Private Operators Research Articles

Card-Based Cryptographic Protocols with Malicious Players Using Private Operations

This paper shows new card-based cryptographic protocols using private operations that are secure against malicious players. Physical cards are used in card-based cryptographic protocols instead of computers. Operations that a player executes in a place where the other players cannot see are called private operations. Using several private operations, calculations of two variable Boolean functions and copy operations were realized with the minimum number of cards. Though private operations are very powerful in card-based cryptographic protocols, there is a problem that it is very hard to prevent malicious actions during private operations. Though most card-based protocols are discussed in the semi-honest model, there might be cases when the semi-honest model is not enough. Thus, this paper shows new protocols that are secure against malicious players. We show logical XOR, logical AND, n-variable Boolean function, and copy protocols. We can execute any logical computations with a combination of these protocols. We use envelopes as an additional tool that can be easily prepared and used by people.

Talos Eyes Big Carbon Capture Role in the US and Beyond

The energy transition momentum currently sweeping through the oil patch has prompted corporate rebranding, heightened investment in renewables and a genuine sense of responsibility over the amount of harmful gases that industries release into the air. Beyond emission reductions, carbon capture and storage (CCS), viewed as a novelty by some just a few short decades ago, has leaped to the forefront of greenhouse-gas management solutions, with big players committing big money to projects aimed at ensnaring, transporting, and burying the waste deep underground. Last April, ExxonMobil unveiled plans for a $100-billion CCS hub for the Port of Houston. Dubbed the CCS Innovation Zone, it is expected to be a public-private partnership that will attract participation and funding from companies and government entities. In September, the supermajor went on a buying spree in the shallow-water US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) as part of federal Lease Sale 257. It was the apparent high bidder on 94 tracts to the tune of just under $15 million. While these are presently structured as hydrocarbon leases and the company has kept mum on its motivations, the move was almost certainly to gain access to coast acreage that could potentially serve as subsurface storage locations for the proposed Houston hub. Following the lease sale, Spanish operator Repsol said it had partnered with US independent Cox Oil to jointly explore CCS opportunities on the private operator’s shallow-water GOM acreage. Under the terms of the agreement, the consortium will share technical knowledge and resources to evaluate potential projects that would combine the offshore expertise and operations of Cox Oil with Repsol’s technical knowledge and global experience with CCS projects. Then there is Talos Energy. The Houston-based independent has jumped feet first into the CCS pool, announcing a pair of US-based projects with designs on making carbon capture a steady revenue contributor over the coming years. Early in 2021, the company evaluated various green businesses where it could make a difference—and a dollar—including carbon capture, but also wind and wave energy. At that time, CCS was more of a peripheral discussion, but as the company took a closer look it became apparent that its skill set and investment profile lined up best with a role in carbon capture. By April, the company was presented with the opportunity to propose a CCS solution solicited by the State of Texas’ General Land Office (GLO).

Startup ventures and equity finance: How do Business Accelerators and Business Angels’ assess the human capital of socio-environmental mission led entrepreneurs?

ABSTRACT We investigate the role of entrepreneurs’ human capital on the potential of newly created ventures to receive equity funding from Accelerators and Business Angels using a resource-based approach to entrepreneurship theory. Using data from 10,563 for-profit innovative ventures, we find significant differences between those two groups. More specifically, formal education and founding experience of the entrepreneurial team is positively associated with the likelihood of the team to receive equity from Angels but negatively associated with the likelihood of the team to receive equity from Accelerators. Overall, our results are in line with the theoretical argument that human capital signals are important in reducing the information asymmetries faced by angels and ultimately driving entrepreneurs’ success in securing angel funding, but our results also suggest that some aspects of human capital signals do not contribute to the entrepreneur’s success in receiving accelerator funding. Our findings have important repercussions for the quality of design and operation of both private and state supported programmes and accelerator managers.

