This monograph is devoted to recent progress in the turnpike t- ory. Turnpike properties are well known in mathematical economics. The term was ?rst coined by Samuelson who showed that an e?cient expanding economy would for most of the time be in the vicinity of a balanced equilibrium path (also called a von Neumann path) 78, 79]. These properties were studied by many authors for optimal trajec- ries of a Neumann-Gale model determined by a superlinear set-valued mapping. In the monograph we discuss a number of results conce- ing turnpike properties in the calculus of variations and optimal...

In recent years there is a growing interest in generalized convex fu- tions and generalized monotone mappings among the researchers of - plied mathematics and other sciences. This is due to the fact that mathematical models with these functions are more suitable to describe problems of the real world than models using conventional convex and monotone functions. Generalized convexity and monotonicity are now considered as an independent branch of applied mathematics with a wide range of applications in mechanics, economics, engineering, finance and many others. The present volume contains 20...

This volume contains many of the papers presented at the conference "Optimum Design 2000: Prospects for the New Millennium" held in Cardiff, UK on April 12th - 14th, 2000. The majority of the papers consider aspects of optimum experimental design from the theoretical to applications. Many of the optimisation problems arising in the optimum design theory in general and the articles in this volume in particular, fall into the category of nonconvex, including global, optimization. The papers are organised in two sections. Since we are at the beginning of a new millennium the first paper starts...

Boundary value problems which have variational expressions in form of inequal- ities can be divided into two main classes. The class of boundary value prob- lems (BVPs) leading to variational inequalities and the class of BVPs leading to hemivariational inequalities. The first class is related to convex energy functions and has being studied over the last forty years and the second class is related to nonconvex energy functions and has a shorter research "life" beginning with the works of the second author of the present book in the year 1981. Nevertheless a variety of important results have...

A function is convex if its epigraph is convex. This geometrical structure has very strong implications in terms of continuity and differentiability. Separation theorems lead to optimality conditions and duality for convex problems. A function is quasiconvex if its lower level sets are convex. Here again, the geo- metrical structure of the level sets implies some continuity and differentiability properties for quasiconvex functions. Optimality conditions and duality can be derived for optimization problems involving such functions as well. Over a period of about fifty years, quasiconvex and...

Nonconvexity and nonsmoothness arise in a large class of engineering applica- tions. In many cases of practical importance the possibilities offered by opti- mization with its algorithms and heuristics can substantially improve the per- formance and the range of applicability of classical computational mechanics algorithms. For a class of problems this approach is the only one that really works. The present book presents in a comprehensive way the application of opti- mization algorithms and heuristics in smooth and nonsmooth mechanics. The necessity of this approach is presented to the...

Game theory, defined in the broadest sense, is a collection of mathematical models designed for the analysis of strategic aspects of situations of conflict and cooperation in a broad spectrum of fields including economics, politics, biology, engineering, and operations research. This book, besides covering the classical results of game theory, places special emphasis on methods of determining solutions' of various game models. Generalizations reaching beyond the convexity paradigm' and leading to nonconvex optimization problems are enhanced and discussed in more detail than in standard texts...

There has been much recent progress in global optimization algo- rithms for nonconvex continuous and discrete problems from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. Convex analysis plays a fun- damental role in the analysis and development of global optimization algorithms. This is due essentially to the fact that virtually all noncon- vex optimization problems can be described using differences of convex functions and differences of convex sets. A conference on Convex Analysis and Global Optimization was held during June 5 -9, 2000 at Pythagorion, Samos, Greece. The conference was...

At the heart of the topology of global optimization lies Morse Theory: The study of the behaviour of lower level sets of functions as the level varies. Roughly speaking, the topology of lower level sets only may change when passing a level which corresponds to a stationary point (or Karush-Kuhn- Tucker point). We study elements of Morse Theory, both in the unconstrained and constrained case. Special attention is paid to the degree of differentiabil- ity of the functions under consideration. The reader will become motivated to discuss the possible shapes and forms of functions that may...