In 1958, Ralph E. Gomory transformed the field of integer programming when he published a paper that described a cutting-plane algorithm for pure integer programs and announced that the method could be refined to give a finite algorithm for integer programming. In 2008, to commemorate the anniversary of this seminal paper, a special workshop celebrating fifty years of integer programming was held in Aussois, France, as part of the 12th Combinatorial Optimization Workshop. It contains reprints of key historical articles and written versions of survey lectures on six of the hottest topics in the field by distinguished members of the integer programming community. Useful for anyone in mathematics, computer science and operations research, this book exposes mathematical optimization, specifically integer programming and combinatorial optimization, to a broad audience.

Michael Holzhauser discusses generalizations of well-known network flow and packing problems by additional or modified side constraints. By exploiting the inherent connection between the two problem classes, the author investigates the complexity and approximability of several novel network flow and packing problems and presents combinatorial solution and approximation algorithms.

This work reviews the most important results regarding the use of the -point in Scheduling Theory. It provides a number of different LP-relaxations for scheduling problems and seeks to explain their polyhedral consequences. It also explains the concept of the -point and how the conversion algorithm works, pointing out the relations to the sum of the weighted completion times. Lastly, the book explores the latest techniques used for many scheduling problems with different constraints, such as release dates, precedences, and parallel machines. This reference book is intended for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students who are interested in scheduling theory. It is also inspiring for researchers wanting to learn about sophisticated techniques and open problems of the field.

The chapters which appear in this volume are selected studies presented at the First International Conference on Engineering and Applied Sciences Optimization (OPT-i), Kos, Greece, 4-6 June 2014 and works written by friends, former colleagues and students of the late Professor M. G. Karlaftis; all in the area of optimization that he loved and published so much in himself. The subject areas represented here range from structural optimization, logistics, transportation, traffic and telecommunication networks to operational research, metaheuristics, multidisciplinary and multiphysics design optimization, etc. This volume is dedicated to the life and the memory of Professor Matthew G. Karlaftis, who passed away a few hours before he was to give the opening speech at OPT-i. All contributions reflect the warmth and genuine friendship which he enjoyed from his associates and show how much his scientific contribution has been appreciated. He will be greatly missed and it is hoped that this volume will be received as a suitable memorial to his life and achievements.

This book reports the latest findings on intelligent energy management of Internet data centers in smart-grid environments. The book gathers novel research ideas in Internet data center energy management, especially scenarios with cyber-related vulnerabilities, power outages and carbon emission constraints. The book will be of interest to university researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students in communication and networking areas who wish to learn the core principles, methods, algorithms, and applications of energy management of Internet data centers in smart grids.

The second edition of this textbook presents the basic mathematical knowledge and skills that are needed for courses on modern theoretical physics, such as those on quantum mechanics, classical and quantum field theory, and related areas. The authors stress that learning mathematical physics is not a passive process and include numerous detailed proofs, examples, and over 200 exercises, as well as hints linking mathematical concepts and results to the relevant physical concepts and theories. All of the material from the first edition has been updated, and five new chapters have been added on such topics as distributions, Hilbert space operators, and variational methods. The text is divided into three parts: - Part I: A brief introduction to (Schwartz) distribution theory. Elements from the theories of ultra distributions and (Fourier) hyperfunctions are given in addition to some deeper results for Schwartz distributions, thus providing a rather comprehensive introduction to the theory of generalized functions. Basic properties and methods for distributions are developed with applications to constant coefficient ODEs and PDEs. The relation between distributions and holomorphic functions is considered, as well as basic properties of Sobolev spaces. - Part II: Fundamental facts about Hilbert spaces. The basic theory of linear (bounded and unbounded) operators in Hilbert spaces and special classes of linear operators - compact, Hilbert-Schmidt, trace class, and Schroedinger operators, as needed in quantum physics and quantum information theory - are explored. This section also contains a detailed spectral analysis of all major classes of linear operators, including completeness of generalized eigenfunctions, as well as of (completely) positive mappings, in particular quantum operations. - Part III: Direct methods of the calculus of variations and their applications to boundary- and eigenvalue-problems for linear and nonlinear partial differential operators. The authors conclude with a discussion of the Hohenberg-Kohn variational principle. The appendices contain proofs of more general and deeper results, including completions, basic facts about metrizable Hausdorff locally convex topological vector spaces, Baire's fundamental results and their main consequences, and bilinear functionals. Mathematical Methods in Physics is aimed at a broad community of graduate students in mathematics, mathematical physics, quantum information theory, physics and engineering, as well as researchers in these disciplines. Expanded content and relevant updates will make this new edition a valuable resource for those working in these disciplines.

