Impact of reseller's and sales agent's forecasting accuracy in a multilayer supply chain

We consider a three‐layer supply chain with a manufacturer, a reseller, and a sales agent. The demand is stochastically determined by the random market condition and the sales agent's private effort level. Although the manufacturer is uninformed about the market condition, the reseller and the sales agent conduct demand forecasting and generate private demand signals. Under this framework with two levels of adverse selection intertwined with moral hazard, we study the impact of the reseller's and the sales agent's forecasting accuracy on the profitability of each member. We show that the manufacturer's profitability is convex on the reseller's forecasting accuracy. From the manufacturer's perspective, typically improving the reseller's accuracy is detrimental when the accuracy is low but is beneficial when it is high. We identify the concrete interrelation among the manufacturer‐optimal reseller's accuracy, the volatility of the market condition, and the sales agent's accuracy. Finally, the manufacturer's interest may be aligned with the reseller's when only the reseller can choose her accuracy; this alignment is never possible when both downstream players have the discretion to choose their accuracy. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 207–222, 2014     

Assessing the value of demand sharing in supply chains

We consider the problem of assessing the value of demand sharing in a multistage supply chain in which the retailer observes stationary autoregressive moving average demand with Gaussian white noise (shocks). Similar to previous research, we assume each supply chain player constructs its best linear forecast of the leadtime demand and uses it to determine the order quantity via a periodic review myopic order‐up‐to policy. We demonstrate how a typical supply chain player can determine the extent of its available information in the presence of demand sharing by studying the properties of the moving average polynomials of adjacent supply chain players. The retailer's demand is driven by the random shocks appearing in the autoregressive moving average representation for its demand. Under the assumptions we will make in this article, to the retailer, knowing the shock information is equivalent to knowing the demand process (assuming that the model parameters are also known). Thus (in the event of sharing) the retailer's demand sequence and shock sequence would contain the same information to the retailer's supplier. We will show that, once we consider the dynamics of demand propagation further up the chain, it may be that a player's demand and shock sequences will contain different levels of information for an upstream player. Hence, we study how a player can determine its available information under demand sharing, and use this information to forecast leadtime demand. We characterize the value of demand sharing for a typical supply chain player. Furthermore, we show conditions under which (i) it is equivalent to no sharing, (ii) it is equivalent to full information shock sharing, and (iii) it is intermediate in value to the two previously described arrangements. Although it follows from existing literature that demand sharing is equivalent to full information shock sharing between a retailer and supplier, we demonstrate and characterize when this result does not generalize to upstream supply chain players. We then show that demand propagates through a supply chain where any player may share nothing, its demand, or its full information shocks (FIS) with an adjacent upstream player as quasi‐ARMA in—quasi‐ARMA out. We also provide a convenient form for the propagation of demand in a supply chain that will lend itself to future research applications. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 515–531, 2014     

Urban violence and the militarisation of security: Brazilian ‘peacekeeping’ in Rio de Janeiro and Port-au-Prince

Despite problems of violence domestically, Brazil has played a key leadership role as part of MINUSTAH peacekeeping operations in Haiti since 2004. This article addresses how Brazil's international military engagement is shaping domestic approaches to urban security, and what may be the implications of the use of military strategies, operations, and norms to address issues of public security in Brazilian cities. It is argued that current approaches toward urban security employing military-trained peacekeepers actually represent a continuation of old paradigms, yet these recent militarised approaches are likely evolving into newer and potentially more accountable forms by constraining indiscriminate use of force and establishing a positive state presence in marginal urban areas. As such, the article connects long-established issues of dealing with urban violence in Latin America with ongoing debates in the United States and beyond about post-counterinsurgency approaches to increasingly urban conflict settings. It reflects on potential lessons to be learned from the Latin American perspective, while showing also how these have changed over the last decade. The article concludes that despite the potential utility of force in some urban conflict settings, this approach could entail a normative shift towards legitimising forceful containment of violence, and hinder democratic consolidation in Brazil.     

