Taylor series approach to fuzzy multiobjective linear fractional programming

This paper presents the use of a Taylor series for fuzzy multiobjective linear fractional programming problems (FMOLFP). The Taylor series is a series expansion that a representation of a function. In the proposed approach, membership functions associated with each objective of fuzzy multiobjective linear fractional programming problem transformed by using a Taylor series are unified. Thus, the problem is reduced to a single objective. Practical applications and numerical examples are used in order to show the efficiency and superiority of the proposed approach.     

A linear programming approach to reasoning about probabilities

We continue our study, initiated in [9], of the following computational problem proposed by Nilsson: Several clauses (Boolean functions of several variables) are given, and for each clause the probability that the clause is true is specified. We are asked whether these probabilities are consistent. They are if there is a probability distribution on the truth assignments such that the probability of each clause is the measure of its satisfying set of assignments. Since this is a generalization of the satisfiability problem of predicate calculus, it is immediately NP-hard. In [9] we showed certain restricted cases of the problem to be NP-complete, and used the Ellipsoid Algorithm to show that a certain special case is in P. In this paper we use the Simplex method, column generation techniques, and variable-depth local search to derive an effective heuristic for the general problem. Experiments show that our heuristic performs successfully on instances with many dozens of variables and clauses. We also prove several interesting complexity results that answer open questions in [9] and motivate our approach.     

基于AHP的模糊线性规划求解方法

对于基于AHP的多准则分析过程,存在不一致区间判断的复杂评估问题.通过有下限和上限的区间数表示元素之间的比较比率,构造模糊约束集合矩阵,引入模糊集的隶属度函数表示对各种优先权矢量的满意程度,利用线性规划求解具有最大满意度的优先权矢量,得出候选者的总体优先顺序,并举例说明了应用该方法的计算过程.     

The progressive party problem: Integer linear programming and constraint programming compared

Many discrete optimization problems can be formulated as either integer linear programming problems or constraint satisfaction problems. Although ILP methods appear to be more powerful, sometimes constraint programming can solve these problems more quickly. This paper describes a problem in which the difference in performance between the two approaches was particularly marked, since a solution could not be found using ILP.The problem arose in the context of organizing a progressive party at a yachting rally. Some yachts were to be designated hosts; the crews of the remaining yachts would then visit the hosts for six successive half-hour periods. A guest crew could not revisit the same host, and two guest crews could not meet more than once. Additional constraints were imposed by the capacities of the host yachts and the crew sizes of the guests.Integer linear programming formulations which included all the constraints resulted in very large models, and despite trying several different strategies, all attempts to find a solution failed. Constraint programming was tried instead and solved the problem very quickly, with a little manual assistance. Reasons for the success of constraint programming in this problem are identified and discussed.     

A note on “Solving linear programming problems under fuzziness and randomness environment using attainment values”

This paper is an amendment to Hop’s paper [N.V. Hop, Solving linear programming problems under fuzziness and randomness environment using attainment values, Information Sciences 177 (2007) 2971-2984], in solving linear programming problems under fuzziness and randomness environments. Hop introduced a new characterization of relationship, attainment values, to enable the conversion of fuzzy (stochastic) linear programming models into corresponding deterministic linear programming models. The purpose of this paper is to provide a correction and an improvement of Hop’s analytical work through rationalization and simplification. More importantly, it is shown that Hop’s analysis does not support his demonstration or the solution-finding mechanism; the attainment values approach as he had proposed does not result in superior performance as compared to other existing approaches because it neglects some relevant and inevitable theoretical essentials. Two numerical examples from Hop’s paper are also employed to show that his approach, in the conversion of fuzzy (stochastic) linear programming problems to corresponding problems, is questionable and can neither find the maximum nor the minimum in the examples. The models of the examples are subsequently amended in order to derive the correct optimal solutions.     

Nonadditive robust ordinal regression with nonadditivity index and multiple goal linear programming

Nonadditive robust ordinal regression (NAROR) is a widely adopted approach to analyze and reveal the dominance relationships among all decision alternatives based on nonadditive measures, called capacities. In this paper, we first investigate some advantages of the nonadditivity index as an explicit interaction index, as compared with the traditional probabilistic simultaneous interaction indices, and show that nonadditivity index can serve as an equivalent representation of a capacity. Then we enhance the NAROR method by using nonadditivity index as well as multiple-goal linear programming, where the former is used to replace the traditional interaction index to more naturally represent the decision maker's preferences, and the latter aims to replace the 0 to 1 mixed integer programming to enhance the ability to detect and adjust contradictory and redundant preference information. The updated NAROR's steps are constructed and discussed in detail and illustrated with a practical example.     

