Pricing Communication Networks: Economics, Technology and Modelling (Wiley Interscience Series in Systems and Optimization)

Book Description

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.

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"Recent advances in technology, combined with the deregulation of the telecommunication market and the proliferation of the Internet, have created a highly competitive environment for communication service providers. There is no simple recipe for pricing network service contracts in all contexts. Pricing is a complex subject, which depends on parameters of the actual market - including the degree of competition and customer demand - and parameters of technology, such as resource consumption, network architecture, resource availability, and cost. Pricing Communication Networks: Economics, Technology and Modelling covers many important issues in providing new services, the relation between pricing and resource allocation in networks, and the emergence of the Internet and its pricing. It provides a framework of mathematical models for pricing multidimensional contracts with quality of service guarantees, and includes a useful background on network services and contracts, network technology, basic economics, and pricing strategy.Provides a broad overview of network services and contracts. Includes a primer on modern network technology a nd the economic concepts relevant to pricing and competition. Discusses mathematical models for multiplexing bursty traffic flows, and applies these to measuring network capability and deriving pricing strategies for services with statistical quality guarantees. Discusses definitions of cost for communication networks and explains the intricacies of cost-based pricing. Explains congestion pricing and its potential applications in the Internet. Illustrated throughout by detailed examples and figures. Includes coverage of specialist topics, such as regulation, multicasting, interconnection, and auctions. Pricing Communication Networks: Economics, Technology and Modelling is an essential reference for graduate students, researchers and practitioners from electrical engineering, computer science, economics and operations resear

Book Description

Women-owned businesses make up the fastest growing entrepreneurial sector in the American economy. Between 1975 and 1990, women started businesses at more than twice the rate of men. Women Entrepreneurs looks at 129 successful female entrepreneurs who previously worked in corporate environments. The book explores the driving forces that led these women to leave the organizational environment, the use of the organization as an incubator as a preparatory step in preparing for entrepreneurship, and the strategies employed by these entrepreneurs after the corporate leap. Initial difficulties encountered in starting the businesses are examined along with other important topics including entrepreneurial networking and how these women measure success in their own businesses. The book concludes with suggestions for future entrepreneurs and for organizations who wish to halt the mass exit of talented women from their corporate environments. Rich case scenarios enliven an informative profile of female entrepreneurs. Women Entrepreneurs will be invaluable to professors, students, and professionals interested in entrepreneurship, human resources, womenÆs studies, and career strategies.

Customer Reviews:

The best book in the field!.......2003-06-17

This is the best book available on women entrepreneurs!

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

Women entrepreneurs: Moving beyond the glass ceiling.(Review) (book review): An article from: Roeper Review

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Women entrepreneurs: Moving beyond the glass ceiling.(Review) (book review): An article from: Roeper Review
Celeste Rhodes
Manufacturer: The Roeper School
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008IXB0U
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Roeper Review, published by The Roeper School on June 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1121 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Women entrepreneurs: Moving beyond the glass ceiling.(Review) (book review)
Author: Celeste Rhodes
Publication: Roeper Review (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2000
Publisher: The Roeper School
Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Page: 274

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

In recent years, the development of biological pest control strategies has focused on the chemical profiles of insect-plant interactions. Plants exhibit an extensive range of defensive strategies, which include insect avoidance, deterrence and antibiosis. The need to overcome these vegetative defence responses has driven the evolution of an array of detoxifying mechanisms, which have become the hallmark of the phytophagous insects' chemical ecology. This volume presents the advances made on phytochemcial biopesticides, covering behavioural, chemical, biochemical and molecular levels of the field. The role of Phytochemicals in integrated pest management is also addressed, whilst discussing the problems and prospects of biopesticides for commercial exploitation. The volume provides a comprehensive overview for graduate students, research scientists and professionals in chemical ecology, insect-plant interactions, phytochemistry, chemistry and biochemistry of insects, and insect toxicology.

