In [1] we introduced a new state-space relaxation, called ng-path relaxation, to compute lower bounds to routing problems, such as the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) and the VRP with Time Windows (VRPTW). This relaxation consists of partitioning the set of all possible paths ending at a generic vertex according to a mapping function that associates with each path a subset of the vis...

In a past decade, more and more researchers have emphasized the emergent nature of cognition, as opposed to the traditional approach that assumes fixed representations and central control mechanism. Among many kinds of emergent cognition, insight has attacted many researchers’ attention (Sternberg & Davisdon, 1995). Insight has several mysterious properties. First of all, problems used in psych...

The optical absorption of the Fröhlich polaron model is obtained by an approximation-free diagrammatic Monte Carlo method and compared with two new approximate approaches that treat lattice relaxation effects in different ways. We show that: (i) a strong coupling expansion, based on the Franck-Condon principle, well describes the optical conductivity for large coupling strengths (alpha > 10); (...

In this study, nonlinear bending of solid and annular functionally graded (FG) sector plates subjected to transverse mechanical loading and thermal gradient along the thickness direction is investigated. Material properties are varied continuously along the plate thickness according to power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. According to von-Karman relation for large ...

Manufacturing scheduling is an important but difficult task. Building on our previous success in developing optimization-based scheduling methods using Lagrangian relaxation for practical applications, this paper presents a novel Lagrangian relaxation neural network (LRNN) optimization techniques. The convergence of LRNN for separable convex programming problems is established. For separable in...

This paper deals with an approximate solution method by decomposing a search space dynamically combined with genetic algorithm(GA) and Lagrangian relaxation(LR) method for solving a job-shop scheduling problem. In this method a subspace of a search space is constructed by using information on partial processing order relations between operations which use same resources. We search these subspac...

 Inventory plays a major role in deciding the overall manufacturing costs, and a good scheduling system should balance the on-time delivery of products versus low work-in-process (WIP) inventory. In this paper, the “CONstant Work-In-Process” (CONWIP) concept is applied to job shop scheduling to effectively control WIP inventory. A new mathematical formulation of CONWIP-based job shop schedulin...

The translational Brownian motion of a particle in a tilted washboard potential is considered. The dynamic structure factor and longest relaxation time are evaluated from the solution of the governing Langevin equation by using the matrix continued fraction method. The longest relaxation time is compared with the Kramers theory of the escape rate of a Brownian particle from a potential well as ...