Optimal pricing and quantity of products with two offerings

This paper analyzes the decision of a firm offering two versions of a product, a deluxe and a regular. While both products satisfy the same market, the deluxe version is sold at a high price relative to its cost and is aimed at the high end of the demand curve. The regular version is sold at a low price relative to its cost and is targeted to customers at the low end of the demand curve. This two-offering strategy is especially popular with book publishers where a paperback book is introduced some time after the hardbound version is introduced. The time between the introduction of the two versions of the product is accompanied by a downward shift in the demand curve due to customers losing interest in the product or satisfying their demand from a secondary used market. We solve a profit maximization model for a firm using a two-offering strategy. The model is solved for linear and exponential deterioration in demand, which is assumed to be deterministic. Also, a model with linear deterioration in demand, which is assumed to be stochastic, is solved. The results indicate that substantial improvements in profit can be obtained by using the two-offering strategy. Numerical sensitivity analysis and examples are used to illustrate the results.     

Subspaces and quotients of Banach spaces with shrinking unconditional bases

The main result is that a separable Banach space with the weak* unconditional tree property is isomorphic to a subspace as well as a quotient of a Banach space with a shrinking unconditional basis. A consequence of this is that a Banach space is isomorphic to a subspace of a space with a shrinking unconditional basis if and only if it is isomorphic to a quotient of a space with a shrinking unconditional basis, which solves a problem dating to the 1970s. The proof of the main result also yields that a uniformly convex space with the unconditional tree property is isomorphic to a subspace as well as a quotient of a uniformly convex space with an unconditional finite dimensional decomposition.     

A Chart for Evaluating Product Research and Development Projects

A method of evaluating research and development projects is described. The method is based on the use of an evaluation chart. The main purpose of the chart is to calculate a project score which is a measure of a selected evaluation criterion. A method of constructing a chart is illustrated using a project index as the evaluation criterion. The chart contains a list of twelve questions, the answers to which are assumed to be the main determinants of the variables in the formula of the index. Each question is followed by a set of answers from which a choice is to be made, and underneath each answer is a numerical score. The numerical scores are logarithmic functions of the answers to which they relate, and when added together give a project score which is a logarithmic function of the index. Various methods of using the chart, and a suggested evaluation procedure, are also described.     

An estimate of the attraction domain with a specified exponential stability index in a wheeled robot control problem

The problem of synthesizing a law for the control of the plane motion of a wheeled robot is investigated. The rear wheels are the drive wheels and the front wheels are responsible for the turning of the platform. The aim of the control is to steer a target point to a specified trajectory and to stabilize the motion along it. The trajectory is assumed to be specified by a smooth curve. The actual curvature of the trajectory of the target point, which is related to the angle of rotation of the front wheels by a simple algebraic relation, is considered as the control. The control is subjected to bilateral constraints by virtue of the fact that the angle of rotation of the front wheels is limited. The attraction domain in the distance to trajectory - orientation space, is investigated for the proposed control law. Arrival at a trajectory with a specified exponential stability index is guaranteed in the case of initial conditions belonging to the given domain. An estimate of the attraction domain in the form of an ellipse is given.     

A Study on Abnormality in Variational and Optimal Control Problems

In this paper, a variational problem is considered with differential equality constraints over a variable interval. It is stressed that the abnormality is a local character of the admissible set; consequently, a definition of regularity related to the constraints characterizing the admissible set is given. Then, for the local minimum necessary conditions, a compact form equivalent to the well-known Euler equation and transversality condition is given. By exploiting this result and the previous definition of regularity, it is proved that nonregularity is a necessary and sufficient condition for an admissible solution to be an abnormal extremal. Then, a necessary and sufficient condition is given for an abnormal extremal to be weakly abnormal. The analysis of the abnormality is completed by considering the particular case of affine constraints over a fixed interval: in this case, the abnormality turns out to have a global character, so that it is possible to define an abnormal problem or a normal problem. The last section is devoted to the study of an optimal control problem characterized by differential constraints corresponding to the dynamics of a controlled process. The above general results are particularized to this problem, yielding a necessary and sufficient condition for an admissible solution to be an abnormal extremal. From this, a previously known result is recovered concerning the linearized system controllability as a sufficient condition to exclude the abnormality.     

