On the reduction of total‐cost and average‐cost MDPs to discounted MDPs

This article provides conditions under which total‐cost and average‐cost Markov decision processes (MDPs) can be reduced to discounted ones. Results are given for transient total‐cost MDPs with transition rates whose values may be greater than one, as well as for average‐cost MDPs with transition probabilities satisfying the condition that there is a state such that the expected time to reach it is uniformly bounded for all initial states and stationary policies. In particular, these reductions imply sufficient conditions for the validity of optimality equations and the existence of stationary optimal policies for MDPs with undiscounted total cost and average‐cost criteria. When the state and action sets are finite, these reductions lead to linear programming formulations and complexity estimates for MDPs under the aforementioned criteria.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 66:38–56, 2019     

Mathematical formulation and heuristic algorithm for the block relocation and loading problem

This study considers the block relocation and loading problem in container terminals. The optimal loading sequence and relocation location are simultaneously decided on the basis of the desired ship‐bay and initial yard space configuration. An integer linear programming model is developed to minimize the number of relocations in the yard space on the basis of no shifts in the ship bay. The accuracy of the model is tested on small‐scale scenarios by using CPLEX. Considering the problem size in the real world, we present a rule‐based heuristic method that is combined with a mathematical model for the removal, loading, and relocation operations. The influence of rules on algorithm performance is also analyzed, and the heuristic algorithm is compared with different types of algorithms in the literature. The extensive numerical experiments show the efficiency of the proposed heuristic algorithm.     

遥感数据用户需求融合处理技术

遥感数据是国家的基础性和战略性资源,在经济建设、国防建设、抢险救灾、生态环境保护等方面得到了广泛的应用,发挥着越来越重要的作用,各行各业对遥感数据的需求也越来越多。因此,如何提高对地观测资源的利用率,提高服务响应速度成为迫切需要解决的问题。采用自然语言处理技术,提出了一种用户需求融合处理方法,该方法可以有效地融合归并相同或者相似的用户需求,实现一图多用,引入需求预测和需求融合技术以提高需求融合效率,从而提高对地观测资源的利用率,达到事半功倍的效果。     

A refined deterministic linear program for the network revenue management problem with customer choice behavior

We present a new deterministic linear program for the network revenue management problem with customer choice behavior. The novel aspect of our linear program is that it naturally generates bid prices that depend on how much time is left until the time of departure. Similar to the earlier linear program used by van Ryzin and Liu (2004), the optimal objective value of our linear program provides an upper bound on the optimal total expected revenue over the planning horizon. In addition, the percent gap between the optimal objective value of our linear program and the optimal total expected revenue diminishes in an asymptotic regime where the leg capacities and the number of time periods in the planning horizon increase linearly with the same rate. Computational experiments indicate that when compared with the linear program that appears in the existing literature, our linear program can provide tighter upper bounds, and the control policies that are based on our linear program can obtain higher total expected revenues. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

基于改进协方差控制的传感器管理算法

针对传统的基于协方差控制的传感器管理算法使用全遍历方法所造成的计算量大,以及传感器切换频繁的问题,提出了一种基于改进协方差控制的传感器管理算法。该算法在每一时刻首先判断前一时刻所用传感器组是否能够满足目标跟踪需求,以滤波协方差与期望协方差的偏差作为参考,结合量纲变换和特征值求取,为协方差偏差矩阵经过量纲变换后得到的量纲一致阵的所有特征值设定一个精度阈值,然后判断滤波协方差是否满足期望,从而决定是否维持当前选择的传感器组。在目标作匀速、匀加速、协同转弯等多种场景下进行了算法性能测试分析,仿真结果表明,该算法不仅在大部分场景下满足目标跟踪精度,而且能够提高传感器管理算法的实时性,同时降低传感器的切换频率。     

New sources of military change – armed forces as normal organizations

The literature on how European states have adapted to the post-cold war security environment ffocuses invariably on different understandings of military transformation, a process which is seen as inherently different from other forms of organizational change. However, as this paper argues, new management practices, going back to the introduction of so-called New Public Management (NPM) reforms throughout Europe in the 1980s, have eventually penetrated also the last bastion of the old state – the defense sector. Taking a critical approach to the idea of military transformation and existing theories of military change, the paper demonstrates how other international developments have pushed towards what may be seen as a “normalization” of Europe’s defense sectors. This has important implications for how we approach and understand change in contemporary defense organizations.     

军队科研机构推进国防知识产权转化运用

军队科研机构作为国家科技创新体系的重要组成部分,承担了大量科技创新任务,产生了许多具有自主知识产权的高水平科技成果,推动军队科研机构国防知识产权转化运用,是贯彻军民融合发展战略的必要途径。分析了军队科研机构国防知识产权转化的现状及制约转化的现实障碍,并结合实际探讨了推进军队科研机构国防知识产权转化的建议举措。     

Quantitative monitoring of military transformation in the period 1992–2010: Do the protagonists of transformation really change more than other countries?

Military transformation is a complex, slow, asymmetric, changeable, political, and not necessarily completely rational process that clearly needs an effective monitoring mechanism. This paper fills a gap in current literature by creating and testing a model for multi-dimensional and multi-level quantitative monitoring of military transformation applicable in any country. The model is based on 10 transformation indicators that reflect changes in organizational structure, personnel structure, weapon systems, and defense spending. Its application on a sample of seven countries (USA, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and China) in the period from 1992 to 2010 unexpectedly shows that the USA – a protagonist in the transformation process among allies as well as globally – has carried out the smallest relative change. The non-directed transformation index indicates that Russia carried out 51.8% more change (or 34.1 index units), and the directed index indicates that Poland carried out 157.2% (or 40.8 index units) more change than the USA.     

Challenges of institutional coordination in complex defense acquisition programs: the case of the Republic of Korea’s F-X program

Decision-making in defense acquisition programs in the Republic of Korea (ROK) has been problematic, especially in highly advanced complex systems. The highly disputed force modernization program for the ROK Air Force’s fifth-generation fighter, dubbed the Fighter eXperiment, went through extreme turbulence during the type selection phase. The gist of the turbulence became evident through poor institutional coordination within the defense acquisition authorities that eventually forced them to rescind the decision generated from their own yearlong efforts, thus basically shooting themselves on the foot. The paper highlights the background of the program and reviews the institutional elements that influenced the decision-making process, and conclude that the absence of an effective coordination mechanism has made decision-making in complex defense programs even more troublesome.     

Decomposing inventory routing problems with approximate value functions

We present a time decomposition for inventory routing problems. The methodology is based on valuing inventory with a concave piecewise linear function and then combining solutions to single‐period subproblems using dynamic programming techniques. Computational experiments show that the resulting value function accurately captures the inventory's value, and solving the multiperiod problem as a sequence of single‐period subproblems drastically decreases computational time without sacrificing solution quality. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010