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Intelligent Media Technology for Communicative Intelligence ; 2nd International Workshop, IMTCI 2004, Warsaw, Poland, September 13-14, 2004. Revised Selected Papers
The 2nd Workshop on Intelligent Media Technology for Communicative Intelligence commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology in Warsaw aimed to explore the current research topics in the ?eld of int- ligent media technologies for communicative intelligence. Communicative intelligence represents a new challenge towards building a sup- intelligence on the ubiquitous global network by accumulating a huge amount of - man andknowledgeresources.The term "communicativeintelligence"re?ects the view that communication is at the very core of intelligence and its creation. Communication permits novel ideas to emerge from intimate interactions by multiple agents, ranging from collaboration to competition. The recent advance of information and commu- cation technologies has established an information infrastructure that allows humans and artifacts to communicate with each other beyond space and time. It enables us to advance a step further to realize a communicative intelligence with many fruitful applications. Intelligentmediatechnologiesattempttocaptureandaugmentpeople’scommuni- tive activities by embedding computers into the environment to enhance interactions in an unobtrusive manner. The introduction of embodied conversational agents that might mediate conversations among people in a social context is the next step in the p- cess. The scope of intelligent media technologies includes design and development of intelligent supports for content production, distribution, and utilization, since rich c- tent is crucial for communication in many applications. The promising applications of intelligence media technologies include e-learning, knowledge management systems, e-democracy, and other communication-intensivesubject domains.
Integration in Asia and Europe : Historical Dynamics, Political Issues, and Economic Perspectives
This book critically analyses the economic and institutional changes in both Europe and Asia. There is considerable potential for instability, but one also finds regional growth opportunities. Comparative policy analysis and evaluation of various cooperation strategies are presented. Emphasis is on banking, financial market dynamics, ICT, and macroeconomic policies as well as trade, energy, and environmental issues.
Integrated Capacity and Price Control in Revenue Management : A Fuzzy System Approach
Due to tough competition and increased customer-orientation, companies must improve their management of revenue objectives. In the context of a fluctuating demand and the unknown price behaviour of customers, the practice-oriented development of a revenue management approach for an integrated control of capacities and prices becomes essential. Michael Becher develops a concept for an integrated capacity and price control in revenue management. His concept is based on fuzzy expert controllers and complies with the defined business and application requirements. The resulting approach is evaluated in three applications: capacity control in waste incineration industry, price control in hotels and integrated capacity and price control in goods distribution. The results show that the amount of coverage can be increased due to the application of the proposed concept.
Insurance intermediation : An economic analysis of the information services market
Insurance intermediaries can help consumers to economize on information and transaction costs in insurance markets. However, competing intermediaries provide heterogeneous information services, which are difficult to assess by incompletely informed consumers. Conduct and performance in the market for insurance information services are analyzed by applying search theoretical and industrial organization approaches. Based on a sample of 927 insurance intermediaries, the factors that affect the quality of the information services provided by them are studied empirically. The results obtained support the main hypotheses derived from industrial organization theories as to the poor working of quality competition under incomplete and asymmetric information on the side of consumers.
Institutions, Equilibria and Efficiency: Essays in Honor of Birgit Grodal
Competition and efficiency is at the core of economic theory. This volume collects papers of leading scholars, which extend the conventional general equilibrium model in important ways: Efficiency and price regulation are studied when markets are incomplete and existence of equilibria in such settings is proven under very general preference assumptions. The model is extended to include geographical location choice, a commodity space incorporating manufacturing imprecision and preferences for club-membership, schools and firms.
Innovation, Industrial Dynamics and Structural Transformation : Schumpeterian Legacies
This book provides an account of work in the Schumpeterian and evolutionary tradition of industrial dynamics and the evolution of industries. It is shown that over time industries evolve and change their structure. In this dynamic process change is affected and sometimes constraint by many factors: knowledge and technologies, the capabilities and incentives of actors, new products and processes, and institutions. All these elements and their relations drive innovative activities and affect economic performance in an industry. Investigations into these complex phenomena show a deep interdependence between empirical work delivering a rich account of regularities and stylized facts in the structure of industries and their change, and theoretical analyses ranging from appreciate theorizing to formal modeling.
Innovation Matters : Competition Policy for the High-Technology Economy
A proposal for moving from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy, reviewing theory and available evidence on economic incentives for innovation. Competition policy and antitrust enforcement have traditionally focused on prices rather than innovation. Economic theory shows the ways that price competition benefits consumers, and courts, antitrust agencies, and economists have developed tools for the quantitative evaluation of price impacts. Antitrust law does not preclude interventions to encourage innovation, but over time the interpretation of the laws has raised obstacles to enforcement policies for innovation. In this book, economist Richard Gilbert proposes a shift from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy. Antitrust enforcement should be concerned with protecting incentives for innovation and preserving opportunities for dynamic, rather than static, competition. In a high-technology economy, Gilbert argues, innovation matters.
Improving Healthcare : A Dose of Competition
Improving Healthcare: A Dose of Competition systematically examines the American health care system from a competition-oriented perspective. The volume surveys the performance of each major sector of the health care system, and identifies impediments to more effective competition. Improving Healthcare examines such issues as competition v. regulation, public and private sector approaches to health care financing, cross-subsidies, licensure, provider market concentration, financial and clinical integration, payment for performance, quality, pharmacy benefit managers, direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals, certificates of need, mandates, unionization, the significance of organizational status (nonprofit v. for-profit), and the role of antitrust and consumer protection in health care. It offers concrete recommendations to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of the American health care marketplace.
