Belief structures,weight generating functions and decision-making

We describe the Dempster–Shafer belief structure and provide some of its basic properties. We introduce the plausibility and belief measures associated with a belief structure. We note that these are not the only measures that can be associated with a belief structure. We describe a general approach for generating a class of measures that can be associated with a belief structure using a monotonic function on the unit interval, called a weight generating function. We study a number of these functions and the measures that result. We show how to use weight-generating functions to obtain dual measures from a belief structure. We show the role of belief structures in representing imprecise probability distributions. We describe the use of dual measures, other then plausibility and belief, to provide alternative bounding intervals for the imprecise probabilities associated with a belief structure. We investigate the problem of decision making under belief structure type uncertain. We discuss two approaches to this decision problem. One of which is based on an expected value of the OWA aggregation of the payoffs associated with the focal elements. The second approach is based on using the Choquet integral of a measure generated from the belief structure. We show the equivalence of these approaches.     

Kernel ideals and cokernel filters of a p-algebra

We discuss congruences of p-algebras. We characterize kernel ideals of a p-algebra. Indeed, we show that an ideal of a p-algebra is a p-ideal if and only if it is a kernel ideal. We study cokernel filters of a p-algebra. We construct a class of p-algebras in which every cokernel filter is a p-filter. We also give some characterizations of Boolean congruences of a p-algebra.     

Nonequilibrium Statistical Operator Method and Generalized Kinetic Equations

We consider some principal problems of nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamics in the framework of the Zubarev nonequilibrium statistical operator approach. We present a brief comparative analysis of some approaches to describing irreversible processes based on the concept of nonequilibrium Gibbs ensembles and their applicability to describing nonequilibrium processes. We discuss the derivation of generalized kinetic equations for a system in a heat bath. We obtain and analyze a damped Schrödinger-type equation for a dynamical system in a heat bath. We study the dynamical behavior of a particle in a medium taking the dissipation effects into account. We consider the scattering problem for neutrons in a nonequilibrium medium and derive a generalized Van Hove formula. We show that the nonequilibrium statistical operator method is an effective, convenient tool for describing irreversible processes in condensed matter.     

A free boundary problem for the Laplacian with a constant Bernoulli-type boundary condition

We study a free boundary problem for the Laplace operator, where we impose a Bernoulli-type boundary condition. We show that there exists a solution to this problem. We use A. Beurling’s technique, by defining two classes of sub- and super-solutions and a Perron argument. We try to generalize here a previous work of A. Henrot and H. Shahgholian. We extend these results in different directions.     

Existence and structure results on almost periodic solutions of difference equations

We study the almost periodic solutions of Euler equations and of some more general Difference Equations. We consider two different notions of almost periodic sequences, and we establish some relations between them. We build suitable sequences spaces and we prove some properties of these spaces. We also prove properties of Nemytskii operators on these spaces. We build a variational approach to establish existence of almost periodic solutions as critical points, We obtain existence theorems fornonautonomous linear equations and for an Euler equation with a concave and coercive Lagrangian. We also use a Fixed Point approach to obtain existence results for quasi-linear Difference Equations.     

Insensitive,maximum stable allocations converge to proportional fairness

We describe a queuing model where service is allocated as a function of queue sizes. We consider allocations policies that are insensitive to service requirements and have a maximal stability region. We take a limit where the queuing model becomes congested. We study how service is allocated under this limit. We demonstrate that the only possible limit allocation is one that maximizes a proportionally fair optimization problem.     

Numerical analysis of a model for phase separation of a multicomponent alloy

We consider a fully discrete implicit finite-element approximationof a model for the phase separation of a multi-component alloy.We prove existence, uniqueness and stability of the numericalsolution for a sufficiently small time step. We prove convergenceto the solution of the associated continuous problem. We performa linear stability analysis of the equation and describe somenumerical experiments.     

On Equilibria when Agents Have Multiple Priors

We discuss the existence and the qualitative properties of equilibria when agents have multiple priors and there is only one good in each state of the world. We first prove a general existence result in infinite dimension economies. We then fully describe the equilibria in two special cases. We first consider the case of CEU maximizers that have same capacities. We next consider the case of no aggregate uncertainty. We prove that if agents have non-random initial endowments and are uncertainty averse and maximize the minimal expected utility according to a set of possible priors, then the existence of a common prior is equivalent to the existence of a unique equilibrium, the no-trade equilibrium. We lastly give a mild assumption for indeterminacy of equilibria and compute the dimension of indeterminacy.     

Reduction and construction of exact solutions for a nonlinear system of the parabolic type

We study a system of two equations of the parabolic type with two nonlinearities depending on the sum of squares of two unknown functions. We derive conditions under which the system can be reduced to a single equation. We indicate conditions under which this equation can be reduced to a linear heat equation or to semilinear equations. We construct parametric families of exact solutions defined by elementary functions. We derive a control law providing the existence of a wide class of functions that can be realized as exact solutions.     

