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The research reported in this paper concerns the ongoing development of a Knowledge Intensive Sketching (KiS) framework through which designers are supported in foreseeing directly from their paper-based sketches the relevant life-cycle consequences of their ‘component form’ solution concepts. The goal of the KiS framework is to retain the important characteristics of freehand sketching, i.e. pencil and paper, whilst at the same time exploit the benefits of Knowledge Intensive CAD technology for proactively guiding designers in generating life-oriented solutions as from early design.

The paper analyses the order penetration point alternatives under various situational variables in the Nordic paper industry setting. The analysis is carried out as a factorial experimental design on a simulation model constructed for the purpose. Order data from seven cases and previous research are used to arrive at meaningful factor values. The situational variables are found to affect the inventory vrs. delivery time trade-offs and with some situational variable values chioice OP3 is not pareto-optimal in comparison to OP2.

At present, the most common company level inventory performance yardstick is inventory costs in relationship to revenue. This yardstick does not adequately reflect differences in the scope of vertical integration between different companies. The first objective is to develop a suitable yardstick for inventory performance that could enable strategic or company level screening for the need for improvement. This new yardstick is then tested with pulp and paper industry statistics and annual report data.

In this position statement on the question, How far harmonisation? I expresses the view that, in the context of our profession, our theories, as far a possible, must meet the stringent quality criteria which philosophers of science impose on other disciplines that deal with problems in domains of inter-subjective activity, such as the natural sciences. I also show that our present ‘tunes’ are played on almost one note, making any harmony rather thin and uninteresting. Sometimes I despair of our profession ever abandoning old, demonstrably weak ideas (conceptualist or naive objectivist ontologies, for example) or of ever raising its eyes above the technical layer of problems to face the other half of the issues before us. However, I justify my long-term optimism because I have not encountered any intrinsic difficulty in meeting the most exacting criteria of scientific quality in dealing with information systems. Only a general unwillingness to apply those criteria obstructs our progress.

In this review we discuss the six papers: Lehmann (1963) and Bickel and Lehmann (1974, 1975,1976a, 1976b, 1976c). The first paper deals with confidence intervals based on nonparametric tests, and the other papers discuss descriptive statistics for non12arametric models.

The field of identity management has changed dramatically in just a few years. Ten years ago we were huddled in the corner of cocktail parties excitedly discussing and dismissing X.509 certification. Five years ago we were begging for some attention from our governments, industries, and consumer protection institutions. Now, everyone seems to be in agreement that something must be done about identity management.

The Directorate-General Information Society and Media, part of the European Commission, supports the development and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for the benefit of all citizens and for underpinning European competitiveness and growth. Its objective is to stimulate the continued development of an all-inclusive information society, and the assurance of trust and security is pivotal to this development. Security and privacy protection are moving targets, and bringing trust into the networked society is an open-ended, permanent and multistakeholder endeavour.

The grammage, ie., mass per unit area, is one of the most important quality factors in paper industry. The grammage of the paper web is constantly monitored during the paper manufacturing, and the ever rising pulling speeds and wider reels demand more accurate and faster methods to monitor the grammage changes in both the cross direction and in the machine direction. Nowadays, the standard method is to use radioactive beta rays, which method was invented in 1950s. The beta radiation is attenuated as a function of sample grammage, but the temperature of surrounding air, and the atomic number of the sample also affect the measured intensity of the beta rays. These effects can be conquered by calibration and by monitoring the temperature. But one technical difficulty remains, though. Only one measuring head is traversing across the paper web, which is quite a slow method to achieve the cross profile of the paper web [1–2].

Three main research questions are identified for higher education to effectively address Lifelong Learning. Lifelong Learning is an educational issue, because it is pulled by the political agenda, by economical, social, civic, cultural, personal and also Information and Communication Technology (ICT) developments. From an employment related perspective ‘students’ in Lifelong Learning are knowledge workers (knowledge creators) and skills workers (knowledge appliers), basically learning at the workplace. From the social and civic perspective ‘students’ are people learning in ‘learning communities’. From a personal perspective students are persons following initial education to be effective in the workplace (employment related) and in society (community related). The role of ICT is one of empowerment, enhancement of creativity and support. Lifelong Learning is demand driven, flexible learning that will force educational institutions to change. In this special attention should be given to the relevance of Lifelong Learning for countries with emerging knowledge intensive economies.

