Introduces the six papers in this special issue, which reflect a growing interest in using qualitative reasoning techniques in decision support systems, especially in the fields of finance and economics. This introduction also provides a very brief tutorial on qualitative reasoning and its...

Firms that emerged from Chapter 11 as public companies have tons of characteristics. The first essay analyzes their post bankruptcy performance, duration effect, and the quality of their projection information. While the sample's post bankruptcy performance does show improvement, their...

Firms that emerged from Chapter 11 as public companies have tons of characteristics. The first essay analyzes their post bankruptcy performance, duration effect, and the quality of their projection information. While the sample's post bankruptcy performance does show improvement, their...

Recently, Ord and Getis (Ann Reg Sci 48:529–539, <CitationRef CitationID="CR15">2012</CitationRef>) developed a local statistic <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$$H_i$$</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"> <math xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <msub> <mi>H</mi> <mi>i</mi> </msub> </math> </EquationSource> </InlineEquation>, called local spatial heteroscedasticity statistic, to identify boundaries of clusters and to describe the nature of heteroscedasticity within clusters. Furthermore, in order to implement the...</equationsource></equationsource></inlineequation></citationref>

Breaking tests on homogeneous earth-rock-fill dams destroyed by overtopping flow are presented. Two types of shear erosion are found: wetting shear erosion and quick shear erosion; the water level-discharge process is divided into “sharp rise and drop of flow” and “slow change of flow”...

The exploration and development of oilfield results in damages to land resources. Along with the further development of petroleum in the Gurbantunggut Desert, the fragile ecological environment and land resource was suffering much more damage. Vegetation degradation and desertification become...

This paper explores the inter-firm linkages of China's 3G market players by applying the strategic network paradigm. The 3G strategic network mainly consists of mobile operators, content/application providers, service providers, handset manufacturers, mobile phone dealers, network equipment...