Significant Implementation Costs Research Articles

BLOCKCHAIN AND DIGITALIZATION OF CIVIL LAW: AN ANALYSIS IN POLAND AND KAZAKHSTAN

This article analyzes the adoption of blockchain technology in Kazakhstan, focusing on its application in public administration, real estate registration, and the financial sector. The primary objective is to compare Kazakhstan’s progress with Poland's more developed blockchain landscape, identifying key challenges and opportunities. The research employs general scientific methods, including analysis, synthesis, and comparison, to evaluate the current regulatory framework in Kazakhstan. The study identifies several obstacles, such as the underdeveloped legal infrastructure, lack of technical expertise, and significant implementation costs. Despite these challenges, blockchain presents substantial potential to improve transparency and reduce fraud. The research highlights the need for legal reforms and international cooperation to support blockchain integration. The findings emphasize that Kazakhstan's digital transformation efforts can benefit significantly from Poland's adoption of best practices, particularly in establishing a supportive regulatory environment. The article concludes that while progress has been made, Kazakhstan must invest strategically in legal reforms and professional training to leverage blockchain’s potential in the coming years fully.

Knowledge-based modeling of simulation behavior for Bayesian optimization

Numerical simulations consist of many components that affect the simulation accuracy and the required computational resources. However, finding an optimal combination of components and their parameters under constraints can be a difficult, time-consuming and often manual process. Classical adaptivity does not fully solve the problem, as it comes with significant implementation cost and is difficult to expand to multi-dimensional parameter spaces. Also, many existing data-based optimization approaches treat the optimization problem as a black-box, thus requiring a large amount of data. We present a constrained, model-based Bayesian optimization approach that avoids black-box models by leveraging existing knowledge about the simulation components and properties of the simulation behavior. The main focus of this paper is on the stochastic modeling ansatz for simulation error and run time as optimization objective and constraint, respectively. To account for data covering multiple orders of magnitude, our approach operates on a logarithmic scale. The models use a priori knowledge of the simulation components such as convergence orders and run time estimates. Together with suitable priors for the model parameters, the model is able to make accurate predictions of the simulation behavior. Reliably modeling the simulation behavior yields a fast optimization procedure because it enables the optimizer to quickly indicate promising parameter values. We test our approach experimentally using the multi-scale muscle simulation framework OpenDiHu and show that we successfully optimize the time step widths in a time splitting approach in terms of minimizing the overall error under run time constraints.

Efficient implementation of the linear layer of block ciphers with large MDS matrices based on a new lookup table technique.

Block cipher is a cryptographic field that is now widely applied in various domains. Besides its security, deployment issues, implementation costs, and flexibility across different platforms are also crucial in practice. From an efficiency perspective, the linear layer is often the slowest transformation and requires significant implementation costs in block ciphers. Many current works employ lookup table techniques for linear layers, but they are quite costly and do not save memory storage space for the lookup tables. In this paper, we propose a novel lookup table technique to reduce memory storage when executing software. This technique is applied to the linear layer of block ciphers with recursive Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) matrices, Hadamard MDS matrices, and circulant MDS matrices of considerable sizes (e.g. sizes of 16, 32, 64, and so on). The proposed lookup table technique leverages the recursive property of linear matrices and the similarity in elements of Hadamard or circulant MDS matrices, allowing the construction of a lookup table for a submatrix instead of the entire linear matrix. The proposed lookup table technique enables the execution of the diffusion layer with unchanged computational complexity (number of XOR operations and memory accesses) compared to conventional lookup table implementations but allows a substantial reduction in memory storage for the pre-computed tables, potentially reducing the storage needed by 4 or 8 times or more. The memory storage will be reduced even more as the size of the MDS matrix increases. For instance, analysis shows that when the matrix size is 64, the memory storage ratio with the proposed lookup table technique decreases by 87.5% compared to the conventional lookup table technique. This method also allows for more flexible software implementations of large-sized linear layers across different environments.

