This book reports on advanced concepts in fuzzy graph theory, showing a set of tools that can be successfully applied to understanding and modeling illegal human trafficking. Building on the previous book on fuzzy graph by the same authors, which set the fundamentals for readers to understand this developing field of research, this second book gives a special emphasis to applications of the theory. For this, authors introduce new concepts, such as intuitionistic fuzzy graphs, the concept of independence and domination in fuzzy graphs, as well as directed fuzzy networks, incidence graphs and many more.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a threat to our health and economy, but also has strong implications for defence and security. Indeed, defence leaders have highlighted a second fight surrounding the spread of COVID-19, namely disinformation and preparing to face adversaries willing to exploit the public health crisis for nefarious purposes. The current pandemic is a breeding ground for the propagation of disinformation, as it represents the first major global health event in which large social media platforms have become the main distributor of information. This multi-national edited volume consists of contributions from Defence Science, academia and industry, including NATO Headquarters, United States, Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom and Norway. The content is aimed at a diverse audience, including NATO members, researchers from defence and security organizations, academics, and militaries including analysts and practitioners, as well as policy makers. This volume focuses on various aspects of COVID-19 disinformation, including identifying global dominant disinformation narratives and the methods used to spread disinformation, examining COVID-19 disinformation within the broader context of the cognitive domain, examining the psychological effects of COVID-19 disinformation and COVID-19 disinformation on instant messaging platforms, along with examining various countermeasures to disinformation.

This book describes the modelling and optimisation of vibration reduction systems in an integrated fashion using nonlinear equations of motion. It proposes an effective optimisation method for determining the basic characteristics of the non-linear visco-elastic elements used in passive vibration reduction systems. In the case of semi-active and active vibration isolators, a design process of the advanced control systems is proposed that makes possible to optimise the controller settings relatively to the selected vibro-isolation criteria. The approach developed here is subsequently tested by means of experimental investigations conducted on various sample vibration reduction systems: passive, semi-active and active. The book presents a biomechanical modelling approach that allows users to select the properties of vibro-isolation systems for different types of oscillation and different optimisation criteria - and can significantly reduce the harmful vibrations that can affect the human body in the process. Further, the book equips readers to evaluate the viscoelastic characteristics of passive systems and design control systems for semi-active and active systems. Modelling and Control Design of Vibration Reduction Systems offers a valuable guide for researchers and practitioners alike. It also provides students and academics with systematic information on the procedures to be followed in the design process for semi-active or active vibration reduction systems.

This book provides a systematic and accessible approach to stochastic differential equations, backward stochastic differential equations, and their connection with partial differential equations, as well as the recent development of the fully nonlinear theory, including nonlinear expectation, second order backward stochastic differential equations, and path dependent partial differential equations. Their main applications and numerical algorithms, as well as many exercises, are included. The book focuses on ideas and clarity, with most results having been solved from scratch and most theories being motivated from applications. It can be considered a starting point for junior researchers in the field, and can serve as a textbook for a two-semester graduate course in probability theory and stochastic analysis. It is also accessible for graduate students majoring in financial engineering.

This contributed volume discusses aspects of nonlinear analysis in which optimization plays an important role, as well as topics which are applied to the study of optimization problems. Topics include set-valued analysis, mixed concave-convex sub-superlinear Schroedinger equation, Schroedinger equations in nonlinear optics, exponentially convex functions, optimal lot size under the occurrence of imperfect quality items,  generalized equilibrium problems, artificial topologies on a relativistic spacetime, equilibrium points in the restricted three-body problem, optimization models for networks of organ transplants, network curvature measures, error analysis through energy minimization and stability problems, Ekeland variational principles in 2-local Branciari metric spaces, frictional dynamic problems, norm estimates for composite operators, operator factorization and solution of second-order nonlinear difference equations, degenerate Kirchhoff-type inclusion problems, and more.

Disjunctive Programming is a technique and a discipline initiated by the author in the early 1970's, which has become a central tool for solving nonconvex optimization problems like pure or mixed integer programs, through convexification (cutting plane) procedures combined with enumeration. It has played a major role in the revolution in the state of the art of Integer Programming that took place roughly during the period 1990-2010. The main benefit that the reader may acquire from reading this book is a deeper understanding of the theoretical underpinnings and of the applications potential of disjunctive programming, which range from more efficient problem formulation to enhanced modeling capability and improved solution methods for integer and combinatorial optimization. Egon Balas is University Professor and Lord Professor of Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.

