一类广义延拓四元数矩阵的奇异值分解

从普通四元数矩阵的奇异值分解出发,给出了具有行或列对称结构的一类四元数矩阵(即广义四元数延拓矩阵)的奇异值、奇异向量与其母矩阵的奇异值、奇异向量之间的定量关系,推广了现有文献的结果。理论分析和数值实验的结果表明,就一大类广义四元数延拓矩阵而言,仅用母矩阵进行奇异值分解不但可以节省计算量和存储量,而且不影响任何数值精度。     

振动分析在钢桁架结构损伤预警中的应用

基于有限元分析软件ABAQUS平台,以一种钢桁架结构为例进行数值仿真分析;以白噪声信号作为环境激励信号,对钢桁架结构进行振动分析;结合虚拟脉冲响应函数和小波包能量谱分析法,对钢桁架结构在环境信号激励下进行损伤预警。最后,比较了不同测点的预警效果。结果表明:这两种方法的同时使用,对钢桁架结构在环境激励下进行损伤预警的效果十分明显,具有很好的工程应用价值。     

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.     

Visibility probabilities on line segments in three-dimensional spaces subject to random poisson fields of obscuring spheres

The methodology of determining simultaneous visibility probabilities and points on line segments is extended to problems of three-dimensional spaces, with Poisson random fields of obscuring spheres. Required functions are derived analytically and a numerical example is given for a special case of a standard Poisson field, with uniform distribution of sphere diameters.     

A general age replacement model with minimal repair

A general age replacement is introduced which incorporates minimal repair, planned and unplanned replacements, and costs which depend on time. Finite and infinite horizon results are obtained. Various special cases are considered. Furthermore, a shock model with general cost structure is considered.     

A branch and bound algorithm for solving a class of nonlinear integer programming problems

This article presents a branch and bound method for solving the problem of minimizing a separable concave function over a convex polyhedral set where the variables are restricted to be integer valued. Computational results are reported.     

Warranty design under buyer and seller risk aversion

This paper provides a framework in which warranty policies for non-repairable items can be evaluated according to risk preferences of both buyers and sellers. In particular, a warranty price schedule is established such that sellers are indifferent among the policies. Given this schedule, a buyer's response is expressed by selecting the price-warranty combination that minimizes disutility. Within this framework, a warranty can be viewed as an instrumet of risk management that can induce more sales and greater profitability. For given utility functions, analytical results for the development of a price schedule are developed. Numerical results illustrate the substitution effects between warranty terms, prices, and risk parameters.     

Successive approximation in separable programming: An improved procedure for convex separable programs

We implement a solution procedure for general convex separable programs where a series of relatively small piecewise linear programs are solved as opposed to a single large one, and where, based on bound calculations developed in [13] and [14], the ranges of linearization are systematically reduced for successive programs. The procedure inherits ε-convergence to the global optimum in a finite number of steps, but perhaps its most distinct feature is the rigorous way in which ranges containing an optimal solution are reduced from iteration to iteration. This paper describes the procedure, called successive approximation, discusses its convergence, tightness of the bounds, bound-calculation overhead, and its robustness. It presents a computer implementation to demonstrate its effectiveness for general problems and compares it (1) with the more standard separable programming approach and (2) with one of the recent augmented Lagrangian methods [10] included in a comprehensive study of nonlinear programming codes [12]. It seems clear from over 130 cases resulting from 80 distinct problems studied here that significant savings in terms of computational effort can be realized by a judicious use of the procedure, and the ease with which it can be used is appreciably increased by the robustness it shows. Moreover, for most of these problems, the advantage increases as the size, nonlinearity, and the degree of desired accuracy increase. Other important benefits include significantly smaller storage requirements, the ability to estimate the error in the current solution, and to terminate the algorithm as soon as the acceptable level of accuracy has been achieved. Problems requiring up to about 10,000 nonzero elements in their specification and about 45,000 nonzero elements in the generated separable programs resulting from up to 70 original nonlinear variables and 70 nonlinear constraints are included in the computations.