This book addresses a broad range of problems commonly encountered in the fields of financial analysis, logistics and supply chain management, such as the use of big data analytics in the banking sector. Divided into twenty chapters, some of the contemporary topics discussed in the book are co-operative/non-cooperative supply chain models for imperfect quality items with trade-credit financing; a non-dominated sorting water cycle algorithm for the cardinality constrained portfolio problem; and determining initial, basic and feasible solutions for transportation problems by means of the "supply demand reparation method" and "continuous allocation method." In addition, the book delves into a comparison study on exponential smoothing and the Arima model for fuel prices; optimal policy for Weibull distributed deteriorating items varying with ramp type demand rate and shortages; an inventory model with shortages and deterioration for three different demand rates; outlier labeling methods for medical data; a garbage disposal plant as a validated model of a fault-tolerant system; and the design of a "least cost ration formulation application for cattle"; a preservation technology model for deteriorating items with advertisement dependent demand and trade credit; a time series model for stock price forecasting in India; and asset pricing using capital market curves. The book offers a valuable asset for all researchers and industry practitioners working in these areas, giving them a feel for the latest developments and encouraging them to pursue further research in this direction.

This book provides essential insights into a range of newly developed numerical optimization techniques with a view to solving real-world problems. Many of these problems can be modeled as nonlinear optimization problems, but due to their complex nature, it is not always possible to solve them using conventional optimization theory. Accordingly, the book discusses the design and applications of non-conventional numerical optimization techniques, including the design of benchmark functions and the implementation of these techniques to solve real-world optimization problems. The book's twenty chapters examine various interesting research topics in this area, including: Pi fraction-based optimization of the Pantoja-Bretones-Martin (PBM) antenna benchmarks; benchmark function generators for single-objective robust optimization algorithms; convergence of gravitational search algorithms on linear and quadratic functions; and an algorithm for the multi-variant evolutionary synthesis of nonlinear models with real-valued chromosomes. Delivering on its promise to explore real-world scenarios, the book also addresses the seismic analysis of a multi-story building with optimized damper properties; the application of constrained spider monkey optimization to solve portfolio optimization problems; the effect of upper body motion on a bipedal robot's stability; an ant colony algorithm for routing alternate-fuel vehicles in multi-depot vehicle routing problems; enhanced fractal dimension-based feature extraction for thermal face recognition; and an artificial bee colony-based hyper-heuristic for the single machine order acceptance and scheduling problem. The book will benefit not only researchers, but also organizations active in such varied fields as Aerospace, Automotive, Biotechnology, Consumer Packaged Goods, Electronics, Finance, Business & Banking, Oil, Gas & Geosciences, and Pharma, to name a few.

This book presents the latest developments and breakthroughs in fuzzy theory and performance prediction of queuing and reliability models by using the stochastic modeling and optimization theory. The main focus is on analytics that use fuzzy logic, queuing and reliability theory for the performance prediction and optimal design of real-time engineering systems including call centers, telecommunication, manufacturing, service organizations, etc. For the day-to-day as well as industrial queuing situations and reliability prediction of machining parts embedded in computer, communication and manufacturing systems, the book assesses various measures of performance and effectiveness that can provide valuable insights and help arrive at the best decisions with regard to service and engineering systems. In twenty chapters, the book presents both theoretical developments and applications of the fuzzy logic, reliability and queuing models in a diverse range of scenarios. The topics discussed will be of interest to researchers, educators and undergraduate students in the fields of Engineering, Business Management, and the Mathematical Sciences.

This book aims to provide a general overview of heuristic search, to present the basic steps of the most popular heuristics, and to stress their hidden difficulties as well as their opportunities. It provides a comprehensive understanding of Heuristic search, the applications of which are now widely used in a variety of industries including engineering, finance, sport, management and medicine. It intends to aid researchers and practitioners in solving complex combinatorial and global optimisation problems, and spark interest in this exciting decision science-based subject. It will provide the reader with challenging and lively methodologies through which they will be able to design and analyse their own techniques

This book aims to provide a general overview of heuristic search, to present the basic steps of the most popular heuristics, and to stress their hidden difficulties as well as their opportunities. It provides a comprehensive understanding of Heuristic search, the applications of which are now widely used in a variety of industries including engineering, finance, sport, management and medicine. It intends to aid researchers and practitioners in solving complex combinatorial and global optimisation problems, and spark interest in this exciting decision science-based subject. It will provide the reader with challenging and lively methodologies through which they will be able to design and analyse their own techniques

