Steel structures such as bridges, tanks and pylons are exposed to outdoor weathering conditions. In order to prevent them from corrosion they are protected by an organic coating system. Unfortunately, the coating system itself is also subject to deterioration. Imperfect maintenance actions such...

Microsimulation models are increasingly used in the evaluation of cancer screening. Latent parameters of such models can be estimated by optimization of the goodness-of-fit. We compared the efficiency and accuracy of the Response Surface Methodology and the Nelder and Mead Simplex Method for...

In this paper we introduce robust versions of the classical static and dynamic single leg seat allocation models as analyzed by Wollmer, and Lautenbacher and Stidham, respectively. These robust models take into account the inaccurate estimates of the underlying probability distributions. As...

A Bayesian model averaging procedure is presented within the class of vector autoregressive (VAR) processes and applied to two empirical issues. First, stability of the "Great Ratios" in U.S. macro-economic time series is investigated, together with the presence and e¤ects of permanent...

In this report we discuss a model that can be used to determine stocking levels using the data that comes forward from a Shell RCM analysis and the data available in E-SPIR. The model is appropriate to determine stock quantities for parts that are used in redundancy situations, and for parts...

A widely known algorithm for ¯nding the shortest path in a network is Bidirectional A*. The version of bidirectional A* that is considered the most appropriate hitherto, uses so-called balanced heuristic estimates. In this paper, we focus on symmetric heuristic estimates. First, we show that...

An issue hardly ever mentioned in the analysis of labour market transitions is that for some individuals labour market transitions occur at a very low rate. Therefore, these individuals might stay on disability benefits or in domestic care till they reach the retirement age of 65. This implies...

The monotonicity constraint is a common side condition imposed on modeling problems as diverse as hedonic pricing, personnel selection and credit rating. Experience tells us that it is not trivial to generate artificial data for supervised learning problems when the monotonicity constraint...

In this paper we consider the use of correspondence analysis (CA) of rating data. CA of rating data allows a joint representation of the rated items (e.g. attributes or products) and individuals. However, as the number of individuals increases, the interpretation of the CA map becomes difficult....

Support vector machines (SVM) are becoming increasingly popular for the prediction of a binary dependent variable. SVMs perform very well with respect to competing techniques. Often, the solution of an SVM is obtained by switching to the dual. In this paper, we stick to the primal support vector...