A weight space-based approach to fuzzy multiple-objective linear programming

In this paper, the effects of uncertainty on multiple-objective linear programming models are studied using the concepts of fuzzy set theory. The proposed interactive decision support system is based on the interactive exploration of the weight space. The comparative analysis of indifference regions on the various weight spaces (which vary according to intervals of values of the satisfaction degree of objective functions and constraints) enables to study the stability and evolution of the basis that correspond to the calculated efficient solutions with changes of some model parameters.     

A Hybrid approach for integer programming combining genetic algorithms, linear programming and ordinal optimization

Hybrid methods are promising tools in integer programming, as they combine the best features of different methods in a complementary fashion. This paper presents such a framework, integrating the notions of genetic algorithm, linear programming, and ordinal optimization in an effort to shorten computation times for large and/or difficult integer programming problems. Capitalizing on the central idea of ordinal optimization and on the learning capability of genetic algorithms to quickly generate good feasible solutions, and then using linear programming to solve the problem that results from fixing the integer part of the solution, one may be able to obtain solutions that are close to optimal. Indeed ordinal optimization guarantees the quality of the solutions found. Numerical testing on a real-life complex scheduling problem demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of this approach.     

基于双指标带权线性规划的公交车调度模型研究

公交车辆调度系统的优化可以提高公交车辆的运营效率,缓解城市交通压力,改善交通环境.针对公交车辆调度的现状,首先引入了公交车载客率和乘客不满率两个指标,并为这两个指标建立了带权优化模型;然后求得每个时间段最佳公交车发车数量,获得最优解;最后通过带入最优解,求得封闭线路（有来回）的最少备车数.通过代入数据验证,所得解在允许误差范围内符合实际结果,因此模型准确可靠,且基于本模型算法实现的程序能够应用于公交车调度系统.     

Solving multiple objective quasi-convex goal programming problems by linear programming

This study presents a novel means of resolving multiple objective goal programming (GP) problems with quasi-convex linear penalty functions. The proposed method initially expresses a quasi-convex function by the maximum operator of two convex functions, then solves it via a linear programming technique. The proposed method does not contain any zero–one variables; nor does it require dividing the multi-objective quasi-convex GP problem into large sub-problems as in conventional methods. Some illustrative examples are provided.     

Complexity and computability of solutions to linear programming systems

Through key examples and constructs, exact and approximate, complexity, computability, and solution of linear programming systems are reexamined in the light of Khachian's new notion of (approximate) solution. Algorithms, basic theorems, and alternate representations are reviewed. It is shown that the Klee-Minty example hasnever been exponential for (exact) adjacent extreme point algorithms and that the Balinski-Gomory (exact) algorithm continues to be polynomial in cases where (approximate) ellipsoidal centered-cutoff algorithms (Levin, Shor, Khachian, Gacs-Lovasz) are exponential. By model approximation, both the Klee-Minty and the new J. Clausen examples are shown to be trivial (explicitly solvable) interval programming problems. A new notion of computable (approximate) solution is proposed together with ana priori regularization for linear programming systems. New polyhedral constraint contraction algorithms are proposed for approximate solution and the relevance of interval programming for good starts or exact solution is brought forth. It is concluded from all this that the imposed problem ignorance of past complexity research is deleterious to research progress on computability or efficiency of computation.This research was partly supported by Project NR047-071, ONR Contract N00014-80-C-0242, and Project NR047-021, ONR Contract N00014-75-C-0569, with the Center for Cybernetic Studies, The University of Texas at Austin.     

A perturbation approach for a type of inverse linear programming problems

We consider an inverse linear programming (LP) problem in which the parameters in both the objective function and the constraint set of a given LP problem need to be adjusted as little as possible so that a known feasible solution becomes the optimal one. We formulate this problem as a linear complementarity constrained minimization problem. With the help of the smoothed Fischer–Burmeister function, we propose a perturbation approach to solve the inverse problem and demonstrate its global convergence. An inexact Newton method is constructed to solve the perturbed problem and numerical results are reported to show the effectiveness of the approach.     

