Note: Pairwise rearrangements in reliability structures

Boland, Proschan, and Tong [2] used the notion of criticality of nodes in a coherent system to study the optimal component arrangement of reliability structures. They also provided a sufficient minimal cut (path) based criterion for verifying the criticality ordering of two nodes. We develop a necessary and sufficient condition for two nodes to be comparable and provide specific examples illustrating our result's applicability. As a corollary, certain optimal arrangement properties of well-known systems are derived. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Employment and utilization of engineers among defense contractors

Defense contractors retain engineers for two reasons. First, engineers work on current-period production contracts. Second, engineers conduct independent research and development (IR&D) and write bids and proposals (B&P) for future contracts. The amount of IR&D/B&P activity, however, understates the amount of effort devoted to learning that reduces the cost of future production. Even some engineers who work on current-period production may engage in learning, as a by-product of their efforts. This article develops and implements a model for estimating the volume of learning activity undertaken by four large manufacturers of military aircraft. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Hybrid minimal repair and age replacement maintenance policies,with nonnegligible repair times

A system undergoes minimal repair during [0, T] with a failure replacement on first failure during [T, a], or a planned replacement if the system is still functioning at elapsed time a. Repairs and replacements are not necessarily instantaneous. An expression is obtained for the asymptotic expected cost rate, and sufficient conditions are obtained for the optimum T* > 0. Several special cases are considered. A numerical investigation for a Weibull distributed time to first failure compares this elapsed-time policy with replacement on failure only, and also a policy based on system operating time or age. It is found that in many cases the elapsed-time-based policy is only marginally worse than one based on system age, and may therefore be preferred in view of its administrative convenience. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An interactive paired comparison method for bicriterion integer programming

This article proposes an interactive paired comparison region elimination method for bicriterion integer mathematical programming problems. The new method isolates the best compromise solution by successively evaluating a pair of associated supported non-dominated solutions. The efficiency of the method is tested by solving randomly generated problems based on varying shapes of efficient frontiers. When compared with the existing branch-and-bound method, the method was effective in reducing the burden on the decision maker. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Algorithms for the design of finite-capacity service units

Finite-capacity queues arise naturally in many practical situations, notably in communications and manufacturing engineering. In this article, the matrix formalism of probability distributions of phase type is used to develop fast algorithms to compute various steady-state distributions for the finite-capacity PH/PH/1 queue. This algorithm is an important ingredient in solving nontraditional but significant design problems. Some of these are described as illustrative examples.     

面向癫痫脑电的简化深度学习模型

针对脑电信号随机性强、动态变化迅速等特点,提出了一种简化深度学习模型研究癫痫脑电识别问题。提出的模型以一维卷积神经网络为基础,在结构方面简化了卷积层、池化层等以提高模型效率,在整体框架方面应用了Keras框架,在训练优化算法方面采用RMSProp算法作为模型优化算法,通过预定义的目标函数来进行损失估计,模型设计上加入了批标准化层和全局均值池化层。基于所提模型,从三个方面研究了癫痫脑电识别问题,即:利用经验模态分解,分别选取前三阶、前五阶、前七阶、前八阶的本征模态函数分量,在简化模型上进行对比分析;利用提出模型所具备的深度学习特点,直接识别原始脑电信号而无须特征提取环节;增加了三种不同方法分别提取7类特征,对相同的脑电数据进行对比分析。性能分析结果表明:对于五类不同的脑电信号,前三阶的本征模态函数分量的识别率达到92.1%,比其他几种处理方式识别率高;前八阶的本征模态分量识别率不及原始信号,表明人工数据处理时会给数据带来噪声; 所提出的简化深度学习模型能高效处理癫痫脑电识别问题,具备较高效率和较好性能。     

A multi-run interactive method for bicriterion optimization problems

This article introduces a new conceptual and methodological framework for the use of decision makers and their interactions with the computer in bicriterion decision making. The new method, called the multirun interactive method, attempts to estimate the prior of the decision maker on his uncertain preference nature using the minimum cross-entropy principle. A computational study is performed with four hypothesized prior distributions under various interaction conditions. Other important aspects related to the method, such as implementation of the method, decision making under certainty, decision making with multiple decision makers, and bicriterion integer programming, are also discussed.     

Minimal forecast horizons in equipment replacement models with multiple technologies and general switching costs

This article considers the problem of equipment replacement in which the replacement decision at a particular time must take into account (i) the state of the existing machine in use, (ii) the available replacement alternatives at the time, (iii) the future advances in the relevant technologies with regard to the equipment under consideration, and (iv) costs of switching between different technologies. A methodology that attains minimal forecast horizons for the problem is developed. A numerical example illustrates the methodology.     

Coercive diplomacy and the Donbas: Explaining Russian strategy in Eastern Ukraine

What were Russia’s objectives in Eastern Ukraine, and why was it seemingly unable to achieve a successful or decisive outcome? In contrast to Russia’s seizure of Crimea, the uprising in Eastern Ukraine was marked by disorganization and chaos. Using proxy and surrogate actors, along with military exercises and the injection of Russian troops, Russia sought to institutionalize a political entity inside Ukraine to influence its domestic politics. In this article, I analyze the mechanisms by which Russia attempted to implement, and later salvage, its strategy. The article contributes to clearer theoretical and practical understanding of limited force in coercive diplomacy, signaling, and a more rigorous treatment of the role and uses of proxy actors.