Opportunities and Challenges of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in Construction Companies in Indonesia: A Systematic Literature Review

This study delineates a systematic review of literature focusing on the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in construction companies in Indonesia. Through the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach, this article evaluates and analyzes several related studies published within the last five years (2019-2023). This method allows the identification and synthesis of data from various sources such as academic journals, related publications, and databases, which are then analyzed to identify trends, opportunities, and challenges related to ERP implementation within the context of the construction industry in Indonesia. The findings from this literature review reveal a variety of benefits obtained by construction companies after adopting ERP systems, including improved operational efficiency, better resource management, and enhanced strategic decision-making. However, challenges also emerge, including issues related to adapting to change, integration with existing systems, as well as significant implementation costs and time. This analysis provides deep insights into the ERP implementation in the construction industry in Indonesia, providing a foundation for better understanding and further development in facing challenges and leveraging available opportunities.

Bovine heat stress management: current amelioration approaches and the case for a novel mitogenomic strategy

An expansive body of literature is dedicated to addressing the multi-faceted issue of bovine heat stress. This review firstly evaluated existing knowledge about the acute bovine heat stress response. Despite these papers being comprehensive, minor research gaps and biases somewhat limit their applicability. Categorising current management strategies under either a ‘reactive’ or ‘preventative’ approach, the review also evaluated the utility of strategies within each approach. Strategies that achieve individualised symptom detection and treatment were found to be the most practically effective reactive strategies. Genotypes that functionally increase the stability of proteins involved in the heat stress response and therefore increase an animal’s capacity for heat tolerance were identified as being among the most promising preventative strategies. Both approaches are generally limited by significant implementation costs for farmers and a lack of literature comparison between strategies for the best management outcome. A strong case is provided for further investigation into the role of mitochondrial genotypes for improved cattle heat tolerance. Overall, the review provides a balanced assessment of progress within heat stress scholarship and tenders a novel perspective that will inform further original work.

Exploring the economics of public health intervention scale-up: a case study of the Supporting Healthy Image, Nutrition and Exercise (SHINE) cluster randomised controlled trial

BackgroundThe costs and benefits of an intervention within the intervention testing phase may differ from those experienced when that intervention is implemented and delivered at scale. Yet limited empirical work has been undertaken to explore how economic constructs related to implementation and scale-up might have an impact on intervention cost. The aim of this study was to explore the potential economic impacts of implementation and scale-up on a healthy weight and body image intervention tested in a Type II translational research trial.MethodsThe Supporting Healthy Image, Nutrition and Exercise (SHINE) study is a cluster randomised controlled trial, aiming to deliver universal education about healthy nutrition, physical activity and wellbeing behaviours to adolescents in Australian secondary schools. Data on the cost of the intervention were collected alongside the trial using standard micro-costing techniques. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key intervention stakeholders to explore the potential economic impacts of implementation and scale-up. Thematic content analysis was undertaken by two authors.ResultsFifteen intervention group schools participated in the 8-week online intervention targeting students in 2019 (99 Grade 7 classes; 2,240 students). Booster sessions were delivered during one class session in Grades 8 and 9, in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Time costs of intervention delivery and co-ordination comprised the majority (90%) of intervention cost as per the trial, along with costs associated with travel for intervention training and equipment. Themes related to the benefit of the intervention emerged from interviews with six intervention stakeholders, including the potential for economies of scale afforded by online delivery. Contextual themes that may have an impact on intervention implementation and scale included acceptability across all school sectors, availability and reliability of IT infrastructure for intervention delivery and variations in population characteristics. A number of key alterations to the intervention program emerged as important in supporting and sustaining intervention scale-up. In addition, significant implementation costs were identified if the intervention was to be successfully implemented at scale.ConclusionsThe findings from this study provide important information relevant to decisions on progression to a Type III implementation trial, including budget allocation, and will inform modelled economic evaluation.

Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing Policies Under Paris Agreement: Inter and Intra-Regional Perspectives

While bringing multiple benefits for the environment, achievement of the stringent global greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, like the one outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement, is associated with significant implementation costs and could impact different dimensions of human well-being, including welfare, poverty and distributional aspects. In this paper, we analyze the poverty and distributional impacts of different carbon pricing mechanisms consistent with reaching the Paris Agreement targets. We link a global recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model ENVISAGE with the GIDD microsimulation model and explore three levels of mitigation effort and five carbon pricing options (trade coalitions). Results suggest that while there is a higher incidence of poverty in all scenarios, mainly driven by lower economic growth, Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) policies result in progressive income distribution at the global level. Such progressivity is caused not only by lower relative prices of food versus non-food commodities, but also by a general decline in skill wage premia. Achievement of the NDC targets without regional cooperation results in 0.45% increase in the number of people living in extreme poverty (below PPP$1.90/day) by 2030, while a more ambitious 2oC-consistent target increases this number to 1.25%. Global cooperation significantly eases the burden on poor, reducing the poverty headcount (additional number of people leaving in extreme poverty) by almost three times in the case of 2oC-consistent target and bringing it to the baseline scenario level in the case of NDC target. The global Gini coefficient falls between 0.01 and 0.04 percentage points depending on the mitigation effort and collaboration mode, while reduction in the Theil index is between 0.01 and 0.11 percentage points. Results also indicate that the reductions in inequality come mainly from reduction in income from top earners, as the results are much more sensitive to the NDC policies closer to the top of the income distribution.

A sustainable shipbreaking approach for cleaner environment and better wellbeing

Shipbreaking has great economic benefits but generates substantial hazardous materials as wastes to the surrounding environment of shipbreaking yards. Currently, a number of methods are exercised all over the world for breaking ships. However, ‘beaching method’ is of most concerns due to its nature of activities. A computer simulation has been carried out and the results reveal that the toxic wastes which, without proper management and treatment, accumulate on the yard ground and gradually diffuses into soil. Thus, leach to sea-water, contaminate and degrade water quality, create a declining trend of biotic structure and eventually affect the ecological systems resulting in sudden or gradual disappearance of mangroves and vegetation. Computer simulation results also confirm that if shipbreaking activities are performed on a bed that is constructed using pebbles of various sizes in such a way that the pebble size gradually increases and the bed permeability gradually decreases across the depth starting from the top surface of the bed, the concentration of hazardous materials could be restricted and catastrophic environmental damages could be avoided. The proposed shipbreaking approach is thought to be sustainable as it uses naturally found construction materials which could be reused for other purposes and offers cleaner, environmentally sound production process of raw materials without incurring significant implementation costs.

Comparative analysis of experimental investigations and numericalsimulation of single-row finned tube bundle at mixed convection

Mixed convective heat transfer is very important for a wide class of engineering tasks. However, the experimental study of mixed convection requires significant implementation costs, high-power equipment, as well as large time costs, so it is proposed to expand the scope of experimental studies using numerical simulation. Numerical simulation of the single-row bundle consisting of bimetallic finned tubes at mixed air convection conditions was performed and experimental data were compared. The formulation of the third-dimensional problem for numerical simulation was realized. The conjugated problem for heat exchange modeling from the tube fins to air was solved. In numerical simulation of air momentum it was taken into account that the Reynolds number based on tube diameter and velocity in the space between fins was varied from 100 to 720. Menter’s k–ω shear stress transport model in standard formulation was used to close the Reynolds equations. Flow visualization on the tube surface revealed the transient nature of the air flow. The temperature distribution visualization in the bundle and the exhaust mine made it possible to see the nature of cooling the finned bundle at mixed convection. Results of numerical simulation and experimental investigations are in good agreement and can be used for expansion of the scope of experiments. The experimental data and the numerical simulation results for the single-row bundle consisting of bimetallic finned tubes at mixed air convection are compared in this paper. Flow near tube surfaces was visualized, and the temperature and velocity distributions in a bundle and in the exhaust mine were obtained.