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Every generation has its charismatic spiritual leaders, its gurus. Some are true saints while others conceal unspeakable depravity. Anthony Storr, Oxford professor of psychiatry, analyzes an interesting array of gurus and finds many commonalities among them--an isolated childhood, a need for certainty, a demand for obedience. He also elucidates aspects of this psychological profile in various intellectual, artistic, and political figures of history. This eye-opening book invokes a larger issue: in our search for guidance and truth, when and why do we cross the line from reasoned inquirer to unquestioning follower?

Book Description

An eye-opening investigation of charismatic "gurus" from Jesus to Freud to David Koresh, by the author of "Solitude: A Return to the Self". In "Feet of Clay", eminent psychologist Anthony Storr uncovers the personality traits that link these men and explores the incredible power they have wielded over their fanatical followers. 11 photos.

Customer Reviews:

not as good as I expected.......2005-09-09

I hoped for a better, more informative, more readable book than I got. I did get a little bit of the psychological traits that lead to the making of a guru and how to predict the "good from the bad", which was the goal of the book. Somehow I just felt unfullfilled, like a meal that wasn't that hot.

interesting but seems light on substance.......2005-04-19

I picked up this book on "a study of gurus" after reading about it in John Horgan's excellent book, Rational Mysticism. The book is composed of biographical sketches of a number of gurus--Gurdjieff, Rasjneesh, Rudolf Steiner, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Ignatius Loyola, and Jesus, with occasional remarks about others such as Jim Jones and David Koresh. Storr attempts to identify commonalities among gurus--egocentric, experiencing some kind of personal crisis or madness, re-integrating their personality after the crisis, creating worldviews independent of what was socially accepted, seeking the approval of followers, etc. He distinguishes within the category of gurus between those who act ethically (the saints) from those who are corrupt and abuse their followers (the sinners and the madmen).

The remaining chapters of the book examine some of the features identified in the biographical sections in more detail and concludes with a final chapter about those who follow gurus, and the benefits they receive from such a relationship.

The book was quite readable, but I found it remarkably light-weight--it seems entirely like armchair theorizing, without the benefit of any kind of detailed scientific research. I learned about the specific gurus described, but I didn't feel like I learned anything solid about what the conditions are that create them, their effects on the world, or how to wean people away from them.

An insightful book.......2003-09-18

I am a medical student and I have been reading some of Dr Storr's books. This one about Gurus. Obviously having all the great people and especially Jesus Christ criticized, in one book, wouldnt be easy. I think Dr Storr is trying to analyse each one of them from views on their personalities, psychodynamics and bahviours which is how exactly psychiatrists look at everyone in the world in order to be objective, and still in a humane way afterall. To me Dr Storr's writings are insightful and very humane, not only in this book of his.

Some readers may find it sad to have their own Guru being criticised. But one relieving point is that you can still appreciate and believe in any man's preachings even you find out that he is not perfect as a person. So yes, if you are not such an ultimate disciple of any of the gurus the author is describing, this book is recommanded.

A Close Look at the Spiritual Gurus.......2003-04-25

I do not agree with the other reviewer's comments; I think Starr does quite a thorough analysis of the 'gurus', whom he has chosen from a large scope of times and nations. I agree that it is not very scholarly; and furthermore it has a 'conversating' atmosphere to it. But I personally like it that way. It's clear and intelligible. Why make it seem profound, for the sake of looking more important?

The book has eleven chapters. Anthony Starr describes a couple of gurus, whom he identifies as people who declare themselves the experts of life. Gurddjieff, Rajneeh, Rudolf Steiner, and the two leading psychologists Jung and Freud are among these. It becomes interesting when there's seemingly different people.

Starr has a degree in psychiatry, and he's been a professor at Oxford, a distinguished psychiatrist in the English society, as well as honor members of the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists. To deny his achievements and knowledge, would simply be not right.

