These proceedings consist of 30 selected research papers based on results presented at the 10th Balkan Conference & 1st International Symposium on Operational Research (BALCOR 2011) held in Thessaloniki, Greece, September 22-24, 2011. BALCOR is an established biennial conference attended by a large number of faculty, researchers and students from the Balkan countries but also from other European and Mediterranean countries as well. Over the past decade, the BALCOR conference has facilitated the exchange of scientific and technical information on the subject of Operations Research and related fields such as Mathematical Programming, Game Theory, Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis, Information Systems, Data Mining and more, in order to promote international scientific cooperation. The carefully selected and refereed papers present important recent developments and modern applications and will serve as excellent reference for students, researchers and practitioners in these disciplines. ​

At the heart of the optimization domain are mathematical modeling of the problem and the solution methodologies. The problems are becoming larger and with growing complexity. Such problems are becoming cumbersome when handled by traditional optimization methods. This has motivated researchers to resort to artificial intelligence (AI)-based, nature-inspired solution methodologies or algorithms. The Handbook of AI-based Metaheuristics provides a wide-ranging reference to the theoretical and mathematical formulations of metaheuristics, including bio-inspired, swarm-based, socio-cultural, and physics-based methods or algorithms; their testing and validation, along with detailed illustrative solutions and applications; and newly devised metaheuristic algorithms. This will be a valuable reference for researchers in industry and academia, as well as for all Master’s and PhD students working in the metaheuristics and applications domains.

Heuristics are strategies using readily accessible, loosely applicable information to control problem solving. Algorithms, for example, are a type of heuristic. By contrast, Metaheuristics are methods used to design Heuristics and may coordinate the usage of several Heuristics toward the formulation of a single method. GRASP (Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedures) is an example of a Metaheuristic. To the layman, heuristics may be thought of as ‘rules of thumb’ but despite its imprecision, heuristics is a very rich field that refers to experience-based techniques for problem-solving, learning, and discovery. Any given solution/heuristic is not guaranteed to be optimal but heuristic methodologies are used to speed up the process of finding satisfactory solutions where optimal solutions are impractical. The introduction to this Handbook provides an overview of the history of Heuristics along with main issues regarding the methodologies covered. This is followed by Chapters containing various examples of local searches, search strategies and Metaheuristics, leading to an analyses of Heuristics and search algorithms. The reference concludes with numerous illustrations of the highly applicable nature and implementation of Heuristics in our daily life. Each chapter of this work includes an abstract/introduction with a short description of the methodology. Key words are also necessary as part of top-matter to each chapter to enable maximum search engine optimization. Next, chapters will include discussion of the adaptation of this methodology to solve a difficult optimization problem, and experiments on a set of representative problems.

This book covers algorithm portfolios, multi-method schemes that harness optimization algorithms into a joint framework to solve optimization problems. It is expected to be a primary reference point for researchers and doctoral students in relevant domains that seek a quick exposure to the field. The presentation focuses primarily on the applicability of the methods and the non-expert reader will find this book useful for starting designing and implementing algorithm portfolios. The book familiarizes the reader with algorithm portfolios through current advances, applications, and open problems. Fundamental issues in building effective and efficient algorithm portfolios such as selection of constituent algorithms, allocation of computational resources, interaction between algorithms and parallelism vs. sequential implementations are discussed. Several new applications are analyzed and insights on the underlying algorithmic designs are provided. Future directions, new challenges, and open problems in the design of algorithm portfolios and applications are explored to further motivate research in this field.

Network optimization is important in the modeling of problems and processes from such fields as engineering, computer science, operations research, transportation, telecommunication, decision support systems, manufacturing, and airline scheduling. Recent advances in data structures, computer technology, and algorithm development have made it possible to solve classes of network optimization problems that until recently were intractable. The refereed papers in this volume reflect the interdisciplinary efforts of a large group of scientists from academia and industry to model and solve complicated large-scale network optimization problems.

This book presents a number of approaches to Fine-Kinney-based multi-criteria occupational risk-assessment. For each proposed approach, it provides case studies demonstrating their applicability, as well as Python coding, which will enable readers to implement them into their own risk assessment process. The book begins by giving a review of Fine-Kinney occupational risk-assessment methods and their extension by fuzzy sets. It then progresses in a logical fashion, dedicating a chapter to each approach, including the fuzzy best and worst method, interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy VIKOR and interval type-2 fuzzy QUALIFLEX. This book will be of interest to professionals and researchers working in the field of occupational risk management, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students studying applications of fuzzy systems.