Appointment scheduling at a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic using stochastic programming

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the problem of constructing an appointment template for scheduling patients at a specific type of multidisciplinary outpatient clinic called an integrated practice unit (IPU). The focus is on developing and solving a stochastic optimization model for a back pain IPU in the face of random arrivals, an uncertain patient mix, and variable service times. The deterministic version of the problem is modeled as a mixed integer program with the objective of minimizing a weighted combination of clinic closing time (duration) and total patient waiting time (length of stay). A two‐stage stochastic program is then derived to account for the randomness and the sequential nature of the decisions. Although it was not possible to solve the two‐stage problem for even a limited number of scenarios, the wait‐and‐see (WS) problem was sufficiently tractable to provide a lower bound on the stochastic solution. The introduction of valid inequalities, limiting indices, and the use of special ordered sets helped to speed up the computations. A greedy heuristic was also developed to obtain solutions much more quickly. Out of practical considerations, it was necessary to develop appointment templates with time slots at fixed intervals, which are not available from the WS solution. The first to be derived was the expected value (EV) template that is used to find the expected value of the EV solution (EEV). This solution provides an upper bound on the objective function value of the two‐stage stochastic program. The average gap between the EEV and WS solutions was 18%. Results from extensive computational testing are presented for the EV template and for our adaptation of three other templates found in the literature. Depending on the relative importance of the two objective function metrics, the results demonstrate the trade‐off that exists between them. For the templates investigated, the “closing time” ranged from an average of 235 to 275 minutes for a 300‐minute session, while the corresponding “total patient time in clinic” ranged from 80 to 71 minutes.     

社会历史发展中价值实现的辩证性

马克思创立的唯物史观富有深刻的价值内涵,一部社会发展史就是一部价值实现的历史。人类历史发展过程中价值的实现并不是一帆风顺的,是一个付出代价和扬弃代价的辩证过程,需要人们权衡利弊进行正确的价值选择,从而为社会进步谋求一条更好的发展之路。     

军民融合制度变迁分析

军民融合制度变迁属于强制性的制度变迁,必须由国家来主导。从国家的角度对军民融合制度变迁进行成本收益分析,认为政府是推动制度变迁的最主要力量;通过构建国家效用函数,对国家推行军民融合制度变迁动力产生过程进行探析,认为国家效用的降低是推行制度变迁的诱因。     

战场环境下无人车辆战术机动路径规划方法

针对不同类型威胁体存在的战场环境中无人车辆战术机动路径规划问题,提出了一种基于威胁代价地图的粒子群优化（Particle Swarm Optimization,PSO）方法。借助极坐标系中关键点的极角进行路径描述,并使用分段3次Hermite插值方法形成光滑路径,将路径规划问题转化为关键点极角的参数优化问题。针对基本PSO（BPSO）算法存在的早熟收敛和后期迭代效率低的缺陷,借鉴以群集方式生活的物种按照不同任务对种群进行分工的机制,提出了一种基于多任务子群协同的改进粒子群优化（Particle Swarm Optimization based on the Multi—tasking Subpopu—lation Cooperation,PSO-MSC）算法。借助该算法的快速收敛和全局寻优特性实现了最优路径规划。实验结果表明：该算法可以快速有效地实现战场环境下无人车辆的战术机动路径规划,且规划路径安全、平滑。     

An efficient metaheuristic for integrated scheduling and staffing IT projects based on a generalized minimum cost flow network

Scheduling IT projects and assigning the project work to human resources are an important and common tasks in almost any IT service company. It is particularly complex because human resources usually have multiple skills. Up to now only little work has considered IT‐specific properties of the project structure and human resources. In this article, we present an optimization model that simultaneously schedules the activities of multiple IT projects with serial network structures and assigns the project work to multiskilled internal and external human resources with different efficiencies. The goal is to minimize costs. We introduce a metaheuristic that decomposes the problem into a binary scheduling problem and a continuous staffing problem where the latter is solved efficiently by exploiting its underlying network structure. For comparison, we solve the mixed–binary linear program with a state–of–the–art commercial solver. The impacts of problem parameters on computation time and solution gaps between the metaheuristic and the solver are assessed in an experimental study. Our results show that the metaheuristic provides very favorable results in considerable less time than the solver for midsize problems. For larger problems, it shows a similar performance while the solver fails to return feasible solutions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 59: 111–127, 2012     

