in the second trial and compare the results with the first trial. Methods: Inhabitants of the Stockholm region born in 1940 and 1941 were randomised 1:1 to be invited to screening or serve as controls. Medical history, blood samples and single-lead-ECG were collected. Invitee's residential parish was used for geo-mapping analysis of the geographical disparities in participation, using hierarchical Bayes methods. Individual data for participants and non-participants were obtained for the socioeconomic variables: educational level, disposable income, immigrant and marital status. Results: Higher participation was observed in those with higher education, high income, among non-immigrants and married individuals. Participation between the first and second studies improved significantly, where additional screening sites were introduced. These improvements were generally significant, in each population group according to socio-demographic characteristics. Conclusion: Decentralisation of screening sites in an atrial fibrillation screening program yielded a significantly positive impact on screening uptake. Adding local screening sites in areas with low uptake had beneficial impact on participation across a wide spectrum of socio-demographic groups. Decentralised screening substantially increased the screening uptake in deprived areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper simultaneously analyzes antecedents and consequences of organizational ambidexterity. Regarding antecedents, the paper examines the influence of internal antecedents (organizational structure) and external antecedents (environmental dynamism). With regard to consequences, the paper analyzes the impact of ambidexterity on firm performance. Moreover, we use two different approaches to ambidexterity (structural and contextual perspectives). The findings show that a hybrid organizational structure, with organic (decentralization) and mechanistic characteristics (differentiation and formalization), and environmental dynamism, influence ambidexterity, and there is a positive impact of ambidexterity on firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Community engagement is increasingly seen as key to improving healthcare systems and to increasing communities' involvement in the shaping of their own communities. This paper describes how 'community engagement' (CE) is understood and being operationalised in the Dutch healthcare system by investigating the CE approaches being implemented in six different regions and by examining engaged citizens' and professionals' experiences of those CE approaches.Methods: For this realist study, interviews and focus groups were held with citizens (16) and professionals (42) involved in CE approaches in the six regions. Additionally, CE-related activities were observed to supplement interview data.Results: This study shows that citizens and professionals defined and experienced CE differently and that they differed in who they felt had ownership of CE. The CE approaches implemented in community-led initiatives and organisationally-led initiatives varied accordingly. Furthermore, both citizens and professionals were searching for meaningful ways for citizens to have more control over healthcare in their own communities.Conclusion: CE can be improved by, first of all, developing a shared and overarching vision of what CE should look like, establishing clear roles and remits for organisations and communities, and taking active measures to ensure CE is more inclusive and representative of harder-to-reach groups. At the same time, to help ensure such shared visions do not further entrench power imbalances between citizens and professionals, professionals require training in successful CE approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: Gender mainstreaming policies have been adopted by local governments to advance gender equality as well as women's rights. Existing research addresses several dimensions of this policy. However, a crucial dimension is its governance structure. In this article, we address the governance of gender mainstreaming policies under the governments of the Frente Amplio in Montevideo (Uruguay) and the Socialist Party in Rosario (Argentina), two left-wing parties with gender agendas. Methodology: The research is based on an analysis of policy trajectories over a decade and a half of implementation, comparing Montevideo and Rosario. By focusing on the governance structures of these policies, the paper examines legal, institutional and participatory instruments. The two cases are selected for their support to gender policies uninterruptedly for three decades, as well as for their recognition as successful experiences in Latin America. Conclusions: A significant contrast is identified between the two local administrations, despite their similarities. In general terms, the governance of gender mainstreaming in Montevideo tended to be broader and more democratic, while in Rosario it was partial and with a reduced multi-stakeholder participation. The explanations of these differences are linked to the characteristics of the local processes of decentralization and management reforms promoted by both governments. Originality: The originality of the article is given by an explanatory framework drawing upon broader discussions of the social sciences regarding decentralization and policy management, and extending it to account for the different governance structures of gender mainstreaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the influence of fiscal decentralization measures on the management of innovative country development. The main purpose of the research is to test the hypothesis that expenditure and revenue decentralizations have a positive impact on the management of innovative country development. Testing the hypothesis considers realization of panel data regression analysis, and consists of several stages, such as: 1) elimination of control variables multicollinearity based on the correlation analysis; 2) identification of the regression model specification (fixed or random effects model) with the help of Hausman test; 3) realization of the regression analysis and characteristic of its results (confirmation or rejection of the hypothesis). It also should be noted that country sample consists of 12 unitary European countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Ukraine). Time horizon - 2008-2018. Global Innovation Index is a measure of innovative country development. At the same time, the