This volume presents significant advances in a number of theories and problems of Mathematical Analysis and its applications in disciplines such as Analytic Inequalities, Operator Theory, Functional Analysis, Approximation Theory, Functional Equations, Differential Equations, Wavelets, Discrete Mathematics and Mechanics. The contributions focus on recent developments and are written by eminent scientists from the international mathematical community. Special emphasis is given to new results that have been obtained in the above mentioned disciplines in which Nonlinear Analysis plays a central role. Some review papers published in this volume will be particularly useful for a broader readership in Mathematical Analysis, as well as for graduate students. An attempt is given to present all subjects in this volume in a unified and self-contained manner, to be particularly useful to the mathematical community.

This book contains state-of-the-art contributions in the field of evolutionary and deterministic methods for design, optimization and control in engineering and sciences. Specialists have written each of the 34 chapters as extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Evolutionary and Deterministic Methods for Design, Optimization and Control with Applications to Industrial and Societal Problems (EUROGEN 2013). The conference was one of the Thematic Conferences of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS). Topics treated in the various chapters are classified in the following sections: theoretical and numerical methods and tools for optimization (theoretical methods and tools; numerical methods and tools) and engineering design and societal applications (turbo machinery; structures, materials and civil engineering; aeronautics and astronautics; societal applications; electrical and electronics applications), focused particularly on intelligent systems for multidisciplinary design optimization (mdo) problems based on multi-hybridized software, adjoint-based and one-shot methods, uncertainty quantification and optimization, multidisciplinary design optimization, applications of game theory to industrial optimization problems, applications in structural and civil engineering optimum design and surrogate models based optimization methods in aerodynamic design.

This book, based on a selection of talks given at a dedicated meeting in Cortona, Italy, in June 2013, shows the high degree of interaction between a number of fields related to applied sciences. Applied sciences consider situations in which the evolution of a given system over time is observed, and the related models can be formulated in terms of evolution equations (EEs). These equations have been studied intensively in theoretical research and are the source of an enormous number of applications. In this volume, particular attention is given to direct, inverse and control problems for EEs. The book provides an updated overview of the field, revealing its richness and vitality.

Although the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm requires relatively few parameters and is computationally simple and easy to implement, it is not a globally convergent algorithm. In Particle Swarm Optimisation: Classical and Quantum Perspectives, the authors introduce their concept of quantum-behaved particles inspired by quantum mechanics, which leads to the quantum-behaved particle swarm optimisation (QPSO) algorithm. This globally convergent algorithm has fewer parameters, a faster convergence rate, and stronger searchability for complex problems. The book presents the concepts of optimisation problems as well as random search methods for optimisation before discussing the principles of the PSO algorithm. Examples illustrate how the PSO algorithm solves optimisation problems. The authors also analyse the reasons behind the shortcomings of the PSO algorithm. Moving on to the QPSO algorithm, the authors give a thorough overview of the literature on QPSO, describe the fundamental model for the QPSO algorithm, and explore applications of the algorithm to solve typical optimisation problems. They also discuss some advanced theoretical topics, including the behaviour of individual particles, global convergence, computational complexity, convergence rate, and parameter selection. The text closes with coverage of several real-world applications, including inverse problems, optimal design of digital filters, economic dispatch problems, biological multiple sequence alignment, and image processing. MATLAB (R), Fortran, and C++ source codes for the main algorithms are provided on an accompanying downloadable resources. Helping you numerically solve optimisation problems, this book focuses on the fundamental principles and applications of PSO and QPSO algorithms. It not only explains how to use the algorithms, but also covers advanced topics that establish the groundwork for understanding.

