Search results for "optimization"
showing 10 items of 2824 documents
Cost analysis of the facilities deterioration in wastewater treatment plants: A dynamic approach
2019
Abstract The implementation of the Directive 91/271 / CEE resulted in the proliferation of new Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) all around Europe. These facilities, which are compound by a wide range of assets (civil works, electromechanical equipment, pipelines, etc.), are ageing and deteriorating having an impact on the efficiency of the process. It is founded that repairs and corrective maintenance costs have increased in the last years, due to the deterioration process. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to focus on the cost effects of the deterioration process of the facilities in different wastewater treatment technologies. The analysis of these impacts will allow the opera…
Networked relationships in the e-MID Interbank market: A trading model with memory
2014
Interbank markets are fundamental for bank liquidity management. In this paper, we introduce a model of interbank trading with memory. Our model reproduces features of preferential trading patterns in the e-MID market recently empirically observed through the method of statistically validated networks. The memory mechanism is used to introduce a proxy of trust in the model. The key idea is that a lender, having lent many times to a borrower in the past, is more likely to lend to that borrower again in the future than to other borrowers, with which the lender has never (or has in- frequently) interacted. The core of the model depends on only one parameter representing the initial attractiven…
Do firms share the same functional form of their growth rate distribution? A statistical test
2014
We introduce a new statistical test of the hypothesis that a balanced panel of firms have the same growth rate distribution or, more generally, that they share the same functional form of growth rate distribution. We applied the test to European Union and US publicly quoted manufacturing firms data, considering functional forms belonging to the Subbotin family of distributions. While our hypotheses are rejected for the vast majority of sets at the sector level, we cannot rejected them at the subsector level, indicating that homogenous panels of firms could be described by a common functional form of growth rate distribution.
Learning competitive pricing strategies by multi-agent reinforcement learning
2003
Abstract In electronic marketplaces automated and dynamic pricing is becoming increasingly popular. Agents that perform this task can improve themselves by learning from past observations, possibly using reinforcement learning techniques. Co-learning of several adaptive agents against each other may lead to unforeseen results and increasingly dynamic behavior of the market. In this article we shed some light on price developments arising from a simple price adaptation strategy. Furthermore, we examine several adaptive pricing strategies and their learning behavior in a co-learning scenario with different levels of competition. Q-learning manages to learn best-reply strategies well, but is e…
Why is equity order flow so persistent?
2015
Abstract Order flow in equity markets is remarkably persistent in the sense that order signs (to buy or sell) are positively autocorrelated out to time lags of tens of thousands of orders, corresponding to many days. Two possible explanations are herding, corresponding to positive correlation in the behavior of different investors, or order splitting, corresponding to positive autocorrelation in the behavior of single investors. We investigate this using order flow data from the London Stock Exchange for which we have membership identifiers. By formulating models for herding and order splitting, as well as models for brokerage choice, we are able to overcome the distortion introduced by bro…
How does learning affect market liquidity? A simulation analysis of a double-auction financial market with portfolio traders
2007
We study the relationship between liquidity and prices in an artificial financial market where portfolio traders with limited resources interact through a continuous, electronic open book. We depart from the standard asset pricing framework in two ways. First, we assume that investors have incomplete information about the distribution of returns. Second, we model the portfolio choice problem using prospect-type preferences. We model the utility function in terms of deviations of the portfolio growth rate from a specified target growth rate, and we assume that investors are more sensitive to downside movements. We show that the parameters defining the learning process affect the price dynami…
Discrete frequency models for inventory management – an introduction
2001
Abstract The paper deals with the problem of devising a periodic replenishment policy when orders must be periodic, but only a given, discrete set of order frequencies can be used. The multi-item, instantaneous replenishment case with known demand is studied. In particular, staggering policies somehow arranging replenishments not to come at the same time instants are considered. The paper is composed of three parts: first, a taxonomy of several versions of the discrete frequency problem is proposed, according to different elements; in the second part, a general mixed integer programming model is proposed which is able to capture the peculiarities of the whole spectrum of this kind of proble…
Solving multiobjective optimization problems with decision uncertainty: an interactive approach
2018
We propose an interactive approach to support a decision maker to find a most preferred robust solution to multiobjective optimization problems with decision uncertainty. A new robustness measure that is understandable for the decision maker is incorporated as an additional objective in the problem formulation. The proposed interactive approach utilizes elements of the synchronous NIMBUS method and is aimed at supporting the decision maker to consider the objective function values and the robustness of a solution simultaneously. In the interactive approach, we offer different alternatives for the decision maker to express her/his preferences related to the robustness of a solution. To conso…
A branch & bound algorithm for cutting and packing irregularly shaped pieces
2013
Abstract Cutting and packing problems involving irregular shapes, usually known as Nesting Problems, are common in industries ranging from clothing and footwear to furniture and shipbuilding. Research publications on these problems are relatively scarce compared with other cutting and packing problems with rectangular shapes, and are focused mostly on heuristic approaches. In this paper we make a systematic study of the problem and develop an exact Branch & Bound Algorithm. The initial existing mixed integer formulations are reviewed, tested and used as a starting point to develop a new and more efficient formulation. We also study several branching strategies, lower bounds and procedures f…
A model for designing callable bonds and its solution using tabu search
1997
Abstract We formulate the problem of designing callable bonds as a non-linear, global, optimization problem. The data of the model are obtained from simulations of holding-period returns of a given bond design, which are used to compute a certainty equivalent return, viz., some target assets. The design specifications of the callable bond are then adjusted so that the certainty equivalent return is maximized. The resulting problem is multi-modal, and a tabu search procedure, implemented on a distributed network of workstations, is used to optimize the bond design. The model is compared with the classical portfolio immunization model, and the tabu search solution technique is compared with s…