Research Letters in the Information and Mathematical Sciences
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Research Letters welcomes papers from staff and graduate students at Massey University in the areas of: Computer Science, Information Science, Mathematics, Statistics and the Physical and Engineering Sciences. Research letters is a preprint series that accepts articles of completed research work, technical reports, or preliminary results from ongoing research. After editing, articles are published online and can be referenced, or handed out at conferences.
Copyright remains with the authors and the articles can be used as preprints to academic journal publications or handed out at conferences.
Editors Dr Elena Calude Dr Napoleon Reyes The guidelines for writing a manuscript can be accessed here.
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- ItemThe disjunctivities of ω-languages(Massey University, 2000) Yeh, Yow TzongAn ω-language over a finite alphabet X is a set of infinite sequences of letters of X. Consider congruences IL and Pω, L on X* and a congruence OL on Xω introduced by an ω-language L. IL, Pω, L, and OL are called the infinitary syntactic-congruence, the principal congruence and the ω-syntactic congruence of L, respectively. If IL (Pω, L, OL) is the equality then L is called an I-disjunctive (P-disjunctive, O-disjunctive, respectively) ω- language. Properties concerning such ω-languages are explored and relations between these ω-languages are also studied.
- ItemNeural nets - their use and abuse for small data sets(Massey University, 2000) Meyer, DennyNeural nets can be used for non-linear classification and regression models. They have a big advantage over conventional statistical tools in that it is not necessary to assume any mathematical form for the functional relationship between the variables. However, they also have a few associated problems chief of which are probably the risk of over-parametrization in the absence of P-values, the lack of appropriate diagnostic tools and the difficulties associated with model interpretation. The first of these problems is particularly important in the case of small data sets. These problems are investigated in the context of real market research data involving non-linear regression and discriminant analysis. In all cases we compare the results of the non-linear neural net models with those of conventional linear statistical methods. Our conclusion is that the theory and software for neural networks has some way to go before the above problems will be solved.
- ItemA variation equation for the wave forcing of floating thin plates(Massey University, 2000) Meylan, Michael H.A variational equation is derived for a floating thin plate subject to wave forcing. This variational equation is derived from the thin plate equations of motion by including the forcing due to the wave through the integral equation derived using the free surface Green’s function. This equation combines the optimum method forsolving the motion of a thin plate (the variational equation) with the optimum method for solving the wave forcing of a floating body (the Green’s function method). Solutions of the variational equation are presented for some simple thin plate geometries using polynomial basis functions. The variational equation is extended to the case of plates of variable properties and to multiple plates and example solutions are presented.
- ItemDecision making in the evaluation, selection and implementation of ERP systems(Massey University, 2000) Shakir, MahaThe evaluation, selection and implementation (ESI) of ERP systems involve making multiple decisions during the lifecycle of the ERP project. This study tries to map six models of decision-making to the ERP project lifecycle, which is conceptualized using case study data for a health service provider organization in New Zealand. ERP projects are deemed strategic projects for which success or failure has a great impact on the organization. Gaining an understanding of the decision-making process during the life of the project helps in better preparations and planning before and during each phase. Findings suggest that some decision-making models apply to the stages of evaluation, selection and implementation while others are missing. The three models that apply are the administrative, adaptive and political models. This study aids practitioners in better planning and implementation of ERP projects through better understanding the decision-making process. A benefit to academics is in providing new insights for ERP systems implementation, an area where little research is conducted.
- ItemBuilding knowledge-based economies: research projects in knowledge management and knowledge transfer(Massey University, 2000) Gibson, Virginia R.Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are viewed as the growth engines of the new knowledgebased economy. This new economic growth model differs from the old in significant ways, many of which are related to the knowledge base that will be required by the SMEs. Based upon prior research a set of factors important to the success of SMEs in a knowledge-based economy is described. Focusing on those factors related to the knowledge base, the paper concludes with a set of research questions and brief descriptions of three research projects on knowledge management and knowledge transfer.
- ItemThe Lean Cuisine+ notation revised(Massey University, 2000) Scogings, ChrisThe Lean Cuisine+ notation was developed by Chris Phillips (1995) as an executable semi-formal graphical notation for describing the underlying behaviour of event-based direct manipulation interfaces. Lean Cuisine+ builds on the original Lean Cuisine notation introduced in Apperley & Spence (1989). During the construction of a CASE tool for the notation, as well as further research into the use of the Lean Cuisine+ notation, various changes have been made and the revised notation is presented here. The format and much of the content of this document follows that of Appendix C of Phillips (1993) in order to easily distinguish between the earlier and later versions of the notation.
