Madagascar

Despite a constitution that condemns discrimination, as well as positive efforts by all stakeholders, Madagascar is still far from meeting the desired objectives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, or any other relevant international instruments and conventions. The establishment of an Organising Technical Committee on security sector reform for Madagascar is a positive development, which will hopefully facilitate an understanding of the multiple facets of gender and security in Madagascar as well as advancing the implementation of the instruments calling for greater female participation in the security sector.     

African maritime security and the Lomé Charter: Reality or dream?

ABSTRACT

Traditionally the African concept of security concept has been dominated by land-based conflicts with little attention being paid to maritime threats and the protection of the maritime environment. With the rapid escalation of piracy on the East Coast, the African Union (AU) was compelled to develop a joint strategy to address its changing African Maritime Domain (AMD). This was achieved by the AU’s Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS 2050) in 2014, culminating in the adoption of a binding maritime security and safety charter in Lomé in 2016. The Lomé Charter should ideally focus the general provisions of AIMS 2050 so that Africa, as a continent, can take responsibility for security and economic empowerment of the AMD. This article considers various maritime security documents against the backdrop of an African context for understanding maritime security, in order to evaluate whether the Lomé Charter, as a manifestation of AIMS 2050, will realise its aspirations. Focussing on security is not sufficient and too much emphasis is placed in the Lomé Charter on restriction rather than development. Strong political will and leadership is required to facilitate implementation, identifying common security concerns to ensure better cooperative and collective strategies in a diverse implementation environment.     

The evolving menace of baby factories and trafficking in Nigeria

Trafficking in persons in Nigeria has largely targeted adults and children, particularly women and girls. Of growing concern, however, is the recent emergence and growth of sophisticated and syndicated groups involved in baby ‘factories’ and trafficking in Nigeria. This article examines the nature, actors, modus operandi and motives behind this emergent dimension of human trafficking in Nigeria. It concludes that if concerted efforts are not made to deal with the actors and dismantle the market, its profitability will embolden current actors and even encourage new entrants into the booming trade – now and in the future.     

弹药库防静电方法研究

根据弹药库静电危险场所的分类等级,以形成静电危害的3个基本条件为依据,讨论了弹药库防静电危害常用措施:设施设备静电接地、防静电工作台、人体静电防护、铺设导电(或防静电)地面以及各自防静电要求.这些措施为防止和消除弹药库的静电危害提供了根本保障.     

基于粒子群算法的H_∞混合灵敏度控制研究

针对步进电机存在负载摄动和失步超步问题,提出了一种基于粒子群优化算法的混合灵敏度设计方法。在H∞混合灵敏度约束下,采用粒子群算法寻找能够反映系统特性的适应度函数最优值,在搜索到合适的加权阵基础上,利用Matlab得到了H∞最优控制器,并利用优化控制器对步进电机进行控制仿真实验。实验结果表明：该系统具有响应快速平稳、抗负载扰动强等特点。     

军队人力资源培训问题的整数线性规划模型

文章研究了军队人力资源培训问题,并基于时间和费用两个指标,建立了一个满足培训时间约束且费用最省的0-1整数线性规划模型,给出了基于Lagrange松驰分解的模型求解算法。在算法中,采用一种简单可行的Lagrange乘子更新方法代替传统的次梯度法。另外,文章证明了算法获得最优解的两个充分条件,计算实例初步表明给出的算法是行之有效的。     

On valuing appreciating human assets in services

This paper derives optimal policies for when to hire, train, and lay off employees in service organizations when worker productivity appreciates deterministically or stochastically under constant, monotonic, and cyclic service demand. The model, an extension of the machine replacement problem from the engineering economy literature, uses infinite horizon linear programming to produce optimal personnel planning strategies and dual prices that characterize the workforce's economic value. The effect of employee attrition is also considered. In its valuation of human assets, unlike pure accounting approaches that only try to measure, this paper proposes an approach to capture the interaction between firm decisions pertaining to human resources and human resource value. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007