A game with distorted information

This article considers a two-person game in which the first player has access to certain information that is valuable but unknown to the second player. The first player can distort the information before it is passed on to the second player. The purpose in distorting the information is to render it as useless as possible to the second player. Based on the distorted information received, the second player then maximizes some given objective. In certain cases he may still be able to use the distorted information, but sometimes the information has been so badly distorted that it becomes completely useless to him. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mirror,mirror on the wall,who is the most offensive of them all? – Explaining the offensive bias in military tactical thinking

This article explores why the offensive predominates military tactical thinking. With survey results showing an offensive bias among 60 per cent of senior Swedish officers and as many as 80 per cent in the case of the army, it is clear that this is not just a problem of the past but is equally relevant today. The article asks why there is a tendency to perceive and understand offensive tactics as the preferred choice and the way to conduct battle that should be encouraged and preferred. Drawing on existing research and the findings of a pilot study, ten propositions for why the offensive bias exists are tested using a mixed-method approach. Based on the findings, the article develops a model to understand why the offensive dominates military tactical thinking. It is found that the two key constitutive factors behind the offensive bias are military culture and education. These factors most directly and profoundly influence an officer’s identity, perceptions, and thinking. Military culture and education, in turn, work as a prism for four other factors: military history, the theory and principles of war, doctrine and TTPs, and psychological factors.     

On gamma estimation via matrix kriging

In financial engineering, sensitivities of derivative prices (also known as the Greeks) are important quantities in risk management, and stochastic gradient estimation methods are used to estimate them given the market parameters. In practice, the surface (function) of the Greeks with respect to the underlying parameters is much more desired, because it can be used in real‐time risk management. In this paper, we consider derivatives with multiple underlying assets, and propose three stochastic kriging‐based methods, the element‐by‐element, the importance mapping, and the Cholesky decomposition, to fit the surface of the gamma matrix that can fulfill the time constraint and the precision requirement in real‐time risk management. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

水平集方法中速度停止项函数的改进

对速度停止项函数的研究发现,现今的速度停止项采用的单一全局阈值法很难使经典水平集算法得到较准确的分割效果。为此,提出了一种新的速度停止项函数,该函数通过引入变阈值较好的区分了图像的边缘区与同质区,以使采用该速度停止项函数的水平集方程实现在同质区加速演化,在边缘区停止演化的目的。实验结果表明,采用速度停止项函数能够使水平集方法获取更好的分割结果。     

地基C~4I系统的高空核爆电磁脉冲易损性分析

建立了C4I系统的毁伤等级,完成了毁伤机理与毁伤模式分析,运用毁伤树分析方法构建毁伤树模型,确定了C4I系统的致命性部件,对进一步开展新型号导弹武器系统系统易损性评估研究具有一定的参考应用价值。     

C~4ISR系统开发的仿真支持过程分析与建模

C4ISR(Command、Control、Communication、Computer、Intelligence、Surveillance and Reconnaissance)系统开发的仿真活动贯穿于系统全生命周期的各个阶段,仿真支持过程联系着C4ISR系统开发仿真的各类要素。首先对C4ISR系统开发仿真支持的内容进行分析,从生命周期维、仿真产品维和仿真任务维三个维度描述仿真支持内容之间的联系。然后分析了C4ISR系统开发仿真支持过程的层次性,应用UML描述了支持过程中的仿真项目模型和仿真过程模型。在此基础上,应用基于Petri网的工作流网,对C4ISR系统开发的仿真支持过程进行建模,分析了支持过程中活动、产品、角色、约束四类要素的Petri网表示方式。最后在一个C4ISR系统开发仿真支持实例中应用以上分析和建模方法,验证了方法的可行性和应用效果。     

分布式虚拟战场地形实时渲染策略

大规模地形作为分布式虚拟战场的重要组成部分,在非常有限的资源下,很难达到实时性绘制。针对此问题,设计了两级三层的概要四叉树组织地形数据,用多线程模式算法调度数据,以提高庞大地形数据的交互速率;提出基于衔接索引模板的算法来消除裂缝,实现不同细节层次的无缝拼接;引入样本纹理堆栈的纹理合成算子,增强各层次细节地貌的逼真表现。实验表明:该方法能够很好地实现战场环境下地形的实时性绘制,提供稳定的视觉漫游效果。     

Intellectual spring cleaning: it’s time for a military “Do Not Read” list; and some sources that should be on that list

Military reading lists, intended to promote professional reading and in turn enhance education and develop critical thinking skills and sound judgement, recommend key texts to military personnel. This is a noble intent but the lists themselves, while generally good, are not flawless. Critiques of military reading lists often focus on what sources they are missing. This article offers its own critique but from a different perspective. It does so by analysing why some sources, which have become outdated, are based on faulty or incomplete research, have been thoroughly disproven, or some combination of the above, nevertheless linger on military reading lists. It then offers a short list of such sources, which it recommends be either removed from existing reading lists or accompanied by other sources that place the original source in appropriate historical context. Where applicable, it also recommends alternative sources that provide insights into the same subject matter. In so doing, this article is intended generate debate and to assist militaries to achieve a better balance between evaluation, induction and retention of valid knowledge on one hand, and rejection of outdated or flawed knowledge on the other.     

Estimating the probability that a simulated system will be the best

Consider a stochastic simulation experiment consisting of v independent vector replications consisting of an observation from each of k independent systems. Typical system comparisons are based on mean (long‐run) performance. However, the probability that a system will actually be the best is sometimes more relevant, and can provide a very different perspective than the systems' means. Empirically, we select one system as the best performer (i.e., it wins) on each replication. Each system has an unknown constant probability of winning on any replication and the numbers of wins for the individual systems follow a multinomial distribution. Procedures exist for selecting the system with the largest probability of being the best. This paper addresses the companion problem of estimating the probability that each system will be the best. The maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) of the multinomial cell probabilities for a set of v vector replications across k systems are well known. We use these same v vector replications to form v^k unique vectors (termed pseudo‐replications) that contain one observation from each system and develop estimators based on AVC (All Vector Comparisons). In other words, we compare every observation from each system with every combination of observations from the remaining systems and note the best performer in each pseudo‐replication. AVC provides lower variance estimators of the probability that each system will be the best than the MLEs. We also derive confidence intervals for the AVC point estimators, present a portion of an extensive empirical evaluation and provide a realistic example. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 49: 341–358, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/nav.10019