Download or read book Quasiconvex Optimization and Location Theory written by J.A. dos Santos Gromicho and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: grams of which the objective is given by the ratio of a convex by a positive (over a convex domain) concave function. As observed by Sniedovich (Ref. [102, 103]) most of the properties of fractional pro grams could be found in other programs, given that the objective function could be written as a particular composition of functions. He called this new field C programming, standing for composite concave programming. In his seminal book on dynamic programming (Ref. [104]), Sniedovich shows how the study of such com positions can help tackling non-separable dynamic programs that otherwise would defeat solution. Barros and Frenk (Ref. [9]) developed a cutting plane algorithm capable of optimizing C-programs. More recently, this algorithm has been used by Carrizosa and Plastria to solve a global optimization problem in facility location (Ref. [16]). The distinction between global optimization problems (Ref. [54]) and generalized convex problems can sometimes be hard to establish. That is exactly the reason why so much effort has been placed into finding an exhaustive classification of the different weak forms of convexity, establishing a new definition just to satisfy some desirable property in the most general way possible. This book does not aim at all the subtleties of the different generalizations of convexity, but concentrates on the most general of them all, quasiconvex programming. Chapter 5 shows clearly where the real difficulties appear.

Download or read book Quasiconvex Optimization and Location Theory written by J.A. dos Santos Gromicho and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-10-12 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: grams of which the objective is given by the ratio of a convex by a positive (over a convex domain) concave function. As observed by Sniedovich (Ref. [102, 103]) most of the properties of fractional pro grams could be found in other programs, given that the objective function could be written as a particular composition of functions. He called this new field C programming, standing for composite concave programming. In his seminal book on dynamic programming (Ref. [104]), Sniedovich shows how the study of such com positions can help tackling non-separable dynamic programs that otherwise would defeat solution. Barros and Frenk (Ref. [9]) developed a cutting plane algorithm capable of optimizing C-programs. More recently, this algorithm has been used by Carrizosa and Plastria to solve a global optimization problem in facility location (Ref. [16]). The distinction between global optimization problems (Ref. [54]) and generalized convex problems can sometimes be hard to establish. That is exactly the reason why so much effort has been placed into finding an exhaustive classification of the different weak forms of convexity, establishing a new definition just to satisfy some desirable property in the most general way possible. This book does not aim at all the subtleties of the different generalizations of convexity, but concentrates on the most general of them all, quasiconvex programming. Chapter 5 shows clearly where the real difficulties appear.

Download or read book Optimal Flow Control in Manufacturing Systems written by O. Maimon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1998-08-31 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a unified optimal control approach to a large class of problems arising in the field of production planning and scheduling. It introduces a leading optimal flow control paradigm which results in efficient solutions for planning and scheduling problems. This book also introduces the reader to analytical and numerical methods of the maximum principle, used here as a mathematical instrument in modeling and solving production planning and scheduling problems. The book examines control of production flows rather than sequencing of distinct jobs. Methodologically, this paradigm allows us to progress from initial assumptions about a manufacturing environment, through mathematical models and construction of numerical methods, up to practical applications which prove the relevance of the theory developed here to the real world. Given a manufacturing system, the goal is to control the production, subject to given constraints, in such a way that the demands are tracked as closely as possible. The book considers a wide variety of problems encountered in actual production planning and scheduling. Among the problems are production flow sequencing and timing, capacity expansion and deterioration, subcontracting and overtime. The last chapter is entirely devoted to applications of the theory to scheduling production flows in real-life manufacturing systems. The enclosed disk provides software implementations of the developed methods with easy, convenient user interface. We aimed this book at a student audience - final year undergraduates as weIl as master and Ph. D.

Download or read book Nonlinear Programming and Variational Inequality Problems written by Michael Patriksson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since I started working in the area of nonlinear programming and, later on, variational inequality problems, I have frequently been surprised to find that many algorithms, however scattered in numerous journals, monographs and books, and described rather differently, are closely related to each other. This book is meant to help the reader understand and relate algorithms to each other in some intuitive fashion, and represents, in this respect, a consolidation of the field. The framework of algorithms presented in this book is called Cost Approxi mation. (The preface of the Ph.D. thesis [Pat93d] explains the background to the work that lead to the thesis, and ultimately to this book.) It describes, for a given formulation of a variational inequality or nonlinear programming problem, an algorithm by means of approximating mappings and problems, a principle for the update of the iteration points, and a merit function which guides and monitors the convergence of the algorithm. One purpose of this book is to offer this framework as an intuitively appeal ing tool for describing an algorithm. One of the advantages of the framework, or any reasonable framework for that matter, is that two algorithms may be easily related and compared through its use. This framework is particular in that it covers a vast number of methods, while still being fairly detailed; the level of abstraction is in fact the same as that of the original problem statement.

