Library

Description: In the recent years, a couple of quite successful large neighborhood search heuristics for mixed integer programs has been published. Up to our knowledge, all of them are improvement heuristics. We present a new start heuristic for general MIPs working in the spirit of large neighborhood search. It constructs a sub-MIP which represents the space of all feasible roundings of some fractional point - normally the optimum of the LP-relaxation of the original MIP. Thereby, one is able to determine whether a point can be rounded to a feasible solution and which is the best possible rounding. Furthermore, a slightly modified version of RENS proves to be a well-performing heuristic inside the branch-cut-and-price-framework SCIP.

Description: This article is about the optimal track allocation problem (OPTRA) to find, in a given railway network, a conflict free set of train routes of maximum value. We study two types of integer programming formulations: a standard formulation that models block conflicts in terms of packing constraints, and a new extended formulation that is based on additional configuration' variables. We show that the packing constraints in the standard formulation stem from an interval graph, and that they can be separated in polynomial time. It follows that the LP relaxation of a strong version of this model, including all clique inequalities from block conflicts, can be solved in polynomial time. We prove that the extended formulation produces the same LP bound, and that it can also be computed with this model in polynomial time. Albeit the two formulations are in this sense equivalent, the extended formulation has advantages from a computational point of view, because it features a constant number of rows and is therefore amenable to standard column generation techniques. Results of an empirical model comparison on mesoscopic data for the Hannover-Fulda-Kassel region of the German long distance railway network are reported.

Description: We study barrier methods for state constrained optimal control problems with PDEs. In the focus of our analysis is the path of minimizers of the barrier subproblems with the aim to provide a solid theoretical basis for function space oriented path-following algorithms. We establish results on existence, continuity and convergence of this path. Moreover, we consider the structure of barrier subdifferentials, which play the role of dual variables.

Description: For the treatment of equilibrated molecular systems in a heat bath we propose a transition state theory that is based on conformation dynamics. In general, a set-based discretization of a Markov operator ${\cal P}^\tau$ does not preserve the Markov property. In this article, we propose a discretization method which is based on a Galerkin approach. This discretization method preserves the Markov property of the operator and can be interpreted as a decomposition of the state space into (fuzzy) sets. The conformation-based transition state theory presented here can be seen as a first step in conformation dynamics towards the computation of essential dynamical properties of molecular systems without time-consuming molecular dynamics simulations.

Description: We present a middleware to store multidimensional data sets on Internet-scale distributed systems and to efficiently perform range queries on them. Our structured overlay network \emph{SONAR (Structured Overlay Network with Arbitrary Range queries)} puts keys which are adjacent in the key space on logically adjacent nodes in the overlay and is thereby able to process multidimensional range queries with a single logarithmic data lookup and local forwarding. The specified ranges may have arbitrary shapes like rectangles, circles, spheres or polygons. Empirical results demonstrate the routing performance of SONAR on several data sets, ranging from real-world data to artificially constructed worst case distributions. We study the quality of SONAR's routing information which is based on local knowledge only and measure the indegree of the overlay nodes to find potential hot spots in the routing process. We show that SONAR's routing table is self-adjusting, even under extreme situations, keeping always a maximum of $\lceil \log N \rceil$ routing entries.

Description: \begin{abstract} In systems biology, the stochastic description of biochemical reaction kinetics is increasingly being employed to model gene regulatory networks and signalling pathways. Mathematically speaking, such models require the numerical solution of the underlying evolution equat ion, also known as the chemical master equation (CME). Up to now, the CME has almost exclusively been treated by Monte-Carlo techniques, the most prominent of which is the simulation algorithm suggest ed by Gillespie in 1976. Since this algorithm requires an update for each single reaction event, realizations can be computationally very costly. As an alternative, we here propose a novel approach, which focuses on the discrete partial differential equation (PDE) structure of the CME and thus allows to adopt ideas from adaptive discrete Galerkin methods (as designed by two of the present authors in 1989), which have proven to be highly efficient in the mathematical modelling of polyreaction kinetics. Among the two different options of discretizing the CME as a discrete PDE, the method of lines approach (first space, then time) and the Rothe method (first time, then space), we select the latter one for clear theoretical and algorithmic reasons. First numeric al experiments at a challenging model problem illustrate the promising features of the proposed method and, at the same time, indicate lines of necessary further research. \end{abstract}

Description: Chvatal-Gomory cuts are among the most well-known classes of cutting planes for general integer linear programs (ILPs). In case the constraint multipliers are either 0 or $\frac{1}{2}$, such cuts are known as $\{0,\frac{1}{2}\}$-cuts. It has been proven by Caprara and Fischetti (1996) that separation of $\{0,\frac{1}{2}\}$-cuts is NP-hard. In this paper, we study ways to separate $\{0,\frac{1}{2}\}$-cuts effectively in practice. We propose a range of preprocessing rules to reduce the size of the separation problem. The core of the preprocessing builds a Gaussian elimination-like procedure. To separate the most violated $\{0,\frac{1}{2}\}$-cut, we formulate the (reduced) problem as integer linear program. Some simple heuristic separation routines complete the algorithmic framework. Computational experiments on benchmark instances show that the combination of preprocessing with exact and/or heuristic separation is a very vital idea to generate strong generic cutting planes for integer linear programs and to reduce the overall computation times of state-of-the-art ILP-solvers.

Description: In this paper a Godunov-type projection method for computing approximate solutions of the zero Froude number (incompressible) shallow water equations is presented. It is second-order accurate and locally conserves height (mass) and momentum. To enforce the underlying divergence constraint on the velocity field, the predicted numerical fluxes, computed with a standard second order method for hyperbolic conservation laws, are corrected in two steps. First, a MAC-type projection adjusts the advective velocity divergence. In a second projection step, additional momentum flux corrections are computed to obtain new time level cell-centered velocities, which satisfy another discrete version of the divergence constraint. The scheme features an exact and stable second projection. It is obtained by a Petrov-Galerkin finite element ansatz with piecewise bilinear trial functions for the unknown incompressible height and piecewise constant test functions. The stability of the projection is proved using the theory of generalized mixed finite elements, which goes back to Nicola{\"i}des (1982). In order to do so, the validity of three different inf-sup conditions has to be shown. Since the zero Froude number shallow water equations have the same mathematical structure as the incompressible Euler equations of isentropic gas dynamics, the method can be easily transfered to the computation of incompressible variable density flow problems.

Description: We consider polytopes associated with cardinality constrained path and cycle problems defined on a directed or undirected graph. We present integer characterizations of these polytopes by facet defining linear inequalities for which the separation problem can be solved in polynomial time. Moreover, we give further facet defining inequalities, in particular those that are specific to odd/even paths and cycles.

Description: Algorithmic control of elevator systems has been studied for a long time. More recently, a new paradigm for elevator control has emerged. In destination call systems, the passenger specifies not only the direction of his ride, but the destination floor. Such a destination call system is very interesting from an optimization point of view, since more information is available earlier, which should allow improved planning. However, the real-world destination call system envisioned by our industry partner requires that each destination call (i.e. passenger) is assigned to a serving elevator immediately. This early assignment restricts the potential gained from the destination information. Another aspect is that there is no way to specify the destination floor in the cabin. Therefore, the elevator has to stop on every destination floor of an assigned call, although the passenger may not have boarded the cabin, e.g. due to insufficient capacity. In this paper we introduce a new destination call control algorithm suited to this setting. Since the control algorithm for an entire elevator group has to run on embedded microprocessors, computing resources are very scarce. Since exact optimization is not feasible on such hardware, the algorithm is an insertion heuristic using a non-trivial data structure to maintain a set of tours. To assess the performance of our algorithm, we compare it to similar and more powerful algorithms by simulation. We also compare to algorithms for a conventional system and with a more idealized destination call system. This gives an indication of the relative potentials of these systems. In particular, we assess how the above real-world restrictions influence performance. The algorithm introduced has been implemented by our industry partner for real-world use.

Description: This thesis is concerned with dimensioning and routing optimization problems for communication networks that employ a shortest path routing protocol such as OSPF, IS-IS, or RIP. These protocols are widely used in the Internet. With these routing protocols, all end-to-end data streams are routed along shortest paths with respect to a metric of link lengths. The network administrator can configure the routing only by modifying this metric. In this thesis we consider the unsplittable shortest path routing variant, where each communication demand must be sent unsplit through the network. This requires that all shortest paths are uniquely determined. The major difficulties in planning such networks are that the routing can be controlled only indirectly via the routing metric and that all routing paths depend on the same routing metric. This leads to rather complicated and subtle interdependencies among the paths that comprise a valid routing. In contrast to most other routing schemes, the paths for different communication demands cannot be configured independent of each other. Part I of the thesis is dedicated to the relation between path sets and routing metrics and to the combinatorial properties of those path sets that comprise a valid unsplittable shortest path routing. Besides reviewing known approaches to find a compatible metric for a given path set (or to prove that none exists) and discussing some properties of valid path sets, we show that the problem of finding a compatible metric with integer lengths as small as possible and the problem of finding a smallest possible conflict in the given path set are both NP-hard to approximate within a constant factor. In Part II of the thesis we discuss the relation between unsplittable shortest path routing and several other routing schemes and we analyze the computational complexity of three basic unsplittable shortest path routing problems. We show that the lowest congestion that can be obtained with unsplittable shortest path routing may significantly exceed that achievable with other routing paradigms and we prove several non-approximability results for unsplittable shortest path routing problems that are stronger than those for the corresponding unsplittable flow problems. In addition, we derive various polynomial time approximation algorithms for general and special cases of these problems. In Part III of the thesis we finally develop an integer linear programming approach to solve these and more realistic unsplittable shortest path routing problems to optimality. We present alternative formulations for these problems, discuss their strength and computational complexity, and show how to derive strong valid inequalities. Eventually, we describe our implementation of this solution approach and report on the numerical results obtained for real-world problems that came up in the planning the German National Research and Education Networks G-WiN and X-WiN and for several benchmark instances.

