Applying Stochastic Algorithms to a Locomotive Scheduling Problem

This paper addresses a problem common to all railway networks. Given a fixed train timetable and locomotives (or other forms of traction) of various types, each train must be allocated a locomotive. This paper examines the use of stochastic algorithms for such a problem. Two types of algorithm are used—a simple ‘local improvement’ method, performed successively from randomly chosen starting points, and a ‘simulated annealing’ approach. Both are found to give considerably better results than a deterministic method in current use, and the annealing approach is probably the better stochastic method.     

Mesh selection for stiff two-point boundary value problems

This paper is concerned with the mesh selection algorithm of COLSYS, a well known collocation code for solving systems of boundary value problems. COLSYS was originally designed to solve non-stiff and mildly stiff problems only. In this paper we show that its performance for solving extremely stiff problems can be considerably improved by modifying its error estimation and mesh selection algorithms. Numerical examples indicate the superiority of the modified algorithm.Dedicated to John Butcher on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday     

Group valued measures with the lyapunoff property

Dopo aver dato una definizione di parte convessa di un gruppo topologico, si stabilisce una condizione affinchè il condominio di una misura sia convesso.     

Timetabling County Cricket Fixtures Using a Form of Tabu Search

This paper concerns a computer system which has been devised to timetable the county cricket matches in England. The context of the work is discussed and the many constraints and objectives described. Details of the solution method are given; it involves tabu search with a form of diversification dependent on the solution subcosts as well as the overall cost. Experiments are described which suggest that this type of diversification may have wide applicability to large, complex, multi-objective combinatorial problems.     

Uncertainty about the correlation among temporal envelopes in two comodulation tasks

The threshold of a 1250-Hz tonal signal was measured in the presence of five noise bands (each 50 Hz wide, centered at 850, 1050, 1250, 1450, and 1650 Hz) under five conditions of uncertainty about the waveform type ("correlated" or "uncorrelated"), and/or the specific waveform sample to be presented. The waveform type was correlated when the temporal envelopes of all of the noise bands were the same, and was uncorrelated when the temporal envelope of the band centered on the signal differed from the common envelope of the other bands. At the low-uncertainty end of the continuum of conditions, the same waveform type was presented throughout an entire block of trials, and, in addition, the same waveform sample was presented on the two observation intervals of a single trial (but changed across trials). At the high-uncertainty end of the continuum, both the waveform type and the waveform sample were chosen at random for every observation interval. Threshold estimates obtained from trials in which both observation intervals contained the same waveform type were not affected by uncertainty about the waveform sample within a trial, nor by uncertainty about the waveform type introduced across trials. Thus the comodulation masking release, or CMR (the difference in the thresholds obtained with the uncorrelated and correlated waveforms), calculated from these types of trials was robust across all of the uncertainty conditions. However, on those trials in which one correlated interval and one uncorrelated interval were paired, threshold estimates were influenced by a bias for listeners to choose the uncorrelated interval as the signal interval, whether or not it actually contained the signal. This bias reveals the importance of recognizing the contribution of the nonsignal interval in experiments involving masker uncertainty. Parallel results were obtained using the comodulation detection difference (CDD) task. In some conditions, marked individual differences were observed.     

Deuterium exchange of 4-pyrimidones and 4-pyrimidthiones

The hydrogen-deuterium exchange of H-2 in 4-pyrimidone, a number of 1- and 3-alkyl-4-pyrimidones and several of their thione analogs in deuterium oxide at moderate temperatures is reported. This reaction is apparently not susceptible to acid or base catalysis. Cations of the 4-pyrimidones were found not to exchange H-2 at all in acid media. Catalytic amounts of bases do not alter the exchange rates whereas more concentrated alkali decompose the pyrimidone. However, 1,4(3,4)-dihydro-1,3-dimethyl-4-oxopyrimidinium iodide (and its 6-methyl analog) exchange H-2 quite rapidly in neutral deuterium oxide, almost instantly when triethylamine is added as a catalyst, and very slowly in dilute solutions of deuterium chloride in deuterium oxide. Mechanisms are proposed to account for these phenomena.