This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 5th International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems, ICORES 2016, held in Rome, Italy, in February 2016. The 14 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selection from a total of 75 submissions. They are organized in topical sections named: methodologies and technologies; and applications.

This book investigates the trends and challenges that ports, logistics and supply chains have tackled in recent decades and the way forward. A new concept, port focal logistics is introduced which appreciates the efforts by previous studies in this field, but simultaneously recognize the limitations, and the need for further improvements.

Very little has been published on optimization of pharmaceutical portfolios. Moreover, most of published literature is coming from the commercial side, where probability of technical success (PoS) is treated as fixed, and not as a consequence of development strategy or design. In this book there is a strong focus on impact of study design on PoS and ultimately on the value of portfolio. Design options that are discussed in different chapters are dose-selection strategies, adaptive design and enrichment. Some development strategies that are discussed are indication sequencing, optimal number of programs and optimal decision criteria. This book includes chapters written by authors with very broad backgrounds including financial, clinical, statistical, decision sciences, commercial and regulatory. Many authors have long held executive positions and have been involved with decision making at a product or at a portfolio level. As such, it is expected that this book will attract a very broad audience, including decision makers in pharmaceutical R&D, commercial and financial departments. The intended audience also includes portfolio planners and managers, statisticians, decision scientists and clinicians. Early chapters describe approaches to portfolio optimization from big Pharma and Venture Capital standpoints. They have stronger focus on finances and processes. Later chapters present selected statistical and decision analysis methods for optimizing drug development programs and portfolios. Some methodological chapters are technical; however, with a few exceptions they require a relatively basic knowledge of statistics by a reader.

This book is the first easy-to-read text on nonsmooth optimization (NSO, not necessarily differentiable optimization). Solving these kinds of problems plays a critical role in many industrial applications and real-world modeling systems, for example in the context of image denoising, optimal control, neural network training, data mining, economics and computational chemistry and physics. The book covers both the theory and the numerical methods used in NSO and provide an overview of different problems arising in the field. It is organized into three parts: 1. convex and nonconvex analysis and the theory of NSO; 2. test problems and practical applications; 3. a guide to NSO software. The book is ideal for anyone teaching or attending NSO courses. As an accessible introduction to the field, it is also well suited as an independent learning guide for practitioners already familiar with the basics of optimization.

This book focuses on the predictive capabilities derived from digital representation of humans in simulation or virtual environments. It reports on models that facilitate prediction of safety and performance, and describes both innovative visualization techniques as well as the underlying mathematics and science. Contributions cover a wealth of topics, including simulation tools and platforms, virtual interactive design, model optimization methods, ontologies and knowledge-based decision support, human-computer interaction, human augmentation, and many others. The book gives special emphasis to cutting-edge simulation applications of human system modeling and optimization, including aviation, manufacturing and service industries, automotive design, product design, healthcare, sustainability, and emergency management. Based on the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Digital Human Modeling and Simulation, held on July 27-31, 2016, in Walt Disney World (R), Florida, USA, it is intended as timely survey for researchers, engineers, designers, applied mathematicians and practitioners working in the field of Human Factors and Ergonomics.

This book presents the latest findings on stochastic dynamic programming models and on solving optimal control problems in networks. It includes the authors' new findings on determining the optimal solution of discrete optimal control problems in networks and on solving game variants of Markov decision problems in the context of computational networks. First, the book studies the finite state space of Markov processes and reviews the existing methods and algorithms for determining the main characteristics in Markov chains, before proposing new approaches based on dynamic programming and combinatorial methods. Chapter two is dedicated to infinite horizon stochastic discrete optimal control models and Markov decision problems with average and expected total discounted optimization criteria, while Chapter three develops a special game-theoretical approach to Markov decision processes and stochastic discrete optimal control problems. In closing, the book's final chapter is devoted to finite horizon stochastic control problems and Markov decision processes. The algorithms developed represent a valuable contribution to the important field of computational network theory.