Download or read book Stable Parametric Programming written by S. Zlobec and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-21 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Optimality and stability are two important notions in applied mathematics. This book is a study of these notions and their relationship in linear and convex parametric programming models. It begins with a survey of basic optimality conditions in nonlinear programming. Then new results in convex programming, using LFS functions, for single-objective, multi-objective, differentiable and non-smooth programs are introduced. Parametric programming models are studied using basic tools of point-to-set topology. Stability of the models is introduced, essentially, as continuity of the feasible set of decision variables under continuous perturbations of the parameters. Perturbations that preserve this continuity are regions of stability. It is shown how these regions can be identified. The main results on stability are characterizations of locally and globally optimal parameters for stable and also for unstable perturbations. The results are straightened for linear models and bi-level programs. Some of the results are extended to abstract spaces after considering parameters as `controls'. Illustrations from diverse fields, such as data envelopment analysis, management, von Stackelberg games of market economy, and navigation problems are given and several case studies are solved by finding optimal parameters. The book has been written in an analytic spirit. Many results appear here for the first time in book form. Audience: The book is written at the level of a first-year graduate course in optimization for students with varied backgrounds interested in modeling of real-life problems. It is expected that the reader has been exposed to a prior elementary course in optimization, such as linear or non-linear programming. The last section of the book requires some knowledge of functional analysis.

Download or read book Aspects of Semidefinite Programming written by E. de Klerk and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Semidefinite programming has been described as linear programming for the year 2000. It is an exciting new branch of mathematical programming, due to important applications in control theory, combinatorial optimization and other fields. Moreover, the successful interior point algorithms for linear programming can be extended to semidefinite programming. In this monograph the basic theory of interior point algorithms is explained. This includes the latest results on the properties of the central path as well as the analysis of the most important classes of algorithms. Several "classic" applications of semidefinite programming are also described in detail. These include the Lovász theta function and the MAX-CUT approximation algorithm by Goemans and Williamson. Audience: Researchers or graduate students in optimization or related fields, who wish to learn more about the theory and applications of semidefinite programming.

Download or read book Multicriteria Design written by R.B. Statnikov and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is devoted to the PSI method. Its appearance was a reaction to the unsatisfactory situation in applications of optimization methods in engineering. After comprehensive testing of the PSI method in various fields of machine engineering it has become obvious that this method substantially surpasses all other available techniques in many respects. It has now become known that the PSI method is successfully used not only in machine design, at which it was initially aimed, but also in polymer chemistry, pharmacy, nuclear energy, biology, geophysics, and many other fields of human activity. To all appearances this method has become so popular for its potential of taking into account the specific features of applied optimization better than other methods, being, at the same time, comparatively simple and friendly, and because, unlike traditional optimization methods which are intended only for searching for optimal solutions, the PSI method is also aimed at correctly formulating engineering optimization problems. One well-known aircraft designer once said, "To solve an optimization problem in engineering means, first of all, to be able to state this problem properly". In this sense the PSI method has no competitors. Although this method has been presented in Russia in numerous papers and books, Western readers have had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with this method only recently (Ozernoy 1988; Lieberman 1991; Stadler and Dauer 1992; Dyer, Fishburn, Steuer, Wallenius, and Zionts 1992; Steuer and Sun 1995, etc. ).

Download or read book Multicriteria Decision Aid Classification Methods written by Michael Doumpos and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses a new approach to the classification problem following the decision support orientation of multicriteria decision aid. The book reviews the existing research on the development of classification methods, investigating the corresponding model development procedures, and providing a thorough analysis of their performance both in experimental situations and real-world problems from the field of finance. Audience: Researchers and professionals working in management science, decision analysis, operations research, financial/banking analysis, economics, statistics, computer science, as well as graduate students in management science and operations research.

Download or read book Operations Research in Space and Air written by Tito A. Ciriani and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operations Research in Space and Air is a selection of papers reflecting the experience and expertise of international OR consulting companies and academic groups. The global market and competition play a crucial part in the decision making processes within the Space and Air industries and this book gives practical examples of how advanced applications can be used by Space and Air industry management. The material within the book provides both the basic background for the novice modeler and a useful reference for experienced modelers. Students, researchers and OR practitioners will appreciate the details of the modeling techniques, the processes that have been implemented and the computational results that demonstrate the benefits in applying OR in the Space and Airline industries. Advances in PC and Workstations technology, in optimiza tion engines and in modeling techniques now enable solving problems, never before attained by Operations Research. In recent years the Ital ian OR Society (AfRO, www. airo. org) has organized annual forums for researchers and practitioners to meet together to present and dis cuss the various scientific and technical OR achievements. The OR in Space 8 Air session of AfR02001 and AfR02002 Conferences, together with optimization tools' applications, presented recent results achieved by Alenia Spazio S. p. A. (Turin), Alitalia, Milan Polytechnic and Turin Polytechinc. With additional contributions from academia and indus try they have enabled us to capture, in print, today's 'state-of-the-art' optimization and data mining solutions.