The problem of balancing coherence and flexibility in collaborative information system design is approached here with two pairs of concepts. Boundary objects can support communication for perspective taking between communities of practice. Conscripting devices can support communication for perspective making within a community of practice. These theoretical lenses are used to study the uses of the technical specification in paper machine projects. Our study showed that as a boundary object it provided enough flexibility to allow negotiations, and sufficient local structure, for carrying out work in both communities of practice, the customer and the manufacturer. As a conscription device in the relatively virtual manufacturer project team, however, it proved to be problematic, due to the unidirectional nature of its construction, its diminishing importance in the web of conscripting objects, and its inconvenience as a means for learning. In search for balancing coherence and flexibility, the issues identified seemed to relate to acknowledging the dialectics of perspective making and perspective taking with boundary objects and conscription devices, to the openness and modifiability of these objects, and to the bounded transparency of these processes.

The remit of Working Group 8.2 (WG 8.2) is officially identified by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) as “the interaction of information systems and the organization” and its “Scope and Aims” statement (http://www.ifipwg82.org/) talks of “building theories about the role and impact of IT in specific organizational contexts.” Thus, while WG 8.2 may not be the only group of IS researchers concerned with understanding the relationship between social context and the development and use of information systems, for example, WG 8.1 (“Design and Evaluation of Information Systems”) and WG 9.1 (“Computers and Work”) may be expected to share similar interests, the Group would seem a potentially important forum for research that seeks to address the social dimension of IS. To the extent, moreover, that interest in social context may be seen to be characteristic of the concerns of interpretative research methods, the growing acceptance of such methods in mainstream journals such as MIS Quarterly could be seen to place WG 8.2 in the vanguard of the IS field.

While methods for retrieving documents from large information repositories have improved a lot, presentation of the retrieved documents still leaves a lot to be desired. Important information on documents is usually presented as a textual listing of available metadata attributes such as document size, author information, date of creation, and so on. This requires the user to read and abstract from the presented metainformat ion.

This paper argues that most workflow management support systems are vulnerable due to the single database architecture upon which they are based. Furthermore, the single server architecture creates a performance bottleneck when large quantities of workflows are being managed.

The background to many of today’s questions is dominated by what is now called the process of globalization of economy and society. This phenomenon has to be distinguished from the traditional processes of internationalization and multinationalization of businesses, since it includes finance, markets and strategies, technology and its related research and development, lifestyles and consumption patterns with their consequences for culture, regulatory capabilities and governance, as well as political unification of the world2. ‘Globalization refers to the multiplicity of linkages and interconnections between the states and societies which make up the present world system’3. This development is more than an economic or technological process. It gives freedom to capital and labour to move across political boundaries, anywhere in the world. It identifies a global world by playing on intrinsic cultural variables of identity, namely space and time. The so-called global world is most probably not the whole world, but the metaphor has its importance in terms of culture. Delocalization is not recent, it has roots in the past; but what is new, even in the developed countries, is the de-linkage of the poorest regions and countries from the networked and interconnected ones. What also emerges is the penetration of more and more merchandized culture where culture is identified with cultural goods and services and no longer with the content through which peoples control their own identity and history.

At long intervals the same question is raised: ‘Are we technicians, scientists, users of technology responsible for the problems that are caused by the introduction of technology?’ The answers given are not uniform, but the fact that the question is raised shows that we are beginning to realize that our technology is capable of, not only constructing the world, but destroying it as well. And we are becoming conscious of this destruction through the confrontation with environmental pollution, questions dealing with nuclear power, and more recently questions surrounding genetic engineering, such as DNA recombination, and the use of test-tube fertilization on older women.

In paper mills, the speed of paper web has been increasing all the time and the speeds may be in excess of 120 km/h (60–70 miles/h). High speeds are also needed in slitter-winders to manage the continuous production of paper from the machine despite the roll changes. It is clear that at such speeds the tension of the moving paper has to be known; in particular, the tension profile across the machine direction since the profile may contain tension peaks that break the web even though the average tension may be acceptable.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise the state of Coronavirus epitope research, with an emphasis laid on the most recent achievements, i.e. the correlation between antigenicity and polypeptide primary structure. The antigenic properties of coronaviruses reside mainly in their envelope glycoproteins: the S (spike) protein, a high molecular weight polypeptide which constitutes the petal-shaped peplomers and the M (membrane) protein, a smaller integral membrane polypeptide. Some coronaviruses possess an additional surface glycoprotein, the haemagglutinin-esterase (HE) protein.

