To solve problems abundant in real world applications, we have been proposing an approach of using general purpose solvers, since we cannot afford to develop special purpose algorithms for all individual problems. For this purpose, we have developed solvers for some standard problems such as CSP (constraint satisfaction problem), RCPSP (resource constrained project scheduling problem), GAP (gen...

Nowadays, there is much attention for planning of container terminals in the global trade centers. The high cost of quay cranes motivates both scholars and industrial practitioners especially in the last decade to develop novel optimization models to address this dilemma. This study proposes a coordinated optimization model to cover both Quay Crane Scheduling Problem (QCSP) and Quay Crane Assig...

We obtain a number of results regarding the distribution of values of a quadratic function f on the set of n × n permutation matrices (identified with the symmetric group Sn) around its optimum (minimum or maximum). In particular, we estimate the fraction of permutations σ such that f(σ) lies within a given neighborhood of the optimal value of f . We identify some “extreme” functions f (there a...

A small number of combinatorial optimization problems have search spaces that correspond to elementary landscapes, where the objective function f is an eigenfunction of the Laplacian that describes the neighborhood structure of the search space. Many problems are not elementary; however, the objective function of a combinatorial optimization problem can always be expressed as a superposition of...