Emilia Grass develops a solution method which can provide fast and near-optimal solutions to realistic large-scale two-stage stochastic problems in disaster management. The author proposes a specialized interior-point method to accelerate the standard L-shaped algorithm. She shows that the newly developed solution method solves two realistic large-scale case studies for the hurricane prone Gulf and Atlantic coast faster than the standard L-shaped method and a commercial solver. The accelerated solution method enables relief organizations to employ appropriate preparation measures even in the case of short-term disaster warnings.About the Author Emilia Grass holds a PhD from the Hamburg University of Technology, Germany. She is currently working as guest researcher on the project cyber security in healthcare at the Centre for Health Policy, Imperial College London, UK. Her scientific focus is on stochastic programming, solution methods, disaster management and healthcare.

This book provides a direct and comprehensive introduction to theoretical and numerical concepts in the emerging field of optimal control of partial differential equations (PDEs) under uncertainty. The main objective of the book is to offer graduate students and researchers a smooth transition from optimal control of deterministic PDEs to optimal control of random PDEs. Coverage includes uncertainty modelling in control problems, variational formulation of PDEs with random inputs, robust and risk-averse formulations of optimal control problems, existence theory and numerical resolution methods. The exposition focusses on the entire path, starting from uncertainty modelling and ending in the practical implementation of numerical schemes for the numerical approximation of the considered problems. To this end, a selected number of illustrative examples are analysed in detail throughout the book. Computer codes, written in MatLab, are provided for all these examples. This book is adressed to graduate students and researches in Engineering, Physics and Mathematics who are interested in optimal control and optimal design for random partial differential equations.

This book offers a timely snapshot of soft computing methodologies and their applications to various problems related to sustainability, including electric energy consumption; fault diagnosis; vessel fuel consumption; determining the best sites for new malls; maritime port projects; and ad-hoc vehicular networks. Further, it demonstrates how metaheuristics and machine learning methods, fuzzy linear programming, neural networks, computing with words, linguistic models and other soft computing methods can be efficiently used to solve real-world problems. Intended as a practice-oriented guide for students, researchers, and professionals working at the interface between computer science, industrial engineering, naval engineering, agriculture, and sustainable development / climate change research, it provides readers with a set of intelligent solutions, helping them answer a range of emerging questions related to sustainability.

By establishing an alternative foundation of control theory, this thesis represents a significant advance in the theory of control systems, of interest to a broad range of scientists and engineers. While common control strategies for dynamical systems center on the system state as the object to be controlled, the approach developed here focuses on the state trajectory. The concept of precisely realizable trajectories identifies those trajectories that can be accurately achieved by applying appropriate control signals. The resulting simple expressions for the control signal lend themselves to immediate application in science and technology. The approach permits the generalization of many well-known results from the control theory of linear systems, e.g. the Kalman rank condition to nonlinear systems. The relationship between controllability, optimal control and trajectory tracking are clarified. Furthermore, the existence of linear structures underlying nonlinear optimal control is revealed, enabling the derivation of exact analytical solutions to an entire class of nonlinear optimal trajectory tracking problems. The clear and self-contained presentation focuses on a general and mathematically rigorous analysis of controlled dynamical systems. The concepts developed are visualized with the help of particular dynamical systems motivated by physics and chemistry.

This book presents papers surrounding the extensive discussions that took place from the 'Variational Analysis and Aerospace Engineering' workshop held at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture in 2015. Contributions to this volume focus on advanced mathematical methods in aerospace engineering and industrial engineering such as computational fluid dynamics methods, optimization methods in aerodynamics, optimum controls, dynamic systems, the theory of structures, space missions, flight mechanics, control theory, algebraic geometry for CAD applications, and variational methods and applications. Advanced graduate students, researchers, and professionals in mathematics and engineering will find this volume useful as it illustrates current collaborative research projects in applied mathematics and aerospace engineering.

The European Conference on Numerical Mathematics and Advanced Applications (ENUMATH), held every 2 years, provides a forum for discussing recent advances in and aspects of numerical mathematics and scientific and industrial applications. The previous ENUMATH meetings took place in Paris (1995), Heidelberg (1997), Jyvaskyla (1999), Ischia (2001), Prague (2003), Santiago de Compostela (2005), Graz (2007), Uppsala (2009), Leicester (2011) and Lausanne (2013). This book presents a selection of invited and contributed lectures from the ENUMATH 2015 conference, which was organised by the Institute of Applied Mathematics (IAM), Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, from September 14 to 18, 2015. It offers an overview of central recent developments in numerical analysis, computational mathematics, and applications in the form of contributions by leading experts in the field.