基于相关熵的MACH滤波器

最大平均相关高度(MACH:Maximum Average Correlation Height)滤波器是一种重要的基于相关的模式识别方法。滤波器由训练数据线性构造而成,具有良好的畸变容忍能力,在线性高斯噪声条件下具有理论最优性。为将算法适用于广泛的非线性、非高斯情形,本文引入一种新的度量函数相关熵,可隐性地将输入数据通过非线性变换映射到特征空间;并在新的空间中提出了基于相关熵的MACH滤波器构造方法。最后将此方法应用于合成孔径雷达(SAR:Synthetic Aperture Radar)图像目标分类进行了实验,在接收机工作性能曲线和峰值旁瓣比的比对中,本文算法的性能均有所提升。     

军用飞机综合效能/费用评估方法

军用飞机的效能与费用是两个相互制约的因素,对两者进行科学合理的综合评估,对于军用飞机的发展和使用有着很重要的意义。在分析综合效能/费用的基本评估指标基础上,提出了在军用飞机全寿命周期综合效能/费用评估指标,重点对作战使用阶段的最佳效能/费用进行评估分析,最后给出结论。     

Cost allocation of capacity investment games

Consider a manufacturer serving a set of retail stores each of which faces deterministic demands in a finite planning horizon. At the beginning of the planning horizon, the production capacity of the manufacturer is built, followed by production, outsourcing to third party manufacturers if necessary and distribution to the retail stores. Because the retail stores are usually managed by different managers who act as independent profit centers, it is desirable that the total cost is divided among the retail stores so that their incentives can be appropriately captured and thus efficient operations can be achieved. Under various conditions, we prove that there is a fair allocation of costs among the retail stores in the sense that no subset of retail stores subsidizes others, or equivalently, the resulting capacity investment game has a nonempty core, that is, the capacity investment game is a balanced game. In addition, our proof provides a mechanism to compute a fair cost allocation. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 60: 512–523, 2013     

超低轨道卫星摄动特性分析及轨道维持方法

针对超低轨道卫星长时间在轨飞行的轨道维持问题,分析了超低轨道平均偏心率矢量变化特性,提出了一种超低轨道维持的控制方法。分析了J2、J3摄动以及大气阻力摄动作用下超低轨道卫星偏心率矢量的变化特性;基于能量守恒原理设计了超低轨道高度维持的控制策略;通过仿真算例验证了控制策略的有效性。结果表明:在地球非球形引力摄动、大气阻力摄动和速度脉冲作用下超低轨道平均偏心率的变化是稳定的,所设计的轨道维持方法不仅能够实现超低轨道高度维持,确保平均偏心率矢量收敛至平衡位置,且用于轨道维持的燃料消耗合理,能够满足长时间的超低轨道飞行要求。     

Optimal FCFS allocation rules for periodic‐review assemble‐to‐order systems

In Assemble‐To‐Order (ATO) systems, situations may arise in which customer demand must be backlogged due to a shortage of some components, leaving available stock of other components unused. Such unused component stock is called remnant stock. Remnant stock is a consequence of both component ordering decisions and decisions regarding allocation of components to end‐product demand. In this article, we examine periodic‐review ATO systems under linear holding and backlogging costs with a component installation stock policy and a First‐Come‐First‐Served (FCFS) allocation policy. We show that the FCFS allocation policy decouples the problem of optimal component allocation over time into deterministic period‐by‐period optimal component allocation problems. We denote the optimal allocation of components to end‐product demand as multimatching. We solve the multi‐matching problem by an iterative algorithm. In addition, an approximation scheme for the joint replenishment and allocation optimization problem with both upper and lower bounds is proposed. Numerical experiments for base‐stock component replenishment policies show that under optimal base‐stock policies and optimal allocation, remnant stock holding costs must be taken into account. Finally, joint optimization incorporating optimal FCFS component allocation is valuable because it provides a benchmark against which heuristic methods can be compared. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 158–169, 2015