Terrorism as Method in Nepali Maoist Insurgency, 1996–2016

During the period 1996–2006, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) waged overt people’s war to seize state power and institute a new order that realized the party’s understanding of ‘New Democracy’ as posited by Mao Tse-tung. Contextual shifts led to a crucial strategic turning point in September 2005, when the Maoists agreed to a united front with estranged legal parties to oust the monarchy and establish a republic. Though touted as acceptance of political reintegration, the move was tactical rather than strategic. The party had no intention of supporting a parliamentary version of democracy and thus, 2006–2016, engaged in a covert effort to seize power. Central to this effort was the paramilitary Young Communist League (YCL), the members of which responded to inflammatory party verbiage and exhortations with attacks upon rival political actors. These attacks, academically and legally, were terrorism and offered a salient illustration of intra-state unrestricted warfare. Ultimately, organizational, national, and regional circumstances caused the main Maoist movement to move decisively away from its covert approach. By that time, however, radical splinters had embraced the use of terrorism against rival political actors, creating a situation whereby local politics is yet a dangerous endeavor in certain areas and at certain times.     

The rhetoric and practice of the international responsibility to prevent mass atrocities: Reflections on South Africa’s peacebuilding role in South Sudan (2005–2013)

While global consensus on the meaning and application of the responsibility to protect (R2P) principle remains tenuous, there is little contention among major actors that the development of the norm should prioritise the prevention of mass atrocities. In particular, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) – which have a role to play that is vital to the future development of R2P as a global norm but which continue to express reservations about the intent and application of the doctrine – have been strong advocates of the preventive aspects of the principle. This rhetorical consensus, however, belies the conceptual and practical challenges that are associated with the prevention of mass atrocities. In this paper, the example of South Africa’s post-conflict reconstruction and development (PCRD) interventions in South Sudan from 2005 to 2013 is used to reflect on the role of external actors in supporting conflict-affected states to implement the preventive aspects of R2P. It is argued that while South Africa, like other BRICS countries, has used the rhetoric that atrocity prevention should be at the core of R2P to legitimise its opposition to military intervention for humanitarian purposes, it has struggled to back this rhetoric with coherent strategies and concrete actions to prevent mass atrocity crimes within its sphere of influence. The gap between rhetoric and practice in the preventive aspects of R2P is not unique to South Africa, but highlights fundamental difficulties inherent to global efforts to prevent mass atrocities.     

Subspace dynamic‐simplex linear interpolation search for mixed‐integer black‐box optimization problems

Design and management of complex systems with both integer and continuous decision variables can be guided using mixed‐integer optimization models and analysis. We propose a new mixed‐integer black‐box optimization (MIBO) method, subspace dynamic‐simplex linear interpolation search (SD‐SLIS), for decision making problems in which system performance can only be evaluated with a computer black‐box model. Through a sequence of gradient‐type local searches in subspaces of solution space, SD‐SLIS is particularly efficient for such MIBO problems with scaling issues. We discuss the convergence conditions and properties of SD‐SLIS algorithms for a class of MIBO problems. Under mild conditions, SD‐SLIS is proved to converge to a stationary solution asymptotically. We apply SD‐SLIS to six example problems including two MIBO problems associated with petroleum field development projects. The algorithm performance of SD‐SLIS is compared with that of a state‐of‐the‐art direct‐search method, NOMAD, and that of a full space simplex interpolation search, Full‐SLIS. The numerical results suggest that SD‐SLIS solves the example problems efficiently and outperforms the compared methods for most of the example cases. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 64: 305–322, 2017     

Alleviating time inconsistent behaviors via a competition scheme

Under quasi‐hyperbolic discounting, the valuation of a payoff falls relatively rapidly for earlier delay periods, but then falls more slowly for longer delay periods. When the salespersons with quasi‐hyperbolic discounting consider the product sale problem, they would exert less effort than their early plan, thus resulting in losses of future profit. We propose a winner‐takes‐all competition to alleviate the above time inconsistent behaviors of the salespersons, and allow the company to maximize its revenue by choosing an optimal bonus. To evaluate the effects of the competition scheme, we define the group time inconsistency degree of the salespersons, which measures the consequence of time inconsistent behaviors, and two welfare measures, the group welfare of the salespersons and the company revenue. We show that the competition always improves the group welfare and the company revenue as long as the company chooses to run the competition in the first place. However, the effect on group time inconsistency degree is mixed. When the optimal bonus is moderate (extreme high), the competition motivates (over‐motivates) the salesperson to work hard, thus alleviates (worsens) the time inconsistent behaviors. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 64: 357–372, 2017     

Probabilistic resource pooling games

We study a setting with a single type of resource and with several players, each associated with a single resource (of this type). Unavailability of these resources comes unexpectedly and with player‐specific costs. Players can cooperate by reallocating the available resources to the ones that need the resources most and let those who suffer the least absorb all the costs. We address the cost savings allocation problem with concepts of cooperative game theory. In particular, we formulate a probabilistic resource pooling game and study them on various properties. We show that these games are not necessarily convex, do have non‐empty cores, and are totally balanced. The latter two are shown via an interesting relationship with Böhm‐Bawerk horse market games. Next, we present an intuitive class of allocation rules for which the resulting allocations are core members and study an allocation rule within this class of allocation rules with an appealing fairness property. Finally, we show that our results can be applied to a spare parts pooling situation.     

基于引导员负荷的指挥引导容量评估

针对目前传统指挥引导容量评估不准确的问题,通过对空战指挥引导容量与引导员负荷的综合分析,提出了基于引导员负荷的指挥引导容量评估方法。基于引导员负荷重新定义了指挥引导容量,给出了引导员负荷的确定方法,并建立了指挥引导容量评估模型。最后对某指挥机构进行实例评估,评估结果表明所提出的指挥引导容量评估方法将评估误差控制在1批之内。     

电子战飞机远距支援干扰阵位配置建模与仿真

针对电子战飞机远距支援干扰新体制雷达阵位配置问题进行研究。首先是对电子战飞机干扰效能量化分析,从俯仰和方位两个方面对干扰覆盖范围进行建模仿真。基于干扰统一方程,建立干扰阵位配置优化模型,包括阵位配置区域和阵位配置高度模型,并给出了干扰阵位配置参数的具体计算方法。最后,通过仿真实例验证模型的有效性,结果表明该模型对于电子战飞机阵位配置有一定的指导意义。     

固定节点3D网格部署的水下传感器网络分簇路由算法

水下传感器网络是应用于水下通信的重要传感器网络技术。提出了基于固定节点3D网格部署的水下无线传感器网络分簇算法,设计了3D网格的编址和分簇方法,实现了基于地址分配的节点定位,构建了算法的能耗分析模型。采用MATLAB完成了算法的性能仿真,对比了DS-VBF、IAR和GEDAR 3个算法的平均数据传输延迟和网络生存时间(TTL)。实验结果表明,此算法的平均数据传输延迟较短,可明显提高UWSNS的生存时间。