Balancing stability and efficiency in team formation as a generalized roommate problem

The assignment of personnel to teams is a fundamental managerial function typically involving several objectives and a variety of idiosyncratic practical constraints. Despite the prevalence of this task in practice, the process is seldom approached as an optimization problem over the reported preferences of all agents. This is due in part to the underlying computational complexity that occurs when intra-team interpersonal interactions are taken into consideration, and also due to game-theoretic considerations, when those taking part in the process are self-interested agents. Variants of this fundamental decision problem arise in a number of settings, including, for example, human resources and project management, military platooning, ride sharing, data clustering, and in assigning students to group projects. In this article, we study an analytical approach to “team formation” focused on the interplay between two of the most common objectives considered in the related literature: economic efficiency (i.e., the maximization of social welfare) and game-theoretic stability (e.g., finding a core solution when one exists). With a weighted objective across these two goals, the problem is modeled as a bi-level binary optimization problem, and transformed into a single-level, exponentially sized binary integer program. We then devise a branch-cut-and-price algorithm and demonstrate its efficacy through an extensive set of simulations, with favorable comparisons to other algorithms from the literature.     

Alternative models of Greek defence expenditures

This paper models and estimates Greek defence spending over the 1950–1989 period. It employs the Stone‐Geary welfare function and estimates levels of defence expenditures by the Engle‐Granger two‐step procedure. The Dickey‐Fuller test regression for cointegration is specified in terms of the significance of additional augmentations. The Deaton‐Muellbauer functional form is then employed and an estimating equation for the expenditure share of defence is derived. This specification is compared with the levels equation through a number of non‐nested tests involving model transformation.     

The effect of deployment on first‐ and second‐term re‐enlistment in the US active duty force

Why should deployment affect re‐enlistment? In our model, members enter the military with naïve beliefs about deployment and use actual deployment experience to update their beliefs and revise their expected utility of re‐enlisting. Empirically, re‐enlistment is related to the type and number of deployments, consistent with the learning model. Non‐hostile deployment increases first‐term re‐enlistment but hostile deployment has little effect except for the Army, where the effect is positive. Both types increase second‐term re‐enlistment. Interestingly, first‐term members with dependants tend to respond to deployment like second‐term members. In addition, deployment acts directly to affect re‐enlistment, not indirectly through time to promotion.     

用户偏好提取MDP建模研究

将马尔可夫判决过程和智能强化学习算法相结合,给出了异构无线网络环境下用户业务偏好评估模型的技术框架。为动态环境下用户需求的感知、量化和适配特征的研究提供了基本的数学描述,对解决用户体验的评价问题和业务与业务环境的适配问题提供了新的研究思路。仿真结果表明所构建的MDP模型能够在多状态条件下学习用户偏好,根据用户需求智能选择业务。     

一种基于EDU模型的新闻视频摘要方法

现有的视频摘要技术缺乏一个统一、可扩充的视频摘要模型。针对该缺陷,提出了实体-描述-效用模型(简称EDU模型),该模型从视频实体出发,经过描述得到效用,并最终根据效用来生成视频摘要,该模型具有可扩展性。对EDU模型进行了详细阐述,并根据该模型,提出了新闻视频故事摘要生成的方法。实验结果表明,该方法具有令人满意的效果。     

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.     

基于效用分析的武器装备发展方案决策

武器装备发展方案效用决策分析的目的就是以一定的方法和途径,根据决策者对武器装备发展所涉及的各项决策准则的偏好及其对各决策备选方案可能出现风险程度的态度,诱导出决策者对于各项准则的效用函数,从而以诱导的形式综合出各决策备选方案的综合效用,以获得决策者认为是最满意的决策方案.     

基于分布搜索的传感器指示交接协商机制

针对传感器指示交接技术中"指示任务怎样执行"的问题,根据指示交接的实际过程,研究了多传感器针对多个协作任务怎样进行更好调度的问题,提出了基于分布搜索的多维协商机制。通过协商函数的迭代更新,不断寻找综合效用最大的传感器调度策略,优化了指示交接过程中多传感器多任务调度过程。实例仿真结果表明,所提方法合理、有效,提高了传感器协作的效率,为指示交接的深入研究奠定了基础。     

基于效用函数分析的消防部队人力资本激励机制设计

消防部队现代化离不开人才队伍建设,有效的人力资本激励机制是消防部队聚集和吸纳人才的必要手段。在对激励机制作用下的消防部队人力资本效用和消防部队人力资本特征进行分析的基础上,探讨了实现消防部队人力资本效用的激励机制设计。     

Unnecessary or unsung? The utilisation of airpower in Britain's colonial counterinsurgencies

Making extensive use of primary archival documents, this article seeks to explore whether airpower in three of Britain's most significant post-war colonial counterinsurgency campaigns, Malaya, Kenya and South Arabia, was an unnecessary part of British strategy, offering little useful military force due to the futility and strategic damage rendered by offensive bombardment, or whether airpower was indeed an unsung factor that provided operational flexibility through its effectiveness in a supply context, as well as its intelligence role in providing valuable aerial reconnaissance. In all three case studies the role played by the RAF in medical evacuations, in troop drops, in crop spraying during food-denial initiatives, and in providing ‘Voice Aircraft’ for the propaganda campaign, provide insights into an under-explored component of Britain's politico-military efforts in counterinsurgency in the 1950s and 1960s and suggests that the main strategic value of airpower in counterinsurgency, then and now, lies in its non-kinetic functions.