Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / In the past ten years, military operations, as now evident in Iraq, involve both joint- allied and coalition forces. The evolving joint- and coalition-warfare environment presents coordination challenges. Collaborative tools can ease the difficulties in meeting these challenges by enabling highly interactive work to be performed by individuals not necessarily geographically co-located. Collaborative tools will revolutionize the manner in which distributed warfighters interact and inform each other of the missionplanning progress and situation assessment. These systems allow warfighters to integrate tactical information with key combat-support logistics data in both joint- and coalition-warfare environments. Countless collaboration tools and knowledge management systems exist today. Unfortunately, industry has developed these tools and systems for use primarily in exclusive communities of interests, services or agencies. The end result is a proliferation of tools that have not been designed to operate under all network conditions. Since network conditions are not standardized in the joint- and coalition-warfare environment, it is necessary to determine if a collaborative tool can perform under limited-bandwidth and latency conditions. Currently, there are neither evaluation criteria nor methodologies for evaluating collaborative tools with respect to performance reliability. This thesis proposes a test methodology for evaluation of performance reliability of collaborative tools, and demonstrates the effectiveness of the methodology with a case study of the performance evaluation of the InfoWorkSpace collaborative tool.

Let X be an affine algebraic variety with a transitive action of the algebraic automorphism group. Suppose that X is equipped with several fixed point free non-degenerate SL_2-actions satisfying some mild additional assumption. Then we prove that the Lie algebra generated by completely integrable algebraic vector fields on X coincides with the set of all algebraic vector fields. In particular, we show that apart from a few exceptions this fact is true for any homogeneous space of form G/R where G is a linear algebraic group and R is a proper reductive subgroup of G.

In general the automotive electromagnetic environment is severe because of the presence of DC motors and ignition. In this thesis, electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic susceptibility are studied. This thesis is divided intro three parts. In Part I we introduce the specification of digital TV (DVB-T) in Taiwan. In Part 2 the reception of digital TV in vehicle and in laboratory is compared. The measurement in vehicle is conducted in order to understand the source of interference and how the disturbance occurs. The standard test in laboratory has to do with the transient susceptibility which is based on ISO 7637. We then analyze the implication of different pulses mandated in ISO 7637. The results are compared with those obtained in vehicular measurement. In Part 3 remedy is proposed to reduce the interference to digital TV.

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Problem: To compete effectively in today’s global market, organizations are eager to expand their operations abroad. Entering a partnership accounts as a preferred way of doing this. In order to be allowed to participate in many important markets, corporations must recognize the influence of cultural orientations other than their own. In many cases it appears that this is however neglected, considering that up to two out of three partnerships ends in dissolution. Causes related to the cultural aspect of a relationship are often mentioned to form the root of the problem. We noticed that a vast number of studies have focused on how culture affects single organizations, fewer studies however focused on how partnerships are affected by cultural aspects. And even fewer studies have tried to decipher the role that cultural compatibility has prior to entering a partnership. More so, throughout our extensive literature review, we have noticed that there has not been obtained a comprehensive understanding of what cultural compatibility entails. Purpose: The intentions of our research are twofold: first, we have theoretically derived a framework that allows a comprehensive understanding of cultural compatibility as well as its influence on alliance performance, and second, we have explored how this theoretically derived framework is reflected in practice. Method: To achieve the purpose of this study we completed a qualitative, exploratory research including five case studies and five interviews/consults. The case studies were well selected based on requirements such as industry significance and the implication of a high level of cultural diversity. Conclusions: The major conclusion to our research indicates that cultural compatibility is not necessarily a requirement prior to entering a relationship, but unveils to be moreover a foundation that partnering firms should strive for in the early stages of their coalition. Additionally, we have obtained many valuable insights, yet utmost we have experienced that the subject is extremely complex, and that further research on the topic as well as the framework is indispensable to further justify our findings.

