In this paper, we focus on a useful modeling concept that is frequently ignored while formu lating discrete optimization problems. Very often, there exists a natural symmetry inherent in the problem itself that, if propagated to the model, can hopelessly mire a branch-and-bound solver by...

In this paper, we present a novel quantitative analysis for the strategic planning decision problem of allocating certain available prevention and protection resources to, respectively, reduce the failure probabilities of system safety measures and the total expected loss from a sequence of...