There have been significant developments in the theory and practice of combinatorial optimization in the last 15 years. This progress has been evidenced by a continuously increasing number of international and local conferences, books and papers in this area. This book is also another contribution to this burgeoning area of operations research and optimization. This volume contains the contributions of the participants of the recent NATO Ad­ vanced Study Institute, New Frontiers in the Theory and Practice of Combinatorial Op­ timization, which was held at the campus of Bilkent University, in Ankara, Turkey, July 16-29, 1990. In this conference, we brought many prominent researchers and young and promising scientists together to discuss current and future trends in the theory and prac­ tice of combinatorial optimization. The Bilkent campus was an excellent environment for such an undertaking. Being outside of Ankara, the capital of Turkey, Bilkent University gave the participants a great opportunity for exchanging ideas and discussing new theories and applications without much distraction. One of the primary goals of NATO ASIs is to bring together a group of scientists and research scientists primarily from the NATO countries for the dissemination of ad­ vanced scientific knowledge and the promotion of international contacts among scientists. We believe that we accomplished this mission very successfully by bringing together 15 prominent lecturers and 45 promising young scientists from 12 countries, in a university environment for 14 days of intense lectures, presentations and discussions.

Significant recent developments in the theory and practice of combinatorial optimization are the subject of this NATO ASI proceedings volume.

Variable Decomposition, Constraint Decomposition and Cross Decomposition in General Mathematical Programming.- Surrogate Constraint Methods for Linear Inequalities.- An Evaluation of Algorithmic Refinements and Proper Data Structures for the Preflow-Push Approach for Maximum Flow.- A Cutting Plane Algorithm for the Single Machine Scheduling Problem with Release Times.- The Linear Assignment Problem.- Cost Allocation in the Oil Industry: An Example.- On Preference Orders for Sequencing Problems Or, What Hath Smith Wrought?.- Dynamic Basis Partitioning for Network Flows with Side Constraints.- Combinatorial Optimization Models Motivated by Robotic Assembly Problems.- Job Shop Scheduling.- On the Construction of the Set of K-best Matchings and Their Use in Solving Constrained Matching Problems.- Solving Large Scale Multicommodity Networks Using Linear-Quadratic Penalty Functions.- An Analysis of the Minimal Spanning Tree Structure.- Genetic Algorithms: A New Approach to the Timetable Problem.- A New Approximation Technique for Hypergraph Partitioning Problem.- Optimal Location of Concentrators in a Centralized Teleprocessing Network.- A Column Generation Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows.- The Linear Complementarity Problem, Sufficient Matrices and the Criss-Cross Method.- A Characterization of Lifted Cover Facets of Knapsack Polytope with GUB Constraints.- On Pleasant Knapsack Problems.- Extensions of Efficient Exact Solution Procedures to Bicriterion Optimization.- Combinatorial Aspects in Single Junction Control Optimization.- Approximation Algorithms for Constrained Scheduling.- An Analogue of Hoffman's Circulation Conditions for Max-Balanced Flows.- Some Telecommunications Network Design Problems and the Bi-Steiner Problem.- ParallelMachine Scheduling to Minimize Costs for Earliness and Number of Tardy Jobs.- Exact Solution of Multiple Traveling Salesman Problems.- A Nonlinear Two-Stage Cutting Stock Problem.- The Probabilistic Behavior of the Generalized HARMONIC Algorithm for the On-Line, Multi-Dimensional Bin Packing.- Efficient Labelling Algorithms for the Maximum Noncrossing Matching Problem.- A Phase I That Solves Transportation Problems.- A Polynomially Bounded Dual Simplex Algorithm for Capacitated Minimum Cost Flow Problem.- Formulation and a Lagrangean Relaxation Procedure, for Solving Part Scheduling and Tool Loading Problems, in FMS.- Euclidean Steiner Minimal Trees with Obstacles and Steiner Visibility Graphs.- A Set Covering Formulation of the Matrix Equipartition Problem.- Maximizing a Submodular Function by Integer Programming: A Polyhedral Approach.- New Bounds for the Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem.- A Lagrangean Heuristic for Set Covering Problems.