A method for optimal search on a technology landscape

    公开(公告)号:AU5699699A

    公开(公告)日:2000-03-21

    申请号:AU5699699

    申请日:1999-08-31

    Applicant: BIOS GROUP LP

    Abstract: Technological change at the firm-level has commonly been modeled as random sampling from a fixed distribution of possibilities. Such models, however, typically ignore empirically important aspects of the firm's search process, notably the observation that the present state of the firm guides future innovation. In this paper we explicitly treat this aspect of the firm's search for technological improvements by introducing a "technology landscape" into an otherwise standard dynamic programming setting where the optimal strategy is to assign a reservation price to each possible technology. Search is modeled as movement, constrained by the cost of innovation, over the technology landscape. Simulations are presented on a stylized technology landscape while analytic results are derived using landscapes that are similar to Markov random fields. We find that early in the search for technological improvements, if the initial position is poor or average, it is optimal to search far away on the technology landscape; but as the firm succeeds in finding technological improvements it is optimal to confine search to a local region of the landscape. We obtain the result that there are diminishing returns to search without having to make the assumption that the firm's repeated draws from the search space are independent and identically distributed.

    A system and method for molecule selection using extended target shape

    公开(公告)号:AU4469700A

    公开(公告)日:2000-11-02

    申请号:AU4469700

    申请日:2000-04-19

    Applicant: BIOS GROUP LP

    Abstract: The present invention is directed to production of a molecule having a predetermined property. In accordance with one embodiment, a library of initial candidate molecules that are at least somewhat dissimilar to a chosen target molecule or "targetshape" is generated. Variants of the initial candidates are generated and screened to identify intermediate candidates from among those variants that are either more or less similar to the targetshape. Data mining techniques such as neural networks are used to extract information about the molecule structures and shapes which lead to the desired activity. Molecular data bases may be screened for candidates matching the preferred shape description or molecules matching the preferred shape description may be synthesized. The process may be iterated by generating variants of the intermediate candidates and screening these variants to identify molecules futher more or less similar to the targetshape.

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