This book represents a continuation of an uninterrupted record of international research pertaining to high technology small firms (HTSFs) over a period that has witnessed a rebirth of interest in the growth problems of the small firm, and is a further addition to a portfolio of specialist work by academics and practitioners on the issues facing new technology-based firms (NTBFs).
The book begins with a conceptual overview on the broad theme of innovation in NTBFs, providing a theoretical perspective on the problems of innovation at the end of the twentieth century and setting in context the more specific contributions to follow. A continuing theme of HTSF research is innovation management, and seven chapters are included under this heading focusing on topics such as university spin-out companies and the role of non-executive directors. The successful management of innovation in NTBFs is clearly critical to their survival and growth. Another key and recurrent area of interest to researchers concerned with the problems of NTBFs is finance, with three chapters here addressing the funding problems faced by NTBFs during often lengthy periods of product development. The book concludes with a set of contributions which deal with the increasingly important issues of clustering and location as they affect NTBFs.
The chapters included in this book represent a strong set of themes indicative of what key workers in the area of NTBF development are thinking at the turn of the millennium. These issues of effective management, funding and networking are key themes that will continue in the new millennium.

For both public and private managers, the book Optimization Methods for a Stakeholder Society is today's key to answer the problem of a sustainable development world. This world has to take into account the meaning of all stakeholders involved and has to reconcile a number of objectives, such as economic growth, employment and preservation of the ecosystem. Traditional methods, such as cost-benefit, are outmoded as they translate all these objectives into monetary costs, a materialistic approach. On the contrary, objectives have rather to stick to their own units, eventually indicators.
The author is in favor of the use of nonlinear methods in multi-objective optimization. Therefore, several nonlinear approaches are proposed, illustrated with many applications from different fields such as: privatization in the public sector, regional versus national economic policy in a country, location of a seaport, arms procurement, industrialization of a developing country, updating or replacement of old industry, pre- and post-evaluation of projects, performance management, marketing and distribution.

Analysis, Control and Optimization of Complex Dynamic Systems gathers in a single volume a spectrum of complex dynamic systems related papers written by experts in their fields, and strongly representative of current research trends. Complex systems present important challenges, in great part due to their sheer size which makes it difficult to grasp their dynamic behavior, optimize their operations, or study their reliability. Yet, we live in a world where, due to increasing inter-dependencies and networking of systems, complexity has become the norm. With this in mind, the volume comprises two parts. The first part is dedicated to a spectrum of complex problems of decision and control encountered in the area of production and inventory systems. The second part is dedicated to large scale or multi-agent system problems occurring in other areas of engineering such as telecommunication and electric power networks, as well as more generic context.

The International Conference on Health Care Systems Engineering (HCSE) provided a timely opportunity to discuss statistical analysis and operations management issues in health care delivery systems. The conference took place in Milan between May 22nd and 24th, 2013. Scientists and practitioners discussed new ideas, methods and technologies for improving the operation of health care organizations. The event and this resulting volume emphasize research in the field of health care systems engineering developed in close collaboration with clinicians. Topics applicable to researchers and practitioners include: hospital drug logistics, operating theatres, modelling and simulation in patient care and healthcare organizations, home care services.

This book covers the broad range of research in stochastic models and optimization. Applications covered include networks, financial engineering, production planning and supply chain management. Each contribution is aimed at graduate students working in operations research, probability, and statistics.

Although several monographs and edited volumes have discussed scheduling in general, most of these works survey the field by contributing a single chapter to production systems like flow shops. "Flow Shop Scheduling: Theoretical Results, Algorithms, and Applications" is solely dedicated to bringing together a huge body of knowledge on the subject, along distinct design features, in order to help scholars and practitioners easily identify problems of interest. This monograph has been organized into ten distinct flow shop systems and explores their connections. The chapters cover flow shop systems including two-machine, flexible, stochastic, and more. Outside of the traditional flow shops that require a job never revisits any stage, this book also examines the reentrant flow shop, in which a job may cycle back and be reprocessed at the same station or sequence of stations, multiple times.
The authors have made the material accessible to a broad readership, using simplified notation and revealing unifying concepts. The results unique to flow shop research should provide the seed for research in other areas of scheduling and in optimization in general.

