Xunzi on the Role of the Military in a Well-Ordered State

Chapter 15 of the Xunzi stands as the most comprehensive account of the early Confucian analysis of warfare. Unlike a range of other early, non-Confucian discussions on warfare, particular strategies and tactics are taken to be of secondary importance. Thus, Xunzi refuses to discuss practical military strategy without framing it within a much broader ethical, social, and political context. On his account, a well-ordered, flourishing state necessarily rests upon a particular set of rituals and social norms in which people can cultivate themselves morally. Such a state has nothing to fear from any enemy, no matter how tactically sophisticated or militarily skilled. To many, such a view seems overly optimistic. However, given that Xunzi is anything but Pollyannaish in other parts of the text and is quite pessimistic about human nature in general, it behooves us to dig a bit more deeply into his ideas about military affairs and examine whether they can be understood in a more plausible light. This article provides a reading of Xunzi’s views on military affairs that is internally consistent and corresponds with Xunzi’s broader ethical and political views, while also showing why someone of Xunzi’s obvious intellectual acumen might hold such a view.     

基于高阶谱分析的机械故障特征识别

在分析高阶累积量与高阶谱的理论基础上，利用高阶谱可以抑制加性高斯噪声的性质，研究了基于高阶谱分析的机械故障特征提取方法，提出了基于双谱估计的齿轮故障诊断的方法。通过对齿轮信号的双谱特征图谱进行分析比较，成功地对齿轮的正常稳态振动信号、正常瞬态振动信号以及磨损瞬态信号进行了识别，效果十分显著。     

When are observed failures more informative than observed survivals?

A framework involving independent competing risks permits observing failures due to a specific cause and failures due to a competing cause, which constitute survival times from the cause of primary interest. Is observing more failures more informative than observing survivals? Intuitively, due to the definitiveness of failures, the answer seems to be the former. However, it has been shown before that this intuition holds when estimating the mean but not the failure rate of the exponential model with a gamma prior distribution for the failure rate. In this article, we address this question at a more general level. We show that for a certain class of distributions failures can be more informative than survivals for prediction of life length and vice versa for some others. We also show that for a large class of lifetime models, failure is less informative than survival for estimating the proportional hazards parameter with gamma, Jeffreys, and uniform priors. We further show that, for this class of lifetime models, on average, failure is more informative than survival for parameter estimation and for prediction. These results imply that the inferential purpose and properties of the lifetime distribution are germane for conducting life tests. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Multinational counterinsurgency: the Western intervention in the Boxer Rebellion 1900–1901

This article proposes a case study of the multinational counterinsurgency operations that occurred in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900–1, to provide a better understanding of the political and military dynamics specific to this type of mission. The study focuses primarily on the nature of the cooperation on the ground, the various national approaches to counterinsurgency, and the asymmetry of strategic approach between the Westerners and the Chinese. A discussion is also proposed, highlighting that combined counterinsurgency is not per se an obstacle to the unity of command, but that politically international coalitions create unique challenges to counterinsurgency operations.     

基于Q-MMSPF的海杂波多重分形互相关分析和目标检测

提出一种研究长程互相关和多重分形的新方法——Q阶混合矩结构分割函数法(Q-MMSPF),并利用Q-MMSPF分析了海杂波时间序列的多重分形互相关特征。通过对实测海杂波数据的计算分析发现,海杂波互相关多重分形特征较弱,目标信号之间的互相关多重分形特征明显,而目标信号与海杂波之间的互相关多重分形程度介于二者之间。据此,本文采用一种新的特征值进行海杂波背景下的目标检测。通过对不同条件下的实测海杂波数据验证,表明使用本文提出的特征值测量方法可以十分有效地检测出海杂波背景下的小弱目标。     

A m‐parallel crane scheduling problem with a non‐crossing constraint

In this paper, we study a m‐parallel machine scheduling problem with a non‐crossing constraint motivated by crane scheduling in ports. We decompose the problem to allow time allocations to be determined once crane assignments are known and construct a backtracking search scheme that manipulates domain reduction and pruning strategies. Simple approximation heuristics are developed, one of which guarantees solutions to be at most two times the optimum. For large‐scale problems, a simulated annealing heuristic that uses random neighborhood generation is provided. Computational experiments are conducted to test the algorithms. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007.     

Optimal pricing and scheduling control of product shipping

In this article, we seek to understand how a capacity‐constrained seller optimally prices and schedules product shipping to customers who are heterogeneous on willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to wait (WTW). The capacity‐constrained seller does not observe each customer's WTP and WTW and knows only the aggregate distributions of WTP and WTW. The seller's problem is modeled as an M/M/N_s queueing model with multiclass customers and multidimensional information screening. We contribute to the literature by providing an optimal and efficient algorithm. Furthermore, we numerically find that customers with a larger waiting cost enjoys a higher scheduling priority, but customers with higher valuation do not necessarily get a higher scheduling priority. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 215–227, 2015     

基于微分平坦的高超声速滑翔飞行器轨迹规划

针对高超声速滑翔飞行器再入轨迹规划问题,提出了一种基于微分平坦理论的三自由度轨迹生成方法。在分析纵向运动简化模型的微分平坦属性基础上,将纵向参考轨迹规划问题映射到平坦输出空间,消除微分动力学约束的同时降低系统设计的维数,进而提高求解效率;采用全局插值多项式参数化平坦输出函数,将问题转换为非线性规划问题求解;设计比例-微分反馈控制律跟踪纵向参考轨迹,同时采用航向角误差走廊控制侧向运动,实现三自由度轨迹生成。仿真分析表明所提出的方法能够较快生成满足多种约束且性能优化的飞行轨迹。     

北斗GEO卫星用户算法的改进方法

针对北斗GEO用户算法需要进行5°倾角的坐标旋转处理这一过程,提出了采用经典广播星历参数用户算法直接解算北斗GEO卫星位置的改进方法,并同时给出了相应的基于第二类无奇点根数的广播星历拟合算法。该算法采用第二类无奇点轨道根数代替经典轨道根数,解决了由GEO轨道的小倾角特性引起的经典广播星历参数拟合过程中法化矩阵奇异的问题。从而避免了北斗GEO用户算法中坐标旋转处理过程,减少了GEO用户算法的计算步骤。仿真表明,提出的改进方法在卫星轨道拟合过程中与原算法精度相当;在卫星轨道外推过程中与原算法相比略有精度损失,但仍满足用户导航定位精度的需求。采用实际北斗GEO星历解算的轨道数据验证了改进算法的有效性。     

基于网络组织有序度的指挥体系优化算法

针对信息化条件下指挥体系结构的特点,运用复杂网络理论,提出了指挥体系的优化算法,将组织有序度最大化作为目标函数,以边的关键度作为调节变量,构建了优化模型和算法,并对指挥网络进行了实例分析,对比优化前后指挥体系在平均路径、聚类系数、度分布以及网络的抗毁性等指标上变化,最后得到最优化的指挥网络。该算法对指挥流程的优化具有一定的参考价值和指导意义。