Comments on “A bicriteria flowshop scheduling problem with setup times”

The aim of this paper is to point out that the integer programming model proposed by Eren and Güner [T. Eren, E. Güner, A bicriteria flowshop scheduling problem with setup times, Appl. Math. Comput. 183 (2006) 1292-1300] is incorrect. We propose a new integer programming model for the same scheduling problem based on their model.     

Numerical limit analysis bounds for ductile porous media with oblate voids

The paper is devoted to a numerical limit analysis of a hollow spheroidal model with a von Mises solid matrix. To this purpose, existing kinematic and static 3D-FEM codes for the case of spherical cavities have been modified and improved to account for the model of a spheroidal cavity confocal with the external spheroidal boundary. The optimized conic programming formulations and the resulting codes appear to be very efficient. This framework is then applied to the derivation of numerical upper and lower anisotropic bounds in the case of an oblate void. The numerical results obtained from a series of tests are presented and allow to assess the accuracy of closed-form expressions of the macroscopic criteria proposed by [Gologanu et al., 1994] and [Gologanu et al., 1997] for porous media with oblate voids.     

Computing with multi-row Gomory cuts

Recent advances on the understanding of valid inequalities from the infinite group relaxation has opened the possibility of finding a computationally effective extension to GMI cuts. In this paper, we investigate the computational impact of using a subclass of minimally valid inequalities from this relaxation on a wide set of instances.     

Necessary and sufficient second order optimality conditions for multiobjective problems with C1 data

In this paper, we obtain necessary and sufficient second order optimality conditions for multiobjective problems using second order directional derivatives. We propose the notion of second order KT-pseudoinvex problems and we prove that this class of problems has the following property: a problem is second order KT-pseudoinvex if and only if all its points that satisfy the second order necessary optimality condition are weakly efficient. Also we obtain second order sufficient conditions for efficiency.     

Dynamic chirality in selected diaryl methane containing drugs. An exploratory ab initio conformational study

Diaryl methane molecules (Ar–CH₂–Ar) represent double rotor conformational problems. The simplest diaryl methane, diphenyl methane (Ph–CH₂–Ph), governs certain symmetric conformational potential energy surface (PES) topology. With the replacement of one of the phenyl groups by a heterocyclic moiety, the PES topology may change dramatically. The induction of point-chirality, in the prochiral CH₂ group, by axis-chirality or plane-chirality is explored within the framework of ‘dynamic chirality’.     

Optimal Sequencing of Inspection of Dependent Characteristics

We address the problem of sequentially inspecting the dependent characteristics of a product, where the dependency is expressed in terms of the joint probabilities of the fitness of the characteristics. We show that, even when the inspection has classification errors, the joint probability mass function of the observed fitness of the characteristics is independent of the sequence of inspection. Using this result, a dynamic programming approach is presented for finding the optimal sequence that minimizes the expected total cost of inspection. Previously reported policies for independent characteristics are shown to be special cases of the results presented here.     

Existence of Neighboring Feasible Trajectories: Applications to Dynamic Programming for State-Constrained Optimal Control Problems

In this paper, the value function for an optimal control problem with endpoint and state constraints is characterized as the unique lower semicontinuous generalized solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. This is achieved under a constraint qualification (CQ) concerning the interaction of the state and dynamic constraints. The novelty of the results reported here is partly the nature of (CQ) and partly the proof techniques employed, which are based on new estimates of the distance of the set of state trajectories satisfying a state constraint from a given trajectory which violates the constraint.     

Bifurcations in parametric nonlinear programming

Bifurcation and continuation techniques are introduced as a class of methods for investigating the parametric nonlinear programming problem. Motivated by the Fritz John first-order necessary conditions, the parametric programming problem is first reformulated as a closed system of nonlinear equations which contains all Karush-Kuhn-Tucker and Fritz John points, both feasible and infeasible solutions, and relative minima, maxima, and saddle points. Since changes in the structure of the solution set and critical point type can occur only at singularities, necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a singularity are developed in terms of the loss of a complementarity condition, the linear dependence constraint qualification, and the singularity of the Hessian of the Lagrangian on a tangent space. After a brief introduction to elementary bifurcation theory, some simple singularities in this parametric problem are analyzed for both branching and persistence of local minima. Finally, a brief introduction to numerical continuation and bifurcation procedures is given to indicate how these facts can be used in a numerical investigation of the problem.This research was supported by the Air force Office of Scientific Research through grant number AFOSR-88-0059.     

Prophet inequalities for cost of observation stopping problems

Comparisons are made between the expected gain of a prophet (an observer with complete foresight) and the maximal expected gain of a gambler (using only non-anticipating stopping times) observing a sequence of independent, uniformly bounded random variables where a non-negative fixed cost is charged for each observation. Sharp universal bounds are obtained under various restrictions on the cost and the length of the sequence. For example, it is shown for X₁, X₂, … independent, [0, 1]-valued random variables that for all c ≥ 0 and all n ≥ 1 that E(max_{1 ≤ j ≤ n}(X_j − jc)) − sup_{t Tn} E(X_t − tc) ≤ 1/e, where T_n is the collection of all stopping times t which are less than or equal to n almost surely.