Resource Allocation with Observable and Unobservable Environments

Resource Allocation with Observable and Unobservable Environments
Author: Santiago Duran
Publisher:
Total Pages: 115
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

This thesis studies resource allocation problems in large-scale stochastic networks. We work on problems where the availability of resources is subject to time fluctuations, a situation that one may encounter, for example, in load balancing systems or in wireless downlink scheduling systems. The time fluctuations are modelled considering two types of processes, controllable processes, whose evolution depends on the action of the decision maker, and environment processes, whose evolution is exogenous. The stochastic evolution of the controllable process depends on the the current state of the environment. Depending on whether the decision maker observes the state of the environment, we say that the environment is observable or unobservable. The mathematical formulation used is the Markov Decision Processes (MDPs).The thesis follows three main research axes. In the first problem we study the optimal control of a Multi-armed restless bandit problem (MARBP) with an unobservable environment. The objective is to characterise the optimal policy for the controllable process in spite of the fact that the environment cannot be observed. We consider the large-scale asymptotic regime in which the number of bandits and the speed of the environment both tend to infinity. In our main result we establish that a set of priority policies is asymptotically optimal. We show that, in particular, this set includes Whittle index policy of a system whose parameters are averaged over the stationary behaviour of the environment. In the second problem, we consider an MARBP with an observable environment. The objective is to leverage information on the environment to derive an optimal policy for the controllable process. Assuming that the technical condition of indexability holds, we develop an algorithm to compute Whittle's index. We then apply this result to the particular case of a queue with abandonments. We prove indexability, and we provide closed-form expressions of Whittle's index. In the third problem we consider a model of a large-scale storage system, where there are files distributed across a set of nodes. Each node breaks down following a law that depends on the load it handles. Whenever a node breaks down, all the files it had are reallocated to other nodes. We study the evolution of the load of a single node in the mean-field regime, when the number of nodes and files grow large. We prove the existence of the process in the mean-field regime. We further show the convergence in distribution of the load in steady state as the average number of files per node tends to infinity.

Modeling Risk Management for Resources and Environment in China

Modeling Risk Management for Resources and Environment in China
Author: Desheng Dash Wu
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 559
Release: 2011-07-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3642183875

This edited volume expands the scope of risk management beyond finance to include resources and environment issues in China. It presents the state-of-the-art approaches of using risk management to effectively manage resources and environment. Both case studies and theoretical methodologies are discussed.

Policy Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resource Management

Policy Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resource Management
Author: Thomas Sterner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 707
Release: 2013-10-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317703863

Thomas Sterner's book is an attempt to encourage more widespread and careful use of economic policy instruments. The book compares the accumulated experiences of the use of economic policy instruments in the U.S. and Europe, as well as in rich and poor countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Ambitious in scope, it discusses the design of instruments that can be employed in any country in a wide range of contexts, including transportation, industrial pollution, water pricing, waste, fisheries, forests, and agriculture. While deeply rooted in economics, Policy Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resource Management is informed by political, legal, ecological, and psychological research. The new edition enhances what has already been widely hailed as a highly innovative work. The book includes greatly expanded coverage of climate change, covering aspects related to policy design, international equity and discounting, voluntary carbon markets, permit trading in United States, and the Clean Development Mechanism. Focusing ever more on leading ideas in both theory and policy, the new edition brings experimental economics into the main of its discussions. It features expanded coverage of the monitoring and enforcement of environmental policy, technological change, the choice of policy instruments under imperfect competition, and subjects such as corporate social responsibility, bio-fuels, payments for ecosystem services, and REDD.

Real-Time Management of Resource Allocation Systems

Real-Time Management of Resource Allocation Systems
Author: Spyros A. Reveliotis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2006-07-18
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0387239677

Real-Time Management of Resource Allocation Systems focuses on the problem of managing the resource allocation taking place within the operational context of many contemporary technological applications, including flexibly automated production systems, automated railway and/or monorail transportation systems, electronic workflow management systems, and business transaction supporting systems. A distinct trait of all these applications is that they limit the role of the human element to remote high-level supervision, while placing the burden of the real-time monitoring and coordination of the ongoing activity upon a computerized control system. Hence, any applicable control paradigm must address not only the issues of throughput maximization, work-in-process inventory reduction, and delay and cost minimization, that have been the typical concerns for past studies on resource allocation, but it must also guarantee the operational correctness and the behavioral consistency of the underlying automated system. The resulting problem is rather novel for the developers of these systems, since, in the past, many of its facets were left to the jurisdiction of the present human intelligence. It is also complex, due to the high levels of choice – otherwise known as flexibility – inherent in the operation of these environments.

