<p>Disertacija se bavi analizom uticaja raspodela podataka na rezultate algoritama diskretizacije u okviru procesa ma&scaron;inskog učenja. Na osnovu izabranih baza i algoritama diskretizacije teorije grubih skupova i stabala odlučivanja, istražen je uticaj odnosa raspodela podataka i tačaka reza određene diskretizacije.<br />Praćena je promena konzistentnosti diskretizovane tabele u zavisnosti od položaja redukovane tačke reza na histogramu. Definisane su fiksne tačke reza u zavisnosti od segmentacije multimodal raspodele, na osnovu kojih je moguće raditi redukciju preostalih tačaka reza. Za određivanje fiksnih tačaka konstruisan je algoritam FixedPoints koji ih određuje u skladu sa grubom segmentacijom multimodal raspodele.<br />Konstruisan je algoritam aproksimativne diskretizacije APPROX MD za redukciju tačaka reza, koji koristi tačke reza dobijene algoritmom maksimalne razberivosti i parametre vezane za procenat nepreciznih pravila, ukupni procenat klasifikacije i broj tačaka redukcije. Algoritam je kompariran u odnosu na algoritam maksimalne razberivosti i u odnosu na algoritam maksimalne razberivosti sa aproksimativnim re&scaron;enjima za &alpha;=0,95.</p> / <p>This dissertation analyses the influence of data distribution on the results of discretization algorithms within the process of machine learning. Based on the chosen databases and the discretization algorithms within the rough set theory and decision trees, the influence of the data distribution-cuts relation within certain discretization has been researched.<br />Changes in consistency of a discretized table, as dependent on the position of the reduced cut on the histogram, has been monitored. Fixed cuts have been defined, as dependent on the multimodal segmentation, on basis of which it is possible to do the reduction of the remaining cuts. To determine the fixed cuts, an algorithm FixedPoints has been constructed, determining these points in accordance with the rough segmentation of multimodal distribution.<br />An algorithm for approximate discretization, APPROX MD, has been constructed for cuts reduction, using cuts obtained through the maximum discernibility (MD-Heuristic) algorithm and the parametres related to the percent of imprecise rules, the total classification percent and the number of reduction cuts. The algorithm has been compared to the MD algorithm and to the MD algorithm with approximate solutions for &alpha;=0,95.</p>

Portfolio selection has a long tradition in financial economics and plays an integral role in investment management. Portfolio selection provides the framework to determine optimal portfolio choice from a universe of available investments. However, the asset weightings from portfolio selection are optimal only if the empirical characteristics of asset returns do not violate the portfolio selection model assumptions. This thesis explores the empirical characteristics of traditional assets and hedge fund returns and examines their effects on the assumptions of linearity-in-the-mean testing and portfolio selection. The encompassing theme of this thesis is the empirical interplay between traditional assets and hedge fund returns. Despite the paucity of hedge fund research, pension funds continue to increase their portfolio allocations to global hedge funds in an effort to pursue higher risk-adjusted returns. This thesis presents three empirical studies which provide positive insights into the relationships between traditional assets and hedge fund returns. The first two empirical studies examine an emerging body of literature which suggests that the relationship between traditional assets and hedge fund returns is non-linear. For mean-variance investors, non-linear asset returns are problematic as they do not satisfy the assumption of linearity required for the covariance matrix in portfolio selection. To examine the linearity assumption as it relates to a mean-variance investor, a hypothesis test approach is employed which investigates the linearity-in-the-mean of traditional assets and hedge funds. The findings from the first two empirical studies reveal that conventional linearity-in-the-mean tests incorrectly conclude that asset returns are nonlinear. We demonstrate that the empirical characteristics of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation in asset returns are the primary sources of test mis-specification in these linearity-in-the-mean hypothesis tests. To address this problem, an innovative approach is proposed to control heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation in the underlying tests and it is shown that traditional assets and hedge funds are indeed linear-in-the-mean. The third and final study of this thesis explores traditional assets and hedge funds in a portfolio selection framework. Following the theme of the previous two studies, the effects of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation are examined in the portfolio selection context. The characteristics of serial correlation in bond and hedge fund returns are shown to cause a downward bias in the second sample moment. This thesis proposes two methods to control for this effect and it is shown that autocorrelation induces an overallocation to bonds and hedge funds. Whilst heteroscedasticity cannot be directly examined in portfolio selection, empirical evidence suggests that heteroscedastic events (such as those that occurred in August 1998) translate into the empirical feature known as tail-risk. The effects of tail-risk are examined by comparing the portfolio decisions of mean-variance analysis (MVA) versus mean-conditional value at risk (M-CVaR) investors. The findings reveal that the volatility of returns in a MVA portfolio decreases when hedge funds are included in the investment opportunity set. However, the reduction in the volatility of portfolio returns comes at a cost of undesirable third and fourth moments. Furthermore, it is shown that investors with M-CVaR preferences exhibit a decreasing demand for hedge funds as their aversion for tail-risk increases. The results of the thesis highlight the sensitivities of linearity tests and portfolio selection to the empirical features of heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and tail-risk. This thesis contributes to the literature by providing refinements to these frameworks which allow improved inferences to be made when hedge funds are examined in linearity and portfolio selection settings.

