Description:
It is well known that global optimization problems are, generally speaking, computationally infeasible, that is solving them would require an unreasonably large amount of time and/or space. In certain cases, for example, when objective functions and constraints are convex, it is possible to construct a feasible algorithm for solving global optimization problem successfully. Convexity, however, is not a phenomenon to be often expected in the applications. Nonconvex problems frequently arise in many industrial and scienti¯c areas. Therefore, it is only natural to try to replace convexity with some other structure at least for some classes of nonconvex optimization problems to render the global optimization problem feasible. A theory of abstract convexity has been developed as a result of the above considerations. Monotonic analysis, a branch of abstract convex analysis, is analogous in many ways to convex analysis, and sometimes is even simpler. It turned out that many problems of nonconvex optimization encountered in applications can be described in terms of monotonic functions. The analogies with convex analysis were considered to aid in solving some classes of nonconvex optimization problems. In this thesis we will focus on one of the elements of monotonic analysis - Increasing Positively Homogeneous functions of degree one or in short IPH functions. The aim of present research is to show that finding the solution and ²-approximation to the solution of the global optimization problem for IPH functions restricted to a unit simplex is an NP-hard problem. These results can be further extended to positively homogeneous functions of degree ´, ´ > 0.
Description:
Master of Mathematical Sciences (Research)
Description:
It is well known that global optimization problems are, generally speaking, computationally infeasible, that is solving them would require an unreasonably large amount of time and/or space. In certain cases, for example, when objective functions and constraints are convex, it is possible to construct a feasible algorithm for solving global optimization problem successfully. Convexity, however, is not a phenomenon to be often expected in the applications. Nonconvex problems frequently arise in many industrial and scienti¯c areas. Therefore, it is only natural to try to replace convexity with some other structure at least for some classes of nonconvex optimization problems to render the global optimization problem feasible. A theory of abstract convexity has been developed as a result of the above considerations. Monotonic analysis, a branch of abstract convex analysis, is analogous in many ways to convex analysis, and sometimes is even simpler. It turned out that many problems of nonconvex optimization encountered in applications can be described in terms of monotonic functions. The analogies with convex analysis were considered to aid in solving some classes of nonconvex optimization problems. In this thesis we will focus on one of the elements of monotonic analysis - Increasing Positively Homogeneous functions of degree one or in short IPH functions. The aim of present research is to show that finding the solution and ²-approximation to the solution of the global optimization problem for IPH functions restricted to a unit simplex is an NP-hard problem. These results can be further extended to positively homogeneous functions of degree ´, ´ > 0.
Description:
Master of Mathematical Sciences (Research)
Description:
The operation of a water distribution system is a complex task which involves scheduling of pumps, regulating water levels of storages, and providing satisfactory water quality to customers at required flow and pressure. Pump scheduling is one of the most important tasks of the operation of a water distribution system as it represents the major part of its operating costs. In this paper, a novel approach for modeling of pump scheduling to minimize energy consumption by pumps is introduced which uses pump's start/end run times as continuous variables. This is different from other approaches where binary integer variables for each hour are typically used which is considered very impractical from an operational perspective. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem and a new algorithm is developed for its solution. This algorithm is based on the combination of the grid search with the Hooke-Jeeves pattern search method. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using literature test problems applying the hydraulic simulation model EPANet.
Description:
Nonsmooth optimisation problems are problems which deal with minimisation or maximisation of functions that are not necessarily differentiable. They arise frequently in many practical applications, for example in engineering, machine learning and economics. In addition, some smooth problems can be reformulated as nonsmooth optimisation problems with a simpler structure or a smaller dimension. Despite the fact that there exist many algorithms for solving nonsmooth optimisation problems, the field is still very much in development. Nonsmooth nonconvex optimisation, in particular, is far from being considered a mature branch of optimisation.
Description:
Biotic stress is one of the major environmental factors affecting plants. Viruses, fungi, bacteria, weeds, insects, and other pests and pathogens represent a major constraint to agricultural productivity and a serious threat to vegetable and grain crops. Plant protection against pathogens and pests is a commercially important issue and one of the main directions of researches. Almost half of new infectious diseases identified in plants during the past 10 years have a viral nature. The number and distribution areas of some plant viruses in Europe have been increasing rapidly during the past 35 years that caused big problems from an economic point of view. Viral diseases have also become a real threat for different cultivars of vegetables, grains, and other agricultural crops in our country. It causes extensive leaf yellowing, stem and leaf deformation, reducing the fruit quality, substantial yield loss, and shortening the lifecycle of crops. The probable cause of decay of virus-infected plants is not only the virus activity itself but also reduced tolerance to unfavorable environmental conditions. The identification of the viruses affecting plants and the study of the plant responses are very important for the better understanding of the plant–virus interactions and for developing the tendency to reduce the plant virus-associated risks in Azerbaijan. Therefore, the main goal of the present study is to identify the most widespread plant viruses in Azerbaijan using different molecular techniques and to evaluate some characteristics of plant response to viral stress
Description:
Pumping cost constitutes the main part of the overall operating cost of water distribution systems. There are different optimization formulations of the pumping cost minimization problem including those with application of continuous and integer programming approaches. To date mainly various metaheuristics have been applied to solve this problem. However, the comprehensive comparison of those metaheuristics has not been done. Such a comparison is important to identify strengths and weaknesses of different algorithms which reflects on their performance. In this paper, we present a methodology for comparative analysis of widely used metaheuristics for solving the pumping cost minimization problem. This methodology includes the following comparison criteria: (a) the "optimal solution" obtained; (b) the efficiency; and (c) robustness. Algorithms applied are: particle swarm optimization, artificial bee colony and firefly algorithms. These algorithms were applied to one test problem available in the literature. The results obtained demonstrate that the artificial bee colony is the most robust and the firefly is the most efficient and accurate algorithm for this test problem. Funding :ARC
Description:
The operation of a water distribution system is a complex task which involves scheduling of pumps, regulating water levels of storages, and providing satisfactory water quality to customers at required flow and pressure. Pump scheduling is one of the most important tasks of the operation of a water distribution system as it represents the major part of its operating costs. In this paper, a novel approach for modeling of pump scheduling to minimize energy consumption by pumps is introduced which uses pump's start/end run times. We separate two types of pumps, one is operated based on the water level in a storage and another one is operated based on downstream pressure. For the first type of pumps both the explicit and implicit pump scheduling can be used, whereas the second type pumps can be optimized only using implicit pump scheduling. The problem is formulated as an optimization problem and an algorithm is developed for its solution. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using a literature test problem applying the hydraulic simulation model EPANet.