His writing is flowing. The whole book is like a long story, but definitely not a long and boring story. His writing consists of his presentation of the gurus with references from other writers and his personal comments in between, which I find quite logical.

The book changed my view over prophets and beliefs. Now I know the reasons why we have major religions, and why some are the only figures in religion. I now recognise the other gurus.

It was also interesting to know about the secrets of Jung's psychological sickness at his late age, in addition to how Freud was driven to become the Freud we know of him.

This book is worth reading every single page. It's a good analysis, and a good story.

Study? Cheap journalism in a cloak of florid prose........2002-12-21

This book is a typical example of what one of its subjects (Gurdjieff) would have described as armchair philosophy, i.e. someone with no practical experience of what they're writing about dreams up an idea in the comfort of their own home, creates an extremely shallow thesis and finds "victims" to fit into it, be they they Jesus Christ, Gurdjieff or Jim Jones.
The chapter on Gurdjieff in particular is utterly awful, using the cheap journalistic trick of taking things so wildly out of context that Storr presents a case for Gurdjieff being almost the opposite of what he was. An in-depth study of the wide range of literature about Gurdjieff would not only counter Storr's rather feeble arguments, but utterly decimate them. Storr simply does not understand Gurdjieff. This is not an opinion based on reading, but on practical experience of Gurdjieff's methods as taught by some of Gurdjieff's former pupils, now extremely elderly and still displaying a perspicacity, intelligence and understanding which, in no small part, has been developed as a result of their contact with Gurdjieff when young.

Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus

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Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus

Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GX0ZWY

Book Description

Although it has been more than 75 years since he last laced up his spikes, Ty Cobb remains arguably the greatest player in the long history of baseball. Certainly the Detroit Tigers outfielder remains the most controversial. He hit .367 over 24 seasons (1905-1928), won a dozen batting titles, and was the first man elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. But it was his blowtorch personality that set the "Georgia Peach" apart from all others.

Customer Reviews:

Ty Cobb--A Complex Personality.......2005-12-06

As author Richard Bak points out Ty Cobb was a complex personality. The traumatic death of his father when Tyrus was 19 years old, having been shot by his Ty's mother who maintained she thought he was a burgler entering a window of the house at night would be enough to traumatize anyone, let alone a 19 year old boy. This, in addition to the hazing from teammates, may well have scarred his personality to an extent that he saw the devil in whoever he met. Cobb was determined to succeed when he found himself in such circumstances. It is undoubtedly true that he was a racist. However, most major league players were from the south during this time period and held equally racist attitudes, hall of famers such as Speaker, Hornsby, and Anson included. Author Richard Bak makes a convincing case regarding Al Stump's not knowing Ty Cobb as well as he claimed to know him when writing Cobb's life story, "My Life in Baseball: The True Record". That Cobb was not well liked by many players is undoubtedly true, but he had his sentimental side as well. His two wives divorced him and his children didn't feel close to him and even feared his temper rages. One anecdote: Neal Conway, the head groundskeeper in Detroit, idolized Ty Cobb and saw to it that every one of his needs were met. At the end of the season Conway was invited to join Cobb downtown to accept a gift of Cobb's appreciation. The admirer was given a box the size of which suggested a wrist watch. Cobb had to leave immediately for Georgia. Neal quickly opened the gift and found a tube of Colgate toothpaste. I feel the author presented both sides of Ty Cobb, but I found a glaring error that really is inexcusable. On page 107 the author states "Speaker (Tris) was good enough to join Ty in the Hall of Fame's inaugural class of inductees." Cobb was a charter member of the Hall of Fame along with Ruth, Wagner, Mathewson, and Johnson. These five were elected in 1936. Speaker was elected in 1937. I have to knock off a star for this error.