Resettlement and Regeneration: The Pafuri Camp Joint-venture Lodge, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Abstract This case describes how the Makuleke community reclaimed formal ownership over their land in the Kruger National Park through a land restitution process in South Africa. On the basis that the land could only be used for conservation, the Makuleke formed agreements with private operators to build and operate joint-venture tourism lodges. These generated income, employment and empowered people that had previously been forcibly removed from land by the state. Information Snyman, S. and Spenceley, A. (2019) Private Sector Tourism in Conservation Areas in Africa, CABI © CAB International 2019

Update on the Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. Case · Case C-933/19 P Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. · Annotation by Marek Rzotkiewicz

In cases before the EU Courts, parties who challenge the legal acts of EU institutions, eg Commission decisions, frequently raise many different pleas claiming violations concerning both EU law and the factual assessment. But it is for the EU Courts to adjudicate on those claims. When a party dissatisfied with the General-Court judgment appeals to the Court of Justice, in the appeal, the party cannot simply repeat the pleas raised in the action for the annulment before the General Court. An appeal to the Court of Justice must be limited to points of law and the appraisal of the facts by the General Court does not constitute, save where the clear sense of the evidence produced before it is distorted, a question of law which is subject, as such, to review by the Court of Justice. In State aid cases, case law frequently refers to the concept of the private operator to assess whether an action by public bodies can be compared to those of a comparable private operator, and if a State granted an advantage within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU. But the concept of the private operator has many variations which cannot all be reduced to the private investor or to private creditor formulas.

Public Charging Infrastructure in Germany–A Utilization and Profitability Analysis

The current increase in the number of electric vehicles in Germany requires an adequately developed charging infrastructure. Large numbers of public and semi-public charging stations are necessary to ensure sufficient coverage of charging options. In order to make the installation worthwhile for the mostly private operators as well as public ones, a sufficient utilization is decisive. This paper gives an overview of the differences in the utilization across the public charging infrastructure in Germany. To this end, a dataset on the utilization of 21164 public and semi-public charging stations in Germany is evaluated. The installation and operating costs of various charging stations are modeled and economically evaluated in combination with the utilization data. It is shown that in 2019–2020, the average utilization in Germany was rather low, albeit with striking regional differences. We consider future scenarios allowing the regional development forecasting of economic viability. It is demonstrated that a growth in electric mobility of 20%-30% per year leads to a large number of economically feasible charging parks in urban agglomeration areas.

Analysis on the tourist offer of the Vlora Region, from the viewpoint of tourism stakeholders

The tourism industry is one of the vital sectors of the Albanian economy, an important contributor to the country’s GDP, investments and employment. During the last 10 years, through the investments, marketing and services provided, this sector has tried to offer tourism products which have significantly increased the number of visitors, both Albanians and foreigners, but still reflects many issues hindering its competitiveness in the region and the increase in profits. Given the problems that accompany this sector in relation to seasonality and the small number of days of stay of tourists, as well as concerning the objectives of the National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism Development 2019-20236 , this paper aims to analyse the tourist offer of the Vlora Region from the point of view of tourism stakeholders. The qualitative method is used to analyse the tourist offer of the Vlora Region, based on a questionnaire in the form of a semi-structured interview with private operators, public operators, donors and NGOs related to the sector, and training and educational institutions. The findings of the paper highlight not only the weaknesses and strengths of the offer, but also the opportunities and threats that need to be considered. In particular, they emphasize the need for cooperation and accountability in line with roles played in the sector.

Evaluation of Beamsteering Performance in MultiuserMIMO Unmanned Aerial Base Stations Networks

Future wireless communication networks can benefit from Unmanned Aerial Base Stations (UABSs) to provide enhanced capacity to ground users (GU) in large and remote locations. Connecting UABSs to the terrestrial network presents several challenges, such as the limited gain traditional antennas need to maintain suitable wireless links between the core network, UABS, and GU. A convenient solution is to use MaMIMO (Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output) since it improves spectral and energy efficiency, thus providing high data rates while reducing power consumption. This paper proposes a Multi-user MIMO (MuMIMO) model for UABS aided networks to increase service range and served capacity. It uses hybrid beamforming and beamsteering on Terrestrial Base Stations (TBSs) and UABSs to grant access to mobile GU in a bicycle race scenario. Results show that using the mobile operators’ locations will benefit the backhaul network’s performance by duplicating the capacity compared to using a private operator. Furthermore, user coverage increases by 400% if MuMIMO is used, compared to a single beam MaMIMO network. The proposed scenario could achieve a channel efficiency of 6.5 bit/s/Hz in the access network and 8.6 bit/s/Hz in the backhaul network. Finally, the average UABS transmitted power is reduced by 2/3, increasing the number of used beams.

