Path Relinking, Cycle-Based Neighbourhoods and Capacitated Multicommodity Network Design

In this paper, we propose a path relinking procedure for the fixed-charge capacitated multicommodity network design problem. Cycle-based neighbourhoods are used both to move along paths between elite solutions and to generate the elite candidate set by a tabu-like local search procedure. Several variants of the method are implemented and compared. Extensive computational experiments indicate that the path relinking procedure offers excellent results. It systematically outperforms the cycle-based tabu search method in both solution quality and computational effort and offers the best current meta-heuristic for this difficult class of problems.     

A parallel multi-neighborhood cooperative tabu search for capacitated vehicle routing problems

This paper presents a parallel tabu search algorithm that utilizes several different neighborhood structures for solving the capacitated vehicle routing problem. Single neighborhood or neighborhood combinations are encapsulated in tabu search threads and they cooperate through a solution pool for the purpose of exploiting their joint power. The computational experiments on 32 large scale benchmark instances show that the proposed method is highly effective and competitive, providing new best solutions to four instances while the average deviation of all best solutions found from the collective best results reported in the literature is about 0.22%. We are also able to associate the beneficial use of special neighborhoods with some test instance characteristics and uncover some sources of the collective power of multi-neighborhood cooperation.     

Le Groupe Quantique Compact Libre U(n)

The free analogues of U(n) in Woronowicz' theory [Wo2] are the compact matrix quantum groups introduced by Wang and Van Daele. We classify here their irreducible representations. Their fusion rules turn to be related to the combinatorics of Voiculescu's circular variable. If we find an embedding , where A _o (F) is the deformation of SU(2) studied in [B2]. We use the representation theory and Powers' method for showing that the reduced algebras A _u (F) _red are simple, with at most one trace. Received: 1 March 1996 / Accepted: 4 April 1997     

A tabu search procedure for multicommodity location/allocation with balancing requirements

We propose a tabu search heuristic for the location/allocation problem with balancing requirements. This problem typically arises in the context of the medium term management of a fleet of containers of multiple types, where container depots have to be selected, the assignment of customers to depots has to be established for each type of container, and the interdepot container traffic has to be planned to account for differences in supplies and demands in various zones of the geographical territory served by a container shipping company. It is modeled as a mixed integer program, which combines zero-one location variables and a multicommodity network flow structure. Extensive computational results on a set of benchmark problems and comparisons with an efficient dual ascent procedure are reported. These show that tabu search is a competitive approach for this class of problems.     

Exact controllability for the magnetohydrodynamic equations

We study the local exact controllability of the steady state solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equations. The main result of the paper asserts that the steady state solutions of these equations are locally controllable if they are smooth enough. We reduce the local exact controllability of the steady state solutions of the magnetohydrodynamic equations to the global exact controllability of the null solution of the linearized magnetohydrodynamic system via a fixed‐point argument. The treatment of the reduced problem relies on two Carleman‐type inequalities for the backward adjoint system. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Implicit depot assignments and rotations in vehicle routing heuristics

Vehicle routing variants with multiple depots and mixed fleet present intricate combinatorial aspects related to sequencing choices, vehicle type choices, depot choices, and depots positioning. This paper introduces a dynamic programming methodology for efficiently evaluating compound neighborhoods combining sequence-based moves with an optimal choice of vehicle and depot, and an optimal determination of the first customer to be visited in the route, called rotation. The assignment choices, making the richness of the problem, are thus no more addressed in the solution structure, but implicitly determined during each move evaluation. Two meta-heuristics relying on these concepts, an iterated local search and a hybrid genetic algorithm, are presented. Extensive computational experiments demonstrate the remarkable performance of these methods on classic benchmark instances for multi-depot vehicle routing problems with and without fleet mix, as well as the notable contribution of the implicit depot choice and positioning methods to the search performance. New state-of-the-art results are obtained for multi-depot vehicle routing problems (MDVRP), and multi-depot vehicle fleet mix problems (MDVFMP) with unconstrained fleet size. The proposed concepts are fairly general, and widely applicable to many other vehicle routing variants.     

New ruthenium(II) complexes with enantiomerically pure bis- and tris(pinene)-fused tridentate ligands. Synthesis, characterization and stereoisomeric analysis

A new set of Ru-Cl complexes containing either the pinene[5,6]bpea ligand (L1) or the C3 symmetric pinene[4,5]tpmOMe (L2) tridentate ligand in combination with the bidentate (B) 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) or 1,2-diphenylphosphinoethane (dppe) with general formula [RuCl(L1 or L2)(B)](+) have been prepared and thoroughly characterized. In the solid state, X-ray diffraction analysis techniques have been used. In solution, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy have been employed. DFT calculations have been also performed on these complexes and their achiral analogues previously reported in our group, to interpret and complement experimental results. Whereas isomerically pure complexes ([Ru(II)Cl(L2)(bpy)](BF4), 5 and [Ru(II)Cl(L2)(dppe)](BF4), 6) are obtained when starting from the highly symmetric [Ru(III)Cl3(L2)], 2, isomeric mixtures of cis, fac-[Ru(II)Cl(L1)(bpy)](BF4) (3b/3b'), trans,fac- (3a) and up/down,mer- (3c, 3d) isomers are formed when bpy is added to the less symmetric [Ru(III)Cl3(L1)], 1, in contrast to the case of the bulky dppe ligand that, upon coordination to 1, leads to the trans,fac-[Ru(II)Cl(L1)(dppe)](BF4) (4a) complex as a sole isomer due to steric factors.     

Measurement of the sign and the magnitude of heteronuclear coupling constants from spin-state-edited J-cross-polarization NMR experiments

New spin-state-selective (S3) NMR pulse sequences exclusively applying cross-polarization schemes to achieve optimum homonuclear and heteronuclear 1H-X coherence transfer are reported for the simple and accurate measurement of the magnitude and sign of heteronuclear coupling constants for samples at natural abundance. The proposed spin-edited HCP-TOCSY experiments are based on clean heteronuclear S3 excitation, generated by simultaneous co-addition of two independent in-phase and anti-phase components created during the mixing heteronuclear J-cross-polarization (HCP) step, which is finally transferred to other protons by a conventional homonuclear TOCSY mechanism. Selective 1D and non-selective 2D approaches for the easy determination of long-range proton-carbon and proton-nitrogen coupling constants on any protonated and non-protonated heteronuclei are presented and discussed for several organic molecules.