This book presents innovative theories, methodologies, and techniques in the field of risk management and decision making. It introduces new research developments and provides a comprehensive image of their potential applications to readers interested in the area. The collection includes: computational intelligence applications in decision making, multi-criteria decision making under risk, risk modelling,forecasting and evaluation, public security and community safety, risk management in supply chain and other business decision making, political risk management and disaster response systems. The book is directed to academic and applied researchers working on risk management, decision making, and management information systems.

Promptly growing demand for telecommunication services and information interchange has led to the fact that communication became one of the most dynamical branches of an infrastructure of a modern society. The book introduces to the bases of classical MDP theory; problems of a finding optimal CAC in models are investigated and various problems of improvement of characteristics of traditional and multimedia wireless communication networks are considered together with both classical and new methods of theory MDP which allow defining optimal strategy of access in teletraffic systems. The book will be useful to specialists in the field of telecommunication systems and also to students and post-graduate students of corresponding specialties.

This book reports on the development and validation of a generic defeasible logic programming framework for carrying out argumentative reasoning in Semantic Web applications (GF@SWA). The proposed methodology is unique in providing a solution for representing incomplete and/or contradictory information coming from different sources, and reasoning with it. GF@SWA is able to represent this type of information, perform argumentation-driven hybrid reasoning to resolve conflicts, and generate graphical representations of the integrated information, thus assisting decision makers in decision making processes. GF@SWA represents the first argumentative reasoning engine for carrying out automated reasoning in the Semantic Web context and is expected to have a significant impact on future business applications. The book provides the readers with a detailed and clear exposition of different argumentation-based reasoning techniques, and of their importance and use in Semantic Web applications. It addresses both academics and professionals, and will be of primary interest to researchers, students and practitioners in the area of Web-based intelligent decision support systems and their application in various domains.

Models & Methods for Project Selection systematically examines in this book treatment the latest work in the field of project selection modeling. The models presented are drawn from mathematical programming, decision theory, and finance. These models are examined in two categorical streams: the management science stream and the financial model stream. The book describes the assumptions and limitations of each model and provides appropriate solution methodologies. Its organization follows three main themes:
*Criteria for Choice: Chapters 1-3 investigate the effect of the choice of optimization criteria on the results of the portfolio optimization problem.
*Risk and Uncertainty: Chapters 4-7 deal with uncertainty in the project selection problem.
*Non-Linearity and Interdependence: These chapters deal with problems of non-linearity and interdependence as they arise in the project selection problem. Chapters 8, 9 and 10 present solution methodologies, which can be used to solve these most general project selection models.

This contributed volume contains fourteen papers based on selected presentations from the European Conference on Game Theory SING11-GTM 2015, held at Saint Petersburg State University in July 2015, and the Networking Games and Management workshop, held at the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Petrozvavodsk, Russia, also in July 2015. These papers cover a wide range of topics in game theory, including recent advances in areas with high potential for future work, as well as new developments on classical results. Some of these include A new approach to journal ranking using methods from social choice theory; A differential game of a duopoly in which two firms are competing for market share in an industry with network externalities; The impact of information propagation in the model of tax audits; A voting model in which the results of previous votes can affect the process of coalition formation in a decision-making body; The Selten-Szidarovsky technique for the analysis of Nash equilibria of games with an aggregative structure; Generalized nucleoli and generalized bargaining sets for games with restricted cooperation; Bayesian networks and games of deterrence; and A new look at the study of solutions for games in partition function form. The maturity and vitality of modern-day game theory are reflected in the new ideas, novel applications, and contributions of young researchers represented in this collection. It will be of interest to anyone doing theoretical research in game theory or working on one its numerous applications.

