This collection of papers is dedicated to the memory of Gaetano Fichera, a great mathematician and also a good friend to the editors. Regrettably it took an unusual amount of time to bring this collection out. This was primarily due to the fact that the main editor who had collected all of the materials, for this volume, P. D. Panagiotopoulos, died unexpectedly during the period when we were editing the manuscript. The other two editors in appreciation of Panagiotopoulos' contribution to this field, believe it is therefore fitting that this collection be dedicated to his memory also. The...

Complementarity theory is a new domain in applied mathematics and is concerned with the study of complementarity problems. These problems represent a wide class of mathematical models related to optimization, game theory, economic engineering, mechanics, fluid mechanics, stochastic optimal control etc. The book is dedicated to the study of nonlinear complementarity problems by topological methods.
Audience: Mathematicians, engineers, economists, specialists working in operations research and anybody interested in applied mathematics or in mathematical modeling.

The evolution of systems in random media is a broad and fruitful field for the applica tions of different mathematical methods and theories. This evolution can be character ized by a semigroup property. In the abstract form, this property is given by a semigroup of operators in a normed vector (Banach) space. In the practically boundless variety of mathematical models of the evolutionary systems, we have chosen the semi-Markov ran dom evolutions as an object of our consideration. The definition of the evolutions of this type is based on rather simple initial assumptions. The random medium is...

This is a collection of surveys and research papers written by distinguished Chinese mathematicians from within the People's Republic of China and expatriates.

In 1995 the Handbook of Global Optimization (first volume), edited by R. Horst, and P.M. Pardalos, was published. This second volume of the Handbook of Global Optimization is comprised of chapters dealing with modern approaches to global optimization, including different types of heuristics. Together (available as a set, set ISBN 1-4020-0742-6), the two volumes of the handbook cover a complete and broad spectrum of approaches for dealing with global optimization problems.

The goal of the editors is to provide a true handbook that does not focus on...

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...

Most books about global optimization describe the theory of the algorithms, whereas a given implementation's quality never depends exclusively on the theoretical soundness of the algorithms that are implemented. The literature rarely discusses the tuning of algorithmic parameters, implementation tricks, software architectures, and the embedding of local solvers within global solvers. And yet, there are many good software implementations "out there" from which the entire community could learn something.

The scope of this book is moving a few steps toward the systematization of the...

Large-Scale Nonlinear Optimization reviews and discusses recent advances in the development of methods and algorithms for nonlinear optimization and its applications, focusing on the large-dimensional case, the current forefront of much research.

The chapters of the book, authored by some of the most active and well-known researchers in nonlinear optimization, give an updated overview of the field from different and complementary standpoints, including theoretical analysis, algorithmic development, implementation issues and applications.

Mathematical Programming has been of significant interest and relevance in engineering, an area that is very rich in challenging optimization problems. In particular, many design and operational problems give rise to nonlinear and mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems whose modeling and solu- tion is often nontrivial. Furthermore, with the increased computational power and development of advanced analysis (e. g., process simulators, finite element packages) and modeling systems (e. g., GAMS, AMPL, SPEEDUP, ASCEND, gPROMS), the size and complexity of engineering optimization models is...

axiomatic results should be at the heart of such a science. Through them, we should be able to enlighten and scientifically assist decision-making processes especially by: - making that wh ich is objective stand out more c1early from that which is less objective; - separating robust from fragile conc1usions; - dissipating certain forms of misunderstanding in communication; - avoiding the pitfall of illusory reasoning; - emphasizing, once they are understood, incontrovertible results. The difficulties I encountered at the begining of my career as an operations researcher, and later as a...