A comparison of two sourcing tactics for a new component

We compare two sourcing tactics for a manufacturer to purchase a new component to be used in a one-time production run of a new product with uncertain and price-elastic demand. One alternative is to issue a request-for-quote (RFQ), which is where the manufacturer requests a price-quantity schedule from suppliers. The manufacturer uses this information to determine a production quantity and the number of components to purchase from each supplier. The other alternative is to post a bid specifying how the manufacturer’s purchase quantity will depend on the supplier’s component price. The suppliers use this information to compete on quantity.We find that relative to RFQ, which is more challenging for the manufacturer to characterize the supplier response due to the possibility of supplier interaction, the benefit to the manufacturer from posting a bid increases with the number of suppliers due to increased intensity of competition. If the new component is from an emerging industry where there is little mutual awareness among candidate suppliers, then regardless of number of suppliers, expected manufacturer profit is higher under RFQ. Posting a bid is more likely to benefit the manufacturer when the new component is from a more established industry with a high degree of awareness among candidate suppliers.     

Optimal detection of a recurring tuple of reference fragments in a quasiperiodic sequence

An a posteriori (off-line) approach to solving the problem of maximum-likelihood detection of a recurring tuple containing reference fragments in a numerical quasiperiodic sequence is studied. The case is analyzed where (1) the total number of fragments in a sequence is unknown; (2) the index of a sequence term corresponding to the beginning of a fragment is a deterministic (not random) value; (3) a sequence distorted by additive uncorrelated Gaussian noise is available for observation. It is shown that the problem under consideration is reduced to testing a set of simple hypotheses about the mean of a random Gaussian vector. The cardinality of this totality grows exponentially as the vector dimension (i.e., the length of the sequence under study) increases. It is established that searching for a maximum-likelihood hypothesis is equivalent to finding arguments that yield a maximum for an auxiliary objective function. It is shown that maximizing the objective function reduces to solving a special optimization problem, which is proved to be solvable in polynomial time. An exact algorithm for solving this problem, which underlies the optimal (maximum-likelihood) detection algorithm for a recurring tuple, is substantiated. The kernel of the exact algorithm is an algorithm for solving a special (basic) optimization problem. Results of numerical simulations are presented.     

Power-series approximations for the optimal feedback control of noisy nonlinear systems

Power-series methods are developed for designing approximately optimal state regulators for a nonlinear system subject to white Gaussian random disturbances. The performance index of the control is an ensemble average of a quadratic form. A perfect observation of the system state is assumed. When the system nonlinearity is small and it is characterized by a polynomial function of the state, a definite method is presented to construct a suboptimal feedback control of a power-series form in a small nonlinearity parameter. If the variance of noise is small, an alternative method is also applicable which yields a suboptimal control in a power series with respect to a variance parameter. A simple one-dimensional problem is examined to make comparison between controls of the two different forms.     

Higher order numerical differentiation on the Infinity Computer

There exist many applications where it is necessary to approximate numerically derivatives of a function which is given by a computer procedure. In particular, all the fields of optimization have a special interest in such a kind of information. In this paper, a new way to do this is presented for a new kind of a computer—the Infinity Computer—able to work numerically with finite, infinite, and infinitesimal numbers. It is proved that the Infinity Computer is able to calculate values of derivatives of a higher order for a wide class of functions represented by computer procedures. It is shown that the ability to compute derivatives of arbitrary order automatically and accurate to working precision is an intrinsic property of the Infinity Computer related to its way of functioning. Numerical examples illustrating the new concepts and numerical tools are given.     

A New Definition of A Priori Knowledge: In Search of a Modal Basis

In this paper I will offer a novel understanding of a priori knowledge. My claim is that the sharp distinction that is usually made between a priori and a posteriori knowledge is groundless. It will be argued that a plausible understanding of a priori and a posteriori knowledge has to acknowledge that they are in a constant bootstrapping relationship. It is also crucial that we distinguish between a priori propositions that hold in the actual world and merely possible, non-actual a priori propositions, as we will see when considering cases like Euclidean geometry. Furthermore, contrary to what Kripke seems to suggest, a priori knowledge is intimately connected with metaphysical modality, indeed, grounded in it. The task of a priori reasoning, according to this account, is to delimit the space of metaphysically possible worlds in order for us to be able to determine what is actual.     