This handbook serves as a complement to the Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis (eds, W.W. Cooper, L.M. Seiford and J, Zhu, 2011, Springer) in an effort to extend the frontier of DEA research. It provides a comprehensive source for the state-of-the art DEA modeling on internal structures and network DEA. Chapter 1 provides a survey on two-stage network performance decomposition and modeling techniques. Chapter 2 discusses the pitfalls in network DEA modeling. Chapter 3 discusses efficiency decompositions in network DEA under three types of structures, namely series, parallel and dynamic. Chapter 4 studies the determination of the network DEA frontier. In chapter 5 additive efficiency decomposition in network DEA is discussed. An approach in scale efficiency measurement in two-stage networks is presented in chapter 6. Chapter 7 further discusses the scale efficiency decomposition in two stage networks. Chapter 8 offers a bargaining game approach to modeling two-stage networks. Chapter 9 studies shared resources and efficiency decomposition in two-stage networks. Chapter 10 introduces an approach to computing the technical efficiency scores for a dynamic production network and its sub-processes. Chapter 11 presents a slacks-based network DEA. Chapter 12 discusses a DEA modeling technique for a two-stage network process where the inputs of the second stage include both the outputs from the first stage and additional inputs to the second stage. Chapter 13 presents an efficiency measurement methodology for multi-stage production systems. Chapter 14 discusses network DEA models, both static and dynamic. The discussion also explores various useful objective functions that can be applied to the models to find the optimal allocation of resources for processes within the black box, that are normally invisible to DEA. Chapter 15 provides a comprehensive review of various type network DEA modeling techniques. Chapter 16 presents shared resources models for deriving aggregate measures of bank-branch performance, with accompanying component measures that make up that aggregate value. Chapter 17 examines a set of manufacturing plants operating under a single umbrella, with the objective being to use the component or function measures to decide what might be considered as each plant's core business. Chapter 18 considers problem settings where there may be clusters or groups of DMUs that form a hierarchy. The specific case of a set off electric power plants is examined in this context. Chapter 19 models bad outputs in two-stage network DEA. Chapter 20 presents an application of network DEA to performance measurement of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Chapter 21 presents an application of a two-stage network DEA model for examining the performance of 30 U.S. airline companies. Chapter 22 then presents two distinct network efficiency models that are applied to engineering systems.

From the Preface: Blending ideas from operations research, music psychology, music theory, and cognitive science, this book aims to tell a coherent story of how tonality pervades our experience, and hence our models, of music. The story is told through the developmental stages of the Spiral Array model for tonality, a geometric model designed to incorporate and represent principles of tonal cognition, thereby lending itself to practical applications of tonal recognition, segmentation, and visualization. Mathematically speaking, the coils that make up the Spiral Array model are in effect helices, a spiral referring to a curve emanating from a central point. The use of "spiral" here is inspired by spiral staircases, intertwined spiral staircases: nested double helices within an outer spiral. The book serves as a compilation of knowledge about the Spiral Array model and its applications, and is written for a broad audience, ranging from the layperson interested in music, mathematics, and computing to the music scientist-engineer interested in computational approaches to music representation and analysis, from the music-mathematical and computational sciences student interested in learning about tonality from a formal modeling standpoint to the computer musician interested in applying these technologies in interactive composition and performance. Some chapters assume no musical or technical knowledge, and some are more musically or computationally involved.

Here is a collection of nonlinear optimization applications from the real world, expressed in the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). The concepts are presented so that the reader can quickly modify and update them to represent real-world situations.

Statistical Decision Problems presents a quick and concise introduction into the theory of risk, deviation and error measures that play a key role in statistical decision problems. It introduces state-of-the-art practical decision making through twenty-one case studies from real-life applications. The case studies cover a broad area of topics and the authors include links with source code and data, a very helpful tool for the reader. In its core, the text demonstrates how to use different factors to formulate statistical decision problems arising in various risk management applications, such as optimal hedging, portfolio optimization, cash flow matching, classification, and more. The presentation is organized into three parts: selected concepts of statistical decision theory, statistical decision problems, and case studies with portfolio safeguard. The text is primarily aimed at practitioners in the areas of risk management, decision making, and statistics. However, the inclusion of a fair bit of mathematical rigor renders this monograph an excellent introduction to the theory of general error, deviation, and risk measures for graduate students. It can be used as supplementary reading for graduate courses including statistical analysis, data mining, stochastic programming, financial engineering, to name a few. The high level of detail may serve useful to applied mathematicians, engineers, and statisticians interested in modeling and managing risk in various applications.

The International Conference on Health Care Systems Engineering (HCSE) provided a timely opportunity to discuss statistical analysis and operations management issues in health care delivery systems. The conference took place in Milan between May 22nd and 24th, 2013. Scientists and practitioners discussed new ideas, methods and technologies for improving the operation of health care organizations. The event and this resulting volume emphasize research in the field of health care systems engineering developed in close collaboration with clinicians. Topics applicable to researchers and practitioners include: hospital drug logistics, operating theatres, modelling and simulation in patient care and healthcare organizations, home care services.