The Best Book on Ty Cobb Ever........2005-08-16

Richard Bak is one of the best sportwriters working today, and his other books on early 20th-century baseball show his comprehensive knowledge and remarkable insight into the era and its players. (He's even done an illustrated history of Casey Stengel--now, that's deep history.) This book has some wonderful images, and the writing is up to Mr. Bak's standards, which is to say, excellent. Cobb's story is an amazing one, and Mr. Bak tells it well. This book was hard to put down once I started reading it.

It's been rumored that he's been working on a long-awaited book on the Dead Ball era, and I for one can't wait.

A slice of unforgettable sports history .......2005-06-08

Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours is a coffee table biography of one of baseball's greatest players, who hit .367 over 24 seasons (1905-1928), won a dozen batting titles, and was the first man elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb was well known for his intense and changeable personality, rivalries, and petty jealousies; but author Richard Bak reveals a side of Ty Cobb less discussed... a man who came to the aid of down-and-out ballplayers, founded a hospital system and educational foundation which remain successful after a half-century, and who came to terms with his own tarnished legend. Published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ty Cobb's baseball debut, and featuring over 150 rarely seen black-and-white photographs, Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours is a slice of unforgettable sports history and a "must-have" for fans of great baseball figures throughout history.

Book Description

This volume brings together Bourdieu's highly original writings on language and on the relations among language, power, and politics. Bourdieu develops a forceful critique of traditional approaches to language, including the linguistic theories of Saussure and Chomsky and the theory of speech-acts elaborated by Austin and others. He argues that language should he viewed not only as a means of communication but also as a medium of power through which individuals pursue their own interests and display their practical competence.

Drawing on the concepts that are part of his distinctive theoretical approach. Bourdieu maintains that linguistic utterances or expressions can be understood as the product of the relation between a linguistic market" and it "linguistic habitus." When individuals use language in particular ways, they deploy their accumulated linguistic resources and implicitly adapt their words to the demands of the social held or market that is their audience. Hence every linguistic interaction, however personal or insignificant it may seem, hears the traces of the social structure that it both expresses and helps to reproduce.

Bourdieu's account sheds fresh light on the ways in which linguistic usage varies according to considerations such as class and gender. It also opens up a new approach to the ways in which language is used in the domain of politics. For politics is, among other things, the arena in which words are deeds and the symbolic character of power is at stake.

This volume, by one of the leading social thinkers in the world today, represents a major contribution to the study of language and power. It will be of interest to students throughout the social sciences and humanities, especially in sociology, politics, anthropology, linguistics, and literature.

Customer Reviews:

Sociology and Language.......2003-06-03

Bourdieu's point is not to explore linguistics but rather to explore the larger impact that language has on shaping symbols, meaning and power in the social context. Symbolic interactionists and conflict theorists would probally find this book to be a great read.

abstract but has a lot of potential.......2001-09-14

This book will most likely not appeal to US students in linguistics. Because Bourdieu deals with rather abstract concepts which cover a lot of social ground (e.g., symbolic, cultural, economic capital, field, etc.)and not enough linguistic ground, some linguists will have trouble applying concepts to the actual production of speech at the phonological, morpho-syntactic, pragmatic and discourse level. He never really deals with actual production of language by speakers, so it creates a lot of work for the reader to fill in the details of what, for example, an actual linguistic habitus might look like, what its dispositions might be, and how they might be coordinated in their habitus set.
However, unlike many US linguists, he assumes there is an empirical connection between language use and larger social domains; furthermore, he is able to explain the way power often operates through exclusion and devaluation (dialect analysis). One of the less abstract chapters, the chapter on Searle, is excellent. Bourdieu accurately locates the efficacy of the speech act, not in the functional form of the utterances, such as christening, ordering, requesting, etc., but in the recognition by all involved that the agent who produces the speech act has the right to be obeyed and that the material circumstances of the speech act are appropriate. Mary Jane down the street and the mayor of NY may christen a new warship using the exact same functional words, but the power of those words depends on our recognition that, in this example, the mayor, not just anybody, has the authority to name. Bourdieu masterfully argues this point, and I would recommend reading that chapter first for its accessibility and accuracy in pointing out that the extra-linguistic is as much linguistic as the linguistic.