There are many good AI books. Usually they consecrate at most one or two chapters to the imprecision knowledge processing. To our knowledge this is among the few books to be entirely dedicated to the treatment of knowledge imperfection when bui- ing intelligent systems. We consider that an entire book should be focused on this important aspect of knowledge processing. The expected audience for this book - cludes undergraduate students in computer science, IT&C, mathematics, business, medicine, etc. , graduates, specialists and researchers in these fields. The subjects treated in the book include expert systems, knowledge representation, reasoning under knowledge Imperfection (Probability Theory, Possibility Theory, Belief Theory, and Approximate Reasoning). Most of the examples discussed in details throughout the book are from the medical domain. Each chapter ends with a set of carefully pe- gogically chosen exercises, which complete solution provided. Their understanding will trigger the comprehension of the theoretical notions, concepts and results. Chapter 1 is dedicated to the review of expert systems. Hence are briefly discussed production rules, structure of ES, reasoning in an ES, and conflict resolution. Chapter 2 treats knowledge representation. That includes the study of the differences between data, information and knowledge, logical systems with focus on predicate calculus, inference rules in classical logic, semantic nets and frames.

This volume consists of eight papers on new advances in interpolation theory for matrix functions and completion theory for matrices and operators. Much emphasis is placed on different interpolation and completion problems when the interpolant is estimated in two different norms. The book also focusses on the study of the spectra of different completions of 2 x 2 block matrices when originally all entries are specified except the lower left corner. A third theme concerns two-sided tangential interpolation problems for real rational matrix functions, and also for the time varying case. A tangential moment problem is also analyzed. All papers deal with related problems of modern matrix analysis, operator theory, complex analysis and system theory and will appeal to a wide group of mathematicians and engineers. The material can be used for advance courses and seminars. Contents: Editorial Introduction ? D. Alpay/P. Loubaton: The tangential trigonometric moment problem on an interval and related topics ? M. Bakonyi/V.G. Kaftal/G. Weiss/H.J. Woerdeman: Maximum entropy and joint norm bounds for operator extensions ? J.A. Ball/I. Gohberg/M.A. Kaashoek: Bitangential interpolation for input-output operators of time varying systems: the discrete time case ? J.A. Ball/I. Gohberg/L. Rodman: Two-sided tangential interpolation of real rational matrix functions ? H. Du/C. Gu: On the spectra of operator completion problems ? C. Foias/A.E. Frazho/W.S. Li: The exact H2 estimate for the central H interpolant ? A.E. Frazho/s.M. Kherat: On mixed H2 - H tangential interpolation ? I. Gohberg/C.Gu: On a completion problem for matrices

On one hand, marginals are complex organizational systems. On the other hand, they are an example of elegant, applied organizational operations. In The Marginal Organization, Tafoya focuses on organizations often described as part of an informal economy, informal sector, underground economy, or unofficial economy. He presents these systems first as organizations and then as organizations operating outside of society's mainstream, as marginal organizations. He outlines a means for studying marginals so that underlying behavioral patterns can be identified, examined and, if needed, addressed.
A simple approach to a study of marginal organizations might conclude they exist simply to meet the needs of their stakeholders - they do not. Thinking of marginals as competing in the context of other organizations allows the reader the opportunity to explore new themes, such as when and how marginals may be more inventive and innovative that mainstream organizations, and what one might conclude about illegal marginals like drug pushers and prostitutes. Tafoya's newest contribution to the field of organizational study is not to be missed.

