The A theory of user expectation of system interaction is introduced in the context of User Adapted Interfaces. The usability of an intelligent email client that learns to filter spam emails is tested under three variants of adaptation: no user modeling, user modeling with fixed (optimal) spam cut-offs, and user modeling with user adjustable spam cut-offs. The results supported our hypothesis t...

We investigate the phenomenon of non-recursive trade-offs between descriptional systems in an abstract fashion. We aim at categorizing non-recursive trade-offs by bounds on their growth rate, and show how to deduce such bounds in general. We also identify criteria which, in the spirit of abstract language theory, allow us to deduce nonrecursive tradeoffs from effective closure properties of lan...

Recent empirical evidence suggest that tradeoff shapes can evolve, challenging the classica image of their high entrenchment. Here we model the evolution of the physiological mechanism that controls the allocation of resources to two traits, by mutating the expression and the conformation of its constitutive hormones and receptors. We show that trade-off shapes do indeed evolve in this model th...

In a risk-neutral stochastic environment where bankruptcy is possible, it is well-established that coinsurance incentives may lead creditors to prefer mergers over spin-offs, while shareholders may prefer spin-offs. This paper shows that there are two distinct reasons for this. One is due to the concavity of the debt payoff function in the face value of the debt, while the other arises from imp...

The analysis of trade-offs between competitive priorities is one of the core issues in manufacturing strategy research. However, past studies focused mainly on empirical validation of the trade-off concept. There has been limited research on practical aspects of trade-off management, especially methods for trade-off improvement and the incorporation of trade-off analysis into manufacturing stra...

Pesticide exposure may contribute to cancer by causing genetic mutations during B cell development. On page 1473, Agopian et al. show that pesticides also increase the rate of precancerous B cell proliferation. Follicular lymphoma is a B cell cancer characterized by a translocation event that occurs as activated B cells undergo AID-driven diversification of their antibody genes in germinal cent...

In the gossiping problem, each node of a network starts with a unique piece of information and must acquire the information of all the other nodes. This is done using two-way communications between pairs of nodes. In this paper, we consider gossiping in n-node networks with n odd, where we use a linear cost model, in which the cost of communication is proportional to the amount of information t...

Biological robustness is a principle that may shed light on system-level characteristics of biological systems. One intriguing aspect of the concept of biological robustness is the possible existence of intrinsic trade-offs among robustness, fragility, performance, and so on. At the same time, whether such trade-offs hold regardless of the situation or hold only under specific conditions warran...

A broad variety of implementation considerations become important when implementing software for embedded signal processing applications. These include complex trade-offs such as those involving code size, data buffering requirements, performance, and power consumption. This presentation motivates the use of high-level, dataflow-based programming models for automated synthesis of DSP software; ...

Different structures may compete during development for a shared and limited pool of resources to sustain growth and differentiation. The resulting resource allocation trade-offs have the potential to alter both ontogenetic outcomes and evolutionary trajectories. However, little is known about the evolutionary causes and consequences of resource allocation trade-offs in natural populations. Her...