Οι πηγές πλάσματος επαγωγικής ζεύξης (Inductively Coupled Plasma Sources – ICP’s), παρέχουν πλάσμα υψηλής πυκνότητας ηλεκτρονίων σε χαμηλή πίεση και έχουν ευρεία εφαρμογή στη σύγχρονη βιομηχανία ημιαγωγών και την κατεργασία επιφανειών. Σε πολύ χαμηλές πιέσεις, (~mTorr), οι εκκενώσεις πλάσματος παρουσιάζουν ιδιαίτερη συμπεριφορά όσον αφορά τη διείσδυση του ηλεκτρομαγνητικού πεδίου και την αλληλεπίδραση κύματος-σωματιδίου: Η ανώμαλη επιδερμική διείσδυση (anomalous skin effect) και η συντονισμένη αλληλεπίδραση κύματος-σωματιδίου όταν υπερτίθεται στατικό μαγνητικό πεδίο (resonant wave-particle interaction) είναι δύο φαινόμενα τυπικά σε αυτές τις εκκενώσεις. Η κατανόηση και μαθηματική ανάλυση αυτών των ιδιαίτερα περίπλοκων φαινομένων, ώστε να προσομοιωθούν με ακρίβεια αλλά και χωρίς χρονοβόρες υπολογιστικά διαδικασίες οι πηγές πλάσματος επαγωγικής ζεύξης, αποτελεί μια σύγχρονη επιστημονική και υπολογιστική πρόκληση. Στα πλαίσια αυτά, στην παρούσα διατριβή τέθηκε ως στόχος η αξιοποίηση της υπάρχουσας επιστημονικής γνώσης στον τομέα της υπολογιστικής προσομοίωσης πλάσματος, για την ανάπτυξη ταχύτατων προσομοιώσεων των πηγών πλάσματος επαγωγικής ζεύξης, διασφαλίζοντας ταυτόχρονα την εξαγωγή έγκυρων συμπερασμάτων: Η προσέγγιση αυτή συνίσταται στη διατύπωση υπόθεσης (μοντέλου), τον έλεγχό της σε σχέση με υπάρχοντα δεδομένα και την επαναδιατύπωσή της μέχρις ότου το μοντέλο να κριθεί επαρκές. Αρχικά αναπτύχθηκε ένα ρευστοδυναμικό μοντέλο πλάσματος βασισμένο στην υπόθεση ψευδουδετερότητας και αμφιπολικής διάχυσης των φορέων φορτίου, προκειμένου να προσομοιωθεί η ενισχυμένης μαγνητικής διαπερατότητας πηγή επαγωγικής ζεύξης MaPE–ICP. Τα αποτελέσματα της προσομοίωσης συγκρίνονται με τα πειραματικά στοιχεία προηγούμενων ερευνητών για εκκενώσεις Αργού και εξετάζεται η ικανότητα του ρευστοδυναμικού μοντέλου να παρέχει μια στοιχειώδη ποσοτική περιγραφή πλάσματος επαγωγικής ζεύξης σε χαμηλή πίεση. Η αξιοπιστία του ρευστοδυναμικού μοντέλου εξελίσσεται περεταίρω, με την ενσωμάτωση μιας αποτελεσματικής αριθμητικής επίλυσης της κινητικής εξίσωσης Boltzmann για τα ηλεκτρόνια. Τα αποτελέσματα της υβριδικής προσομοίωσης για εκκένωση Αργού πίεσης 30 mTorr στον αντιδραστήρα MaPE–ICP συγκρίνονται τόσο με αντίστοιχα πειραματικά δεδομένα όσο και με τα προηγούμενα αποτελέσματα της ρευστοδυναμικής προσομοίωσης και εξετάζεται η βελτίωση της ποιοτικής συμφωνίας όσον αφορά την επίδραση των παραμέτρων με ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον. Στη συνέχεια αναπτύχθηκε ένα ρευστοδυναμικό μοντέλο εκκενώσεων αίγλης τύπου ECWR (Electron Cyclotron Wave Resonance) βασισμένο σε προκαθορισμένες οριακές συνθήκες για το ηλεκτρομαγνητικό πεδίο. Προσομοιώθηκε ένα διάκενο με πλάσμα Αργού σε πίεση 15 mTorr (μονοδιάστατο μοντέλο) και τα αποτελέσματα ελέγχθηκαν έναντι αναλυτικής θεωρίας, πειραματικών δεδομένων και αποτελεσμάτων προσομοίωσης Particle In Cell/Monte Carlo (PIC/MC). Επιπρόσθετα, τα αποτελέσματα προσομοίωσης για μια εκκένωση Αργού σε πίεση 1 mTorr εντός κυλινδρικού αντιδραστήρα τύπου ECWR (δισδιάστατο μοντέλο), συγκρίνονται με τα αποτελέσματα προσομοίωσης και πειραματικά στοιχεία. Τέλος, το μοντέλο έχει επεκταθεί για να περιλάβει την διάδοση του πλάσματος που παράγεται από μια τυπική πηγή πλάσματος τύπου ECWR σε μια περιοχή διάχυσης. Τα αποτελέσματα για εκκένωση Αργού πίεσης 5 mTorr συγκρίνονται με τα αντίστοιχα αποτελέσματα ενός μοντέλου σφαιρικής διάχυσης πλάσματος και εν προκειμένω εξετάζεται η πλήρης επεκτασιμότητα του εισαχθέντος ρευστοδυναμικού μοντέλου ECWR σε διεργασίες πλάσματος. / Inductively Coupled Plasma Sources (ICP’s) are capable of producing high density-low pressure plasmas in a variety of applications for the semiconductor and material processing industry. In the mTorr range, ICP discharges exhibit an extraordinary behaviour concerning the electromagnetic field propagation and wave-particle interaction: Anomalous skin effect and resonant wave-particle interaction within a superimposed static magnetic field consist two of the most typical phenomena. The efficient comprehension and mathematical description of such a complex gas discharge in order to fast and accurately simulate ICP sources, is still a challenging task. Within this context, the thesis