Deterministic and stochastic scheduling with teamwork tasks

We study a class of new scheduling problems which involve types of teamwork tasks. Each teamwork task consists of several components, and requires a team of processors to complete, with each team member to process a particular component of the task. Once the processor completes its work on the task, it will be available immediately to work on the next task regardless of whether the other components of the last task have been completed or not. Thus, the processors in a team neither have to start, nor have to finish, at the same time as they process a task. A task is completed only when all of its components have been processed. The problem is to find an optimal schedule to process all tasks, under a given objective measure. We consider both deterministic and stochastic models. For the deterministic model, we find that the optimal schedule exhibits the pattern that all processors must adopt the same sequence to process the tasks, even under a general objective function GC = F(f₁(C₁), f₂(C₂), … , f_n(C_n)), where f_i(C_i) is a general, nondecreasing function of the completion time C_i of task i. We show that the optimal sequence to minimize the maximum cost MC = max f_i(C_i) can be derived by a simple rule if there exists an order f₁(t) ≤ … ≤ f_n(t) for all t between the functions {f_i(t)}. We further show that the optimal sequence to minimize the total cost TC = ∑ f_i(C_i) can be constructed by a dynamic programming algorithm. For the stochastic model, we study three optimization criteria: (A) almost sure minimization; (B) stochastic ordering; and (C) expected cost minimization. For criterion (A), we show that the results for the corresponding deterministic model can be easily generalized. However, stochastic problems with criteria (B) and (C) become quite difficult. Conditions under which the optimal solutions can be found for these two criteria are derived. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004     

Safe distances

This work highlights the problem in military operations of setting safety limits for friendly forces, neutral forces, or civilians, to avoid sustaining unnecessary casualties both in wartime and in training. We present and investigate an analytic model which both enables the quantitative understanding of the inherent problems, and which furnishes a reasonably flexible tool in the hands of the analyst. Characteristic numerical results are displayed and analyzed: They show in particular that prevailing crude approximations are inadequate. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 48: 259–269, 2001     

当前三合一建筑火灾危险性及对策

针对近期国内＂三合一＂建筑重特大火灾事故多发的现实,分析了＂三合一＂建筑的特点及其火灾隐患成因,从形成一个机制,坚持两个原则,采取六个措施等方面提出了整治＂三合一＂火灾隐患的措施。     

Reliability and mean residual life functions of coherent systems in an active redundancy

In this article, the reliability and the mean residual life (MRL) functions of a system with active redundancies at the component and system levels are investigated. In active redundancy at the component level, the original and redundant components are working together and lifetime of the system is determined by the maximum of lifetime of the original components and their spares. In the active redundancy at the system level, the system has a spare, and the original and redundant systems work together. The lifetime of such a system is then the maximum of lifetimes of the system and its spare. The lifetimes of the original component and the spare are assumed to be dependent random variables. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 64: 19–28, 2017     

联合作战战场态势一致性评估

本文从战场态势一致性的影响因素出发,分析给出了动态目标一致性评估指标体系,并从作战需求和指标关系分析入手,采用效用函数和综合赋权相结合的方法对战场态势一致性进行了评估。经仿真验证该评估方法合理可行,对联合作战战场态势一致性的评估具有指导意义。     

Military Debt: Perspectives from the Experience of Arab Countries

The sectoral production function model of Feder (1983) has been widely used to examine the link between defence spending and economic growth. In this paper, the model, for which too much has been claimed in some past work, is examined, and the case is made for using growth in real non‐defence output rather than growth in real aggregate output (inclusive of military spending) as the dependent variable. Attention is restricted to a small group of OECD countries for which reliable labour force and capital stock (as well as defence) data are obtainable. With non‐defence output as the dependent variable and using only high quality data, no evidence in favour of the underconsumptionist (as opposed to the defence as a burden) position is found.     

Growth and Fiscal Consequences of Terrorism in Nigeria

Abstract

In spite of government counter-terrorism expenditure and efforts, the incidence of terrorism in Nigeria appears to be rising. This paper examines the growth and fiscal consequences of terrorism in Nigeria by estimating the terrorism–macroeconomy relation using different measures of terror incidence. The results show that terrorism has an economically and statistically significant negative impact on growth; although this impact is considerably small and short-lived, manifesting only after a lag of about three years. Specifically, the cost of terrorism to Nigeria, in terms of lost GDP per annum, is estimated at 0.82%. Moreover, there is evidence that terrorism leads to the reallocation of economic activity away from private investment spending to government spending; that is, terrorism crowds out investment at a higher rate than its potential to crowd in government spending. Lastly, terrorism alters the composition of government expenditure – with the defence component of government expenditure rising vis-a-vis other expenditure items. The results are robust to allowing for dynamic interactions between terrorism and macroeconomic aggregates.     

三合一建筑消防新问题及对策

近年来,随着市场经济的不断发展,个体、私营经济因其投资少、成本低、规模小、工艺简单而逐渐成为政府鼓励和支持的经济类型,但它所带来的＂三合一＂建筑因形式的变化产生新的消防安全隐患,已经成为当前群死群伤恶性火灾的＂重灾区＂。就＂三合一＂建筑存在的新的消防安全问题及整治难点为内容进行分析,并提出几点对策。     

基于“免疫系统论”的武警审计预防职能研究

基于国家审计本质的“免疫系统论”,武警审计应充分体现其对武警部队经济活动运行的“免疫”功能。因此,需要拓展和重新定位武警审计职能,将预防职能作为武警审计的基本职能,并积极研究和探索“免疫系统论”下武警审计预防职能有效履行的途径。     

关于亚纯函数微分多项式的值分布

运用Nevanlinna的亚纯函数理论方法,研究了亚纯函数微分多项式的值的分布理论,获得了若f(z)是超越亚纯函数,ψ是关于f的微分多项式,满足条件N(r,f) N(r,1/f)=S(r,f),关于ψ零点的几个结果,改进并推广了Yang C C和仪洪勋等人的有关结果.