Journal articles on the topic 'Constellation graphs'

We propose the construction of signal space codes over the quaternion orders from a graph associated with the arithmetic Fuchsian group Γ8. This Fuchsian group consists of the edge-pairing isometries of the regular hyperbolic polygon (fundamental region) P8, which tessellates the hyperbolic plane 𝔻2. Knowing the generators of the quaternion orders which realize the edge pairings of the polygon, the signal points of the signal constellation (geometrically uniform code) derived from the graph associated with the quotient ring of the quaternion order are determined.

Communication networks in space systems involving the use of satellite constellations are DTN networks (Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networks). The establishment of communication channels in space communication networks has certain specifics: communication channels can be planned. In this regard, the CGR approach (Contact Graph Routing) is considered as the most promising solution to the problem of data routing. At the basis of this approach, taking into account this specificity, the calculation of the contact plan is considered. On the basis of this plan in the network nodes contact graphs are calculated, which are used to search the shortest data transmission routes. The paper proposes two interrelated solutions as a modification of this approach: the route search based on the contact plan, i.e. without calculation and use of the contact graph, and an adaptive method of finding the set of shortest routes required for routing. The essence of the first solution is as follows. In the standard CGR approach, the graph vertices correspond to the planned contacts between the network nodes, and the edges correspond to the data storage processes in the network nodes. In contrast, in the proposed approach, the vertices of the graph correspond to the nodes of the network, and the edges of the graph and their weight are determined dynamically, in the process of finding the shortest routes. The second solution is based on the concept of the planning front, which means a list of the closest contacts in time. The required routes are divided into a certain number of pools. Each pool combines the routes that use the specified contact from the planning front. The planning front is updated in two cases. If the network topology changes, the completed or not established contacts are replaced by subsequent ones with the same network nodes that are closest in time. If message traffic grows, a certain extension of the planning front and the use of additional route pools are performed. The article concludes with a description and justification of the expected advantages of the proposed approach.

Using analytical method, based on the principle of effectively using satellite coverage area, constrained by satellite load operating height, the paper designed the regional coverage resource satellite constellation and presented all the design process. After that, the satellite orbit and constellation’s orbit parameters were obtained. Based on that, the resource satellite constellation graph was generated by using STK.

In this study, we propose a method named decomposition of the superposed constellation (DCSC) to design sparse code multiple access (SCMA) codebooks for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. We prove that the power of the user symbols (USs) is accurately determined by the power of the superposed constellation (SC). Thus, we select quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations as the SC and decompose the SC into several groups of USs with power diversity. The minimum Euclidean distance (MED) between superposed symbols (SS-MED) in the receiver is determined by the selected QAM and MED between the multi-dimensional codewords (CW-MED) is optimized by matching the symbols on different dimensions. We propose a simplified DCSC (S-DCSC) by modifying the factor graph and avoiding the transmission of USs with low power, which greatly reduces the complexity of the message passing algorithm (MPA). The simulations show that the SS-MEDs of DCSC and S-DCSC are larger than those in previous papers and the BER performance of the proposed codebooks is better than others.

The objects of the research are networks and information interactions in low-orbit satellite constellations performing tasks of remote sensing of the Earth. Research of network creation questions in this case is a necessary condition as opportunities and efficiency of information interaction directly depend on opportunities of a network. DTN (Delay-and-Disruption Tolerant Networking) technology is a basis of the network creation and CGR (Contact Graph Routing) approach is a basis of message routing. DTN technology and CGR approach are originally developed and used to provide communication with spacecraft located in a deep space. Therefore, the article discusses issues and problems arising in the context of their use in relation to low-orbit satellite constellations. The purpose of the information interaction study is development of effective interaction schemes (protocols). In the paper, the schemes of information interaction that can be used by a group of satellites in case of autonomous planning are considered. Along with autonomous planning, the paper also considers information interaction that can be used to implement network control of a satellite constellation in the case of ground planning. The effectiveness of the information interaction schemes are assessed by efficiency of orders’ execution. Measurement of efficiency is estimated via simulation of the communication network and the corresponding scheme of information interaction.

