Rule Configuration Research Articles

XTCcmp

XTCcmp, the XQuery Compiler of a native XML database system, extends Starburst's well-known Query Graph Model to serve as an internal representation and basis for query restructuring of XQuery expressions. Furthermore, XTCcmp is able to generate execution plans supporting a wide range of both well-known and newly developed variants of core XML processing algorithms and indexes. Our demo visualizes all rule-based transformation stages, i. e., simplification, algebraic rewriting, and plan generation. Furthermore, via an interface to the extensible rule configuration, it allows interaction with the query compiler to vary configuration parameters and to control the compilation outcome.

Societas Europaea: between Harmonization and Regulatory Competition

During the past years in Europe, the possibility of a market for corporate incorporations, namely the freedom of European companies to choose their country for incorporation, has been blocked, in part, by the difficult economic conditions and in part by the operation of national level rules on the conflicts of laws which limit the degree to which a company can choose its applicable law. National level laws also widely differ in their attitude towards the movement of companies from one jurisdiction to another and this factor does not help a resumption of the companies and of the investments in the private equity sector. This situation has been changed by some judgments of the European Court of Justice that underscored, in the cases of Überseering, Centros, Inspire Art and Sevic, the EU Treaty’s principles of Free Establishment and Movement of Firms. In these cases legal entities and human beings were considered in the same way. This confirmed the ECJ’s approach that originates from Articles 43 and 48 of the EC Treaty which together with some efforts of the EU Legislator have tried to facilitate a mechanism of corporate entry and exit that possibly will encourage a direct competition of the different corporate law systems provided by the European Member States. Along this line, the proposed Directive on Cross-border Transfer of the Registered Offices of Limited Liability Companies and the Directive on Cross-border Mergers (2005/56/EC) try to provide a common solution to the issue of re-incorporation. In the European market for corporate control, where one size does not fit all, decentralized solutions can permit Member States to continue patterns of diversity, while regulatory arbitrage allows individual firms for which the national model is inappropriate to opt out. Moreover, in an area such as company law, where the configuration of the optimal rules is hotly debated, regulatory competition, if driven by the market from the bottom together with a harmonization of the law implemented by the top through Directives, can lead to a conversion of the European corporate law and build up, at the same time, a ‘market-for-rules’ that is essential for economic growth. In this paper, I will discuss the role of the legal instrument available for companies since 8 October 2004, namely the Statute for a European Company (SE), underlying some of its applications and implications in the process of harmonization of the law. In particular, I will try to explain why this regulation, even if it is obsolete in some parts and incomplete in some others, being a motivation for regulatory competition, can represent a step forward towards the development of appropriate legal rules. In the next sections, I will describe the experience of the European legislator trying to create a common model of European Company (part 2) and to what extent nowadays EU law permits companies to migrate from a member country to another one (part 3). Then, analysing the European market for corporate control, I will show how an efficient regulatory competition, in which arbitrage will be motivated by a desire to increase total value rather than the private interests of one group, can be feasible and attractive (parts 4 and 5). Eventually I will summarize adding some conclusions (part 6).

Thermoelectricity of [formula omitted] intermetallics

The evolution of the thermopower S ( T ) of EuCu 2 ( Ge 1 - x Si x ) 2 intermetallics, which is induced by the Si–Ge substitution, is explained by the Kondo scattering of conduction electrons on the Eu ions which fluctuate between the magnetic 2+ and non-magnetic 3+ Hund's rule configurations. The Si–Ge substitution is equivalent to chemical pressure which modifies the coupling and the relative occupation of the f and conduction states.

The use of working memory for task prediction: What benefits accrue from different types of foreknowledge?

The assumption that the deployment of executive processes invariably improves task performance is implicit to cognitive theory. In particular, working memory can be used to retain and update historical information about predictable trial sequences (foreknowledge) so that subjects can anticipate and prepare for the upcoming trial more effectively. We review the effects of different types of foreknowledge on response accuracy and latency, particularly in relation to experiments investigating saccadic eye movements in humans. While it is possible to make all aspects of an impending trial predictable, varying the predictability of different components of the trial independently can reveal which cognitive operations are potentially modifiable by foreknowledge. These operations include stimulus processing, retrieval of task-set rules, and response preparation, among others. The available data suggest that, while response preparation can be completed and the response even executed before the stimulus appears (i.e. anticipation) when the subject possesses complete task-foreknowledge (knowing both the stimulus to appear and the response required), foreknowledge of the task-set alone does not permit advance configuration of the task-set rules. A taxonomy for foreknowledge is proposed, including foreknowledge for timing, stimulus, set, response, and task. Work on differentiating these effects in neurophysiology, neuroimaging, and neuropsychology is still in the early stages.