ratio of local budget revenue to consolidated budget revenue, the rate of domestic budget expenditure to consolidated budget expenditure, the proportion of local budget tax revenue to gross local budget revenue are measures of fiscal decentralization in the research. There are also selected a set of control variables that often used in economic growth models and reflect macroeconomic perspectives of country development. However, the practical realization of the stages, as mentioned above, allow identifying that fixed effect specification of the model is more appropriate in all three cases (for three different measures of fiscal decentralization). Panel data regression analysis allows confirming the hypothesis on the positive impact of revenue fiscal decentralization and the negative impact of expenditure decentralization on innovative country development. In turn, there is no statistically significant cohesion between ratio of local budget tax revenue to gross local budget revenue and Global Innovation Index. These findings in terms of fiscal decentralization reform might be considered in order to ensure a balance between power (expenditures) redistribution from central to sub-central governments and local budget financial capacity. While in terms of innovative country development, it should be considered that the lack of local budget financial resources to cover all redistributed from central government level powers makes it impossible to invest in the development of innovation. However, the increase of local government financial capacity creates opportunities not just for essential functions financing but also advanced features investment such as innovative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia's oil palm expansion during the last two decades has resulted in widespread environmental and health damages through land clearing by fire and peat conversion, but it has also contributed to rural poverty alleviation. In this paper, we examine the role that decentralization has played in the process of Indonesia's oil palm development, particularly among independent smallholder producers. We use primary survey information, along with government documents and statistics, to analyze the institutional dynamics underpinning the sector's impacts on economic development and the environment. Our analysis focuses on revenue-sharing agreements between district and central governments, district splitting, land title authority, and accountability at individual levels of government. We then assess the role of Indonesia's Village Law of 2014 in promoting rural development and land clearing by fire. We conclude that both environmental conditionality and positive financial incentives are needed within the Village Law to enhance rural development while minimizing environmental damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design and control of a sustainable standalone photovoltaic (PV)-battery hybrid power system (HPS). The research aims to develop an approach that contributes to increased level of reliability and scalability for an HPS. To achieve such objectives, a PV-battery HPS with a passively connected battery was studied. A quantitative hardware reliability analysis was performed to assess the effect of energy storage configuration to the overall system reliability. Instead of requiring the feedback control information of load power through a centralized supervisory controller, the power flow in the proposed HPS is managed by a decentralized control approach that takes advantage of the system architecture. Reliable system operation of an HPS is achieved through the proposed control approach by not requiring a separate supervisory controller. Furthermore, performance degradation of energy storage can be prevented by selecting the controller gains such that the charge rate does not exceed operational requirements. The performance of the proposed system architecture with the control strategy was verified by simulation results using realistic irradiance data and a battery model in which its temperature effect was considered. With an objective to support scalable operation, details on how the proposed design could be applied were also studied so that the HPS could satisfy potential system growth requirements. Such scalability was verified by simulating various cases that involve connection and disconnection of sources and loads. The quantitative reliability analysis and verification results show that the proposed architecture with power control strategy provides a straightforward approach for designing a reliable and scalable PV-Battery HPS. Although PVs and batteries have been used in this paper, the design and control approach can be applied to other hybrid power systems (HPSs) that involve the connection of various power sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdsourcing systems which utilize the human intelligence to solve complex tasks have gained considerable interest and adoption in recent years. However, the majority of existing crowdsourcing systems rely on central servers, which are subject to the weaknesses of traditional trust-based model, such as single point of failure. They are also vulnerable to distributed denial of service (DDoS) and Sybil attacks due to malicious users involvement. In addition, high service fees from the crowdsourcing platform may hinder the development of crowdsourcing. How to address these potential issues has both research and substantial value. In this paper, we conceptualize a blockchain-based decentralized framework for crowdsourcing named CrowdBC, in which a requester's task can be solved by a crowd of workers without relying on any third trusted institution, users' privacy can be guaranteed and only low transaction fees are required. In particular, we introduce the architecture of our proposed framework, based on which we give a concrete scheme. We further implement a software prototype on Ethereum public test network with real-world dataset. Experiment results show the feasibility, usability, and scalability of our proposed crowdsourcing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Buruli ulcer [BU] is a chronic and debilitating neglected tropical skin disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. The treatment of moderate to severe BU affects the well-being of entire households and places a strain on both gender relations within households and social relations with kin asked for various types of support. In this paper, we employ the conceptual lenses provided