The ontology construction methodology frameworks used so far are limited in certain domains lack of mature knowledge hierarchy and require the reference alignments to be specified manually. This paper presents a constellation graph based method to build ontologies including two critical steps: transform the property of the concepts abstracted into the corresponding data; draw a constellation graph based on the data and the classes in the same constellation part constitute a new kind of classes. This approach can facilitate ontology construction process with little human efforts and be more time-saving. A practical example is used to illustrate the performance of this approach.

In the constellations approach to probabilistic argumentation, there is a probability distribution over the subgraphs of an argument graph, and this can be used to represent the uncertainty in the structure of the argument graph. In this paper, we consider how we can construct this probability distribution from data. We provide a language for data based on perspectives (opinions) on the structure of the graph, and we introduce a framework (based on general properties and some specific proposals) for aggregating these perspectives, and as a result obtaining a probability distribution that best reflects these perspectives. This can be used in applications such as summarizing collections of online reviews and combining conflicting reports.

Existing Internet protocols assume persistent end-to-end connectivity, which cannot be guaranteed in disruptive and high-latency space environments. To operate over these challenging networks, a store-carry-and-forward communication architecture called Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) has been proposed. This work provides the first examination of the performance and robustness of Contact Graph Routing (CGR) algorithm, the state-of-the-art routing scheme for space-based DTNs. To this end, after a thorough description of CGR, two appealing satellite constellations are proposed and evaluated by means of simulations. Indeed, the DtnSim simulator is introduced as another relevant contribution of this work. Results enabled the authors to identify existing CGR weaknesses and enhancement opportunities.

In this paper, it was discussed the Rader chart, trigonometric polynomial graph and the constellation graph which can be programmed and realized by MATLAB SOFEWARE and got it applied in the research of Ceramic Raw Materials classification used the replacing theory of same type kaolin to reduce the cost of raw materials and reduce the cost of transport. To improve the economic benefits of the production of ceramic enterprises, and the research results will be widely applied in industrial production for the purpose of guiding ceramic.

A simple graph-theory-based model is put forward, by means of which it is possible to express the energy difference between geometrically non-equivalent forms of a conjugated polyene. This is achieved by modifying the adjacency matrix of the molecular graph, and including into it information on cis/trans constellations. The total ?-electron energy thus calculated is in excellent agreement with the enthalpies of the underlying isomers and conformers.

We perform the asymptotic enumeration of two classes of rooted maps on orientable surfaces:m-hypermaps andm-constellations. Form= 2 they correspond respectively to maps with even face degrees and bipartite maps. We obtain explicit asymptotic formulas for the number of such maps with any finite set of allowed face degrees.Our proofs combine a bijective approach, generating series techniques related to lattice walks, and elementary algebraic graph theory.A special case of our results implies former conjectures of Z. Gao.

We present a system for the automatic interpretation of cluttered scenes containing multiple partly occluded objects in front of unknown, complex backgrounds. The system is based on an extended elastic graph matching algorithm that allows the explicit modeling of partial occlusions. Our approach extends an earlier system in two ways. First, we use elastic graph matching in stereo image pairs to increase matching robustness and disambiguate occlusion relations. Second, we use richer feature descriptions in the object models by integrating shape and texture with color features. We demonstrate that the combination of both extensions substantially increases recognition performance. The system learns about new objects in a simple one-shot learning approach. Despite the lack of statistical information in the object models and the lack of an explicit background model, our system performs surprisingly well for this very difficult task. Our results underscore the advantages of view-based feature constellation representations for difficult object recognition problems.