This edited volume includes thoroughly collected on sensing and control for autonomous vehicles. Guidance, navigation and motion control systems for autonomous vehicles are increasingly important in land-based, marine and aerial operations. Autonomous underwater vehicles may be used for pipeline inspection, light intervention work, underwater survey and collection of oceanographic/biological data. Autonomous unmanned aerial systems can be used in a large number of applications such as inspection, monitoring, data collection, surveillance, etc. At present, vehicles operate with limited autonomy and a minimum of intelligence. There is a growing interest for cooperative and coordinated multi-vehicle systems, real-time re-planning, robust autonomous navigation systems and robust autonomous control of vehicles. Unmanned vehicles with high levels of autonomy may be used for safe and efficient collection of environmental data, for assimilation of climate and environmental models and to complement global satellite systems. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of control theory, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

This volume collects research papers addressing topical issues in economics and management with a particular focus on dynamic models which allow to analyze and foster the decision making of firms in dynamic complex environments. The scope of the contributions ranges from daily operational challenges firms face to strategic choices in dynamic industry environments and the analysis of optimal growth paths. The volume also highlights recent methodological developments in the areas of dynamic optimization, dynamic games and meta-heuristics, which help to improve our understanding of (optimal) decision making in a fast evolving economy.

This book contains the most recent progress in data assimilation in meteorology, oceanography and hydrology including land surface. It spans both theoretical and applicative aspects with various methodologies such as variational, Kalman filter, ensemble, Monte Carlo and artificial intelligence methods. Besides data assimilation, other important topics are also covered including targeting observation, sensitivity analysis, and parameter estimation. The book will be useful to individual researchers as well as graduate students for a reference in the field of data assimilation.

This book systematically describes the concepts and principles for multi-satellite relative motion, passive and near passive formation designs, trajectory planning and control for fuel optimal formation maneuvers, and formation flying maintenance control design. As such, it provides a sound foundation for researchers and engineers in this field to develop further theories and pursue their implementations. Though satellite formation flying is widely considered to be a major advance in space technology, there are few systematic treatments of the topic in the literature. Addressing that gap, the book offers a valuable resource for academics, researchers, postgraduate students and practitioners in the field of satellite science and engineering.

This book presents the proceedings of Positivity VII, held from 22-26 July 2013, in Leiden, the Netherlands. Positivity is the mathematical field concerned with ordered structures and their applications in the broadest sense of the word. A biyearly series of conferences is devoted to presenting the latest developments in this lively and growing discipline. The lectures at the conference covered a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from order-theoretic approaches to stochastic processes, positive solutions of evolution equations and positive operators on vector lattices, to order structures in the context of algebras of operators on Hilbert spaces. The contributions in the book reflect this variety and appeal to university researchers in functional analysis, operator theory, measure and integration theory and operator algebras. Positivity VII was also the Zaanen Centennial Conference to mark the 100th birth year of Adriaan Cornelis Zaanen, who held the chair of Analysis in Leiden for more than 25 years and was one of the leaders in the field during his lifetime.

This book is based on lectures from a one-year course at the Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok, Russia) as well as on workshops on optimal control offered to students at various mathematical departments at the university level. The main themes of the theory of linear and nonlinear systems are considered, including the basic problem of establishing the necessary and sufficient conditions of optimal processes. In the first part of the course, the theory of linear control systems is constructed on the basis of the separation theorem and the concept of a reachability set. The authors prove the closure of a reachability set in the class of piecewise continuous controls, and the problems of controllability, observability, identification, performance and terminal control are also considered. The second part of the course is devoted to nonlinear control systems. Using the method of variations and the Lagrange multipliers rule of nonlinear problems, the authors prove the Pontryagin maximum principle for problems with mobile ends of trajectories. Further exercises and a large number of additional tasks are provided for use as practical training in order for the reader to consolidate the theoretical material.

This book discusses recent advances in the estimation and control of networked systems with unacknowledged packet losses: systems usually known as user-datagram-protocol-like. It presents both the optimal and sub-optimal solutions in the form of algorithms, which are designed to be implemented easily by computer routines. It also provides MATLAB (R) routines for the key algorithms. It shows how these methods and algorithms can solve estimation and control problems effectively, and identifies potential research directions and ideas to help readers grasp the field more easily. The novel auxiliary estimator method, which is able to deal with estimators that consist of exponentially increasing terms, is developed to analyze the stability and convergence of the optimal estimator. The book also explores the structure and solvability of the optimal control, i.e. linear quadratic Gaussian control. It develops various sub-optimal but efficient solutions for estimation and control for industrial and practical applications, and analyzes their stability and performance. This is a valuable resource for researchers studying networked control systems, especially those related to non-TCP-like networks. The practicality of the ideas included makes it useful for engineers working with networked control.