Download or read book Decision Making Recent Developments and Worldwide Applications written by Stelios H. Zanakis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This chapter describes a study conducted at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, in their School of Business. The study was to explore the applicability of a judgment-analytic decision support system to the assessment of the likelihood of an applicant being selected for admission to the School's Graduate Certificate in Business Administration (GCBA) program. The likelihood of a program administrator selecting a particular applicant is directly linked to the assessment of the likelihood of that applicant's success in the GCBA program. The purpose of this study, in effect, was to analyze the administrative judgment process in assessment of an applicant's likelihood of success in the program. THE PROCESS OF HUMAN JUDGMENT Human judgment is a process through which an individual uses social infonnation to make decisions. The social infonnation is obtained from an individual's environment and is interpreted through the individual's cognitive image of the environment. The. cognitive image provides a representation of the environment based on past experiences and training, and essentially predisposes the person to respond to social infonnation in predictable ways. An individual's policies or beliefs about the environment represent these patterns. Human judgments are based then upon one's interpretation of available infonnation. They are probability statements about one's environment and how one reacts to it. This condition leads to the human judgment process being inherently limited. It is fundamentally a covert process. It is seldom possible for an individual to accurately describe his or her judgment process accurately.

Download or read book Intelligent Control Systems written by Gábor Szederkényi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intelligent control is a rapidly developing, complex and challenging field with great practical importance and potential. Because of the rapidly developing and interdisciplinary nature of the subject, there are only a few edited volumes consisting of research papers on intelligent control systems but little is known and published about the fundamentals and the general know-how in designing, implementing and operating intelligent control systems. Intelligent control system emerged from artificial intelligence and computer controlled systems as an interdisciplinary field. Therefore the book summarizes the fundamentals of knowledge representation, reasoning, expert systems and real-time control systems and then discusses the design, implementation verification and operation of real-time expert systems using G2 as an example. Special tools and techniques applied in intelligent control are also described including qualitative modelling, Petri nets and fuzzy controllers. The material is illlustrated with simple examples taken from the field of intelligent process control.

Download or read book Transportation Planning written by Michael Patriksson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book collects selected presentations of the Meeting of the EURO Working Group on Transportation, which took place at the Department of Ma- ematics at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg (or, Gothenburg), Sweden, September 9–11, 1998. [The EURO Working Group on Transpor- tion was founded at the end of the 7th EURO Summer Institute on Urban Traffic Management, which took place in Cetraro, Italy, June 21–July, 1991. There were around 30 founding members of the Working Group, a number which now has grown to around 150. Meetings since then include Paris (1993), Barcelona (1994), and Newcastle (1996). ] About 100 participants were present, enjoying healthy rain and a memorable conference dinner in the Feskekôrka. The total number of presentations at the conference was about 60, coming from quite diverse areas within the field of operations research in transportation, and covering all modes of transport: Deterministic traffic equilibrium models (6 papers) Stochastic traffic equilibrium models (5 papers) Combined traffic models (3 papers) Dynamic traffic models (7 papers) Simulation models (4 papers) Origin–destination matrix estimation (2 papers) Urban public transport models (8 papers) Aircraft scheduling (1 paper) Ship routing (2 papers) Railway planning and scheduling (6 papers) Vehicle routing (3 papers) Traffic management (3 papers) Signal control models (3 papers) Transportation systems analysis (5 papers) ix x TRANSPORTATION PLANNING Among these papers, 14 were eventually selected to be included in this volume.

Download or read book Mathematical Modeling in Economics Ecology and the Environment written by N.V. Hritonenko and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The problems of interrelation between human economics and natural environment include scientific, technical, economic, demographic, social, political and other aspects that are studied by scientists of many specialities. One of the important aspects in scientific study of environmental and ecological problems is the development of mathematical and computer tools for rational management of economics and environment. This book introduces a wide range of mathematical models in economics, ecology and environmental sciences to a general mathematical audience with no in-depth experience in this specific area. Areas covered are: controlled economic growth and technological development, world dynamics, environmental impact, resource extraction, air and water pollution propagation, ecological population dynamics and exploitation. A variety of known models are considered, from classical ones (Cobb Douglass production function, Leontief input-output analysis, Solow models of economic dynamics, Verhulst-Pearl and Lotka-Volterra models of population dynamics, and others) to the models of world dynamics and the models of water contamination propagation used after Chemobyl nuclear catastrophe. Special attention is given to modelling of hierarchical regional economic-ecological interaction and technological change in the context of environmental impact. Xlll XIV Construction of Mathematical Models ...

