Goals and Constraints in Decision-making<Superscript>†</Superscript>

Most problems in management involve multiple goals and two approaches to solving managerial problems have been suggested: optimizing and satisficing. The first covers methods of trade-offs, optimizing in tandem, conversion of goals into constraints and goal programming. The second mainly centres on norm setting and on interval programming. It is argued that cost-benefit analysis essentially belongs to the first group and that, contrary to some suggestions, the differences between the industrial and public sectors (as far as O.R. is concerned) are not related to differences between the optimizing and satisficing philosophies.     

Dragons in Pursuit of the EBQ

Some of the objections to the classical model used in the theory of batch quantities are reviewed. They fall broadly into four categories (1) the validity of the model; (2) the determination of cost parameters; (3) criteria; (4) implementation. Some of the objections can be met by minor modifications of the model; others are more fundamental in nature. In multi-product situations the classical model can only provide an initial guidance and must be supplemented be other tools.     

Stopping games with randomized strategies

We study stopping games in the setup of Neveu. We prove the existence of a uniform value (in a sense defined below), by allowing the players to use randomized strategies. In constrast with previous work, we make no comparison assumption on the payoff processes. Moreover, we prove that the value is the limit of discounted values, and we construct ε-optimal strategies. Received: 10 May 1999 / Revised version: 18 May 2000 / Published online: 15 February 2001     

Continuity of the Value of Competitive Markov Decision Processes

We provide a bound for the variation of the function that assigns to every competitive Markov decision process and every discount factor its discounted value. This bound implies that the undiscounted value of a competitive Markov decision process is continuous in the relative interior of the space of transition rules.     

The Cartography of UV‐induced DNA Damage Formation and DNA Repair

DNA damage presents a barrier to DNA‐templated biochemical processes, including gene expression and faithful DNA replication. Compromised DNA repair leads to mutations, enhancing the risk for genetic diseases and cancer development. Conventional experimental approaches to study DNA damage required a researcher to choose between measuring bulk damage over the entire genome, with little or no resolution regarding a specific location, and obtaining data specific to a locus of interest, without a global perspective. Recent advances in high‐throughput genomic tools overcame these limitations and provide high‐resolution measurements simultaneously across the genome. In this review, we discuss the available methods for measuring DNA damage and their repair, focusing on genomewide assays for pyrimidine photodimers, the major types of damage induced by ultraviolet irradiation. These new genomic assays will be a powerful tool in identifying key components of genome stability and carcinogenesis.     

Two-photon path-entangled states in multimode waveguides

We experimentally show that two-photon path-entangled states can be coherently manipulated by multimode interference in multimode waveguides. By measuring the output two-photon spatial correlation function versus the phase of the input state, we show that multimode waveguides perform as nearly ideal multiport beam splitters at the quantum level, creating a large variety of entangled and separable multipath two-photon states.     

Controlling Production Processes Which are Subject to Linear Trends

Industrial processes must often be reset when a critical dimension of the product approaches or exceeds a specified value. This control procedure ensures that specifications remain between predetermined limits, but the resetting operation may be costly and involve loss of production time. Optimal resetting policies are examined for processes which exhibit a linear trend of a variable dimension produced by the process with a known distribution. Optimal policies are discussed for two criteria: (a) maximum rate of production and (b) minimum cost per unit.