Since the days of Lev Pontryagin and his associates, the discipline of Optimal Control has enjoyed a tremendous upswing - not only in terms of its mathematical foundations, but also with regard to numerous fields of application, which have given rise to highly active research areas. Few scholars, however, have been able to make contributions to both the mathematical developments and the (socio-)economic applications; Vladimir Veliov is one of them. In the course of his scientific career, he has contributed highly influential research on mathematical aspects of Optimal Control Theory, as well as applications in Economics and Operations Research. One of the hallmarks of his research is its impressive breadth. This volume, published on the occasion of his 65th birthday, accurately reflects that diversity. The mathematical aspects covered include stability theory for difference inclusions, metric regularity, generalized duality theory, the Bolza problem from a functional analytic perspective, and fractional calculus. In turn, the book explores various applications of control theory, such as population dynamics, population economics, epidemiology, optimal growth theory, resource and energy economics, environmental management, and climate change. Further topics include optimal liquidity, dynamics of the firm, and wealth inequality.

This comprehensive textbook on combinatorial optimization places special emphasis on theoretical results and algorithms with provably good performance, in contrast to heuristics. It is based on numerous courses on combinatorial optimization and specialized topics, mostly at graduate level. This book reviews the fundamentals, covers the classical topics (paths, flows, matching, matroids, NP-completeness, approximation algorithms) in detail, and proceeds to advanced and recent topics, some of which have not appeared in a textbook before. Throughout, it contains complete but concise proofs, and also provides numerous exercises and references. This sixth edition has again been updated, revised, and significantly extended. Among other additions, there are new sections on shallow-light trees, submodular function maximization, smoothed analysis of the knapsack problem, the (ln 4+e)-approximation for Steiner trees, and the VPN theorem. Thus, this book continues to represent the state of the art of combinatorial optimization.

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the classical and modern calculus of variations, serving as a useful reference to advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the field. Starting from ten motivational examples, the book begins with the most important aspects of the classical theory, including the Direct Method, the Euler-Lagrange equation, Lagrange multipliers, Noether's Theorem and some regularity theory. Based on the efficient Young measure approach, the author then discusses the vectorial theory of integral functionals, including quasiconvexity, polyconvexity, and relaxation. In the second part, more recent material such as rigidity in differential inclusions, microstructure, convex integration, singularities in measures, functionals defined on functions of bounded variation (BV), and -convergence for phase transitions and homogenization are explored. While predominantly designed as a textbook for lecture courses on the calculus of variations, this book can also serve as the basis for a reading seminar or as a companion for self-study. The reader is assumed to be familiar with basic vector analysis, functional analysis, Sobolev spaces, and measure theory, though most of the preliminaries are also recalled in the appendix.

This book explores the updated version of the GLOBAL algorithm which contains improvements for a local search algorithm and new Java implementations. Efficiency comparisons to earlier versions and on the increased speed achieved by the parallelization, are detailed. Examples are provided for students as well as researchers and practitioners in optimization, operations research, and mathematics to compose their own scripts with ease. A GLOBAL manual is presented in the appendix to assist new users with modules and test functions. GLOBAL is a successful stochastic multistart global optimization algorithm that has passed several computational tests, and is efficient and reliable for small to medium dimensional global optimization problems. The algorithm uses clustering to ensure efficiency and is modular in regard to the two local search methods it starts with, but it can also easily apply other local techniques. The strength of this algorithm lies in its reliability and adaptive algorithm parameters. The GLOBAL algorithm is free to download also in the earlier Fortran, C, and MATLAB implementations.

This brief examines mathematical models in nonsmooth mechanics and nonregular electrical circuits, including evolution variational inequalities, complementarity systems, differential inclusions, second-order dynamics, Lur'e systems and Moreau's sweeping process. The field of nonsmooth dynamics is of great interest to mathematicians, mechanicians, automatic controllers and engineers. The present volume acknowledges this transversality and provides a multidisciplinary view as it outlines fundamental results in nonsmooth dynamics and explains how to use them to study various problems in engineering. In particular, the author explores the question of how to redefine the notion of dynamical systems in light of modern variational and nonsmooth analysis. With the aim of bridging between the communities of applied mathematicians, engineers and researchers in control theory and nonlinear systems, this brief outlines both relevant mathematical proofs and models in unilateral mechanics and electronics.

This volume gathers contributions in the field of partial differential equations, with a focus on mathematical models in phase transitions, complex fluids and thermomechanics. These contributions are dedicated to Professor Gianni Gilardi on the occasion of his 70th birthday. It particularly develops the following thematic areas: nonlinear dynamic and stationary equations; well-posedness of initial and boundary value problems for systems of PDEs; regularity properties for the solutions; optimal control problems and optimality conditions; feedback stabilization and stability results. Most of the articles are presented in a self-contained manner, and describe new achievements and/or the state of the art in their line of research, providing interested readers with an overview of recent advances and future research directions in PDEs.

