The desegregation of global value chains has accelerated the development of a fabric of connectedness between firms, locations, and inventors. The modern global business world is now characterized by these connections, which serve as conduits of high value knowledge between specialist repositories, or centers of excellence. The properties of knowledge repositories are a function of the co-evolution of their constituent firms and the locations themselves. Thus, it is of great interest to scholars of international business, economic geography, and innovation studies to understand the roles and characteristics of the firms and locations that participate in global value chains. This dissertation explores the movement of knowledge from seemingly disparate locations and firms as it coalesces into ideas, and then follows the path of transformation into a commercialized product or service. In the first chapter, I laid the theoretical groundwork for the dissertation and review how the different studies contribute to the our understanding of how firm and location characteristics interact with global innovation connectedness, and vice versa. Three chapters that study innovation dynamics at within global value chains then follow. In the second chapter, I explore the characteristics of orchestrating firms, high order specialists that coordinate the movement of knowledge and activities in global value chains. With evidence from the pharmaceutical industry I find that not all orchestrating firms are created equal: a core insider group, known as “majors”, possess a unique legitimacy that enables the absorption of risk and grants access to greater resources that are required to control the value capture from market-defining innovation. In the third chapter, I discuss the interdependencies of orchestrating firms and industrial change by examining the Detroit auto cluster. I argue that the very forces that led to significant manufacturing loss in the Detroit area may also be behind the resilience of its knowledge production, a finding underwritten by significant innovation connectedness to other auto clusters. In the fourth and final chapter, I find that knowledge connectivity is a crucial driver of exploration into new technological areas, and that firms may be connected both internationally and domestically. Further, I find that the operational footprint of the firm is a vital amplifier of its connectivity efforts. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Genomes have both deterministic and random aspects, with the underlying DNA sequences exhibiting features at numerous scales, from codons to regions of conserved or divergent gene order. Genomic signatures work by capturing one or more such features efficiently into a compact mathematical structure. This work examines the unique manner in which oligonucleotides fit together to comprise a genome, within a graph-theoretic setting. A de Bruijn chain (DBC) is a marriage of a de Bruijn graph and a finite Markov chain. By representing a DNA sequence as a walk over a DBC and retaining specific information at nodes and edges, we are able to obtain the de Bruijn chain genomic signature (DBCGS), based on both graph structure and the stationary distribution of the DBC. We demonstrate that DBCGS is information-rich, efficient, sufficiently representative of the sequence from which it is derived, and superior to existing genomic signatures such as the dinucleotides odds ratio and word frequency based signatures. We develop a mathematical framework to elucidate the power of the DBCGS signature to distinguish between sequences hypothesized to be generated by DBCs of distinct parameters. We study the effect of order of the DBCGS signature on accuracy while presenting relationships with genome size and genome variety. We illustrate its practical value in distinguishing genomic sequences and predicting the origin of short DNA sequences of unknown origin, while highlighting its superior performance compared to existing genomic signatures including the dinucleotides odds ratio. Additionally, we describe details of the CMGS database, a centralized repository for raw and value-added data particular to C. elegans. / Ph. D.

In situ microcosms of a planktonic community were exposed to the triazine herbicide simazine. Randomly selected sets of microcosms were collected and sampled each week for three weeks (plus Week 0). Samples of ambient water were collected each week for evaluation of enclosure effects. Physical and chemical parameters were measured per microcosm. Simazine was measured at Weeks 0 and 3 only. The following organisms were preserved and quantified: phytoplankton, bacteria, and zooplankton, including ciliates, copepod nauplii, cladocerans and rotifers. Simazine decreased dissolved oxygen and pH, but increased nitrate and ammonia concentrations compared to control microcosms. A temporary decrease in temperature occurred at Week 1. Phytoplankton were differentially affected by simazine. Sensitive taxa included Trachelomonas, Glenodinium, diatoms and several species of relatively minor significance. Dinobryon and miscellaneous coccoids were not significantly affected. Phytoplankton ≥9 um were more affected by simazine than phytoplankton <9 um. Many cells <9 um may be facultative or obligate heterotrophs and not susceptible to simazine. Although data were variable, bacteria were also not affected by phytoplankton changes or simazine. Rotifers were the major zooplankters and the two dominant species, Kellicottia bostoniensis and Keratella cochlearis, were reported to graze exclusively on cells <9 um. Polyarthra vulgaris and Synchaeta pectinata also graze in this size range but are not limited to it. Copepod nauplii/copepodids were present, but adult copepods and cladocerans were rare. The tintinnid ciliate Codonella exhibited a temporary population increase during the study. Zooplankton were not affected by simazine-induced changes in the phytoplankton. Kellicottia bostoniensis was the only zooplankter affected by simazine: it had lesser mortality in higher concentrations of simazine. Possible reasons for this enhanced survival were discussed. The zooplankton (primarily rotifers) appeared to feed more on heterotrophic cells than on autotrophic cells, largely as a function of food size, and may have been more closely associated with the detrital food chain than the autotrophic food chain. / M.S.

