The “Traveling Salesman” and similar combinatorial programming tasks encountered in operations research are discussed as possible data analysis models in psychology, for example, in developmental scaling, Guttman scaling, profile smoothing, and data array clustering. In addition, a short overview of the various computational approaches from this area of combinatorial optimization is included.

Multilayer graphs consist of several graphs, called layers, where the vertex set of all layers is the same but each layer has an individual edge set. They are motivated by real-world problems where entities (vertices) are associated via multiple types of relationships (edges in different layers). We chart the border of computational (in)tractability for the class of subgraph detection problems on multilayer graphs, including fundamental problems such as maximum-cardinality matching, finding certain clique relaxations, or path problems. Mostly encountering hardness results, sometimes even for two or three layers, we can also spot some islands of computational tractability.

We investigate the domination game and the game domination number $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{g}$ in the class of split graphs. We prove that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{g}(G)\leq n/2$ for any isolate-free $n$-vertex split graph $G$, thus strengthening the conjectured $3n/5$ general bound and supporting Rall’s $\lceil n/2\rceil$-conjecture. We also characterise split graphs of even order with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{g}(G)=n/2$.

A set E of edges of a graph G is said to be a dominating set of edges if every edge of G either belongs to E or is adjacent to an edge of E. If the subgraph 〈E〉 induced by E is a trail T, then T is called a dominating trail of G. Dominating circuits are defined analogously. A sufficient condition is given for a graph to possess a spanning (and thus dominating) circuit and a sufficient condition is given for a graph to possess a spanning (and thus dominating) trail between each pair of distinct vertices. The line graph L(G) of a graph G is defined to be that graph whose vertex set can be put in one-to-one correspondence with the edge set of G in such a way that two vertices of L(G) are adjacent if and only if the corresponding edges of G are adjacent. The existence of dominating trails and circuits is employed to present results on line graphs and second iterated line graphs, respectively.