Dans ses Papiers perdus, site Web qui se dédouble en parcours universitaire d’un côté, et créatif de l’autre, Régine Robin ne cherche pas à résoudre le problème du non-lieu, mais l’explore, l’exploite et en multiplie les possibilités. Organisés en cinq parties, les 106 fragments varient en longueur, et leur contenu est géré par des contraintes énoncées sur la page d’accueil de la section des textes de création. Malgré cette apparence d’ordre, l’auteure exprime le voeu que le texte soit reconstitué par le lecteur à sa guise, sans suivre un parcours prédéterminé. Afin d’aborder ces textes, nous ferons appel à la cartographie postmoderne, façon de décrire l’espace autour d’une manifestation du soi et de tracer de nouveaux parcours à travers les paysages postmodernes (Jones, 2007), ainsi qu’aux constellations sémantiques qui tracent les réseaux de sens par les graphes Association produits par le logiciel Hyperbase.

Rotaviruses (RVs) are a major etiological agent of acute viral gastroenteritis in humans and young animals, with rotavirus B (RVB) often detected in suckling and weaned pigs. Group A rotavirus classification is currently based on the two outer capsid proteins, VP7 and VP4, and the middle layer protein, VP6. Using RVB strains generated in this study and reference sequences from GenBank, pairwise identity frequency graphs and phylogenetic trees were constructed for the eleven gene segments of RVB to estimate the nucleotide identity cutoff values for different genotypes and determine the genotype diversity per gene segment. Phylogenetic analysis of VP7, VP4, VP6, VP1–VP3, and NSP1–NSP5 identified 26G, 5P, 13I, 5R, 5C, 5M, 8A, 10N, 6T, 4E, and 7H genotypes, respectively. The analysis supports the previously proposed cutoff values for the VP7, VP6, NSP1, and NSP3 gene segments (80%, 81%, 76% and 78%, respectively) and suggests new cutoff values for the VP4, VP1, VP2, VP3, NSP2, NSP4, and NSP5 (80%, 78%, 79%, 77% 83%, 76%, and 79%, respectively). Reassortment events were detected between the porcine RVB strains from our study. This research describes the genome constellations for the complete genome of Group B rotaviruses in different host species.

