ALL TOGETHER NOW

Banning Weapons of Mass Destruction, by Frederick N. Mattis. Praeger Security International, 2009. 129 pages, $39.95.     

UNDERSTANDING CHINA'S ANTISATELLITE TEST

In discussing China's January 2007 hit-to-kill intercept of the Chinese weather satellite FengYun-1C, most American analysts sought the “message” for the United States—either by asserting that China's test was a deliberate step toward a comprehensive counterspace capability to offset U.S. conventional military superiority or an attempt to force the United States to the negotiating table on “the prevention of an arms race in outer space.” Chinese officials, after a long silence, eventually claimed the test was an “experiment” that was “not targeted at any country.” We traveled to China several times in 2007 and had a series of conversations with Chinese individuals knowledgeable about the history of this particular antisatellite program and with access to information about the decision-making process prior to and after the final test. These discussions were off the record, not for attribution, given the sensitivity of the subject. They reflected the views of some of the key institutions involved in the test from the State, the Communist Party, the People's Liberation Army, and aerospace experts involved in debris calculations. The information conveyed to us suggests that American commentators tend to place much greater importance on the United States as a driver in China's decision to develop the technology and conduct the test than do the Chinese.     

Securing a border under asymmetric information

We study a stochastic interdiction model of Morton et al. IIE Transactions, 39 (2007):3–14 that locates radiation sensors at border crossings to detect and prevent the smuggling of nuclear material. In this model, an interdictor places sensors at customs checkpoints to minimize a potential smuggler's maximum probability of crossing a border undetected. We focus on a model variant in which the interdictor has different, and likely more accurate, perceptions of the system's parameters than the smuggler does. We introduce a model that is tighter and uses fewer constraints than that of Morton et al. We also develop a class of valid inequalities along with a corresponding separation procedure that can be used within a cutting‐plane approach to reduce computational effort. Computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 91–100, 2014     

Information in two-stage programming under uncertainty

The random variables in two-stage programming under uncertainty are generally treated in a passive manner in that no information regarding the random variables or the process generating the random variables may be obtained. This paper develops the economics of information for the case in which the probability distributions are discrete. A multinomial process is assumed to generate the random variables, and the parameter vector of that process is assumed to be unknown. A Dirichlet prior distribution on the parameter vector is used, and the computation of the value of information thus involves a Dirichlet-multinomial distribution on the random variables. An example involving producing to meet uncertain demands is presented.     

Use of dimensionless ratios to determine minimum-cost inventory quantities

The iteration usually necessary for simultaneous determination of minimum-cost order quantity and reorder point in (Q, r) inventory systems may be eliminated by a graphical technique employing dimensionless ratios. This technique is illustrated for three different types of stock-out penalty.     

A complete importance ranking for components of binary coherent systems,with extensions to multi-state systems

Means of measuring and ranking a system's components relative to their importance to the system reliability have been developed by a number of authors. This paper investigates a new ranking that is based upon minimal cuts and compares it with existing definitions. The new ranking is shown to be easily calculated from readily obtainable information and to be most useful for systems composed of highly reliable components. The paper also discusses extensions of importance measures and rankings to systems in which both the system and its components may be in any of a finite number of states. Many of the results about importance measures and rankings for binary systems are shown to extend to the more sophisticated multi-state systems. Also, the multi-state importance measures and rankings are shown to be decomposable into a number of sub-measures and rankings.     

Quadratic programming with quadratic constraints

A program with a quadratic objective function and quadratic constraints is considered. Two duals to such programs are provided, and an algorithm is presented based upon approximations to the duals. The algorithm consists of a sequence of linear programs and programs involving the optimization of a quadratic function either unconstrained or constrained to the nonnegative orthant. An example involving production planning is presented.