by the Household Production of Health approach to understanding the impact of illness on the household as a unit of analysis, gender studies, and social support related research to better understand BU health care decision making and the psychosocial experience of BU hospitalization. Methods: An ethnography attentive to circumstance and the nested contexts within which stakeholders respond to BU was conducted employing semi-structured interviews, illness narratives, and case studies. An iterative process of data collection with preliminary analyses and reflection shaped subsequent interviews. Interviews were conducted with 45 women in households having a member afflicted with BU in two communes of Benin with high prevalence rates for BU. The first commune [ZE] has a well-established decentralized BU treatment program and a well-functioning referral network linked to the Allada reference hospital specializing in the care of BU and other chronic ulcers. The second commune [Ouinhi] is one of the last regions of the country to introduce a decentralized BU treatment program. A maximum variation purposeful sample was selected to identify information-rich health care decision cases for in-depth study. Principal findings: Study results demonstrated that although men are the primary decision makers for healthcare decisions outside the home, women are largely responsible for arranging care for the afflicted in hospital in addition to managing their own households. A woman’s agency and ability to influence the decision-making process is largely based on whatever social support and substitute labor she can mobilize from her own network of kin relations. When support wanes, women are placed in a vulnerable position and often end up destitute. Decentralized BU treatment is preferred because it enables a woman to remain in her own household as a patient or caretaker of an ill family member while engaging in child care and petty revenue earing activities. Remaining in the hospital (a liminal space) as either patient or caretaker also renders a woman vulnerable to rumor and innuendo about sexual liaisons and constitutes a form of social risk. Social risk in some cases eclipses the physical risk of the disease in what we would describe as a hierarchy of risks. Conclusion: This study illustrates the importance of decentralized treatment programs for NTDs such as BU. Such programs enable patients to remain in their homes while being treated, and do not displace women responsible for the welfare of the entire household. When women are displaced the well-being of the entire household is placed in jeopardy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy security theories are based on the premises of sufficient and reliable supply of fossil fuels at affordable prices in centralized supply systems. Policy-makers and company chief executives develop energy security strategies based on the energy security theories and definitions that dominate in the research and policy discourse. It is therefore of utmost importance that scientists revisit these theories in line with the latest changes in the energy industry: the rapid advancement of renewables and smart grid, decentralization of energy systems, new environmental and climate challenges. The study examines the classic energy security concepts (neorealism, neoliberalism, constructivism and international political economy) and assesses if energy technology changes are taken into consideration. This is done through integrative literature review, comparative analysis, identification of ‘international relations’ and ‘energy’ research discourse with the use of big data, and case studies of Germany, China, and Russia. The paper offers suggestions for revision of energy security concepts through integration of future technology considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes three contributions to the Feldman-Mahalanobis (F-M) model. First, it overcomes the limitation of the original model, which assumes a passive role of consumption demand, by extending the F-M model through the introduction of intertemporal maximization of consumption. Second, it shows that decentralized markets can mimic the dynamic behavior of the centrally planned economy with two sectors, consumption and investment goods. This is accomplished by using Cobb-Douglas production functions in both sectors. Third, in contrast with the F-M model in which the solutions are unstable, this paper proves the stability of the steady state solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public primary health care (PHC) facilities are for many individuals the first point of contact with the formal health care system. These facilities are managed by professional nurses or clinical officers who are recognised to play a key role in implementing health sector reforms and facilitating initiatives aimed at strengthening community involvement. Little in-depth research exists about the dimensions and challenges of these managers’ jobs, or on the impact of decentralisation on their roles and responsibilities. In this paper, we describe the roles and responsibilities of PHC managers–or ‘in-charges’ in Kenya, and their challenges and coping strategies, under accelerated devolution. Methods: The data presented in this paper is part of a wider set of activities aimed at understanding governance changes under devolution in Kenya, under the umbrella of a ‘learning site’. A learning site is a long term process of collaboration between health managers and researchers deciding together on key health system questions and interventions. Data were collected through seven formal in depth interviews and observations at four PHC facilities as well as eight in depth interviews and informal interactions with sub-county managers from June 2013 to July 2014. Drawing on the Aragon framework of organisation capacity we discuss the multiple accountabilities, daily routines, challenges and coping strategies among PHC facility managers. Results: PHC in-charges perform complex and diverse roles in a difficult environment with relatively little formal preparation. Their key concerns are lack of job clarity and preparedness, the difficulty of balancing multidirectional accountability responsibilities amidst significant resource shortages, and remuneration anxieties. We show that day-to-day management in an environment of resource constraints and uncertainty requires PHC in-charges who are resilient, reflective, and continuously able to learn and adapt. We highlight the