Exact algorithms for scheduling multiple families of jobs on parallel machines

In many practical manufacturing environments, jobs to be processed can be divided into different families such that a setup is required whenever there is a switch from processing a job of one family to another job of a different family. The time for setup could be sequence independent or sequence dependent. We consider two particular scheduling problems relevant to such situations. In both problems, we are given a set of jobs to be processed on a set of identical parallel machines. The objective of the first problem is to minimize total weighted completion time of jobs, and that of the second problem is to minimize weighted number of tardy jobs. We propose column generation based branch and bound exact solution algorithms for the problems. Computational experiments show that the algorithms are capable of solving both problems of medium size to optimality within reasonable computational time. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 50: 823–840, 2003.     

New inequalities for finite and infinite group problems from approximate lifting

In this paper, we derive new families of facet‐defining inequalities for the finite group problem and extreme inequalities for the infinite group problem using approximate lifting. The new valid inequalities for the finite group problem include two‐ and three‐slope facet‐defining inequalities as well as the first family of four‐slope facet‐defining inequalities. The new valid inequalities for the infinite group problem include families of two‐ and three‐slope extreme inequalities. These new inequalities not only illustrate the diversity of strong inequalities for the finite and infinite group problems, but also provide a large variety of new cutting planes for solving integer and mixed‐integer programming problems. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Mean residual life of coherent systems consisting of multiple types of dependent components

Mean residual life is a useful dynamic characteristic to study reliability of a system. It has been widely considered in the literature not only for single unit systems but also for coherent systems. This article is concerned with the study of mean residual life for a coherent system that consists of multiple types of dependent components. In particular, the survival signature based generalized mixture representation is obtained for the survival function of a coherent system and it is used to evaluate the mean residual life function. Furthermore, two mean residual life functions under different conditional events on components’ lifetimes are also defined and studied.     

Determination of burn‐in parameters and residual life for highly reliable products

Today, many products are designed and manufactured to function for a long period of time before they fail. Determining product reliability is a great challenge to manufacturers of highly reliable products with only a relatively short period of time available for internal life testing. In particular, it may be difficult to determine optimal burn‐in parameters and characterize the residual life distribution. A promising alternative is to use data on a quality characteristic (QC) whose degradation over time can be related to product failure. Typically, product failure corresponds to the first passage time of the degradation path beyond a critical value. If degradation paths can be modeled properly, one can predict failure time and determine the life distribution without actually observing failures. In this paper, we first use a Wiener process to describe the continuous degradation path of the quality characteristic of the product. A Wiener process allows nonconstant variance and nonzero correlation among data collected at different time points. We propose a decision rule for classifying a unit as normal or weak, and give an economic model for determining the optimal termination time and other parameters of a burn‐in test. Next, we propose a method for assessing the product's lifetime distribution of the passed units. The proposed methodologies are all based only on the product's initial observed degradation data. Finally, an example of an electronic product, namely contact image scanner (CIS), is used to illustrate the proposed procedure. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2003     

清朝后期国防思想刍议

清朝后期,侵略者接连不断的海上入侵和边防蚕食致使中国边疆动荡不安,直接刺激着清朝后期国防思想的大变革、大发展,形成了以"师夷长技以制夷"为主体的反侵略思想,由海防战略思想、海岸和海港建设思想、海军建设思想共同支撑的海防思想和以"中外之防"的治边思想、内外兼顾的陆防思想为主要内容的边防思想.这些思想影响了一系列清朝后期的反侵略战争与军事变革,较之传统国防思想有一定的进步意义.但是,由于其本质上的被动性、不彻底性,就其理论水平而言仍存在着诸多缺失与不足.     

美军培育和激发"战斗精神"的考察与剖析

为赢得战争的胜利,在培育和激发战斗精神方面,美军形成了一些行之有效的制度和方式方法,如强调提高部队战斗力必须培育战斗精神;培育国家利益至上为基础的"原动力"战斗精神;鼓吹"师出有名"煽动战斗精神;提高官兵物质待遇维系战斗精神;宣扬牺牲军人事迹强化战斗精神;通过社会保障影响战斗精神;适时对官兵进行心理调解稳定战斗精神;提供宗教信仰服务"神化"战斗精神等。     

The building evacuation problem with shared information

In this article, the Building Evacuation Problem with Shared Information (BEPSI) is formulated as a mixed integer linear program, where the objective is to determine the set of routes along which to send evacuees (supply) from multiple locations throughout a building (sources) to the exits (sinks) such that the total time until all evacuees reach the exits is minimized. The formulation explicitly incorporates the constraints of shared information in providing online instructions to evacuees, ensuring that evacuees departing from an intermediate or source location at a mutual point in time receive common instructions. Arc travel time and capacity, as well as supply at the nodes, are permitted to vary with time and capacity is assumed to be recaptured over time. The BEPSI is shown to be NP‐hard. An exact technique based on Benders decomposition is proposed for its solution. Computational results from numerical experiments on a real‐world network representing a four‐story building are given. Results of experiments employing Benders cuts generated in solving a given problem instance as initial cuts in addressing an updated problem instance are also provided. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Estimating failure time distribution and its parameters based on intermediate data from a Wiener degradation model

Instead of measuring a Wiener degradation or performance process at predetermined time points to track degradation or performance of a product for estimating its lifetime, we propose to obtain the first‐passage times of the process over certain nonfailure thresholds. Based on only these intermediate data, we obtain the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator and uniformly most accurate confidence interval for the mean lifetime. For estimating the lifetime distribution function, we propose a modified maximum likelihood estimator and a new estimator and prove that, by increasing the sample size of the intermediate data, these estimators and the above‐mentioned estimator of the mean lifetime can achieve the same levels of accuracy as the estimators assuming one has failure times. Thus, our method of using only intermediate data is useful for highly reliable products when their failure times are difficult to obtain. Furthermore, we show that the proposed new estimator of the lifetime distribution function is more accurate than the standard and modified maximum likelihood estimators. We also obtain approximate confidence intervals for the lifetime distribution function and its percentiles. Finally, we use light‐emitting diodes as an example to illustrate our method and demonstrate how to validate the Wiener assumption during the testing. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

VC实现故障诊断的智能化

针对大规模集成电路或非线性电路的故障诊断存在着定位困难和诊断速度低的问题,而且传统电路专家诊断系统有一定的缺陷.结合神经网络用于诊断的优点和VC程序的通用性强等特点,构造了一种神经网络的故障诊断系统,并且介绍了该系统的设计思想、实现过程及诊断实例.