Innovation-systems, path-dependency and policy: The co-evolution of science, technology and innovation policy and industrial structure in a small, resource-based economy

This paper analyses the co-evolution of science, technology and innovation policy and industrial structure in a small, resource-based economy (Norway). The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, it develops an evolutionary and historically oriented approach to the study of the development of science, technology and innovation policy based that may have wide applicability. Second, if focuses on a particular type of innovation, innovation in resource-based activities, that differs in many respects from the more commonly studied “high-tech” case and which arguably be of relevance for may present day developing countries. Third, the paper advances our understanding of the roles played by institutions and politics in innovation. Previous work on national systems of innovation has often devoted little attention to these matters, possibly because much of it examines “snapshots” of various innovation systems at a specific point in time and lacks historical depth.

On Optimal Balance in B-Trees: What Does It Cost to Stay in Perfect Shape?

Any B-tree has height at least ceil[log_B(n)]. Static B-trees achieving this height are easy to build. In the dynamic case, however, standard B-tree rebalancing algorithms only maintain a height within a constant factor of this optimum. We investigate exactly how close to ceil[log_B(n)] the height of dynamic B-trees can be maintained as a function of the rebalancing cost. In this paper, we prove a lower bound on the cost of maintaining optimal height ceil[log_B(n)], which shows that this cost must increase from Omega(1/B) to Omega(n/B) rebalancing per update as n grows from one power of B to the next. We also provide an almost matching upper bound, demonstrating this lower bound to be essentially tight. We then give a variant upper bound which can maintain near-optimal height at low cost. As two special cases, we can maintain optimal height for all but a vanishing fraction of values of n using Theta(log_B(n)) amortized rebalancing cost per update and we can maintain a height of optimal plus one using O(1/B) amortized rebalancing cost per update. More generally, for any rebalancing budget, we can maintain (as n grows from one power of B to the next) optimal height essentially up to the point where the lower bound requires the budget to be exceeded, after which optimal height plus one is maintained. Finally, we prove that this balancing scheme gives B-trees with very good storage utilization

An Experimental Study of External Memory Algorithms for Connected Components

We empirically investigate algorithms for solving Connected Components in the external memory model. In particular, we study whether the randomized O(Sort(E)) algorithm by Karger, Klein, and Tarjan can be implemented to compete with practically promising and simpler algorithms having only slightly worse theoretical cost, namely Borůvka’s algorithm and the algorithm by Sibeyn and collaborators. For all algorithms, we develop and test a number of tuning options. Our experiments are executed on a large set of different graph classes including random graphs, grids, geometric graphs, and hyperbolic graphs. Among our findings are: The Sibeyn algorithm is a very strong contender due to its simplicity and due to an added degree of freedom in its internal workings when used in the Connected Components setting. With the right tunings, the Karger-Klein-Tarjan algorithm can be implemented to be competitive in many cases. Higher graph density seems to benefit Karger-Klein-Tarjan relative to Sibeyn. Borůvka’s algorithm is not competitive with the two others

The evolution of Norway’s national innovation system

This paper analyses the co-evolution of science, technology and innovation policy and industrial structure in a small, open, resource-based economy (Norway). The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, it develops an evolutionary and historically oriented approach to the study of the development of these policies that may have wide applicability. Second, it focuses on a particular type of innovation, innovation in resource-based activities, that differs in many respects from the more commonly studied case of innovation in ‘high-tech’ industries. Third, the paper advances our understanding of the roles played by institutions and politics in innovation. Previous work on national systems of innovation has devoted little attention to these matters, possibly because much of this work examines ‘snapshots’ of various innovation systems at a specific point in time and lacks historical depth

The evolution of Norway’s national innovation system

This paper analyses the co-evolution of science, technology and innovation policy and industrial structure in a small, open, resource-based economy (Norway). The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, it develops an evolutionary and historically oriented approach to the study of the development of these policies that may have wide applicability. Second, it focuses on a particular type of innovation, innovation in resource-based activities, that differs in many respects from the more commonly studied case of innovation in ‘high-tech’ industries. Third, the paper advances our understanding of the roles played by institutions and politics in innovation. Previous work on national systems of innovation has devoted little attention to these matters, possibly because much of this work examines ‘snapshots’ of various innovation systems at a specific point in time and lacks historical depth