Optimizing specimen collection for processing in clinical testing laboratories

We study the logistics of specimen collection for a clinical testing laboratory that serves sites dispersed in an urban area. The specimens that accumulate at the customer sites throughout the working day are transported to the laboratory for processing. The problem is to construct and schedule a series of tours to collect the accumulated specimens from the sites throughout the day. Two hierarchical objectives are considered: (i) maximizing the amount of specimens processed by the next morning, and (ii) minimizing the daily transportation cost. We show that the problem is NP-hard and formulate a linear Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model to solve the bicriteria problem in two levels. We characterize properties of optimal solutions and develop a heuristic approach based on solving the MIP model with additional constraints that seeks for feasible solutions with specific characteristics. To evaluate the performance of this approach, we provide an upper bounding scheme on the daily processed amount, and develop two relaxed MIP models to generate lower bounds on the daily transportation cost. The effectiveness of the proposed solution approach is evaluated using realistic problem instances. Insights on key problem parameters and their effects on the solutions are extracted by further experiments.     

Developing work schedules for an inter-city transit system with multiple driver types and fleet types

In developing work schedules, the job assignment flexibility exploits the variety of available skills, thus enabling the assignment of workers to perform different jobs. In this study, we investigate the problem of finding the mix of primary and secondary jobs in short term work schedules to meet, at minimum cost, the daily service requirements of an inter-city bus transit firm in Andra Pradesh India operating multiple fleet types. We formulate the problem as a set covering model with resource allocation constraints. We develop a branch-and-price procedure to solve the model. Computational results are provided.     

A Characterisation of a Class of Semigroups with Locally Commuting Idempotents

McAlister proved that a necessary and sufficient condition for a regular semigroup S to be locally inverse is that it can be embedded as a quasi-ideal in a semigroup T which satisfies the following two conditions: (1) T = TeT, for some idempotent e; and (2) eTe is inverse. We generalise this result to the class of semigroups with local units in which all local submonoids have commuting idempotents.     

网络计划优化技术中顺序优化的编程模式与算法设计

网络计划优化技术中的顺序优化理论具有国际先进水平，已有十多年的历史，但因编程困难，始终未能和实际有效地结合起来。顺序优化的编程是相当复杂的，之所以复杂是因为它不仅包含顺序优化，而且还包含因顺序优化而带来的网络图的调整。本就是针对这一情况，介绍了一种适合解决此类问题的方法。     

A linear programming approach for aircraft boarding strategy

Airlines are going through very difficult times financially which has been triggered by fierce competition and current high fuel prices. To stay competitive, it is absolutely essential that they achieve high efficiency in the areas that have control over. Airlines start generating revenues while their aircraft are flying. Reducing aircraft turn-around times is an important goal with passenger boarding being a major metric.     

Minimal surfaces as webs of optimal transportation flows ∗

This paper deals with the disclosure of a note-worthy relationship between solutions of variational problems of double integrals and transportation flow problems for two products. It is founded on the duality for transportation flow problems and deposit problems     

一类时滞种群模型的周期正解

利用一些分析技巧和重合度理论,研究了一类时滞种群模型：Ｎ’（ｔ）＝Ｎ（ｔ）「ｂ（ｔ）－∞／∑／ｊ＝１ａｊｌｎＮ（ｔ＝ｒｊ）」周期正解的存在性,得到了一些新的判据,同时也改进了一些相关文献的结果。     

依中间意义渐近非扩张的半群的几乎轨道的渐近行为

设X是具有Frechet可微范数的一致凸Banach空间,C是X的非空有界闭凸子集,T={T(t):t≥0}是C上依中间意义渐近非扩张的半群。若μ(·):[0,∞)→C是T={T(t):t≥0}的几乎轨道且关于t∈[0,∞)连续,则{μ(t):t≥0}几乎弱收敛到集合∩_(t>0)co{μ(r):r≥t}∩F(T)的唯一点。     

Short-term work scheduling with job assignment flexibility for a multi-fleet transport system

In recent years, planning and management of operations of transportation companies has become increasingly complex as tighter financial constraints affect the ability to respond to changing demands for travel. This paper investigates how a firm can reduce its total labor cost, enhance the flexibility of its operations and improve worker productivity and utilization by determining the right mix of jobs in work schedules. Using a method we have developed to generate low cost work schedules for bus drivers of an inter-city transport system in India, we study the changes in worker productivity and utilization when a mix of primary and secondary jobs is built in work schedules. We also investigate other factors that can strongly influence worker productivity and utilization such as the amount of overtime in work schedules, the level of job assignment flexibility, and staff size. Test results and discussions of managerial implications are presented.     