Interface of global and local semantics in a self-navigating system based on the concept lattice

If the syntax–semantics interaction is driven by the interface, it also interrupts the interaction on its own right. Because the syntax is verified to be isomorphic to the semantics, the interaction is open to the diagonal argument leading to a contradiction. That is why it is necessary to introduce a particular interface to drive the interface to make the interaction possible despite the contradiction. In this context we propose the system implemented with the syntax–semantics loop by using a concept lattice and a particular weak quantifier. This system is expressed as the self-navigating system which wanders in a two-dimensional space, encounters some landmarks, constructs the relationship among landmarks to which decision making with respect to the move is referred. The syntax of this system is defined as two-dimensional move and the semantics is defined as a concept lattice [B. Ganter, R. Wille, Formal Concept Analysis, Springer, Berlin, 1999] constructed by the binary relation between landmarks and some properties of landmarks, and by Galois connection. To implement the interface driving and interrupting the interaction between syntax and semantics, we divided semantics into local and global concept lattices, and introduce a weak quantifier to connect a local with a global lattice. Because the contradiction results from diagonal argument or using a normal quantifier ∀, the use of a quantifier is restricted dependent on the situation to avoid a contradiction. It is shown that due to the role of a weak quantifier our self-navigating system is both robust and open to the emergent property through simulating studies.     

Evolution to a steady state for a rarefied gas flowing from a tank into a vacuum through a plane channel

A kinetic equation (S-model) is used to solve the nonstationary problem of a monatomic rarefied gas flowing from a tank of infinite capacity into a vacuum through a long plane channel. Initially, the gas is at rest and is separated from the vacuum by a barrier. The temperature of the channel walls is kept constant. The flow is found to evolve to a steady state. The time required for reaching a steady state is examined depending on the channel length and the degree of gas rarefaction. The kinetic equation is solved numerically by applying a conservative explicit finite-difference scheme that is firstorder accurate in time and second-order accurate in space. An approximate law is proposed for the asymptotic behavior of the solution at long times when the evolution to a steady state becomes a diffusion process.     

The stress state of an elastic composite cone with centre of rotation at the apex

The torsion of a composite cone that has a centre of rotation at its apex is investigated in a spherical system of coordinates. A composite cone is a cone with one shear modulus, inserted into a conical funnel having another shear modulus and with ideal mechanical contact between its surface and the inner surface of the conical funnel. The auxiliary problem of a composite cone with its apex truncated by a spherical surface is considered first. The outer surface of such a conical body is not loaded, but a load that reduces to a torque is applied to its spherical surface. The auxiliary problem is reduced to a one-dimensional discontinuous boundary-value problem using a specially constructed integral transformation. The exact solution of this boundary-value problem is constructed. The limit is then taken in the solution obtained as the radius of the spherical surface tends to zero for the purpose of obtaining an exact solution of the problem of the torsion of a composite cone that has a centre of rotation at the apex.     

Forcing sparsity by projecting with respect to a non-diagonally weighted frobenius norm

This note deals with the computational problem of determining the projection of a given symmetric matrix onto the subspace of symmetric matrices that have a fixed sparsity pattern. This projection is performed with respect to a weighted Frobenius norm involving a metric that is not diagonal. It is shown that the solution to this question is computationally feasible when the metric appearing in the norm is a low rank modification to the identity. Also, generalization to perturbations of higher rank is shown to be increasingly costly in terms of computation.     

On Two-Phase Flow in a Rotating Boundary Layer

The two-phase flow induced by a rotating disk in a stationary unbounded mixture is considered. The generalized similarity assumption of von Karman reduces the averaged equations of motion with a linear drag between the phases to a system of ordinary differential equations. These are investigated by asymptotic and numerical techniques. The equations display a nontrivial behavior in a sublayer near the boundary, whose thickness is of the order of the particle size. The volume fraction of the dispersed phase is singular unless a small suction is applied on the disk or a small diffusion term is added to the continuity equations. Outside this sublayer, the velocity field is quite similar to a rescaled classical von Karman flow. Good agreement between asymptotic and numerical solution is obtained, although there is considerable stiffness in the equations. The motion of a solid particle in a von Karman flow is also discussed, but the present investigation is restricted to small radii because the shear-lift force is neglected.     