focuses on evaluating the existing scientific knowledge in plasma computational modeling in order to develop not only rapidly converging but reliable ICP simulations: The implementation methodology consists on formulating an hypothesis (model) and repetitively inquiring its accuracy by checking the simulation results against existing experimental and/or other simulation data. The continuation of the model re-formulation process depends on the accuracy of the simulation results. Initally a simulation of a Magnetic Pole Enhanced (MaPE)-ICP plasma source was developed, under the assumptions of plasma quasineutrality and ambipolar diffusion. The simulation results were checked against the experimental data of previous workers for Argon discharges and the ability of the model to provide an elementary quantitative description of low pressure ICP sources was scrutinized. The validity of the fluid model was enhanced with the incorporation of a time effective numerical solution of the Boltzmann transport equation for electrons. Simulation results of the hybrid model were compared to the previous fluid simulation results and existing experimental data, for a 30 mTorr Argon discharge in the MaPE–ICP reactor. The major improvements of the qualitative agreement in regard to the effect of parameters with particular interest are discussed. Moreover, a fluid model of ECWR (Electron Cyclotron Wave Resonance) discharges, based on predefined boundary conditions for the electromagnetic field, was developed: The simulation results for a 15 mTorr Argon plasma within a slab (1-dimensional model) were checked against the particle in cell/Monte Carlo (PIC/MC) simulation results that can be found in the literature and also compared to the analytical theory and experimental data. In addition, the model was further developed to simulate realistic geometries as a cylindrical ECWR reactor (2-D) and the data were also compared to both simulation results and experimental data of other researchers. Finally, the model was extended in order to simulate plasma propagation from a typical ECWR plasma source to a diffusion region. The simulation results for an Argon plasma generated from a cylindrical ECWR source in a processing chamber at 5 mTorr were presented in order to verify the feasibility of model application in ECWR plasma processes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of international investment law rules in the Economic Constitutional Law, especially those included in investment chapters of Peruvian’s Free Trade Treaties. In particular, it is expected to demonstrate the following (i) International Investment Law is part of Peruvian Legal System; (ii) provisions of these laws are mandatory and should be applied domestically; and (iii) interpretation and implementation of this legal right should be executed consistently with domestic legal system and Peruvian international obligations. This agreed Interpretation between Investment Law and Economic Constitution will have a positive effect in rationalization of public entities actions avoiding abuses and maltreatment to investors, in order to improve investment climate as a key element forachieving country’s sustainable development. / Este trabajo tiene como objeto explorar el impacto que tienen las normas del derecho internacional de las inversiones, en específico aquellas de los capítulos de inversiones de los Tratados de Libre Comercio celebrados por el Perú, en el derecho constitucional económico. En concreto, se pretende demostrar lo siguiente: (i) el derecho internacional de las inversiones es parte del Ordenamiento Jurídico del Perú; (ii) las disposiciones de este derecho son obligatorias y deben aplicarse a nivel interno, y (iii) este derecho debe interpretarse e implementarse de manera coherente con el resto del ordenamiento interno y con las obligaciones internacionales del Perú. Esta interpretación concordada del derecho de inversiones y la Constitución económica tendrá un impacto positivo en la racionalización de la actuaciónde los órganos estatales, evitando arbitrariedades cuando sus medidas puedan afectar a un inversionista. De esta manera mejorará el clima de inversiones, el cual es un elemento necesario para lograr el desarrollo sostenible del país.