This book integrates multiple criteria concepts and methods for problems within the Risk, Reliability and Maintenance (RRM) context. The concepts and foundations related to RRM are considered for this integration with multicriteria approaches. In the book, a general framework for building decision models is presented and this is illustrated in various chapters by discussing many different decision models related to the RRM context. The scope of the book is related to ways of how to integrate Applied Probability and Decision Making. In Applied Probability, this mainly includes: decision analysis and reliability theory, amongst other topics closely related to risk analysis and maintenance. In Decision Making, it includes a broad range of topics in MCDM (Multi-Criteria Decision Making) and MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Aiding; also known as Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis). In addition to decision analysis, some of the topics related to Mathematical Programming area are briefly considered, such as multiobjective optimization, since methods related to these topics have been applied to the context of RRM. The book addresses an innovative treatment for the decision making in RRM, thereby improving the integration of fundamental concepts from the areas of both RRM and decision making. This is accomplished by presenting an overview of the literature on decision making in RRM. Some pitfalls of decision models when applying them to RRM in practice are discussed and guidance on overcoming these drawbacks is offered. The procedure enables multicriteria models to be built for the RRM context, including guidance on choosing an appropriate multicriteria method for a particular problem faced in the RRM context. The book also includes many research advances in these topics. Most of the multicriteria decision models that are described are specific applications that have been influenced by this research and the advances in this field. Multicriteria and Multiobjective Models for Risk, Reliability and Maintenance Decision Analysis is implicitly structured in three parts, with 12 chapters. The first part deals with MCDM/A concepts methods and decision processes. The second part presents the main concepts and foundations of RRM. Finally the third part deals with specific decision problems in the RRM context approached with MCDM/A models.

This volume contains two types of papers-a selection of contributions from the "Second International Conference in Network Analysis" held in Nizhny Novgorod on May 7-9, 2012, and papers submitted to an "open call for papers" reflecting the activities of LATNA at the Higher School for Economics. This volume contains many new results in modeling and powerful algorithmic solutions applied to problems in * vehicle routing * single machine scheduling * modern financial markets * cell formation in group technology * brain activities of left- and right-handers * speeding up algorithms for the maximum clique problem * analysis and applications of different measures in clustering The broad range of applications that can be described and analyzed by means of a network brings together researchers, practitioners, and other scientific communities from numerous fields such as Operations Research, Computer Science, Transportation, Energy, Social Sciences, and more. The contributions not only come from different fields, but also cover a broad range of topics relevant to the theory and practice of network analysis. Researchers, students, and engineers from various disciplines will benefit from the state-of-the-art in models, algorithms, technologies, and techniques presented.

This book is comprised of selected research articles developed from a workshop on Ergodic Theory, Probabilistic Methods and Applications, held in April 2012 at the Banff International Research Station. It contains contributions from world leading experts in ergodic theory, numerical dynamical systems, molecular dynamics and ocean/atmosphere dynamics, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The volume will serve as a valuable reference for mathematicians, physicists, engineers, biologists and climate scientists, who currently use, or wish to learn how to use, probabilistic techniques to cope with dynamical models that display open or non-equilibrium behavior.

This volume compiles the major results of conference participants from the "Third International Conference in Network Analysis" held at the Higher School of Economics, Nizhny Novgorod in May 2013, with the aim to initiate further joint research among different groups. The contributions in this book cover a broad range of topics relevant to the theory and practice of network analysis, including the reliability of complex networks, software, theory, methodology, and applications. Network analysis has become a major research topic over the last several years. The broad range of applications that can be described and analyzed by means of a network has brought together researchers, practitioners from numerous fields such as operations research, computer science, transportation, energy, biomedicine, computational neuroscience and social sciences. In addition, new approaches and computer environments such as parallel computing, grid computing, cloud computing, and quantum computing have helped to solve large scale network optimization problems.