- ItemCritical success factors for developing an e-business strategy(Massey University, 2000) Viehland, Dennis W.e-Business is the new, leading edge of electronic commerce. Organizations are using e-business applications such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and e-procurement to transform traditional businesses into e-businesses. As organizations pursue an e-business strategy what are the five or six most important factors to consider? What are the opportunities? What are the threats? Answering these questions is the primary purpose of this paper. First, e-business is defined and placed in an historical context with its evolution through the electronic commerce concept. Then six critical success factors for developing e-business strategy are discussed and mini-case studies are used to illustrate their application in real businesses.
- ItemIntracellular calcium oscillations(Massey University, 2000) Coxhead, Peter D.
- ItemOscillations and traveling waves of calcium: a simplified model(Massey University, 2000) Singer, BenjaminWe construct a heuristic model of calcium oscillations in pancreatic acinar cells. The model is based on the two-state model of Sneyd et al. (Sneyd, J., A. LeBeau and D. Yule, 2000, Traveling waves of calcium in pancreatic acinar cells: model construction and bifurcation analysis, Physica D, in press) and is similar in spirit to the FitzHugh reduction of the Hodgkin-Huxley equations. The simpli¯ed model successfully reproduces the oscillatory behavior and wave behaviour of the more complex model. In particular, the simpli¯ed model provides an example of a simple, physiologically relevant model that has a T-point and an associated spiral branch of homoclinic orbits.
- ItemThe development of elliptic functions according to Ramanujan and Venkatachaliengar(Massey University, 2000) Cooper, ShaunThese notes are based on the monograph Development of Elliptic Functions according to Ramanujan by K. Venkatachaliengar [2]. The goal of the notes is to show how some of the main properties of Jacobian and Weierstrass elliptic functions can be developed in an elementary way from the 1Ã1 function. All of the ideas presented in these notes can be found in Venkatachaliengar's book. The only thing I have done is to rearrange the order in which the material is presented. I am entirely responsible for any errors in these notes, and would be very grateful to be informed about them, whether they be large or small.
- ItemBuilding an inexpensive parallel computer(Massey University, 2000) Grosz, Lutz; Barczak, Andre
- ItemAutomatic variance control and variance estimation loops(Massey University, 2000) Moir, T.J.A closed loop servo approach is applied to the problem of controlling and estimating variance in nonstationary signals. The new circuit closely resembles but is not the same as, automatic gain control (AGC) which is common in radio and other circuits. The closed loop nature of the solution to this problem makes this approach highly accurate and can be used recursively in real time.
- ItemC/C++ implementation of functions of the class LT0(Massey University, 2000) Calude, Elena; Kay, Peter; Luo, WeiweiThis report describes an on-going implementation, in C/C++, of the functions and schemes of the formal system LT0, presented in the paper Caporaso, Pani and Covino [1]. The final aim is to be able to effectively construct a "small manageable" Exponential Diophantine Equation which represents (in the sense of Chaitin [2]) an algorithmical random binary sequence.
- ItemA renewal cluster model for the inter-arrival times of rainfall events(Massey University, 2000) Cowpertwait, Paul S.P.A statistical model, based on a renewal cluster point process, is proposed and used to infer the distributional properties of dry periods in a continuous-time record. The model incorporates a mixed probability distribution in which inter-arrival times are classified into two distinct types, representing cyclonic and anticyclonic weather. This results in rainfall events being clustered in time, and enables objective probabilistic statements to be made about storm properties, e.g. the expected number of events in a storm cluster. The model is fitted to data taken from a gauge near Wellington, New Zealand, by maximising the likelihood function with respect to the parameters. The Akaike Information Criteria is used to select the best fitting distributions from a range of candidates. The log-Normal distribution is found to provide the best fit to the times between successive storm clusters, whilst the Weibull distribution is found to provide the best fit to the times between successive events in the same storm cluster. Harmonic curves are used to provide a parsimonious parameterisation, allowing for the seasonal variation in precipitation. Under the fitted model, the interval series is transformed into a residual series, which is assessed to determine overall goodness-of-fit.
