Why downsize when you can OPTIMIZE? "At McDonald’s our focus has always been on providing maximum value to customers through ‘optimal’ quality and tight cost management, which is why Optimization has become such a pivotal concept for us. Steve Sashihara’s book brings the concept to life.” —Kenneth M. Koziol, Corp. Senior Vice President, Innovation and Design, McDonald’s Corp. “Steve Sashihara convincingly demonstrates how the application of advanced quantitative techniques can significantly improve day-to-day decision making, which is what we have done at Quad/Graphics.” —Dave Blais, Executive Vice President, Quad/Graphics “The Optimization Edge is a powerful book that will change the way organizations make decisions and manage their assets.” —Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO, Leader to Leader Institute; Recipient, Presidential Medal of Freedom “At UPS, the ‘optimization edge’ has given us a competitive advantage. It enables us to solve problems of great complexity seamlessly and with increased velocity, resulting in smarter decisions and ultimately bringing greater value to our customers.” —Chuck Holland, Vice President of Industrial Engineering, UPS About the Book: In these challenging economic times, more and more companies have turned to “cut-back management” to ensure their survival. But how do some manage to outshine their competitors—and even grow—during downturns? How does Google outsearch the other search engines? How does McDonald’s McClobber the competition? More important, how can you increase your company’s profits without downsizing? The answer is Asset Optimization. This groundbreaking approach to decision making utilizes the latest advances in mathematics and computer software. Optimization expert Steve Sashihara shows you how to squeeze every ounce of value from your company, even under “perfect storm” conditions. You’ll learn how to: Drive up your company’s value—even in a downturn Re-allocate your resources—for maximum performance Streamline your company—and stay ahead of the competition Optimize your assets—for long-term growth A proven, practical, and workable alternative to “corporate anorexia,” Optimization is your best option for dealing head-on with marketplace volatility and resource scarcity. This step-by-step guide offers concrete, ready-to- use tools drawn from decades of superior business practices—the best-kept secrets of global successes such as Amazon, Google, Marriott, McDonald’s, Intel, SAS, and UPS. You’ll learn what Optimization is, what best practices you can immediately put to use, how to use Optimization to speed up and improve decision making, and how to integrate Optimization into your organization’s culture. If you want to thrive in any economy—and grow your company in the future—forget about downsizing. Get The Optimization Edge.

As technology advancement has increased, so to have computational applications for forecasting, modelling and trading financial markets and information, and practitioners are finding ever more complex solutions to financial challenges. Neural networking is a highly effective, trainable algorithmic approach which emulates certain aspects of human brain functions, and is used extensively in financial forecasting allowing for quick investment decision making. This book presents the most cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI)/neural networking applications for markets, assets and other areas of finance. Split into four sections, the book first explores time series analysis for forecasting and trading across a range of assets, including derivatives, exchange traded funds, debt and equity instruments. This section will focus on pattern recognition, market timing models, forecasting and trading of financial time series. Section II provides insights into macro and microeconomics and how AI techniques could be used to better understand and predict economic variables. Section III focuses on corporate finance and credit analysis providing an insight into corporate structures and credit, and establishing a relationship between financial statement analysis and the influence of various financial scenarios. Section IV focuses on portfolio management, exploring applications for portfolio theory, asset allocation and optimization. This book also provides some of the latest research in the field of artificial intelligence and finance, and provides in-depth analysis and highly applicable tools and techniques for practitioners and researchers in this field.

This practical and authoritative text/reference presents a broad introduction to the optimization methods used specifically in computer vision. In order to facilitate understanding, the presentation of the methods is supplemented by simple flow charts, followed by pseudocode implementations that reveal deeper insights into their mode of operation. These discussions are further supported by examples taken from important applications in computer vision. Topics and features: provides a comprehensive overview of computer vision-related optimization; covers a range of techniques from classical iterative multidimensional optimization to cutting-edge topics of graph cuts and GPU-suited total variation-based optimization; describes in detail the optimization methods employed in computer vision applications; illuminates key concepts with clearly written and step-by-step explanations; presents detailed information on implementation, including pseudocode for most methods.

