Exact algorithms for integrated facility location and production planning problems

We consider a class of facility location problems with a time dimension, which requires assigning every customer to a supply facility in each of a finite number of periods. Each facility must meet all assigned customer demand in every period at a minimum cost via its production and inventory decisions. We provide exact branch‐and‐price algorithms for this class of problems and several important variants. The corresponding pricing problem takes the form of an interesting class of production planning and order selection problems. This problem class requires selecting a set of orders that maximizes profit, defined as the revenue from selected orders minus production‐planning‐related costs incurred in fulfilling the selected orders. We provide polynomial‐time dynamic programming algorithms for this class of pricing problems, as well as for generalizations thereof. Computational testing indicates the advantage of our branch‐and‐price algorithm over various approaches that use commercial software packages. These tests also highlight the significant cost savings possible from integrating location with production and inventory decisions and demonstrate that the problem is rather insensitive to forecast errors associated with the demand streams. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

A multilevel passenger screening problem for aviation security

Passenger prescreening is a critical component of aviation security systems. This paper introduces the Multilevel Allocation Problem (MAP), which models the screening of passengers and baggage in a multilevel aviation security system. A passenger is screened by one of several classes, each of which corresponds to a set of procedures using security screening devices, where passengers are differentiated by their perceived risk levels. Each class is defined in terms of its fixed cost (the overhead costs), its marginal cost (the additional cost to screen a passenger), and its security level. The objective of MAP is to assign each passenger to a class such that the total security is maximized subject to passenger assignments and budget constraints. This paper shows that MAP is NP‐hard and introduces a Greedy heuristic that obtains approximate solutions to MAP that use no more than two classes. Examples are constructed using data extracted from the Official Airline Guide. Analysis of the examples suggests that fewer security classes for passenger screening may be more effective and that using passenger risk information can lead to more effective security screening strategies. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

海战场态势评估问题的研究

对海战场综合态势进行态势评估和威胁分析是信息融合系统的最高层级,态势评估结果将对指挥员的指挥决策起到非常重要的作用。根据海军作战理论分析了海战场态势的表示方法,并基于模板方法设计了一种战场当前态势与模板数据库中态势进行匹配的算法。该算法特别适用于高层推理如态势或威胁评估。     

Landmarks in defense literature

Izbrannye Proizvedennia. By M. V. Frunze. Moscow (1957)     

On the bivariate negative binomial distribution of mitchell and paulson

The bivariate negative binomial distribution of Mitchell and Paulson [17] for the case b = c = 0 is shown to be equivalent to the accident proneness model of Edwards and Gurland [4] and Subrahmaniam [19,20]. The diagonal series expansion of its joint probability function is then derived. Two other formulations of this distribution are also considered: (i) as a mixture model, which showed how it arises as the discrete analogue to the Wicksell-Kibble bivariate gamma distribution, and (ii) as a consequence of the linear birth-and-death process with immigration.     

State information lag markov decision process with control limit rule

In the framework of a discrete Markov decision process with state information lag, this article suggests a way for selecting an optimal policy using the control limit rule. The properties sufficient for an optimal decision rule to be contained in the class of control limit rules are also studied. The degradation in expected reward from that of the perfect information process provides a measure of the potential value of improving the information system.     

An application of empirical bayes techniques to the simultaneous estimation of many probabilities

Consider the following situation: Each of N different combat units is presented with a number of requirements to satisfy, each requirement being classified into one of K mutually exclusive categories. For each unit and each category, an estimate of the probability of that unit satisfying any requirement in that category is desired. The problem can be generally stated as that of estimating N different K-dimensional vectors of probabilities based upon a corresponding set of K-dimensional vectors of sample proportions. An empirical Bayes model is formulated and applied to an example from the Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation System (MCCRES). The EM algorithm provides a convenient method of estimating the prior parameters. The Bayes estimates are compared to the ordinary estimates, i.e., the sample proportions, by means of cross validation, and the Bayes estimates are shown to provide considerable improvement.     

Book Reviews

National Security Concepts of States: New Zealand. By Kennedy Graham. Taylor & Francis, London (1989), ISBN 0-8448-1614-0, £27.00

Power and Prestige in the British Army. By R.G. L. von Zugbach. Gower, Aldershot (1988), ISBN 0-566-05561-9, £22.50

The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare—Ideas, Organization, and Field Command. By Edward Hagerman. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN (1988), ISBN 0-253-30546-2, $37.50 (£23.29)

British Seapower and Procurement between the Wars: a Reappraisal of Rearmament. By G. A. H. Gordon. Macmillan, London (1988), ISBN 0-333-42332-1. £29.50

Armies in Low-intensity Conflict: a Comparative Analysis. Edited by David A. Charters and Maurice Tugwell. Brassey's Defence Publishers, London (1989), ISBN 0-08-036253-2, £25.00 ($45.00); Deadly Paradigms: the Failure of U.S. Counterinsurgency Policy. By Michael Shafer, Leicester University Press, Leicester (1988), ISBN 0-7185-1311-8, £28.00

British Defence Policy Striking the Right Balance. By J. Baylis. Macmillan, London (1989), ISBN 0-333-49133-5, £29.50 or £9.99     

The discrete max-min problem

The historic max-min problem is examined as a discrete process rather than in its more usual continuous mode. Since the practical application of the max-min model usually involves discrete objects such as ballistic missiles, the discrete formulation of the problem seems quite appropriate. This paper uses an illegal modification to the dynamic programming process to obtain an upper bound to the max-min value. Then a second but legal application of dynamic programming to the minimization part of the problem for a fixed maximizing vector will give a lower bound to the max-min value. Concepts of optimal stopping rules may be applied to indicate when sufficiently near optimal solutions have been obtained.