Though the volume covers 22 papers by 36 authors from 12 countries, the history in the background is bound to Hungary where, in 1973 Andras Pn§kopa started to lay the foundation of a scientific forum, which can be a regular meeting spot for experts of the world in the field. Since then, there has been a constant interest in that forum. Headed at present by Tamas Rapcsak, the Laboratory of Operations Research and Decisions Systems of the Computer and Automation Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences followed the tradition in every respect, namely conferences were organized almost in every second year and in the same stimulating area, in the Matra mountains. The basic fields were kept, providing opportunities for the leading personalities to give voice to their latest results. The floor has been widened recently for the young generation, ensuring this way both a real location for the past, present and future experts to meet and also the possibility for them to make the multicoloured rainbow of the fields unbroken and continuous. The volume is devoted to the memory of Steven Vajda, one of the pioneers on mathematical programming, born is Hungary. In 1992 he took part in the XIth International Conference on Mathematical Programming at Matrafiired where, with his bright personality, he greatly contributed to the good spirituality of the event. We thank Jakob Krarup for his reminiscence on the life and scientific activities of late Steven Vajda.

This edited book presents recent developments and state-of-the-art review in various areas of mathematical programming and game theory. It is a peer-reviewed research monograph under the ISI Platinum Jubilee Series on Statistical Science and Interdisciplinary Research. This volume provides a panoramic view of theory and the applications of the methods of mathematical programming to problems in statistics, finance, games and electrical networks. It also provides an important as well as timely overview of research trends and focuses on the exciting areas like support vector machines, bilevel programming, interior point method for convex quadratic programming, cooperative games, non-cooperative games and stochastic games. Researchers, professionals and advanced graduates will find the book an essential resource for current work in mathematical programming, game theory and their applications. Sample Chapter(s). Foreword (45 KB). Chapter 1: Mathematical Programming and its Applications in Finance (177 KB). Contents: Mathematical Programming and Its Applications in Finance (L C Thomas); Anti-Stalling Pivot Rule for Linear Programs with Totally Unimodular Coefficient Matrix (S N Kabadi & A P Punnen); A New Practically Efficient Interior Point Method for Convex Quadratic Programming (K G Murty); A General Framework for the Analysis of Sets of Constraints (R Caron & T Traynor), Tolerance-Based Algorithms for the Traveling Salesman Problem (D Ghosh et al.); On the Membership Problem of the Pedigree Polytope (T S Arthanari); Exact Algorithms for a One-Defective Vertex Colouring Problem (N Achuthan et al.); Complementarity Problem Involving a Vertical Block Matrix and Its Solution Using Neural Network Model (S K Neogy et al.); Fuzzy Twin Support Vector Machines for Pattern Classification (R Khemchandani et al.); An Overview of the Minimum Sum of Absolute Errors Regression (S C Narula & J F Wellington); Hedging Against the Market with No Short Selling (S A Clark & C Srinivasan); Mathematical Programming and Electrical Network Analysis II: Computational Linear Algebra Through Network Analysis (H Narayanan); Dynamic Optimal Control Policy in Price and Quality for High Technology Product (A K Bardhan & U Chanda); Forecasting for Supply Chain and Portfolio Management (K G Murty); Variational Analysis in Bilevel Programming (S Dempe et al.); Game Engineering (R J Aumann); Games of Connectivity (P Dubey & R Garg); A Robust Feedback Nash Equilibrium in a Climate Change Policy Game (M Hennlock); De Facto Delegation and Proposer Rules (H Imai & K Yonezaki); The Bargaining Set in Effectivity Function (D Razafimahatolotra); Dynamic Oligopoly as a Mixed Large Game OCo Toy Market (A Wiszniewska-Matyszkiel); On Some Classes of Balanced Games (R B Bapat); Market Equilibrium for Combinatorial Auctions and the Matching Core of Nonnegative TU Games (S Lahiri); Continuity, Manifolds, and Arrow''s Social Choice Problem (K Saukkonen); On a Mixture Class of Stochastic Games with Ordered Field Property (S K Neogy). Readership: Researchers, professionals and advanced students in mathematical programming, game theory, management sciences and computational mathematics.

