How long until midnight? Intelligence-policy relations and the United States response to the Israeli nuclear program, 1959–1985

Why did the United States fail to stop Israeli acquisition of nuclear weapons? Existing research argues that patrons such as the U.S. should have an easy time halting proliferation by militarily and economically vulnerable clients. Nevertheless, Israel acquired nuclear weapons with relatively little American opposition. Utilizing extensive primary source research, we argue that problematic intelligence-policy relations hindered U.S. efforts to arrest Israeli proliferation as (1) policymakers often gave mixed guidance to the intelligence community, resulting in (2) limited information on Israeli efforts that reinforced policy ambiguity. The results carry implications for understanding the dynamics of nuclear proliferation and intelligence-policy relations.     

Vicarious warfare: The counterproductive consequences of modern American military practice

This article examines contemporary modes of American warfare. It posits the concept of “vicarious warfare” as a means of capturing prominent patterns in warfighting approaches. Although rooted in long-standing traditions of military practice, vicarious warfare is sufficiently novel as to be identifiable as a distinct phenomenon. The precise manifestation or combination of vicarious methods vary according to the specific circumstances and political contexts prevailing in different theaters. However, America’s general preference is to fight its wars by delegating tasks to proxies and limiting exposure of its own military to danger. Where U.S. forces are employed directly, this takes place largely in the shadows. Such approaches have clear attractions, offer undoubted tactical advantages, and permit successive administrations to maintain a persistent tempo of operations that evades rigorous democratic scrutiny. Yet, prominent cases and numerous studies suggest that vicarious warfare has a high potential to generate counterproductive effects and significant strategic harm.     

Tripwires and free-riders: Do forward-deployed U.S. troops reduce the willingness of host-country citizens to fight for their country?

This article investigates the relationship between U.S. overseas troops and the willingness of the citizens of host states to fight for their country. The study joins the long-running debate about burden-sharing and free-riding among U.S. allies. Unlike most previous empirical studies, we focus on non-material or intangible measures of the underlying concepts. Our dependent variable estimates the proportion of citizens expressing a willingness to fight for their country. Scores at the aggregate-national as well as the individual level are shaped by the presence of U.S. military forces, which act as a “tripwire” signaling credible security commitments. This increases opportunities of (non-material) free-riding. We present both bivariate and multivariate analyses covering the period 1981–2014 to test this supposition. Findings indicate that once U.S. troop levels reach a certain threshold (between 100 and 500 troops), citizens’ willingness to fight drops significantly. This likely reflects non-material free-riding.     

利用RLC电路合成高压方波脉冲

基于过阻尼RLC电路分时放电,提出了一种新型高压方波脉冲产生方法。理论分析表明过阻尼RLC电路产生的双指数电压波与PFL产生的方形电压波具有类似的上升沿和平顶。电路模拟表明通过人工过零技术可以对双指数电压波进行截尾,从而形成完整的高压方波脉冲。建立了原理验证性样机,由两组RLC电路构成,每组电路包含一台400 nF脉冲电容器和一只三电极场畸变气体开关,两组电路共用一个上升沿调节电感。实验证明样机可以在250 Ω电阻负载上输出幅值17 kV,平顶宽度330 ns~5.8 μs,上升沿100~ 350 ns 的单极性高压方波脉冲。该方法适应性强,对负载变化不敏感,同时具有良好的可调节性,方波上升沿、平顶宽度连续独立可调。     

基于位置预测的靶场图像实时判读方法

在靶场经纬仪对目标实时跟踪测量时,会发生相机随机抖动的情况,引起目标在图像中大幅度运动。应对大幅度运动时,基于搜索窗口的跟踪方法容易丢失目标,而基于全图搜索的跟踪方法时效性差。针对以上问题,提出一种结合核相关滤波算法(Kernelized Correlation Filter, KCF)和目标位置预测的改进的跟踪学习检测算法(Tracking-Learning-Detection, TLD)跟踪框架。利用正交多项式最优线性滤波器及相机角度信息预测目标下一帧位置,在此区域利用KCF进行快速跟踪,可以提高跟踪的成功率和时效性,跟踪失败时再进行检测。仿真实验表明,最优线性滤波器能较准确预测目标位置,给KCF提供较准确的搜索位置,算法每帧耗时仅为1.1 ms,且定位精度优于TLD和KCF,能有效应对相机抖动的问题。靶场实际试验证明该方法可提高靶场自动判读水平,减少人工干预。     

美国陆军作战试验部队管理体系研究

作战试验部队是试验鉴定力量体系的重要支撑,是完成装备作战试验的直接载体。美国在装备试验与鉴定方面走在世界前列,建立了一整套行之有效的管理体制,陆军实行试验与鉴定的一体化管理,具有独立的作战试验鉴定部门,没有编设专业化的作战试验部队,试验任务主要根据装备的特性选取未来典型用户的作战部队在真实对抗环境中完成。作战试验部队主要参加作战评估、初始作战试验与评价以及后续作战试验与评价三个阶段的作战试验,在一体化试验小组的协调下,依托靶场完成试验训练任务。本文主要通过对美国陆军试验部队的研究,分析了美国陆军作战试验与鉴定发展概况,重点研究了作战试验部队管理体系,并从整个试验与鉴定系统归纳总结作战试验部队管理及相关工作的主要做法。     

美国消防产品召回制度解析

消防产品召回制度是有效预防和消除消防产品缺陷可能引起的人身伤害和财产损失的行政管理制度。在汇总大量美国消防产品召回案例的基础上,介绍了美国消费品安全委员会对缺陷消防产品召回的基本模式、召回方式和程序等内容,以期能对建立符合我国国情的相应制度发挥一定的借鉴作用。     

高校公共体育教学质量监控体系建设的研究

教学质量监控是教学质量有力保证,也是当前高校所要加强的重要工作。通过研究发现,虽然我国高校大学公共体育教学建立了相应的质量监控体系,也取得了一定的经验,但还有许多需要改进的方面,应引起我们高度关注。     

A bidirectional heuristic for maximizing the net present value of large‐scale projects subject to limited resources

We consider the scheduling of large‐scale projects to maximize the project net present value given temporal and resource constraints. The net present value objective emphasizes the financial aspects of project management. Temporal constraints between the start times of activities make it possible to handle practical problem assumptions. Scarce resources are an expression of rising cost. Since optimization techniques are not expedient to solve such problems and most heuristic methods known from literature cannot deal with general temporal constraints, we propose a new bidirectional priority‐rule based method. Scheduling activities with positive cash flows as early and activities with negative cash flows as late as possible results in a method which is completed by unscheduling techniques to cope with scarce resources. In a computational experiment, we compare the well‐known serial generation scheme where all activities are scheduled as early as possible with the proposed bidirectional approach. On the basis of a comprehensive data set known from literature containing instances with up to 1002 activities, the efficiency of the new approach is demonstrated. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2003     

体育与人主体性发展的历史思辨

人的主体性的凸现,是当代社会现实的呼唤,体育对于推动和促进人的发展所具有的独特作用,为人的主体性实现提供了无限广阔的前景,体育教育应以实现人的主体性为发展目标.