Constraint Databases: Promising Technology or Just Intellectual Exercise?

This paper describes the state of Constraint Databases (CDBs), a young discipline at the intersection of Database Management, Constraint Programming, Computational Geometry and Operations Research. As in Constraint Logic Programming, constraints in CDBs are a first class data type, and can play many modeling roles including spatial and temporal behavior, complex design requirements, and partial and incomplete information, for which existing databases have proven inadequate. We motivate the importance of CDBs, outline the work in the area that has been done, the current trends, and future directions and challenges. We briefly discuss (1) constraint modeling, canonical forms and algebras, (2) data models and query languages, (3) indexing and approximation-based filtering, (4) constraint algebra algorithms and global optimization, and (5) systems and case studies. We argue that CDBs are a promising technology that will impact many important application realms, and furthermore have the potential to be integrated into future database systems, and operations research and constraint programming tools.     

Software tools for micro-analysis of programs

The paper proposes and describes several tools enabling their user to estimate the efficiency of Pascal or C-like programs. The approach consists of generating symbolic formulas expressing the efficiency of the programs being analyzed. The formulas are applicable to a variety of compiler-machine configurations. The actual numeric values of the variables in the symbolic formula are determined using linear programming techniques. The proposed approach reduces considerably the amount of benchmarking needed to analyze programs. Several examples are presented showing the applicability of the tools. The effort necessary to implement them is considerably reduced by the combined usage of Prolog and a symbolic formula manipulation package (Maple).     

鱼雷罐喷粉预处理优化研究

在已经得到的描述鱼雷罐喷粉处理基本参数具体表达式的基础上，运用多目标非线性优化方法，对工艺操作参数进行优化。     

Modelling topology optimization problems as linear mixed 0–1 programs

This paper deals with topology optimization of discretized continuum structures. It is shown that a large class of non‐linear 0–1 topology optimization problems, including stress‐ and displacement‐constrained minimum weight problems, can equivalently be modelled as linear mixed 0–1 programs. The modelling approach is applied to some test problems which are solved to global optimality. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Visual C++与Fortran混合编程及Matcom绘图在空调负荷计算软件中的应用

介绍利用VC与Fortran进行混合编程，将Visual C 程疗从DOS环境下移植到期Windows环境下，并利用Matcom对数据进行可视化的方法。     

多目标二次规划非劣解集的理论生成及应用

本文对多目标二次规划问题非劣解集的理论生成进行了探讨,在介绍二次规划单目标问题优化解求法的基础上,提出了在决策平面上互切点,共交点轨迹的概念.由此导出了非劣解集的一般解析式(对切点解问题)和另一类交点解问题时的非劣解集求法,然后介绍了在目标平面非劣解集的解析表达式.使多目标二次规划问题整个非劣解集的推求严格、明确和方便,有理论和实际意义。文中以一个综合利用水库参数的多目标优选作为例子阐述了应用,并求出了最终的最佳协调解.     

A multi-objective programming model for scheduling emergency medicine residents

Scheduling emergency medicine residents (EMRs) is a complex task, which considers a large number of rules (often conflicting) related to various aspects such as limits on the number of consecutive work hours, number of day and night shifts that should be worked by each resident, resident staffing requirements according to seniority levels for the day and night shifts, restrictions on the number of consecutive day and night shifts assigned, vacation periods, weekend off requests, and fair distribution of responsibilities among the residents. Emergency rooms (ERs) are stressful workplaces, and in addition shift work is well-known to be more demanding than regular daytime work. For this reason, preparing schedules that suit the working rules for EMRs is especially important for reducing the negative impact on shift workers physiologically, psychologically, and socially. In this paper, we present a goal programming (GP) model that accommodates both hard and soft constraints for a monthly planning horizon. The hard constraints should be adhered to strictly, whereas the soft constraints can be violated when necessary. The relative importance values of the soft constraints have been computed by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), which are used as coefficients of the deviations from the soft constraints in the objective function. The model has been tested in the ER of a major local university hospital. The main conclusions of the study are that problems of realistic size can be solved quickly and the generated schedules have very high qualities compared to the manually prepared schedules, which require a lot of effort and time from the chief resident who is responsible for this duty.     

价格不确定情况下炼厂生产计划的优化

生产计划的编制是炼油企业生产经营管理中的一个关键环节，然而由于市场变化的不确定性，使企业制度长远规划受到限制，笔者将多目标规划应用于炼厂价格不确定情况下生产计划的制定，使所得到的生产计划在一定程度上反映市场的变化并能使企业的生产效益最优，为企业管理决策者进行长远规划给予指导。通过实例验证了该方法的可行性。     

Unix tools as visual programming components in a GUI‐builder environment

Development environments based on ActiveX controls and JavaBeans are marketed as ‘visual programming’ platforms; in practice their visual dimension is limited to the design and implementation of an application's graphical user interface (GUI). The availability of sophisticated GUI development environments and visual component development frameworks is now providing viable platforms for implementing visual programming within general‐purpose platforms, i.e. for the specification of non‐GUI program functionality using visual representations. We describe how specially designed reflective components can be used in an industry‐standard visual programming environment to graphically specify sophisticated data transformation pipelines that interact with GUI elements. The components are based on Unix‐style filters repackaged as ActiveX controls. Their visual layout on the development environment canvas is used to specify the connection topology of the resultant pipeline. The process of converting filter‐style programs into visual controls is automated using a domain‐specific language. We demonstrate the approach through the design and the visual implementation of a GUI‐based spell‐checker. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal Operation of Reservoir Systems using Simulated Annealing

A stochastic search technique, simulated annealing (SA), is used to optimize the operation of multiple reservoirs. Seminal application of annealing technique in general to multi-period, multiple-reservoir systems, along with problem representation and selection of different parameter values used in the annealing algorithm for specific cases is discussed. The search technique is improved with the help of heuristic rules, problem-specific information and concepts from the field of evolutionary algorithms. The technique is tested for application to a benchmark problem of four-reservoir system previously solved using a linear programming formulation and its ability to replicate the global optimum solution is examined. The technique is also applied to a system of four hydropower generating reservoirs in Manitoba, Canada, to derive optimal operating rules. A limited version of this problem is solved using a mixed integer nonlinear programming and results are compared with those obtained using SA. A better objective function value is obtained using simulated annealing than the value from a mixed integer non-linear programming model developed for the same problem. Results obtained from these applications suggest that simulated annealing can be used for obtaining near-optimal solutions for multi-period reservoir operation problems that are computationally intractable.