Today's large scale networks such as the Internet emerge from the interconnection of privately owned networks and serve heterogeneous users with different service needs. The service providers of these networks are interested in maximizing their profit. Since the existing pricing scheme cannot...

This paper addresses two basic questions about the outbound distribution operations with a case study example of a large biopharmaceutical company. First, the research work focuses on developing an efficient, scalable truck distribution system to help reduce transportation cost, while...

Existing preference reasoning systems have been successful in simple domains. Broader success requires more natural and more expressive preference representations. This thesis develops a representation of logical preferences that combines numerical tradeoff ratios between partial outcome...

In many studies of market microstructure, theoretical analysis quickly becomes in tractable for all but the simplest stylized models. This thesis considers two alternative approaches, namely, the use of experiments with human subjects and simulations with intelligent agents, to address some of...