A metaheuristic scheduling procedure for resource-constrained projects with cash flows

Resource-constrained project scheduling problems with cash flows (RCPSPCF) are complex, combinatorial optimization problems. Many heuristics have been reported in the literature that produce reasonable schedules in limited project environments. However, the lack of a heuristic that dominates under differing project conditions can lead to a suboptimal choice of an appropriate heuristic for scheduling any given project. This may result in poor schedules and monetary losses. This paper reports on the application of the tabu search metaheuristic procedure for the RCPSPCF. Strategies for neighborhood generation and candidate selection that exploit the special features of the problem are combined with a simple multiheuristic start procedure. Extensive experimentation, with multiple data sets and comparison with an upper bound, indicates a significant improvement, both in project Net Present Value (NPV) as well as the number of projects, where the metaheuristic outperforms the best known heuristics in the literature. More specifically, this procedure produces the best schedules in over 85% of the projects tested, in contrast to the best single-pass heuristics which have been shown to dominate in at most 20% of the same cases. This iterative, general purpose heuristic is able to adapt significantly better to the complex interactions of the many critical parameters of the RCPSPCF than single-pass heuristics that use more specific information about each project environment. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 46: 912–927, 1999     

Primal dual algorithms for the vehicle refueling problem

Mehrez, Stern, and Ronen have defined a vehicle refueling problem in which a fleet of vehicles travels on a round-trip, self-contained mission from a common origin, with the objective of maximizing the operational range of the fleet. They have defined a “pure refueling chain” strategy for transferring fuel between vehicles in the fleet, and have solved the problem in the special cases when all vehicles have the same fuel capacity or consumption rate. In this article we present algorithms for the general case, where vehicles have different capacities and consumption rates. Our approach is based on a new primal dual formulation of the problem. The exact algorithm was effective to find the optimal solution for a fleet size n ⩽13. For larger fleets, we present an approximation version of it, which very quickly found a solution within 1% of the maximum possible range for arbitrarily large (up to n = 200) fleets. We also show that a small number of the best vehicles can always reach almost the same range as a large fleet. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

一种基于交叉关联积分的功放无意调制识别方法

针对同频率连续波信号中的功放指纹分析问题,提出一种基于相空间交叉关联积分的无意调制识别方法(CCI-UMI).该方法通过对功放无意调制的机理分析和对重构矢量沿轨迹概率(PDT)的理论分析,建立了相轨迹比较的基本理论依据和参数选择方法.采用多尺度交叉关联积分算法,在重构相空间实现了对信号细微差别的灵敏比较.对任意波发生器两路通道实测数据的分类实验表明:本方法识别率较高,经合理选择参数,在低信噪比下可获得比功率谱方法和相空间微分方法更好的分类性能.     

生态课堂的内涵、价值与生成

课堂是育人的主渠道,课堂变革的本质就是回归生命,构建生态课堂是教育发展的必然.生态课堂的构成要素包括教师、学生、教学内容、教学环境,这四个要素彼此关联、相互作用.生态课堂的价值理念就是尊重生命的自主发展、提倡师生的合作共生、注重课堂的多维互动与动态生成.构建生态课堂,需要树立生态的课堂意识、让课堂回归生活世界、引导学生进行自主探究、塑造新型的师生关系、建立多元开放的评价制度.     

The Botswana Defence Force and the War against Poachers in Southern Africa

‘Semper aliquid novi Africa affert’ (out of Africa this is always something new) wrote the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, and that has been all too true of catastrophe and misery in modern times. Yet despite Africa's problems, the continent also offers many examples of humankind's most commendable achievements. This is one such story. It is the account of the successful struggle by a small but well disciplined and well led African army to protect a vital national resource, a role performed with dedication and consistent success since 1987. The fight against poaching in Botswana is a peculiar form of low-intensity conflict that poses significant political, operational and technical challenges. This article identifies some of those challenges and notes how the Botswana Defence Force overcame them, providing an example that may profitably be emulated elsewhere. The article also calls attention to evolution of military roles and missions in reaction to the novel threats of post the Cold War world.     

STRATEGIC DEFENSE AND ATTACK FOR SERIES AND PARALLEL RELIABILITY SYSTEMS: COMMENT

The contest-theoretic literature on the attack and defense of networks of targets focuses primarily on pure-strategy Nash equilibria. Hausken's 2008 European Journal of Operational Research article typifies this approach, and many of the models in this literature either build upon this model or utilize similar techniques. We show that Hausken's characterization of Nash equilibrium is invalid for much of the parameter space examined and provides necessary conditions for his solution to hold. The complete characterization of mixed-strategy equilibria remains an open problem, although there exist solutions in the literature for special prominent cases.     

PMESI：一种优化进程私有数据访问的缓存一致性协议

并行应用程序中绝大部分的访存是对私有数据的访问,在cache一致性协议上不会产生冲突。传统一致性协议没有根据程序私有数据的访问模式进行针对性设计,存在着很大的优化空间。针对以上的问题,提出了一种支持私有状态的cache一致性协议PMESI,通过动态关闭和激活内存空间的cache一致性目录,优化私有内存空间的访问延迟和功耗。通过时钟精确模拟器的测试,PMESI协议优化了程序中54%的访存,并行程序的执行时间平均缩短了9%。     

D2D通信中能耗优化的分布式资源管理算法

端到端(D2D)通信技术近年来受到通信学术界的普遍关注,它绕过基站直接进行数据通信,可以减轻基站的负载,节省系统通信资源,提高系统性能和用户体验。然而,D2D通信技术也带来了一些棘手的资源管理问题,例如,如何进行模式选择以调度使用系统链路资源、抑制蜂窝用户和D2D用户之间的相互干扰,如何进行功率控制以满足用户需求等等。文章分析了多用户D2D通信系统的链路共享机制和用户功率分配策略,为提升系统中各用户的能效性能,基于联盟形成博弈和非合作博弈提出了对应的分布式资源管理方案和算法。最后,通过数值仿真,验证了所提方案和算法的有效性,相比最初的资源使用策略,所提分布式方案和算法能够给用户带来明显的性能增益。