This dissertation consists of three essays about heterogeneous agents in the dynamic economy and how to deal with the asymmetric information arose by heterogeneity. Firstly, I consider the optimal taxation issue in a dynamic endogenous growth model with considering human capital accumulation, and agents ability is heterogeneous and private information. Moreover, the agents with higher ability have positive external effects on others. By using the two-sector endogenous model, I show that it is optimal to impose different income and capital income taxes on people with different abilities. Specifically, positive marginal income tax is adopted for people with lower ability while no tax is imposed for people with higher ability; marginal capital income tax is zero whatever the agent’s is low or high. As for people using the capital and labor for human capital accumulation, the government should subsidize them whatever their ability is. Secondly, I study the optimal monetary and fiscal policy with heterogeneous agents based on the search-theoretical environment where money is essential and consider the private information. I first solve the households’ problem in the centralized and decentralized market, and find out the optimal conditions. Then, in this section, I describe the problem that social planner faces by involving uncertainty and agents whose types are continuous. By comparing the optimal conditions in this generous setting, I show that the Friedman rule is no longer optimal when jointed with nonlinear taxation of income. Moreover, the capital income taxation is not zero. Moreover, I constructs a general theoretical model to consider two kinds of financial frictions in the economy with financial intermediaries. By quantitative analysis the model with three separate shocks which are a negative collateral shock, a negative productivity shock and a positive shock to bankers’ divert rate, I find that a negative collateral shock which tightens firms’ financing constraints on investment can generate an equity price boom which is different from what is observed in recessions. Therefore, the collateral shock is not the main reason for the business cycle, while the negative productivity shock and bankers’ moral hazard problem are more important aspects to explain current economy.

This thesis analyzes how the ability of consumers to buy components of a system from different firms affects prices, profit margins, RandD effort, and welfare. It also examines firms' incentives to make their products compatible, that is, to allow consumers to mix-and-match different brands of components into systems. Chapter 1 reviews the economic literature on product compatibility with motivating material drawn from the personal computer industry. Three strands of the literature study compatibility using definitions based on the ability of consumers to mix- and-match components, to capture externalities arising from networks, and to switch brands costlessly. The mix-and-match literature has found that compatibility raises prices compared with those under incompatibility in a variety of settings. In practice, however, compatible computers appear to be less expensive than incompatible computers, and computer buyers have promoted standardization. Chapter 2 develops models of mix-and-match compatibility which make predictions that are the opposite of the literature's. If many Bertrand competitors draw their component costs, qualities, or characteristics from independent random distributions, then expected prices and profit margins are lower under compatibility than under incompatibility, while expected consumer surplus is higher. In addition, the chapter examines the incentives of firms to form coalitions around competing standards. It is found that a subset of firms may become compatible with each other to attract customers away from other firms, creating excess incentives for firms to become compatible from the perspective of industry profits. However, compatibility raises welfare if it is costless and components are homogeneous, because incompatibility is a restriction on the technology for combining components into systems. Chapter 3 shows that shifting from incompatibility to compatibility has an ambiguous impact on RandD effort to reduce costs. In an industry with sufficiently many firms that faces elastic demand, compatibility lowers prices and raises output, and therefore leads to greater RandD incentives. If effort lowers costs without changing the shape of the cost distribution function, compatibility induces firms to choose RandD effort levels that are closer together than under incompatibility. Chapter 4 relaxes the assumption that consumers combine components in fixed proportions. With variable coefficients, compatibility does not necessarily raise the profits of duopolists. For instance, compatibility prevents a dominant firm from setting the price of either component above its competitor's cost. On the other hand, when two "mirror-image" firms each have the lowest cost in one component and demand is symmetric across components, the firms prefer compatibility, as they did in the fixed coefficients case. When sufficiently many firms draw their costs from discrete random distributions, this ambiguity disappears, and expected profits are higher under incom- patibility. Variable coefficients also allow analysis of quantity competition, by eliminating the problem of unmatched components when there are asymmetric quantity choices. In this case, firms with mirror-image costs prefer compatibility to incompatibility because they can specialize in their low-cost component. However, when each firm has the same cost across components, firms are indifferent between the two regimes.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-39).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.