A multilevel passenger screening problem for aviation security

Passenger prescreening is a critical component of aviation security systems. This paper introduces the Multilevel Allocation Problem (MAP), which models the screening of passengers and baggage in a multilevel aviation security system. A passenger is screened by one of several classes, each of which corresponds to a set of procedures using security screening devices, where passengers are differentiated by their perceived risk levels. Each class is defined in terms of its fixed cost (the overhead costs), its marginal cost (the additional cost to screen a passenger), and its security level. The objective of MAP is to assign each passenger to a class such that the total security is maximized subject to passenger assignments and budget constraints. This paper shows that MAP is NP‐hard and introduces a Greedy heuristic that obtains approximate solutions to MAP that use no more than two classes. Examples are constructed using data extracted from the Official Airline Guide. Analysis of the examples suggests that fewer security classes for passenger screening may be more effective and that using passenger risk information can lead to more effective security screening strategies. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

A branch‐and‐cut algorithm for the quay crane scheduling problem in a container terminal

The quay crane scheduling problem consists of determining a sequence of unloading and loading movements for cranes assigned to a vessel in order to minimize the vessel completion time as well as the crane idle times. Idle times originate from interferences between cranes since these roll on the same rails and a minimum safety distance must be maintained between them. The productivity of container terminals is often measured in terms of the time necessary to load and unload vessels by quay cranes, which are the most important and expensive equipment used in ports. We formulate the quay crane scheduling problem as a vehicle routing problem with side constraints, including precedence relationships between vertices. For small size instances our formulation can be solved by CPLEX. For larger ones we have developed a branch‐and‐cut algorithm incorporating several families of valid inequalities, which exploit the precedence constraints between vertices. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

Contractual agreements for coordination and vendor‐managed delivery under explicit transportation considerations

We consider the coordination problem between a vendor and a buyer operating under generalized replenishment costs that include fixed costs as well as stepwise freight costs. We study the stochastic demand, single‐period setting where the buyer must decide on the order quantity to satisfy random demand for a single item with a short product life cycle. The full order for the cycle is placed before the cycle begins and no additional orders are accepted by the vendor. Due to the nonrecurring nature of the problem, the vendor's replenishment quantity is determined by the buyer's order quantity. Consequently, by using an appropriate pricing schedule to influence the buyer's ordering behavior, there is an opportunity for the vendor to achieve substantial savings from transportation expenses, which are represented in the generalized replenishment cost function. For the problem of interest, we prove that the vendor's expected profit is not increasing in buyer's order quantity. Therefore, unlike the earlier work in the area, it is not necessarily profitable for the vendor to encourage larger order quantities. Using this nontraditional result, we demonstrate that the concept of economies of scale may or may not work by identifying the cases where the vendor can increase his/her profits either by increasing or decreasing the buyer's order quantity. We prove useful properties of the expected profit functions in the centralized and decentralized models of the problem, and we utilize these properties to develop alternative incentive schemes for win–win solutions. Our analysis allows us to quantify the value of coordination and, hence, to identify additional opportunities for the vendor to improve his/her profits by potentially turning a nonprofitable transaction into a profitable one through the use of an appropriate tariff schedule or a vendor‐managed delivery contract. We demonstrate that financial gain associated with these opportunities is truly tangible under a vendor‐managed delivery arrangement that potentially improves the centralized solution. Although we take the viewpoint of supply chain coordination and our goal is to provide insights about the effect of transportation considerations on the channel coordination objective and contractual agreements, the paper also contributes to the literature by analyzing and developing efficient approaches for solving the centralized problem with stepwise freight costs in the single‐period setting. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

Priority and dynamic scheduling in a make‐to‐stock queue with hyperexponential demand

We consider the scheduling problem in a make‐to‐stock queue with two demand classes that can be differentiated based on their variability. One class experiences Poisson arrivals and the other class experiences hyperexponential renewal arrivals. We provide an exact analysis of the case where the demand class with higher variability is given non‐preemptive priority. The results are then used to compare the inventory cost performance of three scheduling disciplines, first‐come first‐serve and priority to either class. We then build on an existing dynamic scheduling heuristic to propose a modification that works well for our system. Extensions of the heuristic to more than two classes and to the case where demand state is known are also discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006.     

The stochastic joint replenishment problem: A new policy,analysis, and insights

In this study, we propose a new parsimonious policy for the stochastic joint replenishment problem in a single‐location, N‐item setting. The replenishment decisions are based on both group reorder point‐group order quantity and the time since the last decision epoch. We derive the expressions for the key operating characteristics of the inventory system for both unit and compound Poisson demands. In a comprehensive numerical study, we compare the performance of the proposed policy with that of existing ones over a standard test bed. Our numerical results indicate that the proposed policy dominates the existing ones in 100 of 139 instances with comparably significant savings for unit demands. With batch demands, the savings increase as the stochasticity of demand size gets larger. We also observe that it performs well in environments with low demand diversity across items. The inventory system herein also models a two‐echelon setting with a single item, multiple retailers, and cross docking at the upper echelon. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

知识库系统及关系知识库机系统结构的研究

文中首先以数据库为基础研究了知识库系统KBS-1,然后基于关系知识模型,研究了一台关系知识库模型机,并以它为硬核研究了知识库系统KBS-2,最后进行了性能分析。     

基于丛生树的多流水线并行Hash连接的处理机分配算法

本文介绍了并行数据库中实现多流水线Ｈａｓｈ连接的处理机分配算法，该算法对于执行Ｈａｓｈ连接的丛生查询树可同时实现流水线内并行（ＩｎｔｒａｐｉｐｅｌｉｎｅＰａｒａｌｅｌ）和多流水线间的并行（ＩｎｔｒａｐｉｐｅｌｉｎｅＰａｒ－ａｌｅｌ     

PVM平台下三维超声速钝头体底部流场的并行数值模拟及其拓扑分析

用拼接法划分网格，并运用基于消息传递的并行软件平台ＰＶＭ分配计算任务，实现了较大规模的三维超声速钝头体底部流场的并行数值模拟。结果表明，底部压强特性与实验符合较好，流场的拓扑结构合理。     

管理信息系统通用工具软件MT-1

MT—1是在汉字dBASE—Ⅱ的基础上开发的数据库工具软件,它具有图形化的数据描述和数据操纵语言,是一个实用的微机管理信息系统开发工具。它在图形化用户界面、数据字典、视图、数据完整性和安全性等方面优越于dBASE—Ⅱ。本文描述了MT—1的总体结构和主要功能,讨论了主要设计和实现问题。     

一种有价值的预防维修策略

当前,在系统的维修性方面,有许多概念是模糊的;许多行为是盲目的,至少是经验主义的。本文针对这些情况,提出了完整的科学维修的概念。以一个有使用价值的预防性维修策略为例,通过讨论,使这种科学维修的概念具体化,并且给出了系统的首翻期、维修周期以及更换期的严格定义和确定方法。