Macroeconomic and Institutional Determinants of Capital Flight in Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo: A Comparative Analysis

Cameroon, Congo and Gabon are characterized by an impressive flight of capital. Meanwhile, the macroeconomic variables of these countries are unstable and there is a degradation of governance indicators. This study examines the relationship between capital flight and the evolution of macroeconomic and institutional indicators in these three countries. The objective of the study is to identify the macroeconomic and institutional determinants of capital flight for the period 1970-2015 in Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. Time series technique is used for the analysis. Appropriate tests are performed to verify the robustness of the results. The models are estimated through Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach. For each of the three countries considered in this paper, the results reveal a stable long-run relationship between capital flight and macroeconomic and institutional variables. In addition, some macroeconomic and institutional variables positively and significantly influence capital flight in each of the three countries. Policy implications are country-specific. For Cameroon, entrepreneurs should reinvest the profits from other growth sectors of the economy to ensure its diversification. In addition, natural resource rent management should be more transparent to limit capital flight. Anti-corruption structures should have more extensive powers to pursue the perpetrators of corruption before the competent courts. The application of the provisions of the constitution relating to the declaration of the property of the leaders occupying high positions should come into force to limit any hint of embezzlement of public funds. Concerning the Republic of Congo, the debt must be deeply restructured to make it sustainable. Leaders of anti-corruption structures should have a degree of autonomy in carrying out their mandate. Deadlines for dealing with corruption cases should be defined with a view to speeding up the procedures for sanctions. For Gabon, the main macroeconomic recommendation concerns the restructuring of the capital of multinational companies operating in Gabon. The state and private operators should take stakes in these multinationals to benefit from part of the dividends that can be reinvested locally and limit capital flight. In terms of political governance, efforts must be made to ensure that the country has strong institutions for transparent elections.

Assessment of the Role of Private Sector in the Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) In Nigeria

Given the deficiency of many countries in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDGs), the United Nations at its 2015 General Assembly, launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a new developmental strategy with a new terminal date for 2030. Countries including Nigeria, can effectively achieve most of the SDGs (reduce poverty by half, zero hunger and decent work and economic growth) if they emphasise the development of the nature, role and productivity of the private sector. This paper seeks to examine the general relevance of SDGs and assess the role of private sector in achieving SDGs in Nigeria. The methodology adopted is narrative textual; use was made of secondary sources of data to achieve this objective; It is found that, Nigeria is one among the 18 countries that are off track to halve multidimensional poverty by 2030. This is manifest in the high unemployment and dimensionally poor population (Poverty World Headquarters) among other factors, resulting to general low SDGs performance score. It also reveals that, the Nigerian SDGs implementare not strategic in the engagement of the private sector in the implementation of SDGs in Nigeria; low involvement of private sector in the national medium development plan, poor sensitization and awareness about SDGs among private sector operators leading to their non-inclusion of SDGs in the annual plans. It is recommended that, there should be increased strategic private sector engagement in SDGs implementation through awareness and conscious planning.

Comune di Milano: Explanation of the Conditions under Which an Injection of Capital Became a State Aid Measure · Case C-160/19 P Comune di Milano v Commission · Annotation by Alice Pisapia

The 2020 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union – C-160/19 P Comune di Milano v Commission – illustrates under which conditions the injection of capital in a company owned and controlled by the State can be considered a measure imputable to the State. The City of Milan (Comune di Milano) tried, until last instance, to defend the injection of public capital in the company SEA Handling SpA which was managing ground services at Milan-Linate and Milan-Malpensa airports. However, the appeal against the judgment of the General Court was supporting the Commission’s interpretation about the qualification of the measure as a State aid unlawfully provided and, in any case, incompatible with the European internal market. The present case note analyses two relevant juridical concepts: the private operator principle as applied by the Court with the private investor test, and the intensity of the judicial review to be applied by the Court during the appeal of a Commission decision in case of complex economic assessments. Finally, given the apical role of the Commission in State aid, the Court cannot replace the assessment carried out by the Commission; it can only revise it if the misapplication of the private investor principle was vitiated by a manifest error.

