Analysis of an Alternative Military Healthcare Benefit Design

Abstract

The Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission was established by the Congress in 2013 to perform a systematic review of military compensation to address rising costs and other trends. Their recommendation for reforming the TRICARE health care program was sweeping, and differed greatly from earlier proposals that focused on increasing beneficiary cost shares. Specifically, the commission proposed overhauling the current benefit delivery model and replacing it with a premium-based insurance model offering a menu of DoD-sponsored private health plans. The analysis presented here is based on work that supported the commission by estimating the budgetary impact of its proposed reforms. Results indicate that movement towards the premium-based model would produce an annual budgetary cost savings in the $2 billion to $4 billion range, with a best savings estimate of $3.2 billion.     

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     

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。     

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。     

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。     

Fire truck relocation during major incidents

The effectiveness of a fire department is largely determined by its ability to respond to incidents in a timely manner. To do so, fire departments typically have fire stations spread evenly across the region, and dispatch the closest truck(s) whenever a new incident occurs. However, large gaps in coverage may arise in the case of a major incident that requires many nearby fire trucks over a long period of time, substantially increasing response times for emergencies that occur subsequently. We propose a heuristic for relocating idle trucks during a major incident in order to retain good coverage. This is done by solving a mathematical program that takes into account the location of the available fire trucks and the historic spatial distribution of incidents. This heuristic allows the user to balance the coverage and the number of truck movements. Using extensive simulation experiments we test the heuristic for the operations of the Fire Department of Amsterdam‐Amstelland, and compare it against three other benchmark strategies in a simulation fitted using 10 years of historical data. We demonstrate substantial improvement over the current relocation policy, and show that not relocating during major incidents may lead to a significant decrease in performance.     

Regular and irregular forces in conflict: nineteenth century insurgencies in South America

ABSTRACT

In the decades following independence from Spain, ‘civil wars’ ravaged the newly established polities in South America. Former vice-regal capitals inherited a larger portion of the colonial administration and had larger economic resources and a hegemonic project they were able to have permanent and professional armed forces, capable of leading the offensive and giving battle following the European rules of military art. The central hypothesis of this work is that there is a necessary relationship between the shape of these asymmetrical conflicts, their outcome and the political territorial configuration of each country in post-revolutionary Spanish America. When permanent armies took over from local militias, the capital kept the integrity of its territories and there was a tendency towards political centralization. When this did not happen and the militias managed to find a way to defeat their centralizing enemies, the local powers had an opportunity to renegotiate their participation in the political body, and sought to maintain their independence, which was manifest in federal agreements, otherwise a process of territorial fragmentation began. More than a difference between regular and irregular forces there was one between intermittent, and permanent mobilization.     

The politics of multinational military operations

Today, few countries fight alone; most fight as allies or partners in multilateral campaigns. The end of the Cold War opened a window of opportunity for multinational military operations (MMOs). These have seen varying degrees of participation, enthusiasm, and success. This special forum is devoted to the politics of multilateral warfare including their formation, maintenance, and durability. The introduction sketches past research and derives some key questions of continuing relevance. The contributions shed light on the domestic and international politics of MMOs, focusing on the implementation of national restrictions and their repercussions for MMOs, party politics of military intervention, the conditions under which states decide to defect from military operations, and the role of junior partners in MMOs. In sum, this forum offers a fresh look at the politics of MMOs, including conceptual contributions to the study of national restrictions, domestic constraints, and coalition warfare.