- ItemA survey of generalized inverses and their use in stochastic modelling(Massey University, 2000) Hunter, Jeffrey J.In many stochastic models, in particular Markov chains in discrete or continuous time and Markov renewal processes, a Markov chain is present either directly or indirectly through some form of embedding. The analysis of many problems of interest associated with these models, eg. stationary distributions, moments of first passage time distributions and moments of occupation time random variables, often concerns the solution of a system of linear equations involving I – P, where P is the transition matrix of a finite, irreducible, discrete time Markov chain. Generalized inverses play an important role in the solution of such singular sets of equations. In this paper we survey the application of generalized inverses to the aforementioned problems. The presentation will include results concerning the analysis of perturbed systems and the characterization of types of generalized inverses associated with Markovian kernels.
- ItemDiscrete-time variance tracking with application to speech processing(Massey University, 2001) Moir, T.J.Two new discrete-time algorithms are presented for tracking variance and reciprocal variance. The closed loop nature of the solutions to these problems makes this approach highly accurate and can be used recursively in real time. Since the Least-Mean Squares (LMS) method of parameter estimation requires an estimate of variance to compute the step size, this technique is well suited to applications such as speech processing and adaptive filtering.
- ItemAn ES process framework for understanding the strategic decision making process of ES implementations(Massey University, 2001) Shakir, MahaEnterprise systems (ES) implementations are regarded costly, time and resource consuming and have a great impact on the organization in terms of the risks they involve and the opportunities they provide. The steering committee (SC) represents the group of individuals who is responsible for making strategic decisions throughout the ES implementation lifecycle. It is evident from recent studies that there is a relationship between the decision making process and ES implementation success. One of the key elements that contribute to the success of ES implementations is a quick decision making process (Brown and Vessey, 1999; Gupta, 2000; Parr, et al., 1999). This study addresses the strategic decision-making process by SC through its focus on four research questions (1) How can the strategic decision-making process in the implementation of ES be better understood, during each phase of the ES implementation lifecycle? (2) What is the process by which the SC makes strategic decisions? (3) How are fast decisions made? and (4) How does decision speed link to the success of ES implementation? Process models of ES implementation will provide a framework to investigate the strategic decision making process during each phases of the ES implementation lifecycle. Patterns in the decision making process will be explored using strategic choice models. This study develops a research model that focuses on the decision making process by steering committee to explore research questions. It concludes with identifying contributions to both IS research and business practitioners.
- ItemAnalysis of logistic growth models(Massey University, 2001) Tsoularis, A.A variety of growth curves have been developed to model both unpredated, intraspecific population dynamics and more general biological growth. Most successful predictive models are shown to be based on extended forms of the classical Verhulst logistic growth equation. We further review and compare several such models and calculate and investigate properties of interest for these. We also identify and detail several previously unreported associated limitations and restrictions. A generalized form of the logistic growth curve is introduced which is shown incorporate these models as special cases. The reported limitations of the generic growth model are shown to be addressed by this new model and similarities between this and the extended growth curves are identified. Several of its properties are also presented. We furthermore show that additional growth characteristics are accommodated by this new model, enabling previously unsupported, untypical population dynamics to be modelled by judicious choice of model parameter values alone.
- ItemTrifee objects in e-varieties of locally e-solid semigroups(Massey University, 2001) Hall, T.E.; Yeh, Y.T.We construct a modification of Churchill and Trotter’s trifree objects in e-varieties of locally E-solid semigroups, which have the property, for e-varieties of locally inverse semigroups and for e-varieties of Esolid semigroups, of being isomorphic to the bifree objects.
- ItemA continuous stochastic disaggregation model of rainfall for peak flow simulation in urban hydrologic systems(Massey University, 2001) Cowpertwait, Paul S.P.In the paper by Durrans et al. (1999), an algorithm proposed by Ormsbee (1989) is recommended for the stochastic disaggregation of hourly rainfall in continuous flow simulation studies of urban hydrologic systems. However, Durrans et al. found that the method produced a “severe negative bias” in the maximum rainfall intensity of the disaggregated series, so that peak flows in urban systems are likely to be under-estimated by the model. Here we develop a method for disaggregating hourly data to 5min series, which addresses the problem of negative bias. A regression equation is derived for the ratio of the maximum 5min depth to the total depth in the hour. Thus, for any given hourly depth this ratio can be simulated and multiplied by the hourly depth to obtain a 5min maximum. The temporal location of the maximum within the hour can be randomly placed using an appropriate distribution function, e.g. based on a geometrical construction as developed by Ormsbee (1989). The model is developed and tested using 5min rainfall data taken from Lund (1923-39) and Torsgatan (1984-93), Sweden. The results support the use of the model in urban drainage applications.