Threshold incentives over multiple periods and the sales hockey stick phenomenon

In this article, we study threshold‐based sales‐force incentives and their impact on a dealer's optimal effort. A phenomenon, observed in practice, is that the dealer exerts a large effort toward the end of the incentive period to boost sales and reach the threshold to make additional profits. In the literature, the resulting last‐period sales spike is sometimes called the hockey stick phenomenon (HSP). In this article, we show that the manufacturer's choice of the incentive parameters and the underlying demand uncertainty affect the dealer's optimal effort choice. This results in the sales HSP over multiple time periods even when there is a cost associated with waiting. We then show that, by linking the threshold to a correlated market signal, the HSP can be regulated. We also characterize the variance of the total sales across all the periods and demonstrate conditions under the sales variance can be reduced. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

An integer decomposition algorithm for solving a two‐stage facility location problem with second‐stage activation costs

We study a stochastic scenario‐based facility location problem arising in situations when facilities must first be located, then activated in a particular scenario before they can be used to satisfy scenario demands. Unlike typical facility location problems, fixed charges arise in the initial location of the facilities, and then in the activation of located facilities. The first‐stage variables in our problem are the traditional binary facility‐location variables, whereas the second‐stage variables involve a mix of binary facility‐activation variables and continuous flow variables. Benders decomposition is not applicable for these problems due to the presence of the second‐stage integer activation variables. Instead, we derive cutting planes tailored to the problem under investigation from recourse solution data. These cutting planes are derived by solving a series of specialized shortest path problems based on a modified residual graph from the recourse solution, and are tighter than the general cuts established by Laporte and Louveaux for two‐stage binary programming problems. We demonstrate the computational efficacy of our approach on a variety of randomly generated test problems. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

Neighborhood search heuristics for selecting hierarchically well‐formulated subsets in polynomial regression

The importance of subset selection in multiple regression has been recognized for more than 40 years and, not surprisingly, a variety of exact and heuristic procedures have been proposed for choosing subsets of variables. In the case of polynomial regression, the subset selection problem is complicated by two issues: (1) the substantial growth in the number of candidate predictors, and (2) the desire to obtain hierarchically well‐formulated subsets that facilitate proper interpretation of the regression parameter estimates. The first of these issues creates the need for heuristic methods that can provide solutions in reasonable computation time; whereas the second requires innovative neighborhood search approaches that accommodate the hierarchical constraints. We developed tabu search and variable neighborhood search heuristics for subset selection in polynomial regression. These heuristics are applied to a classic data set from the literature and, subsequently, evaluated in a simulation study using synthetic data sets. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

A facility reliability problem: Formulation,properties, and algorithm

Having a robustly designed supply chain network is one of the most effective ways to hedge against network disruptions because contingency plans in the event of a disruption are often significantly limited. In this article, we study the facility reliability problem: how to design a reliable supply chain network in the presence of random facility disruptions with the option of hardening selected facilities. We consider a facility location problem incorporating two types of facilities, one that is unreliable and another that is reliable (which is not subject to disruption, but is more expensive). We formulate this as a mixed integer programming model and develop a Lagrangian Relaxation‐based solution algorithm. We derive structural properties of the problem and show that for some values of the disruption probability, the problem reduces to the classical uncapacitated fixed charge location problem. In addition, we show that the proposed solution algorithm is not only capable of solving large‐scale problems, but is also computationally effective. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

基于马尔可夫过程的坦克火力随机对抗模型

根据小规模坦克火力对抗中所具有的马尔可夫性特点,将该过程视为离散状态、离散时间的马尔可夫随机过程(马尔可夫链),由此建立了坦克与反坦克武器系统之间一对一对抗的随机格斗模型,并给出双方获胜概率和平均对抗回合数的计算公式。最后通过实例验证了模型的有效性。该模型克服了轮流对抗不符合战场实际的缺点,为分队指挥员在射击策略的选择和分队火力运用上的快速决策提供了较为精确的量化依据。     

艰难的“氢弹决策”

第二次世界大战后,美苏展开了长达40余年的冷战,以核武器为重要标志的军备竞赛,如同“达摩克利斯之剑”,将全世界都笼罩在“第三次世界大战”、“核冬天”的阴影之下。1950年1月,美国总统杜鲁门作出研发氢弹的决定,成为一项在整个冷战期间具有里程碑意义的战略决策。     

导管螺旋桨敞水性能的预报和比较

借助于计算流体力学软件,对导管螺旋桨的敞水性能进行了数值模拟,得到了在不同网格模型和湍流模型下导管螺旋桨的正车敞水性能曲线,通过与试验图谱的对比分析,发现Wilcoxk-ω模型更适合于导管螺旋桨的敞水性能计算,并且采用结构化网格和非结构化网格相结合的计算方法能够满足导管螺旋桨敞水性能预报的工程精度要求。同时,当网格中存在少量高度倾斜的网格单元时,在不影响计算收敛的情况下,仍能将计算误差控制在10%以内。此外,如果要获得更为精确的计算结果,应提高网格质量,尽量使用结构化网格,并将近壁面网格加密,合理控制壁面附近的Y+值。虽然网格数量的增加并不总是意味着计算误差的减少,但合理控制网格细密度能够获得更为可信的计算结果。     

The Randomization of Terrorist Attacks

The purpose of this article is to explore the economic theoretical foundations of the idea that rational terrorist organizations deliberately randomize their attacks (by type, timing, location, and targets) to generate uncertainty and intimidation. A choice theoretic framework is applied to the analysis of the terrorist organization's behavior to determine whether welfare (utility) gains from the randomization of terrorist attacks are plausible and feasible. The randomization of attacks can appear to promise higher amounts of political influence for each resource input but it turns out that randomization cannot manufacture a situation where higher amounts of political influence are obtained for each resource input.The results imply that, rather than randomization and instability, the rational terrorist organization is more likely to prefer stability. The findings and implications provide a theoretical explanation for the non-randomness of terrorist attacks.Thismay be one small step towards explaining the patterns – non-randomness – in the time-series of terrorist incidents.     

具有全局收敛性的盲均衡算法

为了解决传统的自适应均衡技术需发送训练序列的问题,采用盲均衡技术,利用接收信号本身的特征使均衡器收敛。提出了一种新的盲均衡算法(C&D算法),该算法将CRIMNO算法和判决引导(Decision Directed,DD)算法相结合,利用信号序列间的互不相关特性,从而使其具有全局收敛性能。实验结果表明:与CRIMNO算法相比,在相同的信噪比下,该算法具有收敛快速、运算量少和残留误差小的特点。     

RBF网络用于战车火控系统弹道解算的方法

弹道解算问题对战车火控系统的性能有着直接的影响.传统的弹道解算方法在精度和实时性方面都存在一定的局限性.为了提高解算精度、战车首发命中率和解算的实时性,基于RBF网络的函数逼近及预测能力,将RBF网络用于弹道解算,对传统算法进行优化,得到了新的弹道解算方法.最后对所提方法进行了仿真,发现新方法在解算精度没有降低的条件下,大大提高了弹道解算的实时性.