This book is devoted to recent developments and applications of multiple criteria decision aid tools in the field of finance, insurance and investment. It illustrates recent methods and procedures designed to solve problems related to finance, insurance and portfolio selection formulated through a mathematical programming framework and for which a large number of conflicting and incommensurable objectives (criteria, attributes) is simultaneously optimized. The book introduces researchers and practitioners to recent theoretical and methodological developments in multi-attributes portfolio selection, multiple criteria analysis in finance, insurance and investment. It is based on selected and invited papers presented and discussed at the 2013 International Conference on Multidimensional Finance, Insurance and Investment (ICMFII'13), held at the College of Business Administration at the University of Bahrain from 25th to 27th November 2013 with the co-sponsorship of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences - MCDM section.

Systems Thinking for a Turbulent World will help practitioners in any field of change engage more effectively in transformative innovation. Such innovation addresses the paradigm shift needed to meet the diverse unfolding global challenges facing us today, often summed up as the Anthropocene. Fragmentation of local and global societies is escalating, and this is aggravating vicious cycles. To heal the rifts, we need to reintroduce the human element into our understandings - whether the context is civic or scientific - and strengthen truth-seeking in decision-making. Aided by appropriate concepts and methods, this healing will enable a switch from reaction to anticipation, even in the face of discontinuous change and high uncertainty. The outcome is to privilege the positive human skills for collaborative navigation through uncertainty over the disjointed rationality of mechanism and artificial intelligence, which increasingly alienates us. The reader in search of new ways of thinking will be introduced to concepts new to systems thinking that integrate systems thinking and futures thinking. The concept of anticipatory present moment (APM) serves as a basis for learning the cognitive skills that better enable navigation through turbulent times. A key personal and team practice is participative repatterning, which is the basis for transformative innovation. This practice is aided by new methods of visual facilitation. The reader is guided through the unfolding of the ideas and practices with a narrative based on the metaphor of search portrayed in the tradition of ox herding, found in traditional Far Eastern consciousness practice.

This book presents the state-of-the-art in theory and practice regarding similarity and distance measures for intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Quantifying similarity and distances is crucial for many applications, e.g. data mining, machine learning, decision making, and control. The work provides readers with a comprehensive set of theoretical concepts and practical tools for both defining and determining similarity between intuitionistic fuzzy sets. It describes an automatic algorithm for deriving intuitionistic fuzzy sets from data, which can aid in the analysis of information in large databases. The book also discusses other important applications, e.g. the use of similarity measures to evaluate the extent of agreement between experts in the context of decision making.

Optimization has long been a source of both inspiration and applications for geometers, and conversely, discrete and convex geometry have provided the foundations for many optimization techniques, leading to a rich interplay between these subjects. The purpose of the Workshop on Discrete Geometry, the Conference on Discrete Geometry and Optimization, and the Workshop on Optimization, held in September 2011 at the Fields Institute, Toronto, was to further stimulate the interaction between geometers and optimizers. This volume reflects the interplay between these areas. The inspiring Fejes Toth Lecture Series, delivered by Thomas Hales of the University of Pittsburgh, exemplified this approach. While these fields have recently witnessed a lot of activity and successes, many questions remain open. For example, Fields medalist Stephen Smale stated that the question of the existence of a strongly polynomial time algorithm for linear optimization is one of the most important unsolved problems at the beginning of the 21st century. The broad range of topics covered in this volume demonstrates the many recent and fruitful connections between different approaches, and features novel results and state-of-the-art surveys as well as open problems.

This volume systematically details both the basic principles and new developments in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), offering a solid understanding of the methodology, its uses, and its potential. New material in this edition includes coverage of recent developments that have greatly extended the power and scope of DEA and have lead to new directions for research and DEA uses. Each chapter accompanies its developments with simple numerical examples and discussions of actual applications. The first nine chapters cover the basic principles of DEA, while the final seven chapters provide a more advanced treatment.

This book examines contractual options for a performance based contract between an owner of a revenue generating unit and a repair agent for such unit. The framework of the analysis is that of economists' principal-agent problem. The contractual options of a principal and an agent are modeled as a Markov process with an undetermined time horizon. For a risk neutral principal, the authors identify the conditions under which a principal contracts with a risk-neutral, risk-averse, or risk-seeking agent and derive the principal's optimal offer together with the agent's optimal service capacity response. In essence, the book provides an extensive formulating analysis of principal-agent contracts given any exogenous parameter values. Ultimately a small number of formulas cover a large spectrum of principal-agent conditions.