Le droit des organisations internationales a été le lieu d’une belle querelle d’école entre les détracteurs et les adeptes de la normativité relative. Il en va de même des rapports de systèmes, qui divisent la doctrine entre les monistes (en voie de disparition), les dualistes et les non-alignés. Aborder le thème du traitement du droit dérivé par les ordres juridiques internes c’est prendre le risque de s’égarer dans ces tourbillons doctrinaux. Si l’on accepte que le point de vue du juge interne est pertinent pour la détermination de la force normative du droit dérivé, on comprend que le premier débat semble dépassé : le juge admet que le droit institutionnel est du droit, qu’il soit obligatoire ou non. Se pose dès lors la question de la capacité de ce droit à être source de droits et obligations dans l’ordre interne. On remarque qu’à cette fin, l’ensemble des ordres juridiques examinés exige l’incorporation des actes institutionnels, mais aussi que les juges internes accordent de la place à des formes de reconnaissance des effets des actes institutionnels déconnectées de l’incorporation. Ces tendances convergentes démontrent à la fois que le clivage monisme/dualisme n’est pas décisif, mais aussi que la pensée dualiste ne reflète pas fidèlement les modalités d’interaction entre les ordres juridiques dans le monde pluraliste. La reconnaissance participe d’un principe de coordination et non pas de séparation des ordres juridiques, qui se prolonge par ailleurs dans les solutions aux conflits normatifs, ainsi que dans les modalités et les effets du contrôle, par les juges internes, des normes institutionnelles. / The law of international organisations has been the theatre of passionate academic debate between the detractors and the disciples of the relative normativity. The same can be said about the relations between the legal orders, which divide the doctrine into monists, dualists and non-aligned. Analysing the topic of the place of institutional law in domestic legal orders is taking the risk of losing one’s way in these doctrinal whirls. If we take for granted that the point of view of the domestic judge is relevant for appreciating the normative force of institutional law, we may say that the first debate seems outdated : the domestic judge recognizes that the law produced by international organisations is law, whether is binding or not. The following question is to what extent the norms thus produced may be source of rights and obligations in the internal legal orders. The entire range of legal orders examined requires for institutional law to be incorporated for that purpose. The domestic judges leave nonetheless the door opened to other forms for taking into account some of the legal effects of institutional acts. These convergent tendencies show both that the monist/dualist divide is immaterial for the legal status of these acts and that the dualist doctrine does not accurately reflect the modalities of interaction between the legal systems in the world of pluralism. The recognition of unincorporated legal norms, which triggers consequences in terms of conflict of norms and judicial review of institutional law, stands in favour of a model of coordination and not of separation of the legal orders.

Energy conservation is a major concern in todays data centers, which are the 21st century data processing factories, and where large and complex software systems such as distributed data management stores run and serve billions of users. The two main drivers of this major concern are the pollution impact data centers have on the environment due to their waste heat, and the expensive cost data centers incur due to their enormous energy demand. Among the many subsystems of data centers, the storage system is one of the main sources of energy consumption. Among the many types of storage systems, key/value stores happen to be the widely used in the data centers. In this work, I investigate energy saving techniques that enable a consistent hash based key/value store save energy during low activity times, and whenever there is an opportunity to reuse the waste heat of data centers.