The word “evolution” usually evokes thoughts of events which occurred in the distant past, but it is self-evidently an ongoing process. The application of intense selective pressure, for example by the wide-spread use of vaccination, and also the transport of infected animals over large distances may have contributed to what may be considered “short-term” evolution. Papers relevant to putative Coronavirus evolution in both recent and distant time-scales are presented in this volume.

Enveloped viruses carry in their membranes one or more surface glycoproteins. In coronaviruses three such proteins have been identified: a small integral membrane protein (M), a large glycoprotein constituting the characteristic viral spikes (S), and an intermediate-sized glycoprotein (HE). This paper will summarize published knowledge on the properties and function of the small and the intermediate-sized membrane proteins. They will be referred to as M and HE, respectively.

Virus infections of the central nervous system (CNS) may result in the loss of myelin sheaths without axonal destruction. Severe neurological symptoms occur as a consequence of this phenomenon which is called primary demyelination. The sequence of events leading to primary demyelination during the course of viral infections of the CNS is only partially understood. Although it is well established that cytolytic infection of the Oligodendroglia cell can cause primary demyelination, mononuclear infiltrates in subacute and chronic courses of the disease indicate that immunological events may take part in this process (reviewed by Johnson (1)). For several reasons, investigations into the dynamic interactions between virus infection of the CNS and the local immune response cannot be conducted in man. (1) Usually clinical specimens are restricted to cerebrospinal fluid which gives limited information about pathological events occuring in the brain parenchyma (2). It is not known at which time point of the preceeding systemic infection, the virus enters the brain and biopsies are taken too rarely and infrequently to understand the kinetics of the events (3). The general absence of genetic homogeneity in man complicates attempts to detect the influence of the immunogenetic background on the course of the disease. In contrast, intracerebral infections of rodents with the murine hepatitis virus JHM (MHV-4) are excellent models to study the relationships between virus-induced demyelination and the local immune response. Based on the work of Cheever (2), animal models of JHM virus-induced demyelinating encephalomyelitis have been developed in mice as well as in rats (3–5). In recent years striking similarities in the course of the infection in both rodents have been detected which might give the impression that these two models can substitute for each other. However, subtle but important differences do exist. Therefore, in the present review attempts are made to summarize and compare the knowledge about demyelinating encephalomyelitides in rats and mice, giving emphasis to the role of the local immune response in the brain.

For coronaviruses, the glycoproteins have both historical and biological significance (1,2). Because some coronaviruses were difficult to isolate and propagate, their characteristic large, petal-shaped spikes first allowed coronaviruses to be identified as related agents in a common family. Viral glycoproteins play important roles throughout the life cycle of coronaviruses. Viral glycoproteins interact with receptors on the host cell membrane and are required for penetration of the viral genome into cells by fusion of the viral envelope with the plasma membrane or endosomal membranes. In virus-infected cells, Coronavirus glycoproteins may be glycosylated, acylated, oligomerized, cleaved into subunits by proteases, and transported to specific membrane compartments. The viral glycoproteins participate in assembly of virions, and the intracellular location of viral glycoproteins may determine the location of Coronavirus budding. Viral glycoproteins on the surface of infected cells may permit fusion with adjacent cells, and may make the cell susceptible to immune cytolysis or cell-mediated cytotoxicity, or permit hemadsorption. Epitopes of viral glycoproteins may be recognized by neutralizing, non-neutralizing or hemagglutination-inhibiting antibodies. Thus, elucidation of the structure and functions of Coronavirus glycoproteins is of central importance in understanding the replicative cycle and pathogenesis of coronaviruses.

In 1962 Caspar and Klug conjectured that self-assembly of equivalent or quasi-equivalent protein subunits and viral nucleic acid produces either icosahedral or helical structures according to the biological functions required (1). Some 15 years later Wengler introduced the terms “transcription helices” and “translation helices” to describe the relationship between helical ribonucleoprotein (RNP) structure and genome function for animal viruses containing single-stranded RNA (2). In transcription helices the RNA genome is transcribed into complementary nucleic acid, without permanent disassembly of the RNP. In translation helices the RNA is liberated from the RNP and translated into protein. To account for the fact that no examples of enveloped viruses containing translation helices had been described, Wengler speculated that “the forces exerted on the viral RNP during budding necessitate the design of a helical RNP of such high stability that RNA cannot be released for translation in vivo. Therefore, translation helices will not be present in viruses which obtain a viral membrane by budding”.

