Evaluating appointment postponement in scheduling patients at a diagnostic clinic

Diagnostic clinics are among healthcare facilities that suffer from long waiting times which can worsen medical outcomes and increase patient no-shows. Reducing waiting times without significant capital investments is a challenging task. We tackle this challenge by proposing a new appointment scheduling policy that does not require significant investments for diagnostic clinics. The clinic in our study serves outpatients, inpatients, and emergency patients. Emergency patients must be seen on arrival, and inpatients must be given next day appointments. Outpatients, however, can be given later appointments. The proposed policy takes advantage of this by allowing the postponement of the acceptance of appointment requests from outpatients. The appointment scheduling process is modeled as a two-stage stochastic programming problem where a portion of the clinic capacity is allocated to inpatients and emergency patients in the first stage. In the second stage, outpatients are scheduled based on their priority classes. After a detailed analysis of the solutions obtained from the two-stage stochastic model, we develop a simple, non-anticipative policy for patient scheduling. We evaluate the performance of this proposed, easy-to-implement policy in a simulation study which shows significant improvements in outpatient indirect waiting times.     

无人机飞行训练资源配置效率的AHP-Arena综合评价方法

为降低传统层次分析法(analytic hierarchy process,AHP)赋权过程主观片面性影响,提出了一种综合AHP与Arena仿真建模技术的无人机训练资源配置效率评价方法。基于飞行训练流程分析,确定了训练资源配置效率影响因素和效率评价指标,建立了层次型综合评价体系,概括了AHP-Arena综合评价步骤。利用Arena建模软件构建训练流程动态仿真系统并验证有效性,采用单变量数值仿真法、均方差决策法完成了影响因素客观赋权,通过线性加权综合法得出综合评价系数,实现资源配置效率评价与方案优选。实例应用说明了该方法的有效性,同时,该方法可推广至其他类似的训练过程中,亦可为其他多因素、多指标评价决策过程提供借鉴。     

密集环境中无人机协同机动飞行运动规划方法综述

从单无人机机动飞行向多机协同扩展的通用规划框架出发,介绍了其中各模块相关研究的基本原理、代表性方法和前沿研究,主要包括用于环境障碍感知的实时导航地图构建、离散空间的路径规划、连续空间的轨迹规划、基于离散连续混合空间的规划、多航迹或轨迹的协同规划。综合无人机通用规划框架的关键技术,提出了无人机协同机动规划下一步需要重点研究的方向。     

《孙子兵法》中的“利害观”

兵家的辩证法是中国古代哲学的重要源头之一。在孙子提出的一系列对立统一的矛盾范畴中,尤以对利害关系的把握最为精彩,这是孙子辩证法的精髓。“利害观”是孙子解剖战争问题的一把利器,把握住了利害关系的要义,就不难理解“慎战”“不战”“全胜”等核心观念。同时,它也是人们在面临人生道路上各种得失选择时的方法指南。     

复杂条件下飞行器天馈设备关键技术分析

作为高速飞行器载体用户终端的最前级,天馈设备的性能直接关系到无线收发系统数据链路的有效性。从技术应用角度出发,分析了在高速、高温以及复杂电磁环境下天馈设备的设计实现,介绍了热天线、可重构天线、小型化可控波束阵列、自适应阵列等几种先进天馈设备的技术特点和细节,详细阐述了其在高速飞行器载体的工程应用方法,对提高复杂飞行任务条件下数据链路的稳定性具有积极意义。     

Scheduling twin robots on a line

This article introduces the twin robots scheduling problem (TRSP), in which two robots positioned at the opposite ends of a rail are required to deliver items to positions along the rail, and the objective is to minimize the makespan. A proof of ‐hardness of the TRSP is presented, along with exact and heuristic algorithms. Computational results on challenging instances are provided.Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 119–130, 2014     

Maintenance scheduling for modular systems: Modeling and algorithms

We study new models of scheduled maintenance management for modular systems, consisting of multiple components with respective cycle limits. The cycle limit of each component specifies the time interval in which this component must be repaired or replaced. The goal is to compute a feasible maintenance schedule that minimizes the cost associated with component maintenance. Applications of these models arise in Air Force aircraft maintenance as well as in other arenas with required preventive maintenance. The typical cost structures that arise in practical settings are submodular, which make the resulting models computationally challenging. We develop two efficient and operationally tenable approximation algorithms. We prove constant factor worst‐case guarantees for both algorithms, and present computational experiments showing that these algorithms perform within a few percent of optimality on operationally relevant instances. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 472–488, 2014     

‘Full spectrum dominance’: Donald Rumsfeld,the Department of Defense,and US irregular warfare strategy, 2001–2008

This article examines the evolution of US irregular warfare (IW) doctrine and practice from 2001 onwards. It argues that, after 9/11, top-tier civilian policymakers in the US Department of Defense (DoD) and across the US government developed a heightened awareness of asymmetric threats and non-conventional forms of warfare, especially those shaped by contemporary globalisation. The result was a gradual turn towards irregular warfare, led by Rumsfeld and the DoD, designed to ensure ‘full spectrum dominance’ across all modes of conflict. This pre-dated the insurgency in Iraq and the promotion of counterinsurgency in the US Army by General David Petraeus and others. Policymakers' reluctance to acknowledge the insurgency in Iraq was not down to a failure to understand the concept of IW, but because they had viewed Iraq in conventional terms for so many years and were reluctant to admit their mistake.     

某型末制导炮弹惯导飞行角运动研究

为研究某型末制导炮弹惯性飞行过程的稳定性,建立该炮弹在惯导飞行阶段有控弹道攻角运动方程.基于该攻角运动方程,求解方程特征根推导出末制导炮弹自由运动的稳定性条件,并给出舵片偏转控制力对弹体强迫作用的解,分别讨论了影响自由运动和受迫运动稳定性的因素.分析结果表明,惯性飞行过程中,舵面参数以及弹丸转动角速度是影响飞行稳定的主要因素,舵片偏转过程与弹丸共振条件无关.     

Africa and the 2015 NPT Review Conference

African states' attendance at and participation in the preparations for the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has produced mixed results, with the continent acting as both agent and bystander in respect of certain issues. African agency is evident in, for example, its position as a member of groupings on Iran's nuclear weapons programme and the Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. Less agency is evident in states' individual actions. This underscores the importance of African states' preference for multilateralism. However, African agency is also less evident in African multilateral efforts at the NPT preparatory meetings. The impact of these developments on the 2015 NPT Review Conference is too soon to tell but may bode ill for African agency.