Operations Research (OR) is a fast-evolving field, which is having a significant impact on its neighbouring disciplines of Business Analytics and Data Science, and on contemporary business and management practices. This handbook provides a comprehensive and cutting edge collection of studies in the area. Views differ on what should be included within the scope of OR. The editors of this volume have taken the view that an inclusive stance is the most helpful, both for theory and practice. Real-world problems often require consideration from both 'softer' and 'harder' perspectives and need consideration of both predictive and prescriptive problems. In accordance with this inclusive approach to OR, the book is divided into six parts, covering Discrete Optimization, Continuous Optimization, Heuristic Search Optimization, Forecasting, Simulation and Prediction, Problem Structuring and Behavioural OR, and finally some recent OR Applications. This wide-ranging handbook includes a culturally diverse collection of authors, with different perspectives and backgrounds around Operations Research. It will be of tremendous value to researchers, students and practitioners in the field of OR

This book presents the latest developments and breakthroughs in fuzzy theory and performance prediction of queuing and reliability models by using the stochastic modeling and optimization theory. The main focus is on analytics that use fuzzy logic, queuing and reliability theory for the performance prediction and optimal design of real-time engineering systems including call centers, telecommunication, manufacturing, service organizations, etc. For the day-to-day as well as industrial queuing situations and reliability prediction of machining parts embedded in computer, communication and manufacturing systems, the book assesses various measures of performance and effectiveness that can provide valuable insights and help arrive at the best decisions with regard to service and engineering systems. In twenty chapters, the book presents both theoretical developments and applications of the fuzzy logic, reliability and queuing models in a diverse range of scenarios. The topics discussed will be of interest to researchers, educators and undergraduate students in the fields of Engineering, Business Management, and the Mathematical Sciences.

This book provides essential insights into a range of newly developed numerical optimization techniques with a view to solving real-world problems. Many of these problems can be modeled as nonlinear optimization problems, but due to their complex nature, it is not always possible to solve them using conventional optimization theory. Accordingly, the book discusses the design and applications of non-conventional numerical optimization techniques, including the design of benchmark functions and the implementation of these techniques to solve real-world optimization problems. The book's twenty chapters examine various interesting research topics in this area, including: Pi fraction-based optimization of the Pantoja-Bretones-Martin (PBM) antenna benchmarks; benchmark function generators for single-objective robust optimization algorithms; convergence of gravitational search algorithms on linear and quadratic functions; and an algorithm for the multi-variant evolutionary synthesis of nonlinear models with real-valued chromosomes. Delivering on its promise to explore real-world scenarios, the book also addresses the seismic analysis of a multi-story building with optimized damper properties; the application of constrained spider monkey optimization to solve portfolio optimization problems; the effect of upper body motion on a bipedal robot's stability; an ant colony algorithm for routing alternate-fuel vehicles in multi-depot vehicle routing problems; enhanced fractal dimension-based feature extraction for thermal face recognition; and an artificial bee colony-based hyper-heuristic for the single machine order acceptance and scheduling problem. The book will benefit not only researchers, but also organizations active in such varied fields as Aerospace, Automotive, Biotechnology, Consumer Packaged Goods, Electronics, Finance, Business & Banking, Oil, Gas & Geosciences, and Pharma, to name a few.

This book addresses a broad range of problems commonly encountered in the fields of financial analysis, logistics and supply chain management, such as the use of big data analytics in the banking sector. Divided into twenty chapters, some of the contemporary topics discussed in the book are co-operative/non-cooperative supply chain models for imperfect quality items with trade-credit financing; a non-dominated sorting water cycle algorithm for the cardinality constrained portfolio problem; and determining initial, basic and feasible solutions for transportation problems by means of the "supply demand reparation method" and "continuous allocation method." In addition, the book delves into a comparison study on exponential smoothing and the Arima model for fuel prices; optimal policy for Weibull distributed deteriorating items varying with ramp type demand rate and shortages; an inventory model with shortages and deterioration for three different demand rates; outlier labeling methods for medical data; a garbage disposal plant as a validated model of a fault-tolerant system; and the design of a "least cost ration formulation application for cattle"; a preservation technology model for deteriorating items with advertisement dependent demand and trade credit; a time series model for stock price forecasting in India; and asset pricing using capital market curves. The book offers a valuable asset for all researchers and industry practitioners working in these areas, giving them a feel for the latest developments and encouraging them to pursue further research in this direction.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Variable Neighborhood Search, ICVNS 2018, held in Sithonia, Greece, in October 2018. ICVNS 2018 received 49 submissions of which 23 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected. VNS is a metaheuristic based on systematic changes in the neighborhood structure within a search for solving optimization problems and related tasks. The main goal of ICVNS 2018 was to provide a stimulating environment in which researchers coming from various scientific fields could share and discuss their knowledge, expertise, and ideas related to the VNS metaheuristic and its applications.