A large deviation approach to some transportation cost inequalities

New transportation cost inequalities are derived by means of elementary large deviation reasonings. Their dual characterization is proved; this provides an extension of a well-known result of S. Bobkov and F. Götze. Their tensorization properties are investigated. Sufficient conditions (and necessary conditions too) for these inequalities are stated in terms of the integrability of the reference measure. Applying these results leads to new deviation results: concentration of measure and deviations of empirical processes.     

具有相依利息率的离散时间保险风险模型的破产问题

进一步研究离散时间保险风险模型，在利率具有一阶自回归结构的情况下，得到了描述破产严重程度的破产前一时刻的盈余分布与破产持续时间的分布的递推公式．     

On the establishment of the Takagi Lectures

The Takagi Lectures are the first series of lectures in mathematics to be crowned with a Japanese mathematician’s name. The author provides some historical background of the Takagi Lectures.     

Characterization of Talagrand's like transportation-cost inequalities on the real line

In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for Talagrand's like transportation cost inequalities on the real line. This brings a new wide class of examples of probability measures enjoying a dimension-free concentration of measure property. Another byproduct is the characterization of modified Log-Sobolev inequalities for log-concave probability measures on .     

A new linear programming approach and genetic algorithm for solving airline boarding problem

The airline industry is under intense competition to simultaneously increase efficiency and satisfaction for passengers and profitability and internal system benefit for itself. The boarding process is one way to achieve these objectives as it tends itself to adaptive changes. In order to increase the flying time of a plane, commercial airlines try to minimize the boarding time, which is one of the most lengthy parts of a plane’s turn time. To reduce boarding time, it is thus necessary to minimize the number of interferences between passengers by controlling the order in which they get onto the plane through a boarding policy. Here, we determine the passenger boarding problem and examine the different kinds of passenger boarding strategies and boarding interferences in a single aisle aircraft. We offer a new integer linear programming approach to reduce the passenger boarding time. A genetic algorithm is used to solve this problem. Numerical results show effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Adjacent Extreme Points Of A Transportation Polytope

The adjacent extreme points of a Transportation Polytope are characterized by the circuit s contained in the support of its vertices. This result generalizes the Balinski and Russakoff [4] result on the Assignment Polytope     

Traffic assignment model with fuzzy level of travel demand: An efficient algorithm based on quasi-Logit formulas

The place of fuzzy concepts in traffic assignment (TA) models has been studied in recent literature. Keeping fuzzy level of travel demand in mind, we propose a new TA model in which the travel costs of links are depended on their congestion. From the results of such fuzzy TA model, network planners are able to estimate the number of travelers on network links. By using zero–one variables, the proposed model is transformed into a crisp mixed-integer problem with respect to path-flow variables. In order to produce the Logit flows from this problem, Damberg et al. algorithm is modified. Then, the level of certainty is maximized and perceived travel delays are minimized. For a fixed certainty degree, the obtained solution, which is named the fuzzy equilibrium flow, satisfies a quasi-Logit formula similar to ordinary expression of the Logit route choice model. Eventually, we examine the quality of different path enumeration techniques in the proposed model.     

New lower bounds on the radius of spatial analyticity for the KdV equation

The radius of spatial analyticity for solutions of the KdV equation is studied. It is shown that the analyticity radius does not decay faster than $t^{?1/4}$ as time t goes to infinity. This improves the works of Selberg and da Silva (2017) [30] and Tesfahun (2017) [34]. Our strategy mainly relies on a higher order almost conservation law in Gevrey spaces, which is inspired by the I-method.     

第一类双变量Chebyshev多项式的最小零偏差性质研究

利用Rivlin和Shapiro提出的符号理论,证明了文献[10]中提出的第一类双变量Chebyshev多项式恰为所谓的Steiner区域上具有特殊首项的最小零偏差多项式,并由此导出了几类具有一定代数精度的数值积分公式.