This book gives a thorough and systematic introduction to the latest research results on hesitant fuzzy and its extensions decision making theory. It includes five chapters: Hesitant Fuzzy Set and its Extensions, Distance Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, Similarity Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, Entropy Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, and Application of Information Measures in Multiple Criteria Decision Making. These methodologies are also implemented in various fields such as decision making, medical diagnosis, cluster analysis, environmental management, etc. This book is suitable for the engineers, technicians, and researchers in the fields of fuzzy mathematics, operations research, information science and management science and engineering, etc. It can also be used as a textbook for postgraduate and senior-year undergraduate students of the relevant professional institutions of higher learning.

Grid Resource Management: State of the Art and Future Trends presents an overview of the state of the field and describes both the real experiences and the current research available today. Grid computing is a rapidly developing and changing field, involving the shared and coordinated use of dynamic, multi-institutional resources. Grid resource management is the process of identifying requirements, matching resources to applications, allocating those resources, and scheduling and monitoring Grid resources over time in order to run Grid applications as efficiently as possible.
While Grids have become almost commonplace, the use of good Grid resource management tools is far from ubiquitous because of the many open issues of the field, including the multiple layers of schedulers, the lack of control over resources, the fact that resources are shared, and that users and administrators have conflicting performance goals. These are the issues addressed in this book, in addition to elucidating the overlap with related areas including discussions of work with peer-to-peer computing, economic approaches, and operations research.
Grid Resource Management: State of the Art and Future Trends is an invaluable resource for today's user, application developer, or resource owners when working with Grid resource management systems.

"Hybrid Predictive Control for Dynamic Transport Problems" develops methods for the design of predictive control strategies for nonlinear-dynamic hybrid discrete-/continuous-variable systems. The methodology is designed for real-time applications, particularly the study of dynamic transport systems. Operational and service policies are considered, as well as cost reduction. The control structure is based on a sound definition of the key variables and their evolution. A flexible objective function able to capture the predictive behaviour of the system variables is described. Coupled with efficient algorithms, mainly drawn from area of computational intelligence, this is shown to optimize performance indices for real-time applications. The framework of the proposed predictive control methodology is generic and, being able to solve nonlinear mixed integer optimization problems dynamically, is readily extendable to other industrial processes.

The main topics of this book are:

. hybrid predictive control (HPC) design based on evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO);

. HPC based on EMO for dial-a-ride systems; and

. HPC based on EMO for operational decisions in public transport systems.

"Hybrid Predictive Control for Dynamic Transport Problems" is a comprehensive analysis of HPC and its application to dynamic transport systems. Introductory material on evolutionary algorithms is presented in summary in an appendix. The text will be of interest to control and transport engineers working on the operational optimization of transport systems and to academic researchers working with hybrid systems. The potential applications of the generic methods presented here to other process fields will make the book of interest to a wider group of researchers, scientists and graduate students working in other control-related disciplines."

The book focuses on a set of cutting-edge research techniques, highlighting the potential of soft computing tools in the analysis of economic and financial phenomena and in providing support for the decision-making process. In the first part the textbook presents a comprehensive and self-contained introduction to the field of self-organizing maps, elastic maps and social network analysis tools and provides necessary background material on the topic, including a discussion of more recent developments in the field. In the second part the focus is on practical applications, with particular attention paid to budgeting problems, market simulations, and decision-making processes, and on how such problems can be effectively managed by developing proper methods to automatically detect certain patterns. The book offers a valuable resource for both students and practitioners with an introductory-level college math background.

This book introduces methods for uncertain multi-attribute decision making including uncertain multi-attribute group decision making and their applications to supply chain management, investment decision making, personnel assessment, redesigning products, maintenance services, military system efficiency evaluation. Multi-attribute decision making, also known as multi-objective decision making with finite alternatives, is an important component of modern decision science. The theory and methods of multi-attribute decision making have been extensively applied in engineering, economics, management and military contexts, such as venture capital project evaluation, facility location, bidding, development ranking of industrial sectors and so on. Over the last few decades, great attention has been paid to research on multi-attribute decision making in uncertain settings, due to the increasing complexity and uncertainty of supposedly objective aspects and the fuzziness of human thought. This book can be used as a reference guide for researchers and practitioners working in e.g. the fields of operations research, information science, management science and engineering. It can also be used as a textbook for postgraduate and senior undergraduate students.