The authors face the problem of designing good LDPC codes for applications requiring variable, that is adaptive, rates. More precisely, the object of the paper is twofold. On one hand, we propose a deterministic (not random) procedureto construct good LDPC codes without constraints on the code dimension and rate. The method is based on the analysis and optimization of the local cycles length in the Tanner graph and gives the designer the chance to control complexity of the designed codes. On the other hand, we present a novel puncturing strategy which acts directly on the parity check matrix of the code, starting from the lowest rate needed, in order to allow the design of higher rate codes avoiding additional complexity of the co/decoding hardware. The efficiency of the proposed solution is tested through a number of numerical simulations. In particular, the puncturing strategy is applied for designing codes with rate variable between 0.715 and 0.906. The designed codes are used in conjunction with M-QAM constellations through a pragmatic approach that, however, yields very promising results.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is defined as constellation of the prolonged fatigue and several somatic symptoms, in the absence of organic or severe psychiatric disease. However, this is an operational definition and conclusive biomedical explanation remains elusive. Similarities between the signs and symptoms of CFS and adrenal insufficiency prompted the research of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) derangement in the pathogenesis of the CFS. Early studies showed mild glucocorticoid deficiency, probably of central origin that was compensated by enhanced adrenal sensitivity to ACTH. Further studies showed reduced ACTH response to vasopressin infusion. The response to CRH was either blunted or unchanged. Cortisol response to insulin induced hypoglycaemia was same as in the control subjects while ACTH response was reported to be same or enhanced. However, results of direct stimulation of the adrenal cortex using ACTH were conflicting. Cortisol and DHEA responses were found to be the same or reduced compared to control subjects. Scott et all found that maximal cortisol increment from baseline is significantly lower in CFS subjects. The same group also found small adrenal glands in some CFS subjects. These varied and inconsistent results could be explained by the heterogeneous study population due to multifactorial causes of the disease and by methodological differences. The aim of our study was to assess cortisol response to low dose (1 ?g) ACTH using previously validated methodology. We compared cortisol response in the CFS subjects with the response in control and in subjects with suppressed HPA axis due to prolonged corticosteroid use. Cortisol responses were analyzed in three subject groups: control (C) secondary adrenal insufficiency (AI), and in CFS. The C group consisted of 39 subjects, AI group of 22, and CFS group of nine subjects. Subject data are presented in table 1. Low dose ACTH test was started at 0800 h with the iv injection of 1 ?g ACTH (Galenika, Belgrade, Serbia). Blood samples for cortisol determination were taken from the iv cannula at 0,15, 30, and 60 min. Data are presented as mean standard error (SE). Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA with the Games-Howell post-hoc test to determine group differences. ACTH dose per kg or per square meter of body surface was not different between the groups. Baseline cortisol was not different between the groups. However, cortisol concentrations after 15 and 30 minutes were significantly higher in the C group than in the AI group. Cortisol concentration in the CFS group was not significantly different from any other group (Graph 1). Cortisol increment at 15 and 30 minutes from basal value was significantly higher in C group than in other two groups. However there was no significant difference in cortisol increment between the AI and CFS groups at any time of the test. On the contrary, maximal cortisol increment was not different between CFS and other two groups, although it was significantly higher in C group than in the AI group. Maximal cortisol response to the ACTH stimulation and area under the cortisol response curve was significantly larger in C group compared to AI group, but there was no difference between CFS and other two groups. Several previous studies assessed cortisol response to ACTH stimulation. Hudson and Cleare analysed cortisol response to 1 ?g ACTH in CFS and control subjects.They compared maximum cortisol attained during the test, maximum cortisol increment, and area under the cortisol response curve.There was no difference between the groups in any of the analysed parameters. However, authors commented that responses were generally low. On the contrary Scott et all found that cortisol increment at 30 min is significantly lower in the CFS than in the control group. Taking into account our data it seems that the differences found in previous studies papers are caused by the methodological differences. We have shown that cortisol increment at 15 and 30 min is significantly lower in CFS group than in C group. Nevertheless, maximum cortisol attained during the test, maximum cortisol increment, and area under the cortisol response curve were not different between the C and CFS groups. This is in agreement with our previous findings that cortisol increment at 15 minutes has the best diagnostic value of all parameters obtained during of low dose ACTH test. However, there was no difference between CFS and AI group in any of the parameters, although AI group had significantly lower cortisol concentrations at 15 and 30 minutes, maximal cortisol response, area under the cortisol curve, maximal cortisol increment, and maximal cortisol change velocity than C group. Consequently reduced adrenal responsiveness to ACTH exists in CFS. In conclusion, we find that regarding the adrenal response to ACTH stimulation CFS subjects present heterogeneous group. In some subjects cortisol response is preserved, while in the others it is similar to one found in secondary adrenal insufficiency.

AbstractTo guide software development, the estimation of the impact of decision making on the development process can be helpful in planning. For this estimation, often prediction models are used which can be learned from project data. In this paper, an approach for the usage of agent-based simulation for the prediction of software evolution trends is presented. The specialty of the proposed approach lies in the automated parameter estimation for the instantiation of project-specific simulation models. We want to assess how well a baseline model using average (commit) behavior of the agents (i.e., the developers) performs compared to models where different amount of project-specific data is fed into the simulation model. The approach involves the interplay between the mining framework and simulation framework. Parameters to be estimated include, e.g., file change probabilities of developers and the team constellation reflecting different developer roles. The structural evolution of software projects is observed using change coupling graphs based on common file changes. For the validation of simulation results, we compare empirical with simulated results. Our results showed that an average simulation model can mimic general project growth trends like the number of commits and files well and thus, can help project managers in, e.g., controlling the onboarding of developers. Besides, the simulated co-change evolution could be improved significantly using project-specific data.