La conservation du courant faible vectoriel, connue par CVC est une des hypothèses fondamentales du Modèle Standard de l'interaction électrofaible. En revanche, la base théorique de cette hypothèse est seulement l'analogie avec la théorie de l'interaction électromagnétique et la question de sa validité reste posée. La CVC est vérifiable dans les transitions super-permises, 0+ → 0+, T = 1 car elle prédit que le grandeur Ft (≡ ft corrigée) de ces processus à basse énergie doit être indépendant des noyaux mis en jeu. Si la valeur unique de Ft est trouvée, on peut toute de suite déduire la constante du couplage vectorielle GV , reliée à │Vud│, la norme de l'élément le plus important de la matrice du mélange des quarks de Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM). Cet élément de matrice joue un rôle crucial dans le test de l'unitarité de la matrice CKM, une autre hypothèse de base du Modèle Standard. Actuellement, 14 transitions super-permises allant du 10C jusqu'au 74Rb sont expérimentalement connues avec une précision meilleure que 0:1%, Cela fait en sorte que l'accès à la constante de couplage est limité par les corrections théoriques, dues aux effets radiatifs et à la brisure de la symétrie d'isospin. Le principal propos de cette thèse est de ré-examiner la correction due au défaut du recouvrement entre les fonctions d'onde radiales de neutrons et celles de protons (ᵟRO) dans le cadre du modèle en couches. Nos calculs sont basés sur l'expansion des éléments de matrice de Fermi sur les états du noyau intermédiaire, développée précédemment par Towner et Hardy [1]. Cette méthode combine les fonctions d'onde radiales réalistes avec les données spectroscopiques obtenues par un calcul à large échelle, permettant ainsi d'aller au-delà des approches traditionnelles. Nous avons considéré 13 transitions super-permises, y comprises : 22Mg, 26Al, 26Si, 30S, 34Cl, 34Ar, 38K, 38Ca, 46V, 50Mn, 54Co, 62Ga et 66As. Les fonctions d'onde radiales sont déterminées avec un potentiel moyen réaliste, tel que le potentiel phénoménologique de Woods-Saxon (WS) ou le potentiel auto-cohérent de Hartree-Fock (HF) dérivé à partir d'une force effective de Skyrme. Les calculs ont été faits avec des différentes paramétrisations (2 paramétrisations WS et 3 forces de Skyrme) qui nous ont semblés être les meilleures et les plus appropriées à nos besoins. Dans un premier temps, des calculs par une méthode simple, sans prise en compte des états intermédiaires ont été réalisés. Avec le potentiel WS, les valeurs de ᵟRO obtenues sont fortement dépendantes de paramétrisation. Afin de clarifier cet effet, nous avons étudié en détail la sensibilité aux paramètres du potentiel avec une attention toute particulière apportée au terme isovectoriel et au terme coulombien. Cela a permis de mettre en évidence qu'une telle dépendance est entièrement dominée par le comportement isovectoriel du potentiel. Finalement, cette propriété inattendue a été bien maîtrisée par la procédure d'ajustement proposée. (...) / The conservation of the weak vector current, known as CVC is one of the fundamentalhypothesis of the Standard Model of the electroweak interaction. Nevertheless,the physics background of this hypothesis is nothing more than an analogyto the electromagnetic interaction's theory and the question of its validity remainsopen. The CVC is veri_able in the superallowed Fermi β-decays, 0+ → 0+, T = 1since it predicts that the Ft (≡ corrected ft) value of such low-energy processesmust be nucleus independent. Once the unique Ft value is found, one can immediatelydeduce the vector coupling constant GV , linked to │Vud, the norm of themost important element of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark-mixingmatrix. This matrix element plays a crucial role in the test of the unitarity of theCKM matrix, another fundamental hypothesis of the Standard Model.Currently, 14 superallowed transitions ranging from 10C to 74Rb are known experimentally with the precision 0.1% or better. This results in a fact that this studyis now limited by the theoretical corrections, due to the radiative and the isospin symmetry-breaking effects. The aim of this thesis is to re-examine the correction due to mismatch between proton and neutron radial wave functions (ᵟRO) within the framework of shell model. We adopted the method recently developed by Towner and Hardy [1]. This method combines realistic radial wave functions with spectroscopic informations obtained from a large-scale shell-model calculation, thus allowing us to go beyond traditional shell-model approaches. In this work, we considered 13 superallowed transitions, including : 22Mg, 26Al, 26Si, 30S, 34Cl, 34Ar, 38K, 38Ca, 46V, 50Mn, 54Co, 62Ga et 66As. The radial wave functions were determined with a realistic single-particle potential, such as the phenomenological Woods-Saxon (WS) potential or the self-consistent Hartree-Fock (HF) mean field derived from an effective Skyrme force. We selected various parametrizations (2 parametrizations for WS and 3 Skyrme forces for HF) that seem to us to be appropriate for our purposes. First, we performed the calculations with a simple method, without taking into account the intermediate states. The result indicates that ᵟRO obtained from WS potential is strongly parametrization dependent. In order to clarify this effect, we studied profoundly the sensitivity to potential parameters, paying particular attention to the isovector and the Coulomb terms.This study provided evidence that such a dependence is entirely dominated by the isovector part of the potential. However, using our proposed adjustment procedure, this problem appears to be well under control. We also examined the surface terms adopted in the work of Towner and Hardy [1], the result showed that one of these terms (the term Vh(r)) is not compatible with our adjustment procedure. (...)

