We consider here the feasibility of gathering multiple computational resources by means of decentralized and simple local rules. We study such decentralized gathering by means of a stochastic model inspired from biology: the aggregation of the Dictyostelium discoideum cellular slime mold. The environment transmits information according to a reaction-diffusion mechanism and the agents move by fo...

The coordination problem of relief items’ distribution operations is essential in humanitarian relief chains. If the coordination is proper, it will improve the response phase to the crisis. In order to improve the coordination in humanitarian relief chains, distribution and warehousing operations of relief items were outsourced to the third-party logistics. In this paper, the procurement-distr...

bilevel linear programming  is a decision making problem with a two-level decentralized organization. the textquotedblleft leadertextquotedblright~ is in the upper level and the textquotedblleft followertextquotedblright, in the lower. making a decision at one level affects that at the other one. in this paper, bilevel linear programming  with inexact parameters has been studied and a method is...

NeuroGrid is an adaptive decentralized search system. NeuroGrid nodes support distributed search through semantic routing (forwarding of queries based on content), and a learning mechanism that dynamically adjusts metadata describing the contents of nodes and the files that make up those contents. NeuroGrid is an open-source project, and prototype software has been made available at http://www....

Two organizational structures for a retail chain are examined for their effect on the rate of firm innovation. A centralized organization is defined as one in which store practices are mandated from corporate headquarters (HQ) and this results in HQ being the sole source of new ideas. A decentralized organization gives freedom to store managers to adopt their own ideas and disseminates innovati...

It has been discovered that in many organizations the information technology department is a separate entity, while in others each business unit incorporates their own information technology department. The former represents a centralized approach while the latter represents a decentralized approach. The centralized IT department suits some organizations better than others. However, it is becom...

The 2005 reform of the German welfare system introduced two competing organizational models for welfare administration. In most districts, a centralized organization was established where local welfare agencies are bound to central directives. At the same time, 69 districts were allowed to opt for a decentralized organization. We evaluate the relative success of both types of organizations. Com...

Arguments are given for the tenet that although the immune system has no long term goals, it does have short term goals | which are often contradictory. Simple models illustrate how feedbacks can (i) harmonize connicting goals, (ii) improve the performance of a given type of eeec-tor cell, (iii) cause the preferential ampliication of more potent eeectors. It is shown that spatial organization c...