Designing rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns for strategic (but distracted) contributors

In rewards-based crowdfunding, entrepreneurs solicit donations from a large number of individual contributors. If total donations exceed a prespecified funding target, the entrepreneur distributes nonmonetary rewards to contributors; otherwise, their donations are refunded. We study how to design such campaigns when contributors choose not just whether to contribute, but also when to contribute. We show that strategic contribution behavior—when contributors intentionally delay until campaign success is likely—can arise from the combination of nonrefundable (potentially very small) hassle costs and the risk of campaign failure, and can explain pledging patterns commonly observed in crowdfunding. Furthermore, such delays do not hurt the entrepreneur if contributors are perfectly rational, but they do if contributors are distracted, that is, if they might fail to return to the campaign after an intentional delay. To mitigate this, we find that an entrepreneur can use a simple menu of rewards with a fixed number of units sold at a low price, and an unlimited number sold at a higher price; this segments contributors over time based on the information they observe upon arrival. We show that, despite its simplicity, such a menu performs well compared to a theoretically optimal menu consisting of an infinite number of different rewards and price levels under many conditions.     

泛函在射表逼近中的应用

运用泛函理论,对方差最小原则下射表逼近进行分析,给出了在给定基函数形式条件下的统一计算公式,并对最小二乘方法作了改进,消除系数矩阵的原理误差,给出了提高精度的方法。最后,提出了一个选择基函数的有效方法。     

装备贮存可靠性指标的统计描述

对军用装备的贮存可靠性指标进行统计描述,对装备系统常见的有性能参数要求的机械、电子整机,有强度要求的结构件整机和一次性使用产品等三大类型军用装备的贮存可靠性给出定量评定的模型。     

柴油机燃油喷油量的试验计算方法研究

介绍了一种根据外卡式传感器测量的电压波和几何供油规律计算循环喷油量的新方法,并在12150L发动机用喷油泵试验台上进行了验证.试验表明该方法能实现对喷油量的不解体测量.     

非正弦波SAR的方位向分辨力

为研究非正弦波SAR的方位向分辨力 ,从波束形成的角度分析了非正弦波SAR的方位向聚焦原理 ,导出了基于矩形脉冲和高斯脉冲的合成孔径天线阵列方向图表达式 ,并与常规窄带SAR进行比较 ,指出影响非正弦波SAR方位向分辨力的主要因素为合成孔径长度和信号带宽 ,而与信号载频无关。     

How might Democratisation Affect Military Professionalism in Africa? Reviewing the Literature

The search continues for methods to improve security for development in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the important actors in this security arena is Sub-Saharan African governments’ armies. Much of their capability to meet security challenge depends on how militarily professional they are. The wave of democratic evolution in Africa since 1990 also affected military professionalism. This article reviews three models for assessing how democratisation might affect military professionalism in Sub-Saharan Africa, with special attention to post-conflict states. This should make it possible to decide which analytical methods are most appropriate to measure military professionalism in the particular circumstances of Sub-Saharan African post-conflict democratisation. Depending upon the particular nation-state in question, this decision on analytical methods may be useful for other Sub-Saharan states as well.     

Can Governments Negotiate With Insurgents? The Latin American Experience

In June 2016, the Colombian Government and the FARC insurgent movement signed a ceasefire agreement, which brings the two sides one step closer to putting an end to over five decades of war. Unfortunately, Latin America has a rich history of insurgent movements, particularly during the cold war era, some of which continue to operate today. Most of these movements disappeared due to military operations, though some did so via peace negotiations. This essay aims to discuss the various ends of Latin American insurgencies to answer whether, indeed, insurgents can be negotiated with.     

Youth Between State and Rebel (Dis)Orders: Contesting Legitimacy from Below in Sub-Sahara Africa

Abstract

The Sahel has gained attention in international politics as one of the central theatres in the war on terrorism. International actors in this war seek alliances with states in the region, reinforcing the latter’s military strength and their legitimacy from outside. At the same time, increasingly-connected young populations question the legitimacy of their states, and contest that legitimacy from within and below. In the absence of states delivering any reasonable form of social contract, young people become torn between different governing orders and find themselves in a liminal space. In this article we present the cases of youth in Mali and Chad, who find themselves in a period of re-definition of their position in society and hence search for legitimate structures representation. In this search they may frame their belonging in terms of ethnicity, religion or political opposition – and increasingly also in adherence to global citizenship. New information flows and connectivity among young people in these regions, and between them and the diaspora, has given a new turn to their search for citizenship/belonging and rightful representation. However, whether their search will be successful in this geopolitical context is questionable.     

某型运载火箭1/5动力学缩比模型设计

缩比模型试验是获取大型运载火箭动特性的一种有效途径,其中一项重要内容是动力学缩比模型设计。本文以某型运载火箭为原型对象,首先根据其结构组成分别推导各部件的相似关系;然后,利用横向刚度和质量相似系数保持一致性,联立形成了运载火箭横向动特性相似关系;同时,考虑实际加工制造条件,分析了横向刚度和质量相似系数的约束;最后,根据上述相似关系和相似系数约束设计了1/5缩比模型,并对该缩比模型的动特性相似进行了有限元数值计算验证。验证结果表明,设计所得1/5缩比模型在动特性方面与原型具有较高的相似性,相关方法能够有效应用于运载火箭的动力学缩比模型设计。     

The Clausewitzian fallacy of absolute war

Clausewitz was much preoccupied with the apparent contradiction between real and absolute war. Why did war in history so rarely exhibit the extremes of violence and energy implied in the pure concept of war? Clausewitz’s commentators have usually followed him in thinking that this was a genuine problem in need of a solution, but I want to question that view. I will argue that Clausewitz did not have a coherent philosophy of absolute war, and therefore the contradiction he posited between real and absolute war was equally meaningless – as, too, was his effort to resolve it by claiming that some real wars approached or even attained the absolute form of war. The real problem was not the opposition of real and absolute war, but the self-contradictory theory of absolute war.