This book highlights recent advances in the development of effective modeling and solution approaches to enhance the performance of military logistics. It seeks to further research in global defense-related topics, including military operations, governmental operations and security, as well as nation support. Additionally its purpose is to promote the global exchange of information and ideas amongst developers and users of military operations research tools and techniques. Over the course of its nine chapters, this edited volume addresses significant issues in military logistics including: a) Restructuring processes via OR methods aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the military logistics, b) Sense-and-Respond logistics prediction and coordination techniques that provide competitive advantage, spanning the full range of military operations across the strategic, operational and tactical levels of war, c) Procurement and auctioning, d) Inventory and stock control theories and applications, e) Military transport and logistical equipment, and, f) Maintenance, repair and overhaul on operational capability in general and equipment availability. The book aims to bridge the gap between the abundant literature on commercial logistics and its scarce defense & combat counterpart. This collection of useful insights into new trends and research will offer an ideal reference for practitioners and army related personnel interested in integrating scientific rigor to improve logistics management within defense organizations & agencies. Ultimately this book should provide a relevant platform for the latest contributions of operations management, operations research, and computational intelligence towards the enhancement of military logistics.

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Complexity is slowing companies down, costing them on average 10% of their profits. Based on cutting-edge research, this practical 'how to' guide will show businesses how to remove complexity to boost profits and morale.

This book is a comprehensive introduction of the reader into the simulation and modelling techniques and their application in the management of organisations. The book is rooted in the thorough understanding of systems theory applied to organisations and focuses on how this theory can apply to econometric models used in the management of organisations. The econometric models in this book employ linear and dynamic programming, graph theory, queuing theory, game theory, etc. and are presented and analysed in various fields of application, such as investment management, stock management, strategic decision making, management of production costs and the lifecycle costs of quality and non-quality products, production quality Management, etc.

This handbook represents a milestone in the progression of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Written by experts who are often major contributors to DEA theory, it includes a collection of chapters that represent the current state-of-the-art in DEA research. Topics include distance functions and their value duals, cross-efficiency measures in DEA, integer DEA, weight restrictions and production trade-offs, facet analysis in DEA, scale elasticity, benchmarking and context-dependent DEA, fuzzy DEA, non-homogenous units, partial input-output relations, super efficiency, treatment of undesirable measures, translation invariance, stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data, and global frontier index. Focusing only on new models/approaches of DEA, the book includes contributions from Juan Aparicio, Mette Asmild, Yao Chen, Wade D. Cook, Juan Du, Rolf Fare, Julie Harrison, Raha Imanirad, Andrew Johnson, Chiang Kao, Abolfazl Keshvari, Timo Kuosmanen, Sungmook Lim, Wenbin Liu, Dimitri Margaritis, Reza Kazemi Matin, Ole B. Olesen, Jesus T. Pastor, Niels Chr. Petersen, Victor V. Podinovski, Paul Rouse, Antti Saastamoinen, Biresh K. Sahoo, Kaoru Tone, and Zhongbao Zhou.

The book presents applications of stochastic calculus to derivative security pricing and interest rate modelling. By focusing more on the financial intuition of the applications rather than the mathematical formalities, the book provides the essential knowledge and understanding of fundamental concepts of stochastic finance, and how to implement them to develop pricing models for derivatives as well as to model spot and forward interest rates. Furthermore an extensive overview of the associated literature is presented and its relevance and applicability are discussed. Most of the key concepts are covered including Ito's Lemma, martingales, Girsanov's theorem, Brownian motion, jump processes, stochastic volatility, American feature and binomial trees. The book is beneficial to higher-degree research students, academics and practitioners as it provides the elementary theoretical tools to apply the techniques of stochastic finance in research or industrial problems in the field.

This book reports on cutting-edge research related to social and occupational factors. It presents innovative contributions to the optimization of sociotechnical management systems, which consider organizational, policy, and logistical issues. It discusses timely topics related to communication, crew resource management, work design, participatory design, as well as teamwork, community ergonomics, cooperative work, and warning systems. Moreover, it reports on new work paradigms, organizational cultures, virtual organizations, telework, and quality management. The book reports on cutting-edge infrastructures implemented for different purposes such as urban, health, and enterprise. It discusses the growing role of automated systems and presents innovative solutions addressing the needs of special populations. Based on the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Social and Occupational Ergonomics, held on July 27-31 in Walt Disney World (R), Florida, USA, the book provides readers with a comprehensive view of the current challenges in both organizational and occupational ergonomics, highlighting key connections between them and underlining the importance of emotional factors in influencing human performance.