In 1989 the first edition of this book set out Gittins' pioneering index solution to the multi-armed bandit problem and his subsequent investigation of a wide of sequential resource allocation and stochastic scheduling problems. Since then there has been a remarkable flowering of new insights, generalizations and applications, to which Glazebrook and Weber have made major contributions. 
This second edition brings the story up to date. There are new chapters on the achievable region approach to stochastic optimization problems, the construction of performance bounds for suboptimal policies, Whittle's restless bandits, and the use of Lagrangian relaxation in the construction and evaluation of index policies. Some of the many varied proofs of the index theorem are discussed along with the insights that they provide. Many contemporary applications are surveyed, and over 150 new references are included. Over the past 40 years the Gittins index has helped theoreticians and practitioners to address a huge variety of problems within chemometrics, economics, engineering, numerical analysis, operational research, probability, statistics and website design. This new edition will be an important resource for others wishing to use this approach.

Multi-armed Bandit Allocation Indices

Science & Math

Weber, Richard

Gittins, John

Glazebrook, Kevin

Mathematics

wiley

Traditionally engineers devised communication services without reference to how they should be priced. In today's environment pricing is a very complex subject and in practice depends on many parameters of the actual market - including amount of traffic, architecture of the network, technology, and cost. The challenge is to provide a generic service model which accurately captures aspects such as quality and performance, and can be used to derive optimal pricing strategies.  Recent technology advances, combined with the deregulation of the telecommunication market and the proliferation of the internet, have created a highly competitive environment for communication service prividers. Pricing is no longer as simple as picking an appropriate model for a particular contract. There is a real need for a book that explains the provision of new services, the relation between pricing and resource allocation in networks; and the emergence of the internet and how to price it. Pricing Communication Networks provides a framework of mathematical models for pricing these multidimensional contracts, and includes background in network services and contracts, network techonology, basic economics, and pricing strategy. It can be used by economists to fill in the gaps in their knowledge of network services and technology, and for engineers and operational researchers to gain the background in economics required to price communication services effectively. * Provides a broad overview of network services and contracts * Includes a primer on modern network technology and the economic concepts relevant to pricing and competition * Includes discussion of mathematical models of traffic flow to help describe network capability and derive pricing strategies * Includes coverage of specialist topics, such as regulation, multicasting, and auctions * Illustrated throughout by detailed real examples * Suitable for anyone with an understanding of basic calculus and probability   Primarily aimed at graduate students, researchers and practitioners from electrical engineering, computer science, economics and operations research Pricing Communication Networks will also appeal to telecomms engineers working in industry.

Pricing Communication Networks: Economics, Technology and Modelling

Business & Money

COURCOUBETIS, COSTAS

Economics

Polar Attack: From Canada to the North Pole, and Back

Recounts the successful attempt made by the authors to become the first people to complete a round-trip expedition on foot to the North Pole from Canada without being aided by support teams

Travel

Malakhov, Mikhail

Canada

MCCLELLAND STEWART

On June 15, 1995, Weber and Malakhov became the first people to complete the 1,000-mile round trip to the North Pole on foot with no outside support. Their triumph of having reached the North Pole was followed by a dangerous 31-hour marathon through a blizzard to reach their camp--six kilometers away--where they had left all their supplies and equipment. This book presents the gripping tale of their determination to complete this historic expedition. of color photos.

Book by Weber, Richard, Dexter, Laurie, Holloway, Christopher, Buxton, Max

Polar Bridge: An Arctic Odyssey

Holloway, Christopher

Dexter, Laurie

Buxton, Max

Key Porter Books

Entrepreneurship education at tertiary institutions ranks high on policy agendas in Europe and the US. The increase in resources allocated to this kind of education comes along with a growing demand for justifying these investments. A better understanding of the size and nature of entrepreneurship education effects is critical. Richard Weber addresses this question and analyzes the effects of a large-scale compulsory entrepreneurship course on students' entrepreneurial intentions by employing a quasi-experimental approach. Moreover, he highlights the role of social interactions among students in building entrepreneurial skills. The results yield important implications for public policy, sponsors and lecturers of entrepreneurship education.

Evaluating Entrepreneurship Education (Innovation und Entrepreneurship)

Education & Reference

Gabler Verlag

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Books by Weber, Richard