Neurons and networks in the cerebral cortex must operate reliably despite multiple sources of noise. To evaluate the impact of both input and output noise, we determine the robustness of single-neuron stimulus selective responses, as well as the robustness of attractor states of networks of neurons performing memory tasks. We find that robustness to output noise requires synaptic connections to...

Business groups are a common type of enterprise in late-developing countries, yet their existence appears to be at odds with extant theory in strategic management. Drawing on Schumpeter, we suggest that entrepreneurs in late development build a business group by engaging in a distinct type of innovation. Instead of creating new products they leverage local and foreign contacts to combine foreig...

MIMO is a model that tries to integrate some of the main current object models (SQL3, ODMG-93, UML), covering all the database development phases. It is defined in the framework of the ENEASIBD project, that is being developed by the “Grupo de Bases de Datos Avanzadas ” at “Universidad Carlos III” (Madrid, Spain). An objective of ENEAYBD is to allow generation of ODMG-93 andor SQL3 schemata >om...

This study investigates knowledge contributors’ satisfaction with a distinct type of virtual communities (i.e., transactional virtual communities, TVCs), where knowledge sharing is guided mainly under the principle of economic exchange, and cost–benefit tradeoff is the primary motive for knowledge sharing. Drawing upon the goal attainment theory, we examine the effects of two types of benefits ...

Rainfall observations in the Sahel region of West Africa show significant variability at the timescale of decades. Here we explore the mechanisms of this lowfrequency variability using a coupled biosphere-atmosphere model which includes explicit representation of vegetation dynamics. By forcing the model with the observed sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical Atlantic Ocean during the p...

Embedded in a larger qualitative research framework on organizational effectiveness, this paper explores the role of small treaty secretariats—conceptualised as a distinct type of intergovernmental organizations—in international politics. Although the relevance of bureaucratic actors in international negotiations and regime implementation has been acknowledged by a number of scholars, IR resear...

In this work, we present a semantic query optimization technique to improve the efficiency of the evaluation of a subset of SQL:1999 recursive queries. Using datalog notation, we can state our main contribution as an algorithm that builds a program P ′ equivalent to a given program P , when both are applied over a database d satisfying a set of functional dependencies. The input program P is a ...