importance of leadership development including the building of critical soft skills such as relationship building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the problem of voltage control of islanded inverter-interfaced microgrids consisting of several distributed generation (DG) units with radial structure. The main objectives are to (i) design a decentralized/distributed voltage controller with minimum information exchange between DG units and their local controllers (ii) design a fixed-/low-order dynamic output feedback controller which ensures stability as well as desired performance of the microgrid system in spite of load parameter uncertainties. To this end, the problem is formulated as an optimization problem which is the minimization of the cardinality of a pattern matrix subject to an H ∞ performance constraint. Since the problem is intrinsically non-convex, a convex optimization-based design procedure for the controller synthesis is proposed in this paper. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is evaluated through simulation studies and Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) verifications. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider how government quality mediates the relationship between fiscal decentralization and regional disparities. Previous work has argued that fiscal decentralization has the potential to reduce income differences across regions but that this potential may not be realized because of governance problems associated with sub-national authorities. Our empirical evidence based on a sample of 24 OECD countries over the period 1984 to 2006 lends a measure of support to this idea. We find that fiscal decentralization promotes regional convergence in high government quality settings but, worryingly, it leads to wider regional disparities in countries with poor governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the decentralization of European space technology research and development through the joint lenses of policy, systems architecture, and innovation contexts. It uses a detailed longitudinal case history of the development of a novel astrophysics instrument to explore the link between policy-imposed institutional decomposition and the architecture of the technical system. The analysis focuses on five instances of collaborative design decision-making and finds that matching between the technical and institutional architectures is a predictor of project success, consistent with the mirroring hypothesis in extant literature. Examined over time, the instances reveal stability in the loosely coupled nature of institutional arrangements and a trend towards more integral, or tightly coupled, technical systems. The stability of the institutional arrangements is explained as an artifact of the European Hultqvist policy and the trend towards integral technical systems is related to the increasing complexity of modern space systems. If these trends persist, the scale of the mismatch will continue to grow. As a first step towards mitigating this challenge, the paper develops a framework for balancing upfront decomposition and in-process coordination in collaborative development projects. The astrophysics instrument case history is used to illustrate how collaborations should be defined for a given inherent system complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to provide a critical theoretical comparative review of the effect upon democracy, constitutional reform could have on new smaller states. This paper posits that it is an untried, untested assumption that democratisation will follow, if nation states' populations choose constitutional reform. This paper also posits that social, economic, political, historical and cultural generic domains influence the drive for constitutional reform in very different ways globally. This paper intends to discuss the pressure for constitutional reform, from a globalisation perspective. This paper will demonstrate how globalisation itself is a significant causal factor, increasing the propensity towards constitutional reform of smaller states. This paper will also demonstrate that the EU anti-globalisation sentiment, asking for constitutional reform, is globally replicated elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, a range of reports and cross-sectional surveys of European workers have highlighted Denmark as scoring exceptionally, and consistently, well across several dimensions shaping working life, for example, job quality, work-life balance, discretion and learning, and job satisfaction. This is despite a trend of increasing psychosocial risks of work across Europe. Providing a retrospective interpretation of this exceptionalism, the paper draws on data from 40 expert interviews in Denmark to theoretically map the advantageous institutional components shaping working life in Denmark. Aligning the theories of Émile Durkheim with the capabilities framework, the analysis highlights the role of interdependent collective agreements, which link macro and microwork contexts and generate resources that augment the experience of balance and control within working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the issue of channel structure selection when an incumbent supply chain faces a potential entrant supply chain. Each chain can choose its channel structure, namely, decentralization or coordination. Specifically, both the incumbent manufacturer and the entrant manufacturer can choose to sell their products by themselves or through their exclusive retailers. Our objective is to discuss whether the entrant chain should enter the retail market and, if so, how the dominant manufacturer of each chain strategically selects the channel structure, and how the asymmetric cost information affects the equilibrium structure. The results show that (1)Under asymmetric information game, the chain without competitive advantage is more likely to exit market when the intensity of price competition increases. (2)Under the symmetric information game, both coordination and decentralization can be the optimal structure for the entrant chain and the optimal entry depends on the incumbent chains action. In contrast, under the asymmetric information game, the entrant chain prefers coordinated structure rather than decentralized structure. (3)As the entrant products competitiveness increases, the incumbent manufacturer will switch from coordinated structure to decentralized structure. (4)When the price competition intensity