Scheduling and lot sizing models for the single-vendor multi-buyer problem under consignment stock partnership

We consider a centralized supply chain composed of a single vendor serving multiple buyers and operating under consignment stock arrangement. Solving the general problem is hard as it requires finding optimal delivery schedule to the buyers and optimal production lot sizes. We first provide a nonlinear mixed integer programming formulation for the general scheduling and lot sizing problem. We show that the problem is NP-hard in general. We reformulate the problem under the assumption of ‘zero-switch rule’. We also provide a simple sequence independent lower bound to the solution of the general model. We then propose a heuristic procedure to generate a near-optimal delivery schedule. We assess the cost performance of that heuristic by conducting sensitivity analysis on the key model parameters. The results show that the proposed heuristic promises substantial supply-chain cost savings that increase as the number of buyers increases.     

On Summary Equation Generated by a Quadrangle

We investigate a four-element functional equation in a class of solutions holomorphic outside a quadrangle and vanishing at infinity. We propose equivalent regularization method of such quadrangles. We construct examples with only single condition of solvability for such an equation. We show applications to moments problem for entire functions of exponential type.     

Inverse problems for multi-valued quasi variational inequalities and noncoercive variational inequalities with noisy data

ABSTRACT

We study the inverse problem of identifying a variable parameter in variational and quasi-variational inequalities. We consider a quasi-variational inequality involving a multi-valued monotone map and give a new existence result. We then formulate the inverse problem as an optimization problem and prove its solvability. We also conduct a thorough study of the inverse problem of parameter identification in noncoercive variational inequalities which appear commonly in applied models. We study the inverse problem by posing optimization problems using the output least-squares and the modified output least-squares. Using regularization, penalization, and smoothing, we obtain a single-valued parameter-to-selection map and study its differentiability. We consider optimization problems using the output least-squares and the modified output least-squares for the regularized, penalized and smoothened variational inequality. We give existence results, convergence analysis, and optimality conditions. We provide applications and numerical examples to justify the proposed framework.     

On the specificity of a possibility distribution

The specificity of a possibility distribution measures the degree to which the distribution allows one and only one element as its manifestation. As such it is a measure of amount of uncertainty or information. We investigate a number of issues related to specificity measures. We discuss the connection between the specificity of a possibility distribution and the entropy of a probability distribution. We describe unifying view for constructing specificity measures. We look at the relationship of the specificity of a distribution and its negation. We consider the case where the base set is continuous.     

Application of graph-theoretic approaches to the random landscapes of the three-dimensional assignment problem

We study local optima of combinatorial optimization problems. We show that a local search algorithm can be represented as a digraph and apply recent results for spanning forests of a diagraph. We establish a correspondence between the number of local optima and the algebraic multiplicities of eigenvalues of digraph laplacians. We apply our finding to the three-dimensional assignment problem.     

Exponentially damped operators for a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a heat bath

We consider the problem of the dissipative dynamics of a harmonic oscillator linearly coupled to a heat bath. We demonstrate that in addition to the mean energy, there exists an infinite series of quantities exponentially decreasing in time that are means of polynomials of the system Hamiltonian. We obtain the spectrum of the corresponding relaxation times. We propose a method for representing the time characteristics of the system in terms of operators corresponding to the exponentially damped observables. We obtain a recurrence relation for these operators.     

Measure based representation of uncertain information

We discuss the use of monotonic set measures for the representation of uncertain information. We look at some important examples of measure-based uncertainty, specifically probability and possibility and necessity. Others types of uncertainty such as cardinality based and quasi-additive measures are discussed. We consider the problem of determining the representative value of a variable whose uncertain value is formalized using a monotonic set measure. We note the central role that averaging and particularly weighted averaging operations play in obtaining these representative values. We investigate the use of various integrals such as the Choquet and Sugeno for obtaining these required averages. We suggest ways of extending a measure defined on a set to the case of fuzzy sets and the power sets of the original set. We briefly consider the problem of question answering under uncertain knowledge.     

Solvability of the stationary heat convection problem for a high-viscosity fluid

We study the stationary heat convection problem in the Boussinesq approximation. We derive a priori estimates for its solution. We prove existence and uniqueness theorems for a weak solution of the problem and analyze the smoothness of a weak solution for raised smoothness of the problem data. We consider the two- and three-dimensional cases.     

An Interactive Algorithm for Multi-objective Route Planning

We address the route selection problem for Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) under multiple objectives. We consider a general case for this problem, where the UAV has to visit several targets and return to the base. We model this problem as a combination of two combinatorial problems. First, the path to be followed between each pair of targets should be determined. We model this as a multi-objective shortest path problem. Additionally, we need to determine the order of the targets to be visited. We model this as a multi-objective traveling salesperson problem (MOTSP). The overall problem is a combination of these two problems, which we define as a generalized MOTSP. We develop an exact interactive approach to identify the best paths and the best tour of a decision maker under a linear utility function.     

Modelling of the thermic exchanges during a drilling. Resolution with Adomian's decomposition method

We study a model of thermic exchanges in a drilling well. We solve the equation with the decomposition method of Adomian. We have obtained the results corresponding to a simplified real well.     

Spaces of geodesics: products, coverings, connectedness

We continue our study of the space of geodesics of a manifold with linear connection. We obtain sufficient conditions for a product to have a space of geodesics which is a manifold. We investigate the relationship of the space of geodesics of a covering manifold to that of the base space. We obtain sufficient conditions for a space to be geodesically connected in terms of the topology of its space of geodesics.