Description: Die Arbeit befasst sich mit der Kapazitäts- und Routenplanung für Kommunikationsnetze, die ein kürzeste-Wege Routingprotokoll verwenden. Diese Art von Protokollen ist im Internet weit verbreitet. Bei diesen Routingverfahren wird für jede Verbindung im Netz ein Längenwert festgelegt, diese Längen formen die sogenannte Routingmetrik. Die Routingwege der Kommunikationsbedarfe sind dann die jeweiligen kürzesten Wege bezüglich dieser Metrik. Bei der in der Arbeit untersuchten Variante dieser Routingprotokolle wird zusätzlich verlangt, dass es je Kommunikationsbedarf genau einen eindeutigen kürzesten Weg gibt. Die Schwierigkeit bei der Planung solcher Netze besteht darin, dass sich die Routingwege einerseits nur indirekt über die Routingmetrik beeinflussen lassen, andererseits aber alle Routingwege von der gleichen Metrik abhängen. Dadurch können die Wege verschiedener Kommunikationsanforderungen nicht wie bei anderen Routingverfahren unabhängig voneinander gewählt werden. Im erstem Teil der Arbeit werden der Zusammenhang zwischen gegebenen Wegesystemen und kompatiblen Routingmetriken sowie die Beziehungen der Wege eines zulässigen eindeutige-kürzeste-Wege-Routings untereinander untersucht. Dabei wird unter Anderem gezeigt, dass es NP-schwer ist, eine kompatible Metrik mit kleinstmöglichen Routinglängen zu einem gegebenen Wegesystem zu finden. Es wird auch bewiesen, dass das Finden eines kleinstmöglichen Konfliktes in einem gegebenen Wegesystem, zu dem keine kompatible Metrik existiert, NP-schwer ist. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird die Approximierbarkeit von drei grundlegenden Netz- und Routenplanungsproblemen mit eindeutige-kürzeste-Wege-Routing untersucht. Für diese Probleme werden stärkere Nichtapproximierbarkeitsresultate als für die entsprechenden Einwege-Routing Probleme bewiesen und es werden verschiedene polynomiale Approximationsverfahren für allgemeine und Spezialfälle entworfen. Ausserdem wird die Beziehung zwischen eindeutige-kürzeste-Wege-Routing und anderen Routingverfahren diskutiert. Im dritten und letzten Teil der Arbeit wird ein (gemischt-) ganzzahliger Lösungsansatz für Planungsprobleme mit eindeutige-kürzeste-Wege-Routing vorgestellt. Für die im zweiten Teil diskutierten grundlegenden Netz- und Routenplanungsprobleme werden verschiedene (gemischt-) ganzzahlige lineare Modelle vorgestellt und es wird deren Lösbarkeit und die Stärke ihrer LP Relaxierungen untersucht. Es wird auch gezeigt, wie sich starke gültig Ungleichungen aus den in diesen Modellen enthalten Substrukturen ableiten lassen. Schlielich werden am Ende der Arbeit die Software-Implementierung dieses Lösungsverfahrens für eine praxisrelevante Verallgemeinerung der Planungsprobleme sowie die damit erzielten numerischen Ergebnisse vorgestellt und diskutiert.

Description: This thesis introduces the novel paradigm of constraint integer programming (CIP), which integrates constraint programming (CP) and mixed integer programming (MIP) modeling and solving techniques. It is supplemented by the software SCIP, which is a solver and framework for constraint integer programming that also features SAT solving techniques. SCIP is freely available in source code for academic and non-commercial purposes. Our constraint integer programming approach is a generalization of MIP that allows for the inclusion of arbitrary constraints, as long as they turn into linear constraints on the continuous variables after all integer variables have been fixed. The constraints, may they be linear or more complex, are treated by any combination of CP and MIP techniques: the propagation of the domains by constraint specific algorithms, the generation of a linear relaxation and its solving by LP methods, and the strengthening of the LP by cutting plane separation. The current version of SCIP comes with all of the necessary components to solve mixed integer programs. In the thesis, we cover most of these ingredients and present extensive computational results to compare different variants for the individual building blocks of a MIP solver. We focus on the algorithms and their impact on the overall performance of the solver. In addition to mixed integer programming, the thesis deals with chip design verification, which is an important topic of electronic design automation. Chip manufacturers have to make sure that the logic design of a circuit conforms to the specification of the chip. Otherwise, the chip would show an erroneous behavior that may cause failures in the device where it is employed. An important subproblem of chip design verification is the property checking problem, which is to verify whether a circuit satisfies a specified property. We show how this problem can be modeled as constraint integer program and provide a number of problem-specific algorithms that exploit the structure of the individual constraints and the circuit as a whole. Another set of extensive computational benchmarks compares our CIP approach to the current state-of-the-art SAT methodology and documents the success of our method.

Description: Diese Arbeit stellt einen integrierten Ansatz aus Constraint Programming (CP) und Gemischt-Ganzzahliger Programmierung (Mixed Integer Programming, MIP) vor, den wir Constraint Integer Programming (CIP) nennen. Sowohl Modellierungs- als auch Lösungstechniken beider Felder fließen in den neuen integrierten Ansatz ein, um die unterschiedlichen Stärken der beiden Gebiete zu kombinieren. Als weiteren Beitrag stellen wir der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft die Software SCIP zur Verfügung, die ein Framework für Constraint Integer Programming darstellt und zusätzlich Techniken des SAT-Lösens beinhaltet. SCIP ist im Source Code für akademische und nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke frei erhältlich. Unser Ansatz des Constraint Integer Programming ist eine Verallgemeinerung von MIP, die zusätzlich die Verwendung beliebiger Constraints erlaubt, solange sich diese durch lineare Bedingungen ausdrücken lassen falls alle ganzzahligen Variablen auf feste Werte eingestellt sind. Die Constraints werden von einer beliebigen Kombination aus CP- und MIP-Techniken behandelt. Dies beinhaltet insbesondere die Domain Propagation, die Relaxierung der Constraints durch lineare Ungleichungen, sowie die Verstärkung der Relaxierung durch dynamisch generierte Schnittebenen. Die derzeitige Version von SCIP enthält alle Komponenten, die für das effiziente Lösen von Gemischt-Ganzzahligen Programmen benötigt werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit liefert eine ausführliche Beschreibung dieser Komponenten und bewertet verschiedene Varianten in Hinblick auf ihren Einfluß auf das Gesamt-Lösungsverhalten anhand von aufwendigen praktischen Experimenten. Dabei wird besonders auf die algorithmischen Aspekte eingegangen. Der zweite Hauptteil der Arbeit befasst sich mit der Chip-Design-Verifikation, die ein wichtiges Thema innerhalb des Fachgebiets der Electronic Design Automation darstellt. Chip-Hersteller müssen sicherstellen, dass der logische Entwurf einer Schaltung der gegebenen Spezifikation entspricht. Andernfalls würde der Chip fehlerhaftes Verhalten aufweisen, dass zu Fehlfunktionen innerhalb des Gerätes führen kann, in dem der Chip verwendet wird. Ein wichtiges Teilproblem in diesem Feld ist das Eigenschafts-Verifikations-Problem, bei dem geprüft wird, ob der gegebene Schaltkreisentwurf eine gewünschte Eigenschaft aufweist. Wir zeigen, wie dieses Problem als Constraint Integer Program modelliert werden kann und geben eine Reihe von problemspezifischen Algorithmen an, die die Struktur der einzelnen Constraints und der Gesamtschaltung ausnutzen. Testrechnungen auf Industrie-Beispielen vergleichen unseren Ansatz mit den bisher verwendeten SAT-Techniken und belegen den Erfolg unserer Methode.

Description: In this paper, we investigate the interconversion processes of the major flame retardant -- 1,2,5,6,9,10-hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) -- by the means of statistical thermodynamics based on classical force-fields. Three ideas will be presented. First, the application of classical hybrid Monte-Carlo simulations for quantum mechanical processes will be justified. Second, the problem of insufficient convergence properties of hybrid Monte-Carlo methods for the generation of low temperature canonical ensembles will be solved by an interpolation approach. Furthermore, it will be shown how free energy differences can be used for a rate matrix computation. The results of our numerical simulations will be compared to experimental results.

Description: In this paper we give an overview of the heuristics which are integrated into the open source branch-cut-and-price-framework SCIP. We briefly describe the fundamental ideas of different categories of heuristics and present some computational results which demonstrate the impact of heuristics on the overall solving process of SCIP.

Description: Fast nonlinear programming methods following the all-at-once approach usually employ Newton's method for solving linearized Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) systems. In nonconvex problems, the Newton direction is only guaranteed to be a descent direction if the Hessian of the Lagrange function is positive definite on the nullspace of the active constraints, otherwise some modifications to Newton's method are necessary. This condition can be verified using the signs of the KKT's eigenvalues (inertia), which are usually available from direct solvers for the arising linear saddle point problems. Iterative solvers are mandatory for very large-scale problems, but in general do not provide the inertia. Here we present a preconditioner based on a multilevel incomplete $LBL^T$ factorization, from which an approximation of the inertia can be obtained. The suitability of the heuristics for application in optimization methods is verified on an interior point method applied to the CUTE and COPS test problems, on large-scale 3D PDE-constrained optimal control problems, as well as 3D PDE-constrained optimization in biomedical cancer hyperthermia treatment planning. The efficiency of the preconditioner is demonstrated on convex and nonconvex problems with $150^3$ state variables and $150^2$ control variables, both subject to bound constraints.

Description: This article describes the main concepts and techniques that have been developed during the last year at ZIB to solve dimensioning and routing optimization problems for IP networks. We discuss the problem of deciding if a given path set corresponds to an unsplittable shortest path routing, the fundamental properties of such path sets, and the computational complexity of some basic network planning problems for this routing type. Then we describe an integer-linear programming approach to solve such problems in practice. This approach has been used successfully in the planning of the German national education and research network for several years.

Description: In this review article we discuss different techniques to solve numerically the time-dependent Schrödinger equation on unbounded domains. We present in detail the most recent approaches and describe briefly alternative ideas pointing out the relations between these works. We conclude with several numerical examples from different application areas to compare the presented techniques. We mainly focus on the one-dimensional problem but also touch upon the situation in two space dimensions and the cubic nonlinear case.

Description: We discuss first order optimality conditions for state constrained optimal control problems. Our concern is the treatment of problems, where the solution of the state equation is not known to be continuous, as in the case of boundary control in three space dimensions or optimal control with parabolic partial differential equations. We show existence of measure valued Lagrangian multipliers, which have just enough additional regularity to be applicable to all possibly discontinuous solutions of the state equation.

Description: We address the property checking problem for SoC design verification at the register transfer level (RTL) by integrating techniques from integer programming, constraint programming, and SAT solving. Specialized domain propagation and preprocessing algorithms for individual RTL operations extend a general constraint integer programming framework. Conflict clauses are learned by analyzing infeasible LPs and deductions, and by employing reverse propagation. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms SAT techniques for proving the validity of properties on circuits containing arithmetics.

Description: An adjustment scheme for the relaxation parameter of interior point approaches to the numerical solution of pointwise state constrained elliptic optimal control problems is introduced. The method is based on error estimates of an associated finite element discretization of the relaxed problems and optimally selects the relaxation parameter in dependence on the mesh size of discretization. The finite element analysis for the relaxed problems is carried out and a numerical example is presented which confirms our analytical findings.