Download or read book Handbook of Management under Uncertainty written by Jaime Gil-Aluja and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 790 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mere few years ago it would have seemed odd to propose a Handbook on the treatment of management problems within a sphere of uncertainty. Even today, on the threshold of the third millennium, this statement may provoke a certain wariness. In fact, to resort to exact or random data, that is probable date, is quite normal and con venient, as we then know where we are going best, where we are proposing to go if all occurs as it is conceived and hoped for. To treat uncertain information, to accept a new principle and from there determined criteria, without being sure of oneself and confiding only in the will to better understand objects and phenomena, constitutes and compromise with a new form of understanding the behaviour of current beings that goes even further than simple rationality. Economic Science and particularly the use of its elements of configuration in the world of management, has imbued several generations with an analytical spirit that has given rise to the elaboration of theories widely accepted by the international scientific community. In this work we are proposing something a little more modest: to use, in the best possible way, data and information that are available for drawing up and applying techniques and instruments that are useful for current reality within the world of businesses and institutions, in an attempt to mislead ourselves as little as possible.

Download or read book Trends in Industrial and Applied Mathematics written by Abul Hasan Siddiqi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An important objective of the study of mathematics is to analyze and visualize phenomena of nature and real world problems for its proper understanding. Gradually, it is also becoming the language of modem financial instruments. To project some of these developments, the conference was planned under the joint auspices of the Indian Society of Industrial and Applied mathematics (ISlAM) and Guru Nanak Dev University (G. N. D. U. ), Amritsar, India. Dr. Pammy Manchanda, chairperson of Mathematics Department, G. N. D. U. , was appointed the organizing secretary and an organizing committee was constituted. The Conference was scheduled in World Mathematics Year 2000 but, due one reason or the other, it could be held during 22. -25. January 2001. How ever, keeping in view the suggestion of the International Mathematics union, we organized two symposia, Role of Mathematics in industrial development and vice-versa and How image of Mathematics can be improved in public. These two symposia aroused great interest among the participants and almost everyone participated in the deliberations. The discussion in these two themes could be summarized in the lengthy following lines: "Tradition of working in isolation is a barrier for interaction with the workers in the other fields of science and engineering, what to talk of non-academic areas, specially the private sector of finance and industry. Therefore, it is essential to build bridges within in stitutions and between institutions.

Download or read book Topics in Industrial Mathematics written by H Neunzert and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Industrial Mathematics is a relatively recent discipline. It is concerned primarily with transforming technical, organizational and economic problems posed by indus try into mathematical problems; "solving" these problems byapproximative methods of analytical and/or numerical nature; and finally reinterpreting the results in terms of the original problems. In short, industrial mathematics is modelling and scientific computing of industrial problems. Industrial mathematicians are bridge-builders: they build bridges from the field of mathematics to the practical world; to do that they need to know about both sides, the problems from the companies and ideas and methods from mathematics. As mathematicians, they have to be generalists. If you enter the world of indus try, you never know which kind of problems you will encounter, and which kind of mathematical concepts and methods you will need to solve them. Hence, to be a good "industrial mathematician" you need to know a good deal of mathematics as well as ideas already common in engineering and modern mathematics with tremen dous potential for application. Mathematical concepts like wavelets, pseudorandom numbers, inverse problems, multigrid etc., introduced during the last 20 years have recently started entering the world of real applications. Industrial mathematics consists of modelling, discretization, analysis and visu alization. To make a good model, to transform the industrial problem into a math ematical one such that you can trust the prediction of the model is no easy task.

Download or read book Mixed Mode Modelling Mixing Methodologies For Organisational Intervention written by M.G. Nicholls and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2001-10-31 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1980s and 1990s have seen a growing interest in research and practice in the use of methodologies within problem contexts characterised by a primary focus on technology, human issues, or power. During the last five to ten years, this has given rise to challenges regarding the ability of a single methodology to address all such contexts, and the consequent development of approaches which aim to mix methodologies within a single problem situation. This has been particularly so where the situation has called for a mix of technological (the so-called 'hard') and human centred (so-called 'soft') methods. The approach developed has been termed mixed-mode modelling. The area of mixed-mode modelling is relatively new, with the phrase being coined approximately four years ago by Brian Lehaney in a keynote paper published at the 1996 Annual Conference of the UK Operational Research Society. Mixed-mode modelling, as suggested above, is a new way of considering problem situations faced by organisations. Traditional technological approaches used in management science have suffered criticisms relating to their adequacy in the past few decades, and these hard approaches have been replaced by soft methods, which consider process more relevant than outcome. However, the sole use of human centred approaches to organisational problems has also proved to be inadequate. Mixed-mode modelling accepts the importance of both process and outcome, and provides enabling mechanisms for hard and soft investigation to be undertaken.