This book honours the outstanding contributions of Vladimir Vapnik, a rare example of a scientist for whom the following statements hold true simultaneously: his work led to the inception of a new field of research, the theory of statistical learning and empirical inference; he has lived to see the field blossom; and he is still as active as ever. He started analyzing learning algorithms in the 1960s and he invented the first version of the generalized portrait algorithm. He later developed one of the most successful methods in machine learning, the support vector machine (SVM) - more than just an algorithm, this was a new approach to learning problems, pioneering the use of functional analysis and convex optimization in machine learning. Part I of this book contains three chapters describing and witnessing some of Vladimir Vapnik's contributions to science. In the first chapter, Leon Bottou discusses the seminal paper published in 1968 by Vapnik and Chervonenkis that lay the foundations of statistical learning theory, and the second chapter is an English-language translation of that original paper. In the third chapter, Alexey Chervonenkis presents a first-hand account of the early history of SVMs and valuable insights into the first steps in the development of the SVM in the framework of the generalised portrait method. The remaining chapters, by leading scientists in domains such as statistics, theoretical computer science, and mathematics, address substantial topics in the theory and practice of statistical learning theory, including SVMs and other kernel-based methods, boosting, PAC-Bayesian theory, online and transductive learning, loss functions, learnable function classes, notions of complexity for function classes, multitask learning, and hypothesis selection. These contributions include historical and context notes, short surveys, and comments on future research directions. This book will be of interest to researchers, engineers, and graduate students engaged with all aspects of statistical learning.

The aim of this book is to present qualitative aspects of logistics operations and supply chain management which help to implement the sustainable policy principles in the companies and public sector’s institutions. Authors in individual chapters address the issues related to reverse network configuration, forward and reverse supply chain integration, CO2 reduction in transportation, improvement of the  production operations and management of the recovery activities. Some best practices from different countries and industries are presented. This book will be valuable to both academics and practitioners wishing to deepen their knowledge in the field of logistics operations and management with regard to sustainability issues.

Metaheuristics, and evolutionary algorithms in particular, are known to provide efficient, adaptable solutions for many real-world problems, but the often informal way in which they are defined and applied has led to misconceptions, and even successful applications are sometimes the outcome of trial and error. Ideally, theoretical studies should explain when and why metaheuristics work, but the challenge is huge: mathematical analysis requires significant effort even for simple scenarios and real-life problems are usually quite complex. In this book the editors establish a bridge between theory and practice, presenting principled methods that incorporate problem knowledge in evolutionary algorithms and other metaheuristics. The book consists of 11 chapters dealing with the following topics: theoretical results that show what is not possible, an assessment of unsuccessful lines of empirical research; methods for rigorously defining the appropriate scope of problems while acknowledging the compromise between the class of problems to which a search algorithm is applied and its overall expected performance; the top-down principled design of search algorithms, in particular showing that it is possible to design algorithms that are provably good for some rigorously defined classes; and, finally, principled practice, that is reasoned and systematic approaches to setting up experiments, metaheuristic adaptation to specific problems, and setting parameters. With contributions by some of the leading researchers in this domain, this book will be of significant value to scientists, practitioners, and graduate students in the areas of evolutionary computing, metaheuristics, and computational intelligence.

Martin Groetschel is one of the most influential mathematicians of our time. He has received numerous honors and holds a number of key positions in the international mathematical community. He celebrated his 65th birthday on September 10, 2013. Martin Groetschel's doctoral descendant tree 1983-2012, i.e., the first 30 years, features 39 children, 74 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren, a total of 139 doctoral descendants. This book starts with a personal tribute to Martin Groetschel by the editors (Part I), a contribution by his very special "predecessor" Manfred Padberg on "Facets and Rank of Integer Polyhedra" (Part II), and the doctoral descendant tree 1983-2012 (Part III). The core of this book (Part IV) contains 16 contributions, each of which is coauthored by at least one doctoral descendant. The sequence of the articles starts with contributions to the theory of mathematical optimization, including polyhedral combinatorics, extended formulations, mixed-integer convex optimization, super classes of perfect graphs, efficient algorithms for subtree-telecenters, junctions in acyclic graphs and preemptive restricted strip covering, as well as efficient approximation of non-preemptive restricted strip covering. Combinations of new theoretical insights with algorithms and experiments deal with network design problems, combinatorial optimization problems with submodular objective functions and more general mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems. Applications include VLSI layout design, systems biology, wireless network design, mean-risk optimization and gas network optimization. Computational studies include a semidefinite branch and cut approach for the max k-cut problem, mixed-integer nonlinear optimal control, and mixed-integer linear optimization for scheduling and routing of fly-in safari planes. The two closing articles are devoted to computational advances in general mixed integer linear optimization, the first by scientists working in industry, the second by scientists working in academia. These articles reflect the "scientific facets" of Martin Groetschel who has set standards in theory, computation and applications.