In today's world, with an increase in the breadth and scope of real-world engineering optimization problems as well as with the advent of big data, improving the performance and efficiency of algorithms for solving such problems has become an indispensable need for specialists and researchers. In contrast to conventional books in the field that employ traditional single-stage computational, single-dimensional, and single-homogeneous optimization algorithms, this book addresses multiple newfound architectures for meta-heuristic music-inspired optimization algorithms. These proposed algorithms, with multi-stage computational, multi-dimensional, and multi-inhomogeneous structures, bring about a new direction in the architecture of meta-heuristic algorithms for solving complicated, real-world, large-scale, non-convex, non-smooth engineering optimization problems having a non-linear, mixed-integer nature with big data. The architectures of these new algorithms may also be appropriate for finding an optimal solution or a Pareto-optimal solution set with higher accuracy and speed in comparison to other optimization algorithms, when feasible regions of the solution space and/or dimensions of the optimization problem increase. This book, unlike conventional books on power systems problems that only consider simple and impractical models, deals with complicated, techno-economic, real-world, large-scale models of power systems operation and planning. Innovative applicable ideas in these models make this book a precious resource for specialists and researchers with a background in power systems operation and planning. Provides an understanding of the optimization problems and algorithms, particularly meta-heuristic optimization algorithms, found in fields such as engineering, economics, management, and operations research; Enhances existing architectures and develops innovative architectures for meta-heuristic music-inspired optimization algorithms in order to deal with complicated, real-world, large-scale, non-convex, non-smooth engineering optimization problems having a non-linear, mixed-integer nature with big data; Addresses innovative multi-level, techno-economic, real-world, large-scale, computational-logical frameworks for power systems operation and planning, and illustrates practical training on implementation of the frameworks using the meta-heuristic music-inspired optimization algorithms.

There are thousands of books relating to poker, blackjack, roulette and baccarat, including strategy guides, statistical analysis, psychological studies, and much more. However, there are no books on Pell, Rouleno, Street Dice, and many other games that have had a short life in casinos! While this is understandable - most casino gamblers have not heard of these games, and no one is currently playing them - their absence from published works means that some interesting mathematics and gaming history are at risk of being lost forever. Table games other than baccarat, blackjack, craps, and roulette are called carnival games, as a nod to their origin in actual traveling or seasonal carnivals. Mathematics of Casino Carnival Games is a focused look at these games and the mathematics at their foundation. Features * Exercises, with solutions, are included for readers who wish to practice the ideas presented * Suitable for a general audience with an interest in the mathematics of gambling and games * Goes beyond providing practical 'tips' for gamblers, and explores the mathematical principles that underpin gambling games

This book focuses on the design of efficient & dynamic methods to allocate divisible resources under various auction mechanisms, discussing their applications in power & microgrid systems and the V2G & EV charging coordination problems in smart grids. It describes the design of dynamic methods for single-sided and double-sided auction games and presents a number of simulation cases verifying the performances of the proposed algorithms in terms of efficiency, convergence and computational complexity. Further, it explores the performances of certain auction mechanisms in a hierarchical structure and with large-scale agents, as well as the auction mechanisms for the efficient allocation of multi-type resources. Lastly, it generalizes the main and demonstrates their application in smart grids. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, engineers, and graduate students in the fields of optimization, game theory, auction mechanisms and smart grids interested in designing dynamic auction mechanisms to implement optimal allocation of divisible resources, especially electricity and other types of energy in smart grids.

Congruences are ubiquitous in computer science, engineering, mathematics, and related areas. Developing techniques for finding (the number of) solutions of congruences is an important problem. But there are many scenarios in which we are interested in only a subset of the solutions; in other words, there are some restrictions. What do we know about these restricted congruences, their solutions, and applications? This book introduces the tools that are needed when working on restricted congruences and then systematically studies a variety of restricted congruences. Restricted Congruences in Computing defines several types of restricted congruence, obtains explicit formulae for the number of their solutions using a wide range of tools and techniques, and discusses their applications in cryptography, information security, information theory, coding theory, string theory, quantum field theory, parallel computing, artificial intelligence, computational biology, discrete mathematics, number theory, and more. This is the first book devoted to restricted congruences and their applications. It will be of interest to graduate students and researchers across computer science, electrical engineering, and mathematics.