No / In recent years Government departments and public/private organisations are becoming increasingly transparent with their data to establish the whole new paradigm of big open data. Increasing research interest arises from the claimed usability of big open data in improving public sector reforms, facilitating innovation, improving supplier and distribution networks and creating resilient supply chains that help improve the efficiency of public services. Despite the advantages of big open data for supply chain and operations management, there is severe shortage of empirical analyses in this field, especially with regard to its acceptance. To address this gap, in this paper we use an extended technology acceptance model to empirically examine the factors affecting users’ behavioural intentions towards public sector big open data. We outline the importance of our model for operations and supply chain managers, the limitations of the study, and future research directions.

Yes / Unlike e-business few studies have examined how information is generated and exchanged between stakeholders in an e-government service chain to generate value for citizens. This case study applies the concept of service chains to empirically explore: a) how internal and external business activities in local government authorities (LGAs) contribute to electronic service delivery, and b) the impact that internal and external stakeholders have on these activities. The case study found that the diversity of stakeholders involved and lack of appropriate mechanisms for information exchange and collaboration are posing the biggest challenges for efficient local egovernment service delivery.

yes / A time-dependent finite-state Markov chain that uses doubly stochastic transition matrices, is considered. Entropic quantities that describe the randomness of the probability vectors, and also the randomness of the discrete paths, are studied. Universal convex polytopes are introduced which contain all future probability vectors, and which are based on the Birkhoff–von Neumann expansion for doubly stochastic matrices. They are universal in the sense that they depend only on the present probability vector, and are independent of the doubly stochastic transition matrices that describe time evolution in the future. It is shown that as the discrete time increases these convex polytopes shrink, and the minimum entropy of the probability vectors in them increases. These ideas are applied to a sequence of non-selective measurements (with different projectors in each step) on a quantum system with -dimensional Hilbert space. The unitary time evolution in the intervals between the measurements, is taken into account. The non-selective measurements destroy stroboscopically the non-diagonal elements in the density matrix. This ‘hermaphrodite’ system is an interesting combination of a classical probabilistic system (immediately after the measurements) and a quantum system (in the intervals between the measurements). Various examples are discussed. In the ergodic example, the system follows asymptotically all discrete paths with the same probability. In the example of rapidly repeated non-selective measurements, we get the well known quantum Zeno effect with ‘frozen discrete paths’ (presented here as a biproduct of our general methodology based on Markov chains with doubly stochastic transition matrices).

Markov chains have been widely used to the credit risk measurement in the last years. Using these chains we can model movements and distribution of clients within rating grades. However, various types of markov chains could be used. The goal of the theses is to present these types together with their advan- tages and disadvantages. We focus our attention primarily on various parameter estimation methods and hypotheses testing about the parameters. The theses should help the reader with a decision, which model of a markov chain and which method of estimation should be used for him observed data. We focus our attention primarily on the following models: a discrete-time markov chain, a continuous-time markov chain (we estimate based on continuous- time observations even discrete-time observations), moreover we present an even- tuality of using semi-markov chains and semiparametric multiplicative hazard model applied on transition intensities. We illustrate the presented methods on simulation experiments and simu- lation studies in the concluding part. Keywords: credit risk, markov chain, estimates in markov chains, probability of default 1

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2004. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 1, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