Financing new ventures in China: System antecedents and institutionalization

China's system for funding new ventures is a relatively recent phenomenon emerging from decades of government-led technology policy and a still-transitioning business system. This paper first proposes a general framework in which this financing system is defined as the country-specific configuration of actors, rules and practices by which investment funds are pooled, investment targets identified, funds invested and monitored, and returns appropriated. The paper uses this framework to link the centralized government system of the 1980s to today's nascent venture capital industry. The analysis leads to policy and managerial implications, as well as a research agenda for further studies in the Chinese context and across different venture financing systems.

Conditions for Successful Local Collective Action in Forestry: Some Evidence From the Hills of Nepal

In the context of an ongoing debate on the type of institutions or tenurial arrangements that are appropriate for the sustainable management of common pool resources (CPRs), this article examines the role played by local institutions in determining the conditions of two forests located in the Middle Hills of Nepal. The institutional robustness of the forests’ governance systems is evaluated using Ostrom's (1990) design principles that characterize the configuration of rules devised and used by long-enduring CPR institutions. The findings show that the two forests are different in level of historical degradation as well as present condition, and these differences are generally explained by the structural characteristics of the local institutions governing the forests. The analysis indicates that Ostrom's design principles are useful for analyzing institutional robustness of local forest governance systems. However, some of the principles need modification or expansion if they are to be prescribed for forestry situations.

Labor Strategies of "Soviet Specialists" in the End of the 90-s: The Problem of Embeddedness of Economic Behavior

In this article the labor behavior of representatives of mass trades of the Russian intelligentsia under conditions of the transforming economy is analyzed. Neoinstitutional concepts concerning social embeddedness of economic behavior have served as a theoretical framework for this work. The author tries to answer the question why a new configuration of rules of economic life has so weakly affected labor strategies of a significant part of "Soviet specialists" and has not resulted in total reorganization of the labor market. The research project "Organization of daily life and reproduction of social structure in Russia (the case of St. Petersburg)" is the empirical base for this article.

The Strategic Organization of Political Risks and Opportunities

Firms compete for rents not only within the marketplace, but also through their efforts in the political arena to manipulate regulations, laws and other institutions that govern the marketplace. The field of strategic organization has traditionally focused on the first form of competition, leaving the latter, often distinguished as non-market strategy, largely to scholars from the field of political economy. This research primarily examines how a firm’s political environment – the configuration of formal policymaking institutions, regulatory rules, partisan composition and interest group influence – determines the form and efficacy of its non-market behavior, such as lobbying and making donations to political actors. We urge scholars of strategic organization to enter the field of non-market strategy. Because investigation of the process by which firms manage political opportunities and risks requires that the political environment be taken into account, strategic organization scholars who follow our suggestion will need to cross the disciplinary boundary of positive political economy (PPE). As adherents of multidisciplinary analysis, these scholars are better equipped and likely more willing to cross this boundary than their disciplinary counterparts in PPE are to venture into disciplines such as sociology and organization theory. Moreover, we believe that continued growth of the field of nonmarket strategy, including the development of managerially relevant knowledge, depends critically on the incorporation of constructs and insights from these disciplines. At the same time, scholars of strategic organization would benefit from the novel opportunities that non-market topics provide to ply their tools of trade. We focus on two current growth areas. The first is the social context of policymaking. Political economy scholars take a rationalist, equilibrium approach to the policymaking process – and thus to non-market strategy – that focuses on economic influences to the neglect of cultural biases and beliefs that in reality play a critical role. Scholars of strategic organization possess the multidisciplinary skills necessary to analyze how firms’ non-market strategies reflect and exploit these social institutions. STRATEGIC ORGANIZATION Vol 1(4): 451–46

The perseveration of checking thoughts and mood–as–input hypothesis

This paper describes two experiments designed to investigate how a current model of task perseveration, the mood-as-input hypothesis, might be applied to activities relevant to compulsive checking. The mood-as-input hypothesis predicts that perseveration at an open-ended task will be determined by a combination of the “stop rules” adopted for the task, and the valency of the mood state in which the task is conducted. Experiment 1 required participants to generate items that should be checked for safety/security if they were leaving their home unattended. Experiment 2 used an analogue recall task, in which participants were asked to recall items from a comprehensive list of items that should be checked if they were to leave their home safe/secure. Both experiments found that perseveration at the tasks was determined by particular configurations of mood and stop rules for the task. Of most relevance to compulsive checking was the fact that facilitated perseveration occurred when participants were asked to undertake the tasks in a negative mood using “as many as can” stop rules. Implications for the factors that develop and maintain compulsive checking are discussed.

