The Theory of Stochastic Processes i

Mathematical intuition behind the (often) Gaussian behavior of nature

Collecting together twenty-three self-contained articles, this volume presents the current research of a number of renowned scientists in both probability theory and statistics as well as their various applications in economics, finance, the physics of wind-blown sand, queueing systems, risk assessment, turbulence and other areas.

This book provides a comprehensive up-to-date presentation of some of the classical areas of reliability, based on a more advanced probabilistic framework using the modern theory of stochastic processes. This framework allows analysts to formulate general failure models, establish formulae for computing various performance measures, as well as determine how to identify optimal replacement policies in complex situations.

The Wiley Classics Library consists of selected books that have become recognized classics in their respective fields. With these new unabridged and inexpensive editions, Wiley hopes to extend the life of these important works by making them available to future generations of mathematicians and scientists.

Collecting together selected pioneering works of the celebrated mathematician Anatolii V. Skorokhod, this volume serves as a guide to the theory of stochastic processes from its beginning to its current state.

Opening new directions in research in both discrete event dynamic systems as well as in stochastic control, this volume focuses on a wide class of control and of optimization problems over sequences of integer numbers. This is a counterpart of convex optimization in the setting of discrete optimization. The theory developed is applied to the control of stochastic discrete-event dynamic systems. Some applications are admission, routing, service allocation and vacation control in queueing networks. Pure and applied mathematicians will enjoy reading the book since it brings together many disciplines in mathematics: combinatorics, stochastic processes, stochastic control and optimization, discrete event dynamic systems, algebra.

This book's clear presentation of theory, numerous chapter-end problems, and development of a unified method for the computation of optimal policies in both discrete and continuous time make it an excellent course text for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Its comprehensive coverage of important recent advances in stochastic dynamic programming makes it a valuable working resource for operations research professionals, management scientists, engineers, and others.