The Determinants of Arms Production

This study analyzes the determinants of arms production in 15 countries using annual panel data from 1997 to 2002. The results suggest that real GDP per capita, military expenditures, arms exports, and arms imports are positively related to arms production.     

Estimation of the survival function of a repairable standby series system

This article deals with the statistical analysis of an N-component series system supported by an active standby and one repair facility. Assuming that the life and repair times of the components are independent exponential random variables, the probability distribution of the first passage to the system failure time is shown to be a convolution of two independent exponential distributions. Three observation schemes are considered to obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the survival function. Information matrices are supplied. Numerical results based on Monte Carlo simulation are presented. It is noted that component level information (failure rate, repair rate) is not necessary for estimating the survival function of the system.     

Heuristics for the multi‐resource generalized assignment problem

The well‐known generalized assignment problem (GAP) involves the identification of a minimum‐cost assignment of tasks to agents when each agent is constrained by a resource in limited supply. The multi‐resource generalized assignment problem (MRGAP) is the generalization of the GAP in which there are a number of different potentially constraining resources associated with each agent. This paper explores heuristic procedures for the MRGAP. We first define a three‐phase heuristic which seeks to construct a feasible solution to MRGAP and then systematically attempts to improve the solution. We then propose a modification of the heuristic for the MRGAP defined previously by Gavish and Pirkul. The third procedure is a hybrid heuristic that combines the first two heuristics, thus capturing their relative strengths. We discuss extensive computational experience with the heuristics. The hybrid procedure is seen to be extremely effective in solving MRGAPs, generating feasible solutions to more than 99% of the test problems and consistently producing near‐optimal solutions. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 48: 468–483, 2001     

AWGN信道下线性分组码的差错概率下界分析

提出了一种线性分组码的最大似然译码(ML-decoding)差错概率下界的计算方法。差错概率的下界优化实质上是对联合事件概率下界的优化,算法结合改进的Dawson-Sankoff界的优化准则,提出了AWGN信道下线性分组码差错冗余事件的判决准则,得到了误码率下界的计算表达式。该表达式只依赖码字的Hamming重量分布与信噪比,较之类deCaens界与类KAT界,本算法得到的下界更紧,计算量更低。针对LDPC等线性分组码的数值结果证明了算法的优越性能。     

Theorist of Maritime Strategy: Sir Julian Corbett and his Contribution to Military and Naval Thought

The Volkssturm (People's Storm or Home Guard) was formed by the Nazi Party in late 1944 as Allied forces closed in on the Reich from the east and west. The political ambitions of Martin Bormann, Hitler's secretary and the head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, were the driving force for this new national organisation. Lacking resources, the Volkssturm's military value was negligible even in eastern Germany where battalions occasionally fought with great tenacity against the Red Army. However, its foundations, character and nature were indicative of the process through which Party power had reached its zenith on the eve of the Third Reich's collapse.     

GERMANY'S CURRENT AND FUTURE PLUTONIUM INVENTORY

In the past, Germany reprocessed a significant amount of its spent nuclear fuel, partly on its own territory but mostly as a customer of British and French reprocessing plants. In mid-2005, Germany stopped this practice, banning new transports of spent fuel for reprocessing—although the already-exported material would be allowed to be reprocessed and recycled in German reactors as mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. In total, about 6,500 tonnes of heavy metal have been contracted for reprocessing, but a significant portion of this material has neither been reprocessed nor recycled as MOX fuel in German reactors. Due to the complex import-export history and the partly nontransparent information policy of the German government and utilities, a comprehensive and up-to-date plutonium balance for Germany is not publicly available. This report provides an assessment of Germany's plutonium inventory (stored domestically or abroad) based on open-source information. Special attention is paid to the issue of whether the entire inventory of separated plutonium can be completely irradiated in German nuclear reactors before the last of them are shut down in 2022. The authors conclude that Germany's stock of plutonium waiting to be recycled was about 12.2 tonnes as of 2010; this plutonium should be completely re-imported from the United Kingdom and France by 2017. Germany's MOX-consumption capacities should be sufficient to irradiate the remaining plutonium, although further delays are expected that could leave Germany with an inventory of separated (unirradiated) plutonium.