Sharif Digital Repository

We study a capacitated multi-facility location-allocation problem in which the customers have stochastic demands based on Bernoulli distribution function. We consider the capacitated sub-sources of facilities to satisfy demands of customers. In the discrete stochastic problem, the goal is to find optimal locations of facilities among candidate locations and optimal allocations of existing customers to operating facilities so that the total sum of fixed costs of operating facilities, allocation cost of the customers, expected values of servicing and outsourcing costs is minimized. The model is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem. Since finding an optimal solution may... 

Abstract In a recent work, Alizadeh et al. (2013) studied a capacitated multi-facility location-allocation problem in which customers had stochastic demands based on the Bernoulli distribution function. Authors considered capacitated sub-sources of facilities to satisfy customer demands. In this discrete stochastic problem, the goal was to find optimal locations of facilities among candidate locations and optimal allocations of existing customers to operating facilities so that the total sum of fixed costs of operating facilities, allocation costs of customers and expected values of servicing and outsourcing costs was minimized. The model was formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear... 

In recent years, the number and severity of natural disasters occurring in various regions of the world have increased dramatically incurring heavy financial and human losses. Therefore, decision-makers have been concerned with ways of providing relief to reduce the losses. Here, we present a multi-objective bi-level model for disaster location-routing problem that provides the needed supplies through multiple suppliers, considering the supply risk. Moreover, to reduce the risk and increase efficiency, special attention is given to people's help for supplying goods having high priority and low risk. At the first level of the model, the cost and time objectives are considered, and at the... 

In recent years, the number and severity of natural disasters occurring in various regions of the world have increased dramatically incurring heavy financial and human losses. Therefore, decision-makers have been concerned with ways of providing relief to reduce the losses. Here, we present a multi-objective bi-level model for disaster location-routing problem that provides the needed supplies through multiple suppliers, considering the supply risk. Moreover, to reduce the risk and increase efficiency, special attention is given to people's help for supplying goods having high priority and low risk. At the first level of the model, the cost and time objectives are considered, and at the... 

A bi-objective stochastic capacitated multi-facility location–allocation problem is presented where the customer demands have Bernoulli distributions. The capacity of a facility for accepting customers is limited so that if the number of allocated customers to the facility is more than its capacity, a shortage will occur. The problem is formulated as a bi-objective mathematical programming model. The first objective is to find optimal locations of facilities among potential locations and optimal allocations of stochastic customers to the facilities so that the total sum of fixed costs of establishment of the facilities and the expected values of servicing and shortage costs is minimized. The... 

We study a location-allocation-routing problem for distribution of the injured in a disaster response scenario, considering a three-type transportation network with separate links. A circle-based approach to estimate the impacts of the disaster is presented. After formulating relations for computing the percentage of the injured, the destruction percentage and the damage-dependent travel times, the problem is formulated as an integer nonlinear program. We utilize a genetic algorithm and a discrete version of the imperialist competitive algorithm for solving large problems. An empirical study focused on earthquakes in Tabriz, Iran, illustrates applicability of the proposed model and... 

We study a location-allocation-routing problem for distribution of the injured in a disaster response scenario, considering a three-type transportation network with separate links. A circle-based approach to estimate the impacts of the disaster is presented. After formulating relations for computing the percentage of the injured, the destruction percentage and the damage-dependent travel times, the problem is formulated as an integer nonlinear program. We utilize a genetic algorithm and a discrete version of the imperialist competitive algorithm for solving large problems. An empirical study focused on earthquakes in Tabriz, Iran, illustrates applicability of the proposed model and... 

A bi-objective stochastic capacitated multi-facility location–allocation problem is presented where the customer demands have Bernoulli distributions. The capacity of a facility for accepting customers is limited so that if the number of allocated customers to the facility is more than its capacity, a shortage will occur. The problem is formulated as a bi-objective mathematical programming model. The first objective is to find optimal locations of facilities among potential locations and optimal allocations of stochastic customers to the facilities so that the total sum of fixed costs of establishment of the facilities and the expected values of servicing and shortage costs is minimized. The... 

We formulate an integrated mathematical model for distribution of the injured on a three-type transportation network with destroyable independent links and with actual travel times considering two different groups of the injured. The aim is to find the temporary locations for aid stations and their capacities, the percentage of the injured with various severities allocated to each station and to different routes and the number of vehicles so that the total relief time is minimized. For this, we present a new approach, called circle-based approach, in which the effects of the disaster are considered as a number of concentric circular regions. The original problem is formulated as an integer... 

We present a new approach for emergency response planning to the injured on a multi-type transportation network. We consider a three-type transportation network with separate connection links simultaneously: road, rail and air networks. In this study, a circle-based approach is presented where using concentric circles with various radiuses, different levels of the effect of a disaster are considered. After formulating the relations, we present an integer nonlinear programming model for the problem. The model is to determine the locations for establishment of temporary aid stations among the candidate locations, the type of aid stations, the percentage of the injured allocated to each... 