基于星历辅助的导航星座星间链路捕获初始信息求解算法

针对星间链路信号动态范围大、捕获时间要求短之间的矛盾,提出了一种捕获初始信息的求解算法。该算法基于导航星座的星历资源和动态特性,采用迭代的方法对信号传输时延和多普勒频率进行估计。分析指出,该算法实现过程简单,收敛速度快,估计精度高,两次迭代即可实现时延估计精度达到纳秒级,大大降低了捕获实现的难度和复杂度,适合星上资源要求比较严格的场合。分析基于北斗导航星座模型展开,对我国北斗导航星间链路的设计提供了参考。     

具有不完全信息语言多指标电子对抗计划优选方法

针对指标权重信息不完全且指标值为语言评价信息的电子对抗行动计划优选问题,给出了一种新的决策分析方法。首先建立并规范化了电子对抗行动计划的评价指标;其次给出了计划的优选步骤,其核心是通过计算理想点与计划值的距离、建立线性规划模型,确定指标权重;将语言评价信息转化为三角模糊数,相应地建立可能度,进而获得计划的综合评价值。最后通过算例分析说明了该方法的合理性和有效性。     

基于作战环路的指挥信息系统抗毁性建模与分析

在指挥信息系统抗毁性研究中,网络节点异质性和作战机理的表征与分析不足.针对该问题,基于指挥信息系统主导的观察、判断、决策和行动作战环路,区分网络中信息、指控、打击和通信4类节点,提出作战信息链的概念来反映指挥信息系统运行机理;采用平均时延来刻画作战信息链的时效性,通过转化为经过指定点的最短路径问题给出计算方法;采用链路贯通率来刻画全系统内信息节点和打击节点之间形成有效链路的程度.结合"预先规划+随遇接入"生成的指挥信息系统网络模型,进行了抗毁性仿真分析,验证了方法的有效性.仿真结果进一步表明,指挥信息系统网络在随机攻击和度优先攻击下抗毁性表现出了复杂网络的共性,但其抗毁性结果的异常变化也具有一定的特殊性,从而证实了节点异质性和系统作战机理的影响.     

EUROPEAN DEFENCE FIRMS: THE INFORMATION BARRIER ON PRIVATE FINANCE*

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, European governments adopted a hands‐off policy towards the defence industrial base, in an attempt to increase the sector’s efficiency and reactivity. In this context, one topical issue is how to motivate defence firms to apply for private rather than public finance. Since banks have no prior experience with European defence firms, a problem of asymmetric information may block this transition. The problem is analysed within the framework of a game between defence firms and banks. It is shown that the Bayesian Equilibrium might correspond to a situation where low‐risk firms prefer the state‐financed scheme; yet, in a perfect information set‐up, the same firms would apply for bank credit. In order to facilitate the transition to private finance, the government might decide to subsidize investors who agree on financing defence firms; the state aid should be made available during a transitory learning period.     

Public opinion: A powerful predictor of U.S. defense spending

Public opinion survey responses regarding the desirability of changes in defense spending can be compressed into a single variable, the public opinion balance, which, when accompanied by a control variable measuring the proportion of responses in the “residuum” (no opinion or keep the status quo), permits an accurate prediction of subsequent changes in the rate of change of U.S. defense outlays from the mid‐1960s through the 1980s. This finding cannot be interpreted as a simple case of “the public got what it wanted,” however, because public opinion was not autonomous or spontaneous, and defense decision makers themselves played a central role in shaping public opinion.     

THE SUPPLY PRICE OF COMMITMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE AIR FORCE ENLISTMENT BONUS PROGRAM

In fiscal year 1999, the US Air Force introduced a bonus program designed to encourage longer enlistment terms. This regime shift provides a unique opportunity to estimate the elasticity of labor supply at a new margin: the length of the employment contract. A $5000 bonus differential is estimated to increase the probability that a recruit will choose a 6‐year enlistment over a 4‐year enlistment by 30 percentage points. The program is found to be cost‐effective relative to other policies to increase man‐years.     

基于多传感器信息系统的仿人机器人步态规划算法改进研究

摘要：基于视觉传感器、角度传感器和力／力矩传感器组成的多传感器信息系统,对仿人机器人理想的步态规划算法进行了改进．以双目视觉立体标定原理处理视觉传感信息,从而判断目标距离及目标路径的可达性;通过角度传感器获取实时旋转角度,经参数调整减小执行误差;根据力／;5矩传感信息对支撑脚踝关节的侧摆角度进行增量式补偿．经实验验证,改进后的算法对机器人的步态稳定性控制具有良好的效果．