Sustainable growth, renewable resources and pollution

Our intention is to present a growth model with an environmental resource which has its own regeneration process. The stock of this resource serves as a source of utility and an input to production. We also intend to introduce a negative externality caused by a pollution flow which we assume to be proportional to production. In the context of this model, it is shown that, by using the utility level of the Green Golden Rule as a generalization of the Ramsey's bliss point for solving an optimal growth problems with a zero discount rate, an optimal path converges to the Green Golden Rule configuration.

Organisations, institutions, système : types et niveaux de règles

The notion of rules is common to the economics of organization and the economics of institutions. These two fields may find a better relation thanks to clearer conceptual distinctions on one hand, and to a more hierarchised systemic approach on the other hand. This may clarify somewhat debates among institutionalist approaches. The paper first discusses the totalizing theory of working rules of Commons, the distinction between the rules of the spontaneous order and those of the organised order in Hayek, and North's view of institutions as rules of the game for organizations. A critical comparison of these three theories raises different questions : the importance of distinguishing organizational and institutional rules, and of taking into account informal and formal rules and their relations at both levels, the teleological character of the organization, the hierarchy of rules at different levels of society. The paper proposes a synthetic and critical approach in trying to articulate individual and collective actions in a systemic framework where organizations are defined as collective and hierarchised ensembles of specific rules, and institutions as general and social rules with higher durability, directly or indirectly sanctioned by the State. The cohesion of various configurations of rules is contingent, subject to permanent tensions, it evolves. It is an essential source of organizational and institutional change in a given system, and it is the origin of crises.

The Theory of Socially Embedded Games: The Mathematics of Social Relationships, Rule Complexes, and Action Modalities

In their classic work, Von Neumann and Morgensterndefined a game as simply the totality of the rules which describe it. Theydid not, however, elaborate a theory of rules. Such considerations lead toconceptualizing rules and rule configurations as mathematical objects, specifyingthe principles for combining rules, developing the theory of revising,replacing, and, in general transforming rules and rule complexes. Themathematics is based on contemporary developments at the interface ofmathematics, logic, and computer science. This article, drawing on themathematical theory of rules and rule complexes, extends and generalizes gametheory (GGT). The theory of rule complexes is used to conceptualize andanalyze diverse social relationships, roles, and games as particulartypes of rule complexes. A social role, for instance, is the major basisof an individual's action in a game. It consists of at least four majorcomponents – which are mathematical objects – in the determinationof action: value complex, model of reality (including beliefs and knowledgebases), a repertoire of acts, routines, programs, and strategies, and modalities,role-specific algorithms for determininig or generating action in gamesettings. The article focuses on three types of action modality routineor habitual, normative, andinstrumental modalities. The theory: (1) provides a cultural/institutionalbasis for a theory of gameswhere games, social relationships, and rolesare formalized in terms of rule complexes; (2) explains human action as a formof rule application or rule-following action, which underlies allmodalities of action; (3) formulates the theory that actors construct an action or make choices amongalternative actions by making comparisons and judging similarity (ordissimilarity) between an option or options considered and their norms and values,and, in general, determine whether or not, and to what degree, a value,norm, or goal will be realized or satisfied; (4)reconceptualizes ``game'' as a social form and makes a distinction between open and closed games.

Comment on "Combinatorial rule explosion eliminated by a fuzzy rule configuration" [with reply

The "curse of dimensionality" is one of the key problems facing fuzzy systems theory today. Fuzzy systems are based on a set of IF-THEN rules and the structure of these fuzzy rules causes an exponential growth in the number of rules when more inputs are added, resulting in unwieldy rulebases. Many strategies have been proposed to alleviate the curse of dimensionality. Combs and Andrews (ibid., vol.6, p.1-11, 1998) attempt to reduce the growth of the fuzzy rulebase by proposing a disjunctive form for fuzzy rules. In the current paper, we comment on this approach and show that it is mathematically invalid, as illustrated by an example. Combs replies that the authors are addressing 2 different issues; whether the union and intersection rules of configuration be equivalent in fuzzy logic, and whether the latter can overcome the curse of dimensionality.

