This paper develops a model to study the stay/leave decisions of Air Force officers. The model includes the most important institutional factors affecting an officer's career: promotion probabilities and timing, regular force integration probabilities, and mandatory separation and retirement...

We consider the Policy Iteration Algorithm for undiscounted Markov Renewal Programs. Previous specifications of the policy evaluation part of this algorithm all required the analysis of the chain structure for each policy generated. The purpose of this paper is to provide a unique specification...

Suppose N objects are hidden in m boxes where m is known and N is unknown; for example, suppose that we are hunting for defects (objects) in a system having several components (boxes). Let p = (p₁, p₂, ...) denote the probability distribution of N where p_n = P(N = n). The objects are...

We consider the problem of determining the optimal operating policy of a two terminal shuttle with fixed capacity Q \le \infty . The passengers arrive at each terminal according to Poisson processes and are transported by a single carrier operating between the terminals. The interterminal travel...

In this paper we show that for a finite Markov decision process an average optimal policy can be found by solving only one linear programming problem. Also the relation between the set of feasible solutions of the linear program and the set of stationary policies is analyzed.