Traditional constellation graphical method maps a multidimensional data into a 2D graph. In this paper, the drawback of the traditional semi-circular constellation graph is considered and a quadrant circular constellation graph is proposed to overcome the drawback. Moreover, a new materials selection MADM (multi-attribute decision making) method is proposed based on the quadrant circular constellation graph. This method is applied to select the best magnesium alloy material for automotive wheels. The numerical and graphical results show that AZ91 is the optimal material among the alternative materials such as AZ91, AM60, AM50, AZ31, ZE41, EZ33, ZE63 and ZC63. The result is compared with the results from the previous MADM methods from the viewpoint of Spearman’s rank correlation and deviation. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis to attribute weights is performed to test the robustness of the proposed method. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to the previous MADM methods. The proposed method is not only quantitative but also intuitive method. It could be widely used to materials selection problems in engineering practice.

Bandwidth is very important in communication system, and it is a limited resource. In order to save the limited bandwidth resource, high order M-ary modulation is widely employed in modern communication and broadcasting systems. In Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), fading environment lead to a loss of orthogonality between the subcarriers. In this paper, we present the performance analysis of circular 8-Quadrature Ampilutude Modulation (QAM) constellation for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. We also combine the system with Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) equalizer to mitigate the effect of Inter Symbol Interference (ISI). Then, all of this system is implemented practically using Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP). The performance of circular 8-QAM and MMSE equalizer is evaluated by comparing with other 8-QAM modulation models such as circular-Zero Forcing (ZF), star-ZF, Square-ZF, Star-MMSE, and Square-MMSE. The performance of circular 8-QAM with MMSE equalizer is better than the other combinations. Bit Error Rate (BER) graph shows that the performance of circular-MMSE is better than star-MMSE. The performance improvement using circular-MMSE is about 1.6%. The performance will decrease when the distance is increased. The performance of this system is greatly affected by the distance between transmitter and receiver.