Description: In this thesis, we study multicommodity routing problems in networks, in which commodities have to be routed from source to destination nodes. Such problems model for instance the traffic flows in street networks, data flows in the Internet, or production flows in factories. In most of these applications, the quality of a flow depends on load dependent cost functions on the edges of the given network. The total cost of a flow is usually defined as the sum of the arc cost of the network. An optimal flow minimizes this cost. A main focus of this thesis is to investigate online multicommodity routing problems in networks, in which commodities have to be routed sequentially. Arcs are equipped with load dependent price functions defining routing costs, which have to be minimized. We discuss a greedy online algorithm that routes (fractionally) each commodity by minimizing a convex cost function that depends on the previously routed flow. We present a competitive analysis of this algorithm and prove upper bounds of (d+1)^(d+1) for polynomial price functions with nonnegative coefficients and maximum degree d. For networks with two nodes and parallel arcs, we show that this algorithm returns an optimal solution. Without restrictions on the price functions and network, no algorithm is competitive. We also investigate a variant in which the demands have to be routed unsplittably. In this case, it is NP-hard to compute the offline optimum. Furthermore, we study selfish routing problems (network games). In a network game, players route demand in a network with minimum cost. In this setting, we study the quality of Nash equilibria compared to the the system optimum (price of anarchy) in network games with nonatomic and atomic players and spittable flow. As a main result, we prove upper bounds on the price of anarchy for polynomial latency functions with nonnegative coefficients and maximum degree d, which improve upon the previous best ones.

Description: Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit Mehrgüterflussproblemen, in denen Güter mit einer bestimmten Rate durch ein gegebenes Netzwerk geleitet werden müssen. Mithilfe von Mehrgüterflussproblemen können zum Beispiel Verkehrsflüsse in Strassenverkehrsnetzen oder im Internet modelliert werden. In diesen Anwendungen wird die Effizienz von Routenzuweisungen für Güter durch lastabhängige Kostenfunktionen auf den Kanten eines gegebenen Netzwerks definiert. Die Gesamtkosten eines Mehrgüterflüsses sind durch die Summe der Kosten auf den Kanten definiert. Ein optimaler Mehrgüterfluss minimiert diese Gesamtkosten. Ein wesentlicher Bestandteil dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung sogenannter Online Algorithmen, die Routen für bekannte Güternachfragen berechnen, ohne vollständiges Wissen über zukünftige Güternachfragen zu haben. Es konnte ein Online Algorithmus gefunden werden, dessen Gesamtkosten für polynomielle Kostenfunktionen mit endlichem Grad nicht beliebig von denen einer optimalen Lösung abweichen. Für die Berechung einer optimalen Lösung müssen alle Güternachfragen a priori vorliegen. Dieses Gütekriterium gilt unabhängig von der gewählten Netzwerktopologie oder der Eingabesequenz von Gütern. Desweiteren befasst sich diese Arbeit mit der Effizienz egoistischer Routenwahl einzelner Nutzer verglichen zu einer optimalen Routenwahl. Egoistisches Verhalten von Nutzern kann mithilfe von nichtkooperativer Spieltheorie untersucht werden. Nutzer werden als strategisch agierende Spieler betrachtet, die ihren Profit maximieren. Als Standardwerkzeug zur Analyse solcher Spiele hat sich das Konzept des Nash Gleichgewichts bewährt. Das Nash Gleichweicht beschreibt eine stabile Strategieverteilung der Spieler, in der kein Spieler einen höheren Profit erzielen kann, wenn er einseitig seine Strategie ändert. Als Hauptergebnis dieser Arbeit konnte für polynomielle Kostenfunktionen mit endlichem Grad gezeigt werden, dass die Gesamtkosten eines Nash Gleichgewichts für sogennante atomare Spieler, die einen diskreten Anteil der gesamten Güternachfrage kontrollieren, nicht beliebig von den Gesamtkosten einer optimalen Lösung abweichen. In this thesis, we study multicommodity routing problems in networks, in which commodities have to be routed from source to destination nodes. Such problems model for instance the traffic flows in street networks, data flows in the Internet, or production flows in factories. In most of these applications, the quality of a flow depends on load dependent cost functions on the edges of the given network. The total cost of a flow is usually defined as the sum of the arc cost of the network. An optimal flow minimizes this cost. A main focus of this thesis is to investigate online multicommodity routing problems in networks, in which commodities have to be routed sequentially. Arcs are equipped with load dependent price functions defining routing costs, which have to be minimized. We discuss a greedy online algorithm that routes (fractionally) each commodity by minimizing a convex cost function that depends on the previously routed flow. We present a competitive analysis of this algorithm and prove upper bounds of (d+1)^(d+1) for polynomial price functions with nonnegative coefficients and maximum degree d. For networks with two nodes and parallel arcs, we show that this algorithm returns an optimal solution. Without restrictions on the price functions and network, no algorithm is competitive. We also investigate a variant in which the demands have to be routed unsplittably. In this case, it is NP-hard to compute the offline optimum. Furthermore, we study selfish routing problems (network games). In a network game, players route demand in a network with minimum cost. In this setting, we study the quality of Nash equilibria compared to the the system optimum (price of anarchy) in network games with nonatomic and atomic players and spittable flow. As a main result, we prove upper bounds on the price of anarchy for polynomial latency functions with nonnegative coefficients and maximum degree d, which improve upon the previous best ones.

Description: We provide information on the Survivable Network Design Library (SNDlib), a data library for fixed telecommunication network design that can be accessed at http://sndlib.zib.de. In version 1.0, the library contains data related to 22 networks which, combined with a set of selected planning parameters, leads to 830 network planning problem instances. In this paper, we provide a mathematical model for each planning problem considered in the library and describe the data concepts of the SNDlib. Furthermore, we provide statistical information and details about the origin of the data sets.

Description: The \emph{optimal track allocation problem} (\textsc{OPTRA}), also known as the train routing problem or the train timetabling problem, is to find, in a given railway network, a conflict-free set of train routes of maximum value. We propose a novel integer programming formulation for this problem that is based on additional configuration' variables. Its LP-relaxation can be solved in polynomial time. These results are the theoretical basis for a column generation algorithm to solve large-scale track allocation problems. Computational results for the Hanover-Kassel-Fulda area of the German long distance railway network involving up to 570 trains are reported.

Description: We consider a multicommodity routing problem, where demands are released \emph{online} and have to be routed in a network during specified time windows. The objective is to minimize a time and load dependent convex cost function of the aggregate arc flow. First, we study the fractional routing variant. We present two online algorithms, called Seq and Seq$^2$. Our first main result states that, for cost functions defined by polynomial price functions with nonnegative coefficients and maximum degree~$d$, the competitive ratio of Seq and Seq$^2$ is at most $(d+1)^{d+1}$, which is tight. We also present lower bounds of $(0.265\,(d+1))^{d+1}$ for any online algorithm. In the case of a network with two nodes and parallel arcs, we prove a lower bound of $(2-\frac{1}{2} \sqrt{3})$ on the competitive ratio for Seq and Seq$^2$, even for affine linear price functions. Furthermore, we study resource augmentation, where the online algorithm has to route less demand than the offline adversary. Second, we consider unsplittable routings. For this setting, we present two online algorithms, called U-Seq and U-Seq$^2$. We prove that for polynomial price functions with nonnegative coefficients and maximum degree~$d$, the competitive ratio of U-Seq and U-Seq$^2$ is bounded by $O{1.77^d\,d^{d+1}}$. We present lower bounds of $(0.5307\,(d+1))^{d+1}$ for any online algorithm and $(d+1)^{d+1}$ for our algorithms. Third, we consider a special case of our framework: online load balancing in the $\ell_p$-norm. For the fractional and unsplittable variant of this problem, we show that our online algorithms are $p$ and $O{p}$ competitive, respectively. Such results where previously known only for scheduling jobs on restricted (un)related parallel machines.

Description: The timetable is the essence of the service offered by any provider of public transport'' (Jonathan Tyler, CASPT 2006). Indeed, the timetable has a major impact on both operating costs and on passenger comfort. Most European agglomerations and railways use periodic timetables in which operation repeats in regular intervals. In contrast, many North and South American municipalities use trip timetables in which the vehicle trips are scheduled individually subject to frequency constraints. We compare these two strategies with respect to vehicle operation costs. It turns out that for short time horizons, periodic timetabling can be suboptimal; for sufficiently long time horizons, however, periodic timetabling can always be done in an optimal way'.

Description: Die Zentrale des Kooperativen Bibliotheksverbunds Berlin-Brandenburg (KOBV) betreibt seit Januar 2004 das KOBV-Portal, in dem u.a. vielfältige Open-Linking-Dienste eingebunden sind. Dieser Beitrag erläutert Open-Linking allgemein und stellt die KOBV spezifischen Dienste im Detail vor. Dabei wird auch die Zugriffsentwicklung auf die KOBV-Open-Linking-Dienste evaluiert. Ein Ergebnis ist, dass signifikante Steigerungen der Nutzung erst dann bewirkt werden, wenn Maßnahmen durchgeführt werden, die erstens die Open-Linking-Dienste stärker ins Bewusstsein der NutzerInnen rücken und zweitens den Weg dorthin im KOBV-Portal verkürzen. Vor allem muss ein schneller Weg zu den Open-Linking-Diensten gewährleistet sein, um die Nutzung deutlich zu steigern. Um zusätzlich den Bekanntheitsgrad der Open-Linking-Dienste bundesweit zu erhöhen, regt die KOBV-Zentrale andere Bibliotheken und Verbünde dazu an, analoge Open-Linking-Dienste einzurichten. Auf diese Weise wird die Handhabung von Open-Linking selbstverständlicher.

Description: Dieser Artikel berichtet über eine erfolgreiche Schüleraktivität, die seit Jahren am Zuse-Institut Berlin (ZIB) bei Besuchen von Schülergruppen erprobt und verfeinert worden ist. Das hier zusammengestellte Material ist gedacht als Basis für eine Unterrichtseinheit in Leistungskursen Mathematik an Gymnasien. Inhaltlich wird von einem zwar für Schüler (wie auch Lehrer) neuen, aber leicht fasslichen Gegenstand ausgegangen: der Drei-Term-Rekursion für Besselfunktionen. Die Struktur wird erklärt und in ein kleines Programm umgesetzt. Dazu teilen sich die Schüler selbstorganisierend in Gruppen ein, die mit unterschiedlichen Taschenrechnern "um die Wette" rechnen. Die Schüler und Schülerinnen erfahren unmittelbar die katastrophale Wirkung von an sich kleinen'' Rundungsfehlern, sie landen -- ebenso wie der Supercomputer des ZIB -- im Bessel'schen Irrgarten''. Die auftretenden Phänomene werden mathematisch elementar erklärt, wobei lediglich auf das Konzept der linearen Unabhängigkeit zurückgegriffen wird. Das dabei gewonnene vertiefte Verständnis fließt ein in die Konstruktion eines klassischen Algorithmus sowie eines wesentlich verbesserten Horner-artigen Algorithmus.

Description: In this paper we study capacitated network design problems, differentiating directed, bidirected and undirected link capacity models. We complement existing polyhedral results for the three variants by new classes of facet-defining valid inequalities and unified lifting results. For this, we study the restriction of the problems to a cut of the network. First, we show that facets of the resulting cutset polyhedra translate into facets of the original network design polyhedra if the two subgraphs defined by the network cut are (strongly) connected. Second, we provide an analysis of the facial structure of cutset polyhedra, elaborating the differences caused by the three different types of capacity constraints. We present flow-cutset inequalities for all three models and show under which conditions these are facet-defining. We also state a new class of facets for the bidirected and undirected case and it is shown how to handle multiple capacity modules by Mixed Integer Rounding (MIR).