This book presents a modular and expandable technique in the rapidly emerging research area of automatic configuration and selection of the best algorithm for the instance at hand. The author presents the basic model behind ISAC and then details a number of modifications and practical applications. In particular, he addresses automated feature generation, offline algorithm configuration for portfolio generation, algorithm selection, adaptive solvers, online tuning, and parallelization. The author's related thesis was honorably mentioned (runner-up) for the ACP Dissertation Award in 2014, and this book includes some expanded sections and notes on recent developments. Additionally, the techniques described in this book have been successfully applied to a number of solvers competing in the SAT and MaxSAT International Competitions, winning a total of 18 gold medals between 2011 and 2014. The book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in artificial intelligence, in particular in the area of machine learning and constraint programming.

This volume contains a selection of contributions that were presented at the Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications Conference (MOPTA) held at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA on July 30-August 1, 2012. The conference brought together a diverse group of researchers and practitioners, working on both theoretical and practical aspects of continuous or discrete optimization. Topics presented included algorithms for solving convex, network, mixed-integer, nonlinear, and global optimization problems, and addressed the application of optimization techniques in finance, logistics, health, and other important fields. The contributions contained in this volume represent a sample of these topics and applications and illustrate the broad diversity of ideas discussed at the meeting.

The book presents, in a systematic manner, the optimal controls under different mathematical models in fermentation processes. Variant mathematical models - i.e., those for multistage systems; switched autonomous systems; time-dependent and state-dependent switched systems; multistage time-delay systems and switched time-delay systems - for fed-batch fermentation processes are proposed and the theories and algorithms of their optimal control problems are studied and discussed. By putting forward novel methods and innovative tools, the book provides a state-of-the-art and comprehensive systematic treatment of optimal control problems arising in fermentation processes. It not only develops nonlinear dynamical system, optimal control theory and optimization algorithms, but can also help to increase productivity and provide valuable reference material on commercial fermentation processes.

This book surveys key algorithm developments between 1990 and 2012, with brief descriptions, a unified pseudocode for each algorithm and downloadable program code. Provides a taxonomy to clarify similarities and differences as well as historical relationships.

This volume contains a collection of papers based on lectures and presentations delivered at the International Conference on Constructive Nonsmooth Analysis (CNSA) held in St. Petersburg (Russia) from June 18-23, 2012. This conference was organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the birth of nonsmooth analysis and nondifferentiable optimization and was dedicated to J.-J. Moreau and the late B.N. Pshenichnyi, A.M. Rubinov, and N.Z. Shor, whose contributions to NSA and NDO remain invaluable. The first four chapters of the book are devoted to the theory of nonsmooth analysis. Chapters 5-8 contain new results in nonsmooth mechanics and calculus of variations. Chapters 9-13 are related to nondifferentiable optimization, and the volume concludes with four chapters containing interesting and important historical chapters, including tributes to three giants of nonsmooth analysis, convexity, and optimization: Alexandr Alexandrov, Leonid Kantorovich, and Alex Rubinov. The last chapter provides an overview and important snapshots of the 50-year history of convex analysis and optimization.

This book investigates several duality approaches for vector optimization problems, while also comparing them. Special attention is paid to duality for linear vector optimization problems, for which a vector dual that avoids the shortcomings of the classical ones is proposed. Moreover, the book addresses different efficiency concepts for vector optimization problems. Among the problems that appear when the framework is generalized by considering set-valued functions, an increasing interest is generated by those involving monotone operators, especially now that new methods for approaching them by means of convex analysis have been developed. Following this path, the book provides several results on different properties of sums of monotone operators.

This book presents comprehensive state-of-the-art theoretical analysis of the fundamental Newtonian and Newtonian-related approaches to solving optimization and variational problems. A central focus is the relationship between the basic Newton scheme for a given problem and algorithms that also enjoy fast local convergence. The authors develop general perturbed Newtonian frameworks that preserve fast convergence and consider specific algorithms as particular cases within those frameworks, i.e., as perturbations of the associated basic Newton iterations. This approach yields a set of tools for the unified treatment of various algorithms, including some not of the Newton type per se. Among the new subjects addressed is the class of degenerate problems. In particular, the phenomenon of attraction of Newton iterates to critical Lagrange multipliers and its consequences as well as stabilized Newton methods for variational problems and stabilized sequential quadratic programming for optimization. This volume will be useful to researchers and graduate students in the fields of optimization and variational analysis.