Solution of Large-Scale Allocation Problems with Partially Observable Outcomes

Solution of Large-Scale Allocation Problems with Partially Observable Outcomes
Author: Kirk A. Yost
Publisher:
Total Pages: 190
Release: 1998-09-01
Genre: Linear programming
ISBN: 9781423557135

We develop methods for optimally solving problems that require allocating scarce resources among activities that either gather information on a set of objects or take actions to change their status. Also, the information we gather on the outcomes of the actions we take may be erroneous. The latter situation is called partial observability, and methodology available prior to this dissertation is combinatorially intractable for problems with more than one object. We use two previously-uncombined methods - linear programming (LP) and partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) - to construct a decomposition procedure to solve the resulting large-scale allocation problem with partially observable outcomes. We show theoretically that this procedure is both optimal and finite; in addition, we develop improvements to the procedure that reduce runtimes on test problems by 95%. We demonstrate the procedure on a small targeting problem with a known analytical solution, as well as a large- scale military example concerned with allocating aircraft sorties, weapons, and bomb-damage assessment sensors to targets. Finally, we develop analytical bounds on the expected objective function values of a related allocation problem with more stringent resource constraints, and present a simulation-based approach to estimate the distributions of the outcomes for that model.

Resource-Allocation Behavior

Resource-Allocation Behavior
Author: Harvey J. Langholtz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2002-09-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9781402072277

Despite the increasing necessity for information on allocating dwindling resources, resource-allocation behavior is not nearly so well understood as choice behavior (selection from two or more already defined alternatives, events, or lotteries.) Although there have been scores of books devoted to the optimal model for making resource-allocation decisions there has never been a book discussing the cognitive aspects of this behavior. This book answers the question of how people make such decisions while explaining how Linear Programming can be applied within the context of resource-allocation. It also takes the reader step-by-step into several types of problems under varying conditions, including harsh and benign environments, maximization and minimization, multi-dimensional, and cyclical problems.

Decision Making for the Environment

Decision Making for the Environment
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2005-05-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309165393

With the growing number, complexity, and importance of environmental problems come demands to include a full range of intellectual disciplines and scholarly traditions to help define and eventually manage such problems more effectively. Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities is the result of a 2-year effort by 12 social and behavioral scientists, scholars, and practitioners. The report sets research priorities for the social and behavioral sciences as they relate to several different kinds of environmental problems.

Contemporary Perspectives in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior

Contemporary Perspectives in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior
Author: Riann Singh
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2023-05-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3031302257

This book aims to address one of the key challenges facing Human Resource Management (HRM) and Organizational Behavior (OB) researchers. It delves into contemporary topics from which focused research models, ideas, and questions can be developed and tested. HRM and OB are closely related and intersect each other in the examination of practices, which are aimed at managing employees and explaining their behaviors. Proposing to provide researchers with easy access to a slew of contemporary research advancements within the field, this work explores ten contemporary research areas within HRM and OB. Topics include innovative HRM/OB responses in crises, alternative work arrangements for the contemporary workplace, employee mental health, from diversity to inclusion in the workplace, workplace harassment, HRM in small and medium enterprises, alternative perspectives in employee turnover, organizational citizenship and counter-productive work behaviors, leading for work engagement, and employee motivation in a changing environment. Providing researchers with a comprehensive overview of research advances within selected contemporary areas, this book seeks to spur critical thinking, spark alternative research perspectives, innovate extensions to existing theories, and provide the foundation from which focused research can grow and develop within these management fields.

Benefit Transfer of Environmental and Resource Values

Benefit Transfer of Environmental and Resource Values
Author: Robert J. Johnston
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2015-06-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 940179930X

This book provides a comprehensive review of environmental benefit transfer methods, issues and challenges, covering topics relevant to researchers and practitioners. Early chapters provide accessible introductory materials suitable for non-economists. These chapters also detail how benefit transfer is used within the policy process. Later chapters cover more advanced topics suited to valuation researchers, graduate students and those with similar knowledge of economic and statistical theory and methods. This book provides the most complete coverage of environmental benefit transfer methods available in a single location. The book targets a wide audience, including undergraduate and graduate students, practitioners in economics and other disciplines looking for a one-stop handbook covering benefit transfer topics and those who wish to apply or evaluate benefit transfer methods. It is designed for those both with and without training in economics

Management

Management
Author: Christopher P. Neck
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2020-11-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1544351224

Management, Third Edition introduces students to the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling functions of management with an emphasis on how managers can cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. The text includes 34 cases profiling a wide range of companies including Lululemon, Nintendo, Netflix, Trader Joe’s, and the NBA. Authors Christopher P. Neck, Jeffrey D. Houghton, and Emma L. Murray use a variety of examples, applications, and insights from real-world managers to help students develop the knowledge, mindset, and skills they need to succeed in today’s fast-paced, dynamic workplace. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package. Contact your SAGE representative to request a demo. Digital Option / Courseware SAGE Vantage is an intuitive digital platform that delivers this text’s content and course materials in a learning experience that offers auto-graded assignments and interactive multimedia tools, all carefully designed to ignite student engagement and drive critical thinking. Built with you and your students in mind, it offers simple course set-up and enables students to better prepare for class. Learn more. Assignable Video with Assessment Assignable video (available with SAGE Vantage) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life. Watch a sample video now. Assignable Self-Assessments Assignable self-assessments (available with SAGE Vantage) allow students to engage with the material in a more meaningful way that supports learning. LMS Cartridge Import this title’s instructor resources into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Don’t use an LMS? You can still access all of the same online resources for this title via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site. Learn more.