Economics of Cute There are many ways to study cute: for example, neuro-biology (cute as adaptation); anthropology (cute in culture); political economy (cute industries, how cute exploits consumers); cultural studies (social construction of cute); media theory and politics (representation and identity of cute), and so on. What about economics? At first sight, this might point to a money-capitalism nexus (“the cute economy”), but I want to argue here that the economics of cute actually works through choice interacting with fixed costs and what economists call ”the substitution effect”. Cute, in conjunction with the Internet, affects the trade-offs involved in choices people make. Let me put that more starkly: cute shapes the economy. This can be illustrated with internet animals, which at the time of writing means Grumpy Cat. I want to explain how that mechanism works – but to do so I will need some abstraction. This is not difficult – a simple application of a well-known economics model, namely the Allen-Alchian theorem, or the “third law of demand”. But I am going to take some liberties in order to represent that model clearly in this short paper. Specifically, I will model just two extremes of quality (“opera” and “cat videos”) to represent end-points of a spectrum. I will also assume that the entire effect of the internet is to lower the cost of cat videos. Now obviously these are just simplifying assumptions “for the purpose of the model”. And the purpose of the model is to illuminate a further aspect of how we might understand cute, by using an economic model of choice and its consequences. This is a standard technique in economics, but not so in cultural studies, so I will endeavour to explain these moments as we go, so as to avoid any confusion about analytic intent. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a way that a simple economic model might be applied to augment the cultural study of cute by seeking to unpack its economic aspect. This can be elucidated by considering the rise of internet animals as a media-cultural force, as epitomized by “cat videos”. We can explain this through an application of price theory and the theory of demand that was first proposed by Armen Alchian and William Allen. They showed how an equal fixed cost that was imposed to both high-quality and low-quality goods alike caused a shift in consumption toward the higher-quality good, because it is now relatively cheaper. Alchian and Allen had in mind something like transport costs on agricultural goods (such as apples). But it is also true that the same effect works in reverse (Cowen), and the purpose of this paper is to develop that logic to contribute to explaining how certain structural shifts in production and consumption in digital media, particularly the rise of blog formats such as Tumblr, a primary supplier of kittens on the Internet, can be in part understood as a consequence of this economic mechanism. There are three key assumptions to build this argument. The first is that the cost of the internet is independent of what it carries. This is certainly true at the level of machine code, and largely true at higher levels. What might be judged aesthetically high quality or low quality content – say of a Bach cantata or a funny cat video – are treated the same way if they both have the same file size. This is a physical and computational aspect of net-neutrality. The internet – or digitization – functions as a fixed cost imposed regardless of what cultural quality is moving across it. Second, while there are costs to using the internet (for example, in hardware or concerning digital literacy) these costs are lower than previous analog forms of information and cultural production and dissemination. This is not an empirical claim, but a logical one (revealed preference): if it were not so, people would not have chosen it. The first two points – net neutrality and lowered cost – I want to take as working assumptions, although they can obviously be debated. But that is not the purpose of the paper, which is instead the third point – the “Alchian-Allen theorem”, or the third fundamental law of demand. The Alchian-Allen Theorem The Alchian-Allen theorem is an extension of the law of demand (Razzolini et al) to consider how the distribution of high quality and low quality substitutes of the same good (such as apples) is affected by the imposition of a fixed cost (such as transportation). It is also known as the “shipping the good apples out” theorem, after Borcherding and Silberberg explained why places that produce a lot of apples – such as Seattle in the US – often also have low supplies of high quality apples compared to places that do not produce apples, such as New York. The puzzle of “why can’t you get good apples in Seattle?” is a simple but clever application of price theory. When a place produces high quality and low quality items, it will be rational for those in faraway places to consume the high quality items, and it will be rational for the producers to ship them, leaving only the low quality items locally.Why? Assume preferences and incomes are the same everywhere and that transport cost is the same regardless of whether the item shipped is high or low quality. Both high quality and low quality apples are more expensive in New York compared to Seattle, but because the fixed transport cost applies to both the high quality apples are relatively less expensive. Rational consumers in New York will consume more high quality apples. This makes fewer available in Seattle.Figure 1: Change in consumption ratio after the imposition of a fixed cost to all apples Another example: Australians drink higher quality Californian wine than Californians, and vice versa, because it is only worth shipping the high quality wine out. A counter-argument is that learning effects dominate: with high quality local product, local consumers learn to appreciate quality, and have different preferences (Cowen and Tabarrok).The Alchian-Allen theorem applies to any fixed cost that applies generally. For example, consider illegal drugs (such as alcohol during the US prohibition, or marijuana or cocaine presently) and the implication of a fixed penalty – such as a fine, or prison sentence, which is like a cost – applied to trafficking or