Solution Methods for Service Network Design with Resource Management Consideration

La gestion des ressources, équipements, équipes de travail, et autres, devrait être prise en compte lors de la conception de tout plan réalisable pour le problème de conception de réseaux de services. Cependant, les travaux de recherche portant sur la gestion des ressources et la conception de réseaux de services restent limités. La présente thèse a pour objectif de combler cette lacune en faisant l’examen de problèmes de conception de réseaux de services prenant en compte la gestion des ressources. Pour ce faire, cette thèse se décline en trois études portant sur la conception de réseaux. La première étude considère le problème de capacitated multi-commodity fixed cost network design with design-balance constraints(DBCMND). La structure multi-produits avec capacité sur les arcs du DBCMND, de même que ses contraintes design-balance, font qu’il apparaît comme sous-problème dans de nombreux problèmes reliés à la conception de réseaux de services, d’où l’intérêt d’étudier le DBCMND dans le contexte de cette thèse. Nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour résoudre ce problème combinant la recherche tabou, la recomposition de chemin, et une procédure d’intensification de la recherche dans une région particulière de l’espace de solutions. Dans un premier temps la recherche tabou identifie de bonnes solutions réalisables. Ensuite la recomposition de chemin est utilisée pour augmenter le nombre de solutions réalisables. Les solutions trouvées par ces deux méta-heuristiques permettent d’identifier un sous-ensemble d’arcs qui ont de bonnes chances d’avoir un statut ouvert ou fermé dans une solution optimale. Le statut de ces arcs est alors fixé selon la valeur qui prédomine dans les solutions trouvées préalablement. Enfin, nous utilisons la puissance d’un solveur de programmation mixte en nombres entiers pour intensifier la recherche sur le problème restreint par le statut fixé ouvert/fermé de certains arcs. Les tests montrent que cette approche est capable de trouver de bonnes solutions aux problèmes de grandes tailles dans des temps raisonnables. Cette recherche est publiée dans la revue scientifique Journal of heuristics. La deuxième étude introduit la gestion des ressources au niveau de la conception de réseaux de services en prenant en compte explicitement le nombre fini de véhicules utilisés à chaque terminal pour le transport de produits. Une approche de solution faisant appel au slope-scaling, la génération de colonnes et des heuristiques basées sur une formulation en cycles est ainsi proposée. La génération de colonnes résout une relaxation linéaire du problème de conception de réseaux, générant des colonnes qui sont ensuite utilisées par le slope-scaling. Le slope-scaling résout une approximation linéaire du problème de conception de réseaux, d’où l’utilisation d’une heuristique pour convertir les solutions obtenues par le slope-scaling en solutions réalisables pour le problème original. L’algorithme se termine avec une procédure de perturbation qui améliore les solutions réalisables. Les tests montrent que l’algorithme proposé est capable de trouver de bonnes solutions au problème de conception de réseaux de services avec un nombre fixe des ressources à chaque terminal. Les résultats de cette recherche seront publiés dans la revue scientifique Transportation Science. La troisième étude élargie nos considérations sur la gestion des ressources en prenant en compte l’achat ou la location de nouvelles ressources de même que le repositionnement de ressources existantes. Nous faisons les hypothèses suivantes: une unité de ressource est nécessaire pour faire fonctionner un service, chaque ressource doit retourner à son terminal d’origine, il existe un nombre fixe de ressources à chaque terminal, et la longueur du circuit des ressources est limitée. Nous considérons les alternatives suivantes dans la gestion des ressources: 1) repositionnement de ressources entre les terminaux pour tenir compte des changements de la demande, 2) achat et/ou location de nouvelles ressources et leur distribution à différents terminaux, 3) externalisation de certains services. Nous présentons une formulation intégrée combinant les décisions reliées à la gestion des ressources avec les décisions reliées à la conception des réseaux de services. Nous présentons également une méthode de résolution matheuristique combinant le slope-scaling et la génération de colonnes. Nous discutons des performances de cette méthode de résolution, et nous faisons une analyse de l’impact de différentes décisions de gestion des ressources dans le contexte de la conception de réseaux de services. Cette étude sera présentée au XII International Symposium On Locational Decision, en conjonction avec XXI Meeting of EURO Working Group on Locational Analysis, Naples/Capri (Italy), 2014. En résumé, trois études différentes sont considérées dans la présente thèse. La première porte sur une nouvelle méthode de solution pour le "capacitated multi-commodity fixed cost network design with design-balance constraints". Nous y proposons une matheuristique comprenant la recherche tabou, la recomposition de chemin, et l’optimisation exacte. Dans la deuxième étude, nous présentons un nouveau modèle de conception de réseaux de services prenant en compte un nombre fini de ressources à chaque terminal. Nous y proposons une matheuristique avancée basée sur la formulation en cycles comprenant le slope-scaling, la génération de colonnes, des heuristiques et l’optimisation exacte. Enfin, nous