Optimization of Pharmaceutical Processes presents contributions from leading authorities in the fields of optimization and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Formulated within structured frameworks, practical examples and applications are given as guidance to apply optimization techniques to most aspects of pharmaceutical processes from design, to lab and pilot scale, and finally to manufacturing. The increasing demand for better quality, higher yield, more efficient-optimized and green pharmaceutical processes, indicates that optimal conditions for production must be applied to achieve simplicity, lower costs and superior yield. The application of such methods in the pharmaceutical industry is not trivial. Quality of the final product is of major importance to human health and the need for deep knowledge of the process parameters and the optimization of the processes are imperative. The volume, which includes new methods as well as review contributions will benefit a wide readership including engineers in pharmaceuticals, chemical, biological, to name just a few.

"Nonconvex Optimal Control and Variational Problems "is an important contribution to the existing literature in the field and is devoted to the presentation of progress made in the last 15 years of research in the area of optimal control and the calculus of variations. This volume contains a number of results concerning well-posedness of optimal control and variational problems, nonoccurrence of the Lavrentiev phenomenon for optimal control and variational problems, and turnpike properties of approximate solutions of variational problems.

Chapter 1 contains an introduction as well as examples of select topics. Chapters 2-5 consider the well-posedness condition using fine tools of general topology and porosity. Chapters 6-8 are devoted to the nonoccurrence of the Lavrentiev phenomenon and contain original results. Chapter 9 focuses on infinite-dimensional linear control problems, and Chapter 10 deals with good functions and explores new understandings on the questions of optimality and variational problems. Finally, Chapters 11-12 are centered around the turnpike property, a particular area of expertise for the author.

This volume is intended for mathematicians, engineers, and scientists interested in the calculus of variations, optimal control, optimization, and applied functional analysis, as well as both undergraduate and graduate students specializing in those areas. The text devoted to Turnpike properties may be of particular interest to the economics community."

This book provides several inventory models for making the right decision in inventory management under different environments. Basically, the optimal ordering policies are determined for situations with and without shortages in production-inventory systems. The chapters in the book include various features of inventory modeling i.e., inflation, deterioration, supply chain, learning, credit financing, carbon emission policy, stock-dependent demand, among others. The book is a useful resource for academicians, researchers, students, practitioners, and managers who can be benefited with the policies provided in the chapters of the book.

This book presents simple design paradigms related to lightweight design, that are derived from an in-depth and theoretically sound analysis based on Pareto theory. It uses numerous examples, including torsion and inflated tubes, to fully explain the theories discussed. Lightweight Construction Principles begins by defining terms in relation to engineering design and optimal design of complex mechanical systems. It then discusses the analytical derivation of the Pareto-optimal set, before applying analytical formulae to optimal design of bent beams. The book moves through numerous case studies of different beam and tube construction including beams subject to bending, thin walled tubes under torsion and truss structures. This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the field of structural optimisation and multi-objective optimization, as well as to practitioners such as design engineers.