In 1984, the appearance of a new porcine Coronavirus related to TGEV was suspected based on an unexpected but widespread prevalence of antibodies to TGEV found in the swine population of several European countries. Most remarkable was the observation that this widespread occurrence of TGEV antibodies was seen in the absence of previous outbreaks or epizootics of diarrhea and also the fact that such findings were made in countries, e.g. Denmark, which had never experienced TGEV infection previously. The ease with which the virus spread, not only within a country, but also across national borders, pointed towards long distance virus transmission, almost certainly by the aerogenic route.

During the last decade recombinant DNA technology has been successfully applied to the development of ‘new’ vaccines. Although there are many examples of successful vaccines which have been developed using the ‘classical approach’ e.g. inactivated, attenuated and subunit vaccines, the demand for a new generation of vaccines is evident. The risk of the escape of a pathogen from a vaccine production facility, the difficulties associated with the production of viral subunits, the high mutation frequency observed in many RNA viruses and the possibility of genetic reassortment and recombination have stimulated researchers to explore new avenues of vaccine biotechnology.

The genomic RNA of coronaviruses has two unique features. Firstly, it is one of the largest stable RNAs known to exist in nature and is unquestionably the largest viral genomic RNA. The complete sequence of avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) RNA shows that its size is 27.6 kilobases (kb) (Boursnell et al., 1987). Although the complete sequences of other Coronavirus genomic RNAs are not yet available, preliminary data from several laboratories indicate that the genomic RNA of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is as long as 32 kb (Shieh and Lai, unpublished observations). The large size of these RNAs poses a theoretical quandary for the replication of Coronavirus RNA, considering the high error frequency of RNA-dependent RNA synthesis observed in some systems (Holland et al., 1982; Steinhauer and Holland, 1986). How does Coronavirus RNA replicate faithfully despite the high error frequency of RNA synthesis? It is possible that a proof-reading mechanism operates to correct unavoidable mistakes which are expect d to occur in almost every RNA molecule of this size. Secondly, Coronavirus RNA contains a leader sequence (approximately 72 nucleotides) which is repeated at the 5′-end of every subgenomic mRNA species. This structural organization appears to be similar to that of most of eukaryotic mRNAs which contain leader sequences derived by RNA splicing. Yet the Coronavirus RNA genome does not have consensus splicing signals and the virus replicates exclusively in the cytoplasm (Wilhelmson et al., 1981; Brayton et al., 1981), where there is no conventional RNA splicing machinery. Furthermore, UV transcriptional mapping studies suggest that Coronavirus mRNA species are transcribed independently (Jacobs et al., 1981), instead of being derived by cleavage of a precursor RNA. Thus, a new transcriptional mechanism must operate to transcribe Coronavirus mRNAs.

DNA methylation serves to mark DNA as either a directed epigenetic signaling modification or in response to DNA lesions. Methods for detecting DNA methylation have become increasingly more specific and sensitive over time. Conventional methods for detecting DNA methylation, ranging from paper chromatography to differential restriction enzyme digestion preference to dot blots, have more recently been supplemented by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) to accurately quantify specific DNA methylation. Methylated DNA can also be sequenced by either methylated DNA immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (MeDIP-seq) or single-molecule real-time sequencing (SMRTseq) for identifying genomic locations of DNA methylation. Here we describe a protocol for the detection and quantification of epigenetic signaling DNA methylation modifications including, N6-methyladenine (6mA), N4-methylcytosine (4mC) and C5-methylcytosine (5mC) in genomic DNA by triple quadrupole liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (QQQ-LC-MS/MS). The high sensitivity of the UHPLC-MS/MS methodology and the use of calibration standards of pure nucleosides allow for the accurate quantification of DNA methylation.

The concept of the Josephson energy emerges directly from the original predictions of Brian Josephson. Although it can be used to explain the behaviour of Josephson devices, the Josephson energy has no present applications. In this paper, we show that in the context of magnetic Josephson junctions, the Josephson energy offers a potential mechanism for controlling magnetic memory devices.

