In this paper, we use a genetic algorithm and direct a hill-climbing algorithm in choosing differences to generate solutions for difference triangle sets. The combined use of the two algorithms optimized the hill-climbing method and produced new improved upper bounds for difference triangle sets.

The covering problem in the \( n \)-dimensional \( q \)-ary Hamming space consists of the determination of the minimal cardinality \( K_q(n, R) \) of an \( R \)-covering code. It is known that the sphere covering bound can be improved by considering decompositions of the underlying space, leading to integer programming problems. We describe the method in an elementary way and derive about 50 new computational and theoretical records for lower bounds on \( K_q(n, R) \).

For any graph \( G = (V, E) \), \( D \subseteq V \) is a global dominating set if \( D \) dominates both \( G \) and its complement \( \overline{G} \). The global domination number \( \gamma_g(G) \) of a graph \( G \) is the fewest number of vertices required of a global dominating set. In general,\(
\max\{\gamma(G), \gamma(\overline{G})\} \leq \gamma_g(G) \leq \gamma(G) + \gamma(\overline{G}),\) where \( \gamma(G) \) and \( \gamma(\overline{G}) \) are the respective domination numbers of \( G \) and \( \overline{G} \). We show that when \( G \) is a planar graph, \(\gamma_g(G) \leq \max\{\gamma(G) + 1, 4\}.\)

Given an acyclic digraph \( D \), we seek a smallest sized tournament \( T \) having \( D \) as a minimum feedback arc set. The reversing number of a digraph is defined to be \(r(D) = |V(T)| – |V(D)|.\)

We use integer programming methods to obtain new results for the reversing number where \( D \) is a power of a directed Hamiltonian path. As a result, we establish that known reversing numbers for certain classes of tournaments actually suffice for a larger class of digraphs.

A directed covering design, \( DC(v, k, \lambda) \), is a \( (v, k, 2\lambda) \) covering design in which the blocks are regarded as ordered \( k \)-tuples and in which each ordered pair of elements occurs in at least \( \lambda \) blocks. Let \( DE(v, k, \lambda) \) denote the minimum number of blocks in a \( DC(v, k, \lambda) \). In this paper, the values of the function \( DE(v, k, \lambda) \) are determined for all odd integers \( v \geq 5 \) and \( \lambda \) odd, with the exception of \( (v, \lambda) = (53, 1), (63, 1), (73, 1), (83, 1) \). Further, we provide an example of a covering design that cannot be directed.