Subjective Equilibria under Beliefs of Exogenous Uncertainty

We present a subjective equilibrium notion (called "subjective equilibrium under beliefs of exogenous uncertainty (SEBEU)" for stochastic dynamic games in which each player chooses its decisions under the (incorrect) belief that a stochastic environment process driving the system is exogenous whereas in actuality this process is a solution of closed-loop dynamics affected by each individual player. Players observe past realizations of the environment variables and their local information. At equilibrium, if players are given the full distribution of the stochastic environment process as if it were an exogenous process, they would have no incentive to unilaterally deviate from their strategies. This notion thus generalizes what is known as the price-taking equilibrium in prior literature to a stochastic and dynamic setup. We establish existence of SEBEU, study various properties and present explicit solutions. We obtain the $\epsilon$-Nash equilibrium property of SEBEU when there are many players

A comparison of three Algorithms for Tracing Nonlinear Equilibrium Paths of Structural Systems

The relative efficiencies of the Riks/Wempner, Crisfield, and normal flow solution algorithms for tracking nonlinear equilibrium paths of structural systems are compared. It is argued that the normal flow algorithm maybe both more computationally efficient and more robust compared to the other two algorithms when tracing the path through severe nonlinearities such as those associated with structural collapse. This is demonstrated qualitatively by comparing the relative behaviors of each algorithm in the vicinity of a severe nonlinearity. Quantitative results are presented for the collapse a blade stiffened panel

Structural Design using Cellular Automata

Traditional parallel methods for structural design do not scale well. This paper discusses the application of massively scalable cellular automata (CA) techniques to structural design. There are two sets of CA rules, one used to propagate stresses and strains, and one to perform design analysis. These rules can be applied serially,periodically,or concurrently, and Jacobi or Gauss- Seidel style updating can be done. These options are compared with respect to convergence,speed, and stability

Cooperative Control and Potential Games

We present a view of cooperative control using the language of learning in games. We review the game-theoretic concepts of potential and weakly acyclic games, and demonstrate how several cooperative control problems, such as consensus and dynamic sensor coverage, can be formulated in these settings. Motivated by this connection, we build upon game-theoretic concepts to better accommodate a broader class of cooperative control problems. In particular, we extend existing learning algorithms to accommodate restricted action sets caused by the limitations of agent capabilities and group based decision making. Furthermore, we also introduce a new class of games called sometimes weakly acyclic games for time-varying objective functions and action sets, and provide distributed algorithms for convergence to an equilibrium

Evaluation of e-learning web sites using fuzzy axiomatic design based approach

High quality web site has been generally recognized as a critical enabler to conduct online business. Numerous studies exist in the literature to measure the business performance in relation to web site quality. In this paper, an axiomatic design based approach for fuzzy group decision making is adopted to evaluate the quality of e-learning web sites. Another multi-criteria decision making technique, namely fuzzy TOPSIS, is applied in order to validate the outcome. The methodology proposed in this paper has the advantage of incorporating requirements and enabling reductions in the problem size, as compared to fuzzy TOPSIS. A case study focusing on Turkish e-learning websites is presented, and based on the empirical findings, managerial implications and recommendations for future research are offered

Re-mining item associations: methodology and a case study in apparel retailing

Association mining is the conventional data mining technique for analyzing market basket data and it reveals the positive and negative associations between items. While being an integral part of transaction data, pricing and time information have not been integrated into market basket analysis in earlier studies. This paper proposes a new approach to mine price, time and domain related attributes through re-mining of association mining results. The underlying factors behind positive and negative relationships can be characterized and described through this second data mining stage. The applicability of the methodology is demonstrated through the analysis of data coming from a large apparel retail chain, and its algorithmic complexity is analyzed in comparison to the existing techniques

Adverse effects of Interbank funds on bank efficiency: evidence from Turkish banking sector

This paper investigates the relationship between interbank funds and efficiencies is for the commercial banks operating in Turkey between 2001-2006. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is executed to find the efficiency scores of the banks for each year, and fixed effects panel data regression is carried out, with the efficiency scores being the response variable. It is observed that interbank funds (ratio) has negative effects on bank efficiency, while bank capitalization and loan ratio have positive, and profitability has insignificant effects. Our study serves as an illustrative evidence that interbank funds can have adverse effects in an emerging market