Description: In this paper we study online multicommodity routing problems in networks, in which commodities have to be routed sequentially. The flow of each commodity can be split on several paths. Arcs are equipped with load dependent price functions defining routing costs, which have to be minimized. We discuss a greedy online algorithm that routes each commodity by minimizing a convex cost function that only depends on the demands previously routed. We present a competitive analysis of this algorithm showing that for affine linear price functions this algorithm is 4K2 (1+K)2 -competitive, where K is the number of commodities. For the single-source single-destination case, this algorithm is optimal. Without restrictions on the price functions and network, no algorithm is competitive. Finally, we investigate a variant in which the demands have to be routed unsplittably.

Description: In this paper, we empirically investigate the NP-hard problem of finding sparse solutions to linear equation systems, i.e., solutions with as few nonzeros as possible. This problem has received considerable interest in the sparse approximation and signal processing literature, recently. We use a branch-and-cut approach via the maximum feasible subsystem problem to compute optimal solutions for small instances and investigate the uniqueness of the optimal solutions. We furthermore discuss five (modifications of) heuristics for this problem that appear in different parts of the literature. For small instances, the exact optimal solutions allow us to evaluate the quality of the heuristics, while for larger instances we compare their relative performance. One outcome is that the basis pursuit heuristic performs worse, compared to the other methods. Among the best heuristics are a method due to Mangasarian and a bilinear approach.

Description: The performance evaluation of W-CDMA networks is intricate as cells are strongly coupled through interference. Pole equations have been developed as a simple tool to analyze cell capacity. Numerous scientific contributions have been made on their basis. In the established forms, the pole equations rely on strong assumptions such as homogeneous traffic, uniform users, and constant downlink orthogonality factor. These assumptions are not met in realistic scenarios. Hence, the pole equations are typically used during initial network dimensioning only. Actual network (fine-) planning requires a more faithful analysis of each individual cell's capacity. Complex analytical analysis or Monte-Carlo simulations are used for this purposes. In this paper, we generalize the pole equations to include inhomogeneous data. We show how the equations can be parametrized in a cell-specific way provided the transmit powers are known. This allows to carry over prior results to realistic settings. This is illustrated with an example: Based on the pole equation, we investigate the accuracy of average snapshot'' approximations for downlink transmit powers used in state-of-the-art network optimization schemes. We confirm that the analytical insights apply to practice-relevant settings on the basis of results from detailed Monte-Carlo simulation on realistic datasets.

Description: This paper deals with directed, bidirected, and undirected capacitated network design problems. Using mixed integer rounding (MIR), we generalize flow-cutset inequalities to these three link types and to an arbitrary modular link capacity structure, and propose a generic separation algorithm. In an extensive computational study on 54 instances from the Survivable Network Design Library (SNDlib), we show that the performance of cplex can significantly be enhanced by this class of cutting planes. The computations reveal the particular importance of the subclass of cutset-inequalities.

Description: Wigner transformation provides a one-to-one correspondence between functions on position space (wave functions) and functions on phase space (Wigner functions). Weighted integrals of Wigner functions yield quadratic quantities of wave functions like position and momentum densities or expectation values. For molecular quantum systems, suitably modified classical transport of Wigner functions provides an asymptotic approximation of the dynamics in the high energy regime. The article addresses the computation of Wigner functions by Monte Carlo quadrature. An ad aption of the Metropolis algorithm for the approximation of signed measures with disconnected support is systematically tested in combination with a surface hopping algorithm for non-adiabatic quantum dynamics. The numerical experiments give expectation values and level populations with an error of two to three percent, which agrees with the theoretically expected accuracy.

Description: We study a planning problem arising in SDH/WDM multi-layer telecommunication network design. The goal is to find a minimum cost installation of link and node hardware of both network layers such that traffic demands can be realized via grooming and a survivable routing. We present a mixed-integer programming formulation that takes many practical side constraints into account, including node hardware, several bitrates, and survivability against single physical node or link failures. This model is solved using a branch-and-cut approach with problem-specific preprocessing and cutting planes based on either of the two layers. On several realistic two-layer planning scenarios, we show that these cutting planes are still useful in the multi-layer context, helping to increase the dual bound and to reduce the optimality gaps.

Description: This thesis describes the algorithm IS-OPT that integrates scheduling of vehicles and duties in public bus transit. IS-OPT is the first algorithm which solves integrated vehicle and duty scheduling problems arising in medium sized carriers such that its solutions can be used in daily operations without further adaptions. This thesis is structured as follows: The first chapter highlights mathematical models of the planning process of public transit companies and examines their potential for integrating them with other planning steps. It also introduces descriptions of the vehicle and the duty scheduling problem. Chapter 2 motivates why it can be useful to integrate vehicle and duty scheduling, explains approaches of the literature, and gives an outline of our algorithm IS-OPT. The following chapters go into the details of the most important techniques and methods of IS-OPT: In Chapter 3 we describe how we use Lagrangean relaxation in a column generation framework. Next, in Chapter 4, we describe a variant of the proximal bundle method (PBM) that is used to approximate linear programs occurring in the solution process. We introduce here a new variant of the PBM which is able to utilize inexact function evaluation and the use of epsilon-subgradients. We also show the convergence of this method under certain assumptions. Chapter 5 treats the generation of duties for the duty scheduling problem. This problem is modeled as a resourceconstraint- shortest-path-problem with non-linear side constraints and nearly linear objective function. It is solved in a two-stage approach. At first we calculate lower bounds on the reduced costs of duties using certain nodes by a new inexact label-setting algorithm. Then we use these bounds to speed up a depth-first-search algorithm that finds feasible duties. In Chapter 6 we present the primal heuristic of IS-OPT that solves the integrated problem to integrality. We introduce a new branch-and-bound based heuristic which we call rapid branching. Rapid branching uses the proximal bundle method to compute lower bounds, it introduces a heuristic node selection scheme, and it utilizes a new branching rule that fixes sets of many variables at once. The common approach to solve the problems occurring in IS-OPT is to trade inexactness of the solutions for speed of the algorithms. This enables, as we show in Chapter 7, to solve large real world integrated problems by IS-OPT. The scheduled produced by IS-OPT save up to 5% of the vehicle and duty cost of existing schedules of regional and urban public transport companies.

Description: Diese Arbeit beschreibt den Algorithmus IS-OPT, welcher der erste Algorithmus ist, der integrierte Umlauf- und Dienstplanungsprobleme für mittelgroße Verkehrsunternehmen löst und dabei alle betrieblichen Einzelheiten berücksichtigt. Seine Lösungen können daher direkt in den täglichen Betrieb übernommen werden. Im ersten Kapitel werden mathematische Modelle für verschiedenen Probleme aus dem Planungsprozess von Nahverkehrsunternehmen beschrieben. Es werden Ansätze zur Integration der einzelnen Probleme untersucht. In diesem Kapitel werden außerdem das Umlauf- und das Dienstplanungsproblem eingeführt. Kapitel 2 motiviert, warum Integration von Umlauf- und Dienstplanung hilfreich ist oder in welchen Fällen sie sogar unabdingbar ist; es gibt einen Überblick über die vorhanden Literatur zur integrierten Umlauf- und Dienstplanung und umreißt unseren Algorithmus IS-OPT. Die weiteren Kapitel behandeln die in IS-OPT verwendeten Methoden: In Kapitel 3 beschreiben wir, wie Spaltenerzeugung für lineare Programme mit Lagrange-Relaxierung und Subgradienten-Verfahren kombiniert werden kann. In Kapitel 4 wird unsere Variante der proximalen Bündelmethode beschrieben. Diese wird benutzt um näherungsweise primale und duale Lösungen von lineare Programmen zu berechnen. Unsere Variante ist angepasst, um auch mit ungenauer Funktionsauswertung und Epsilon-Subgradienten arbeiten zu können. Wir zeigen die Konvergenz dieser Variante unter bestimmten Annahmen. Kapitel 5 behandelt das Erzeugen von Diensten für das Dienstplanungsproblem. Dieses Problem ist als ein Kürzeste-Wege-Problem mit nichtlinearen Nebenbedingungen und fast linearer Zielfunktion modelliert. Wir lösen es, indem zuerst Schranken für die reduzierten Kosten von Diensten, die bestimmte Knoten benutzen, berechnet werden. Diese Schranken werden benutzt, um in einem Tiefensuchalgorithmus den Suchbaum klein zu halten. Im Kapitel 6 präsentieren wir die neu entwickelte Heuristik "Rapid Branching", die eine ganzzahlige Lösung des integrierten Problems berechnet. Rapid Branching kann als eine spezielle Branch-and-Bound-Heuristik gesehen werden, welche die Bündelmethode benutzt. In den Knoten des Suchbaums können mehrere Variablen auf einmal fixiert werden, die mit Hilfe einer Perturbationsheuristik ausgewählt werden. In Kapitel 7 schließlich zeigen wir, daß wir mit IS-OPT auch große Probleminstanzen aus der Praxis lösen können und dabei bis zu 5% der Fahrzeug- und Dienstkosten sparen können.

Description: In \emph{classical optimization} it is assumed that full information about the problem to be solved is given. This, in particular, includes that all data are at hand. The real world may not be so nice'' to optimizers. Some problem constraints may not be known, the data may be corrupted, or some data may not be available at the moments when decisions have to be made. The last issue is the subject of \emph{online optimization} which will be addressed here. We explain some theory that has been developed to cope with such situations and provide examples from practice where unavailable information is not the result of bad data handling but an inevitable phenomenon.

Description: This paper reviews George Dantzig's contribution to integer programming, especially his seminal work with Fulkerson and Johnson on the traveling salesman problem

Description: Abstract The cost-efficient design of survivable optical telecommunication networks is the topic of this thesis. In cooperation with network operators, we have developed suitable concepts and mathematical optimization methods to solve this comprehensive planning task in practice. Optical technology is more and more employed in modern telecommunication networks. Digital information is thereby transmitted as short light pulses through glass fibers. Moreover, the optical medium allows for simultaneous transmissions on a single fiber by use of different wavelengths. Recent optical switches enable a direct forwarding of optical channels in the network nodes without the previously required signal retransformation to electronics. Their integration creates ongoing optical connections,which are called lightpaths. We study the problem of finding cost-efficient configurations of optical networks which meet specified communication requirements. A configuration comprises the determination of all lightpaths to establish as well as the detailed allocation of all required devices and systems. We use a flexible modeling framework for a realistic representation of the networks and their composition. For different network architectures, we formulate integer linear programs which model the design task in detail. Moreover, network survivability is an important issue due to the immense bandwidths offered by optical technology. Operators therefore request for designs which perpetuate protected connections and guarantee for a defined minimum throughput in case of malfunctions. In order to achieve an effective realization of scalable protection, we present a novel survivability concept tailored to optical networks and integrate several variants into the models. Our solution approach is based on a suitable model decomposition into two subtasks which separates two individually hard subproblems and enables this way to compute cost-efficient designs with approved quality guarantee. The first subtask consists of routing the connections with corresponding dimensioning of capacities and constitutes a common core task in the area of network planning. Sophisticated methods for such problems have already been developed and are deployed by appropriate integration. The second subtask is characteristic for optical networks and seeks for a conflict-free assignment of available wavelengths to the lightpaths using a minimum number of involved wavelength converters. For this coloring-like task, we derive particular models and study methods to estimate the number of unavoidable conversions. As constructive approach, we develop heuristics and an exact branch-and-price algorithm. Finally, we carry out an extensive computational study on realistic data, provided by our industrial partners. As twofold purpose, we demonstrate the potential of our approach for computing good solutions with quality guarantee, and we exemplify its flexibility for application to network design and analysis.