Funder: University of Cambridge, One in eight children aged 5–19 years in the UK suffer from a psychiatric disorder, while fewer than 35% are identified and only 25% of children access mental health services. Whilst government policy states that primary schools are well-placed to spot the early warning signs of mental health issues in children, the implementation of early identification methods in schools remains under-researched. This study aims to increase understanding of the acceptability and feasibility of different early identification methods in this setting. Four primary schools in the East of England in the UK participated in a qualitative exploration of views about different methods that might enhance the early identification of mental health difficulties (MHDs). Twenty-seven staff and 20 parents took part in semi-structured interviews to explore current and future strategies for identifying pupils at risk of experiencing MHDs. We presented participants with four examples of identification methods selected from a systematic review of the literature: a curriculum-based approach delivered to pupils, staff training, universal screening, and selective screening. We used NVivo to thematically code and analyse the data, examining which models were perceived as acceptable and feasible as well as participants’ explanations for their beliefs. Three main themes were identified; benefits and facilitators; barriers and harms, and the need for a tailored approach to implementation. Parents and staff perceived staff training as the most acceptable and feasible approach to systematic identification, followed by a curriculum-based approach. Universal and selective screening garnered mixed responses. Findings suggest that a systematic and tailored approach to early identification would be most acceptable and feasible, taking into consideration school context. Teacher training should be a core component in all schools.

In the last few years bureaucratic procedures didn't show a significant reduction in the volume of paper documents created. In order to reduce the huge amount of space for archiving and preserving documents and to speed up the secarh process, a semantic-based dematerialization process should be performed. In this paper we describe a novel system that manages several kind of bureaucratic documents in the e-gov domain, automatically extracts several interesting information and produces a suitable semantic representation that may be considered as the first step towards a full automated document management system. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

This paper is based on the study aimed at giving a new direction to Photographs, keeping in mind the growing needs of the people and enriching day-to-day experience vis-a-vis paper based photograph. A survey was conducted which revealed few startling but interesting facts as to what more the end-user wants than a mere ‘physical paper-based photograph’. This paper talks about the survey, response by the participants, results derived from them, current work and future direction.

This position paper examines the processes of creativity and innovation within the current context of virtual working. There is a discrepancy between innovation practice and support techniques: techniques are dominated by group activity, yet much of the work on instances of creativity indicate individual activity. There are considerable challenges in supporting creativity and innovation in virtual groups, however it is an area calling for innovation and the paper proposes where this innovation may take place.

This paper reports from an interpretive case study in a hospital of the replacement of paper based order forms for radiology examinations with web based order forms. The aim is to contribute with a better understanding about the implementation of networked technologies in healthcare. The case shows how the implementation of network technology imposes a configuration in the actor-network and illustrates the importance of small steps and translations involving many different actors in the process leading to a new stabilized configuration.

The intention in this position paper is to propose a possible new future for the technology diffusion research community, based on the integral approach of American philosopher Ken Wilber. The trends and current state of technology diffusion research are reviewed, and relevant aspects of Wilber’s integral approach and its possible contributions are described. These aspects include Wilber’s basic quadrants model and integral methodological pluralism, as well as the metapractices from which they arise.

Within the life cycles of Virtual Enterprises, there are usually periods where representatives of different organisations collaborate in creative ways to set guidelines for the operational stages of the VE. Examples of what has to be agreed or negotiated include legal contracts, financial terms, human responsibilities, joint processes to be followed, common terminology, data formats and common software. This collaboration may be a mixture of synchronous (physical or virtual meetings) and asynchronous activities, This position paper assesses the gap between what support is required and what is available in currently available tools, and suggests a number of key developments to the state of the art.

“Forsoksgymnaset in Oslo” was an experiment in School Democracy that started classes in automatic data processing in the fall of 1968 as a part of school mathematics in the 11th year. We started simple programming in FORTRAN on punched cards, off line. Later we had a teletype terminal with paper tape, changed to the BASIC language, and ran programs online by telephone to a distant computer. We also designed the logic simulator “Benjamin”, with four “And”, “Or”, and “Not” elements, battery and lamps, which could be connected in logical networks to be studied. In 1970, we arranged two two-day seminars for teachers during the Christmas and the summer holidays and presented the whole course. We did this eight times and helped to qualify many teachers. The first Examen Artium in Data was organised in June 1970.

This article reviews the current studies on the production of bioethanol from seaweed with a focus on the process pre-treatments and variety of microorganisms used in the process. Pre-treatment selection is essential to maximize the amount of reduced sugar for the fermentation to produce bioethanol. Specific microbial strains are matched to their ability to utilize sugar sources. Some studies focus mainly on general processing with variable microbial strains to gauge their abilities in fermentation. A summary of the current studies was carried out, and it is evident that two or more yield increasing techniques can coexist within a single process. The integration of the findings may be the key to make seaweed fermentation more efficient and affordable to serve as a sustainable and renewable energy source.

