none

Given a limited number of samples for classification, several issues arise with respect to design, performance and analysis of classifiers. This is especially so in the case of microarray-based classification. In this paper, we use a complexity measure based mixture model to study classifier performance for small sample problems. The motivation behind such a study is to determine the conditions under which a certain class of classifiers is suitable for classification, subject to the constraint of a limited number of samples being available. Classifier study in terms of the VC dimension of a learning machine is also discussed.

Quantum computing resources have been known to provide speed-ups in computational complexity in many algorithms. The impact of these resources in communication, however, has not attracted much attention. We investigate the impact of quantum entanglement on communication complexity. We provide a positive result, by presenting a class of multi-party communication problems wherein the presence of a suitable quantum entanglement lowers the classical communication complexity. We show that, in evaluating certains function whose parameters are distributed among various parties, the presence of prior entanglement can help in reducing the required communication. We also present an outline of realizing the required entanglement through optical photon quantum computing. We also suggest the possible impact of our results on network information flow problems, by showing an instance of a lower bound which can be broken by adding limited power to the communication model.

Alliance has become a necessary part of firms¡¦ strategy due to fast-paced diffusion of technologies, rising costs and protectionism. While the forms of strategy alliances evolve from simple contracts into multiple cooperation modes, factors needed to be considered are also gaining amount. Different kinds of strategy alliances possess different kinds of pros and cons, and will have effect on integration of resources and techniques. This research aims at analyzing whether the property of knowledge, firms¡¦ capacity and partner relations had effect on the selection of the strategy alliance modes. This study also formed a questionnaire survey which empirically tested the hypotheses set up in the study with data from public offering electronic firms. The results are indicating that contractual alliances are more likely to be formed when the absorptive capacity and risks are high, which are supported by numerous papers. The reason is that the strategy alliance is a channel of knowledge transferring, and higher the potential of gaining knowledge, then easier the process would be ¡V no resource-committing equity alliances are needed. The risk part is talking similar story: while risks are high, firms tend to serve contract as a tool of controlling loses. The level of implicit and complexity of knowledge are also positively related with the preference of committing equity alliances. The reason is that these kinds of alliances would serve better for firms to cooperate with each others and to transfer complex and tacit knowledge easier

Abstract At present, most of the enterprises make use of a set of software system of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in order to improve the internal management, and regards it as the nuclear information system. Their goal is to promote the enterprise's operational benefits (Hong and Kim, 2002) by the synthetic effects. Some enterprises induct do brings certain benefits after using the EPR. However, faces the current violent and competitive environment, the majority of ERP are not able to arrange the uses of resources effectively, which causes the enterprises unable to make the delivery dates of the customers¡¦ orders punctually or causes the enterprises¡¦ original profits reduced due to storing up too much stock for satisfy the delivery dates of the customers¡¦ orders. This research take a T Corporation, one of small and medium manufactures of Taiwan, as an example, this company uses the domestic well-known brand system of ERP as the main information system of the enterprise. After using the producing and managing module of ERP to plan its purchase policy of raw materials for a long time, the material inventory stay at a high level even after several years¡¦ adjustment. In addition, due to the price of copper fluctuated heavily frequently in recent years, not only the inventory cost can¡¦t be controlled well but also the orders are missed usually involving being unable to reflect the cost of raw materials on the customers¡¦ quotes immediately. Therefore, this research takes the System Dynamics which is good at solving the problems of dynamic complexity as a simulated research to practice the models¡¦ constructions and simulations and add the prosperity of system thinking into the business strategy to provides the quantifiable analogue result in order to strengthen the insufficient aspects of products and materials of EPR and to assist the enterprises¡¦ boss to solve those problems of dynamic complexity which are easily been neglect when makes operational strategies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2010. / Mode of access: Internet. Title from PDF title page; viewed on March 19, 2010. Major professor: Lois Brady. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in Computer Science." "March 2010." Includes bibliographical references (p. 71).