Content-Adaptive Memory for Viewer-Aware Energy-Quality Scalable Mobile Video Systems.

Mobile devices are becoming ever more popular for streaming videos, which account for the majority of all data traffic on the internet. Memory is a critical component in mobile video processing systems, increasingly dominating power consumption. Today, memory designers are still focusing on hardware-level power optimization techniques, which usually come with significant implementation cost (e.g., silicon area overhead or performance penalty). In this paper, we propose a video content-aware memory technique for power-quality trade-off from viewer's perspectives. Based on the influence of video macroblock characteristics on the viewer's experience, we develop two simple and effective models - decision tree and logistic regression - to enable hardware adaptation. We have also implemented a novel viewer-aware bit-truncation technique which minimizes the impact on the viewer's experience, while introducing energy-quality adaptation to the video storage.

Harvesting Row-Buffer Hits via Orchestrated Last-Level Cache and DRAM Scheduling for Heterogeneous Multicore Systems

In heterogeneous multicore systems, the memory subsystem, including the last-level cache and DRAM, is widely shared among the CPU, the GPU, and the real-time cores. Due to their distinct memory traffic patterns, heterogeneous cores result in more frequent cache misses at the last-level cache. As cache misses travel through the memory subsystem, two schedulers are involved for the last-level cache and DRAM, respectively. Prior studies treated the scheduling of the last-level cache and DRAM as independent stages. However, with no orchestration and limited visibility of memory traffic, neither scheduling stage is able to ensure optimal scheduling decisions for memory efficiency. Unnecessary precharges and row activations happen in DRAM when the memory scheduler is ignorant of incoming cache misses, and DRAM row-buffer states are invisible to the last-level cache. In this article, we propose a unified memory controller for the the last-level cache and DRAM with orchestrated schedulers. The memory scheduler harvests row-buffer hit opportunities in cache request buffers during spare time without inducing significant implementation cost. We further introduce a dynamic orchestrated scheduling policy to improve memory efficiency while achieving target CPU IPC. Extensive evaluations show that the proposed controller improves the total memory bandwidth of DRAM by 16.8% on average and saves DRAM energy by up to 29.7% while achieving comparable CPU IPCs. With the dynamic scheduling policy, the unified controller achieves the same IPC as the conventional design and increases DRAM bandwidth by 9.2%. In addition, we explore the potential of the proposed memory controller to attain improvements on both memory bandwidth and CPU IPC.

Exploring Energy and Accuracy Tradeoff in Structure Simplification of Trained Deep Neural Networks

This paper presents a structure simplification procedure that allows efficient energy and accuracy tradeoffs in implementation of trained deep neural networks (DNNs). This structure simplification procedure identifies and eliminates redundant neurons in any layer of the DNN based on the output values of these neurons over the training samples. This procedure may be applied to all layers of a DNN. Pareto-optimal points in terms of accuracy and energy consumption can be easily identified from the configurations across different layers. After redundant neurons are discarded, the weights connect to the remaining neurons will be updated using matrix multiplication without retraining. Yet, retraining may still be applied if desired to further fine tune the performance. In our experiments, we show energy-accuracy tradeoff that provides clear guidance to achieve efficient realization of trained DNNs. We also observe significant implementation cost reductions with up to 11.50× in energy and 12.30× in memory while the relative performance (accuracy) loss is negligible. We also discuss and validate strategies to apply our procedure to multiple layers in a DNN in order to maximize the compression ratio of the network after simplification subject to an overall budget in degradation of accuracy across all the simplified layers.