Comments on "Combinatorial rule explosion eliminated by a fuzzy rule configuration" [with reply

In the original paper (IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst., vol.6, p.1-11, 1998), Combs and Andrews proved the following logical equivalence (stated here for two antecedents p and q and one consequent r, but easily generalize to an arbitrary number of antecedents and consequents): [(p/spl and/q)/spl rArr/r]/spl hArr/[(p/spl rArr/r)V(q/spl rArr/r)]. This is a very significant result because it suggests that we can replace multi-antecedent rules with an interconnection of single antecedent rules, which eliminates the rule explosion that is associated with multi-antecedent rules. Combs and Andrews refer to the left-hand side of this equivalence as an intersection rule configuration (IRC) and to its right-hand side as a union rule configuration (URC). Their result gives rise to two distinctly different paths for the design of fuzzy logic systems; IRC, which leads to rule explosion, and URC, which does not. The authors discuss four points about the IRC/spl hArr/URC relation. The original authors reply, acknowledging some of the points and stating that they would present their results differently if starting now.

Combinatorial rule explosion eliminated by a fuzzy rule configuration

Conventional fuzzy inference methodology relates the relevant subsets of each input universal set to the subsets of the other system inputs through an intersection-rule configuration. This strategy yields an exponential growth in the number of rules as inputs are added to the system, quickly reducing performance to unacceptable levels. A novel rule configuration and matrix design are presented in this paper that do not rely on rule multiplication to insure that antecedent elements are effectively related to their consequent counterparts. This alternative formulation models the entire system problem space with a simplified structure that increases linearly as the inference engine grows, providing significant computational savings to a broad range of commercial and scientific applications.

An exploration of rule configuration effects on the ethical decision processes of advertising professionals

An exploration of rule configuration effects on the ethical decision processes of advertising professionals

An Exploration of Rule Configuration Effects on the Ethical Decision Processes of Advertising Professionals

This study explores the ethical perceptions of advertising professionals regarding two child-oriented television advertising issues: deceptive messages and host selling. Differences in ethical evaluative and decision processes are investigated for both issues, using two evaluative rules. The results indicate that variations in advertisers’ ethical judgments and ethical intentions are affected by the type of rule(s) used during the evaluative process, and by the degree to which the rules are embraced. The article concludes with recommendations for advertising management and implications for future research.

The Formal Character of Law

I feel honoured to be your guest here, and am pleased to have this opportunity to lecture on my academic passion—“The Formal Character of Law”. Law has several fundamental characteristics. My main thesis is that formality is one of these. I define a “formal” feature of law as one that is in some way independent of the substantive content of the law. For example, the definitiveness of a legal rule is a formal feature of the rule's configuration, and is independent of the substantive content of the rule. Formal configuration is one thing, and substantive content another. But as we will see, there are different ways in which a formal feature may be independent of substantive content, and there are still other, related, senses of formal.

Toward a rule-based biome model

Current projections of the response of the biosphere to global climatic change indicate as much as 50% to 90% spatial displacement of extratropical biomes. The mechanism of spatial shift could be dominated by either 1) competitive displacement of northern biomes by southern biomes, or 2) drought-induced dieback of areas susceptible to change. The current suite of global biosphere models cannot distinguish between these two processes, thus determining the need for a mechanistically based biome model. The first steps have been taken towards the development of a rule-based, mechanistic model of regional biomes at a continental scale. The computer model is based on a suite of empirically generated conceptual models of biome distribution. With a few exceptions the conceptual models are based on the regional water balance and the potential supply of water to vegetation from two different soil layers, surface for grasses and deep for woody vegetation. The seasonality of precipitation largely determines the amount and timing of recharge of each of these soil layers and thus, the potential mixture of vegetative life-forms that could be supported under a specific climate. The current configuration of rules accounts for the potential natural vegetation at about 94% of 1211 climate stations over the conterminous U.S. Increased temperatures, due to global warming, would 1) reduce the supply of soil moisture over much of the U.S. by reducing the volume of snow and increasing winter runoff, and 2) increase the potential evapotranspiration (PET). These processes combined would likely produce widespread drought-induced dieback in the nation’s biomes. The model is in an early stage of development and will require several enhancements, including explicit simulation of PET, extension to boreal and tropical biomes, a shift from steady-state to transient dynamics, and validation on other continents.

Discrete logarithms a parallel pseudorandom pattern generator analysis method

The phaseshifts between the bitstreams emitted from various stages of one-dimensional linear finitestate machines are analyzed. An operational calculus involving ashift operator is developed. The concept of discrete lograithms of binary polynomials is introduced to calculate phaseshifts. The analysis technique is applied to various examples of cellular automata and LFSRs. Phaseshift end effects are observed in cellular automata due to rule configurations. Modified LFSR generators are shown to have potentially more useful outputs than cellular automata, lower circuit complexity, and equivalent phaseshift statistics.