increases, the entrant manufacturer will change coordinated structure into decentralized structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops two duopoly game models to explore price decisions and the channel benefit of decentralization for two supply chains, and investigates the channel structure decisions in the presence of fixed marketing and manufacturing costs. We give the price decisions and discuss price distortion. Under the downward decentralization model, our analysis reveals that first, symmetric decentralization improves supply chain profit only when the fixed marketing costs are high or product substitutability is high; second, decentralization improves channel profit, and symmetric decentralization (i.e., both manufacturers use decentralization) is an equilibrium if the fixed marketing (or unit production) costs are sufficiently high and the market scales are sufficiently small; and third, the presence of fixed marketing costs and asymmetry of supply chains support the existence of asymmetric equilibrium. Under the upward decentralization model, we find that symmetric outsourcing emerges when the fixed manufacturing cost or the unit production cost is low while both market scale and product substitutability are large in the supplier-led setting, the channel profit under downward decentralization is higher than that under symmetric outsourcing only if product substitutability is high, and the sourcing strategy largely depends on the specific game sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralized rainwater harvesting (RWH) from roof runoff can complement the centralized supply of mains (drinking) water for a range of contexts, to assist in alleviating issues of water security. However, treatment to potable standard of harvested rainwater is not widespread. Consequently a comparative life cycle analysis (LCA) of decentralized and centralized potable water supply has not previously been undertaken. In this paper we describe a novel point-of-use (POU) treatment device, which was used to treat harvested rainwater to potable standard. We then provide a performance assessment for this system and an LCA with a comparison to centralized supply. Results of the performance assessment indicate a water saving efficiency (E T ) of between 0.6 and 100%, depending on rainfall (0.6 from April when rainfall was significantly below average). This highlights that the POU device was able to deal with the scale of roof runoff supply originating from a RWH system at a commercial building scale. The LCA results suggest that potable water produced from this decentralized RWH POU system currently performs more poorly than centralized water from an environmental perspective. Its impacts in most categories would be significantly reduced if the electricity consumed by the system were supplied from a renewable source such as solar PV or wind turbines instead of the UK grid. Priority should be given to optimizing the energy efficiency and exploring opportunities for combined use with renewable energy technologies in order to improve the environmental performance of POU treatment devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the complex problem of controlling and coordinating Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV) by a decentralized approach. Each AGV selects its route by a consensus algorithm based on some Integer Linear Programming problem solutions. Moreover, the AGVs move inside a zone-controlled guidepath network and coordinate their movements by a decentralized protocol based on a zone-controlled approach, which guarantees the avoidance of deadlocks and collisions. The proposed decentralized strategy is applied to a guidepath network by means of a simulation software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization can be generally described as a process in which selected functions are assigned to sub-national units. The literature identifies a number of positive consequences of decentralization which all lead to a better satisfaction citizens' needs for public services. Although the decentralization process in Croatia started more than ten years ago, it has not yet been completed. While leading to a new allocation of authorities and responsibilities to local government units, the level of fiscal decentralization remained lower than in the EU countries. In this paper we analyze the fiscal capacity of local government units to provide an insight into the main problems of decentralization in Croatia. We show that most local government units have very low fiscal capacity, which is insufficient for financing basic public functions with their own resources. The paper presents the results of a survey relating to the decentralization process conducted among local councilors at the regional level in Croatia. We explore how local councilors at the regional level evaluate different goals of decentralization. With the lack of fiscal capacity in mind, we identify two possible solutions for an optimal provision of public functions. The first one is the level of political will for a joint provision of public functions by different local units, and the second one is a change in the territorial organization of the country. We measure the difference in the attitudes toward these questions across counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many companies with global supply networks suffer from market volatility and supply disruptions, which adversely affect both their short and long-term profits. Although using mechanisms, such as supply contracts, is useful to mitigate uncertainty, the inherent inefficiency of decentralization is a critical issue that needs to be considered at early design stages. This paper studies a supply chain problem where a buyer receives a product from a cheap but unreliable main supplier and signs an option contract with a perfectly reliable backup supplier to share supply and demand uncertainty. To build efficiency benchmark models, we first consider a centralized problem and then explore a decentralized problem where there is only a wholesale price contract between the buyer and the backup supplier. Considering the option contract, we reconstruct optimization problems and sequentially characterize the members' reservation and production policies under a voluntary compliance regime. Subsequently, we establish a win–win coordination mechanism that maximizes system efficiency and meanwhile is desirable from both contract members' perspectives. Results reveal that the proposed