Description: Parabolic reaction-diffusion systems may develop sharp moving reaction fronts which pose a challenge even for adaptive finite element methods. We propose a method to transform the equation into an equivalent form that usually exhibits solutions which are easier to discretize, giving higher accuracy for a given number of degrees of freedom. The transformation is realized as an efficiently computable pointwise nonlinear scaling that is optimized for prototypical planar travelling wave solutions of the underlying reaction-diffusion equation. The gain in either performance or accuracy is demonstrated on different numerical examples.

Description: We propose and analyse an interior point path-following method in function space for state constrained optimal control. Our emphasis is on proving convergence in function space and on constructing a practical path-following algorithm. In particular, the introduction of a pointwise damping step leads to a very efficient method, as verified by numerical experiments.

Description: Die Intention ist der kooperative Aufbau einer Infrastruktur durch die Bibliotheksverbünde, um den Nutzern Volltext-Angebote dauerhaft und komfortabel zur Verfügung zu stellen: Zeitschriftenartikel und elektronische Dokumente werden mittels Suchmaschinentechnologie indexiert und unter Berücksichtigung von Zugriffsrechten zugänglich gemacht. Realisiert ist dies bereits im KOBV-Volltextserver, der seit Ende 2005 im Routinebetrieb läuft. Vorstellbar ist ein überregionales Netz von Volltextservern der Verbünde, die mittels Suchmaschinentechnologie indiziert und nahtlos in das regionale und lokale Literaturangebot integriert werden. Bei den lizenzierten Materialien sind insbesondere auch die Rechte der Verlage zu wahren und entsprechende Rechtemanagement-Verfahren einzusetzen. Es gilt, transparente Verfahren zu konzipieren und umzusetzen, um für die Verlage die notwendige Vertrauensbasis zu schaffen und gleichzeitig den Einrichtungen ihren berechtigten Zugriff auf die Volltexte zu sichern. Der vorliegende Text ist die schriftliche Fassung eines Vortrages auf dem 3. Leipziger Kongress für Information und Bibliothek "Information und Ethik", der vom 19.-22. März 2007 im Congress Center Leipzig stattfand.

Description: Zur Unterstützung der Bibliotheken bei ihren Open-Access-Aktivitäten betreibt die KOBV-Zentrale seit Anfang 2005 den Service "Opus- und Archivierungsdienste". Die KOBV-Zentrale agiert als Application Service Provider (ASP) für sämtliche technischen Komponenten des Publikationsprozesses, indem sie die gesamte technische Infrastruktur bereitstellt und betreibt – angefangen bei den lokalen Publikationsservern bis hin zu lokalen Repositories zur Archivierung der elektronischen Dokumente. Der vorliegende Text ist die schriftliche Fassung eines gleichnamigen Vortrages auf der 31. ASpB-Tagung "Kooperation versus Eigenprofil?" der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Spezialbibliotheken, die vom 25.-28. September 2007 in der Technischen Universität Berlin stattfand.

Description: A new approach to derive transparent boundary conditions (TBCs) for wave, Schrödinger, heat and drift-diffusion equations is presented. It relies on the pole condition and distinguishes between physical reasonable and unreasonable solutions by the location of the singularities of the spatial Laplace transform of the exterior solution. To obtain a numerical algorithm, a Möbius transform is applied to map the Laplace transform onto the unit disc. In the transformed coordinate the solution is expanded into a power series. Finally, equations for the coefficients of the power series are derived. These are coupled to the equation in the interior, and yield transparent boundary conditions. Numerical results are presented in the last section, showing that the error introduced by the new approximate TBCs decays exponentially in the number of coefficients.

Description: We present a unified approach for consistent remeshing of arbitrary non-manifold triangle meshes with additional user-defined feature lines, which together form a feature skeleton. Our method is based on local operations only and produces meshes of high regularity and triangle quality while preserving the geometry as well as topology of the feature skeleton and the input mesh.

Description: Was Komplexität ist, weiß niemand so richtig. In vielen Wissenschaftsgebieten wird der Begriff Komplexität verwendet, überall mit etwas anderer Bedeutung. Mathematik und Informatik hab en eine eigene Theorie hierzu entwickelt: die Komplexitätstheorie. Sie stellt zwar grundlegende Begriffe bereit, aber leider sind die meisten wichtigen Fragestellungen noch ungelöst. Diese kurze Einführung konzentriert sich auf einen speziellen, aber bedeutenden Aspekt der Theorie: Lösbarkeit von Problemen in deterministischer und nichtdeterministischer polynomialer Zeit. Hinter der für Uneingeweihte etwas kryptischen Frage "P = NP?" verbirgt sich das derzeit wichtigste Problem der Komplexitätstheorie. Anhand dieser Fragestellung werden einige Aspekte der Theorie erläutert und formell erklärt, was "P = NP?" bedeutet. Es geht nicht nur um komplizierte algorithmische Mathematik und Informatik, sondern um grundsätzliche Fragen unserer Lebensumwelt. Kann man vielleicht beweisen, dass es für viele Probleme unseres Alltags keine effizienten Lösungsmethoden gibt?

Description: This report combines the contributions to INOC 2005 (Wessälly et al., 2005) and DRCN 2005 (Gruber et al., 2005). A new integer linear programming model for the end-to-end survivability concept deman d-wise shared protection (DSP) is presented. DSP is based on the idea that backup capacity is dedicated to a particular demand, but shared within a demand. It combines advantages of dedicated and shared protection: It is more cost-efficient than dedicated protection and operationally easier than shared protection. In a previous model for DSP, the number of working and backup paths to be configured for a particular demand has been an input parameter; in the more general model for DSP investigated in this paper, this value is part of the decisions to take. To use the new DSP model algorithmically, we suggest a branch-and-cut approach which employs a column generation procedure to deal with the exponential number of routing variables. A computational study to compare the new resilience mechanism DSP with dedicated and shared path protection is performed. The results for five realistic network planning scenarios reveal that the best solutions for DSP are on average 15\% percent better than the corresponding 1+1 dedicated path protection solutions, and only 15\% percent worse than shared path protection.

Description: Die Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records, kurz FRBR, sind eine Empfehlung der International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) von 1998 zur Neustrukturierung von Bibliothekskatalogen. Mit den FRBR wird ein logisches Denkmodell für bibliografische Beschreibungen vorgelegt. Die Diskussion über dieses Modell befindet sich im deutschsprachigen Raum - anders als im angloamerikanischen - noch in den Anfängen. Dem möchte dieser Aufsatz entgegen wirken, indem die Frage gestellt wird, inwieweit sich die logisch gedachten FRBR-Einheiten in den existierenden Daten wieder finden lassen. Dazu werden die Entitäten mit den dazugehörigen Attributen dem in der Bibliothekswelt Deutschlands und Österreichs üblichen MAB-Format (Maschinelles Austauschformat für Bibliotheken) gegenübergestellt und auf ihre Kompatibilität hin untersucht. Die Autoren sind Mitglieder der überregionalen {\glqq}Expertengruppe Datenformate{\grqq}, in der Formatfragen, die das Bibliothekswesen betreffen, diskutiert werden, insbesondere aber das MAB-Format gepflegt wird.

Description: In this paper we consider a simple variant of the Online Dial-a-Ride Problem from a probabilistic point of view. To this end, we look at a probabilistic version of this online Dial-a-Ride problem and introduce a probabilistic notion of the competitive ratio which states that an algorithm performs well on the vast majority of the instances. Our main result is that under the assumption of high load a certain online algorithm is probabilistically $(1+o(1))$-competitive if the underlying graph is a tree. This result can be extended to general graphs by using well-known approximation techniques at the expense of a distortion factor~$O(\log\|V\|)$.

Description: The identification of metastable conformations of molecules plays an important role in computational drug design. One main difficulty is the fact that the underlying dynamic processes take place in high dimensional spaces. Although the restriction of degrees of freedom to a few dihedral angles significantly reduces the complexity of the problem, the existing algorithms are time-consuming. They are based on the approximation of transition probabilities by an extensive sampling of states according to the Boltzmann distribution. We present a method which can identify metastable conformations without sampling the complete distribution. Our algorithm is based on local transition rates and uses only pointwise information about the potential energy surface. In order to apply the cluster algorithm PCCA+, we compute a few eigenvectors of the rate matrix by the Jacobi-Davidson method. Interpolation techniques are applied to approximate the thermodynamical weights of the clusters. The concluding example illustrates our approach for epigallocatechine, a molecule which can be described by seven dihedral angles.

Description: Zahlreiche lokale, nationale und internationale Informationsportale existieren mit zum Teil gleichen Angeboten und Dienstleistungen nebeneinander. Da der Aufbau und Betrieb von Portalen kostspielig ist, sollten die einzelnen Dienstleistungen abgestimmt und sinnvoll untereinander vernetzt werden. Für eine solch anzustrebende Kooperation unter Portalen ist es notwendig, ein jeweils eigenes Portalprofil zu definieren, um bei einer Gegenüberstellung der Profile die Abgrenzungen und Verknüpfungspunkte deutlich werden zu lassen. Die KOBV-Zentrale möchte mit der Profilbeschreibung des KOBV-Portals beginnen und so die eigenen Angebote des regionalen Portals mit denen anderer auf sinnvolle Weise verknüpfen. Für diese Positionsbestimmung werden die Dienstleistungen, die Zielgruppe, die Kriterien für die Ressourcenauswahl sowie die Abgrenzung zu anderen Portalen dargelegt.

Description: Conflict analysis for infeasible subproblems is one of the key ingredients in modern SAT solvers to cope with large real-world instances. In contrast, it is common practice for today's mixed integer programming solvers to just discard infeasible subproblems and the information they reveal. In this paper we try to remedy this situation by generalizing the SAT infeasibility analysis to mixed integer programming. We present heuristics for branch-and-cut solvers to generate valid inequalities from the current infeasible subproblem and the associated branching information. SAT techniques can then be used to strengthen the resulting cuts. We performed computational experiments which show the potential of our method: On feasible MIP instances, the number of required branching nodes was reduced by 50\% in the geometric mean. However, the total solving time increased by 15\%. on infeasible MIPs arising in the context of chip verification, the number of nodes was reduced by 90\%, thereby reducing the solving time by 60\%.