This textbook on Linear and Nonlinear Optimization is intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in operations research and related fields. It is both literate and mathematically strong, yet requires no prior course in optimization. As suggested by its title, the book is divided into two parts covering in their individual chapters LP Models and Applications; Linear Equations and Inequalities; The Simplex Algorithm; Simplex Algorithm Continued; Duality and the Dual Simplex Algorithm; Postoptimality Analyses; Computational Considerations; Nonlinear (NLP) Models and Applications; Unconstrained Optimization; Descent Methods; Optimality Conditions; Problems with Linear Constraints; Problems with Nonlinear Constraints; Interior-Point Methods; and an Appendix covering Mathematical Concepts. Each chapter ends with a set of exercises. The book is based on lecture notes the authors have used in numerous optimization courses the authors have taught at Stanford University. It emphasizes modeling and numerical algorithms for optimization with continuous (not integer) variables. The discussion presents the underlying theory without always focusing on formal mathematical proofs (which can be found in cited references). Another feature of this book is its inclusion of cultural and historical matters, most often appearing among the footnotes. "This book is a real gem. The authors do a masterful job of rigorously presenting all of the relevant theory clearly and concisely while managing to avoid unnecessary tedious mathematical details. This is an ideal book for teaching a one or two semester masters-level course in optimization - it broadly covers linear and nonlinear programming effectively balancing modeling, algorithmic theory, computation, implementation, illuminating historical facts, and numerous interesting examples and exercises. Due to the clarity of the exposition, this book also serves as a valuable reference for self-study." Professor Ilan Adler, IEOR Department, UC Berkeley "A carefully crafted introduction to the main elements and applications of mathematical optimization. This volume presents the essential concepts of linear and nonlinear programming in an accessible format filled with anecdotes, examples, and exercises that bring the topic to life. The authors plumb their decades of experience in optimization to provide an enriching layer of historical context. Suitable for advanced undergraduates and masters students in management science, operations research, and related fields."Michael P. Friedlander, IBM Professor of Computer Science, Professor of Mathematics, University of British Columbia

Features Includes cutting edge applications in machine learning and data analytics. Suitable as a primary text for undergraduates studying linear algebra. Requires very little in the way of pre-requisites.

Offers fundamental theories and practical and more sophisticated applications of Evolutionary Computation in varied industries Provides insight into various platforms, paradigms, techniques, and tools used in Evolutionary Computation for diverse fields Presents an understanding related to optimization, performance tuning, virtualization, deployment models, and their applications Covers a variety of applications for social and essential models and is based on real life examples Useful for decision making based on optimized data through Evolutionary Computation in multi-dimensions

Set-valued optimization is a vibrant and expanding branch of mathematics that deals with optimization problems where the objective map and/or the constraints maps are set-valued maps acting between certain spaces. Since set-valued maps subsumes single valued maps, set-valued optimization provides an important extension and unification of the scalar as well as the vector optimization problems. Therefore this relatively new discipline has justifiably attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. This book presents, in a unified framework, basic properties on ordering relations, solution concepts for set-valued optimization problems, a detailed description of convex set-valued maps, most recent developments in separation theorems, scalarization techniques, variational principles, tangent cones of first and higher order, sub-differential of set-valued maps, generalized derivatives of set-valued maps, sensitivity analysis, optimality conditions, duality and applications in economics among other things.

This book provides different approaches used to analyze, draw attention, and provide an understanding of the advancements in the optimization field across the globe. It brings all of the latest methodologies, tools, and techniques related to optimization and industrial engineering into a single volume to build insights towards the latest advancements in various domains. Applications of Advanced Optimization Techniques in Industrial Engineering includes the basic concept of optimization, techniques, and applications related to industrial engineering. Concepts are introduced in a sequential way along with explanations, illustrations, and solved examples. The book goes on to explore applications of operations research and covers empirical properties of a variety of engineering disciplines. It presents network scheduling, production planning, industrial and manufacturing system issues, and their implications in the real world. The book caters to academicians, researchers, professionals in inventory analytics, business analytics, investment managers, finance firms, storage-related managers, and engineers working in engineering industries and data management fields.

This book includes a thorough theoretical and computational analysis of unconstrained and constrained optimization algorithms and combines and integrates the most recent techniques and advanced computational linear algebra methods. Nonlinear optimization methods and techniques have reached their maturity and an abundance of optimization algorithms are available for which both the convergence properties and the numerical performances are known. This clear, friendly, and rigorous exposition discusses the theory behind the nonlinear optimization algorithms for understanding their properties and their convergence, enabling the reader to prove the convergence of his/her own algorithms. It covers cases and computational performances of the most known modern nonlinear optimization algorithms that solve collections of unconstrained and constrained optimization test problems with different structures, complexities, as well as those with large-scale real applications. The book is addressed to all those interested in developing and using new advanced techniques for solving large-scale unconstrained or constrained complex optimization problems. Mathematical programming researchers, theoreticians and practitioners in operations research, practitioners in engineering and industry researchers, as well as graduate students in mathematics, Ph.D. and master in mathematical programming will find plenty of recent information and practical approaches for solving real large-scale optimization problems and applications.