Homo Oeconomicus : The Economic Model of Behaviour and Its Applications in Economics and Other Social Sciences
The economic model of behaviour is fundamental not only in economic theory, but also in modern approaches of other social sciences, above all in political science and law. This book provides a comprehensive treatise of the general model, its philosophical and methodological foundations and its applications in different fields. In addition to the basic model, extensions to its assumptions are examined to account for complex applications like low-cost situations with moral behaviour. Finally, the book takes a broader perspective by evaluating the impact of the model on economic policy and on the development of the field of social science as a whole, such as the competition between individualistic and collectivist approaches.
High Noon in the Automotive Industry
The book provides valuable information in an understandable style and entertaining form, but also makes clear statements on the tough consequences of global competition for the automotive manufacturers and the supply industry. Recommended reading for everyone in risk and asset management in the financial industry.
Handbook of Marketing Decision Models
The HANDBOOK OF MARKETING DECISION MODELS presents the state of the art in marketing decision models, dealing with new modeling areas such as customer relationship management, customer value and online marketing, but also describes recent developments in other areas. In the category of marketing mix models, the latest models for advertising, sales promotions, sales management, and competition are dealt with. New developments are presented in consumer decision models, models for return on marketing, marketing management support systems, and in special techniques such as time series and neural nets. Not only are the most recent models discussed, but the book also pays attention to the implementation of marketing models in companies and to applications in specific industries.
Guardians of public value : How public organisations become and remain institutions
This book presents case studies of twelve organisations which the public have come to view as institutions. From the BBC to Doctors Without Borders, from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra to CERN, this volume examines how some organisations rise to prominence and remain in high public esteem through changing and challenging times
Global Price Fixing
The book describes and analyzes the formation, operation, and impacts of modern global cartels. It provides a broad picture of the economics, competition law and history of international price fixing. A deeper understanding of the phenomenon is afforded by intensive case studies of collusion in the markets for lysine, citric acid, and vitamins. Particular attention is given to the economic injuries sustained by the cartels' customers. The author assesses whether antitrust enforcement by the European Union, the United States, and other countries is capable of deterring cartels in the foreseeable future.
Global antitrust and sustainability : Law, economics, enforcement
Investigates how competition law and competition authorities around the world deal with sustainability. It covers, economics, law, and enforcement matters. The book also sets out the basics of the concept of sustainability that are necessary for competition lawyers to work with such matters. It explores what economics has to say about the relationship between sustainability and competition.
Fundamental approaches to software engineering ; 23rd International Conference, FASE 2020, Held as Part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2020, Dublin, Ireland, April 25–30, 2020, Proceedings
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, FASE 2020, which took place in Dublin, Ireland, in April 2020, and was held as Part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2020. The 23 full papers, 1 tool paper and 6 testing competition papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 81 submissions.
Functional Equations and How to Solve Them
This book covers topics in the theory and practice of functional equations. Special emphasis is given to methods for solving functional equations that appear in mathematics contests, such as the Putnam competition and the International Mathematical Olympiad. This book will be of particular interest to university students studying for the Putnam competition, and to high school students working to improve their skills on mathematics competitions at the national and international level. Mathematics educators who train students for these competitions will find a wealth of material for training on functional equations problems.
Foresight and Design: Composing Future Places
Every plan, pro-forma, design, building contract, and construction schedule is a proposal about future places. To help improve such proposals, Foresight and Design: Composing Future Places presents conceptual tools to inform design and outline the need for designers to rigorously think about potential futures. Our built compositions are constantly transforming due to continuing urbanization, demographic shifts, climate change, the evolution of virtual worlds, economic and health disparities, and other unforeseen trends. Five brief case studies interspersed between the chapters serve as examples of practitioners exercising foresight through these practices. Contributions include a description of a regional design process in Afghanistan by Anthony Fettes of Sasaki Architects, and an exploration into the Indigenous Futurism model-making competition by Anjelica Gallegos.
Fiscal state aid law and harmful tax competition in the European Union
Offers an in-depth analysis of EU fiscal state aid in relation to harmful tax competition , Examines the legal concept of fiscal state aid under Article 107(1) of the TFEU and provides an up-to-date account of its definitional aspects , Covers all recent Commission decisions and investigations into tax schemes and individual tax rulings
Financial Privacy : An International Comparison of Credit Reporting Systems
This book provides the first in-depth analysis of the economics and regulation of financial privacy. It is an international comparison of credit reporting systems in the United States and in European countries. On the theoretical level the book explains competition in information markets, especially in markets for goods made of highly personal and sensitive information. It reviews the microeconomics of information and privacy and discusses the economic incentives to disclose or to conceal information. The book also focuses on the institutions of credit reporting, the history of credit reporting agencies and the regulation of privacy and credit reporting on both sides of the Atlantic as well as internationally. Finally, on the empirical level, it reviews the microeconomic and potential macroeconomic effects of credit reporting in the credit markets of countries around the world.
Ferro- and Antiferroelectricity : Order/Disorder versus Displacive
Solid-state systems are frequently classi?ed according to their physical, str- tural or chemical properties. Such schemes are extremely helpful since pr- erties related to any such classi?cation are typically known and facilitate id- tifying solids with special material classes. The best-known examples of these schemes are conductivity or resistivity measurements by means of which m- als are easily distinguishable from insulators. However, frequently clear-cut decisions between material classes are not possible, since anisotropy, chemical composition, binding forces and local effects wash out distinct properties and lead to competition or coexistence. Such unresolved situations are especially typical for transition metal oxides that exhibit a variety of ground-state properties in a fascinating way.