Description: We provide conditions for convergence of polyhedral surfaces and their discrete geometric properties to smooth surfaces embedded in Euclidian $3$-space. The notion of totally normal convergence is shown to be equivalent to the convergence of either one of the following: surface area, intrinsic metric, and Laplace-Beltrami operators. We further s how that totally normal convergence implies convergence results for shortest geodesics, mean curvature, and solutions to the Dirichlet problem. This work provides the justification for a discrete theory of differential geometric operators defined on polyhedral surfaces based on a variational formulation.

Description: The line planning problem is one of the fundamental problems in strategic planning of public and rail transport. It consists in finding lines and corresponding frequencies in a transport network such that a given travel demand can be satisfied. There are (at least) two objectives. The transport company wishes to minimize operating costs, the passengers want to minimize travel times. We propose a n ew multi-commodity flow model for line planning. Its main features, in comparison to existing models, are that the passenger paths can be freely routed and that the lines are generated dynamically. We discuss properties of this model and investigate its complexity. Results with data for the city of Potsdam, Germany, are reported.

Description: Im Rahmen des klassischen Information Retrieval wurden verschiedene Verfahren für das Ranking sowie die Suche in einer homogenen strukturlosen Dokumentenmenge entwickelt. Die Erfolge der Suchmas chine Google haben gezeigt, dass die Suche in einer zwar inhomogenen aber zusammenhängenden Dokumentenmenge wie dem Internet unter Berücksichtigung der Dokumentenverbindungen (Links) sehr ef fektiv sein kann. Unter den von der Suchmaschine Google realisierten Konzepten ist ein Verfahren zum Ranking von Suchergebnissen (PageRank), das in diesem Artikel kurz erklärt wird. % Darüber hinaus wird auf die Konzepte eines Systems namens CiteSeer eingegangen, welches automatisch bibliographische Angaben indexiert (engl. \glqq Autonomous Citation Indexing\grqq, ACI). Letzteres erzeugt aus einer Menge von nicht-vernetzten wissenschaftlichen Dokumenten eine zusammenhängende Dokumentenmenge und ermöglicht den Einsatz von Ranking-Verfahren, die auf den von Google genutzten Verfahren basieren.

Description: A thorough convergence analysis of the Control Reduced Interior Point Method in function space is performed. This recently proposed method is a primal interior point pathfollowing scheme with the special feature, that the control variable is eliminated from the optimality system. Apart from global linear convergence we show, that this method converges locally almost quadratically, if the optimal solution satisfies a function space analogue to a non-degeneracy condition. In numerical experiments we observe, that a prototype implementation of our method behaves in compliance with our theoretical results.

Description: The use of point sets instead of meshes became more popular during the last years. We present a new method for anisotropic fairing of a point sampled surface using an anisotropic geometric mean curvature flow. The main advantage of our approach is that the evolution removes noise from a point set while it detects and enhances geometric features of the surface such as edges and corners. We derive a shape operator, principal curvature properties of a point set, and an anisotropic Laplacian of the surface. This anisotropic Laplacian reflects curvature properties which can be understood as the point set analogue of Taubin's curvature-tensor for polyhedral surfaces. We combine these discrete tools with techniques from geometric diffusion and image processing. Several applications demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of our method.

Description: In this paper we introduce the fare planning problem for public transport which consists in designing a system of fares maximizing revenue. We propose a new simple general model for this problem. It i s based on a demand function and constraints for the different fares. The constraints define the structure of the fare system, e.g., distance dependent fares or zone fares. We discuss a simple example with a quadratic demand function and distance dependent fares. Then we introduce a more realistic discrete choice model in which passengers choose between different alternatives depending on the numb er of trips per month. We demonstrate the examples by computational experiments.

Description: Can OR methods help the public transport industry to break even? The article gives evidence that there exist significant potentials in this direction, which can be harnessed by a combination of modern mathematical methods and local planning knowledge. Many of the planning steps in public transport are classical combinatorial problems, which can be solved in unprecedented size and quality due the rapid progress in large-scale optimization. Three examples on vehicle scheduling, duty scheduling, and integrated vehicle and duty scheduling illustrate the level that has been reached and the improvements that can be achieved today. Extensions of such methods to further questions of strategic, online, and market-oriented planning are currently investigated. In this way, OR can make a significant contribution to answer the basic but extremely difficult question ``What is a good public transport network?.

Description: Laplace transforms which admit a holomorphic extension to some sector strictly containing the right half plane and exhibiting a potential behavior are considered. A spectral order, parallelizable method for their numerical inversion is proposed. The method takes into account the available information about the errors arising in the evaluations. Several numerical illustrations are provided.

Description: The airline crew scheduling problem deals with the construction of crew rotations in order to cover the flights of a given schedule at minimum cost. The problem involves complex rules for the legality and costs of individual pairings and base constraints for the availability of crews at home bases. A typical instance considers a planning horizon of one month and several thousand flights. We propose a column generation approach for solving airline crew scheduling problems that is based on a set partitioning model. We discuss algorithmic aspects such as the use of bundle techniques for the fast, approximate solution of linear programs, a pairing generator that combines Lagrangean shortest path and callback techniques, and a novel rapid branching'' IP heuristic. Computational results for a number of industrial instances are reported. Our approach has been implemented within the commercial crew scheduling system NetLine/Crew of Lufthansa Systems Berlin GmbH.

Description: The complexity of molecular kinetics can be reduced significantly by a restriction to metastable conformations which are almost invariant sets of molecular dynamical systems. With the Robust Perron Cl uster Analysis PCCA+, developed by Weber and Deuflhard, we have a tool available which can be used to identify these conformations from a transition probability matrix. This method can also be applied to the corresponding transition rate matrix which provides important information concerning transition pathways of single molecules. In the present paper, we explain the relationship between these tw o concepts and the extraction of conformation kinetics from transition rates. Moreover, we show how transition rates can be approximated and conclude with numerical examples.

Description: Die Autoren schreiben dieses Papier aus der eingeschränkten Sicht der Mathematik und der Informationstechnik. Um den speziellen Beitrag dieser Disziplinen überhaupt diskutieren zu können, sehen wir uns jedoch gezwungen, einen Rahmen abzustecken, den wir für das Jahr 2020 vorhersehen -- nach Wahrscheinlichkeit und aus unserem engeren fachlichen Blickwinkel. Vorab bitten wir schon einmal bei den medizinischen Fachleuten um Nachsicht, wenn wir uns in ihrem Revier allzu dillettantisch bewegen. Vielleicht fördert aber auch unser eingeschränkter Blickwinkel ansonsten unbedachte Aspekte zutage -- das hoffen wir zumindest.

Description: We consider nonlinear, scaling-invariant $N=1$ boson$+$fermion supersymmetric systems whose right-hand sides are homogeneous differential polynomials and satisfy some natural assumptions. We select the super-systems that admit infinitely many higher symmetries generated by recursion operators; we further restrict ourselves to the case when the dilaton dimensions of the bosonic and fermionic super-fields coincide and the weight of the time is half the weight of the spatial variable. We discover five systems that satisfy these assumptions; one system is transformed to the purely bosonic Burgers equation. We construct local, nilpotent, triangular, weakly non-local, and super-recursion operators for their symmetry algebras.

Description: We present a branch-and-cut algorithm for the NP-hard maximum feasible subsystem problem: For a given infeasible linear inequality system, determine a feasible subsystem containing as many inequalities as possible. The complementary problem, where one has to remove as few inequalities as possible in order to render the system feasible, can be formulated as a set covering problem. The rows of this formulation correspond to irreducible infeasible subsystems, which can be exponentially many. The main issue of a branch-and-cut algorithm for MaxFS is to efficiently find such infeasible subsystems. We present three heuristics for the corresponding NP-hard separation problem and discuss further cutting planes. This paper contains an extensive computational study of our implementation on a variety of instances arising in a number of applications.

Description: New evolutionary supersymmetric systems whose right-hand sides are homogeneous differential polynomials and which possess infinitely many higher symmetries are constructed. Their intrinsic geometry (symmetries, conservation laws, recursion operators, Hamiltonian structures, and exact solutions) is analyzed by using algebraic methods. A supersymmetric $N=1$ representation of the Burgers equation is obtained. An $N=2$ KdV-component system that reduces to the Burgers equation in the diagonal $N=1$ case $\theta^1=\theta^2$ is found; the $N=2$ Burgers equation admits and $N=2$ modified KdV symmetry. A one\/-\/parametric family of $N=0$ super\/-\/systems that exte nd the Burgers equation is described; we relate the systems within this family with the Burgers equation on associative algebras. A supersymmetric boson$+$fermion representation of the dispersionless Boussinesq equation is investigated. We solve this equation explicitly and construct its integrable deformation that generates two infinite sequences of the Hamiltonians. The Boussinesq equation with dispersion is embedded in a one-parametric family of two-component systems with dissipation. We finally construct a three-parametric supersymmetric system that incorporates the Boussinesq equation with dispersion and dissipation but never retracts to it for any values of the parameters.

Description: In this paper we present a new technique for computing lower bounds for graph treewidth. Our technique is based on the fact that the treewidth of a graph $G$ is the maximum order of a bramble of $G$ minus one. We give two algorithms: one for general graphs, and one for planar graphs. The algorithm for planar graphs is shown to give a lower bound for both the treewidth and branchwidth that is at most a constant factor away from the optimum. For both algorithms, we report on extensive computational experiments that show that the algorithms give often excellent lower bounds, in particular when applied to (close to) planar graphs.

