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This paper is concerned with formulating, exploring and interpreting the uses and constructs which may be derived from a mathematical model of programming type which expresses more realistically than past efforts the actual conditions of current operations. It is an attempt to provide a means of attaining thereby an objective understanding of the implications of actual Federal Reserve liquidity policy on the actions and opportunities of banking institutions. The model presented corresponds to the problem of determining an optimal portfolio for an individual bank over several time periods in accordance with requirements laid down by bank examiners which are interpreted as defining limits within which the level of risk associated with the return on the portfolio is an acceptable one. The problem is transformed into an equivalent one offering advantages of analysis and of computation. Some methods of effective computation are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is Part III, concluding the series of three papers on The Theory of Search Part I, Kinematic Bases, appeared in Opns Res 4, 324-346 (1956) and Part II, Target Detection, in 4, 503-531 (1956). The present paper, while similar in content and results to the third chapter of Search and Screening (O E G Report No 56, CONFIDENTIAL) represents a considerable change in methodology as well as in exposition. The material was first presented by the author at the fall meeting of the OPERATIONS RESEARCH SOCIETY OF AMERICA in 1953, where it was treated as a natural extension of his paper, The Optimum Distribution of Effort [this JOURNAL, 1, 52-63 (1953)] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines real-time decision rules for a U.S. Air Force inventory system where items are repaired rather than "used up." The problem is to decide which user in the system has the greatest need for the newly available inventory items coming out of repair. The system is modeled as a Markov decision process and a heuristic rule is presented. This rule, the Transportation Time Look Ahead policy, is justified theoretically by showing that the rule is optimal for a modified model. Thus we have a theoretical justification of a decision rule in a large scale dynamic programming application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports the author's opinions regarding the article "Missions, Matrices, and University Management," by Paul W. Hamelman, published in the March 1970 issue. The author focuses on critiquing Hamelman's statements about planning-budgeting-programming systems used for the management of universities and colleges. Hamelman's comments regarding the effect of legislative budget cuts on the quality of higher education in the U.S. are also discussed.

Presents several letters to the editor dealing with the guidelines for the practice of operations research in the U.S. Role of the operations analyst in an adversary process of the sort that arose in the ABM testimony; Significance of choosing the appropriate framework for an operations analyst; Appreciation of the September 1971 issue of the journal "Operations Research"; Professional behavior of individuals at the Operations Research of America (ORSA); Functions of the ad hoc Committee established by ORSA.

The article presents information about the current state of operations research in the U.S. To this end, the statement will discuss the activities of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA), of military and industrial operations research groups, of publishers of operations research literature, and of educational institutions, it concludes with a short list of some of the important problems facing the U.S. operations research community. Since no survey of U.S. operations research activity is available that provides both accurate, up-to-date and authoritative figures, much of the quantitative information in this statement has been based on personal knowledge and inferences drawn from indirectly relevant information, however, in such cases an attempt has been made to be consistently conservative, so that the statement as a whole can be regarded, if it is in error, as being on the low side. By mid-1960, the end of its eighth year of existence, ORSA had grown to include 3162 members, a total which includes 996 Members, 1946 Associate Members and 220 Student Associate Members.

The article reports on the industrial applications of linear programming associated with oil companies in the U.S. The author focuses on forming the results of a survey conducted in 1956 into a progress report on programming applications in sectors including manufacturing, marketing and distribution, as well as drilling and production. Many problems relating to petroleum production, such as problems dealing with production limitations and product shipment, can be solved by utilizing programming methods. Nonlinear programming systems associated with the process of adding Tetra-ethyl lead to gasoline are discussed. Transportation problems used to determine the costs of oil refinery and plant expansions are also examined.

The article reports on advancements in technology utilized within U.S. industries after the Korean War. The author focuses on the impact automation and mechanization have had on programming within the field of management science. The automation process is applied to a linear programming model. The author uses the example of the petroleum industry to illustrate methods of maximizing profits within the programming model. Implications of mechanization for production control within the food and aircraft manufacturing industries are also discussed.

The article presents a solution to a large-scale traveling-salesman problem which shows that a certain tour of 49 cities, one in each of the 48 states and Washington, D.C., has the shortest road distance. A brief history of the problem is provided. A city in each state including the District of Columbia was selected to try the optimal path method on a large problem. The devices in obtaining solutions include the use of undirected tours, the imposition of linear conditions to characterize the tours, the speeding up of the iterative process and the use of a combinatorial approach.

This article presents the author's opinions regarding the article "Management Science in University Operation," by Gustave Rath. Rath's article focuses on the possible applications of management science techniques in colleges and universities in the U.S. The author examines the results of studies, based on Rath's article, which were conducted by university research groups. The author points out that the aforementioned operations research demonstrates the difficulties associated with applying management science techniques to university operations.

The article discusses the use of linear programming in U.S. industry. Three aspects of the application of linear programming are presented, including model building, mathematics, and computation. Many real-world industry cases have been related to finding the most economical way of transporting materials between various sources and destinations, and have been solved by special algorithms. In the mathematics of linear programming there are four main areas of research, including computational techniques that take advantage of special features of problems, methods of performing sensitivity analyses for the coefficients of the problem, methods that relate to dynamic problems, and stochastic techniques for handling uncertainty.