A geometric view of parametric linear programming

We present a new definition of optimality intervals for the parametric right-hand side linear programming (parametric RHS LP) Problem () = min{c ^t x¦Ax =b + ¯b,x 0}. We then show that an optimality interval consists either of a breakpoint or the open interval between two consecutive breakpoints of the continuous piecewise linear convex function (). As a consequence, the optimality intervals form a partition of the closed interval {; ¦()¦ < }. Based on these optimality intervals, we also introduce an algorithm for solving the parametric RHS LP problem which requires an LP solver as a subroutine. If a polynomial-time LP solver is used to implement this subroutine, we obtain a substantial improvement on the complexity of those parametric RHS LP instances which exhibit degeneracy. When the number of breakpoints of () is polynomial in terms of the size of the parametric problem, we show that the latter can be solved in polynomial time.This research was partially funded by the United States Navy-Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-87-K-0202. Its financial support is gratefully acknowledged.     

Reduced gradient decomposition in multistage linear programming

It is shown that multistage linear programming problems without final constraints allow an ultimate decomposition based on reduced gradient computation. The decomposition results in one-stage linear programming problems of small dimensionality without the necessity of coordination involving master problems and subproblems.     

Improving the efficiency of a mixed integer linear programming based approach for multi-class classification problem

Data classification is one of the fundamental issues in data mining and machine learning. A great deal of effort has been done for reducing the time required to learn a classification model. In this research, a new model and algorithm is proposed to improve the work of Xu and Papageorgiou (2009). Computational comparisons on real and simulated patterns with different characteristics (including dimension, high overlap or heterogeneity in the attributes) confirm that, the improved method considerably reduces the training time in comparison to the primary model, whereas it generally maintains the accuracy. Particularly, this speed-increase is significant in the case of high overlap. In addition, the rate of increase in training time of the proposed model is much less than that of the primary model, as the set-size or the number of overlapping samples is increased.     

A monotonic projective algorithm for fractional linear programming

We demonstrate that Karmarkar's projective algorithm is fundamentally an algorithm for fractional linear programming on the simplex. Convergence for the latter problem is established assuming only an initial lower bound on the optimal objective value. We also show that the algorithm can be easily modified so as to assure monotonicity of the true objective values, while retaining all global convergence properties. Finally, we show how the monotonic algorithm can be used to obtain an initial lower bound when none is otherwise available.     

Applying fuzzy multi-objective linear programming to project management decisions with the interactive two-phase method

The aim of this paper is to develop an interactive two-phase method that can help the Project Manager (PM) with solving the fuzzy multi-objective decision problems. Therefore, in this paper, we first revisit the related papers and focus on how to develop an interactive two-phase method. Next, we establish to consider the imprecise nature of the data by fulfilling the possibilistic programming model, and we also assume that each objective work has a fuzzy goal. Finally, for reaching our objective, the detailed numerical example is presented to illustrate the feasibility of applying the proposed approach to PM decision problems at the end of this paper. Results show that our model can be applied as an effective tool. Furthermore, we believe that this approach can be applied to solve other multi-objective decision making problems.     

Signed distance ranking based approach for solving bounded interval-valued fuzzy numbers linear programming problems

Fuzzy linear programming (FLP) problems with a wide varietyof applications in sciencesand engineering allow working with imprecise data and constraints, leading to more realistic models. The main contribution of this study is to deal with the formulation of a kind of FLP problems, known as bounded interval-valued fuzzy numbers linear programming (BIVFNLP) problems, with coefficients of decision variables in the objective function, resource vector, and coefficients of the technological matrix represented as interval-valued fuzzy numbers (IVFNs), and crisp decision variables limited to lower and upper bounds. Here, based on signed distance ranking to order IVFNs, the bounded simplex method is extended to obtain an interval-valued fuzzy optimal value for the BIVFNLP problem under consideration. Finally, one illustrative example is given to show the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the existing ones.     

Application of fuzzy goal programming approach to multi-objective linear fractional inventory model

In this paper, we propose a model and solution approach for a multi-item inventory problem without shortages. The proposed model is formulated as a fractional multi-objective optimisation problem along with three constraints: budget constraint, space constraint and budgetary constraint on ordering cost of each item. The proposed inventory model becomes a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem in fuzzy environment. This model is solved by multi-objective fuzzy goal programming (MOFGP) approach. A numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed model.