mechanism leads the backup supplier to choose a lower level of production capacity than the buyer's reservation amount (i.e., an underproduction policy). We realize that the existing mismatch between the members' optimal policies is caused by the buyer's phantom ordering. This paper sheds light on the effectiveness of contract-based mitigation strategies that enable firms to ensure responsive backup capacity under demand uncertainty and supply disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the degrowth literature, relocalization is widely considered as a strategic approach to transition to a degrowth society, and eco-village/urban village is argued to be the spatial organization suitable for implementing localism. These debates on eco-village/urban village as a vision for long-term sustainability have profound implications for the spatial development of our society. This paper aims to challenge this proposition from an urban planner's perspective by dwelling on spatial implications and planning process. It is argued that spatial decentralization can lead to various social and environmental consequences contradicting the multi-goals of a degrowth society. Localizing and decentralizing decision making in the planning process does not necessarily lead to a just and sustainable society. Instead, it is of importance to have multi-scalar strategies in the planning context to pursue degrowth. The paper concludes by pointing out the complex relation between paradigmatic societal transformation and spatial development, and the significant role that urban planning can play in the transition to degrowth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The “bullwhip” effect is a major cause of supply chain deficiencies. This phenomenon refers to grow the amplification of demand or inventory variability as it moves up the supply chain. Supply chain managers experience this variance amplification in both inventory levels and orders. Other side, dampening variance in orders may have a negative impact on customer service due to the increase in the inventory variance. This paper with simulating a three stage supply chains consisting of a single retailer, single wholesaler and single manufacturer under both centralized and decentralized chains. In this paper, it is intended to analysis the causes of bullwhip effect from two dimensions of order and inventory variance using the response surface methodology. The results show that in both supply chains, rationing factor is considered as the least important cause of bullwhip effect. While the wholesaler’s order batching and the chain’s order batching are considered as the main causes for the bullwhip effect in the decentralized and centralized chains, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents several models to compare centralized and distributed automated separation assurance concepts in aviation. In a centralized system, safety-related functions are implemented by common equipment on the ground. In a distributed system, safety-related functions are implemented by equipment on each aircraft. Failures of the safety-related functions can increase the risk of near mid-air collisions. Intuitively, failures on the ground are worse than failures in the air because the ground failures simultaneously affect multiple aircraft. This paper evaluates the degree to which this belief is true. Using region-wide models to account for dependencies between aircraft pairs, we derive the region-wide expectation and variance of the number of separation losses for both centralized and distributed concepts. This derivation is done first for a basic scenario involving a single component and function. We show that the variance of the number of separation losses is always higher for the centralized system, holding the expectations equal. However, numerical examples show that the difference is negligible when the events of interest are rare. Results are extended to a hybrid centralized-distributed scenario involving multiple components and functions on the ground and in the air. In this case, the variance of the centralized system may actually be less than that of the distributed system. The overall implication is that the common-cause failure of the ground function does not seriously weaken the overall case for using a centralized concept versus a distributed concept. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pricing decisions of two complementary products in a fuzzy environment are considered in this paper. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes of the optimal retail pricing of two complementary products under two different decentralized decision scenarios (e.g., Nash game case and Stackelberg game case). As a reference model, the centralized pricing model is also established. The closed-form optimal pricing decisions of the two complementary products are obtained in the above three decision scenarios. Some interesting management insights into how pricing decisions vary with decision scenarios are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geosensor networks present unique resource constraints to spatial computation, including limited battery power, communication constraints, and frequently a lack of coordinate positioning systems. As a result, there is a need for new algorithms that can efficiently satisfy basic spatial queries within those resource constraints. This paper explores the design and evaluation of a family of new algorithms for determining the topological relations between regions monitored by such a resource-constrained geosensor network. The algorithms are based on efficient, decentralized (in-network) variants of conventional 4-intersection and intersection and difference models, with in-network data aggregation. Further, our algorithms operate without any coordinate information, making them suitable applications where a positioning system is unavailable or unreliable. While all four algorithms are shown to have overall communication complexity O( n) and optimal load balance O(1), the algorithms differ in the level of topological detail they can detect; the types of regions they can monitor; and in the constant factors for communication complexity. The paper also demonstrates the impact of finite granularity observations on the correctness of the query results. In the conclusions, we identify the need to conduct further fundamental research on the relationship between topological relations between regions and limited granularity sensor observations of those regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power generation, distribution, transmission, and consumption face ongoing challenges such as smart grid management, control, and operation, resulting from high energy demand, the diversity of energy sources, and environmental or regulatory issues. