An integer programming model for the weekly tour scheduling problem

We study a workforce planning and scheduling problem in which weekly tours of agents must be designed. Our motivation for this study comes from a call center application where agents serve customers in response to incoming phone calls. Similar to many other applications in the services industry, the demand for service in call centers varies significantly within a day and among days of the week. In our model, a weekly tour of an agent consists of five daily shifts and two days off, where daily shifts within a tour may be different from each other. The starting times of any two consecutive shifts, however, may not differ by more than a specified bound. Furthermore, a tour must also satisfy constraints regarding the days off, for example, it may be required that one of the days off is on a weekend day. The objective is to determine a collection of weekly tours that satisfy the demand for agents' services, while minimizing the total labor cost of the workforce. We describe an integer programming model where a weekly tour is obtained by combining seven daily shift scheduling models and days‐off constraints in a network flow framework. The model is flexible and can accommodate different daily models with varying levels of detail. It readily handles different days‐off rules and constraints regarding start time differentials in consecutive days. Computational results are also presented. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 48: 607–624, 2001.     

Optimal job splitting on a multi‐slot machine with applications in the printing industry

In this article, we define a scheduling/packing problem called the Job Splitting Problem, motivated by the practices in the printing industry. There are n types of items to be produced on an m‐slot machine. A particular assignment of the types to the slots is called a “run” configuration and requires a setup cost. Once a run begins, the production continues according to that configuration and the “length” of the run represents the quantity produced in each slot during that run. For each unit of production in excess of demand, there is a waste cost. Our goal is to construct a production plan, i.e., a set of runs, such that the total setup and waste cost is minimized. We show that the problem is strongly NP‐hard and propose two integer programming formulations, several preprocessing steps, and two heuristics. We also provide a worst‐case bound for one of the heuristics. Extensive tests on real‐world and randomly generated instances show that the heuristics are both fast and effective, finding near‐optimal solutions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

信息技术对现代心理战的影响

20世纪70年代开始的以信息化为本质和核心的世界新军事变革，强化了心理战的时代性、发展性和创新性。信息技术不仅丰富了现代心理战的作战理念，拓展了心理战的作战空间，促进了心理战武器装备的发展，而且使得心理战的作战样式发生了质的变化，强化了心理战的心理刺激效果、心理渗透效果和心理损伤效果。     

基于禁忌算法的无线传感器网络PEGASIS算法改进

为了减少无线传感器网络节点能耗,延长网络生存时间,在PEGASIS算法的基础上,针对PEGASIS算法中节点之间容易产生长链和簇头选择没有考虑节点剩余能量的问题,提出了一种基于禁忌算法的PEGASIS算法改进。建链阶段采用禁忌算法代替原有的贪婪算法,防止了长链的产生,减小了节点传输距离;同时引入基于剩余能量的簇头选择机制,均衡了节点之间的能耗,延长了节点的生存时间。仿真结果表明,改进算法较PEGASIS算法第1个节点的死亡时间延长了约7倍,半数节点的死亡时间也得到了延长,从而提高了整个网络的生存时间。     

Dissolution of an Empire: Insights from the İstanbul Bourse and the Ottoman War Bond

During the transformation period of the Ottoman Empire leading to the Republic of Turkey, many conflicts took place between 1918 and 1923. These conflicts interrupted the servicing of the Ottoman war bond. The reimbursement likelihood of this bond was related to the outcomes of First World War and the hostilities. This paper analyses the impacts of First World War and hostilities on the risk assessments regarding the Ottoman war debt, using manually collected data on the price of the Ottoman war bond traded at the ?stanbul bourse between 1918 and 1925. The empirical results imply that the defeat of the Bulgarian army and the peace offer of Austria-Hungary were associated with the increasing premium demanded by investors of the bond. The victories of the Turkish National Movement and the peace offer of the Allies to end the hostilities by 1922 positively affected the likelihood of the servicing of the debt.     

舰载预警直升机机载雷达有效探测距离模型

针对机载雷达最大作用距离这一参数,难以满足舰载预警直升机部署决策需求,建立了舰载预警直升机与目标接近到某一相对距离时,机载预警雷达发现目标的概率分布模型,进而给出了对特定目标满足给定发现概率和建航概率的有效探测距离计算模型,为针对不同目标预警时,舰载预警直升机的阵位配置研究提供了可靠依据。     

舰载预警直升机机载雷达发现概率与建航概率模型研究

针对舰载预警直升机机载雷达的作战需求,基于机载预警雷达单次扫描发现概率模型,从作战使用的角度,建立了机载预警雷达累积发现概率模型和建航概率模型,为机载雷达有效探测距离的确定提供了依据,为舰载预警直升机预警搜索决策的研究奠定了基础。     

Improved bounds for batch scheduling with nonidentical job sizes

Here, we revisit the bounded batch scheduling problem with nonidentical job sizes on single and parallel identical machines, with the objective of minimizing the makespan. For the single machine case, we present an algorithm which calls an online algorithm (chosen arbitrarily) for the one‐dimensional bin‐packing problem as a sub‐procedure, and prove that its worst‐case ratio is the same as the absolute performance ratio of . Hence, there exists an algorithm with worst‐case ratio , which is better than any known upper bound on this problem. For the parallel machines case, we prove that there does not exist any polynomial‐time algorithm with worst‐case ratio smaller than 2 unless P = NP, even if all jobs have unit processing time. Then we present an algorithm with worst‐case ratio arbitrarily close to 2. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 351–358, 2014     

区域物资动员潜力的多元统计分析

为分析不同区域物资动员潜力差异,并对其进行分类,从总体实力和产值结构两方面出发,建立了区域物资动员潜力指标体系。以我国行政区域为研究样本,通过SPSS18软件,结合年度统计数据进行分析。采用主成分分析法对方案层指标进行简化,将形成的综合得分标准化并分析主成分上的载荷,然后采用层次分析法得到总体实力得分。再将研究对象按照总体实力与产值结构进行ward聚类分析,得到6个区域类别,分析其特点,提出动员建议。     

信息化车辆装备试验场建设探析

本文主要阐述了建设信息化车辆装备试验场的必要性、基本概念、基本特点与建设的基本途径,旨在为我军轮式车辆装备试验场的信息化建设提供参考。