In this paper, we design a rule-based privacy policy for the RFID Ecosystem, an RFID-based ubiquitous computing system. We start from the physical access control (PAC) rule (Kriplean et al., IEEE Pervasive Computing 2007) that provides a default level of privacy but constrains the possible set of applications. We extend it by using principled ways of defining other access control rules that ret...

Security in computer networks is a very complex task especially if it is required to separate a corporate network from public Internet or to divide a company’s intranet into multiple zones with different security requirements. The network security policy that describes these security requirements is primarily presented in a high-level form. Also, the security policy is enforced using some low-l...

In this short paper we prove that the classic simplex method with the mostnegative-reduced-cost pivoting rule (Dantzig 1947) for solving the Markov decision problem (MDP) with a fixed discount rate is a strongly polynomial-time algorithm. The result seems surprising since this very pivoting rule was shown to be exponential for solving a general linear programming (LP) problem, and the simplex (...

In a policy-based network, two or more policies must often cooperate to provide a high-level function or policy. To support such building-block policies, two architectures for modeling a set of policies have been developed: pipe-connection architecture and label-connection architecture. It is shown that rule-based building blocks are better for policy-based network control and that the label-co...

The Federal Reserve system (the Fed) is the United States monetary policy authority and is mandated by Congress to pursue two goals: 1) maximum sustainable output and employment and 2) stable prices. Among the actions the Fed can take to achieve these goals is the ability to set the target federal funds rate. Simple policy rules that set the level of funds rate in response to changes in economi...

This article discusses the IRS rule on hospital joint ventures and related legal developments. The central thesis is that the IRS's emphasis on operational control is misplaced from both a legal and a policy perspective, and reflects a decidedly strong preference for the form of a joint venture's governance over the substance of its charitable and community service activities. More specifically...

In a standard overlapping generations model, active monetary policy reinforces mechanisms that lead to equilibrium indeterminacy and to countercyclical behavior of young-age consumption. The policy rule which minimizes inflation volatility can be active or passive, depending on the characteristics of shocks and the risk aversion of households. Inflation forecast errors are always greater under ...

This paper uses simulation techniques to evaluate variants of the Taylor rule in a model where the underlying trend rate of growth is subject to permanent shifts. We show that the original Taylor rule is not particularly well-formulated for dealing with this type of environment. However, we also find that a Taylor-type rule in which the output gap is replaced by output growth or one that is aug...