A comprehensive guide to Fog and Edge applications, architectures, and technologies Recent years have seen the explosive growth of the Internet of Things (IoT): the internet-connected network of devices that includes everything from personal electronics and home appliances to automobiles and industrial machinery. Responding to the ever-increasing bandwidth demands of the IoT, Fog and Edge computing concepts have developed to collect, analyze, and process data more efficiently than traditional cloud architecture. Fog and Edge Computing: Principles and Paradigms provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art applications and architectures driving this dynamic field of computing while highlighting potential research directions and emerging technologies. Exploring topics such as developing scalable architectures, moving from closed systems to open systems, and ethical issues rising from data sensing, this timely book addresses both the challenges and opportunities that Fog and Edge computing presents. Contributions from leading IoT experts discuss federating Edge resources, middleware design issues, data management and predictive analysis, smart transportation and surveillance applications, and more. A coordinated and integrated presentation of topics helps readers gain thorough knowledge of the foundations, applications, and issues that are central to Fog and Edge computing. This valuable resource: Provides insights on transitioning from current Cloud-centric and 4G/5G wireless environments to Fog Computing Examines methods to optimize virtualized, pooled, and shared resources Identifies potential technical challenges and offers suggestions for possible solutions Discusses major components of Fog and Edge computing architectures such as middleware, interaction protocols, and autonomic management Includes access to a website portal for advanced online resources Fog and Edge Computing: Principles and Paradigms is an essential source of up-to-date information for systems architects, developers, researchers, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in fields of computer science and engineering.

Are you missing opportunities for growth that are right in front of you? In today’s volatile economic environment, filled with uncertainty and sudden change, the forces pushing you to stay focused on the core business are extremely powerful. Profiting from the core is crucial, but the danger is that overfocus on the core can blind companies. Scanning the horizon for new markets and new products can also be tempting, but risky. Fixating too much on either strategy can cause you to miss the substantial opportunities for growth that are often hidden in plain sight, at the edge of the core business. In this insightful yet practical book, strategy experts Alan Lewis and Dan McKone articulate a mindset that helps leaders recognize and capitalize on these opportunities. The Edge Strategy framework challenges how the boundaries of your existing products and services map to your customers’ views of the world and then provides three different lenses through which you can see and leverage value: • Product edge. How to capture incremental profits and other benefits by slightly altering the elements and composition of a core offering • Journey edge. How to create and capture extra value by adjusting your role in supporting the customer’s journey to and through your offering • Enterprise edge. How to unlock additional value from resources and capabilities that support your core offering by applying them in a different context, for a different offering or different set of customers With engaging examples across many industries, Lewis and McKone coach you on how to identify and assess each of the different “edges” and then provide concrete insights and advice on applying edge strategy and tactics to use in specific business contexts. The book concludes with a ten-step process to help executives and managers find and leverage the edges in their own companies. Edge Strategy is the concise, hands-on guide for growing your business by getting more yield from assets already in place, relationships already established, and investments already made.

An essential resource for optimizing energy systems to enhance design capability, performance and sustainability Optimization of Energy Systems comprehensively describes the thermodynamic modelling, analysis and optimization of numerous types of energy systems in various applications. It provides a new understanding of the system and the process of defining proper objective functions for determination of the most suitable design parameters for achieving enhanced efficiency, cost effectiveness and sustainability. Beginning with a general summary of thermodynamics, optimization techniques and optimization methods for thermal components, the book goes on to describe how to determine the most appropriate design parameters for more complex energy systems using various optimization methods. The results of each chapter provide potential tools for design, analysis, performance improvement, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Key features: Comprehensive coverage of the modelling, analysis and optimization of many energy systems for a variety of applications. Examples, practical applications and case studies to put theory into practice. Study problems at the end of each chapter that foster critical thinking and skill development. Written in an easy-to-follow style, starting with simple systems and moving to advanced energy systems and their complexities. A unique resource for understanding cutting-edge research in the thermodynamic analysis and optimization of a wide range of energy systems, Optimization of Energy Systems is suitable for graduate and senior undergraduate students, researchers, engineers, practitioners, and scientists in the area of energy systems.