The bus sightseeing problem

The basic characteristic of vehicle routing problems with profits (VRPP) is that locations to be visited are not predetermined. On the contrary, they are selected in pursuit of maximizing the profit collected from them. Significant research focus has been directed toward profitable routing variants due to the practical importance of their applications and their interesting structure, which jointly optimizes node selection and routing decisions. Profitable routing applications arise in the tourism industry aiming to maximize the profit score of attractions visited within a limited time period. In this paper, a new VRPP is introduced, referred to as the bus sightseeing problem (BSP). The BSP calls for determining bus tours for transporting different groups of tourists with different preferences on touristic attractions. Two interconnected decision levels have to be jointly tackled: assignment of tourists to buses and routing of buses to the various attractions. A mixed-integer programming formulation for the BSP is provided and solved by a Benders decomposition algorithm. For large-scale instances, an iterated local search based metaheuristic algorithm is developed with some tailored neighborhood operators. The proposed methods are tested on a large family of test instances, and the obtained computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution approaches

Institutional investors and corporate governance

We provide a comprehensive overview of the role of institutional investors in corporate governance with three main components. First, we establish new stylized facts documenting the evolution and importance of institutional ownership. Second, we provide a detailed characterization of key aspects of the legal and regulatory setting within which institutional investors govern portfolio firms. Third, we synthesize the evolving response of the recent theoretical and empirical academic literature in finance to the emergence of institutional investors in corporate governance. We highlight how the defining aspect of institutional investors – the fact that they are financial intermediaries – differentiates them in their governance role from standard principal blockholders. Further, not all institutional investors are identical, and we pay close attention to heterogeneity amongst institutional investors as blockholders

A study of nonlinear vibrations in a frictionally damped turbine bladed disk with comprehensive modeling of aerodynamic effects

A new effective method for comprehensive modeling of gas flow effects on vibration of nonlinear vibration of bladed disks has been developed for a case when the effect of the gas flow on the mode shapes is significant. The method separates completely the structural dynamics calculations from the significantly more computationally expensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations while providing the high accuracy of modeling for aerodynamic effects. A comprehensive analysis of the forced response using the new method has been performed for a realistic turbine bladed disk with root-disk joints, tip, and under-platform dampers. The full chain of aerodynamic and structural calculations are performed: (i) determination of boundary conditions for CFD, (ii) CFD analysis, (iii) calculation of the aerodynamic characteristics required by the new method, and (iv) nonlinear forced response analysis using the modal aerodynamic influence matrix (MAIM). The efficiency of the friction damping devices has been studied and compared for several resonance frequencies and engine orders. Advantages of the method for aerodynamic effect modeling have been demonstrated. 2013 by ASME

A study of nonlinear vibrations in a frictionally-damped turbine bladed disc with comprehensive modelling of aerodynamic effects

A new effective method for comprehensive modelling of gas flow effects on vibration of nonlinear vibration of bladed discs has been developed for a case when effect of the gas flow on the mode shapes is significant. The method separates completely the structural dynamics calculations from the significantly more computationally expensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations while provides the high accuracy of modelling for aerodynamic effects. A comprehensive analysis of the forced response using the new method has been performed for a realistic turbine bladed disc with root-disc joints, tip and underplatform dampers. The full chain of aerodynamic and structural calculations are performed: (i) determination of boundary conditions for CFD; (ii) CFD analysis; (iii) calculation of the aerodynamic characteristics required by the new method; (iv) nonlinear forced response analysis using the MAIM. The efficiency of the friction damping devices has been studied and compared for several resonance frequencies and engine orders. Advantages of the method for aerodynamic effect modelling have been demonstrated. Copyright 2012 by ASME