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of blockchain-based solutions for smart grid management, control, and operations. We systematically summarize existing work on the use and implementation of blockchain technology in various smart grid domains. The paper compares related reviews and highlights the challenges in the management, control, and operation for a blockchain-based smart grid as well as future research directions in the five categories: collaboration among stakeholders; data analysis and data management; control of grid imbalances; decentralization of grid management and operations; and security and privacy. All these aspects have not been covered in previous reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Chinese provincial panel data from 1995 to 2008, using the panel co-integration method, this paper presents an empirical study on the long-term equilibrium relationship between the fiscal decentralization, the local government competition and the farmland conversion. On this basis, establishing the dynamic panel data model, using the generalized method of moments (GMM) to analyze the dynamic impact of the fiscal decentralization and the local government competition on the farmland conversion from the view of three cross-regional groups and the mainland China. The results show that there is a long-run co-integration relationship between the fiscal decentralization, the farmland conversion and the local government competition, and also there is a positive significant influence of the fiscal decentralization and the local government competition on the farmland conversion, a 1% increase in the degree of fiscal decentralization will increase the area of farmland conversion by 0.3280%. In addition, there is a significant difference of the incentive effect of local government competition on the farmland conversion in different regions. Th e paper ends with policy suggestions for perfecting the system of the fiscal decentralization, taxation and the division of responsibility and authority, reforming the criterion of the political achievement assessment, strengthening the management of land revenue, reducing the reliance of the local government on land finance; at the same time, the farmers' land property rights should be perfected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial decentralization is an essential component part for the political, administrative and economic decentralization process, with major involvement on the economic and social system in Romania. Although the authorities of the local public administration in Romania were authorised to ensure the local communities the services provided by law and even to involve in the economic-social development of the towns and communes, in fact they have never had enough financial sources from the state budget or from the local budgets. The local budgets represent the planning and management tools of the financial activity of the territorial-administrative units. Their structure reflects the autonomy level of the local administration towards the central level and the links existing between the different territorial administrations. Also, the local budgets reflect the flows of incomes formation and the expenses of the local administrations, the method of financing the expenses on destinations and the deficits covering. The local authorities must access external aid programs, in order to be able to achieve the investigation works related to the commune infrastructure, due to the fact that the local incomes are insufficient to achieve investigations works from their own sources. In this context, the present paper proposes to highlight the characteristics of the budget process within the local public administration in the rural sector area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software-defined networking (SDN) introduces a new method in networking that by offering programmability and centralization, it can dynamically control and configure networks. In traditional networks, data plane did the whole forwarding process, but SDN decouples data plane and control plane by using programmable software controllers for deciding how to forward different flows. By implementing control plane in a software-based independent layer, the network management will become much easier and new policies can be applied to the network by changing a few lines of code. Since the resource allocation and meeting the required service-level agreement are really important in large-scale networks such as cloud datacenters, using SDN can be very useful. In these networks, one logically centralized controller cannot handle the whole network traffic and it will become network bottleneck. Therefore, multiple distributed controllers should be allocated in different regions of the network. Since the request rate of switches varies in time, by dynamic allocation of controllers, network resources will be allocated efficiently and this approach can also reduce power consumption. In this paper, we are going to propose a framework for provisioning software controllers in cloud datacenters by using metaheuristic algorithms. These algorithms can be less accurate compared to other kinds, but their main characteristics like simplicity, flexibility, derivation free, and local optimum avoidance make them a good nominee for solving controller provisioning problem and controller placement problem. Our framework improves computation time and reaches better results compared to other allocation techniques, but it is less accurate in some scenarios. Therefore, we believe metaheuristic approach can be very useful in developing new technologies for SDN in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2013, Kenya transitioned into a devolved system of government with a central government and 47 semi-autonomous county governments. In this paper, we report early experiences of devolution in the Kenyan health sector, with a focus on public county hospitals. Specifically, we examine changes in hospital autonomy as a result of devolution, and how these have affected hospital functioning. Methods: We used a qualitative case study approach to examine the level of autonomy that hospitals had over key management