Description: Seit einigen Jahren lizenzieren Bibliotheken mit erheblichem finanziellen Aufwand elektronische Zeitschriften. Anders als bei einer Papierausgabe ist der dauerhafte Zugriff auf die bezahlten Dokumente allerdings nicht garantiert: Die e-Zeitschriften liegen auf dem Verlagsserver, und der Verlag schaltet den Zugriff (meist IP-Range des Campus) auf seinem Server frei. Wird der Zugriff von Verlagsseite abgeschaltet, erlöschen sämtliche Zugriffsrechte, auch auf die in der Vergangenheit lizenzierten und bezahlten Zeitschriften. Auf die neuen Abonnementbedingungen hat das Friedrich-Althoff-Konsortium (FAK) reagiert und in seinen Vertr"agen den Erwerb der Archivdaten beim Auslaufen eines Vertrages festgeschrieben. Im Rahmen eines Projektes baut die KOBV-Zentrale einen Zeitschriftenserver auf, um den Zugriff auf die lizenzierten elektronischen Zeitschriften auch nach Ablauf der Lizenzverträge zu gewährleisten. Den Grundstock bilden die vom FAK in den Jahren 1997-2003 lizenzierten elektronischen Zeitschriften der Verlage Kluwer Academic Press, Springer und Elsevier - ein Volumen von rund 1.600 Zeitschriftentiteln mit knapp 1.400.000 Artikeln. Beim Aufbau des Zeitschriftenservers kommt der vertraglich-organisatorischen Komponente eine ebenso wichtige Rolle zu wie der technischen Realisierung. Hier hat die KOBV-Zentrale ein transparentes Verfahren konzipiert und umgesetzt, um für die Verlage die notwendige Vertrauensbasis zu schaffen und gleichzeitig den Einrichtungen ihren berechtigten Zugriff auf die Zeitschriften-Volltexte zu sichern. Die Zeitschriftenartikel werden sowohl im Rahmen des KOBV-Volltextservers, einem neuen Internet-Dienst der KOBV-Zentrale, zugänglich gemacht - volltext-indiziert mit der Suchmaschine Swish-e - als auch integriert in die Metadatensuche und den Open-Linking-Dienst des KOBV-Portals. Während die Metadatenrecherche und die Sicht auf die Abstracts für alle offen sind, ist der Zugriff auf die Artikel-Volltexte auf die an den Verträgen beteiligten Einrichtungen beschränkt. Dazu wurde ein Authentifizierungsverfahren auf der Basis von IP-Ranges eingerichtet. Der vorliegende Text ist die schriftliche Fassung eines gleichnamigen Vortrages auf der ASpB-Tagung 2005 \glqq Spezialbibliotheken zwischen Auftrag und Ressourcen{\grqq} der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Spezialbibliotheken, die vom 06.-09. September 2005 in der Technischen Universität München stattfand.

Description: In diesem Bericht wurden Erfahrungen mit der Suchmaschine FAST im Rahmen des Projektes Verteilter Contentspeicher sowie die Suchmaschine FAST beschrieben. Das Ziel des Projektes Verteilter Contentspeicher war die Speicherung, Erschließung und das Angebot der digitalen Bestände der Journale und Dokumente der KOBV-Bibliotheken zu ermöglichen. Die Eignung der Suchmaschine FAST für das Projektvorhaben wurde systematisch und gründlich getestet, indem verschiedene Dokumentmengen mit FAST indexiert wurden.

Description: The thesis deals with the implementation and application of out-of-the-box tools in linear and mixed integer programming. It documents the lessons learned and conclusions drawn from five years of implementing, maintaining, extending, and using several computer codes to solve real-life industrial problems. By means of several examples it is demonstrated how to apply algebraic modeling languages to rapidly devise mathematical models of real-world problems. It is shown that today's MIP solvers are capable of solving the resulting mixed integer programs, leading to an approach that delivers results very quickly. Even though, problems are tackled that not long ago required the implementation of specialized branch-and-cut algorithms. In the first part of the thesis the modeling language Zimpl is introduced. Chapter 2 contains a complete description of the language. In the subsequent chapter details of the implementation are described. Both theoretical and practical considerations are discussed. Aspects of software engineering, error prevention, and detection are addressed. In the second part several real-world projects are examined that employed the methodology and the tools developed in the first part. Chapter 4 presents three projects from the telecommunication industry dealing with facility location problems. Chapter 5 characterizes questions that arise in UMTS planning. Problems, models, and solutions are discussed. Special emphasis is put on the dependency of the precision of the input data and the results. Possible reasons for unexpected and undesirable solutions are explained. Finally, the Steiner tree packing problem in graphs, a well-known hard combinatorial problem, is revisited. A formerly known, but not yet used model is applied to combine switchbox wire routing and via minimization. All instances known from the literature are solved by this approach, as are some newly generated bigger problem instances.

Description: We develop and experimentally compare policies for the control of a system of $k$ elevators with capacity one in a transport environment with $\ell$ floors, an idealized version of a pallet elevator system in a large distribution center of the Herlitz PBS AG in Falkensee. Each elevator in the idealized system has an individual waiting queue of infinite capacity. On each floor, requests arrive over time in global waiting queues of infinite capacity. The goal is to find a policy that, without any knowledge about future requests, assigns an elevator to each req uest and a schedule to each elevator so that certain expected cost functions (e.g., the average or the maximal flow times) are minimized. We show that a reoptimization policy for minimizing average sq uared waiting times can be implemented to run in real-time ($1\,s$) using dynamic column generation. Moreover, in discrete event simulations with Poisson input it outperforms other commonly used polic ies like multi-server variants of greedy and nearest neighbor.

Description: A method based on infinite parameter conservation laws is described to factor linear differential operators out of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) or out of differential consequences of nonlinear PDEs. This includes a complete linearization to an equivalent linear PDE (-system) if that is possible. Infinite parameter conservation laws can be computed, for example, with the computer algebra package {\sc ConLaw}.

Description: Motivated by recent work on integrable flows of curves and 1+1 dimensional sigma models, several $O(N)$-invariant classes of hyperbolic equations $Utx=f(U,Ut,Ux)$ for an $N$-component vector $U(t,x)$ are considered. In each class we find all scaling-homogeneous equations admitting a higher symmetry of least possible scaling weight. Sigma model interpretations of these equations are presented.

Description: Quadratic Hamiltonians with a linear Lie-Poisson bracket have a number of applications in mechanics. For example, the Lie-Poisson bracket $e(3)$ includes the Euler-Poinsot model describing motion of a rigid body around a fixed point under gravity and the Kirchhoff model describes the motion of a rigid body in ideal fluid. Advances in computer algebra algorithms, in implementations and hardware, together allow the computation of Hamiltonians with higher degree first integrals providing new results in the search for integrable models. A computer algebra module enabling related computations in a 3-dimensional vector formalism is described.

Description: We give an algorithm to compute $N$ steps of a convolution quadrature approximation to a continuous temporal convolution using only $O(N\, \log N)$ multiplications and $O(\log N)$ active memory. The method does not require evaluations of the convolution kernel, but instead $O(\log N)$ evaluations of its Laplace transform, which is assumed sectorial. The algorithm can be used for the stable numerical solution with quasi-optimal complexity of linear and nonlinear integral and integro-differential equations of convolution type. In a numerical example we apply it to solve a subdiffusion equation with transparent boundary conditions.

Description: We describe a prototypical framework that further automates system management by composing complex management tasks from elementary actions, and executing composite tasks with feedback-awareness. {\sl FEEDBACKFLOW} implements a general closed control loop of \emph{planning - execution - result validation - replanning}, and generates workflows of system management actions in an adaptive manner. System-dependent behaviour of the loop is specified by declarative description of the domain (essentially descriptions of available actions), and statement of the goal. We evaluate the design of this framework on examples taken from resource construction in Utility Computing environments, and discuss the challenges we have encountered. Our implementation utilizes external components such as \emph{MBP}, a \emph{PDDL}-conform planner, and \emph{Triana}, a workflow specification and execution framework. An alternative approach involving \emph{BPEL4WS} is discussed.

Description: For a real world problem --- transporting pallets between warehouses in order to guarantee sufficient supply for known and additional stochastic demand --- we propose a solution approach via convex relaxation of an integer programming formulation, suitable for online optimization. The essential new element linking routing and inventory management is a convex piecewise linear cost function that is based on minimizing the expected number of pallets that still need transportation. For speed, the convex relaxation is solved approximately by a bundle approach yielding an online schedule in 5 to 12 minutes for up to 3 warehouses and 40000 articles; in contrast, computation times of state of the art LP-solvers are prohibitive for online application. In extensive numerical experiments on a real world data stream, the approximate solutions exhibit negligible loss in quality; in long term simulations the proposed method reduces the average number of pallets needing transportation due to short term demand to less than half the number observed in the data stream.

Description: This paper introduces a new algorithm of conformational analysis based on mesh-free methods as described in [M. Weber. Mehless methods in Conformation Dynamics.(2005)]. The adaptive decomposition of the conformational space by softly limiting functions avoids trapping effects and allows adaptive refinement strategies. These properties of the algorithm makes ZIBgridfree particularly suitable for the complete exploration of high-dimensional conformational space. The adaptive control of the algorithm benefits from the tight integration of molecular simulation and conformational analysis. An emphasized part of the analysis is the Robust Perron Cluster Analysis (PCCA+) based on the work of Peter Deuflhard and Marcus Weber. PCCA+ supports an almost-characteristic cluster definition with an outstanding mapping of transition states. The outcome is expressed by the metastable sets of conformations, their thermodynamic weights and flexibility.

Description: This paper reports on the fourth version of the Mixed Integer Programming Library. Since ({\sc miplib}) is to provide a concise set of challenging problems, it became necessary to purge instances that became too easy. We present an overview of the 27 new problems and statistical data for all 60 instances.

Description: Der Artikel beschreibt ein mathematisches Optimierungssystem zur Betriebsplanung in großen Wassernetzen, das bei den Berliner Wasserbetrieben eingesetzt wird. Für das Berliner Versorgungsnetz werden Optimierungsergebnisse vorgestellt.

Description: \\ Zusammenfassung: Der Kooperative Bibliotheksverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (KOBV) betreibt für das KOBV-Portal einen Austausch von Beschreibungen zu elektronischen Ressourcen (Metadaten), der zwisc zwischen verschiedenen Informationsportalen in der Region durchgeführt wird. Die unterschiedlichen Informationsportale verwenden verschiedene Metadaten-Schemata und Austausch-Formate für ihre Ressourcebeschreibungen. Um die Heterogenität der Metadaten zu überwinden, wurde der KOBV-Metadaten-Austausch-Parser (KMA-Parser) entwickelt. Andere Metadaten-Schemata werden auf das KOBV-Metadaten-Schema abgebildet. Der KMA-Parser führt gegebenenfalls eine Format-Transformation durch, konvertiert die Inhalte einzelner Elemente über Konkordanzen und erzeugt neue Metadaten-Elemente aus vorhandenen Feldern. Er validiert den Inhalt auf Vollständigkeit und steuert den Austausch der Metadaten zwischen den Portalen. Der Umwandlungsprozess funktioniert jedoch nicht nur in die Richtung des KOBV-Portals, sondern auch in die entgegengesetzte Richtung. Der Artikel beschreibt die einzelnen Vorgänge im KMA-Parser und schildert die Erfahrungen im Umgang mit der Heterogenität von Metadaten. Die gewonnenen Erfahrungen verweisen auf grundlegende Perspektiven in der universellen Zusammenarbeit von Informationsanbietern und -providern.The Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (KOBV) has built a framework for a bi-directional exchange workflow of electronic resourcesÆ descriptions (metadata) between the KOBV Portal and other Information Portals in the region. The Information Portals use different exchange formats, metadata schemata and controlled vocabularies for their descriptions of resources. In order to overcome this metadata heterogeneity, an application, the KOBV Metadata Exchange Parser (KMA-Parser), has been developed. The KMA-Parser maps the local portalsÆ metadata schemata into the metadata schema of the KOBV Portal. If necessary, it transforms the exchange format, converts contents of individual elements by means roduces new metadata elements on the basis of existent elements. It checks elementsÆ contents on completeness and controls the metadata exchange between the portals. However, the transformation process takes place not only towards the KOBV Portal, but al so vice versa. The article describes the individual processes in the KMA Parser and depicts the experiences in handling the metadataÆs heterogeneity. The experiences gathered give an idea of the prospects for a universal cooperation between information suppliers and providers.

