As we observe a trend towards the recentralisation of the Internet, this paper raises the question of guaranteeing an everlasting decentralisation. We introduce the properties of strong and soft uncentralisability in order to describe systems in which all authorities can be untrusted at any time without affecting the system. We link the soft uncentralisability to another property called perfect...

Increasingly, Web-based content or service sites are turning to a subscription-based business model. This article examines factors that influence potential consumers’ opinions about such paid services. A survey was conducted to examine the impact of several factors on consumers’ willingness to access subscription-based Web content. The results indicated that respondents’ intentions are signific...

Recently spectacular improvements in the performance of SAT solvers have been achieved through nogood recording (clause learning). In the CSP literature, on the other hand, nogood recording remains a fairly minor technique for improving backtracking algorithms. In this paper we demonstrate how recent nogood recording techniques from SAT can be generalized to CSPs. The result is a significant en...

In the past, design has most often occurred fairly far downstream in the development process and has focused on making new products aesthetically attractive or enhancing brand perception through smart, evocative advertising. Today, as innovation's terrain expands to encompass human-centered processes and services as well as products, companies are asking designers to create ideas rather than to...

Concentration among physician groups has been steadily increasing, which may affect prices for physician services. We assessed the relationship in 2010 between physician competition and prices paid by private preferred provider organizations for fifteen common, high-cost procedures to understand whether higher concentration of physician practices and accompanying increased market power were ass...