State capacity and the post office: Evidence from nineteenth century Quebec

The theory of state capacity predicts that states with powerful abilities – as long as they are constrained – can promote economic growth. Many scholars argue that post offices historically approximate state capacity and that they can be used to evaluate the state’s ability to promote development. We contest this relationship using Canadian evidence. Using a difference-in-differences method to estimate the effect of gaining a post office on the value of agricultural output per acre between 1831 and 1861, we find no treatment effect. We point out this is likely due to state capacity expansion crowding out efficient private operators.

Organizations and efficiency in public services: The case of English lighthouses revisited

AbstractFoundational debates about public service provision originate with the study of private lighthouses in England and Wales. We provide a new empirical assessment of cost and technical efficiency of competing lighthouse organizations in the early 1800s. Those with more private control charged ships higher fees and had greater operating costs. Lights with more local representation and funding provided lights of more local use and were most cheaply maintained. Our results help explain why government promoted nonprofit organizations to run lighthouses over private operators. We provide new insights into the role of private enterprise and nonprofit organizations in public service provision.

International Demand for Medical Tourism in Malaysia: Evidence from Panel Data

The present paper attempts to investigate the significance influence of some selected economic variables on the international demand for medical tourism in Malaysia by utilizing Pooled Mean Group (PMG)/Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model based on panel data set of ASEAN-4 countries spanning from 2001 to 2017. Findings of the study indicate that the price of medical tourism, travelling cost, real per capita income, exchange rate and health expenditure are statistically significant in influencing international demand for medical tourism in Malaysia for both long run and short run. Moreover, price of tourism in the substitute destination (Indonesia) and inflation are also statistically significant in determining international demand for medical tourism in Malaysia in the short run. The findings are in line with the economic theory. Therefore, to attract more international medical tourists, Malaysia needs to maintain it price competitiveness relative to other substitute destinations in the region, reduce the transport cost as well as improve the quality of medical services provided. Besides, private operators and market participants should influence necessary changes in medical tourism framework to ensure that services are effective and efficient. Ultimately, market players in medical tourism sector should practice Sustainable Responsible Investment (SRI) with aim to stabilize between medical tourism development and social responsibility.

Shared-use rail corridors: a comparison of institutional perspectives in the United States and the European Union

ABSTRACT This paper reviews existing literature to identify issues, challenges, and best practices associated with shared-use freight and passenger rail corridors. Specifically, this paper will compare and contrast shared-corridor practices from an institutional perspective in the United States and the European Union. These two regions were chosen because of their shared social, political, technological, and economic ties, their historical mixes of private and state railroad operations, and because of the significant contemporary differences in the role of rail in these two regions. That mix of similarities and differences clarifies important commonalities specific to freight and passenger railroads that may be applicable in other times and places. Best practices include planning for: capital investment, long-term time horizons, measurable incremental improvements, regional multi-modality, and mutual benefits between freight and passenger operations.

Beyond Short-Term Learning Gains: the Impact of Outsourcing Schools in Liberia After Three Years

Abstract Outsourcing the management of ninety-three randomly-selected government primary schools in Liberia to eight private operators led to learning gains of 0.18$\sigma$ after one year, but these effects plateaued in subsequent years (reaching 0.2$\sigma$ after three years). Beyond learning gains, the programme reduced corporal punishment (by 4.6 percentage points from a base of 51%), but increased dropout (by 3.3 percentage points from a base of 15%) and failed to reduce sexual abuse. Despite facing similar contracts and settings, some providers produced uniformly positive results, while others presented trade-offs between learning gains, access to education, child safety, and financial sustainability.

