On non-standard algebras and their representations

To Professor Guillermo Torres on the occasion of his 70^th birthday.     

Combined gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry using laser photodissociation

Two fibre-optic interfaces were constructed for laser photodissociation/tandem mass spectrometry using an ion trap spectrometer. These interfaces allow sample introduction from a liquid reservoir, solids probe and gas chromatograph. The laser/ion trap configuration was applied to the analysis of a mixture of alkylbenenes separated by gas chromatography using 573 nm photons.     

Anisotropic elastodynamics in a half space: An analytic method for polynomial data

An initial boundary value problem for the dynamic system of anisotropic elasticity in a half space is studied in the paper. A novel method of finding an exact solution of this problem for a special polynomial form of initial data and inhomogeneous term of the system is described. On the base of this method the simulation of elastic waves in different homogeneous anisotropic half spaces is implemented.     

Application of a separating transformation to estimates of inner radii of open sets

We obtain solutions of new extremal problems of the geometric theory of functions of a complex variable related to estimates for the inner radii of nonoverlapping domains. Some known results are generalized to the case of open sets. __________ Translated from Ukrains’kyi Matematychnyi Zhurnal, Vol. 59, No. 10, pp. 1313–1321, October, 2007.     

AI and OR in management of operations: history and trends

The last decade has seen a considerable growth in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for operations management with the aim of finding solutions to problems that are increasing in complexity and scale. This paper begins by setting the context for the survey through a historical perspective of OR and AI. An extensive survey of applications of AI techniques for operations management, covering a total of over 1200 papers published from 1995 to 2004 is then presented. The survey utilizes Elsevier's ScienceDirect database as a source. Hence, the survey may not cover all the relevant journals but includes a sufficiently wide range of publications to make it representative of the research in the field. The papers are categorized into four areas of operations management: (a) design, (b) scheduling, (c) process planning and control and (d) quality, maintenance and fault diagnosis. Each of the four areas is categorized in terms of the AI techniques used: genetic algorithms, case-based reasoning, knowledge-based systems, fuzzy logic and hybrid techniques. The trends over the last decade are identified, discussed with respect to expected trends and directions for future work suggested.     

Clustering of spectra and fractals of regular graphs

We exhibit a characteristic structure of the class of all regular graphs of degree d that stems from the spectra of their adjacency matrices. The structure has a fractal threadlike appearance. Points with coordinates given by the mean and variance of the exponentials of graph eigenvalues cluster around a line segment that we call a filar. Zooming-in reveals that this cluster splits into smaller segments (filars) labeled by the number of triangles in graphs. Further zooming-in shows that the smaller filars split into subfilars labeled by the number of quadrangles in graphs, etc. We call this fractal structure, discovered in a numerical experiment, a multifilar structure. We also provide a mathematical explanation of this phenomenon based on the Ihara-Selberg trace formula, and compute the coordinates and slopes of all filars in terms of Bessel functions of the first kind.     

On Linear-Time Algorithms for the Continuous Quadratic Knapsack Problem

We give a linear time algorithm for the continuous quadratic knapsack problem which is simpler than existing methods and competitive in practice. Encouraging computational results are presented for large-scale problems. The author thanks the Associate Editor and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments.     

Solving a multiobjective location routing problem with a metaheuristic based on tabu search. Application to a real case in Andalusia

In this work we present a multiobjective location routing problem and solve it with a multiobjective metaheuristic procedure. In this type of problem, we have to locate some plants within a set of possible locations to meet the demands of a number of clients with multiple objectives. This type of model is used to solve a problem with real data in the region of Andalusia (Spain). Thus, we study the location of two incineration plants for the disposal of solid animal waste from some preestablished locations in Andalusia, and design the routes to serve the different slaughterhouses in this region. This must be done while taking into account certain economic objectives (start-up, maintenance, and transport costs) and social objectives (social rejection by towns on the truck routes, maximum risk as an equity criterion, and the negative implications for towns close to the plant).