Policies to avert the threat of dangerous climate change focus on stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations by drastically reducing anthropogenic emissions of carbon. Such reductions require limiting the use of fossil fuels-which supply the bulk of energy to economic activity,…

The thesis comprises three essays on various aspects of the development and diffusion of pharmaceutical innovations, woven together by the idea that the production of clinical knowl- edge influences organizational design, pricing, and advertising decisions in the pharmaceutical industry -…

Integration of daylight availability in time and architectural space is a critical element in achieving optimal comfort and productivity, as well as in minimizing energy consumption. In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand of the better…

A multiobjective, multidisciplinary design optimization methodology for mathematically modeling the distributed satellite system (DSS) conceptual design problem as an optimization problem has been developed to advance the state-of-the-art in complex distributed satellite network design. An increasing number of space missions…

by Roberta M. Braum., Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1999., Includes bibliographical references (p. 57).

by Glenn D. Bartkowski., Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2001., Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69).

Chapter one is titled "Social Capital and Group Banking." Lending to the poor is costly due to high screening, monitoring, and enforcement costs. Group lending advocates believe individuals are able to select creditworthy peers, monitor the use of loan proceeds,…

Flow Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) is the most prevalent material degradation mechanism for low carbon steel in steam-water flow systems. The band of uncertainty in predictions of wear rate due to FAC spans one to two orders of magnitude. Such a…

We examine a knowledge representation architecture to support context interchange
mediation. For autonomous receivers and sources sharing a common subject domain,
the mediator's reasoning engine can devise query plans integrating multiple sources and
resolving semantic heterogeneity. Receiver…

This paper presents a knowledge-based approach for capturing data and rationale, so
that the experience and insights gained while pursuing a major project or endeavor can
be utilized when pursuing future endeavors of a similar nature. The proposed