Robust Bilevel Resource Recovery Planning

In this study, we consider a resource recovery planning problem under a public–private partnership. The local authority's problem is to determine the waste sorting scheme, and also a cost‐sharing budget, to minimize her expected payout, subject to a requirement of economic feasibility of the private operator. Given the budget and sorting scheme, the private operator's problem is to site and operate resource recovery facilities, and his goal is to maximize his expected total profits. A salient feature of the problem is that the feedstock condition (composition and volume) is uncertain, but can be influenced by the sorting‐at‐source scheme implemented. This feature drives the interactions of the public and private partners. We develop a bilevel resource recovery planning model in the framework of distributionally robust optimization, where a decision‐dependent ambiguity set is defined to model the influence of sorting schemes on the feedstock uncertainty. We perform the model analysis on the cost‐share ratio, which suggests the importance of sorting investment in achieving the sustainable resource recovery. Computationally, we show that the solutions of the bilevel problem can be obtained by solving one instance of a mixed‐integer linear program that does not induce any additional integer variable. Our proposed optimization framework provides a useful decision‐analysis tool for effectively utilizing and balancing the instruments of sorting and facility installation investments for resource recovery planning under feedstock ambiguity. For instance, the computational experiments with partial real data in the Singapore context justify several important insights: (i) the suitable sorting scheme implementation serves as a cost‐effective instrument that could significantly enhance the utility of the cost sharing; (ii) the sorting dependency of feedstock condition is critical in affecting the private operator's recovery performance; and (iii) the robust planning is effective in hedging against ambiguously poor feedstock condition. These findings should deserve attentions of both public and private sectors in current waste management practice.

The Influence of Private Land Deer Management Cooperatives on Harvest Outcomes and Hunter Satisfaction

ABSTRACTPrivate‐land, deer‐hunting cooperatives seek to facilitate collective action to restrain buck harvest, encourage doe harvest, and improve hunter satisfaction. We evaluated 15 deer‐hunting cooperatives in southern Michigan to assess whether perceived satisfaction among 348 members was affected by deer harvest outcomes, characteristics of cooperative members, agreement over voluntarily established harvest and population management goals, and members' perceived fit with their cooperative. Our results indicate that cooperative members harvested just over 2 antlerless deer for every antlered buck, compared to an overall hunter harvest ratio of approximately 1:1 across all of southern Michigan. Perceived satisfaction levels generally increased among cooperative members after joining a cooperative. Perceived satisfaction was positively correlated with members' perceived fit within the cooperative, members' perceived agreement with other cooperative members on harvest and management goals, years of membership and antlerless harvest, and negatively associated with member age. Our results suggested that efforts to promote the formation and successful operation of private, deer‐management cooperatives may provide a way for state wildlife agencies to leverage collective action to enhance deer management capacity, boost hunter satisfaction, and potentially increase hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.

Toward a rational and ethical sociotechnical system of autonomous vehicles: A novel application of multi-criteria decision analysis.

The impacts of autonomous vehicles (AV) are widely anticipated to be socially, economically, and ethically significant. A reliable assessment of the harms and benefits of their large-scale deployment requires a multi-disciplinary approach. To that end, we employed Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to make such an assessment. We obtained opinions from 19 disciplinary experts to assess the significance of 13 potential harms and eight potential benefits that might arise under four deployments schemes. Specifically, we considered: (1) the status quo, i.e., no AVs are deployed; (2) unfettered assimilation, i.e., no regulatory control would be exercised and commercial entities would “push” the development and deployment; (3) regulated introduction, i.e., regulatory control would be applied and either private individuals or commercial fleet operators could own the AVs; and (4) fleets only, i.e., regulatory control would be applied and only commercial fleet operators could own the AVs. Our results suggest that two of these scenarios, (3) and (4), namely regulated privately-owned introduction or fleet ownership or autonomous vehicles would be less likely to cause harm than either the status quo or the unfettered options.

Public private partnership model for sustainable bus rapid transit system in Ahmedabad, India

Sustainable transport is the need for an emerging economic nation like India. This paper aims at carrying out a socio-economic feasibility study for development of a sustainable Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for a megacity like Ahmedabad in India. The proposed model would operate on solar and electric modes. The charging of the batteries can be done with the solar panels installed at some designated bus stops. The primary sustainability components considered for the proposed PPP model include environmental, social, economic, system effectiveness and stakeholders perception. The total proposed network has a corridor of 486.7 km. The proposed model would need a soft loan of INR 55,000 million (USD 733.33 million) at 3% interest to be paid in five ten-yearly installments of INR 49,670 million (USD 662.26 million), investment of INR 75,000 million (USD 1000 million) at 8% interest in form of tax-free green bonds that can be liquidated every five years and annual profit of INR 2000 million (USD 26.67 million) to the private operators. Such a model is expected to generate an internal rate of return of 15.25%.