Military Spending,Conflict and External Debt in Sub-Saharan Africa

The damaging economic effects of the debt crises on Africa in the late 1980s encouraged considerable research on the determinants of external debt in developing economies. Although sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) debt was cut by two-thirds by 2008, through two debt relief programmes, debt in the region has since been rising at an increasingly rapid pace. This study provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of external debt in SSA over the period 1960–2016, using dynamic panel methods. It also considers two potentially important factors that have received relatively little attention. One is military spending, rarely considered, despite a number of well-publicised scandals over the procurement of unnecessary and expensive high-tech weapons systems. A second, is the possibility that the countries studied have been involved in conflict. The empirical results point to a positive impact of military spending on external debt, but with some evidence of heterogeneity across the countries. Furthermore, findings indicate that the positive effect of military expenditure on debt becomes more marked in countries that have been affected by conflict. These results imply that policies to improve security and reduce military spending could be beneficial in reducing external debt and, potentially, improving economic performance in the region.     

Theoretical and numerical investigations on the headspace of cartridge cases considering axial deformation and movement

The cartridge case headspace is the axial clearance between the cartridge and bolt of an automatic weapon, and influences the reliability and security of the weapon. Accordingly, theoretical and numerical studies were conducted to analyze the dynamic response of cartridge cases during internal impact considering the initial radial clearances between the cartridge case and chamber. A theoretical model was proposed to predict the cartridge case headspace considering both the deformation and movement of the cartridge case and confirmed by the results of nonlinear finite element simulations. The differences between the results of the conventional static model and the dynamic model were then comprehensively evaluated. The effects of the angle between the cartridge and chamber, the cartridge case material, and the internal impact pressure on the predicted headspace value were also analyzed. The dynamic response of the cartridge case predicted by the dynamic model was more accurate than that predicted by the conventional static model. The internal impact pressure, pressure change rate, and cartridge material were all found to affect the predicted headspace.     

Natural gas storage valuation and optimization: A real options application

In this article, we present an algorithm for the valuation and optimal operation of natural gas storage facilities. Real options theory is used to derive nonlinear partial‐integro‐differential equations (PIDEs), the solution of which give both valuation and optimal operating strategies for these facilities. The equations are designed to incorporate a wide class of spot price models that can exhibit the same time‐dependent, mean‐reverting dynamics, and price spikes as those observed in most energy markets. Particular attention is paid to the operational characteristics of real storage units. These characteristics include working gas capacities, variable deliverability and injection rates, and cycling limitations. We illustrate the model with a numerical example of a salt cavern storage facility that clearly shows how a gas storage facility is like a financial straddle with both put and call properties. Depending on the amount of gas in storage the relative influence of the put and call components vary. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2009     

多轴越野车辆悬架部件结构优化设计

基于有限单元法、变密度方法和车辆动力学分析方法,对某型多轴越野车辆的典型部件(前悬架摆臂)主体进行了结构优化设计研究。结果表明:通过结构优化,降低了摆臂的质量,提高了摆臂的静态、动态结构刚度和强度。     

视景仿真中运动实体的动态碰撞检测

在视景仿真中,经常会出现运动实体穿入或穿透其他实体的现象,而用现有的各类包围盒模型不能很好地处理这一问题。为了解决这个问题,介绍了包围盒方法,分析了实体平动、转动、组合运动及相应包围盒的碰撞检测;针对所发现的问题,提出动态碰撞检测方法,并建立了运动实体的动态碰撞检测模型;运用OpenGVS图形引擎,通过VC++编程对模型进行了仿真,通过对仿真结果的对比实验,验证了模型的可行性。     

水下缩比航行体热尾流的红外探测实验

根据缩比模型,建立缩比红外成像实验测试系统,对水下航行体的体积、航行深度、运动速度、尾流排放等进行缩比设计,设计多种实验工况,可实现缩比目标模型红外尾流的静态和动态测试。一方面明确红外尾流的可探测性,另一方面掌握红外尾流可探测性的影响因素以及红外尾流的变化规律,为下一步工作奠定基础。缩比实验结果表明,利用区域灰度均值和均方差的起伏变化可有效探测水下航行体水面尾迹。     

基于梯形直觉模糊数的动态多准则群决策方法

针对决策信息为梯形直觉模糊数的多准则决策问题,引入含参得分函数和相关系数提出了一种动态多准则群决策方法,首先利用参照方案相关系数总偏差最小的非线性规划模型求解客观准则权重,通过参数因子转化犹豫度集结得到各方案综合得分函数,最后根据参数动态变化进行MATLAB仿真分析并排序。该方法适用于准则权重已知和未知的情形,弥补了犹豫度缺失和基于距离测度决策方法的缺陷,并通过航空装备保障合同商的选择决策实例验证了有效性。     

Robust shortest path planning and semicontractive dynamic programming

In this article, we consider shortest path problems in a directed graph where the transitions between nodes are subject to uncertainty. We use a minimax formulation, where the objective is to guarantee that a special destination state is reached with a minimum cost path under the worst possible instance of the uncertainty. Problems of this type arise, among others, in planning and pursuit‐evasion contexts, and in model predictive control. Our analysis makes use of the recently developed theory of abstract semicontractive dynamic programming models. We investigate questions of existence and uniqueness of solution of the optimality equation, existence of optimal paths, and the validity of various algorithms patterned after the classical methods of value and policy iteration, as well as a Dijkstra‐like algorithm for problems with nonnegative arc lengths.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 66:15–37, 2019     

India’s nuclear counter-revolution: nuclear learning and the future of deterrence

ABSTRACT

The India–Pakistan near war of February–March 2019 highlights India’s ongoing evolution in strategic thought and practice since its emergence in 1998 as an overt nuclear-weapon possessor. These changes, involving an increasing willingness to engage in the intentional escalation of conflict with a nuclear-armed rival willing to be the first to use nuclear weapons, challenge certain academic assumptions about the behavior of nuclear-weapon states. In particular, they undermine the expectations of the nuclear-revolution theory—which anticipates nuclear and conventional restraint among nuclear-armed rivals through fear of mutual assured destruction—and the model of nuclear learning which underpins this theory, in which new nuclear-weapon states gradually absorb this restraint through policy-maker learning. This article explores how India’s learning pathway since 1998 has deviated from these expectations. India is instead pursuing its own “revolution,” in the direction of creating capabilities for flexible response and escalation dominance. It concludes by illuminating the similarities between Indian strategic behavior and contemporary practices of other nuclear-armed states, and suggests that New Delhi’s emerging de facto nuclear doctrine and posture is part of a broader empirical challenge to our current conceptions of the nuclear revolution and of nuclear learning.     

Scheduling policies for an antiterrorist surveillance system

This article concerns scheduling policies in a surveillance system aimed at detecting a terrorist attack in time. Terrorist suspects arriving at a public area are subject to continuous monitoring, while a surveillance team takes their biometric signatures and compares them with records stored in a terrorist database. Because the surveillance team can screen only one terrorist suspect at a time, the team faces a dynamic scheduling problem among the suspects. We build a model consisting of an M/G/1 queue with two types of customers—red and white—to study this problem. Both types of customers are impatient but the reneging time distributions are different. The server only receives a reward by serving a red customer and can use the time a customer has spent in the queue to deduce its likely type. In a few special cases, a simple service rule—such as first‐come‐first‐serve—is optimal. We explain why the problem is in general difficult and we develop a heuristic policy motivated by the fact that terrorist attacks tend to be rare events. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009