The Unreactive Markovian Evader Interdiction Problem (UME) asks to optimally place sensors on a network to detect Markovian motion by one or more evaders . It was previously proved that nding the optimal sensor placement is NP-hard if the number of evaders is unbounded. Here we show that the problem is NP-hard with just 2 evaders using a connection to coloring of planar graphs. The results sugg...

We model long distance historical trade through intermediaries (couriers). Assuming contracts cannot be enforced and the courier can abscond, we characterize optimal trade schemes. The courier makes many but finite return trips, being entrusted with bundles of ever-increasing value, the last of which they keep for themselves. We are consistent with evidence including: (i) finite trade schemes t...

One of the goals of the U.S. Army Ground Robotics Research Program is to develop individual and group behaviors that allow the robots to contribute to tactical missions such as interdiction and reconnaissance. By using simulation tools, we are able to develop, debug and test behaviors before porting them to actual robotic platforms. Simulation tools allow researchers to evaluate behavior perfor...

Cardinality Maximum Flow Network Interdiction Problem (CMFNIP) is known to be strongly NP-hard problem in the literature. A particular case of CMFNIP has been shown to have reduction from clique problem. In the present work,an effort is being made to solve this particular case of CMFNIP in polynomial time. Direct implication of this solution is that the clique problem gets solved in polynomial ...

Illegal goods are trafficked through couriers with whom legal contracts cannot be enforced. We model the problem of these couriers absconding and focus on a finite horizon problem in which trade cannot be sustained through reputational effects. Nonetheless, trade remains possible if there are sufficient gains. Optimal schemes have one courier making numerous, but a finite number of, return trip...

This paper describes a stochastic network interdiction model for identifying locations for installing detectors sensitive to nuclear material. A nuclear material smuggler selects a path through a transportation network that maximizes the probability of avoiding detection. An interdictor installs sensors to minimize that maximum probability. This problem is formulated as a bi-level stochastic mi...

The clinical manifestations and consequence of acute and chronic gout are closely associated with the activation of the innate immune system, stimulation of the NLP3 inflammasome and secretion of interleukin-1β and interleukin-18 via caspace-1 activity. This leads to cytokine release and an inflammatory response. It is now clear that a similar involvement of the innate immune system occurs in m...

When I began to study the rules, duties, and prohibitions of sexuality, the interdictions and restrictions associated with it, I was concerned not simply with the acts that were permitted and forbidden but with the feelings represented, the thoughts, the desires one might experience, the drives to seek within the self any hidden feeling, any movement of the soul, any desire disguised under illu...

There is no "silver bullet" sensor technology that will win the explosives interdiction war; rather, there is an arsenal of partial but complementary weapons, sensors and instruments that can be dynamically reconfigured, combined, and deployed against a fast evolving spectrum of terrorist threats to commercial air transport. The paper describes an integrated solution, implemented by a system of...

The area of search theory can be divided broadly on two parts, one-sided search and two-sided [7]. Thus, in this paper; we deal with a two-sided search games played by a searcher and a mobile target with a rather simple type of motion called the conditionally deterministic motion (CDM). Here, the target motion takes place on a network and, more precisely, on a set of possible paths. After a gen...