Parmi les molécules entrelacées, les « muscles moléculaires » et les lassos occupent une place de choix due à leur structure singulière qui leur permet d’adopter différentes co-conformations en fonction d’un stimulus externe. En effet, la structure doublement entrelacée dimère de [2]rotaxane permet des états plus ou moins contractés en fonction du « glissement » d’un monomère par rapport à un autre, d’où son appellation muscle moléculaire, par analogie avec les muscles de notre organisme. D’autre part, l’architecture [1]rotaxane peut être comparée à un lasso qui peut se resserrer ou se desserrer en fonction d’un stimulus externe. L’accessibilité à ces synthons entrelacés paraît importante à étudier pour une application plus large de ces structures dans des domaines variés. En particulier, l’intégration de ces synthons dans des structures polymères paraît séduisante à envisager. Aussi, nous proposons dans ce manuscrit différentes voies d’accès efficaces à des synthons dimères de [2]rotaxanes et lassos fonctionnalisés ou activés, dépourvus ou non de sites d’interactions entre les éléments à assembler, et qui peuvent être isolés, soit pour des condensations ultérieures avec des polymères convenablement fonctionnalisés pour la formation de polymères à réseau tridimensionnel, soit utilisés comme monomères pour la synthèse de polymères à propriétés physico-chimiques modulables. Enfin, une application méthodologique de la synthèse de synthon dimère de [2]rotaxane à la formation d’une espèce tetraentrelacée est proposée. Celle-ci combine un agencement dimère de [2]rotaxane avec une architecture [2]rotaxane, dont deux mouvements distincts peuvent être actionnés par machinerie moléculaire. Après une introduction générale bibliographique, mon manuscrit de thèse s’articule autour de trois chapitres. Un premier chapitre concerne la synthèse et l’étude de dimères de rotaxanes symétriques à extrémités fonctionnalisées (i.e. dialcynes et diazotures). Quelques essais préliminaires d’utilisation de ces synthons dans des réactions de réticulation d’un polymère sont présentés. De manière méthodologique, nous avons envisagé la synthèse non-statistique de dimères de [2]rotaxanes dissymétriques (i.e. azoture / alcyne) en jouant sur des interactions supplémentaires entre macrocycles. Le deuxième chapitre concerne une application méthodologique de l’utilisation d’un synthon dimère de [2]rotaxane, décrit dans le premier chapitre, pour la conception et l’étude d’un muscle moléculaire pH-sensible d’architecture tetraentrelacée à trois stations moléculaires différentes (anilinium, ammonium et triazolium). La stratégie de synthèse efficace est basée sur un tri-automatique d’espèces supramoléculaires. La molécule cible, un hétéro[4]rotaxane original, contient deux agencements supramoléculaires distincts au sein d’une même molécule : un dimère de [2]rotaxane comme échafaud, lié à deux extrémités [2]rotaxanes. Enfin, un troisième et dernier chapitre traite de la synthèse d’une brique élémentaire d’architecture lasso pouvant être incorporée dans un polymère polyaminé. À titre d’exemple préliminaire, un [1]rotaxane et un tris-[1]rotaxane ont été synthétisés et étudiés. Une méthode propre au laboratoire et basée sur une stratégie originale utilisant un « transporteur » de macrocycle, permet la synthèse de lassos dénués de sites d’interactions efficaces, qui restent encore actuellement des cibles synthétiques difficiles voire impossibles d’accès. Ainsi, cette nouvelle stratégie de synthèse ouvre de réelles perspectives puisqu’elle permet l’accès généralisé à n’importe quelles structures entrelacées. / Among the interlocked molecules, "molecular muscles" and lassos hold a prominent place result of their singular structure which allows them to adopt stretched and tightened co-conformations in response to an external stimulus. Indeed, the doubly interwoven architecture [2]rotaxane dimer allows more or less contracted states based on the "sliding" of a monomer relative to the other, hence the name molecular muscle, by analogy to the movement observed in the muscles of the human body. On the other hand, the [1]rotaxane architecture may be compared to a lasso, which can tighten or loosen in response to an external stimulus. The accessibility of these interlocked building-blocks seems important to study for a broader application of these structures in various fields. In particular, the integration of these building-blocks in polymer structures is attractive to consider. Also, we propose in this PhD different chemical routes to effective functionalized or activated [2]rotaxanes dimers and lassos building-blocks, devoid or not of interaction site between components to be assembled and which may be isolated, either for subsequent condensation with suitably functionalized polymers with the aim of forming three-dimensional network, or used as monomers for the synthesis of adjustable polymers with tunable physicochemical properties. Finally, a methodological application of the synthesis of a [2]rotaxane dimer building-block in the formation of a tetra-interlocked species is proposed. The chemical architecture combines a [2]rotaxane dimer arrangement with two [2]rotaxane moieties, whose distinct movements may be actuated by molecular machinery. The manuscript begins by a bibliographical general introduction and is followed by three different chapters. One chapter relates on the synthesis and study of symmetrical rotaxane dimers which are functionalized at the extremities of the threads (i.e. dialkyne and diazide). Some preliminary tests using these building-blocks in polymer crosslinking reactions are reported. In a methodological aim, we considered non-statistical synthesis of asymmetrical [2]rotaxanes dimers (i.e. azide / alkyne) by adjusting additional interactions between macrocycles. The second chapter relates to a methodological application of the use of [2]rotaxane dimer building-block for the design and study of a tetra-interlocked pH-sensitive molecular muscle including three molecular stations (anilinium, ammonium and triazolium). The efficient synthetic strategy is based on a self-sorting of supramolecular species. The targeted molecule, an original hetero[4]rotaxane, contains two distinct supramolecular arrangements in the same molecule: a [2]rotaxane dimer as the scaffold linked to two [2]rotaxane ends. Finally, a third and last chapter deals with the synthesis of a lasso building-block molecular architecture that can be incorporated into a polyamine compound. As a preliminary example, triazolium-based mono- and tris-branched [1]rotaxanes were synthesized and studied. A peculiar method of the laboratory and based on a strategy using a “transporter” of macrocycle, allows the synthesis of lassos devoid of any efficient template, which are still currently difficult or impossible synthetic targets. Thus, the new synthetic strategy open avenues to the wide access of any interlocked structures.