Feasibility Assessment of Urban Electricity Distribution Networks Transition to the Voltage Level of 20 kV

The article gives a feasibility assessment for increasing a voltage level of the urban electricity distribution networks from 6 and 10 kV to 20 kV.The emphasis is on the urban electricity distribution network in Moscow. It is noted that by now the reliability, efficiency and automation indicators of Moscow electrical grids are substantially lower than those of Europe, America, etc. The electrical grids in Moscow have a high wear and tear of equipment, a historically developed non-optimal structure, and a high loading level. In recent years, the situation has been significantly improved due to numerous government programs for the development of the electric power industry.It was noted that the high rate of development in Moscow resulted in a significantly increasing density of power loads. So modernisation of grids is a necessary-and-proper step to deliver electric power of good quality and in appropriate volume to all consumers. As the most promising option of such modernisation, the article’s proposal is to increase a voltage level of the electrical grid of medium voltage from 6 and 10 kV to 20 kV.The main advantages of the electrical grid transition to the higher voltage level is an increased power grid capacity and reduced losses of voltage and electric power when transmitting through the electrical grid elements. The article presents some calculations to prove decreasing several times losses in medium voltage cable lines. The shortcoming of the transition to an electrical grid of 20 / 0.4 kV is significant implementation costs, most of which will lead to increasing tariff for consumers.The experience of other countries examined in the article proves that increasing voltage level of the distribution network in Moscow and other megacities is expedient. At the same time, a gradual introduction of 20 / 0.4 kV substations to the electrical grid structure with a gradual unloading and elimination of 10 kV electrical grid elements is expected. The article appeals to successful experience available in the transition of large industrial enterprises to a voltage level of 20 / 0.4 kV.

Analyses of Simple and Intercooled Recuperated Direct Brayton Helium Gas Turbine Cycles for Generation IV Reactor Power Plants

As a nongreenhouse gas-emitting source, the benefits of nuclear as a main power-generation alternative are yet to be fully explored; part of the reason is due to the significant implementation costs. However, with cycle efficiencies of 45–50% in current studies, it can be argued that the long-term benefits outweigh the initial costs, if developed under the Generation-IV (Gen-IV) framework. The main objective of this study is to analyze the effects of pressure and temperature ratios (TRs) including sensitivity analyses of component efficiencies, ambient temperature, component losses and pressure losses on cycle efficiency and specific work. The results obtained indicate that pressure losses and recuperator effectiveness have the greatest impact on cycle efficiency and specific work. The analyses intend to aid development of the simple cycle recuperated (SCR) and intercooled cycle recuperated (ICR) cycles, applicable to gas-cooled fast reactors (GFRs) and very-high-temperature reactors (VHTRs), in which helium is the coolant.

Selling Dreams: Pricing Under Anticipation

Frequent sales are a characteristic of the modern retail industry despite their significant implementation costs and potential to erode consumers' price expectations. One reason for this is that consumers enjoy looking forward to sales. We model the purchase behavior of "emotionally rational" consumers, and explain their appeal for sales, by accounting for anticipatory feelings triggered by the prospect of buying at a discount, as well as for the disappointment when anticipated outcomes fail to materialize. At the customer level, our model explains why people overspend --- that is, purchase at prices above their valuation --- when firms offer sales. As a consequence, sales policies can outperform uniform pricing when a monopolist sells to anticipating customers. In fact, both firm and customers benefit from these anticipatory feelings when firms vary prices. Our model also explains why, in a competitive setting, a firm cannot benefit from adopting uniform pricing when its competitors offer sales. Our results help explain the recent failure of US-based retailers JC~Penney and Macy's to sustain an everyday low price (EDLP) policy.

Implementace IFRS a její vliv na vzájemné postavení finančního a manažerského účetnictví

Finanční a manažerské účetnictví jsou tradičně dva samostatné okruhy účetních informací určené pro rozdílné uživatelské skupiny. V transitních ekonomikách je finanční účetnictví podřízeno daňovým a jiným potřebám státu, což snižuje vypovídací schopnosti účetních závěrek pro externí uživatele. Pro potřeby vnitřního řízení a rozhodování musí jednotky provádět v manažerském účetním okruhu větší úpravy, než jak je tomu běžné ve vyspělých ekonomikách. Implementace IFRS zvýšila užitečnost informací pro externí uživatele a současně přinesla nový rozměr v rozhodovacím procesu, jakým způsobem koncipovat jednotlivé okruhy účetních systémů. Z důvodu snížení zátěže a úspory nákladů u některých účetních jednotek dochází k prorůstání principů obsažených v IFRS (coby součásti reportingu pro mateřskou společnost) do manažerského účetnictví.