Description: \newcommand{\chordsharp}{Chord$^\##$} Data lookup is a fundamental problem in peer-to-peer systems: Given a key, find the node that stores the associated object. Chord and other P2P algorithms use distributed hash tables (DHTs) to distribute the keys and nodes evenly across a logical ring. Using an efficient routing strategy, DHTs provide a routing performance of $O (\log N)$ in networks of $N$ nodes. While the routing performance has been shown to be optimal, the uniform key distribution makes it impossible for DHTs to support range queries. For range queries, consecutive keys must be stored on lo gically neighboring nodes. In this paper, we present an enhancement of Chord that eliminates the hash function while keeping the same routing performance. The resulting algorithm, named \chordsharp{}, provides a richer function ality while maintaining the same complexity. In addition to Chord, \chordsharp{} adapts to load imbalance.

Description: This paper is concerned with the sensitivities of function space oriented interior point approximations in parameter dependent problems. For an abstract setting that covers control constrained optimal control problems, the convergence of interior point sensitivities to the sensitivities of the optimal solution is shown. Error bounds for $L_q$ norms are derived and illustrated with numerical examples.

Description: We present an approach to implement an auction of railway slots. Railway network, train driving characteristics, and safety requirements are described by a simplified, but still complex macroscopic model. In this environment, slots are modelled as combinations of scheduled track segments. The auction design builds on the iterative combinatorial auction. However, combinatorial bids are restricted to some types of slot bundles that realize positive synergies between slots. We present a bidding language that allows bidding for these slot bundles. An integer programming approach is proposed to solve the winner determination problem of our auction. Computational results for auction simulations in the Hannover-Fulda-Kassel area of the German railway network give evidence that auction approaches can induce a more efficient use of railway capacity.

Description: Das Travelling-Salesman-Problem (TSP) ist das am intensivsten untersuchte kombinatorische Optimierungsproblem. In diesem Abschnitt wird eine Einführung in das TSP gegeben. Es werden Problemstellungen erläutert, Anwendungen skizziert und einige Schwierigkeiten bei der korrekten Modellierung der Zielfunktion dargelegt. Es ist gar nicht so klar, was in einem konkreten Problem die wirkliche Entfernung ist. Exakte und approximative Lösungsverfahren werden an Beispielen skizziert, und es wird angedeutet, dass man, obwohl TSPs zu den theoretisch schweren Problemen zählen, in der Praxis TSPs von atemberaubender Größe lösen kann.

Description: Mit der Installation des neuen Hochleistungsrechners für die norddeutschen Länder (HLRN) steht den Wissenschaftlern ein außergewöhnlich leistungsfähiges System zur Verfügung. Durch die Verteilung der Rechenelemente auf zwei verschiedene Standorte in Berlin (ZIB) und Hannover (RRZN) entstehen jedoch auch neue Herausforderungen für den Betrieb und die effiziente Nutzung des Rechners. Inhalt dieses Projektes ist die Erforschung und Lösung der durch die Verteilung des Systems hervorgerufenen Probleme (z.B. Scheduling, Kommunikation, I/O). Es werden effiziente Lösungen zur Bereitstellung eines virtuellen, hoch-performanten und transparenten Systems entwickelt, die auf vergleichbare Installationen übertragbar sind.

Description: We study the complexity of two Inverse Shortest Paths (ISP) problems with integer arc lengths and the requirement for uniquely determined shortest paths. Given a collection of paths in a directed graph, the task is to find positive integer arc lengths such that the given paths are uniquely determined shortest paths between their respective terminals. The first problem seeks for arc lengths that minimize the length of the longest of the prescribed paths. In the second problem, the length of the longest arc is to be minimized. We show that it is $np-hard$ to approximate the minimal longest path length within a factor less than $8/7$ or the minimal longest arc length within a factor less than $9/8$. This answers the (previously) open question whether these problems are $np-hard$ or not. We also present a simple algorithm that achieves an $\mathcal{O}(|V|)$-approximation guarantee for both variants. Both ISP problems arise in the planning of telecommunication networks with shortest path routing protocols. Our results imply that it is $\mathcal{NP}$-hard to decide whether a given path set can be realized with a real shortest path routing protocol such as OSPF, IS-IS, or RIP.

Description: We perform a classification of integrable systems of mixed scalar and vector evolution equations with respect to higher symmetries. We consider polynomial systems that are homogeneous under a suitable weighting of variables. This paper deals with the KdV weighting, the Burgers (or potential KdV or modified KdV) weighting, the Ibragimov--Shabat weighting and two unfamiliar weightings. The case of other weightings will be studied in a subsequent paper. Making an ansatz for undetermined coefficients and using a computer package for solving bilinear algebraic systems, we give the complete lists of $2^{\mbox{\scriptsize nd }}$order systems with a $3^{\mbox{\scriptsize rd }}$order or a $4^{\mbox{\scriptsize th }}$order symmetry and $3^{\mbox{\scriptsize rd }}$order systems with a $5^{\mbox{\scriptsize th }}$order symmetry. For all but a few systems in the lists, we show that the system (or, at least a subsystem of it) admits either a Lax representation or a linearizing transformation. A thorough comparison with recent work of Foursov and Olver is made.

Description: The result after $N$ steps of an implicit Runge-Kutta time discretization of an inhomogeneous linear parabolic differential equation is computed, up to accuracy $\varepsilon$, by solving only $$O\Big(\log N\, \log \frac1\varepsilon \Big) $$ linear systems of equations. We derive, analyse, and numerically illustrate this fast algorithm.

Description: In this paper, we study wavelength assignment problems in multi-fiber WDM networks. We focus on the special case that all lightpaths have at most two links. This in particular holds in case the network topology is a star. As the links incident to a specific node in a meshed topology form a star subnetwork, results for stars are also of interest for general meshed topologies. We show that wavelength assignment with at most two links per lightpath can be modeled as a generalized edge coloring problem. By this relation, we show that for a network with an even number of fibers at all links and at most two links per lightpath, all lightpaths can be assigned a wavelength without conversion. Moreover, we derive a lower bound on the number of lightpaths to be converted for networks with arbitrary numbers of fibers at the links. A comparison with linear programming lower bounds reveals that the bounds coincide for problems with at most two links per lightpath. For meshed topologies, the cumulative lower bound over all star subnetworks equals the best known solution value for all realistic wavelength assignment instances available, by this proving optimality.

Description: We prove that the Random-Edge simplex algorithm requires an expected number of at most $13n/sqrt(d)$ pivot steps on any simple d-polytope with n vertices. This is the first nontrivial upper bound for general polytopes. We also describe a refined analysis that potentially yields much better bounds for specific classes of polytopes. As one application, we show that for combinatorial d-cubes, the trivial upper bound of $2^d$ on the performance of Random-Edge can asymptotically be improved by any desired polynomial factor in d.

Description: In diesem Artikel werden die Optimierungsmodelle und -verfahren beschrieben, die bei der Planung des Kernnetzes und der Zugangsinfrastruktur des X-WiN verwendet wurden.

Description: Die Anwendung mathematischer Methoden und Verfahren wird immer mehr zur Voraussetzung innovativer Produkte und Dienstleistungen. Um neue Produkte und Dienstleistungen zu entwickeln, müssen die Produktions- und technologischen Prozesse mathematisch modelliert, beschrieben und optimiert werden. Diesen Umstand Rechnung tragend, hat das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) 1993 begonnen, den Einsatz mathematischer Verfahren und Methoden in der Mathematik über ein spezielles Mathematikprogramm zu fördern. Inzwischen hat die vierte Förderperiode des Mathematikprogramms begonnen. \par Das Medium Internet und insbesondere das WWW sind für die Sichtbarkeit und Transparenz wissenschaftlicher Resultate in den letzten zehn Jahren immer wichtiger geworden. Wer nicht im Web "'sichtbar"' ist, läuft Gefahr, nicht wahrgenommen zu werden. Intention und Ziel des durchgeführten Projekts war es, ein Konzept für eine qualitativ hochwertige und umfassende Darstellung des BMBF Mathematikprogramms, insbesondere der in den Projekten erzielten Ergebnisse, zu entwickeln und zu realisieren und damit den Stellenwert und die Akzeptanz mathematischer Forschung in der Gesellschaft zu festigen und den Wissenstransfer zwischen mathematischer Forschung sowie Forschung und Entwicklung in der Wirtschaft und dem Dienstleistungsbereich zu fördern.

Description: Die KOBV-Zentrale betreibt mit dem KOBV-Portal neben der Metasuche in freien Online-Katalogen und Datenbanken ein Nachweisinstrument für elektronische Ressourcen, die von den Bibliotheken Berlin-Brandenburgs lizenziert sind und darüber hinaus diejenigen, die frei zugänglich sowie wissenschaftlich relevant sind. Die Erschließung der freien Ressourcen übernimmt eine kooperative Fachredaktion, die sich aus FachreferentInnen und -lektorInnen aus der Region rekrutiert. Dabei übernimmt jede beteiligte Person die Betreuung einer oder mehrerer Fachgruppen der Dewey Decimal-Classification (DDC) eigenverantwortlich. Die Aufgabe aller FachredakteurInnen besteht in der inhaltlichen Beschreibung, der Klassifizierung, der Vergabe von Schlagworten und der regelmäßigen Reevaluation der einzelnen Ressourcen. Die KOBV-Zentrale hat hierfür einen Kriterienkatalog entwickelt, der als Grundlage für die Beurteilung von elektronischen Ressourcen dient. Erschlossen werden die Ressourcen schließlich über ein webbasierte Eingabe-Tool, dem Metadata-Tool der KOBV-Zentrale. Über eine Mailingliste wird der Abstimmungsbedarf untereinander gedeckt und Diskussionen geführt, die das Projekt weiterführen sollen. Der Artikel beschreibt das Konzept der kooperativen Fachredaktion für freie Ressourcen, die Vorgänge und die Arbeiten, die für die Initiierung notwendig waren.

Description: We present a new algorithm for fairing of space curves with respect spatial constraints based on a vector valued curvature function. Smoothing with the vector valued curvature function is superior to standard Frenet techniques since the individual scalar components can be modeled similar to curvature-based curve smoothing techniques in 2d. This paper describes a curve smoothing flow that satisfies strict spatial constraints and allows simultaneous control of both curvature functions.

Description: Scattering problems in integrated optics can be modeled in simple cases by the Helmholtz equation. The computational domain is truncated by a non-reflecting boundary condition. We investigate Schwarz algorithms with a sort of DtN operator, realized by the PML-method, at the interfaces of the sub-domains as an iterative solver.