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Basic Set (basic + set)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Engineering	33%

Selected Abstracts

How Does Structural Reform Affect Regional Development?

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2000
Resolving Contradictory Theory with Evidence from India
Abstract: Regional theory offers little coherent guidance on the prospects for interregional development after structural reform in developing nations. In this paper I suggest a basic set of hypotheses in which the neoliberal nation-state is simultaneously a reduced state (less concerned about promoting regional balance) and an enlarged state (directing development toward selected regions). Under the new regulatory structure the location of post-reform investments may be expected to favor the coast, advanced regions, and existing metropolises (especially the edge areas); these expectations may be more true for foreign direct investments than domestic investments (especially the direct investments of the state). I use disaggregated pre- and post-reform industrial data from India to test the hypotheses. The results offer partial to full support for all hypotheses, providing evidence of the return of cumulative causation, and raising concerns about the political economy of future development in the lagging regions. [source]

A connectionist inference model for pattern-directed knowledge representation

EXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 2 2000
I Mitchell
In this paper we propose a connectionist model for variable binding. The model is topology dependent on the graph it builds based on the predicates available. The irregular connections between perceptron-like assemblies facilitate forward and backward chaining. The model treats the symbolic data as a sequence and represents the training set as a partially connected network using basic set and graph theory to form the internal representation. Inference is achieved by opportunistic reasoning via the bidirectional connections. Consequently, such activity stabilizes to a multigraph. This multigraph is composed of isomorphic subgraphs which all represent solutions to the query made. Such a model has a number of advantages over other methods in that irrelevant connections are avoided by superimposing positionally dependent sub-structures that are identical, variable binding can be encoded and multiple solutions can be extracted simultaneously. The model also has the ability to adapt its existing architecture when presented with new clauses and therefore add new relationships/rules to the model explicitly; this is done by some partial retraining of the network due to the superimposition properties. [source]

The Limits of Organizational Theory and Incentives (Or, Why Corporate Success Is Not Just About Money)

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 4 2005
Ronald Schmidt
Most economists begin their study of organizational behavior by taking for granted that incentive compensation influences behavior. Managers and employees are assumed to have "utility functions" that reflect a very basic set of "preferences",preferences for things like money and leisure and job security. And, as clearly simplistic as it is, this "model" of human behavior has been shown to have considerable predictive power. But it is equally clear that financial incentives and rewards are not all that matters in motivating people within large organizations. What economists have failed to recognize is the important subjective consequences for employees of acting in accord with well-designed incentives that have been "internalized",viewed not just as leading to financial rewards and corporate success, but as "the right thing to do." In the language of economists, a well-designed incentive program can end up influencing not only people's behavior, but their underlying "preferences," or what non-economists like to call "values." And it is these preferences and values that are at the core of an organization's "culture." [source]

Problem-Solving Courts: A Brief Primer

LAW & POLICY, Issue 2 2001
Greg Berman
This essay traces the history of problem-solving courts (including drug courts, community courts, domestic violence courts and others), outlines problem-solving principles, and answers a basic set of questions about these new judicial experiments: Why now? What forces have sparked judges and attorneys across the country to innovate? What results have problem-solving courts achieved? And what , if any , trade-offs have been made to accomplish these results? [source]

A fast triangle to triangle intersection test for collision detection

COMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS (PREV: JNL OF VISUALISATION & COMPUTER ANIMATION), Issue 5 2006
Oren Tropp
Abstract The triangle-to-triangle intersection test is a basic component of all collision detection data structures and algorithms. This paper presents a fast method for testing whether two triangles embedded in three dimensions intersect. Our technique solves the basic sets of linear equations associated with the problem and exploits the strong relations between these sets to speed up their solution. Moreover, unlike previous techniques, with very little additional cost, the exact intersection coordinates can be determined. Finally, our technique uses general principles that can be applied to similar problems such as rectangle-to-rectangle intersection tests, and generally to problems where several equation sets are strongly related. We show that our algorithm saves about 20% of the mathematical operations used by the best previous triangle-to-triangle intersection algorithm. Our experiments also show that it runs 18.9% faster than the fastest previous algorithm on average for typical scenarios of collision detection (on Pentium 4). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Trefftz solutions for piezoelectricity by Lekhnitskii's formalism and boundary-collocation method

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 13 2006
N. Sheng
Abstract In this paper, a solution procedure for plane piezoelectricity is developed by Trefftz boundary-collocation method. Starting with the general plane piezoelectricity solution derived by Lekhnitskii's formalism, the basic sets of Trefftz functions which satisfy the homogeneous governing equations are derived. Moreover, special sets of Trefftz functions are derived for impermeable elliptical voids, impermeable sharp cracks and permeable sharp cracks with arbitrary orientations with respect to the material poling direction. The functions in the special sets satisfy not only the homogeneous governing equations but also the boundary conditions at the peripheries of the pertinent defects. By adopting Trefftz functions as the trial functions, multi-domain Trefftz boundary-collocation method is formulated. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the efficacy of the formulation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]