étudions l’allocation des ressources dans la conception de réseaux de services en introduisant des formulations qui modèlent le repositionnement, l’acquisition et la location de ressources, et l’externalisation de certains services. À cet égard, un cadre de solution slope-scaling développé à partir d’une formulation en cycles est proposé. Ce dernier comporte la génération de colonnes et une heuristique. Les méthodes proposées dans ces trois études ont montré leur capacité à trouver de bonnes solutions.Resource management in freight transportation service network design is an important issue that has been studied extensively in recent years. Resources such as vehicles, crews, etc. are factors that can not be ignored when designing a feasible plan for any service network design problem. However, contributions related to resource management issues and service network design are still limited. The goal of the thesis is to fill this gap by taking into account service network design problems with resource management issues. In this thesis, we propose and address three service network design problems that consider resource management. In the first study, we consider the capacitated multi-commodity fixed cost network design with design-balance constraints which is a basic sub-problem for many service design problems because of the capacitated multi-commodity structure as well as its design-balance property. We propose a three-phase matheuristic that combines tabu-search, path-relinking and an exactbased intensification procedure to find high quality solutions. Tabu-search identifies feasible solutions while path-relinking extends the set of feasible solutions. The solutions found by these two meta-heuristics are used to fix arcs as open or close. An exact solver intensifies the search on a restricted problem derived from fixing arcs. The experiments on benchmark instances show that the solution approach finds good solutions to large-scale problems in a reasonable amount of time. The contribution with regard to this study has been accepted in the Journal of Heuristics. In the second study, together with the consideration of the design of routes to transport a set of commodities by vehicles, we extend resources management by explicitly taking account of the number of available vehicles at each terminal. We introduce a matheuristic solution framework based on a cycle-based formulation that includes column generation, slope-scaling, heuristic and exact optimization techniques. As far as we know, this is the first matheuristic procedure developed for a cycle-based formulation. The column generation solves the linear relaxation model and provides a set of cycles to define the approximation model used in slopescaling loop. A heuristic is used to convert each solution to the approximation problem into a feasible solution. Memory-based perturbation procedure is used to enhance the performance of the algorithm. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm is able to find good feasible solutions for the problem. The contribution with regard to this study has been accepted for publication in Transportation Science. In the third study, we examine resources allocation issues in service network design. We aim to address a number of fleet utilization issues which usually appear at the beginning of the season because of the change of demand patterns: 1) reposition resources among terminals to account for shifts in demand patterns; 2) acquire (buy or long-term rent) new resources and as sign them to terminals; 3) outsource particular services. We present an integrated formulation combining these selection-location and scheduled service design decisions. The mixed-integer formulation is defined over a time-space network, the initial period modeling the location de cisions on resource acquisition and positioning, while the decisions on service selection and scheduling, resource assignment and cycling routing, and demand satisfaction being modeled on the rest of the network. We also present a matheuristic solution method combining slope scaling and column generation, discuss its algorithmic performance, and explore the impact of combining the location and design decisions in the context of consolidation carrier service design. This study will be presented at XII International Symposium On Locational Deci sion, in conjunction with the XXI Meeting of EURO Working Group on Locational Analysis, Naples/Capri (Italy), 2014. In summary, three studies are considered in this thesis. The first one considers the capaciated multi-commodity fixed cost network design with design-balance constraints, a basic problem in many service network design problems with design-balance constraints. We propose an ef ficient three-phase matheuristic solution method that includes tabu search, path relinking and exact optimization. In the second study, we propose a new service network design model that takes into account resources limitations at each terminal. We also propose an advanced matheuristic framework solution method based on a cycle-based formulation which includes slope-scaling, column generation, heuristics and exact optimization for this problem. The last study addresses resources allocation issues in service network design. We introduce formula tions that model the reposition, acquisition/renting of resources and outsourcing of services. A solution framework based on the slope-scaling approach on cycle-based formulations is pro posed. Tests indicate that these proposed algorithms are able to find good feasible solutions for each of threse problems

