Slow failure: Understanding America’s quagmire in Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

The United States government has no organised way of thinking about war termination other than seeking decisive military victory. This implicit assumption is inducing three major errors. First, the United States tends to select military-centric strategies that have low probabilities of success. Second, the United States is slow to modify losing or ineffective strategies due to cognitive obstacles, internal frictions, and patron-client challenges with the host nation government. Finally, as the U.S. government tires of the war and elects to withdraw, bargaining asymmetries prevent successful transitions (building the host nation to win on its own) or negotiations.     

三维比例导引弹道建模方法研究

基于比例导引弹道的自身规律,运用坐标变换方法,选取合适的坐标系,建立了导弹按比例导引法拦截空中目标的模型,并在信息处理环节中加入导航误差、导弹控制误差、导弹观测误差和目标观测误差等,实现三维比例导引弹道的仿真.仿真结果表明,所建立的模型比较符合实际情况,可直观地显示比例导引弹道特性.     

智能搜救机器人在障碍地形的自主构型规划

为了解决带有辅助摆臂的智能搜救机器人自动规划构型以实现自主越障的难题,提出一种能够适应复杂地面形状的搜救机器人越障构型规划新方法,其核心是一种高适应性、高效率的机器人姿态预测算法。通过将地形表示为离散的点集,建立了搜救机器人的单侧姿态预测数学模型;进一步提出了快速求解该问题的算法,每秒可预测1 000～1 500个姿态。基于此,设计了机器人越障过程中状态、动作的评价指标,运用动态规划算法与滚动优化思想构建了具有优化能力的、能够实时运行的构型规划器。仿真与实物实验的结果表明,该方法能够使机器人自主调整构型穿越复杂地形,且相较强化学习算法和人工操作具有更平稳的越障效果。     

基于一种模型的中子星结构

从物态方程出发,利用中子星结构方程计算了中子星的结构。得到了引力质量材M_G=1.27M_θ材,转动惯量I=1.29x10(45)g/cm~2,与观测结果符合较好。     

What is the global landpower network and what value might it provide?

US national security guidance, as well as the US Army’s operational experiences since 2001, emphasizes the importance of working closely with partner countries to achieve US strategic objectives. The US Army has introduced the global landpower network (GLN) concept as a means to integrate, sustain and advance the Army’s considerable ongoing efforts to meet US national security guidance. This study develops the GLN concept further, and addresses three questions. What benefits can the GLN provide the Army? What are the essential components of the GLN? What options exist for implementing the GLN concept? By developing the GLN concept, the Army has the opportunity to transition the GLN from an often ad hoc and reactive set of relationships to one that the Army more self-consciously prioritizes and leverages as a resource to meet US strategic objectives.     

Periodic review inventory management with contingent use of two freight modes with fixed costs

We study a stochastic inventory model of a firm that periodically orders a product from a make‐to‐order manufacturer. Orders can be shipped by a combination of two freight modes that differ in lead‐times and costs, although orders are not allowed to cross. Placing an order as well as each use of each freight mode has a fixed and a quantity proportional cost. The decision of how to allocate units between the two freight modes utilizes information about demand during the completion of manufacturing. We derive the optimal freight mode allocation policy, and show that the optimal policy for placing orders is not an (s,S) policy in general. We provide tight bounds for the optimal policy that can be calculated by solving single period problems. Our analysis enables insights into the structure of the optimal policy specifying the conditions under which it simplifies to an (s,S) policy. We characterize the best (s,S) policy for our model, and through extensive numerical investigation show that its performance is comparable with the optimal policy in most cases. Our numerical study also sheds light on the benefits of the dual freight model over the single freight models. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

浅谈科技期刊对编辑的素质要求

随着计算机和网络工具的普及,对于科技期刊编辑的要求也随之提高。编辑应具备信息选择能力和计算机操作能力,编辑应掌握新环境下的一些基本信息检索知识和计算机操作知识。     

谈漏电火灾报警系统的设计

漏电火灾报警系统已经逐渐成为建筑消防电气设计中必需考虑的一个重要组成部分,概述了漏电火灾报警系统的设计范围、组成部分、参数选择等设计方面的思路及要点,并提出了笔者对设置漏电火灾报警系统的建议和看法。     

美军电子信息装备系统集成技术评析

信息综合集成技术已成为电子信息装备研发的重要手段。叙述了美军最新电子信息装备综合集成技术的发展目标、发展重心和发展措施;介绍了美军信息装备综合集成技术发展策略和方法;分析了其主要功能及技术特性;并对美军电子信息装备的发展现状、技术水准和存在的问题给予了较为客观的评价。     

Europe,Russia and the Ukraine crisis: the dynamics of coercion

This article analyses European strategy towards Russia during the Ukraine crisis between February 2014 and December 2015, conceptualising it as a coercive diplomatic strategy and analysing the relationship between its ends, ways and means. European strategy sought to reverse Russian intervention. However, this overarching aim was flanked by two ‘constraining’ aims of avoiding an escalation of the conflict and a breakdown of relations with Russia. The strategy shifted between these aims, which proved to be irreconcilable: while the EU partly succeeded in containing the conflict, it failed to reverse Russian intervention and relations between the EU and Russia deteriorated sharply.