A Paradigm for Program Semantics: Power Structures and Duality (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes)

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A Paradigm for Program Semantics: Power Structures and Duality (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes)
Chris Brink , and Ingrid Rewitsky
Manufacturer: Center for the Study of Language and Inf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This book provides a synthesis of four versions of program semantic--srelational semantics, predicate transformer semantics, information systems, and domain theory--showing, through an exhaustive case study analysis, that it is possible to do back-and-forth translation from any of these versions of program semantics into any of the others, and demonstrating that while there are many variations of each, in principle they may be thought of as intertranslatable.

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Suze has gotten used to ghosts. She's a mediator, after all, and communicating with the dead is all in a day's work. So she certainly never expected to fall in love with one: Jesse, a nineteenth- century hottie. But when she discovers that she has the power to determine who becomes a ghost in the first place, Suze begins to freak. It means she can alter the course of history ... andprevent Jesse's murder, keeping him from ever becoming a ghost -- and from ever meeting Suze.

Will Jesse choose to live without her, or die to love her?

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Suze has gotten used to ghosts. They wake her up in the middle of the night. They haunt her locker at school. She's even spotted a few down at Carmel Beach. Suze is a mediator, after all, and communicating with the dead is all in a day's work for her. The last thing she ever expected was to fall in love with one: Jesse, a nineteenth-century hottie.

But when she and Paul Slater, himself a mediator of undeniable power (and dubious intent), discover that the powers they share aren't limited to helping ghosts resolve their earthly woes, but can also be used to determine whether or not they become ghosts in the first place, Suze can't help but freak. Not because she suddenly knows how to alter the course of history, but because Paul can, too. And Paul would like nothing better than to prevent Jesse's murder, keeping him from becoming a ghost and allowing him to live a natural life at last ... but in the nineteenth century. Meaning Jesse and Suze would never meet.

Suddenly, Suze is faced with the most important decision of her life: allow the only guy she's ever loved to have the life he's always longed for ... or keep him anchored forever in half-life at her side. Will Jesse choose to live without her, or die to love her?

Customer Reviews:

the mediator 6.......2007-07-14

I love the mediator books so much and I want them to go to book seven maybe even ten. I've gotten addicted to them and I don't want them to end at 6.

Mediator # 6 Twilight.......2007-07-13

The story line continues and this book is just as exciting and exhiliarating as the rest in this series. I would highly recommend this book and the previous in this series. Excellent read!!!!

Good, but not the best in the series........2007-06-13

This series is a lot of fun to read, but I did feel that the ending was a little too perfect. Everything tied up in a perfect bow. Throughout the book, I felt that the story was lacking a good central plot to work around. From the beginning, we knew Paul was up to something, and shortly after, we knew what it was, but for some reason, Suze couldn't figure out the obvious. Suze was just confused and unsure and shallow most of this book which is very unlike her character. However, the ending was just what the reader would wnat and I am very glad I read the book. I liked the series so much I had to read all of it in one week. Read it, but it isn't the best in the series, but you'll be happy with the ending. I am left wanting to understand Paul better, but maybe that is for another series. :)

V.Z........2007-01-25

I thought the sixth and final book in the mediator books was an awesome book. It solved all the questions I had about what was going to happen in the end, and it answered them in a very unexpected and extremely pleasing way. I totally recommend this book, but I recommend reading the first five Mediator books before reading this one so you have a better idea of what is going on.

Great Book!!!!.......2006-11-07

This is one of my all-time favorite books! I LOVE Meg Cabot and ALL of her books! I highly recommend reading this! But make sure you read the 5 before this one or it'll be ruined! Really read this book! It's great!

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The Mediator #6: Twilight (Mediator)
Meg Cabot
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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