Recently, many industries are aiming to reduce the usage of petroleum-based products and synthetic fibres due to increased environmental concerns regarding such materials. This has led to extensive research on natural fibres with the goal of producing eco-friendly products that will replace the existing petroleum-based ones. Natural fibres can be derived from many sources such as plants, animals, or minerals. However, plant fibres, such as kenaf, are more desirable to most researchers. Kenaf, scientifically known as Hibiscus cannabinus. L, has a complex structure because it consists of lignin, cellulose, and hemicelluloses. Due to this reason, kenaf needs to undergo a treatment process in order to remove lignin and hemicellulose, reduce the crystallinity of its constituent cellulose, and increase its porosity. In this study, acid treatment method was employed and the influence of several process parameters, such as temperature and time, for achieving high yield of glucose conversion was studied. The highest substantial glucose yield was 3.4 g/L produced at 200 °C after 60 min.

Palm kernel cake (PKC) is one of palm oil industry by-products which are rich in edible cellulose, which can be used as potential source in food and pharmaceutical industry. The extraction of cellulose from PKC involved essentially delignification and hemicellulose removal processes. In this study, three delignification and two hemicellulose removal techniques were comparatively investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) with D-optimal design was used for the analysis. In this analysis, delignification techniques, hemicellulose removal techniques, and hemicellulose removal time (HRT) were chosen as process factors, whereas quantity of hemicellulose removal, cellulose yield, and cellulose purity were chosen as process responses. The comparative result obtained in this study shows that the combination of liquid phase oxidation (LPO) of delignification technique and alkali treatment of hemicellulose removal was the best method of cellulose extraction from palm kernel. The result of FTIR spectrum analysis of the cellulose produced in this study was similar to those produced commercially validating the cellulose structure. The optimum cellulose extraction method in this study shows that hemicellulose can be removed up to 24 % with cellulose yield 70 % and purity 77 %.

In this short paper, it is not possible to explore in full detail all the arguments which build the foundations for our research. Only very general descriptions of the phenomena involved, backed-up by broad indications of the relevant literature, can be given. This is especially the case as the topic of this paper—Global Sustainability—is a vast subject.

The purpose of this position paper is to open a discussion about the practicability of participatory action research (PAR) within industry-funded information systems (IS)research. We reflect on a project in which the undue exercise of power by the practitioners on the research team compromised the methodological rigor of the inquiry. Theories of power are used to articulate our reflections and develop suggestions for mitigating power imbalances on PAR research teams, although we conclude that PAR cannot be followed faithfully to its principles in industry-funded engagements.

In this position paper it is argued that generic theories of the information concept will be an obstacle to the Information Systems discipline assuming intellectual leadership of the information portfolio associated with the growth of computing technologies beyond the organization.

This chapter focuses mainly on biodiesel production from the “future green gold” namely Jatropha curcas. The importance of this plant as biodiesel ­feedstock, oil extraction methods from the seeds, and different routes of biodiesel production are discussed in the first part. Nowadays, immobilization of lipase has gained immense potential in the biofuel industry mainly to reduce the production costs and to make the method more economical. Different approaches of lipase immobilization are briefed in the second part. The final part of this chapter shows stability studies of Burkholderia cepacia lipase immobilized in hybrid matrix and its application and biodiesel optimization from crude J. curcas oil.

The Nash equilibrium, the main solution concept in analytical game theory, cannot make precise predictions about the outcome of repeated mixed-motive games. Nor can it tell us much about the dynamics by which a population of players moves from one equilibrium to another. These limitations, along with concerns about the cognitive demands of forward-looking rationality, have motivated efforts to explore backward-looking alternatives to analytical game theory. Most of the effort has been invested in evolutionary models of population dynamics. We shift attention to a learning-theoretic alternative. Computational experiments with adaptive agents identify a fundamental solution concept for social dilemmas–−stochastic collusion–−based on a random walk from a self-limiting noncooperative equilibrium into a self-reinforcing cooperative equilibrium. However, we show that this solution is viable only within a narrow range of aspiration levels. Below the lower threshold, agents are pulled into a deficient equilibrium that is a stronger attractor than mutual cooperation. Above the upper threshold, agents are dissatisfied with mutual cooperation. Aspirations that adapt with experience (producing habituation to stimuli) do not gravitate into the window of viability; rather, they are the worst of both worlds. Habituation destabilizes cooperation and stabilizes defection. Results from the two-person problem suggest that applications to multiplex and embedded relationships will yield unexpected insights into the global dynamics of cooperation in social dilemmas.