Country survey XII: South Africa

This article examines the relationship between defence expenditure and economic performance in South Africa, both prior to and after that country's first fully democratic election in 1994. Prior to 1994 defence expenditure decisions were largely dominated by non‐economic factors; since then defence spending has declined in reaction to, inter alia, the need to address a number of socio‐economic inequities.

After 1975 in particular, military industrialisation in South Africa placed a disproportionately high burden on the country's industrial resources and natural economic and technical capabilities. However, although this suggests that the opportunity cost of domestic arms production has been fairly high, the country's poor economic and development performance since the mid‐1970s is a function of underlying structural deficiencies and institutional constraints rather than the consequence of inordinately high defence spending levels.     

在分离式Hopkinson拉杆实验中确定临界实验条件的经验方法

在分离式Hopkinson拉杆实验中,常常需要获得试样在经历一个拉力脉冲拉断情况下的最低应变率,而在分离式Hopkinson拉杆装置中确定对应最低应变率的发射压力需要进行多次尝试性实验。为了更好地解决这一问题,提出一种简单的经验方法,可以通过一次拉断的实验结果计算出一个拉力脉冲拉断试样需要的最小发射压力及相应的应变率,进一步可以预测不同发射压力下的应变率。对4种铝合金试样进行拉伸实验,结果表明,利用提出的经验方法得到的应变率结果与实验结果吻合较好,可以有效地对发射压力和实验应变率进行预估。     

CFRP筋混凝土柱骨架曲线数值模拟

为研究CFRP筋混凝土柱在低周反复荷载作用下的骨架曲线,基于已有的3根CFRP筋混凝土柱的滞回曲线,采用混凝土损伤塑性本构模型和碳纤维筋本构模型,运用有限元分析软件ABAQUS对其试验过程进行数值模拟,并将模拟所得骨架曲线与试验结果进行对比。结果表明:通过数值模拟得到的骨架曲线与试验结果吻合较好,数值模拟趋势与试验得到的趋势一致,从而对该有限元模型的适用性进行了验证。     

From adversity to prosperity

This article interrogates the continuing relevance of the contractarian governance paradigm to resource governance and the impact of exploitation on the local population and environment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe and Ghana. It highlights the susceptibilities of their governance processes, particularly the roles of the elites of the host communities, the multinational corporations, and the governing authorities in appropriating resources for their personal interests, resulting in tensions and conflicts. This scenario is borne out of inept leadership, as well as the defective and compromised administrative mechanisms operational in these countries. In view of this, the article underscores the need for a ‘new governance management paradigm’ anchored on a communitarian framework, which incorporates all stakeholders, to guarantee sustainable peace and prosperity, particularly in conflict zones. The article therefore concludes that achieving a nexus between forestry, mining activities and economic development in these countries will require a restructuring of the existing governance mechanisms; and advocates for a new governance model capable of curbing the excesses of local and foreign hegemony, including a total overhaul of the seemingly compromised supervising authority.     

多进制多维信号集信道容量分析及其计算

描述了信道容量的一般概念 ,具体就波形信道 ,连续信道及离散输入连续输出无记忆信道进行了分析 ,分别导出了它们的信道容量公式。结合几种常见的多进制多维调制技术MPSK、MQAM、L正交信号及其星座分析 ,给出了它们信道容量的Monte Carlo模拟以及数值积分模拟 ,同时分析了由于信号集扩展而带来的编码增益     

Stochastic production capacity: A bane or a boon for quick response supply chains?

The quick response (QR) system that can cope with demand volatility by shortening lead time has been well studied in the literature. Much of the existing literature assumes implicitly or explicitly that the manufacturers under QR can always meet the demand because the production capacity is always sufficient. However, when the order comes with a short lead time under QR, availability of the manufacturer's production capacity is not guaranteed. This motivates us to explore QR in supply chains with stochastic production capacity. Specifically, we study QR in a two-echelon supply chain with Bayesian demand information updating. We consider the situation where the manufacturer's production capacity under QR is uncertain. We first explore how stochastic production capacity affects supply chain decisions and QR implementation. We then incorporate the manufacturer's ability to expand capacity into the model. We explore how the manufacturer determines the optimal capacity expansion decision, and the value of such an ability to the supply chain and its agents. Finally, we extend the model to the two-stage two-ordering case and derive the optimal ordering policy by dynamic programming. We compare the single-ordering and two-ordering cases to generate additional managerial insights about how ordering flexibility affects QR when production capacity is stochastic. We also explore the transparent supply chain and find that our main results still hold.     

多品种空投小件装载优化建模研究

针对空投小件装载率低下的现状,提出利用相关容重比平衡法,制定装载计划以充分利用飞机的载重能力及其使用面积,分别建立了单机和多机空投小件装载模型。该模型充分考虑了飞机的面积和载重量,对提高空投小件装载的利用率,起到良好应用效果。     

Strategic capacity decision‐making in a stochastic manufacturing environment using real‐time approximate dynamic programming

In this study, we illustrate a real‐time approximate dynamic programming (RTADP) method for solving multistage capacity decision problems in a stochastic manufacturing environment, by using an exemplary three‐stage manufacturing system with recycle. The system is a moderate size queuing network, which experiences stochastic variations in demand and product yield. The dynamic capacity decision problem is formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP). The proposed RTADP method starts with a set of heuristics and learns a superior quality solution by interacting with the stochastic system via simulation. The curse‐of‐dimensionality associated with DP methods is alleviated by the adoption of several notions including “evolving set of relevant states,” for which the value function table is built and updated, “adaptive action set” for keeping track of attractive action candidates, and “nonparametric k nearest neighbor averager” for value function approximation. The performance of the learned solution is evaluated against (1) an “ideal” solution derived using a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation, which assumes full knowledge of future realized values of the stochastic variables (2) a myopic heuristic solution, and (3) a sample path based rolling horizon MIP solution. The policy learned through the RTADP method turned out to be superior to polices of 2 and 3. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2010     

多芯片焊球阵列封装体受热载荷作用数值模拟

针对典型高密度多芯片BGA(焊球阵列)封装体建立三维有限元分析模型,研究不同尺寸封装体在稳态热载荷作用下的结构变形和应力情况,在此基础上引入包含等效梁和危险焊球真实几何形状和间距等在内的简化模型以进行序列分析,研究各设计参数对力学参量的影响。数值结果反映了封装体应力分布及其变化特点,表明影响封装体变形和应力的主要参数;提出的建模方法简便有效,可以方便地用来分析不同类型的BGA封装,并扩展应用至不同的分析目的,为此种结构的设计和优化提供一定参考。     

一类带容量限制的运输问题

考虑一类带容量限制的运输问题.采用构造辅助网络的方法,将运输网络中的每个配送中心均拆分成两个节点,构造出新弧,形成新的网络,把此类运输问题转换为最小费用流问题来解决.并在此基础上,考虑运输网络中配送中心的容量扩张问题.