137,615 research outputs found
LMaaS: Exploring Pricing Strategy of Large Model as a Service for Communication
The next generation of communication is envisioned to be intelligent
communication, that can replace traditional symbolic communication, where
highly condensed semantic information considering both source and channel will
be extracted and transmitted with high efficiency. The recent popular large
models such as GPT4 and the boosting learning techniques lay a solid foundation
for the intelligent communication, and prompt the practical deployment of it in
the near future. Given the characteristics of "training once and widely use" of
those multimodal large language models, we argue that a pay-as-you-go service
mode will be suitable in this context, referred to as Large Model as a Service
(LMaaS). However, the trading and pricing problem is quite complex with
heterogeneous and dynamic customer environments, making the pricing
optimization problem challenging in seeking on-hand solutions. In this paper,
we aim to fill this gap and formulate the LMaaS market trading as a Stackelberg
game with two steps. In the first step, we optimize the seller's pricing
decision and propose an Iterative Model Pricing (IMP) algorithm that optimizes
the prices of large models iteratively by reasoning customers' future rental
decisions, which is able to achieve a near-optimal pricing solution. In the
second step, we optimize customers' selection decisions by designing a robust
selecting and renting (RSR) algorithm, which is guaranteed to be optimal with
rigorous theoretical proof. Extensive experiments confirm the effectiveness and
robustness of our algorithms
Market Model and Optimal Pricing Scheme of Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT)
Big data has been emerging as a new approach in utilizing large datasets to
optimize complex system operations. Big data is fueled with Internet-of-Things
(IoT) services that generate immense sensory data from numerous sensors and
devices. While most current research focus of big data is on machine learning
and resource management design, the economic modeling and analysis have been
largely overlooked. This paper thus investigates the big data market model and
optimal pricing scheme. We first study the utility of data from the data
science perspective, i.e., using the machine learning methods. We then
introduce the market model and develop an optimal pricing scheme afterward. The
case study shows clearly the suitability of the proposed data utility
functions. The numerical examples demonstrate that big data and IoT service
provider can achieve the maximum profit through the proposed market model
The Landscape of Salesforce for Nonprofits: A Report on the Current Marketplace for Apps
Do you use Salesforce as a Constituent Relationship Management database at your organization, or are you considering it? Since it launched in 1999, more than 20,000 nonprofits have employed the cloud-based system, which is made available to them for free through the philanthropic Salesforce Foundation. What's the catch? Making such a powerful system work for the particular needs of a nonprofit isn't always straightforward. This report can tell you everything you need to know.What's in it? To learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of Salesforce, we interviewed nine prominent consultants specializing in implementing Salesforce for nonprofits along with several members of the Salesforce.com Foundation about what the platform does well, and what you'll want to add to it to suit your needs. We evaluated some of the constituent management packages built on top of Salesforce, including the Salesforce Foundation's Nonprofit Starter Pack, which is aimed at turning the sales automation platform into a tool for nonprofits. We also took a look at the universe of add-ons to the base Salesforce platform -- called "apps" because of Salesforce's online marketplace, the App Exchange -- to find out which might be useful to support a nonprofit's processes.The goal for this report was to break down misconceptions about the tool and to collect disparate information in one place to help you make informed decisions. Whether you're already using Salesforce, are thinking about adopting it, or have yet to even consider it, there's information here for you.What's more, we've included a directory of consultants or firms with experience working with nonprofits to implement Salesforce and the additional App Exchange modules that we cover in this report to make it easier for you to find the help you'll need
Towards marginal cost pricing: A comparison of alternative pricing systems
European urban areas are marred by the problems of congestion and environmental degradation due to the prevailing levels of car use. Strong arguments have thus been put forward in support of a policy based on marginal cost pricing (European Commission 1996). Such policy measures – which would force private consumers to pay for a public service that was previously provided «for free» – are, however, notoriously unpopular with the general public and hence also with their elected representatives – the politicians.
There is thus an obvious tension between economic theory, which suggests that marginal cost pricing is the welfare maximising solution to urban transport problems, and practical experience, which suggests that such pricing measures are unwanted by the affected population and hence hard to implement through democratic processes.