World Scientific Series in Applicable Analysis (WSSIAA) aims at reporting new developments of high mathematical standard and current interest. Each volume in the series shall be devoted to the mathematical analysis that has been applied or potentially applicable to the solutions of scientific, engineering, and social problems. This volume contains 30 research articles on the theory of optimization and its applications by the leading scientists in the field. It is hoped that the material in the present volume will open new vistas in research.Contributors: B D O Anderson, M Bertaja, O J Boxma, O Burdakov, A Cantoni, D J Clements, B D Craven, J B Cruz, Jr., P Diamond, S V Drakunov, Y G Evtushenko, N M Filatov, I Galligani, J C Geromel, F Giannessi, M J Grimble, G O Guardabassi, D-W Gu, C H Houpis, D G Hull, C Itiki, X Jian, M A Johnson, R E Kalaba, J C Kalkkuhl, M R Katebi, T J Kim, P Kloeden, T Kobylarz, A J Laub, C S Lee, G Leitmann, B-G Liu, J Liu, Z-Q Luo, K A Lurie, P Maponi, J B Matson, A Mess, G Pacelli, M Pachter, I Postlethwaite, T Rapcsak, M C Recchioni, Y Sakawa, S V Savastyuk, K Schittkowski, Y Shi, M A Sikora, D D Siljak, K L Teo, C Tovey, P Tseng, F E Udwadia, H Unbehauen, A Vladimirov, B Vo, J F Whidborne, R Xu, P L Yu, V G Zhadan, F Zirilli.

Bosch provides a lively and accessible introduction to the geometric, algebraic, and algorithmic foundations of optimization. He presents classical applications, such as the legendary Traveling Salesman Problem, and shows how to adapt them to make optimization art--opt art. art.

This unique mathematical volume brings together geometers, analysts, differential equations specialists and graph-theorists to provide a glimpse on recent mathematical trends whose commonalities have hitherto remained, for the most part, unnoticed. The applied mathematician will be pleasantly surprised with the interpretation of a voting system in terms of the fixed points of a mapping given in the book, as much as the classical analyst will be enthusiastic to find detailed discussions on the generalization of the notion of metric space, in which the metric takes values on an abstract monoid. Classical themes on fixed point theory are adapted to the diverse setting of graph theory, thus uncovering a set of tools whose power and versatility will be appreciated by mathematicians working on either area. The volume also includes recent results on variable exponent spaces which reveal much-needed connections with partial differential equations, while the incipient field of variational inequalities on manifolds, also explored here, will be of interest to researchers from a variety of fields.

Experience gained during a ten-year long involvement in modelling, program ming and application in nonlinear optimization helped me to arrive at the conclusion that in the interest of having successful applications and efficient software production, knowing the structure of the problem to be solved is in dispensable. This is the reason why I have chosen the field in question as the sphere of my research. Since in applications, mainly from among the nonconvex optimization models, the differentiable ones proved to be the most efficient in modelling, especially in solving them with computers, I started to deal with the structure of smooth optimization problems. The book, which is a result of more than a decade of research, can be equally useful for researchers and stu dents showing interest in the domain, since the elementary notions necessary for understanding the book constitute a part of the university curriculum. I in tended dealing with the key questions of optimization theory, which endeavour, obviously, cannot bear all the marks of completeness. What I consider the most crucial point is the uniform, differential geometric treatment of various questions, which provides the reader with opportunities for learning the structure in the wide range, within optimization problems. I am grateful to my family for affording me tranquil, productive circumstances. I express my gratitude to F.

This volume collects the expanded notes of four series of lectures given on the occasion of the CIME course on Nonlinear Optimization held in Cetraro, Italy, from July 1 to 7, 2007. The Nonlinear Optimization problem of main concern here is the problem n of determining a vector of decision variables x ? R that minimizes (ma- n mizes) an objective function f(·): R ? R,when x is restricted to belong n to some feasible setF? R , usually described by a set of equality and - n n m equality constraints: F = {x ? R : h(x)=0,h(·): R ? R ; g(x) ? 0, n p g(·): R ? R }; of course it is intended that at least one of the functions f,h,g is nonlinear. Although the problem canbe stated in verysimpleterms, its solution may result very di?cult due to the analytical properties of the functions involved and/or to the number n,m,p of variables and constraints. On the other hand, the problem has been recognized to be of main relevance in engineering, economics, and other applied sciences, so that a great lot of e?ort has been devoted to develop methods and algorithms able to solve the problem even in its more di?cult and large instances. The lectures have been given by eminent scholars, who contributed to a great extent to the development of Nonlinear Optimization theory, methods and algorithms. Namely, they are: – Professor Immanuel M.