The African Standby Force: The African Union’s tool for the maintenance of peace and security

Declared operationally ready in 2016, the African Standby Force (ASF) has not been deployed in its originally designed form. This is not for the lack of opportunities but rather a demonstration of the power of the Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms (RECs/RMs) – Africa’s sub-regional security structures – over matters of peace and security. Experience gathered from its short existence suggests that the ASF may never be deployed in its current form. It may instead evolve into a robust framework, adaptable mainly by the RECs/RMs, for addressing varied security challenges. Four things are critical to enhancing the utility of the ASF: the political willingness of the RECs/RMs, the strategic interest of the member states, predictable and sustainable financing, and clarity on the role of the African Capability for Immediate Response to Crisis, the temporary battlegroup that was created to provide the African Union with a rapid response capability, pending the ASF’s operationalization.     

关于取绝对值的函数可微性的讨论

求绝对值函数的导数是高等数学的一个难点。本文证明了一个公式,能较全面地解决绝对值函数的求导问题。     

子自仿射集的Hausdorff维数

设S1,S2 ,… ,SN 是Rn 上的N个仿射压缩映射 ,若Rn 的紧子集E满足E UNi =1 Si(E) ,则称E为子自仿射集 .作者在一定条件下得到了子自仿射集E的Hausdorff维数 .     

投资消费模型中价值函数的基本性质

在有交易费的投资消费模型下,讨论了价值函数的一些基本性质,即给出了价值函数是有限连续和非减凹函数.     

输入分机核心板的改造方案

提出关于输入分机两种电路的改造方案,即绝对值和正切函数发生器电路的工程实现方法,从而解决修理中备件替换问题．经实验证明,电路具有很高的精度,且容易实现．     

Economic Espionage

We explore the efficacy of counterespionage measures in the realm of Economic Espionage. Although it is possible that increasing counterespionage measures has the desired effect of increasing domestic research and development (R&D) and reducing espionage by foreign entities, it is also possible that these increased measures actually do just the opposite: domestic R&D suffers and foreign stealing increases. We identify the appropriate settings for increased counterespionage measures and provide some policy advice.     

弹性轨道磁悬浮控制系统模型降阶研究

在磁悬浮控制系统中,常常忽略轨道的弹性来设计控制算法。在这种控制算法作用下,当轨道刚度较小时,系统容易产生振动。为解决该问题,可以将轨道弹性加入悬浮模型,然后设计控制算法。考虑轨道弹性之后,悬浮系统的模型会比较复杂,控制算法难以在工程实现。为此,采用Hankel范数近似法对考虑轨道弹性后的模型进行降阶,并且在降阶模型的基础上设计控制算法,解决了轨道弹性引发的系统振动问题。并且,这种方法容易在工程中实现。文章最后利用仿真结果验证了降阶方法的可行性。     

A cost–benefit analysis of terrorist attacks

A cost–benefit analysis of terrorist attacks is developed and placed within a systematic theoretical structure. For the target or object of the attack, we consider the lost value of human lives, lost economic value, and lost influence value, counted as benefits for the terrorist. The corresponding losses for the terrorist are counted as costs. The terrorist attacks if benefits outweigh costs. Bounded rationality is enabled where the three kinds of benefits and costs can be weighted differently. We account for two ex ante probabilities of successful planning and attack, and enable the terrorist to assign different weights to its multiple stakeholders. We introduce multiple time periods, time discounting, attitudes towards risk, and subcategories for the benefits and costs. The cost–benefit analysis is illustrated with the 11 September 2001 attack, and 53 incidents in the Global Terrorism Database yielding both positive and negative expected utilities. The paper is intended as a tool for scientists and policy-makers, as a way of thinking about costs and benefits of terrorist attacks.     

Economic impact of the ministry of defence’s budget: methodological design and results for the Spanish economy

This article analyses the economic impact of the expenditure budget of the Spanish Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its Autonomous Agencies (AA), distinguishing direct, indirect and induced effects. The input–output methodology is used to find intersectoral effects on the rest of the economy. The article quantifies the economic impact in terms of production, gross value added (GVA), employed population, tax revenue, and also in terms of its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Spain in 2010. The results show that the activity of the MoD and AA generates 1.2% of the country’s GDP and 1.7% of total employment in that year.