consumption. Alchian-Allen predicts a shift toward higher quality (or stronger) drugs, because with a fixed penalty and probability of getting caught, the relatively stronger substance is now relatively cheaper. Empirical work finds that this effect did occur during alcohol prohibition, and is currently occurring in narcotics (Thornton Economics of Prohibition, "Potency of illegal drugs").Another application proposed by Steven Cuellar uses Alchian-Allen to explain a well-known statistical phenomenon why women taking the contraceptive pill on average prefer “more masculine” men. This is once again a shift toward quality predicted on falling relative price based on a common ‘fixed price’ (taking the pill) of sexual activity. Jean Eid et al show that the result also applies to racehorses (the good horses get shipped out), and Staten and Umbeck show it applies to students – the good students go to faraway universities, and the good student in those places do the same. So that’s apples, drugs, sex and racehorses. What about the Internet and kittens?Allen-Alchian Explains Why the Internet Is Made of CatsIn analog days, before digitization and Internet, the transactions costs involved with various consumption items, whether commodities or media, meant that the Alchian-Allen effect pushed in the direction of higher quality, bundled product. Any additional fixed costs, such as higher transport costs, or taxes or duties, or transactions costs associated with search and coordination and payment, i.e. costs that affected all substitutes in the same way, would tend to make the higher quality item relatively less expensive, increasing its consumption.But digitisation and the Internet reverse the direction of these transactions costs. Rather than adding a fixed cost, such as transport costs, the various aspects of the digital revolution are equivalent to a fall in fixed costs, particularly access.These factors are not just one thing, but a suite of changes that add up to lowered transaction costs in the production, distribution and consumption of media, culture and games. These include: The internet and world-wide-web, and its unencumbered operation The growth and increasing efficacy of search technology Growth of universal broadband for fast, wide band-width access Growth of mobile access (through smartphones and other appliances) Growth of social media networks (Facebook, Twitter; Metcalfe’s law) Growth of developer and distribution platforms (iPhone, android, iTunes) Globally falling hardware and network access costs (Moore’s law) Growth of e-commerce (Ebay, Amazon, Etsy) and e-payments (paypal, bitcoin) Expansions of digital literacy and competence Creative commons These effects do not simply shift us down a demand curve for each given consumption item. This effect alone simply predicts that we consume more. But the Alchian-Allen effect makes a different prediction, namely that we consume not just more, but also different.These effects function to reduce the overall fixed costs or transactions costs associated with any consumption, sharing, or production of media, culture or games over the internet (or in digital form). With this overall fixed cost component now reduced, it represents a relatively larger decline in cost at the lower-quality, more bite-sized or unbundled end of the media goods spectrum. As such, this predicts a change in the composition of the overall consumption basket to reflect the changed relative prices that these above effects give rise to. See Figure 2 below (based on a blog post by James Oswald). The key to the economics of cute, in consequence of digitisation, is to follow through the qualitative change that, because of the Alchian-Allen effect, moves away from the high-quality, highly-bundled, high-value end of the media goods spectrum. The “pattern prediction” here is toward more, different, and lower quality: toward five minutes of “Internet animals”, rather than a full day at the zoo. Figure 2: Reducing transaction costs lowers the relative price of cat videos Consider five dimensions in which this more and different tendency plays out. Consumption These effects make digital and Internet-based consumption cheaper, shifting us down a demand curve, so we consume more. That’s the first law of demand in action: i.e. demand curves slope downwards. But a further effect – brilliantly set out in Cowen – is that we also consume lower-quality media. This is not a value judgment. These lower-quality media may well have much higher aesthetic value. They may be funnier, or more tragic and sublime; or faster, or not. This is not about absolute value; only about relative value. Digitization operating through Allen-Alchian skews consumption toward the lower quality ends in some dimensions: whether this is time, as in shorter – or cost, as in cheaper – or size, as in smaller – or transmission quality, as in gifs. This can also be seen as a form of unbundling, of dropping of dimensions that are not valued to create a simplified product.So we consume different, with higher variance. We sample more than we used to. This means that we explore a larger information world. Consumption is bite-sized and assorted. This tendency is evident in the rise of apps and in the proliferation of media forms and devices and the value of interoperability.ProductionAs consumption shifts (lower quality, greater variety), so must production. The production process has two phases: (1) figuring out what to do, or development; and (2) doing it, or making. The world of trade and globalization describes the latter part: namely efficient production. The main challenge is the world of innovation: the entrepreneurial and experimental world of figuring out what to do, and how. It is this second world that is radically transformed by implications of lowered transaction costs.One implication is growth of user-communities based around collaborative media projects (such as open source software) and community-based platforms or common pool resources for sharing knowledge, such as the “Maker movement” (Anderson 2012). This phenomenon of user-co-creation, or produsers, has been widely recognized as an important new phenomenon in the innovation and production process, particularly those processes associated with new digital technologies. There are numerous explanations