"This book provides a rigorous and comprehensive coverage of transportation models and planning methods and is a must-have to anyone in the transportation community, including students, teachers, and practitioners." Moshe Ben-Akiva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Control charts are widely used in industry to monitor processes that are far from Zero-Defect (ZD), and their use in a near Zero-Defect manufacturing environment poses many problems. This book presents techniques of using control charts for high-quality processes, and some recent findings and applications of statistical control chart techniques for ZD processes are presented.

A powerful technique based on counting of the cumulative conforming (CCC) items between two nonconforming ones is discussed in detail. Extensions of the CCC chart are described, as well as applications of cumulative sum and exponentially weighted moving average techniques to CCC-related data, multivariate methods, economic design of control chart procedures, and modeling and analysis of trended but regularly adjusted processes.

Many examples, charts, and procedures, are presented throughout the book, and references are provided for those interested in exploring the details. A number of questions and issues are posed for further investigations. Researchers and students may find many ideas in this book useful in their academic work, as a foundation is laid for the exploration of many further theoretical and practical issues.

This is a complete update of the first edition of Level Crossing Methods in Stochastic Models, which was published in 2008. Level crossing methods are a set of sample-path based mathematical tools used in applied probability to establish reliable probability distributions. Since the basis for solving any applied probability problem requires a reliable probability distribution, Level Crossing Methods in Stochastic Models, Second Edition is a useful tool for all researchers working on stochastic application problems, including inventory control, queueing theory, reliability theory, actuarial ruin theory, renewal theory, pharmacokinetics, and related Markov processes. The second edition includes a new section with a novel derivation of the Benes series for M/G/1 queues. It provides new results on the service time for three M/G/I queueing models with bounded workload. It analyzes new applications of queues where zero-wait customers get exceptional service, including several examples on M/G/1 queues, and a new section on G/M/1 queues. Additionally, there are two other important new sections: on the level-crossing derivation of the finite time-t probability distributions of excess, age, and total life, in renewal theory; and on a level-crossing analysis of a risk model in Insurance. The original Chapter 10 has been split into two chapters: the new chapter 10 is on renewal theory, and the first section of the new Chapter 11 is on a risk model. More explicit use is made of the renewal reward theorem throughout, and many technical and editorial changes have been made to facilitate readability. Percy H. Brill, Ph.D., is a Professor emeritus at the University of Windsor, Canada. Dr. Brill is the creator of the level crossing method for analyzing stochastic models. He has published extensively in stochastic processes, queueing theory and related models, especially using level crossing methods.

Knowledge Unplugged announces the results of a major survey of knowledge management practice within the most influential companies in the world, by the most influential management consultancy group in the world. The McKinsey Knowledge Management team interviewed top executives and also investigated how far their plans were implemented in practice, in 40 companies in the US, Europe and Japan. In many companies they discovered a significant gap between the vision at the top and the reality on the shop floor. Knowledge Unplugged draws together their findings and presents a practical guide to improving knowledge building and sharing at all levels within an organization, vividly illustrated with case studies of best practice and common pitfalls. They argue that knowledge management is much more than simply installing a new database and can only be successful when it is at the heart of everyday personal exchanges, personal incentives and personal responsibilities at every level of the firm.

This book explains the notational system NUSAP (Numeral, Unit, Spread, Assessment, Pedigree) and applies it to several examples from the environmental sciences. The authors are now making further extensions of NUSAP, including an algorithm for the propagation of quality-grades through models used in risk and safety studies. They are also developing the concept of Post-normal Science', in which quality assurance of information requires the participation of extended peer-communities' lying outside the traditional expertise.

The subject theory is important in finance, economics, investment strategies, health sciences, environment, industrial engineering, etc.