functions and how this had affected hospital functioning in three county hospitals in coastal Kenya. We collected data by in-depth interviews of county health managers and hospital managers in the case study hospitals (n = 21). We adopted the framework proposed by Chawla et al (1995) to examine the autonomy that hospitals had over five management domains (strategic management, finance, procurement, human resource, and administration), and how these influenced hospital functioning. Findings: Devolution had resulted in a substantial reduction in the autonomy of county hospitals over the five key functions examined. This resulted in weakened hospital management and leadership, reduced community participation in hospital affairs, compromised quality of services, reduced motivation among hospital staff, non-alignment of county and hospital priorities, staff insubordination, and compromised quality of care. Conclusion: Increasing the autonomy of county hospitals in Kenya will improve their functioning. County governments should develop legislation that give hospitals greater control over resources and key management functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature concerned in fiscal federalism and fiscal decentralization promotes the sub-national responsibility for sub-national resources and spending. In this paper sub-national tax revenues are compared to total tax revenues expressing the tax decentralization for the sample of EU 28 countries. Beside it, the main part of sub-national taxes, the immovable property tax -- tax on land building or other structure, is compared to total sub-national tax revenues. Using the GMM system estimation determinants of sub-national tax revenues, real estate tax revenues and tax decentralization are investigated on the sample of EU countries. Results show the significant negative relation between GDP per capita growth, population density and inflation rate and all variables in question. In the case of sub-national government real estate tax revenues the positive relation with public debt is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A smart camera is a vision system capable of extracting application-specific information from the captured images. The paper proposes a decentralized and efficient solution for visual parking lot occupancy detection based on a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) specifically designed for smart cameras. This solution is compared with state-of-the-art approaches using two visual datasets: PKLot, already existing in literature, and CNRPark-EXT. The former is an existing dataset, that allowed us to exhaustively compare with previous works. The latter dataset has been created in the context of this research, accumulating data across various seasons of the year, to test our approach in particularly challenging situations, exhibiting occlusions, and diverse and difficult viewpoints. This dataset is public available to the scientific community and is another contribution of our research. Our experiments show that our solution outperforms and generalizes the best performing approaches on both datasets. The performance of our proposed CNN architecture on the parking lot occupancy detection task, is comparable to the well-known AlexNet, which is three orders of magnitude larger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullwhip effect in supply chain is a phenomenon which can emerge in both inventory levels and replenishment orders. Bullwhip effect causes variations in cash conversion cycle (CCC) across cash flow of supply chain. As a result, it can lead to inefficiencies such as cash flow bullwhip (CFB). Due to negative impact of CFB on cash flow of supply chain, it can lead to a decrease in efficiency of supply chain management (SCM). That is why supply chain modeling is a proper start point for effective management and control of the CFB. This paper aims to analyze concurrent impact of causes of inventory bullwhip effect and effect of their interactions on CFB based on generalized OUT policy from aspect of CCC variance. To this end, first we develop system dynamics structure of beer distribution game as simulation model which includes multi-stage supply chain under both centralized and decentralized supply chains. Then, in order to develop CFB function, we design experiments in developed simulation model using response surface methodology (RSM). Results demonstrate that if each chain member uses generalized OUT policy as replenishment model, there still exists CFB in both chains and CFB largely stems from rationing and shortage gaming in both centralized and decentralized supply chain. In addition, when information on ordering parameters are not shared among members, parameters of downstream stage (i.e. retailer) are more important than parameters of upstream stage (i.e. manufacturer) in reducing CFB function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the economic transition, manufacturing in China has undergone profound changes not only in number of enterprises, but also in ownership structure and intra-urban spatial distribution. Investigating the changing manufacturing landscape from the perspective of ownership structure is critical to a deep understanding of the changing role of market and government in re-shaping manufacturing location behavior. Through a case study of Wuxi, a city experiencing comprehensive ownership reform, this paper presents a detailed analysis of the intra-urban spatial shift of manufacturing, identifies the location discrepancies, and examines the underlying forces responsible for the geographical differentiations. Through zone- and district-based analysis, a distinctive trend of decentralization and suburbanization, as well as an uneven distribution of manufacturing, is unveiled. The results of Location Quotient analysis show that the distribution of manufacturing by ownership exhibits distinctive spatial patterns, which is characterized by a historically-based, market-led, and institutionally-created spatial variation. By employing Hot Spot analysis, the role of development zones in attracting manufacturing enterprises of different ownerships is established. Overall, the location behavior of the diversified manufacturing has been increasingly based on the forces of market since the land marketization began. A proactive role played by local governments has also guided the enterprise location decision through spatial planning and regulatory policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]