Regular and irregular forces in conflict: nineteenth century insurgencies in South America

ABSTRACT

In the decades following independence from Spain, ‘civil wars’ ravaged the newly established polities in South America. Former vice-regal capitals inherited a larger portion of the colonial administration and had larger economic resources and a hegemonic project they were able to have permanent and professional armed forces, capable of leading the offensive and giving battle following the European rules of military art. The central hypothesis of this work is that there is a necessary relationship between the shape of these asymmetrical conflicts, their outcome and the political territorial configuration of each country in post-revolutionary Spanish America. When permanent armies took over from local militias, the capital kept the integrity of its territories and there was a tendency towards political centralization. When this did not happen and the militias managed to find a way to defeat their centralizing enemies, the local powers had an opportunity to renegotiate their participation in the political body, and sought to maintain their independence, which was manifest in federal agreements, otherwise a process of territorial fragmentation began. More than a difference between regular and irregular forces there was one between intermittent, and permanent mobilization.     

Military Off the Shelf Procurements: A Norwegian Case Study

Buying off the shelf procurements (OTS) has become an important part of the national acquisition strategy in several countries, and this paper seeks to bring empirical evidence on OTS as the preferred acquisition strategy by use of data from 2015 to 2022 investment portfolio of the Norwegian Armed Forces. We develop definitions for three categories of procurement – OTS, modified OTS and development projects – as well as a method to classify projects into these categories. Our first finding is that the characteristics of OTS projects correspond to modified OTS and development projects. Our second finding indicates that OTS projects perform better when it comes to the completion of projects according to the initial schedule, compared to development projects.     

伟大的旗帜深刻的意蕴

党的十七大鲜明确立了中国特色社会主义旗帜的指导地位。中国特色社会主义旗帜,是马克思主义真理观和价值观相统一的旗帜;其精神实质,是坚持科学社会主义基本原则与根据我国实际和时代特征赋予其鲜明中国特色的有机统一;其实践形态,是中国特色社会主义道路;其理论形态,是中国特色社会主义理论体系。高举中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜,就需要倍加珍惜、长期坚持和不断发展这条道路和理论体系。     

The multiplicative representation for multiple objectives optimization with an application for arms procurement

Multiple Objectives Optimization is much seen in combination with linear functions and even with linear programming, together with an adding of the objectives by using weights. With distance functions, normalization instead of weights is used. It is also possible that together with an additive direct influence of the objectives on the utility function a mutual utility of the objectives exists under the form of a multiplicative representation. A critical comment is brought on some representations of this kind. A full‐multiplicative form may offer other opportunities, which will be discussed at length in an effort to exclude weights and normalization. This theoretical approach is followed by an application for arms procurement. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 49: 327–340, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/nav.10014     

吐鲁番屏式壁画所见唐人的精神生活

吐鲁番阿斯塔那三座唐墓中发现了三幅屏式壁画,其构图模拟了唐人生活中习用的六扇屏风式样,由此可以探究那个时代生活于西州(今吐鲁番)的唐人的精神追求.     

Determination of burn‐in parameters and residual life for highly reliable products

Today, many products are designed and manufactured to function for a long period of time before they fail. Determining product reliability is a great challenge to manufacturers of highly reliable products with only a relatively short period of time available for internal life testing. In particular, it may be difficult to determine optimal burn‐in parameters and characterize the residual life distribution. A promising alternative is to use data on a quality characteristic (QC) whose degradation over time can be related to product failure. Typically, product failure corresponds to the first passage time of the degradation path beyond a critical value. If degradation paths can be modeled properly, one can predict failure time and determine the life distribution without actually observing failures. In this paper, we first use a Wiener process to describe the continuous degradation path of the quality characteristic of the product. A Wiener process allows nonconstant variance and nonzero correlation among data collected at different time points. We propose a decision rule for classifying a unit as normal or weak, and give an economic model for determining the optimal termination time and other parameters of a burn‐in test. Next, we propose a method for assessing the product's lifetime distribution of the passed units. The proposed methodologies are all based only on the product's initial observed degradation data. Finally, an example of an electronic product, namely contact image scanner (CIS), is used to illustrate the proposed procedure. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2003     

A general model of heterogeneous system lifetimes and conditions for system burn‐in

Burn‐in is a technique to enhance reliability by eliminating weak items from a population of items having heterogeneous lifetimes. System burn‐in can improve system reliability, but the conditions for system burn‐in to be performed after component burn‐in remain a little understood mathematical challenge. To derive such conditions, we first introduce a general model of heterogeneous system lifetimes, in which the component burn‐in information and assembly problems are related to the prediction of system burn‐in. Many existing system burn‐in models become special cases and two important results are identified. First, heterogeneous system lifetimes can be understood naturally as a consequence of heterogeneous component lifetimes and heterogeneous assembly quality. Second, system burn‐in is effective if assembly quality variation in the components and connections which are arranged in series is greater than a threshold, where the threshold depends on the system structure and component failure rates. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 50: 364–380, 2003.     

浅论军事行政法从严原则

军事行政法从严原则应当成为军事行政法的一项基本原则。其基本涵义是军事行政法的制定具有严密性 ,军事行政法的实施具有严格性 ,军事行政法律制裁具有严厉性。该原则是军队质量建设的规律之一 ,是维护国防利益和军事利益的内在要求。军事行政法中的很多具体规定均体现了该原则     

班主任应具备的基本素质和工作方法

班主任工作的好坏,直接影响着学校整体学生管理工作。提高班主任素质,不断探索班主任工作的新途径、新方法,才能实现班主任工作的新突破,开创班主任工作的新局面。     

新疆兵团中小学双语教育质量调查及对策研究--以兵团第三师为例

双语教育质量是兵团民族教育的关键,直接影响高素质少数民族人才的培养。本文在深入调查的基础上,研究兵团中小学双语教育质量及其现状,通过对影响双语教育质量的各个因素进行分析,总结双语教育中存在的问题,并在此基础上提出加强校本培训和师资队伍建设,完善双语教材及考核评价体系等对策。