The AFFORD Project for the European Commission has aimed to investigate this paradox and its possible solutions, through a combination of economic analysis, predictive modelling, attitudinal surveys, and an assessment of fiscal and financial measures within a number of case study cities in Europe. In this paper the methodology and results obtained for the Edinburgh case study are reported in detail. The study analyses alternative road pricing instruments and compares their performance against the theoretical first best situation. It discusses the effect of coverage, location, charging mechanism and interaction with other instruments. The paper shows that limited coverage in one mode may lead to a deviation from the user pays principle in other modes, that location is as important as charge levels and that assumptions about the use of revenues are critical in determining the effect on equity and acceptability. Finally the results show that a relatively simple smart card system can come close to providing the economic first best solution, but that this result should be viewed in the context of the model assumptions
Which economic model for a water-efficient Europe? Report of a CEPS Task Force. CEPS Task Force Report, 27 November 2012
This CEPS Task Force Report focuses on how to improve water efficiency in Europe, notably in public supply, households, agriculture, energy and manufacturing as well as across sectors. It presents a number of recommendations on how to make better use of economic policy instruments to sustainably manage the EU’s water resources.
Published in the run-up to the European Commission’s “Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Waters”, the report contributes to the policy deliberations in two ways. First, by assessing the viability of economic policy instruments, it addresses a major shortcoming that has so far prevented the 2000 EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) from becoming fully effective in practice: the lack of appropriate, coherent and effective instruments in (some) member states. Second, as the Task Force report is the result of an interactive process involving a variety of stakeholders, it is able to point to the key differences in interpreting and applying WFD principles that have led to a lack of policy coherence across the EU and to offer some pragmatic advice on moving forward
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Creating learning solutions for executive education programs
Executive education is both a growing and increasingly competitive industry. The traditional business school, once a dominant player in this space, now faces competition from sophisticated and focused consultants and for-profit training specialists offering a variety of face-to-face and on-line instructional vehicles. An abiding question has become ever more prevalent for business schools – are executive education clients getting meaningful, long-term value for their significant investments? Demonstrating value and building capabilities is different for a generic, open enrolment course than for a custom program. This paper proposes a solutions-based approach to the development and implementation of customized executive programs, arguing that the tailored customer focus and the operational rigor of a solutions perspective leads to sustainable and measurable client value both at the individual and corporate level. A case study involving a global high technology company is used to demonstrate the steps required to apply a solutions roadmap. The results show that a solutions approach – carefully and collaboratively undertaken in selected settings – can provide considerable benefits to both client and provider. Further research is proposed to validate and develop the learning points
Cargo Consolidation and Distribution Through a Terminals-Network: A Branch-And-Price Approach
Less-than-truckload is a transport modality that includes many practical variations to convey a number of transportation-requests from the origin locations to their destinations by using the possibility of goods-transshipments on the carrier?s terminals-network. In this way logistics companies are required to consolidate shipments from different suppliers in the outbound vehicles at a terminal of the network. We present a methodology for finding near-optimal solutions to a less-than-truckload shipping modality used for cargo consolidation and distribution through a terminals-network. The methodology uses column generation combined with an incomplete branch-and-price procedure.Fil: Dondo, Rodolfo Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo TecnolĂłgico para la Industria QuĂmica. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Desarrollo TecnolĂłgico para la Industria QuĂmica; Argentin
Smart Microgrids: Overview and Outlook
The idea of changing our energy system from a hierarchical design into a set
of nearly independent microgrids becomes feasible with the availability of
small renewable energy generators. The smart microgrid concept comes with
several challenges in research and engineering targeting load balancing,
pricing, consumer integration and home automation. In this paper we first
provide an overview on these challenges and present approaches that target the
problems identified. While there exist promising algorithms for the particular
field, we see a missing integration which specifically targets smart
microgrids. Therefore, we propose an architecture that integrates the presented
approaches and defines interfaces between the identified components such as
generators, storage, smart and \dq{dumb} devices.Comment: presented at the GI Informatik 2012, Braunschweig Germany, Smart Grid
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