Discrete Optimization I

Comprehensive, well-organized volume, suitable for undergraduates, covers theoretical, computational, and applied areas in linear programming. Expanded, updated edition; useful both as a text and as a reference book. 1995 edition.

Integer Prograw~ing is one of the most fascinating and difficult areas in the field of Mathematical Optimization. Due to this fact notable research contributions to Integer Programming have been made in very different branches of mathematics and its applications. Since these publications are scattered over many journals, proceedings volumes, monographs, and working papers, a comprehensive bibliography of all these sources is a helpful tool even for specialists in this field. I initiated this compilation of literature in 1970 at the Institut fur ~konometrie und Operations Research, University of Bonn. Since then many collaborators have contributed to and worked on it. Among them Dipl.-Math. Claus Kastning has done the bulk of the work. With great perseverance and diligence he has gathered all the material and checked it with the original sources. The main aim was to incorporate rare and not easily accessible sources like Russian journals, preprints or unpublished papers. Without the invaluable and dedicated engagement of Claus Kastning the bibliography would never have reached this final version. For this reason he must be considered its responsible editor. As with any other collection this literature list has a subjective viewpoint and may be in some sense incomplete. We have however tried to be as complete as possible. The bibliography contains 4704 different publications by 6767 authors which were classified by 11839 descriptor entries.

It is quite an onerous task to edit the proceedings of a two week long institute with learned contributors from many parts of the world. All the same, the editorial team has found the process of refereeing and reviewing the contributions worthwhile and completing the volume has proven to be a satisfying task. In setting up the institute we had considered models and methods taken from a number of different disciplines. As a result the whole institute - preparing for it, attending it and editing the proceedings - proved to be an intense learning experience for us. Here I speak on behalf of the committee and the editorial team. By the time the institute took place, the papers were delivered and the delegates exchanged their views, the structure of the topics covered and their relative positioning appeared in a different light. In editing the volume I felt compelled to introduce a new structure in grouping the papers. The contents of this volume are organised in eight main sections set out below: 1 . Abstracts. 2. Review Paper. 3. Models with Multiple Criteria and Single or Multiple Decision Makers. 4. Use of Optimisation Models as Decision Support Tools. 5. Role of Information Systems in Decision Making: Database and Model Management Issues. 6. Methods of Artificial Intelligence in Decision Making: Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems. 7. Representation of Uncertainty in Mathematical Models and Knowledge Based Systems. 8. Mathematical Basis for Constructing Models and Model Validation.

As with Numerical Recipes in C, the FORTRAN edition has been greatly revised to make this edition the most up to date handbook for those working with FORTRAN. Between both editions of Numerical Recipes, over 300,000 copies have been sold.

The presence of nonconvexities does severe damage to conventional theories of the firm and of the individual. The essential contribution of location theory, however, is in a world in which there are such nonconvexities. If resources are distributed evenly and the usual convexity assumptions made, then economic activity would be distributed evenly; there would be no concentration of pro duction. Thus the statement that is usually made, that the standard results carry over to a world in which there is spatial choice, is too weak and fails to capture the essence oflocation theory. Nevertheless, we must also concede that, while the introduction of the spatial dimension is interesting and fruitful when (perhaps only when) there are non convexities, space should not be thought of as a panacea whereby problems those associated with economies of scale, for example -can be made to disap pear. There is no guarantee, for example, that production units will be operated in convex regions of their total cost curves, even if they are constrained to oper ate in a 'space economy'. These considerations led to the conclusion that the role of spatial choice and the determinants of such choice would be best analysed by case study. This book is one such study. It is based on my doctoral dissertation at the University of Cambridge, fmanced by a grant from the Social Science Research Council.