This paper studies a principal–agent relation in which the principal’s private information about the agent’s effort choice is more accurate than a noisy public performance measure. For some contingencies the optimal contract has to specify ex post inefficiencies in the form of inefficient termination (firing the agent) or third–party payments (money burning). We show that money burning is the l...

In this paper we continue the study of the geometrical features of a functional approach to classical mechanics proposed some time ago. In particular we try to shed some light on a N=2 " universal " supersymmetry which seems to have an interesting interplay with the concept of ergodicity of the system. To study the geometry better we make this susy local and clarify pedagogically several issues...

In CBSD, the possible benefits of COTS software development, such as low cost, low risk, and high quality, cannot be satisfactorily achieved due to inadequate and/or incomplete proposals for component specification. In particular, non-functional aspects play an important role for components description and selection, but are usually not taken into account when documenting components and searchi...

Interpreting the outcome of a recent survey on Internet banking in Europe, [CARIGNANI et al., 2000], we point the attention to the adoption of Web technologies in Italian retail banks. Four patterns are emerging: minimal (just a presence on the WWW); tactical (Web as a distribution channel); functional (adoption of Web-based information systems); strategic (a definite strategy centered on Web t...

Recent security breaches show the need to secure large, distributed, complex systems. A fundamental, but little discussed aspect of security is how to evaluate when a complete system is secure. Purely formal methods cannot handle this level of complexity. Code checking does not consider the interaction of separate modules working together and is hard to scale. Model-based approaches, such as pa...

A functional programming language can be taught successfully as a first language, but if there is no follow up the students do not appreciate the functional approach. Following discussions concerning this issue at the 1995 FPLE conference [1] we decided to develop such a follow up by writing a book that teaches C to students who can write simple functional programs. This paper summarises the es...

The ground, oneand two-particle states of the (1+1)-dimensional massive sine-Gordon field theory are investigated within the framework of the Gaussian wave-functional approach. We demonstrate that for a certain region of the model-parameter space, the vacuum of the field system is asymmetrical. Furthermore, it is shown that two-particle bound state can exist upon the asymmetric vacuum for a par...

As an alternative to the price-based traditional auction model, the multi-attribute auction model is an integrated model requiring the simultaneous trade of different types of attributes as the sellers and buyers deal. As a result, the design and modeling of the auction mechanism have become very difficult. This paper proposes a multiattribute auction model using the dominance-based rough sets ...

Given that ODMG 3.0 specifications do not address the definition of external schemas, we are developing an external schema definition methodology for ODMG databases. In this paper, an extension of ODMG metadata is proposed to support the definition of external schemas. In particular, metadata for derived classes and derived interfaces are defined, as well as some modifications to define inherit...

An approach to software development problems is presented, and illustrated by an example. The approach is based on the ideas of problem frames and structuring speci cations by views. It is claimed that decompositions obtained by this approach result in a more e ective separation of concerns, and that the resulting components are more likely to be reusable than those obtained by more conventiona...