This volume focuses on contributions from both the mathematics and life science community surrounding the concepts of time and dynamicity of nature, two significant elements which are often overlooked in modeling process to avoid exponential computations. The book is divided into three distinct parts: dynamics of genomes and genetic variation, dynamics of motifs, and dynamics of biological networks. Chapters included in dynamics of genomes and genetic variation analyze the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary processes that shape the structure and function of genomes and those that govern genome dynamics. The dynamics of motifs portion of the volume provides an overview of current methods for motif searching in DNA, RNA and proteins, a key process to discover emergent properties of cells, tissues, and organisms. The part devoted to the dynamics of biological networks covers networks aptly discusses networks in complex biological functions and activities that interpret processes in cells. Moreover, chapters in this section examine several mathematical models and algorithms available for integration, analysis, and characterization. Once life scientists began to produce experimental data at an unprecedented pace, it become clear that mathematical models were necessary to interpret data, to structure information with the aim to unveil biological mechanisms, discover results, and make predictions. The second annual "Bringing Maths to Life" workshop held in Naples, Italy October 2015, enabled a bi-directional flow of ideas from and international group of mathematicians and biologists. The venue allowed mathematicians to introduce novel algorithms, methods, and software that may be useful to model aspects of life science, and life scientists posed new challenges for mathematicians.

This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students in applied mathematics or computer science, as a tool for solving real-world design problems. The present work covers fundamentals in multi-objective optimization and applications in mathematical and engineering system design using a new optimization strategy, namely the Self-Adaptive Multi-objective Optimization Differential Evolution (SA-MODE) algorithm. This strategy is proposed in order to reduce the number of evaluations of the objective function through dynamic update of canonical Differential Evolution parameters (population size, crossover probability and perturbation rate). The methodology is applied to solve mathematical functions considering test cases from the literature and various engineering systems design, such as cantilevered beam design, biochemical reactor, crystallization process, machine tool spindle design, rotary dryer design, among others.

This book presents a method for solving linear ordinary differential equations based on the factorization of the differential operator. The approach for the case of constant coefficients is elementary, and only requires a basic knowledge of calculus and linear algebra. In particular, the book avoids the use of distribution theory, as well as the other more advanced approaches: Laplace transform, linear systems, the general theory of linear equations with variable coefficients and variation of parameters. The case of variable coefficients is addressed using Mammana's result for the factorization of a real linear ordinary differential operator into a product of first-order (complex) factors, as well as a recent generalization of this result to the case of complex-valued coefficients.

Consisting of two parts, the first part of this volume is an essentially self-contained exposition of the geometric aspects of local and global regularity theory for the Monge-Ampere and linearized Monge-Ampere equations. As an application, we solve the second boundary value problem of the prescribed affine mean curvature equation, which can be viewed as a coupling of the latter two equations. Of interest in its own right, the linearized Monge-Ampere equation also has deep connections and applications in analysis, fluid mechanics and geometry, including the semi-geostrophic equations in atmospheric flows, the affine maximal surface equation in affine geometry and the problem of finding Kahler metrics of constant scalar curvature in complex geometry. Among other topics, the second part provides a thorough exposition of the large time behavior and discounted approximation of Hamilton-Jacobi equations, which have received much attention in the last two decades, and a new approach to the subject, the nonlinear adjoint method, is introduced. The appendix offers a short introduction to the theory of viscosity solutions of first-order Hamilton-Jacobi equations.

Focusing on applications to science and engineering, this book presents the results of the ITN-FP7 SADCO network's innovative research in optimization and control in the following interconnected topics: optimality conditions in optimal control, dynamic programming approaches to optimal feedback synthesis and reachability analysis, and computational developments in model predictive control. The novelty of the book resides in the fact that it has been developed by early career researchers, providing a good balance between clarity and scientific rigor. Each chapter features an introduction addressed to PhD students and some original contributions aimed at specialist researchers. Requiring only a graduate mathematical background, the book is self-contained. It will be of particular interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students, industrial practitioners and to senior scientists wishing to update their knowledge.

The description of many interesting phenomena in science and engineering leads to infinite-dimensional minimization or evolution problems that define nonlinear partial differential equations. While the development and analysis of numerical methods for linear partial differential equations is nearly complete, only few results are available in the case of nonlinear equations. This monograph devises numerical methods for nonlinear model problems arising in the mathematical description of phase transitions, large bending problems, image processing, and inelastic material behavior. For each of these problems the underlying mathematical model is discussed, the essential analytical properties are explained, and the proposed numerical method is rigorously analyzed. The practicality of the algorithms is illustrated by means of short implementations.