Novel recommendation for enhancing optical properties of CP-WLEDs by Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ phosphor

In this paper, the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ phosphor is proposed as the novel recommendation for enhancing the optical properties in terms of D-CCT, CRI, CQS, and LO of the CP-WLEDs. Firstly, we conducted the physical model of the CP-WLEDs in the Light Tools software with the main parameters like the real LEDs. Furthermore, the scattering process in LEDs compound of the CP-WLEDs is simulated and investigated by the Matlab software. Then the influence of the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ concentration on the D-CCT, CRI, CQS, and LO of the CP-WLEDs is investigated. Finally, the research results showed that the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ concentration has a considerable effect on the D-CCT, CRI, CQS, and LO of the CP-WLEDs. From the results, we can state that the Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ phosphor can be considered as the novel recommendation for enhancing the optical properties of the CP-WLEDs

Some algorithms related to consistent decision table

Rough set theory is useful mathematical tool developed to deal with vagueness and uncertainty. As an important concept of rough set theory, an attribute reduct is a subset of attributes that are jointly sufficient and individually necessary for preserving a particular property of the given information table. Rough set theory is also the most popular for generating decision rules from decision table. In this paper, we propose an algorithm finding object reduct of consistent decsion table. On the other hand, we also show an algorithm to find some attribute reducts and the correctness of our algorithms is proof-theoretically. These our algorithms have polynomial time complexity. Our finding object reduct helps other algorithms of finding attribute reducts become more effectively, especially as working with huge consistent decision table

A* search algorithm for an optimal investment problem in vehicle-sharing systems

We study an optimal investment problem that arises in the context of the vehicle-sharing system. Given a set of locations to build stations, we need to determine i) the sequence of stations to be built and the number of vehicles to acquire in order to obtain the target state where all stations are built, and ii) the number of vehicles to acquire and their allocation in order to maximize the total profit returned by operating the system when some or all stations are open. The profitability associated with operating open stations, measured over a specific time period, is represented as a linear optimization problem applied to a collection of open stations. With operating capital, the owner of the system can open new stations. This property introduces a set-dependent aspect to the duration required for opening a new station, and the optimal investment problem can be viewed as a variant of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) with set-dependent cost. We propose an A* search algorithm to address this particular variant of the TSP. Computational experiments highlight the benefits of the proposed algorithm in comparison to the widely recognized Dijkstra algorithm and propose future research to explore new possibilities and applications for both exact and approximate A* algorithms.Comment: Full version of the conference paper which is accepted to be appear in the proceeding of the The 12th International Conference on Computational Data and Social Networks - SCONET202

Unveiling the Impact of Human Influence on Species Distributions in Vietnam: A Case Study Using Babblers (Aves: Timaliidae)

As developing countries give priority to economic growth, the effects of development threaten natural habitats and species distributions. Over the course of two decades, Vietnam has rapidly developed, especially in the expansion of agricultural production. However, no study has quantitatively measured the effects of recent human impact on the effects of past species distributions in Vietnam. We use locality data collected from multiple natural history collections, including several in Vietnam, to infer past species distributions. We assess habitat availability of five common babbler species (Aves: Timaliidae) using distribution models with data prior to rapid development that followed political reform. Overlaying the Global Human Influence Index with predicted distributions highlights the human impact on these distributions. Three important patterns emerge: (1) human impact influences common Timaliidae distributions similarly, (2) widespread species distributions show higher fragmentation due to human influence compared to narrowly distributed species in Vietnam, and (3) less than 20% of distributions overlap with nationally declared protected areas. We emphasize that conservation efforts should not only prioritize individual species, but also focus efforts on a regional scale, and that the use of museum data can be highly informative in conservation analyses. There are current obstacles to enforcing conservation of Vietnam’s already fragmented habitats, but our results suggest there is still time to reevaluate conservation approaches

On asymptotic periodic solutions of fractional differential equations and applications

In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of solutions of fractional differential equations of the form $D^{\alpha}_Cu(t)=Au(t)+f(t), u(0)=x, 0<\alpha\le1, ( *)$ where $D^{\alpha}_Cu(t)$ is the derivative of the function $u$ in the Caputo's sense, $A$ is a linear operator in a Banach space \X that may be unbounded and $f$ satisfies the property that $\lim_{t\to \infty} (f(t+1)-f(t))=0$ which we will call asymptotic $1$-periodicity. By using the spectral theory of functions on the half line we derive analogs of Katznelson-Tzafriri and Massera Theorems. Namely, we give sufficient conditions in terms of spectral properties of the operator $A$ for all asymptotic mild solutions of Eq. (*) to be asymptotic $1$-periodic, or there exists an asymptotic mild solution that is asymptotic $1$-periodic.Comment: 13 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1910.0860