Multichannel feedback control of interior road noise

Active noise control systems offer a potential method of reducing the weight of passive acoustic treatments and, therefore, increasing a vehicles’ fuel efficiency. The active control of engine noise can be implemented cost-effectively by using the car audio loudspeakers as control sources and an array of low-cost microphones as error sensors. Such systems have been commercially implemented, but without also controlling road noise their subjective benefits may be limited. The active control of road noise using a feedforward control strategy has also been practically demonstrated, but these systems require a number of accelerometers to be mounted to the vehicle’s structure to obtain a coherent reference signal and, therefore, lead to a significant implementation cost. This paper proposes a multichannel feedback system for the active control of road noise, which uses an array of microphones and car audio loudspeakers, which is common to a feedforward engine noise control system. The design of the multichannel feedback controller is described and its performance is validated using offline simulations employing data measured in a small city car.

On The Non-Adoption Of Present Value Depreciation In Managerial Performance Evaluation

Present value depreciation has long been advocated as a way to improve the dominant return on investment (ROI) managerial performance measure. Yet, to date, reported adoptions of this approach have been rare. Since providing appropriate managerial incentives is increasingly important in this era of intensifying global competition, it is useful to explore why firms are foregoing this theoretically superior approach. This paper points out that the non-adoption of present value depreciation may be an economically rational choice. It notes that advocates of present value depreciation have failed to consider some potentially significant implementation costs. In addition, a small scale computer simulation reveals that under conditions of uncertainty and correlated cash flows, ROI calculated under conventional depreciation procedures can often closely approximate the theoretically correct value. Hence, besides providing a specific analysis of present value depreciation, this study also underlines afresh the importance of cost/benefit considerations in developing or adopting new approaches to business problems.

Assessing the Implementation Effects of the Biosafety Protocol's Proposed Stringent Information Requirements for Genetically Modified Commodities in Countries of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

We analyze the potential effects of a generalized implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety's proposed stringent information requirements on countries, members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). This rule would request all traded shipments containing living modified organisms intended for food, feed, or processing to carry a label with the list of precise genetically modified (GM) events in the shipments. We find that the benefits of such requirements are largely debatable and that this regulation would add significant implementation costs for importers of GM crops, for Protocol members adopting new GM crops, and for countries ratifying the Protocol.

The Politics of Ground‐Water Management Reform in Oklahomaa

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the politics of ground‐water management reform in Oklahoma. It argues that the geographic distribution of water supplies and uses significantly modifies the distribution of costs and benefits of reform among political constituencies. Effective restrictions on ground‐water withdrawals would raise large and immediate threats to irrigators and farm communities dependent on irrigation in western Oklahoma. Municipal and industrial water users, concentrated in eastern Oklahoma and reliant on more plentiful surface‐water supplies, would receive more diffuse, longer‐range benefits to management reform. These effects have significant implications for the politics of ground‐water management. The results of the analysis suggest that approaches taken to ground‐water management reform in Oklahoma, and the other eastern Ogallala states, may be more effective and realistic than might initially be thought.Oklahoma's present ground‐water law, adopted in 1973, is based on a utilization policy of planned depletion and represents a major change in direction entailing significant implementation costs. Agricultural interests, seeking to protect their irrigation rights, were influential in both the adoption and implementation processes. Considering the problems encountered, the immediate outlook for effective state management of ground water remains unfavorable. Future prospects, however, are more favorable. Oklahoma has developed an institutional structure capable of responding to changing priorities and needs of irrigators. This long‐run approach to ground‐water management matches the interests of the most relevant political constituency and may prove to be the most effective strategy.