Energy conservation is a major concern in todays data centers, which are the 21st century data processing factories, and where large and complex software systems such as distributed data management stores run and serve billions of users. The two main drivers of this major concern are the pollution impact data centers have on the environment due to their waste heat, and the expensive cost data centers incur due to their enormous energy demand. Among the many subsystems of data centers, the storage system is one of the main sources of energy consumption. Among the many types of storage systems, key/value stores happen to be the widely used in the data centers. In this work, I investigate energy saving techniques that enable a consistent hash based key/value store save energy during low activity times, and whenever there is an opportunity to reuse the waste heat of data centers.

The issue of learner engagement is an important question for education and for instructional design. It is acknowledged that computer games in general are engaging. Thus, one possible solution to learner engagement is to integrate computer games into education; however, the literature indicates that pedagogical, logistical and political barriers remain. Another possible solution is to derive principles for the design of engaging experiences from a critical examination of computer game design. One possible application of the derived design principles is that instruction may be designed to be inherently more engaging. The purpose of this dissertation was to look for operational principles underlying the design of computer games in order to better understand the design of engaging experiences. Core design components and associated operational principles for the design of engaging experiences were identified. Selected computer games were analyzed to demonstrate that these components and principles were present in the design of successful computer games. Selected instructional units were analyzed to show evidence that these operational principles could be applied to the design of instruction. An instructional design theory—called Challenge-driven Instructional Design—and design considerations for the theory were proposed. Finally, suggestions were made for continued development and research of the instructional design theory.

With the technological advancement in computer science, Geographic Information Science (GIScience), and transportation, more and more complex path finding queries including category based queries are proposed and studied across diverse disciplines. A category based query, such as Optimal Sequenced Routing (OSR) queries and Trip Planning Queries (TPQ), asks for a minimum-cost path that traverses a set of categories with or without a predefined order in a graph. Due to the extensive computing time required to process these complex queries in a large scale environment, efficient algorithms are highly desirable whenever processing time is a consideration. In Artificial Intelligence (AI), a best first search is an informed heuristic path finding algorithm that uses domain knowledge as heuristics to expedite the search process. Traditional best first searches are single-variate in terms of the number of variables to describe a state, and thus not appropriate to process these queries in a graph. In this dissertation, 1) two new types of category based queries, Category Sequence Traversal Query (CSTQ) and Optimal Sequence Traversal Query (OSTQ), are proposed; 2) the existing single-variate best first searches are extended to multivariate best first searches in terms of the state specified, and a class of new concepts--state graph, sub state graph, sub state graph space, local heuristic, local admissibility, local consistency, global heuristic, global admissibility, and global consistency--is introduced into best first searches; 3) two bivariate best first search algorithms, C* and O*, are developed to process CSTQ and OSTQ in a graph, respectively; 4) for each of C* and O*, theorems on optimality and optimal efficiency in a sub state graph space are developed and identified; 5) a family of algorithms including C*-P, C-Dijkstra, O*-MST, O*-SCDMST, O*- Dijkstra, and O*-Greedy is identified, and case studies are performed on path finding in transportation networks, and/or fully connected graphs, either directed or undirected; and 6) O*- SCDMST is adopted to efficiently retrieve optimal solutions for OSTQ using network distance metric in a large transportation network. / Ph. D.