We formulate an integrated mathematical model for distribution of the injured on a three-type transportation network with destroyable independent links and with actual travel times considering two different groups of the injured. The aim is to find the temporary locations for aid stations and their capacities, the percentage of the injured with various severities allocated to each station and to different routes and the number of vehicles so that the total relief time is minimized. For this, we present a new approach, called circle-based approach, in which the effects of the disaster are considered as a number of concentric circular regions. The original problem is formulated as an integer... 

We consider a median location problem in the presence of two probabilistic line barriers on the plane under rectilinear distance. It is assumed that the two line barriers move on their corresponding horizontal routes uniformly. We first investigate different scenarios for the position of the line barriers on the plane and their corresponding routes, and then define the visibility and invisibility conditions along with their corresponding expected barrier distance functions. The proposed problem is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model. Our aim is to locate a new facility on the plane so that the total weighted expected rectilinear barrier distance is minimized. We present... 

In this study, we consider a capacitated location–multi-allocation–routing problem with population-dependent random travel times. The objective is to find appropriate locations as server locations among the candidate locations, allocate the existing population in each demand node to server locations, and determine the movement path of each member to reach its corresponding server with respect to the simultaneous change of the random travel times so that the expected total transportation time is minimized. In our study, the concept of population-dependent random travel times incurs two issues: (1) consideration of some random factors in computing the travel times and (2) impact of the... 

We are concerned with a capacitated location-multi allocation-routing problem in a road network with flexible travel times. It is assumed that all links are two-way and capacities of the server nodes and arcs for accepting of population are limited. The aim of our work is to find numbers and locations of server nodes, allocation of the existing population in existing demand nodes on the network to the servers and the allocation of existing population in each node to different routes to determine the decided server for each member so that total transportation time is minimized. Here, two basic concepts are considered: multi allocation and flexible travel times. The concept of multi allocation... 

A capacitated location-multi-allocation-routing model is presented for a transportation network with travel times between the nodes represented by links on the network. The concept of multi-allocation arises from the possibility of allocating the population in a demand node to more than one server node. In normal conditions, travel time between two nodes is a fixed value. However, since the flow of population in a link can affect the travel time, here the impact of the population flow on link time is considered to be simultaneous. This way, distribution of the population over the network has a direct influence on the travel link times. It is assumed that all links are two-way and capacities... 

A main component of a transportation network is travel time or distance. Due to stochastic events such as accidents and failures in roads, a deterministic estimation of the travel time between two cities or regions is impossible. Also, on special occasions like holidays, with increase in the traveling population in the transportation network, probabilities of occurrence of these events increase. The increase in traveling population has a direct effect on the estimation of travel times and subsequently on the decision-making process. Therefore, provision of an appropriate model for the intelligent probabilistic travel times to distribute the population in a transportation network is a... 

We provide a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model for a location-allocation-routing problem in a transportation network with links carrying the travel times among the nodes in the network. The travel time between two nodes is considered to be intelligent, that is, since the travelling population in a link can affect the travel time, here we consider the impact of the travelling population on the travel time of the link. This way, depending on how the population is distributed in the network, the travel times of the links may change. The problem is to find an optimal locations of server node(s), allocation of existing demand nodes in the network to the server(s) and allocation of... 

In a hub location problem, where an original hub is faced with shortage limitations, all or some routes passing through the original hub may be transferred to a virtual hub, in order to preserve a disconnection of the flow with minimal loss. In such a situation, reduction of congestion in the hubs plays a vital role in establishing the flow movement and avoiding traffic in the network. Here, a dynamic virtual hub location problem is investigated under conditions of uncertainty and presence of capacity constraints for the original and virtual hubs. The capacity constraints are applied to the model using an M/M/C/K queue. Moreover, the demand at the relevant points is considered to be... 

We consider a multi-facility location problem in the presence of a line barrier with the starting point of the barrier uniformly distributed. The objective is to locate n new facilities among m existing facilities minimising the summation of the weighted expected rectilinear barrier distances of the locations of new facilities and new and existing facilities. The proposed problem is designed as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, conveniently transformed into a mixed-integer quadratic programming model. The computational results show that the LINGO 9.0 software package is effective in solving problems with small sizes. For large problems, we propose two meta-heuristic algorithms,... 

Learning a foreign language encompasses a process of trial and error that can lead to the progression of the learner's interlanguage, meaning that the learners make use of their language knowledge that receives feedback and brings about progress through diagnosis of the problems and being corrected by the teacher. Therefore, there exists a need to analyze the underlying reasons causing the students to remain taciturn with a low willingness to communicate (WTC) during a language class. There has been much work done investigating the role of the learner's stable personal characteristics (traits) along with their situational changes at a specific time (states) that influence the student's...