In his book "Marktform und Gleichgewicht", published initially in 1934, Heinrich von Stackelberg presented his groundbreaking leadership model of firm competition. In a work of great originality and richness, he described and analyzed a market situation in which the leader firm moves first and the follower firms then move sequentially. This game-theoretic model, now widely known as Stackelberg competition, has had tremendous impact on the theory of the firm and economic analysis in general, and has been applied to study decision-making in various fields of business. As the first translation of von Stackelberg's book into English, this volume makes his classic work available in its original form to an English-speaking audience for the very first time.

This is a book on optimal control problems (OCPs) for partial differential equations (PDEs) that evolved from a series of courses taught by the authors in the last few years at Politecnico di Milano, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The book covers the whole range spanning from the setup and the rigorous theoretical analysis of OCPs, the derivation of the system of optimality conditions, the proposition of suitable numerical methods, their formulation, their analysis, including their application to a broad set of problems of practical relevance. The first introductory chapter addresses a handful of representative OCPs and presents an overview of the associated mathematical issues. The rest of the book is organized into three parts: part I provides preliminary concepts of OCPs for algebraic and dynamical systems; part II addresses OCPs involving linear PDEs (mostly elliptic and parabolic type) and quadratic cost functions; part III deals with more general classes of OCPs that stand behind the advanced applications mentioned above. Starting from simple problems that allow a "hands-on" treatment, the reader is progressively led to a general framework suitable to face a broader class of problems. Moreover, the inclusion of many pseudocodes allows the reader to easily implement the algorithms illustrated throughout the text. The three parts of the book are suitable to readers with variable mathematical backgrounds, from advanced undergraduate to Ph.D. levels and beyond. We believe that applied mathematicians, computational scientists, and engineers may find this book useful for a constructive approach toward the solution of OCPs in the context of complex applications.

Casino games and traditional card games have rich and idiosyncratic histories, complex subcultures and player practices, and facilitate the flow of billions of dollars each year through casinos and card rooms, and between professional players and amateurs. They have nevertheless been overlooked by game scholars due to the negative ethical weight of “gambling� – with such games pathologized and labelled as deviance or mental illness, few look beyond to unpick the games, their players, and their communities. The Casino, Card and Betting Game Reader offers 25 chapters studying the communities playing these games, the distinctive cultures and practices that have emerged around them, their activities and beliefs and interpersonal relationships, and how these games influence – both positively and negatively – the lives and careers of millions of game players around the world. It is the first of a new series of edited collections, Play Beyond the Computer, dedicated to exploring the play of games beyond computers and games consoles.

This collection of selected contributions gives an account of recent developments in dynamic game theory and its applications, covering both theoretical advances and new applications of dynamic games in such areas as pursuit-evasion games, ecology, and economics. Written by experts in their respective disciplines, the chapters are an outgrowth of presentations from the 11th International Symposium on Dynamic Games and Applications.

Key topics covered include:

* stochastic and differential games

* dynamic games and their applications in various areas, such as ecology and economics

* numerical methods and algorithms in dynamic games

* zero- and nonzero-sum games

* pursuit-evasion games

* evolutionary game theory and applications

The work will serve as a state-of-the art account of recent advances in dynamic game theory and its applications for researchers, practitioners, and advanced students in applied mathematics, mathematical finance, and engineering.

This book, published in honor of Professor Laurent Praly on the occasion of his 65th birthday, explores the responses of some leading international authorities to new challenges in nonlinear and adaptive control. The mitigation of the effects of uncertainty and nonlinearity - ubiquitous features of real-world engineering and natural systems - on closed-loop stability and robustness being of crucial importance, the contributions report the latest research into overcoming these difficulties in: autonomous systems; reset control systems; multiple-input-multiple-output nonlinear systems; input delays; partial differential equations; population games; and data-driven control. Trends in Nonlinear and Adaptive Control presents research inspired by and related to Professor Praly's lifetime of contributions to control theory and is a valuable addition to the literature of advanced control.