Abstract:
Technological change at the film-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. We explicitly treat this aspect of the firm's search for technological improvements by introducing a "technology landscape" (Fig. 6) 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 (Fig. 6) are presented on a stylized technology landscape while analytic results are derived using landscapes that are similar to Markov random fields.
Abstract:
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for predicting future demand for goods and/or services ( 100). More specifically, the invention provides a system and method for predicting future demand ( 106) for goods and/or services based on information obtained from offering for sale options for the goods and/or services at different levels of product, regional and temporal hierarchies (104).
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.