for this, particularly around preferences for cooperation, community-building, social learning and reputational capital, and entrepreneurial expectations (Quiggin and Potts, Banks and Potts). Business Models The Alchian-Allen effect on consumption and production follows through to business models. A business model is a way of extracting value that represents some strategic equilibrium between market forms, organizational structures, technological possibilities and institutional framework and environmental conditions that manifests in entrepreneurial patterns of business strategy and particular patterns of investment and organization. The discovery of effective business models is a key process of market capitalist development and competition. The Alchian-Allen effect impacts on the space of effective viable business models. Business models that used to work will work less well, or not at all. And new business models will be required. It is a significant challenge to develop these “economic technologies”. Perhaps no less so than development of the physical technologies, new business models are produced through experimental trial and error. They cannot be known in advance or planned. But business models will change, which will affect not only the constellation of existing companies and the value propositions that underlie them, but also the broader specializations based on these in terms of skill sets held and developed by people, locations of businesses and people, and so on. New business models will emerge from a process of Schumpeterian creative destruction as it unfolds (Beinhocker). The large production, high development cost, proprietary intellectual property and systems based business model is not likely to survive, other than as niche areas. More experimental, discovery-focused, fast-development-then-scale-up based business models are more likely to fit the new ecology. Social Network Markets & Novelty Bundling MarketsThe growth of variety and diversity of choice that comes with this change in the way media is consumed to reflect a reallocation of consumption toward smaller more bite-sized, lower valued chunks (the Alchian-Allen effect) presents consumers with a problem, namely that they have to make more choices over novelty. Choice over novelty is difficult for consumers because it is experimental and potentially costly due to risk of mistakes (Earl), but it also presents entrepreneurs with an opportunity to seek to help solve that problem. The problem is a simple consequence of bounded rationality and time scarcity. It is equivalent to saying that the cost of choice rises monotonically with the number of choices, and that because there is no way to make a complete rational choice, agents will use decision or choice heuristics. These heuristics can be developed independently by the agents themselves through experience, or they can be copied or adopted from others (Earl and Potts). What Potts et al call “social network markets” and what Potts calls “novelty bundling markets” are both instances of the latter process of copying and adoption of decision rules. Social network markets occur when agents use a “copy the most common” or “copy the highest rank” meta-level decision rule (Bentley et al) to deal with uncertainty. Social network markets can be efficient aggregators of distributed information, but they can also be path-dependent, and usually lead to winner-take all situations and dynamics. These can result in huge pay-offs differentials between first and second or fifth place, even when the initial quality differentials are slight or random. Diversity, rapid experimentation, and “fast-failure” are likely to be effective strategies. It also points to the role of trust and reputation in using adopted decision rules and the information economics that underlies that: namely that specialization and trade applies to the production and consumption of information as well as commodities. Novelty bundling markets are an entrepreneurial response to this problem, and observable in a range of new media and creative industries contexts. These include arts, music or food festivals or fairs where entertainment and sociality is combined with low opportunity cost situations in which to try bundles of novelty and connect with experts. These are by agents who developed expert preferences through investment and experience in consumption of the particular segment or domain. They are expert consumers and are selling their “decision rules” and not just the product. The more production and consumption of media and digital information goods and services experiences the Alchian-Allen effect, the greater the importance of novelty bundling markets. Intellectual Property & Regulation A further implication is that rent-seeking solutions may also emerge. This can be seen in two dimensions; pursuit of intellectual property (Boldrin and Levine); and demand for regulations (Stigler). The Alchian-Allen induced shift will affect markets and business models (and firms), and because this will induce strategic defensive and aggressive responses from different organizations. Some organizations will seek to fight and adapt to this new world through innovative competition. Other firms will fight through political connections. Most incumbent firms will have substantial investments in IP or in the business model it supports. Yet the intellectual property model is optimized for high-quality large volume centralized production and global sales of undifferentiated product. Much industrial and labour regulation is built on that model. How governments support such industries is predicated on the stability of this model. The Alchian-Allen effect threatens to upset that model. Political pushback will invariably take the form of opposing most new business models and the new entrants they carry. Conclusion I have presented here a lesser-known but important theorem in applied microeconomics – the Alchian-Allen effect – and explain why its inverse is central to understanding the evolution of new media industries, and also why cute animals proliferate on the Internet. The theorem states that when a fixed cost is added to substitute goods, consumers will shift to the higher quality item (now relatively less expensive). 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