Portfolio selection process is a subject focused by many researchers. Various criteria involved in this process have undergone alterations over time, necessitating the use of appropriate investment decision support tools. An optimization approach used in different sciences is using meta-heuristic algorithms. In the present study, using Water Cycle Algorithm (WCA), a model was introduced for sel...

The following topics are important teaching operation research: games theory; decision theory; utility theory; queuing theory; scheduling theory; discrete optimization. These topics are illustrated and the connection with global optimization is shown considering the following mathematical models: competition model with fixed resource prices, Nash equilibrium; competition model with free resourc...

The multiple traveling salesman problem (MTSP) is a generalization of the famous traveling salesman problem (TSP), where more than one salesman is used in the solution. Although the MTSP is a typical kind of computationally complex combinatorial optimization problem, it can be extended to a wide variety of routing problems. This paper presents an efficient and evolutionary optimization algorith...

Despite comprehensive literature works on developing fitness-based optimization algorithms, their performance is yet challenged by constraint handling in various engineering tasks. The present study, concerns the widely-used external penalty technique for sizing design of pin-jointed structures. Observer-teacher-learner-based optimization is employed here since previously addressed by a number ...

The calibration of complex models of biological systems requires numerical simulation and optimization procedures to infer undetermined parameters and fit measured data. The optimization step typically employs heuristic global optimization algorithms, but due to measurement noise and the many degrees of freedom, it is not guaranteed that the identified single optimum is also the most meaningful...

Global optimization has been expanding in all directions at an astonishing rate during the last few decades. Many new theoretical, algorithmic, and computational contributions of global optimization have been used to solve a wide spectrum of difficult problems in science and engineering. In particular, global optimization has recently emerged as a successful and versatile tool in many aspects o...

This paper discusses the use of several heuristic techniques for problems of combinatorial optimization. We especially consider the advantages and disadvantages of naturally inspired generic techniques like Simulated Annealing, Evolution Strategies, or Genetic Algorithms. This reflection gives a quite intuitive motivation for hybrid approaches that aim to combine advantageous aspects of the cer...

The following topics are important teaching operation research: games theory, decision theory, utility theory, queuing theory, scheduling theory, discrete optimization. These topics are illustrated and the connection with global optimization is shown considering the following mathematical models: competition model with fixed resource prices, Nash equilibrium, competition model with free resourc...