Minimizing the weighted number of tardy jobs and maximum tardiness in relocation problem with due date constraints

The relocation problem addressed in this paper is to determine a reconstruction sequence for a set of old buildings, under a limited budget, such that there is adequate temporary space to house the residents decanted during rehabilitation. It can be regarded as a resource-constrained scheduling problem where there is a set of jobs to be processed on a single machine. Each job demands a number of resources for processing and returns probably a different number of resources on its completion. Given a number of initial resources, the problem seeks to determine if there is a feasible sequence for the successful processing of all the jobs. Two generalizations of the relocation problem in the context of single machine scheduling with due date constraints are studied in this paper. The first problem is to minimize the weighted number of tardy jobs under a common due date. We show that it is NP-hard even when all the jobs have the same tardy weight and the same resource requirement. A dynamic programming algorithm with pseudo-polynomial computational time is proposed for the general case. In the second problem, the objective is to minimize the maximum tardiness when each job is associated with an individual due date. We prove that it is strongly NP-hard. We also propose a pseudo-polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm for the case where the number of possible due dates is predetermined.     

Optimization of functionals subject to integral constraints

The classical method for optimizing a functional subject to an integral constraint is to introduce the Lagrange multiplier and apply the Euler-Lagrange equations to the augmented integrand. The Lagrange multiplier is a constant whose value is selected such that the integral constraint is satisfied. This value is frequently an eigenvalue of the boundary-value problem and is determined by a trial-and-error procedure. A new approach for solving this isoperimetric problem is presented. The Lagrange multiplier is introduced as a state variable and evaluated simultaneously with the optimum solution. A numerical example is given and is shown to have a large region of convergence.     

Fractal dimension and scale entropy applications in a spray

Multi-scale structure of spray images is investigated for varying ranges of pressure and temperature in quiescent air. For spray images a standard PIV set is used consisting basically on a CCD camera and a laser sheet. A deviation to fractality is evidenced: the scale analysis has a parabolic form. A scale-dependent fractal dimension is measured which displays a linear variation with scale-logarithm. The classical fractal dimension usually measured so far is reinterpreted as a mean slope for scales close to the outer cut-off scale. This multi-scale behaviour is described by a diffusion equation of a new geometrical quantity called scale entropy related to the wrinkling of a set over scales. This equation is based on the conservation of a scale entropy flux through scale-space which is interpreted as the evolutive potential of the system at a given scale. This gives access to the scale-dependency of fractal dimension and points to the importance of the variations through scale space of this evolutive potential and namely its gradient. It has been shown that for sprays, the evolution of the evolutive potential gradient is constant through scale space which corresponds to a parabolic behaviour for scale analysis.     

Optimal policies for the sizing and timing of software maintenance projects

We present a model to determine the optimal point for maintaining a software application. We also address the question: given that a maintenance project has been initiated, should maintenance effort continue till the project is completed? Most previous literature has implicitly assumed that it is optimal to complete a maintenance project once it has been initiated. We analyze two policies: a work-based policy and a time-based policy. In the work-based policy, a fixed amount of work needs to be completed, and the time taken to accomplish the work is random. In the time-based policy, a fixed amount of time is allocated to maintenance, but a random amount of work is completed. We examine similarities and differences between the above two policies and provide insights into the management of software maintenance projects. A key insight of this study is that under a variety of situations, partial maintenance is suboptimal.     

A necessary and sufficient condition for Pareto-optimal security strategies in multicriteria matrix games

In this paper, a scalar game is derived from a zero-sum multicriteria matrix game, and it is proved that the solution of the new game with strictly positive scalarization is a necessary and sufficient condition for a strategy to be a Pareto-optimal security strategy (POSS) for one of the players in the original game. This is done by proving that a certain set, which is the extension of the set of security level vectors in the criterion function space, is convex and polyhedral. It is also established that only a finite number of scalarizations are necessary to obtain all the POSS for a player. An example is included to illustrate the main steps in the proof.This work was done while the author was a Research Associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science and was financially supported by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Delhi, India.The author wishes to express his gratefulness to Professor U. R. Prasad for helpful discussions and to two anonymous referees for suggestions which led to an improved presentation.