Integration of batching and scheduling for hot rolling production in the steel industry

This paper investigates the hot rolling production scheduling problem in the steel industry and proposes a new mixed integer programming model for this problem based on the monolithic modeling strategy that integrates batching and scheduling. Using this strategy, the new model can simultaneously schedule multiple turns and simultaneously determine the production timetable of these turns in a global optimal view. A long-term tabu search heuristic using frequency-based memory is developed to obtain near-optimal solutions for this problem. Three kinds of speed-up strategies are developed to accelerate the search procedure of the proposed tabu search. A practical scheduling system combining the proposed mathematical model and the tabu search heuristic has been developed and tested on instances collected from practical production data. The experimental results show that the proposed mathematical model and the tabu search heuristic outperform both the current manual scheduling method and the traditional serial method.     

空气钻井条件下录井工艺方法与技术配套探讨

针对玉门青西油田深部高陡易斜地层存在可钻性差、自然造斜能力强，致使钻井周期长、成本高等特点，中油集团公司在吐哈油田设立钻探“工程探索井（L14井）”重大科研项目，试验研究空气钻井技术。根据L14井录井的实际情况，首先分析了空气钻井条件对录井带来的影响和常规的录井工艺方法和技术设备存在的不足；从5个方面介绍了录井工艺、技术方法的改进，探讨了空气钻井下的岩屑上返理论；介绍了配置装备的改进，分析了该井录井配套技术的应用效果。从该试验井的录井效果看，经改进的录井工艺、方法及装备基本上能满足空气钻井的需要，取全取准了地质及工程资料，为地质解释和评价提供了可靠依据；在工程监测、保障施工安全方面，工程录井也发挥了作用。但综合录井仪软件及后台评价程序还不适应空气钻井的需要，相关的理论研究及工艺完善还有许多课题尚需深入。     

Genetic algorithms for symbolic clustering

This paper introduces a novel methodology for clustering of symbolic objects by making use of Genetic Algorithms (GAs). GAs are a family of computational models inspired by evolution. These algorithms encode potential solutions to specific problems on simple chromosome-like data structures and apply recombination operators to these structures so as to preserve critical information. A new type of representation for chromosome structure is presented here along with a new method for mutation. The efficacy of the proposed method is examined by application to numeric data of known number of classes and also to assertion type of symbolic objects drawn from the domain of fat oil, microcomputers, microprocessors and botany. The validity of the clusters obtained is examined.     

基于神经网络的智能检索系统

文章首先概述了当前大多数的搜索引擎的主要的弊端；然后着重介绍了智能检索系统的运行基本思路和售用算法，以及该算法在检索领域中运用的优点；最后指出，神经网络运用在检索领域，可解决网络管理中的诸多难题。     

Intelligent scheduling with tabu search: An application to jobs with linear delay penalties and sequence-dependent setup costs and times

In this article we study thetabu search (TS) method in an application for solving an important class of scheduling problems. Tabu search is characterized by integrating artificial intelligence and optimization principles, with particular emphasis on exploiting flexible memory structures, to yield a highly effective solution procedure. We first discuss the problem of minimizing the sum of the setup costs and linear delay penalties when N jobs, arriving at time zero, are to be scheduled for sequential processing on a continuously available machine. A prototype TS method is developed for this problem using the common approach of exchanging the position of two jobs to transform one schedule into another. A more powerful method is then developed that employs insert moves in combination with swap moves to search the solution space. This method and the best parameters found for it during the preliminary experimentation with the prototype procedure are used to obtain solutions to a more complex problem that considers setup times in addition to setup costs. In this case, our procedure succeeded in finding optimal solutions to all problems for which these solutions are known and a better solution to a larger problem for which optimizing procedures exceeded a specified time limit (branch and bound) or reached a memory overflow (branch and bound/dynamic programming) before normal termination. These experiments confirm not only the effectiveness but also the robustness of the TS method, in terms of the solution quality obtained with a common set of parameter choices for two related but different problems.     

Optimal search for signals in a multichannel system: Arbitrary initial distribution in state space merging scheme

Markovian and semi-Markovian random processes are used to analyze the problem of optimal search for signals in a multichannel communication system with arbitrarily distributed random outputs. The search efficiency factor is found in explicit form based on state space merging, and a mathematical programming problem is set up to find a numerical suboptimal solution. __________ Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 3, pp. 144–150, May–June 2007.     

Cubic Bézier approximation of a digitized curve

In this paper we present an efficient technique for piecewise cubic Bézier approximation of digitized curve. An adaptive breakpoint detection method divides a digital curve into a number of segments and each segment is approximated by a cubic Bézier curve so that the approximation error is minimized. Initial approximated Bézier control points for each of the segments are obtained by interpolation technique i.e. by the reverse recursion of De Castaljau's algorithm. Two methods, two-dimensional logarithmic search algorithm (TDLSA) and an evolutionary search algorithm (ESA), are introduced to find the best-fit Bézier control points from the approximate interpolated control points. ESA based refinement is proved to be better experimentally. Experimental results show that Bézier approximation of a digitized curve is much more accurate and uses less number of points compared to other approximation techniques.     

Metaheuristic downhill simplex method in combinatorial optimization

The concept of combinatorial objects is formalized. It allows strict definition of a combinatorial optimization problem (COP). An efficient metaheuristic method to solve COPs (H-method) is considered. It includes stochastic local search algorithms as a built-in procedure. A parallel implementation of the H-method is set forth and analyzed. The results from a numerical experiment and solution of some well-known COPs on personal computers and on the SKIT cluster supercomputer are presented. The study was supported by INTAS (Project 06-1000017-8909). __________ Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 6, pp. 70–79, November–December 2007.