Ecological communities – groups of interacting species – are subject to a variety of disturbances. Understanding responses to these disturbances is a primary goal of community ecology. The structural complexity of the community and the traits of the community’s constituent species are both known to have a significant impact on a community’s response to a disturbance. In this thesis, we investigated how these two scales – the community level and the species level – interactively affected community responses to both short and long term disturbances. Our first hypothesis was that interaction strength would be weaker in species with many interactions when compared to species with fewer interactions. To test this hypothesis, we used simulated food webs and found that, in locally stable food webs, species with many interactions tended predominantly to have interactions with predators or with prey. While these many predator or prey interactions were weak, they tended to be balanced by a few interactions of the opposite type (with prey or predators) which were stronger than average. The structure of the network, where species had predominantly one type of interaction, was essential for this relationship between the number and strength of interactions to arise. Our second study investigated how food webs of varying size and connectance respond to press and pulse disturbances. Many studies of food web stability only focus on the response to short term or “pulse” disturbances, however, as anthropogenic impacts on food webs increase, it is important to increase our understanding of food web responses to long term or “press” disturbances and determine whether they follow the same pattern as pulse disturbances. We found that more species rich and connected food webs were less stable to both types of disturbance and the more stable a food web was to a pulse disturbance, the more stable it was to a press disturbance as well. We also found that the traits – trophic level and number of interactions – of the disturbed species impacted a food web’s resistance to a press disturbance. Food webs were less resistant to the disturbance of species with many interactions or low trophic level than species with few interactions or high trophic level. The strength of species’ effects on stability was also moderated by the structural complexity of the food web. Together the work that makes up this thesis suggests that, to understand the stability of food webs to any kind of disturbance, we should consider both the structure of the network and the traits of the species embedded within it. While we found that networks were more vulnerable to disturbance of certain species than others, this observation also depended on the structure and complexity of the community they existed in. This has important implications for communities subject to disturbances, especially those disturbances which alter the way in which communities are structured and species interact.

This thesis explores the use of complexity theory in Physics Education Research as a way to examine the issue of student retention (a university’s ability to retain its students). University physics education is viewed through the concepts of nestedness and networked interactions. The work presented in this thesis covers two main aspects from a complexity theory perspective: (1) institutional action to enhance student retention; and, (2) the role of students’ in-course interaction networks. These aspects are used to reframe student retention from a complexity theory perspective, as well as to explore what implications this new perspective affords. The first aspect is addressed by conceptualizing student retention as an emergent phenomenon caused by both agent and component interaction within a complex system. A methodology is developed to illustrate a networked visualization of such a system using contemporary estimation methods. Identified limitations are discussed. To exemplify the use of simulations of complex systems, the networked system created is used to build a simulation of an “ideal” university system as well as a Virtual world for hypothesis-testing. The second aspect is divided into two sections: Firstly, an analysis of processes relating to how students’ in-course networks are created is undertaken. These networks are divided into two relevant components for student retention – the social and the academic. Analysis of these two components of the networks shows that the formation of the networks is not a result of random processes and is thus framed as a function of the core constructs of student retention research – the social and academic systems. Secondly, a case is made that students’ structural positions in the social and academic networks can be related to their grade achievement in the course.

Stories about the oil and gas industry are made for drama; these are tales of unimaginable wealth, unimaginable power, and oftentimes, unimaginable deeds. But what should we make of an oil and gas narrative without a blood feud or villain? This is the story of the Norway Model, a unique system of natural resource management responsible for this country’s transformation since 1969 when massive oil reserves were discovered on the North Sea continental shelf. After centuries of foreign occupation, the Norwegian government has built a thriving petroleum sector to fund its social welfare system beyond even the highest expectations; somehow, this nation of five million people grew from a poor maritime society to a global leader in environmentally conscious energy production with the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. Despite these results, this oil economy faces new challenges in the coming years; as North Sea production declines, Norway increasingly looks north for fossil fuels in the Arctic and how these resources are discovered, produced, and regulated will require new innovations to ensure the sustainability of this welfare state. Thus, the next chapter of the Norwegian success story remains to be written and this dissertation explores how narratives about the past, present, and future of the Norway Model will shape the course of natural resource management policies. In presenting the case of Norway’s success from a narrative perspective, this research breaks new ground in both applied and theoretical territories. As perhaps the most successful system of its kind in the world, scholars and policy makers alike have much to learn from studying this model. But when it comes to understanding the dynamic connections between energy management, international policy, and global warming, positivistic models for prediction and causality have fallen short (Smil, 2005). In contrast, narrative can communicate nuanced meanings in complex systems of organization. Therefore, this research explores the connections between narrative and complexity, as well as the communicative applications of narrative for understanding and organizational decision-making. Overall, conceptualizing this model’s evolution as a narrative offers tangible entry points for understanding how one country’s story can change the world. / text